#millionaires #immigrants #frugality
Just about anyone can become a millionaire.
The big difference between those that become millionaires, and those that don’t, is ambition.
Statistics show that one in 100 people in the world will become millionaires, with the ratio increasing with time. One in 10 immigrants to the United States will become millionaires.
In a story aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” May 7, 2017, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported on the case of Roberto Beristain, a restaurant owner in Indiana who had come to the U.S. illegally 20 years earlier. He is in the process of being deported, despite having a wife and children who are U.S. citizens. Before all this, those who knew him said he was a job creator, not a job stealer. It appears he was well on his way to becoming a millionaire.
Master investor Warren Buffett, in his February 2017 letter to his Berkshire Hathaway investors, praised “ambitious immigrants” for helping to increase the wealth in America, according to USA Today.
So why are immigrants being demonized?
In certain public discourse, immigrants are described as either moochers, job stealers or potential criminals or terrorists. Certainly, among any human group, you’ll have bad apples. You will have people who will do others harm, or take from others.
The vast majority of immigrants come here either for economic opportunity, or to escape violence, corruption or other evils in their home countries.
When opportunities are given to immigrants, most take advantage of them. They work hard, they learn what they need to do and many of them look for unmet needs and find ways to meet them.
Some come here for education and, yes, stay. They fill lucrative jobs that American talent apparently is not filling. Some do menial jobs that Americans, in large numbers, will not do. In those cases, the immigrants may not be educated, but they have skills Americans, in large numbers, chose not to acquire.
They are creating products that Americans use. Most pay taxes.
When all the immigrants are gone, what will Americans do? Will they be able to fill the jobs they have vacated?
Some areas of the country have seen their populations decrease, because the young people who grew up there see no opportunity for them to succeed. These areas actually want immigrants to move there, to fill vacant housing, and take unfilled jobs.
So, do you want to become a millionaire? It’s not necessarily easy to do, but you have to find an unmet need, or a met need of which you can lower the cost.
You have to be frugal. You have to save and invest properly. Becoming a millionaire may not be an instantaneous process unless, of course, you win the lottery. If you are so lucky, learn to use your money wisely, so you’ll still have a good bit of it when you die. That may require you to grow as a person, as well as having a good investment strategy.
You may have to look for a vehicle to help you become frugal, and perhaps help you to increase your income. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Millionaires generally are careful with their money. They are looking to spend less, earn more and do what they must to achieve their goal. They do not believe anyone owes them anything they have not worked for.
Do you want to be a millionaire? There’s a difference between wanting it, and doing what you need to do to get it. Most millionaires don’t work for the money. They work for what they can accomplish with the money.
Dolly Parton sings of “a cup of ambition” in the theme for the movie “9 to 5.” You may need more than a cup of ambition to be among the one in a hundred millionaires.
Peter
Tag Archives: “60 Minutes
TRAINING AN IMMIGRANT TO TAKE YOUR JOB?
#opportunity #60Minutes #immigrants #JobsLost
It’s hard to believe that a company can tell a worker, who has been on the job there for, say, 20 years and has given his life to that company, that he will be laid off.
It’s harder to believe that same company would insult that same person by telling him that he CAN’T leave until he trains his replacement – an immigrant, who will make a good bit less than he did, to do the same work. If he leaves early in disgust, he loses his severance package.
The CBS News TV show “60 Minutes” reported on this practice on its March 19, 2017, edition. The report focused on groups of technology workers at various companies who are facing this.
The report talks about immigrants getting a special H-1B visa to come over here to do specially skilled jobs that could not be filled by Americans. But, as any law, some will find a way to exploit it. Companies are doing just that, the report says.
We can debate for hours what Congress and the president should do about immigration. But this report is not about low-skilled manual laborers. This is about highly skilled, and relatively highly paid, American workers who have needed skills, yet are getting kicked in the teeth.
It’s worse than digging one’s own grave, a worker told correspondent Bill Whitaker.
So, let’s break this down. If you have skills that are in demand, and believe you will never lose your job, think again.
If you believe the immigration problems in the U.S. are driven solely by immigrants, think again. This is a business-driven problem. There can be no reason this is going on, other than companies wanting to make or save money, no matter who is affected. These companies have ensured through lobbying that government isn’t going to mess with what they are doing.
So, logically, one could think, why are these immigrants, who obviously have skills they could parlay in their own country, coming here and agreeing to work for that much less in American dollars? It’s easy to presume that they are doing it because they are still making more than they would in any other country.
That’s may be true, but there may be another reason, and it has nothing to do with doing anyone any harm. It’s been said that one in 10 people who come to the United States from elsewhere become millionaires. That’s an astounding statistic. So these highly skilled folks may see potential opportunity to get rich by, say, inventing something, that they may not have in their home countries.
To back that up, Thomas Heath, in The Washington Post, reports that in Forbes Magazine’s annual list of the 400 richest Americans, a record 42 of them are immigrants from 21 countries. Heath’s story was also published in the March 20, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The fact that immigrants would make less than their American predecessors did, in the first job that brought them to the U.S., is insignificant to them. The OPPORTUNITY to be in the United States, and to do something great, is what drives them.
There is good news in all this for those displaced, highly skilled American workers. There are many vehicles out there for them to create their own, potentially lucrative, income, too. They may not know about them, or they may even believe that they cannot do what would be asked of them. Yet, they can potentially be not just financially stable, but potentially financially free, without that job they lost.
Such vehicles are available to anyone, regardless of race, education or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
In sum, immigrants WILL come, when they see opportunity. Companies will take advantage of every loophole in every law to improve their bottom lines. As a worker, there is little you can do about it. Your future is in your hands, no matter what happens to you.
Even if laws are changed, new loopholes will be created. The lesson here: ways to potentially fire the boss before he fires you are out there. Don’t be afraid to look for them, and look at them. You never know what someone, either already in your life or who will come into your life, may have his hands on. It could be a lifesaver for you.
As our parents used to tell us when we approached a railroad crossing that didn’t have lights or an arm that came down to block traffic when a train was coming: stop, look and listen. You never know when, or how or from whom, your opportunity will come.
Peter