Personal Finance Archives - Diary of a Jamerican Mom

Surviving Job Loss: What to do when your job leaves you

We no doubt live in a dynamic world where change is the only constant. Seasons change, fashion changes, laws and rules change; even we as individuals change. Somehow, there is one change that when it happens, it throws off our equilibrium. This is one that hits most of us where it hurts… directly to our bottom line. This post will explore what to do when your job leaves you.

Do you notice that the title says “when your job leaves you”? This doesn’t apply to a conscious decision to move on from one job to the next. It could, but that isn’t my focus.

There are several ways in which your job can leave you. You have been laid off for whatever reason; downsizing, acquisition or any other made-up reason that companies use these days when they want to preserve their bottom lines. Or even worse, you could be fired! I have never been fired but I imagine this would rank among the worst of the lot. Whatever the reason may be, at the end of the day, you lost a job you did not plan on losing at that time.

Now that we have established that stuff happens, and a job is never guaranteed(which should put a lot of things in perspective for all of us non-entrepreneurial types), let’s look at some practical ways that we can handle and adjust to this loss and springboard into a brighter future.

Get your mind right

It’s hard to lose your livelihood, no doubt about that! No matter how it happens it feels like someone hit you below the belt or knocked the wind out of you. Feelings of betrayal take over, almost as if some deep agreement was broken, unfairly. I know! I have been there and I can tell you it doesn’t feel good. You feel angry and terrified at the same time. You can be left feeling inadequate as well. However, like any other change that happens in life, you must grieve; especially when it involves loss.

The trick is not to remain there. You MUST get your mind right in order to move on. No use carrying hard feelings for companies that are doing what they are supposed to be doing; which is protecting their interests. By the same token, you must protect yours. Your sanity, above all, is not worth wallowing in that state. You must muster the strength and be emotionally intelligent enough to find the focus needed to take the next step. If you do not, you will find your self stuck and you will wonder a year, even two years after, what have I done with my time.

Decide what’s next

Depending on your situation, you must try to figure out your next move. You will have decisions to make. Questions like “Will I remain in the same field?”, “Will I start searching for another opportunity?”, “Should I go back to school?”, “Do I start my own business?”; just to name a few. This will be a time to reflect on what you have done so far and where you see yourself going. It’s actually the perfect opportunity to review and find your passion. At this point, what do you have to lose? Of course, the bills need to be paid, but you know, greatness is often born out of adversity. I have heard so many stories of other people’s experiences where the adverse and urgent situation birthed a new business, side hustle or even a new career direction.

While you’re mulling over your options and trying to figure out your long-range goals, you will also need to figure out how you will sustain yourself through it. That’s a whole other topic.

Make a plan

Now that you have given the situation some thought, it’s time to make a plan. You can do the standard planning method of short, medium and long-range plans. This helps to put things into perspective and it does help to write things down. Most of us are visual so articulating and documenting a plan helps us drive towards the goals that we set.

One guiding principle is to have SMART goals. There are tons of resources and templates out there that can help you in your goal setting and planning. SMART stands for

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant/Realistic

Time-Framed

Here is one that I found.

Execute(Work Your Plan)

Now that you have set your goals, it’s time to execute! It’s so much more purposeful and rewarding when you execute against a plan rather than just shooting in the breeze(it must be the project manager in me speaking but it really is). You have guiding posts against which to measure your progress and you feel accomplished as you progress through them. This helps keep frustration at bay and keeps you focused on your goal.

Let’s say you are job hunting. If you just wing it, you might get frustrated because you’re not hearing back from the companies you’re applying to. Without knowing how many and what kinds of jobs you’re reaching for it’s hard to justify the frustration. On the other hand, if you took a more measured approach and you knew the kinds of companies that are responding, the types that are not, then you can figure out where to focus your efforts. This will lead to better success and an overall better mental experience.

Read my previous post about change.

Conclusion

Things can get really hard during tough economic times especially when your income is lost unexpectedly. But you cannot stay there. It’s a time to make mental adjustments; tweaks for some but overhauls for others. It may result in a change in how you live so you can prepare to move forward. It’s also a time to lean on support from friends and family as you navigate through that difficult time. For those of you of faith, it’s a time to dig into your Source. Remember, there is no shame in it. Stuff happens! Your job does not define you, neither is it guaranteed.

I hope these few helpful tips can help you if you are experiencing a job loss or in the future if by some misfortune it happens. I hope it doesn’t. But if it does, you are not alone. I have been through it twice before. I am still standing.

Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to share any suggestions or tips you might have if your job has ever left you. Looking forward to hearing from and sharing with you.

4 Basic Tips for Reducing Financial Stress

If you think back to a stress-free time in your life, either you had no responsibilities or you had everything under control. Well, if your life is anything like the rest of us, the first option might have been during our pre-teen years and the latter is totally impossible. Sadly, a jus’ so di ting set(Translate – it’s just how life works). This post will focus on four simple ways to reduce financial stress.

