How Immigrants Can Push Past Scarcity and Adopt a Healthy Money Mindset Yehdega Tedros

Intro

As immigrants, having no money in an unfamiliar place is a common fear that we constantly wrestle with as we are far away from our comfort zones and because we are still trying to get used to the environment and the new community that we found in our new home country,

And if you're a second gen immigrant, you probably know how strict parents can be when it comes to money. Growing up, you have to ask them for money for the things you need, and also, for the things you want, and they get to decide whether it's worth spending money on.

In other words, they do all the budgeting on our behalf.

While we all know that this comes from a good place, it unintentionally ingrains in us a scarcity mindset which would later affect our spending habits and financial decisions in our adult life.

And because of this, we may find ourselves becoming financially insecure individuals and lacking confidence in investing and budgeting our own money even if we have reached financial stability and are doing well in our careers.

Or perhaps, just like in Yehdega's case – our guest for today – choosing a career path you do not love in exchange for financial stability.

In this episode, Yehdega shares her experience as a second gen immigrant growing up in Germany, and how Germans teach their kids how to budget their money from a young age. Fun fact: it involves ice cream.

She also talks about how to outgrow this scarcity mindset and shares some money mantras that will help you develop a healthy mindset around money.

Guest Bio

Yehdega Tedros is a User Operations Analyst at Asana, and is also the host of The Idea Of Us, a podcast show that highlights good by interviewing great minds and learning best practices. She is also a proud Eritrean who grew up in Frankfurt, Germany. She currently resides in the US with her husband.

Key Takeaways

How Yehdega deals with conversations around racism as a teenager [06:45]

Navigating social life and cultural differences during your teenage years [09:08]

How the scarcity mindset can affect your career choices – and happiness [12:49]

Affluence does not equal happiness [14:39]

Breaking out of the scarcity mindset to be successful [17:31]

“Playing it safe is almost like playing it unsafe” (when it comes to money) [22:02]

The German way of teaching kids how to budget their own money [26:13]

Money mantras that can help immigrants break away from scarcity mindset and budget their money better [26:13]

Yehdega’s advice for immigrants who feel like they’re outsiders in their own country [38:12]

Dealing with rejection in the midst of finding a community [40:15]

Quotes

“Growing up, we already have a lot of question marks anyways. And if someone questions something as important as your purpose or your career path, that makes us a little bit scared to do the things that are right for ourselves.” [18:25]

“I believe that success comes from when you truly do what you want to do in life. We should be aligned with ourselves to make the decisions that serve us at the end.” [19:28]

“Money is the foundation of a lot of things. And it doesn't solve everything, but it solves a lot.” [29:25]

“I think the value of money depends on what we do with it. If I do something good with it, it becomes good, but it's technically neutral.” [32:10]

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