Your understanding of personal finance as an African immigrant in the U.S. will significantly influence your success if you know what I mean. What you have to understand is that America is a credit society where you can get almost everything on credit. The catch in that is, if you failed in your personal finance, you might not be creditworthy which means no credit company will be ready to support you.
From mortgage to cars to other personal items and even your education can run on credit if you maintain creditworthiness over time. The beauty of being creditworthy is that you can substantially reduce your interest rate and get credit at cheap rates which can mean a lot in your personal finance.
Another reason every African immigrant needs to learn personal finance is that it is not a core attitude in Africa. I don’t mean to demean us, but we live in a society where prices can rise and fall without reasonable cause; things just go up and down like ocean wave. More so that record keeping is alien with us, people can do anything and go unpunished but that is not the situation in your new country of residence, and so it is vital you learn personal finance the American way.
Tools for Financial Discipline
For you to understand personal finance, it is essential to understand the need for some resources that would enhance your efforts at financial discipline. Here are personal finance essentials you need to maintain:
Start with a Bank Account
Having a bank resource would improve your financial control. Bank is a safe way to keep your money and caution excessive spending. A bank is a service-oriented institution, and your savings culture will help to judge your financial discipline and give the bank the confidence about your ability to manage credit. Also, many services such as mortgage, car loan, pay-day loan, etc., you will need in the U.S. would need your bank’s recommendation and support.
Therefore, as an African immigrant, your first task at personal finance should be to open a bank account. There are two possible accounts, savings and checking accounts to open with a bank; I am sure you are already used to these types of accounts in your home country; it is the same in the U.S.
Use Your Debit Card Wisely
The debit card needs no introduction to people who have used what is called ATM cards in Africa; it is a card issued on checking account by most banks to allow depositors get cash whenever they need it to buy things they like. It comes as a Visa or MasterCard branded card that gives you access to money in your bank account.
It is essential to manage your debit card judiciously to build a reliable credit history to show your bank you can maintain a credit card, reliably, if issued. In the U.S. it is more convenient to carry your card than carrying cash; most vendors including your favorite African restaurants accept payment using your debit card. And when you need cash, just in case, you can withdraw some money using your debit card at the nearby cash dispensing (ATM) machine.
Checks
While this is not very popular in Africa, although it is not a common thing to find with regular people in the U.S. as well, apart from established business people; however, checkbook is integral to the U.S. money management culture and allows you to pay bills. You could request your bank to issue a checkbook if you deem it worth using.