Can we all stop and think of a time in our life when we were stress-free? Just think with me for a minute… Where would you be? Recreate the scenery right now.

For me it would be back when I was a child, playing with self-made toys with my neighbors and friends during summer vacation. You know those months when all you had to do was play, and your chores of course. But the top priority was play time and interacting with friends. The only stress we had was making sure that we completed our chores on time and deciding what teams we would be on. In Jamaica, it would probably be 90 degrees, brisk breeze… we’d be eating fruits from the trees, playing one game after the next. Looking forward to trips to the beach; to some new spot on the island you had never been; visiting relatives and friends. Laughter and fun was never in scarce supply. Ahhhh…

Life throws so many things our way; some real, others imagined. These circumstances can lead to stress of varying degrees. The focus of this post is on those of the financial kind. I know you know them. We probably can all speak from personal experience but that will not be the focus of this post. I want us to consider 4 simple things we can do to reduce that financial stress and recreate some of that feeling we had during the stress-free time in our lives, even if just for a short time.

My tips are loosely based on Dave Ramsey’s plan but scaled back based on my own experience and where I am on my journey.

Build up your emergency fund

This is for unforeseen eventualities that WILL pop up. For example, an unexpected car-related expense, a house repair, you get the picture. Since I am in the US the recommendation is to have at least US$1000. You can equate that to your own currency and decide what that figure should be for you. But make sure you have the emergency fund built up so, not if, but WHEN those curve balls come at you, you can dig in. But remember to replace it. It should always be available.

Plan your budget/expenses

When I say plan, I mean every dollar. Have you ever heard of the concept called zero-based budgeting? I hadn’t either, but it means that you should budget every last dollar until there is no money left in your account. I know it sounds strange but stay with me.

Now, this does not mean you should spend all your money, but it simply means that every dollar is accounted for, and get this… even for saving. See how that works! So you know when your funds are coming in, you look at all your categories(monthly bills, everyday expenses, fixed expenses, debt, giving , saving etc.) and you allocate all your income to each category as appropriate.

I must admit this was hard for me at first, but the more you do it the more you get used to it and you begin to see the value. That way when you have to spend money on say ice-cream for the kids, or shopping for those shoes you have been eyeing that are now on sale, there is no guilt. It’s planned for. And guess what, your stress levels go down.

Plan your payments weekly

This is one of my valuable tips. I started doing it and a couple weeks ago I skipped out on it and something unintended came up and I panicked. What happens when you panic, stress levels go up! There might not have been a need to panic but because I had lost control of exactly where things were I could not resolve it in my mind. Not until I sat down and caught up did I begin to feel more at ease. What this entails is every week(or however often you need), you look at all your upcoming bills or payments and schedule them to make sure they are paid on time. Some people have separate accounts for all the different categories but that’s a bit too much over head for me at this point. Try planning weekly and let me know how it works for you.

Last but not least,

Come up with a plan to get rid of your debt

Now this is no secret. I shared with you a few posts ago how I was able to overcome the medical debt trap during my pregnancy and the birth of my son. Some debt is unavoidable. I don’t know many people who can survive without debt so it would be unfair to say, do not get into debt. However, we should try to get out of it as soon as we can. Consumer debt… no brainer. That’s a given. That needs to happen fast. The only people who benefit from that kind of debt are the card companies. But other kinds of debt like cars, homes etc. we should try to reduce or eliminate as soon as possible.

I know it’s a tall order and I confess I do have debt. The stress factor comes in when you fall behind on your obligations and are eventually either staring the repo man or foreclosure in the face. All the more reason to try to reduce or eliminate them as soon as you can. This would be the ultimate financial peace where you owe no one. Wouldn’t that be grand!!

These tips are very simple so if you haven’t started they should be easy to adapt. For those of you who are farther along, please share. I am also on my journey to ultimate financial peace as well. I will be sharing with you any tips that I come up with that can help you. Feel free to share with me your strategies as well. Each one, teach one.

Please join my community by subscribing so you never miss a post. Please also follow me on my social media channels. Thank you again for stopping by and looking forward to sharing with you again.

Coming to America – What I Wished I Knew about CREDIT

Who remembers that classic movie “Coming to America”? Hmm Hmm, I know you do. Especially those of us that are of a certain age. Eddie Murphy played the role of a very rich and pampered African prince who travels to New York City and goes undercover to find a wife. It was hilarious watching him stick out like a sore thumb in the American culture.

Many of my Caribbean friends can relate to this phenomena of migrating to the great US of A, albeit not as rich African princes. Our experiences are not as dramatic, but despite living in the same hemisphere there are differences between our cultures that cause angst and even issues for us as we immigrate to the USA. Issues which we hardly talk about.

