Tag: money

I wrote a book!

March 31, 2025

You see, some immigrants can afford to buy a property within their first year, or at least within a couple of years, often because of a financial benefit like a well-paying job or family support. But for me, that wasn’t the case. I had to work harder, and with a few sacrifices here and there, of course.

While I do wish I could have bought my property earlier, I am incredibly grateful that everything happened at the perfect time.

It is available on Amazon worldwide: https://shorturl.at/xR0CJ

Now, I want to help more people, especially single ladies and gents, achieve this milestone in even less time than I did. And I’m going to show you how to use some of the lessons I’ve learnt along the way.

I wrote this book particularly out of experience and observation. Even though there is no shortage of resources out there for buying your first property, in most cases, these guides are often geared toward couples or people who have pooled their resources to make it happen. It can be confusing to find guidance as someone who is trying to buy alone, and it can be even more overwhelming if you don’t have abundant finances.

At the end of this book, I want you to feel empowered, knowing that owning property in a foreign country is within your reach. No matter where you start from, rest assured that YOU can make it happen.

Dont forget to get a copy from Amazon worldwide; https://shorturl.at/xR0CJ

My Christmas Gift To You………

November 24, 2024

Every Saturday via a newsletter, I have been sharing my money mistakes and lessons as an Immigrant with several people over email.

The content below was shared with my newsletter subscribers on Saturday, November 23rd, 2024. You can also  SUBSCRIBE HERE

I created a monthly budget tracker for you.

Why?

My personal finance took a significant positive change when I started to use a well-detailed budget someone shared after a finance webinar. With the tracker, I have been able to track what comes in and what goes but more importantly, I have used it to track where most of my money goes and make financial projections for major purchases.

I would like that as you enter 2025 you can actively begin to do the same.

What is included?

I created two types of budget trackers.

One for couples, i.e., couples that jointly run their finances. I worked with two close couples who I know document their monthly income, spending, and analysis in detail. I have used their insight to create something that covers every aspect of household income.

The second one is for single individuals. I have used my own experience to create the different areas of your life that are key to your financial spending/expenses.

Across both of the trackers, I included a chart that helps you capture your spend in percentage against a set goal.

But you can edit / customise to what is important for your own unique situation.

How do I use it?

I admit it is quite manual. Meaning you would need to manually input your figures as you spend. This is what I currently do for myself.

I am definitely not technology agnostic but I have found that the manual input into my tracker helps me achieve two things:

  • Take ownership of properly allocating my spend into the various buckets. While my bank has this functionality on their app, it frustratingly allocates my spending randomly that are not a true reflection of my spending. Eg my bank app can not help allocate a purchase of a gift for a friend’s birthday properly.
  • Be conscious of my spending as I type into the various spend bucket. Somehow I continually have a mental image of my tracker every day I bring out my card to spend.

How much does it cost?

It’s free… (I had to include an amount as the payment platform I used needed a minimum amount).

Okay, maybe it’s not free. You can pay anything between £1.50 and £I Trillion for it.

If you don’t want to pay anything for it. No pressure to do so. But please make sure you actually use the tracker.

Where do I find this budget tracker?

Budget Tracker for Couples here.

Budget Tracker for Individuals here.

I would like the budget to reach at least 100 people, please share the links above with friends and family.

I would appreciate your feedback once you access the trackers. Can you do me the favor of letting me know what you think and if you find it valuable?

xxxxxxxx

Anu Sanya

Immigrant Money Stories IX: The Journey from £19k to £156k Pay

March 30, 2024

Profile​
​Gender: Female
​Country of Residence: United Kingdom
​Profession: Program Managment Office Executive

Why did you leave your home country?

Because that’s what everyone was doing at that time.

Oh really?

Well, maybe not entirely. As I grew up, anytime I thought of my future, I never saw myself in Nigeria. Even people around me always said “Look you don’t you don’t belong here” and I have always thought that way. So when the time came, I moved to the UK.

Why the UK though? Why not somewhere else?

I don’t know. I’d never been to America or any other country before then so nowhere else appealed to me. Everyone talks about America as the place to be, you know the land of opportunities, but I still don’t see it as a place to live. I have a British Passport now and still haven’t visited the country.

Anyway, I was set on the UK and the UK it was.

So how did you come to the UK? I mean what route?

School. I came in for a master’s degree.

I remember paying an agency N40,000 (£176) to help facilitate the application process. This was in 2006. But before then I remember spending at least 6 months of the year at a cybercafe researching various schools (this was the days when internet-enabled homes were not so common).

Because my dream career was to travel the world as an international broadcasting agent or something of that sort I kept searching for schools that could offer International relations or international development. Or anything related to it. I found several schools and then engaged the agency to help me put together the application, guide me through the personal statement etc. And I got admission to two of the schools.

Funny story; I chose the school to go to because it was near France. When I was doing all that research at the cybercafe I remember seeing that the school I chose was near the beach so I would get seaside views. And the proximity of France nailed it for me because I could speak some small French then.

Please ask me how many times I went to France?

Zero?​
Yep! I never went to France but it was good to know it was nearby.

