Discovering the Secrets of the Edmonton Millionaire

My spouse and I moved to Edmonton in 2001, from Vancouver. My spouse is an engineer and Alberta was the land of opportunity for him. I had worked in the financial services industry for a long time at that point, and most recently as an independent financial consultant to those families we in the industry today describe as ‘ultra net worth.’ Vancouver is filled with people with large real estate portfolios and high monthly cash flows. Multi-generational families who hired many advisors and who have far too much resources to actually know what to effectively do with. I spent many years discovering, working with their wealth secrets, and ultimately in financial consulting.

Edmonton was a beautiful surprise and a place that I never thought I would move to. “I will not move to Edmonton” I roared at one point before moving to Edmonton. “There is no nature there!” said my mother-in-law.

Edmonton with its amazing river valley system turned out to be a beautiful surprise, one that seemed like a well-kept secret. Did the rest of the world know how beautiful Edmonton actually is? “Don’t tell them too much,” said many an Edmontonian back to me. Yes indeed, Edmonton is a beautiful nature paradise. Turned out there were financial secrets in Edmonton as well.

In exploring the financial tone of Edmonton, I discovered what I thought was an amazing fact. In terms of sheer numbers, Edmonton had more personal millionaires per capita than any other city in Canada. This was very different from Vancouver, where most average people are ‘house-rich’ and also ‘mortgage-heavy.’

In Edmonton, I kept meeting these millionaires. Simple and modest people. One such Edmonton Millionaire is Kim, whom I consider to be one of the perfect Edmonton examples of the true Edmonton millionaire next door. Kim is a semi-retired grocery store clerk. Her story is not unique. I have worked with many ‘blue color’ and professional people alike. The one common theme is their desire and focus to save for the long term, and be consistent.

Edmonton millionaires are minimalists by nature. They don’t spend on unnecessary items. They prefer to save.

Would you like to be an Edmonton millionaire? It is easy and only requires a change in mindset. Here are a few common personal characteristics these next-door millionaires have that you could consider adopting:
~ They don’t like wastage. They will recycle and find sales when they need to make purchases, even when then they can clearly afford to buy new.
~ They don’t buy into commercialism. They never or rarely purchase the newest and greatest .
~ They often like low-cost or introverted activities, such as gardening and reading.
~ They are generally well thought, well-rounded individuals with common sense as their driving force.
~ They have a sense of spirituality, higher ideals, like to give when appropriate, and stive to be good people.
~ They know their limits and seek professionals as members of their team. They don’t try to do it all themselves.

Edmonton millionaires are not out to impress you. That is why it is often difficult to recognize them. But trust me, Edmonton’s next-door millionaires exist, and they exist far more often than you can imagine, and live in areas of Edmonton that you would not expect. These next-door millionaire people exist, and should be silently applauded. You can be one too.