What You Can Learn From Immigrants on Personal Finance and Running Your Home

My parents emigrated from Italy in the early to mid 1970′s.  My father has the equivalent of a technical high school education and my mother finished her formal education in the 7th grade.  Yet my parents are one of the most financially savvy couples I know, often making smarter economic decisions then their US-born Boomer peers (with BAs and Master’s Degrees in hand).  How do they do it, here’s a quick list:

• My parents spend much less then they make and live below their means. 
• My parents do not eat out regularly, go to the movies, or buy fancy cars.
• My parents are incredibly crafty and skilled: they can make their own home repairs, make their own food (including food from scratch and canned tomato sauce, pickled vegetables, homemade pasta, homemade wine, etc.), iron and repair their clothes, grow their own fruits and vegetables, landscape, etc.
• My parents are always saving
• My parents are not slaves to their paycheck, they have other forms of income.
• My parents own a two-family home and are landlords
• My parents do not panic and are level-headed about financial decisions and the economy, in general.
• My parents own a single car
• My parents live in a solid, blue collar, middle class neighborhood, in a comfortable but mid-sized home.
• My parents do not feel a sense of entitlement from a material perspective. 

Mom and Dad also have their financial house in order because they realize that life is about being fulfilled and fulfillment doesn’t come via a big screen TV or a fancy vacation home, it comes by way of:

• Being with family and friends (my parents social network is very larger and they’re always out visiting people or having folks over for dinner or espresso).
• Traveling and vacationing in smart ways (my parents visit their families in Italy every summer and they don’t pay for restaurants, hotel, or souvenirs).
• Helping their immediate family (kids, brothers, fathers, etc.) with home renovation, home health care, decision making, etc.

So, if you’re looking for your own personal finance bail out program just look at the habits of folks who didn’t start with much and had to build wealth on their own terms.