And of course, this was funded by Daddy and Mommy 100%?

Yep, 100% funded by Daddy which I am entirely grateful for.

You are in the UK and in school. Did you have to work during school?

Remember I said I got admission in 2006? I didn’t get to go to school till 2007. In 2006, Daddy had some money issues so he said to me, “I can’t afford to send you to school abroad now so defer your admission for the next year”. I was devastated but It worked in my favor because the next year he said “Let me make it up to you, how much is everything you will need including upkeep for the entire duration of your course?”. So I went on the school website and you know they always have that “typical international students should expect between this and this in upkeep cost”. I took the higher end of the recommended amount and gave my dad.

He gave me the entire amount. I mean the entire school fees sum and the entire upkeep for the year. Not sure that was a good idea looking back now. I was going to be living on my own for the first time in another country and I was awash with cash. I went all out in choosing my accommodation, and paying for the welcome package (you know those packages where they had pots, pans, plates, sheets, etc so you don’t have to buy anything once you arrive). Nobody was checking on me concerning how I was managing the money given to and having so much money all at once was unusual for me.

I was on a spending spree.

​
I went to school in September and by May of the following year, I realized I didn’t have money that would take me into September which was when I would finish school. I realized I had been buying rubbish. Food, Clothes I didn’t need and didn’t wear, just absolute nonsense.

When Daddy gave me the money he told me very firmly, this is it, and no more. I am a very proud person so the thought of going back to him to ask for more jarred me.

I stopped buying nonsense and became very prudent. And I started co-buying things with my friends in bulk so we could share. I also discovered eBay and I used the platform to sell off all the unnecessary things I accumulated; it was not a lot of money but it all came together to make something.

Then I got a job as a call center agent with a bank and boom, I went back to my old ways. I was in a “Oh I have money, I am comfortable so need to be living like a pauper.” mentality all over again. And remember I was still in school with my accommodation and bills paid. So hey, what is money for if not spending? My friends and I were just doing a lot of big girls’ spending, nothing crazy, but just unnecessary and unchecked spending.

No savings. Just spending.

And then I needed to make a trip to Nigeria and the ticket was just £300. Guess what I could not afford it! I mean just £300. I had to put the ticket on my credit card and I eventually paid back £1,500 over a year or something. That was a turning point.

I said to myself “you know what you can do better this girl, come on! what are you doing?”

So I started a savings culture again. I told myself I must have money somewhere or something for any unplanned cost.

How long were you in that customer service job?

Not long after I finished the masters program I lost that bank job. I had sighed when speaking to a customer on the phone and that became a disciplinary action. That made them start digging further into my employment. Guess what? they had been overpaying me and that also became a bigger issue.

What do you mean by overpaying you?​
As a student, I was working 20 hours right. However, someone made a mistake when onboarding me and uploaded my details into the system as a full staff. So I was getting full pay while working part-time hours. Honestly, I didn’t know, I was just too excited to be collecting what I thought was a lot of money back then.

So they brought that up too and called me into a meeting. The meeting went something like this “You resign and we will not ask you to repay all the money. Or you remain and you will need to pay back all the extra money”

I resigned. I didn’t have any money to pay back.

Knowing what I know now, I could have sued them and won but I was a novice.

Around this time too I had moved into a flat-share with a couple of friends. I was broke and things became so bad I couldn’t pay my rent.

oh wow

I had to take in a lodger who was willing to sleep on the floor in my room but pay rent like a full tenant. This happened for three months, wonderful girl I met on one of those many microsites back then. With her payment, I was able to at least pay my rent.

Then one day one of my flatmates and friends said to me “we really can’t continue like this. We should consider taking up a care support role”.

In those three months, I had been tirelessly looking for a job with no joy. In fact I was willing to do anything to survive at this point. So at the point my friend suggested a care job I was desperate plus I was somewhat encouraged we would do it together because we had both been out of a job for months.

I was on that job for about 9 months and it was one of the worst periods of my life. No offense to those who currently do the job but too many gory stories. My friend who started with me didn’t last three months. She quit one day when she got to a client’s home and saw the woman fell down a night before almost dead. She could not get back up and didn’t get help till my friend arrived in the morning.

I kept searching for other roles. I was looking for any role and ever so slowly that dream career of international broadcasting or whatever was out of the window. I became “realistic” because I told myself it was never going to happen. I mean people with similar roles started internships and volunteering as far back as their teenage days, you could say I was late to the “party”. I even tried volunteering with Oxfam to boost my chances. Nothing clicked!

9 months later I got another call center/customer service role with Legal and General Pensions company. They called me on a Friday to schedule an interview for Monday, had the interview on Monday morning and by evening I was informed I got the role. First thing on Tuesday morning I resigned from the care support role.

You didn’t even wait?

Wait for what? I had to get out fast!

So how long did you stay in this call center role?

5 years.

​What!​
Yep, five years.

I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life at this point. I met my husband while at this job, got married, and had my first child within that period. I became very complacent. Honestly, it wasn’t because I didn’t try; I did everything within my means to get a new job; I tried to move to other departments in the insurance company but was never chosen for roles. I got diverse certifications including Prince2. I remember a conversation with one of my managers then who got to know I had a prince2 certification. He said, “What are you doing here? With this certification you should be doing bigger things”. I said I’m asking myself the same question.

