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Tips on how to increase your net worth in Canada!They say that “The best things in life are free”, however the best things in life are by definition a singular item in a larger class or its peers. This leaves us with a large number of items in our lives that usually aren't free. A very successful Canadian friend of mine who I look up to as a mentor and role model shared some of his thoughts that have deeply impacted my outlook on finance. Steve said that "Money, success and rewards come from within. People have to want it, feel they deserve it and then make it happen." He also said that a number of people are suffering from what he calls the "Middle Class Guilt Complex". This occours when the middle class accept that they have very little and that they are not worthy of better or do not deserve success. This really exemplifies the maxim that "YOU ARE WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE!" Only by believing in yourself can you draw events and circumstances into your life that will present you with what you believe you deserve. As I often tell my friends, the universe gives you not what you want but what you expect. Allow me to share a few simple secrets with you as I write this essay today. I have based this essay on my own personal experience of life in Canada and how I managed to stay one step ahead of the game. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions that no one has possibly asked you yet... A) Where is your attention most of the day? Does it revolve around the people you interact with or past and future events in your life? Is your attention stolen by the TV or Internet? B) Have you written down your financial goals for this year? Better yet, do you have goals in mind for next year or the next five years? (Only 3% of the Harvard 1954 graduating class had written down goals by the time they graduated. By their 25th reunion the same 3% were worth more than the other 97% of their classmates put together) C) Once upon a time I was a “Big Hat, No Cattle” kind of guy. This is a famous Texan saying and refers to people who keep up the appearance of being wealthy but who are really just consummate spenders buying “big hats” when they really have “no cattle” to buy them with. What do you spend money on? Click here for a simple explanation in pictorial form.
D) Do you ever use the word ‘important’ in your vocabulary when describing your financial goals? Or are you one of those folks who say “I just need a little to get by this month” or “I don’t want to be rich, I just want to have enough to pay bills”? Sound familiar? Chances are that if you have repeated this mantra often enough in the past, you are probably broke or nearly getting there as you read this.
A) Whatever or whoever you place your attention on will become real. When I came to Canada, I landed in the country with approximately one tenth of the net worth I now possess. In addition, like most immigrants, I did not have a Canadian education or Canadian work experience. Despite this, I had to find some way to show my employer that I was capable, so I could compete with Canadians who had these attributes. In addition to finding the job, I also had to face the challenge of buying a home and being indebted to the mortgage company for the rest of my life just like most of my fellow Canadians. My only other option was to rent an apartment and keep paying the landlord with no possibility of owning any real estate for the rest of my life. Despite my fears and worries, the first thing I set out to do was to get a job. (For now I will only talk about what I did to secure a job from my own subjective experience) Remember when I asked you this question? “Where is your attention most of the day?” Research shows that we experience approximately 12,000 to 65,000 thoughts a day. Your own personal experience will show that 95% of these thoughts are useless thoughts that either dwell on the past or are about songs, gossip, regrets, anger or frustration. Computer programmers have a saying: “Garbage in garbage out”. It refers to the fact that if the computer is programmed correctly and gives you a garbled output, then you probably were responsible for giving it some garbled input. Now when dealing with the human mind, consider the fact that these negative thoughts are not just processed by our minds but also assimilated into the programming of our mind, and soon it is no wonder that we spend 90% of our day trapped with these thoughts and then end up sharing them with our companions. So, taking a look at my life, the first thing I did was stop the vicious cycle of negative thoughts by replacing them with positive thoughts such as: “I land a job as a Manager” and “I land that job today”. I must be honest, and state that I did have some doubts about finding a job that very day, but I persisted with planting that positive thought instead of letting the negative conveyor belt start up again. After saying those beautiful lines both aloud and silently, I faxed my resume (C.V.) to seven companies listed in the “Yellow Pages”. Two companies called me that morning and by 12.00 pm I was in the office of my future CEO & President. By the end of the interview I walked out of his office with a promise of being hired as their “Corporate Sales Manager”. That day, I met a wonderful Canadian who responded to my positive enthusiasm and self confidence. I’d like to believe that this was because I placed my attention on a positive outcome. As you read this article now, take a few moments to do a quick check of the thoughts racing through your mind. Maybe they sound like this? “Yeah, sure you found a job in one day, but you’re just one person. It doesn’t mean the same thing will happen for me!” Please take a deep breath for a couple of seconds. Stand back and separate yourself from your thoughts. They will be far easier to control when you do that. Realize you are the observer of those thoughts and you are not the thoughts themselves. Now watch where your thoughts are going. How many of these are negative and how many are positive? Now take another deep breath and summon up all your attention on the desired goal you would like to create in Canada. Let your breath flow out again naturally. While you breathe rhythmically and naturally, keep holding your attention (not your breath) on the picture you wish to create and feel confident your desire will manifest. It is only a matter of time before your attention creates what you desire. This is quite close to “praying as if your prayer has already been answered”. B) Goals, write them now. The standard response I got to the question “How much of money would you like to earn this year?” was “I dunno...” followed by a blank expression and a shrug. Sometimes the person even looked depressed after I asked them that question. They possibly thought I was going to ask to borrow some from them. Do this exercise now. