As I’m myself the kid of British immigrants, I’m naturally sympathetic to these courageous or determined sufficient to go away their houses to seek out alternatives in North America. Which is one motive that over the previous 12 months, I’ve been corresponding with an attention-grabbing blogger and former monetary advisor, Alain Guillot. He often republishes his weblog posts on my web site Findependence Hub. His personal weblog known as merely AlainGuillot.com.
Incomes, saving and spending in Canada: A information for brand spanking new immigrants
The wealth paradox: why saving $100,000 is tough
Guillot writes not less than one weblog publish every week and has 600 subscribers on his YouTube channel. He not too long ago wrote a brief e-book entitled The Wealth Paradox: Navigating Cash, Free will, and Success (self-published, 2024). Its subtitle explains extra: “How unconventional pondering influences your monetary and private life.”
Guillot first obtained my consideration once I discovered that he emigrated to Canada from Colombia, a spot I as soon as visited. He felt he had little alternative however to turn out to be an entrepreneur right here, though chapter 5 of his e-book is titled “Entrepreneurs are mentally unstable folks.” He wrote that the intention of the director of the film Wall Road was to indicate the greed and ills of capitalism. Nevertheless, it “had the alternative impact: extra folks had been drawn in direction of funding banking. In my chapter about entrepreneurs being mentally unstable folks, I had a little bit of the identical reverse-psychology intentions. I trash-talked the psychological state of entrepreneurs as a backhand praise and admiration for what they do.”
If that’s not unconventional sufficient for you, know that he’s a giant believer in self-insurance (placing cash away for wet days), versus proudly owning speculative belongings like gold and crypto, and makes the case that the first $100,000 of wealth is the toughest to build up.
From aspect hustles to monetary punditry
Initially Guillot tried numerous aspect hustles in Canada. He was a salsa and tango teacher, a photographer and an expert marriage ceremony witness. Truly, he nonetheless dabbles in every of these. He needed to turn out to be a monetary advisor in Canada, however he felt he may solely do justice to shoppers by being a fee-for-service planner, and he discovered it was exhausting to make a enterprise case out of that mannequin. Subsequent he positioned himself as a private finance coach, however finally stopped as a result of he found “nobody needs to hear.”
Nonetheless, he’s personally obsessive about cash, so he’s making an attempt to make a exit of running a blog about private finance and releasing video podcasts about it.
In an prolonged e mail interview, Guillot says he left Colombia as a result of he needed to have extra alternatives. For those who’re lucky sufficient to be born in Canada or the USA, he says to depend your blessings: “I used to be enormously influenced by films, the place I typically noticed common households proudly owning a home, having a automobile and having fun with their disposable earnings. They may go to eating places, have a couple of drinks in a cool bar and go on trip not less than annually. For me, in Colombia, that was a fictional world. In my atmosphere, folks had been at all times combating shortage and poverty.”
Intent on discovering a wealthier nation, he thought-about Spain, England, Australia, the U.S. and Canada. He most well-liked North America, because it’s in the identical time zone as Colombia, making communication together with his household simpler. “In the long run, I selected Canada over the U.S. as a result of I believed immigration to Canada could be simpler. I settled on Quebec, as a result of I used to be interested in studying French in addition to English.”
