Our Immigrant Stories are back!

Before I kick off with today’s story, I need a favor.

I am looking to interview immigrants who have made money mistakes, fallen into major debt, and successfully come out of debt (maybe still in debt).

Can you please introduce me to anyone?

Let’s call today’s subject “Zoim”.​
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​Profile​
​Gender: Male​
​Country of Residence: Canada​
​Profession: Product Manager

Why did you decide to leave your own country?

It wasn’t something that I had intended would happen. It was just out of getting married and finding a good place for us to raise kids.

Because for the longest time, I’ve always thought, I’m going to be in Nigeria. I’m going to travel the world out of Nigeria. My dream country was New Zealand. And the plan was to just visit and come back even though it was a three-day or even a week journey.

I felt like yeah, we’ll make it work in Nigeria until I met my wife and everything changed.

She is Nigerian too but lived all her life in the UK. Initially, the conversation was, that she would come to Nigeria and we would make it work. But then I started thinking, would she have to start again, does she understand the cultural shift, the adjustments in terms of salary structures and things like that? And then healthcare was sort of like, really terrible.

She did come to Nigeria for a bit after we got married. About this time she had moved to Canada and took time off work to test waters in Nigeria. But as soon as we found out we were expecting our first child she went back to Canada.

So in terms of transition, things were a bit easier because she had gone ahead while I was still in Nigeria, supporting her as much as I could from afar. I think a few months down the line, about a month before the baby was to come I left Nigeria to join her. This was smack in the peak season of the COVID pandemic.

I thought I’d be here four weeks before the baby came but you know how things were during that season, application taking forever etc. We had to get the doctor to write that I needed to urgently join as she was almost due with no family around. I was a few minutes into Toronto, turned on my mobile internet, I saw my wife had been sending me messages that her water had broken and she was en route to the hospital already.

I almost flew out of the plane!

So, long story short, my first day in Canada, my first very day, I became a father. I had to go and wait at home because this was still the period you had to quarantine for two weeks.

Your wife was already ahead so maybe it was kind of easy, but how did your settling in go? Because you’re landing as a father and that’s an immediate cost. How did you find your financial feet in the first couple of months?

To be honest, this is the first time I’m thinking about it, like, how did we do it?

And there’s no straight answer.

In that moment, there was so much going on, even in my personal life; my mom was critically sick and was in and out of the hospital which was costing me a lot of money.

The luck that I had was that my wife had gone back to work when she came back to Canada and so she was still able to get Maternity pay. That helped supplement things like the rent, bills, groceries, and things like that. That meant the burden was not on me a lot. I was focusing more on my mom and all the costs for her health.

But in terms of funding, once I got the visa I just sold off one of my cars in Nigeria. That was enough money to fund my travel ticket and continue to fund my mom’s healthcare bills.

Honestly, my wife was very supportive. Otherwise, it would have been more difficult than necessary. It gave me a little bit of a gap to be able to do more interviews. I say more because even before I left Nigeria I had started applications and getting interviews. I almost got an offer but the visa delays made them recall it. It was very painful.

I also interviewed for a product manager role at Yelp, as well. I got to the final round of the interview.

So those things were the ones that gingered and I thought once I get here, and I start It would work out.

I was on that journey for almost three months. I had a lot of interviews but I looking back now I was not landing the job because I had not picked up the cultural nuances yet; I mean answering the questions using local lingo, responding the way they know it and not the way I know it in Nigerian terms.

Yeah, I understand it’s something that I think I also struggled with. Because I knew the answers and responded to questions the way Nigerian managers would appreciate. But I had to learn how to say the answer the way they want to hear it and the way they are used to hearing it.

So it took you three months to get a job. You had a baby and to settle in very fast. So that three months and then settling in as an immigrant, how was that journey? Did you face any issues? If yes, what was the issue? And how did you solve it?

Are you referring to issues with work or just finances?

This newsletter is about the money, so the finances. Did you face any issues that had a financial impact Or something like that?

I think the biggest issue was sending money back home even while still trying to figure things out here as well.

But you know, looking back now, I think what would have made it even more difficult is if I had to worry about figuring out the rent and all the bills. The company my wife worked for, paid her a lump sum as maternity pay. So we lived on that. Another thing that also helped financially was that I still had connections with a lot of agencies in Lagos and I was able to push a proposal to one of the agencies that pitched something to Netflix. Netflix bought the idea and the initiative was almost fifteen million naira. But the amount required for me to deploy didn’t cost more than two to 3 million. So every time we needed one or two things, I just dipped into that money.

At this point, I already got a contract role. It didn’t pay a lot but it was, helping. I could I start stepping in on groceries, rent, and other bills using local currency. Eventually, the space became very small for us as a family so we needed a bigger space. We didn’t have to worry too much about finances, because we could just move somewhere that was good for our needs. We just sort of figured things out.