Most people migrate with stars in their eyes about what life will be in the land of opportunity. Some have the benefit of the experience of family members, while others have no clue what lies ahead. As a friend of mine said “everybody who comes to America has a story to tell”. Of course, these stories are usually about some hardship they faced and hopefully overcame.

One of the first obstacles I was faced with was the issue of CREDIT. I will share with you my experience and what I have learned as an immigrant.

First of all, what on earth is credit?? Of course we know what credit is but WHAT is CREDIT? What do you mean I have no credit? How do I get it?

If you migrated to the US as an adult like I did, this is a rude awakening. First hurdle, it can be difficult to even open a bank account!! Implicit in almost every banking system I’ve come across is that you have come up through the American society and there are some things that are naturally in place. As an immigrant, of course, it’s NOT. So just getting past that can be a challenge.

My Story

I came to the US after being pretty established in Jamaica. I had gone through a few things financially like purchasing a car and a condo so that was definitely not new to me.

Moving to Atlanta, it is rather difficult to survive without a car. Public transportation is just not that well developed so you don’t have the freedom to live wherever you want if you need to rely on it.

I got off to what I thought was a pretty good start. I had bought a used car from someone I knew. After a few months the car was on it’s last leg(One of the pitfalls when you no longer have the benefit of having a good relationship with your local mechanic, miss that about back home). It had major issues which I wasn’t prepared to spend money on. So I started looking around for a better car.

I stopped by the dealership on my way home from work one night. They had a used 2008 Honda Accord, with low mileage that was calling my name. But of course I could not pay cash. You guessed it, I needed a loan. I was pretty much satisfied with the car and began to feel relief that I will no longer have to deal with the car that was leaking fluid and prone to leave me on some desolate freeway.

Wake Up Call(What I learned)

Your credit history outside of the country does not apply

The finance guy came over. We exchanged pleasantries and then the real business began. He asked me for my SSN, pulled up my information. Then the dreaded words came “You have no credit history”. What do you mean? I have purchased a couple cars and a house through loans before. I have paid them back all on time. WHAT do you mean? But alas, your history outside of the country counts for nothing. That was lesson #1.

That led me to my next question: How do you build credit when no one will extend it to you? To that question, although he writes loans all day long, he had absolutely no answer. The system just wasn’t set up to accommodate immigrants like me.

You need credit to build a credit history

I left the dealership very dejected and defeated. However, what I failed to mention before was that the salesman was actually a Jamaican. He took me on as his case study in how to get a new immigrant approved for a loan. Unbeknownst to me, he searched and searched. Good news: he found an institution that was willing to give me a loan. Bad news: it was at a whopping 12%. He called me in, gave me the low down, talked me through what I was up against. I weighed the pros and cons and decided to bite the bullet and go for it, even if just to build my credit. He advised that I should pay it down early and look to refinance as soon as my credit score began to rise. That was good advice! Lesson #2: You need credit to get credit!

Don’t apply for credit just because it’s offered

As my credit score began to teeter around being just OK, I began getting offers from all and sundry. All the retail stores were offering credit cards; banks, loan companies etc. I resisted the urge to apply for more credit because I felt one was enough for me to worry about for now. I am happy I did. Because I found out that every time there is a certain type of query against you credit history, your credit score drops by a few points, even if you don’t take it. So lesson #3, be very strategic about applying for credit.

At the end of the day, even though I took that car loan out of dire necessity at the time, I used it to springboard my way to purchasing my first home after my son was born. It worked out in the end.

Here is some practical advice from my friend Kim Galeta from KimGaleta.com. She is a personal finance blogger who also migrated to the US from Jamaica.

1. Start with a cash secured credit card to build your credit faster

A cash secured credit card is just like a regular credit card, expect it is secured by cash. You must deposit cash to your card before you can make any purchases. These are much easier to be approved and are a great option for people who don’t yet have a credit history.

2. Join a credit union

Credit unions often offer much more favorable rates for individuals who are looking to build credit. Check with your employer to see if they are associated with one that you may be able to join.

3. Refinance

If you have already taken out credit for a car or other purchase, consider refinancing after about a year to showcase your credit history.

Debt

4. Check your credit score often

Use free platforms like CreditKarma to check your credit score often. They offer great advice on how to improve your score.

5. Take it one step at a time

It can be overwhelming to navigate all you need to know about the credit system in the US. Sign up for free resources where possible and ask for qualified advice before jumping into any credit arrangement.

Long story short, a lot of the American consumerism is based on credit and debt. Use it wisely. Save your credit for bigger ticket items like purchasing a home. You need debt but if used unwisely it can be a trap. One that is very difficult to get out of.

Thanks again for stopping by. I know this is not the “juicy” stuff but I am sure there is someone out there who can learn from my experience. Feel free to share your stories, I can’t wait to hear. I’m sure we can all learn something too.

Category: Personal Finance