And he did try to connect me with some leaders in the organization. I even tried a mentorship program and I was told I was doing all the right things. But nothing came out of it.

Around this time, my elder sister who also lived in the UK was asking me, “Aunty what is the plan? You can’t continue like this”.

It was a frustrating period.

Eventually, I resigned with no job in place.

O!

Yeah, remember I was married at this point. My husband was now a permanent resident and no longer tied to his employers in that area because they had sponsored his resident permit for work. He wanted to explore getting a job somewhere else and jointly we agreed we had outlived where we were, we needed something new. It was just a good time for me to resign and think through what I wanted to do next.

It’s funny thinking about it now. I am very very good at driving people to achieve their goals. Because I was on my husband’s case to get ahead in his career, I pushed him to take more certifications, aim for senior roles etc. I pushed to the point he became the first ever black person to attain a most sought-after certification in his field. I was his greatest cheerleader all the way.

But guess what, pushing myself was very difficult. I just wasn’t picking up myself. I struggled to give myself that much-needed push.

What did you do next?

After we moved, I was home for about nine months or so. Not up to a year but not less than 9 months. You can imagine the pressure on our finances on a single income; child care nursery, bills etc. My husband had to go “Babes, time is going. What is the plan?”

Then I got a job! I remember feeling so excited not just about the job but the pay. It was a £27k pay package. I felt on top of the world.

Remember this is me who was paid £19k per annum for so long, this jump felt like a big deal! It was a small boutique company. I was the only girl on the team with mainly developers & client services guys. I enjoyed my time there.

That job was the beginning of multiple jumps in my pay.

​What do you mean?

I stayed in that role for about 7 months and then went on maternity leave, great employers because I was paid maternity pay in that period. I resumed and only stayed for 4 months.

Not loyal. Hahaha

Well, I got a better offer. Plus my sister used to say something “Move to London or at least look for jobs in London. The perspective of the people there is very different and enlightened.

She was right.

Capita gave me an offer as a permanent staff with a £15k increase in my pay. So I was now earning £42k per annum still as a project coordinator but on a bigger scale now.

You can imagine at this time I felt like I was crushing it, I am making big money. Until I discovered the world of contracting while at my time in Capita. Some of my contractor colleagues were talking about their pay (as they always do). We were doing the same job and their pay was significantly higher than mine. I quickly became friends with them and asked them to show me the ropes.

A few months later I got my first role as a contractor, £450 per day with the Department of Education.

So you can say I went from £27k to £108,000k in about 2 years plus.

Wow

Yeah I hit the jackpot because I have not looked back since then. In fact funny story, when I was leaving my role at Capita, I was transparent with my manager at my exit interview as to why I was leaving: I am doing the same job as these other guys and they are paid much more. I wanted that for myself. Thankfully she saw where I was coming from.

So after that my initial role at the Department of Education, that my manager called me for another role at Capita this time as a contractor with an increased day rate.

Now you are officially balling!​
Yeah you can say so. Hahaha

What has been your highest day rate since then?

£650

How your life has changed financially! I know you bought a house, sold it, and moved to a bigger place and then again to a bigger place. Are you still saving and now investing?​
Savings, well my husband will say no. There are a lot of financial responsibilities now with two kids. Their expenses just never stop. At least for now.

Going back to my initial years, I know for sure if I had done a better job at saving those days when I had no responsibility, I am pretty sure I would have achieved more financial goals eg buying a house as a single girl.

But I know I am religiously putting money aside every month. Maybe I can do more but I save and also do ajo (group savings with a few of my friends).

Investing; not as much as I would like to, to be honest.

Last question, looking back at your own story what would you say to any new immigrant now?

Surround yourself with the right people! I can’t say this enough. The people you have around you is a reflection of who you are or what you are about to become. A while back I went to Peckham to visit my friend’s family for a few days and I felt so out of place. No offense to those who live there but I am glad I didn’t end up because I am pretty sure I will not be achieving some of the things I have been able to. Its a whole different world in that side of the country.

So choose very very wisely the people you will surround yourself with.

Another thing I will say to them is, to have a plan! Please don’t come with a “we will see how it goes”. That is not a plan! Please at the very least have funds to last you for the first 6 months, detail what you will do if you don’t have a job; will you go back home or stay the course?

Sometimes remaining at home country might be a better plan.

Very last question. What is your biggest financial goal?

Father lord from the mouth of your daughter, I need enough money to renovate the new house we just bought. I mean my own standard of renovation and not my husband’s standard. Because left to him we can move in its state. Men!

Hahaha.

I would like to increase the number of people reading my weekly newsletter, Can you share this story below with your friends/family and tell them to SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Immigrant Money Stories VIII: His Financial Goal is Not Having To Work

February 3, 2024

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”.​
​
​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.

I would like to increase the number of people reading my weekly newsletter, Can you share this story below with your friends/family and tell them to SUBSCRIBE HERE.