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t sit there and think oh this is silly I’ll just read the article for now. Stop. Get a paper and pencil and do this. Don’t worry I’ll wait. Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock. Okay, ready? Take a plain piece of paper and write in clear legible handwriting your goals as if they have been accomplished. What exactly does this mean? Well, writing “I will migrate to Canada” for example is no good. Why? Because saying that you will migrate to Canada, will leave you still waiting at the pier while most of your friends have sailed away into the horizon. Just as bad is writing “I hope to get a job within a few months of landing in Canada”. This may only leave you in a ‘hopeless state of affairs’. Worse still is if you say to yourself “I will migrate to Canada someday and hope to get a job within a few months of landing in Canada, although I know it’s going to be tough.” Now run this sentence a couple of times or more in your mind and watch how you feel. Feel the difference now. Put a lot of faith, trust and enthusiasm into the following sentence. “I migrate to Canada and secure a good job quickly”. Now visualize yourself actually writing back to your friends back home to share your new found paradise with them. Picture yourself writing to them about how great things are for you in Canada and how your life here has exceeded your expectations. How do you feel now? Did you notice a change in your breathing patterns? Did you feel like sitting up a bit straighter in your chair? Did you smile? Run it a couple of times again and check how you feel now? Visualizing your goals can have a tremendous impact on the results you are able to manifest. Take the story of Laura Wilkinson for example: Six months prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson experienced a serious setback when she broke her right foot in three places after an accident. This serious foot injury kept her out of action and in bed for a couple of months. During this time, she spent the days visualizing herself performing her dives and visualizing herself collecting a gold medal on the Olympic podium. Her foot was not fully recovered by the time she started diving again, but she was still able to qualify for the Olympics. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson, who was still in pain from her foot injury, was in eighth place after the first of five dives in the platform diving finals. However, after a series of spectacular dives, she earned the first gold medal for a female American platform diver since 1964. Be careful when creating goals. What many people don’t know is that words like “may”, “will” and “hope” lack the power to manifest your dreams. They are lukewarm and are unlikely to create what you desire. Write the current date on the right hand corner of your goal sheet so you know when you began this exercise. Pick five or six goals and write them down now. My Goals for the next year are: 1)__________________________________________________ 2)__________________________________________________ 3)__________________________________________________ 4)__________________________________________________ 5)__________________________________________________ 6)__________________________________________________
C) On being Frugal: Why you should avoid “The big hat no cattle syndrome” The issue at hand with most “Big Hat, No Cattle” types is that these people are focused purely on consuming and not investing. (That brand new suit is NOT an investment) This formula for wealth is maddeningly simple: Spend significantly less than you earn and invest the difference. If you can spend significantly less than you earn and invest the difference, you will find yourself in a very comfortable situation financially. But you wouldn't know that judging by all the well-educated people with Master’s Degrees and PhDs who max out their credit cards and later file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately some of us obviously need to study about some painfully obvious truths. Here are some interesting facts about the wealthy: 1) Pick seven random men off the street who are all wearing very expensive ($1000 and up) suits. Did you know that in this line up of 7 well dressed men there is probably only ONE millionaire? The other six belong in the “Big Hat, No Cattle” category. Shockingly, 50% or more of the millionaires surveyed by an expert on wealth, Dr. Thomas Josef Stanley said that they paid $399 or less for the most expensive suit they had ever purchased in their lives.
2) That there are far too many negative role models masquerading as wealthy socialites. In reality most wealthy looking people are high-income professionals who can't control their spending. With fancy yachts, oversized homes and luxury cars, they appear rich, but their net worth and pension plans are anemic.
3) The typical millionaire in North America saves nearly 20 percent of his household income. Benzoni says “It embarrasses our kids when we shop at a thrift store, but why do I need to buy a $40 pair of jeans for dirty work in the garden?” He and his wife needn't feel embarrassed about the state of their finances, though. Between them, they save 15 percent of what they earn, and that's on top of giving away approximately 8 percent to charity. These two frugal doctors, both 45, say they're on track to retire in 10 years if they want to, and they've already funded college education accounts for each of their four children”. I still remember on my first weekend in Vancouver over a decade ago, when I happened by a neighbour’s “Garage Sale”. At the time I was living in a suburb called Richmond, and at this garage sale I bought a used “Lazy Boy” armchair for just CAD $30 and two secondhand bicycles for $15 and $10 each.
