April 9th, 2008 by admin
One time I had this conversation with my coworker Gracie. She was griping about how she had a disagreement with her elder sister when she called her in our beloved Philippines, my Philippines. She was mad at how her sister was egging her about sending her 100 dollars, anyway, as her Ate said, “it’s just 100 dollars, Grace, ano ba naman yon dyan ?”. Grace was mad that they do not realize how a hundred bucks meant to her considering that she is a single mom and nobody helps support her three-year old daughter and she has a lot of bills to pay too.
As she kept ranting about this, I realized this, people from the Philippines do not actually know what 100 dollars meant to the Filipino earners in the US. I mean I for one thought it doesn’t mean a lot but when I got here, my whole understanding of the value of the dollar changed. It’s like this, if you will compare 1 peso versus 1 dollar, the one peso in the Philippines cannot buy a liquid hand soap, but here in the U.S., with one dollar you can. Our 100 dollar here can go a long way as compared to the Philippines 100 pesos. So folks, hindi sya , ” one hundred dollars lang “. Hindi po siya one hundred dollar lang dahil in truth, madami na po kaming mabibili dito nyan kesa ipadala sa mga nanghihingi na ipang iinom lang dahil birthday nila.
To illustrate further, a 100 dollar can already buy or pay for :
- 10 pieces of Levi’s T-shirts at 10 dollars a piece
- or 10 boxes of Mangoes at 8.99 a box ( may sukli pa yan )
- or 10 or more different kinds of meat packages ( pwera kung tri-tip or mga prime steaks ha ? )
- or 2 months of my electric bill at $45.00 a month
- or 1 month of Cable bill at $93.00
- or 100 items from the Dollar store
and the list is endless…Before you go asking for dollars from your relatives here, try thinking if the person can manage shelling out 100 bucks, because she may also need it herself. Or better yet, ask yourself first because if you can survive not asking help from others, why bother? Kung latest model lang ng cellphone or pang bili ng bagong damit, baka naman pwedeng ipostpone mo yan. Maybe the person may not send you what you are asking for anyway, and baka mag iba pa tingin nya sayo di ba? Kung emergency okay lang. The most hurting thing for us here who send dollars to our relatives is knowing you send somebody your hard-earned money and he just spends it on a drinking spree, or on a shopping spree and they go bragging to people that they have money but it’s money that they did not work for. Ang di nila alam, yung magulang or kapatid nila dito, pinaghirapan kitain yung 100 dollars na pinadala sa kanila. Kakaawa nga ang iba dito eh, lalo na matatanda. Then sometimes the people they send money to would tell them, “one hundred dollars lang naman yon, para yon lang parang ang laki na nang pinadala mo. Kulang pa nga eh. ” That hurts huh? Imagine if one has ten siblings back in the Philippines, and she has to give 200 dollars to each one of them, and she’s not really earning that much, you think that is easy on that person to hand out more than $100? Mahirap po kitain ang dolyar dito. Kala nyo lang hindi, pero that is the truth and nothing but the truth.
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April 4th, 2008 by admin
A friend of mine, a new Filipino immigrant in the USA like me, called me up sometime ago and we got to talk about all sorts of things about life and all. She mentioned how she doesn’t have a credit card since she doesn’t want it and she’s used to paying in cash.
I understand how she felt about staying away or creating debts when she has money to pay for things right away but nevertheless, as a new immigrant, building her own credit, is one very important thing here in America.
Because I grew up in the Philippines, I too, am not much of a believer in credit cards because I want to pay everything in cold cash. I know for a fact that credit cards can be stolen and you know if that happens, it can be such a hassle. I also do not want the interests they charge, imagine about 20% if you are a newbie on credit cards. Like my friend, I too, want to live without having to worry about these things. But soon I found out that things are different in America. The less debts you have , the less creditworthy you are. I found out that my credit history and my credit score will play a big part in my life here in Uncle Sam’s land.