In the early months, let’s say for six months of me being in Canada, that’s how I survived. And even before all of that ran out, I was able to start a business and I landed another deal again, that sustained me.

I would say for almost one year in Canada, my biggest financial support was tied back to Nigeria and the entrepreneurial venture that I started here as well. I looked for contracts that were looking for things I knew I could deliver on as per my skillset but the biggest hurdle was understanding how to talk, how they speak, all those different things.

But if you are sort of entrepreneurial, you would figure out how to add two plus two together instead of just applying for jobs. Because sometimes just applying for jobs can be very tiring. It’s discouraging sometimes; you’re applying for jobs that you know you can do, upload your resume, and sometimes type it manually only to then get an email and you’re just looking for the word, “unfortunately”

Did your contract job get renewed?

No, it didn’t get renewed. After 5 months I was back on the job market. But this time instead of just applying I started looking for companies that I could sell myself to, that would pay as a business. To be honest, the luck that I had as well was the whole COVID thing and how things are transitioning around the black community in Canada. Association of immigrants were able to negotiate with the government to say, that all these fundings given to businesses, you need to be able to demand equity in who they outsource projects to. So, therefore, if you’re awarding projects, you need to be able to make sure X Y Z percentage is given to the black person

And you tapped into that! That’s good information, because thinking about it now, I need to find out if organizations here have that kind of same policy.

That was the break that I had. I was very surprised that out of everybody they picked me. So I went for a presentation, I wore my suit and all. Boom, thats how my company started; I started paying salaries instead of receiving a salary.

Would you say that you’ve actually settled in? What has been the achievement for you and what is your financial goal?

I think the achievement is based on the yardstick or what kind of goal you define as something you want to celebrate.

I think for Canadians or anyone in Canada, the minimum yardstick is homeownership. If we are using that, I can afford to buy the house.

I’ve thought about this a lot of times, my biggest goal is one, I want to go on a break for two years and not work, but also not care about my bills, because they’ll be paid by the systems I have set up.

That’s the number one for me.

My second goal is I want to do the minimum amount of work and get paid the highest. There are literally jobs like that, or businesses like that, or investments like that. You don’t get the best return on investment because you have an amazing 9-5 job. If you work for Google, they can wake up tomorrow, and say that 1000 people need to go, even as directors and VPs they need to dust their CVs and look for a new stream of income.

But what happens if you say, I want to take a break, mortgage will not say okay, I’ll take a break too.

You know, I would just like to wake up on an island somewhere and just rest, think, and even network. That’s the kind of life that I aspire to be by the time I am 40 feel by the grace of God. I want to genuinely not feel I have to work, work, and just work. I would like to be in a position where I can say my wife shouldn’t work. Not like telling her not to work, but she if does not feel like it, she does not have to.

For me personally, I am tired. I just want to groove, enjoy my life, and make good money legally. I think to be honest, that’s when we get the best ideas. You know, that mindset makes things clear.

So last question, looking at your journey and other people that you’ve in your networks in Canada, if you’re going to say to any immigrant that is coming and that is already there, or in whatever country, what would you say to them?

That’s a very tough one.

In retrospect, if I look at my own journey, there are some mistakes.

I married a somewhat high class wife. There are certain standards of life or should I say quality of of life she is used to and we had to continue to maintain that lifestyle. We didn’t start from the basement like most people do. The least rent we have paid has been like $2,300. In retrospect, I would say that some of the decisions that we made, were more lifestyle driven. And yeah, that has meant that we do not have a lot to save. So my advice to them will be if you can start small, start small.

Pick a place where you can start and when the money starts coming in, like in terms of saving, don’t be eager to quickly spend it. Stay there. Because if you’re like, Ah, I have a good job now and you moved to a bigger space before you know it, the money you can use towards the downpayment of a house will be spent on bills. Okay, imagine you’re paying $2,500 in 10 months as 25,000. All I’m saying cut your expenses, like, bring it down. And if anything were to happen, if you lose your job, you won’t feel it too much because you have something to fall back on in savings.

Another thing is, not everybody’s story is the same. Some people will post on Instagram: “I bought a house 6 months after I landed in Canada”. Don’t you dare use them as the yardstick of your progress!

Some people have rich parents. Some come from money. People have different stories and journeys. I can’t compare myself to a single guy, I have other people that I’m taking responsibility for. So ignore that and just say, You know what, before you begin to start making sense, in two years time, three years time, it’s possible that you have started seeing some traction, but don’t adjust your lifestyle immediately to that traction. That traction must be sustainable first before you then proceed to the next level.

That’s that’s very, very deep actually. Thank you so much.

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