During my first four months in Canada, I was amazed by the quality of goods that North American consumers were practically throwing out as used. Although many of these items still functioned perfectly well they were being sold off in favour of the latest model. In many cases it seemed as if the only new feature the latest model had was its new model number. 4) The next time you go shopping ask yourself if you need to buy brand name goods. Can you buy the generic version instead? Many generic products perform just as well as their brand-name brethren that cost much more. As an example, a “no-name” brand box of vanilla wafers cost less than half of “Nabisco's” Vanilla wafers although they taste just as good (that’s my subjective opinion). A slice of a $0.55 loaf of honey-wheat bread also tastes just as good as the brand name loaf of bread which costs $2.19 per loaf! I've calculated that you could possibly cut your monthly food bill by another 33-50% if you followed many of Amy Dacyczyn's techniques (such as "shopping to stock your pantry" rather than shopping to fulfill certain meals). Consider Library book sales. I have seen hardbacks selling for as little as $2 to $4 each, and paperbacks selling for $1 each. One weekend promised BOXFULS of books for only $5 or bagfuls for $2. Needless to say, we brought home a few box loads of books that weekend.
Your short term goal should be to participate in yard sales instead of buying from other people’s yard sales. Get rid of your junk first instead of bringing theirs home. Financial experts who specialize in counseling the affluent say that distorted values lie at the heart of overspending. Chief among them is the compulsion to acquire material goods for the sake of social status. It's all about keeping up appearances. Another mistake is thinking that buying things for loved ones translates into love. (Valentine’s Day being an exception of course. lol) Then there's the best-of-everything syndrome. The house, the car, the vacation... Everything has to be first class. This is followed closely by the “I can’t wait, I must have it all now and not tomorrow” syndrome. Is your recreation really worth what you pay for it? Do you really need that 2008 model Mercedes S500? I know friends who buy a big vacation house on the lake, along with a big boat, only to use it a couple of weeks every summer. Or, they pay $25,000 a year to belong to an exclusive Golf club, but because they work so hard to pay their membership dues, they only end up playing four rounds of golf a year. Are your cars too pricey? It's not just a matter of choosing a Mazda over a Mercedes-Benz. It's choosing the used Mazda over a new one. Did you know that 1 in 4 North American Millionaire’s drive a used Ford 150 Pick Up Truck? If you wait for depreciation to take its toll, in two years a new car may come down in price by as much as 40 percent. 50% of millionaires have never paid more than $29,000 on a single motor vehicle in their entire lives. About 1 in 5 millionaires have never spent more than $19,950 on their cars. Private schooling for your kids also deserves a closer look, especially in a country like Canada. Consider the long-term implications of enrolling a child in the “Royal Academy” school at $10,000 a year for six years. If you invest that same money in a mutual fund yielding an 8 percent return, you'll be looking at a nest egg of about $300,000 in 25 years. It does pay to sweat the small stuff. If you drink two fewer Starbucks lattes each month at $3 a cup and invest that money, you'll have a cool $5,700 after 25 years based on an 8 percent return. Find ways to trim monthly expenses by $105, and you could enjoy an extra $100,000 in 25 years. D) How vital is the word ‘important’ in your vocabulary? Let us say you were trying hard to study a new language and that you wanted to draw some fresh energy to power up your goal. Add the word ‘important’ to your line of thinking and notice the difference. The moment you add this ‘power word’ to a goal or an intention you wish to create you automatically draw your attention creating energy to the desired outcome. Without the word ‘important’ added to a goal I often find that the goal takes a lot more energy and time to manifest itself. The word important acts like a catalyst. Try it you will be amazed at how easily it works. Difficult times lay ahead for humankind. The coming years will bring economic depression. Save wisely. Create your goals now and you will.
N.B. Please share this article with friends and family and if you’d like to publish it elsewhere please feel free to do so as long as you include a reference to my name: Russell Monsurate, my company: Avatar Immigration Inc. and this website: www.russcanada.com
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Russell Monsurate is on the National Board of Directors of CAPIC and Ryan Monsurate is the Treasurer of the BC Chapter Board of Directors.
Russell Monsurate was the National Treasurer on the National Board of Directors of AICC and the Secretary of the BC Chapter of AICC. AICC was the Association of Immigration Counsel of Canada, which together with OICC have formed CAPIC |
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