I needed to establish my own credit so what other choice do I have but to get started on getting my own plastic card, that’s one way to start off with my agenda of credit building. And very important too, is to get a job, of course. Nobody will give you credit, if you have no job to support your loan, or no means to pay your credit card bills.
Anyway, if you will ask me why building your own credit is important and where in the world would it be needed, you will be needing your good credit in the scenarios I will mention below:
- when you try to lease an apartment
- when you want to buy your own house or your own condo
- when your spouse’s credit isn’t enough and the creditors will need an additional guarantor
- when you want to get your very first, very own car
- when you get divorced or worst, you suddenly lost your spouse, you will need your own credit to be able to do things on your own.
- when you apply for an insurance coverage ( medical, dental, car insurance )
What I did to personally establish my own credit was to put all our bills in my name. I also got two credit cards ( which I admit has a higher interest rate since I am a newcomer in this “charging” business.) I also opened my own bank account. Be careful with overdrafts though. Overdrafts are also indicators as to how you are as a spender. Be sure to not have them because they are also points against your creditworthiness.
They say that credit card debts are one of the problems of Americans. Yes, but if you know how to handle yourself and put a leash on your spending, I don’t think it is a problem at all. With credit card debts, I do not worry much about that because I know myself when it comes to spending. I am very conscientious and very stingy 
.
One thing I do so I will not be tempted to spend beyond what I can afford is to take out my credit cards out of my wallet. I do not bring them with me unless I have paid the past bill in full. Paying your bill in full rather than just paying the minimum amount, is a good indicator that you are a good credit material. It means you can pay off your bill quickly and you are not a candidate for bad debts in the future. But should you really need to use your credit cards or get loans from financial institutions, you should just be wise and smart and not go beyond what your paycheck can afford.
If you just got here in the US of A, if you have not yet done anything to build your own credit, start establishing your credit now before it’s too late, I mean who knows what the future will bring, right? It won’t hurt to do it but it will hurt you a lot in the future should you need that credit for something.
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March 16th, 2008 by admin
Before, when I was still in the Philippines, I used to think that people who live in America never run out of money, like everything here is easy, that nobody here is poor. Hahahah, yeah that is true, I mean I thought before that they never have any problems financially. Then I came here. I saw the real picture of how it is to live here. Sad to say, I saw how my fellow Filipinos are working two jobs a day just to make both ends meet. I saw them work hard, because they have mortgages, car bills, utility bills, insurance, property taxes and lots more of things to pay for and not enough money. Some are in the brink of bankruptcy because they are suddenly laid off from work and had credit cards debt pile up. Some have two mortgages to pay for. Some are going to sell their homes to transfer to an apartment since they just can’t pay the bills anymore.I see old people working at Walmart, or babysit someone’s kid, or take care of elderly people when she in fact should also be retiring.
It is so sad to see them have these all kinds of problems and their relatives in the Philippines do not know that. People from other countries, most especially from my country, think that money grows on trees here in America, that the streets are gilded with gold. They think that the money being sent or remitted to them was not hard-earned which is really sad. They don’t know that people here really work hard to earn that money, in Filipino lingo, “dugo’t pawis ang pinanggalingan nyan”.
Well I know , not all Filipinos are hard-up as some that I have mentioned. Maybe some are living pretty comfortable lives here like the Filipina nurses but not all are lucky, not all of our “kababayans” who come here are highly-paid like the nurses. Not all have high-paying jobs.
If you have families, relatives over here, take it easy when you ask for “help” because sometimes some of them cannot afford to help all the time. I am very lucky to say that my family and relatives never ask anything from me, coz they know my situation but not everybody has families like mine. I hear stories from my coworkers when they help a relative, another one will go calling to ask too. And more sad because they are asking for money to buy a cellphone. I think most of us don’t mind helping if someone is really in dire need of it but asking money because one wants to buy the latest cellphone model doesn’t seem fair at all.
So remember , not all Filipinos who live in America are well-off. Take it easy when you ask money from your relatives, especially your aging grandparents, they probably need it more than you do.
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