Immigrants Guide to Wealth Building in the United States and Elsewhere

You may have read them all. Money making 101, Secret to Success this, and Path to Success that. Go on to Amazon, and type the keyword “success” or “wealth” and watch the list of books on strategies of wealth building flood the page. The stack of literature on getting rich grows by day  because let’s face it, it feels good to be wealthy. Let’s dive into this post of the day- 6 Fundamental Steps to Immigrants Wealth Building.

Success, power, and choice are strongly associated with wealth. Debate continues on whether wealth equates each of these associated variables, or whether wealth gives happiness. By and large, however, wealth has a whistle, and humans always run to the direction of its blow.

Detailed below are some tested fundamentals or formulas that can sure lead any aspiring self-made rich immigrant into the circle of wealth builders:

• Your Thinking– No one aspires beyond the quality of their thinking. Dream it, imagine it, and set goals towards it. Fortunately, the desire to be wealthy needs no justification. Hope no one is stupid enough to ask you why. If they do, tell them because you’d like to be successful, powerful and have lots of choices to impact people’s lives positively {hopefully:)}. So the point isn’t about why but how. Read that classic book titled: Think and Grow Rich– link here. Don’t want to read? They have its audio -just play and listen to it. Link here. Wealth building include some willingness to take risks. Have you been doing the same things over and over for a time? Well, switch it up a bit. Explore the uncomfortable. Go to where there is heat – a place/academic path/profession/etc where you can be challenged.

• Time – Pay a good attention to how you spend time. Of all the elements that create material wealth (time, money, and energy), time is the singular most important element that once spent you can never regain. You think money is scarce? Think twice on time. Until you begin to see time as a resource, you will inadvertently be building wealth for someone else at the expense of your own comfort.

• Spending– Monitor your spending. The best way to start thinking critically about your spending is simply using Math. A dollar that is spent is no longer a dollar. It had been spent. Gone! So always make sure that what you exchange that dollar for has some value- no matter how mundane or insignificant that value might be. Of course, you’ll hope that the value ultimately aligns with your desired success goals.

• Save– Monitoring spending is an effort, but another steps that one must follow is save. You might have heard this over and over before, but  if you are an immigrant in the US, you are in good place to embracing success if you can save. The phrase, “a dollar spent is a dollar received” is a good mantra- always balance this equation in your mind: when you  spend a dollar, seek to close the loop, and that loop is the receiving part. Note that you don’t have to appear as a pain to others in all this. Just make it a mental process. Staying mentally aggressive about saving will pay off more than it hurts in the long run.  Instead of dashing out everyday to look for money, spend some efforts on keeping the ones you already have.
  

• Don’t pay for it if you don’t have to: It’s important to keep in mind that not everything you need is requiring you to pay with money. Money is described as a scarce resource for a reason. You didn’t define it; it’s a given, and the market will police it to ensure that this definition holds true.  So sync with this reality and treat money like it is -a scarce resource that ought to be conserved. Before you provide money as a solution to everything, always think “ ..unh, how else can I approach this matter without money coming into the picture?.” For example, always seek to renegotiate every existing deal whenever you can. Review all policies and agreement every 6 months. Call up your insurance company and pitch payment reduction. Things are changing by minutes, and competitors might have launched a similar deal with a better package that saves you something.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you negotiate or seek a better deal elsewhere reading the list below:

1. Bank– explore a better maintenance  fee deal on all your checking accounts, CDs, and other investment accounts also.
2. All Insurance deals– Everywhere around you Geico says you can “save 15 percents on car insurance.” Well, take them at their words! Call up and negotiate or renegotiate.  Engage other insurance companies same way: life insurance, home insurance, and others.
3. Cable – Check your watch-it’s 21st century. If you are still paying $130 and more on cable, it has nothing to do with monopoly, but your choice.  There are alternatives everywhere to pay less for that TV you are barely home to watch.
4. Gym Membership– If you are fortunate to have a cool roommate who maintains same work schedule as you, why not explore a gym membership under one account?
5. Food and Groceries – Does any of your neighbors have Costco card, if you don’t have one? Then go buy your groceries at Costco. If you don’t have a car, ask other neighbors who might need one or two things. Help them pick up their groceries, thus spread your cab fare. Here is a serious following point about buying groceries on wholesale: you’ll be wasting food and also money literally if you buy groceries at Costco and don’t pack your lunch from home to work. Go on and search internet and see how much people spend yearly launching at work. You’ll be surprised. Bag your lunch from home, and keep your money in your pocket.

• DIY may or may not apply– When you can fix things yourself at home e.g handyman related work, creative work, etc without losing out on time, then fix things. At the same time, get good at making a good judgment on when to DIY and when to pay to others to do things for you. And again, use the mantra. Bargain!

Conclusion-

If you weren’t born wealthy, building wealth is an attempt to rewrite history. It’s a journey; an epic one that could land your name in the books of the legends. It isn’t for casual minded individuals. Its reward explains it all. The amazing and important truth though is, as an immigrant, you’ve taken one giant step in that direction. Add on to it serious goal setting, and self-discipline- tight as if your life depends on it; then that dream is attainable. Tell self-doubt and negative thinking to find another host, and move like the unstoppable! And when that journey becomes harder, and you need a chat or a hug, we at USAIG will be here for that.

Keep going!

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