Good Habits with Money - US version
We are currently developing a US version of our successful "Good Habits with Money" course. The main topics remain the same: it teaches migrant workers to calculate their financial situation, set up short and long term goals, save for them, make a budget, decide on priorities, get out of debt, control their expenses and deal with family pressure.
But Good Habits with Money was originally developed for Hong Kong migrant workers and takes into account their financial specificities and training needs. The table below gives some insights on what and why we adapted:
| Topics | Hong Kong | USA | Impact on training |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Domestic Workers have a fixed income; they are not allowed to have a second job. | In pre-course interviews, Migrants stress that getting an income is their number one worry. | no part on income in the HK version; a part on getting a job and the types of Federal and State financial help migrants can get in the US version. |
| Expenses | Some expenses are covered by the employer (food allowance, housing, basic insurance...). Hong Kong offers many shopping opportunities. | Some expenses are new to some Migrants (car, insurance, health...). | Examples take into account relevant expenses for each country. Both deal with the attraction of abundant offers of goods. The US version of "needs/wants" deals with expenses such as health and insurance and insists more on fixed/variable expenses and yearly commitments. |
| Payment type | Most Domestic Workers use cash. A non negligeable part of them do not have a bank account. | A first survey showed us that many Migrants had a bank account. The pressure to get a credit card is high. | In both training we introduce the benefits of having a bank account and one of our games include reading a bank statement. In the US version, the module on debt has several activities on credit card debt, interest and credit record. |
| Remittance | Most Domestic Workers regularly send money to support their families back home | Situations are more varied: some Migrants send remittances and some don't. Most live with their families and a common issue is the level of expenses of the family (eating out, leisure...). | Several activities focus on managing families' expenses, how to deal with families' pressure and expectations, how to set a constructive dialogue about money matters. The US version focuses more on how to talk about money to one's spouse and children. |
| Goals | Domestic Workers do not settle for ever in Hong Kong. | Migrants settle in the US. | In the HK version and its follow up (Good Planning) we talk about preparing Migrants' come back to their home country. The US version includes goals such as buying a house in the US. |
Another challenge is the language: we work with not for profit organisations which offer free English literacy courses to Migrants, which implies that their level of English varies a lot and many of them have not mastered yet the specific financial vocabulary used in the US. So word building and review is an important part of the training. We are developing three levels:
- Beginner level: simple topics (needs and wants, importance of saving, how a credit card works, what is insurance, reading a pay slip...) are taught mainly through pictures and basic vocabulary,
- Intermediate level: we still use lots of pictures but exercises also include simple sentences (Subject/verb in present tense/complement) and encourage participants to discuss and we keep drilling on words.
- Advanced level: we use fewer pictures, more complex sentences and calculations and more real life document samples with complex vocabulary.
Format:
Three versions according to the level of English of participants.
Learning objectives:
- Assess one’s financial position
- Set financial goals and determine saving needs accordingly
- Deal with financial family issues
- Develop a financial plan to manage household expenditures, decrease debt and increase savings
- Track and monitor expenses in order to reach one’s goals
Training Methods:
The training consists of 6 independent modules with lots of visuals and a story (Sam and his family).
Lively exercises are done in teams or individually depending on the size of the group. Each exercise is related to the issues raised in the story and is as practical and realistic as possible. Exercises are corrected during the training.
The participants are given a handout with a course summary and a glossary of terms in English.