Ep 01: Coming to America: How We Get Here
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A light-hearted episode, of the “International Money Café Podcast". Listen in as Manasa Nadig, EA, and Jane Mepham, CFP® describe their incredible journeys to the U.S. from different continents.
They discuss why they chose to move thousands of miles from their homes to a new land and become foreign nationals on different immigrant and non-immigrant visas, the initial challenges they faced (snow anyone?), things they found stressful, as well as some of the delights of being able to look at old ideas through new lenses.
Learn how they have adapted, and the financial, tax, and life lessons they have for all foreign-born families arriving in the U.S. for the first time.
The views and opinions are those of the speakers, and should not be considered financial, tax, or legal advice. Consult your advisor for any legal, cross-border tax, and financial advice.
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Jane Mepham, CFP (00:02.454)
friends, welcome to another episode of the International Money Cafe Podcast. So Manasa and I have been having really interesting conversations and Manasa, last night I watched the movie Coming to America, where Eddie Murphy comes to America from Africa. And the one thing I kept thinking is I'm not from that part of.
Africa where Eddie Murphy comes from but anyway that's besides the point and so I thought it would be really interesting if today we could talk about our journeys to America I'm really keen to hear your story Manasa what you said
Manasa Nadig (00:42.254)
Oh yeah, my story is definitely not the same as Eddie Murphy's in that movie. So yeah, this is, I mean, it's always interesting to hear about different immigrants, foreign born nationals who came to the US and what their story was. And definitely the background behind our move to the US was
Jane Mepham, CFP (00:47.09)
Hahaha
Jane Mepham, CFP (01:09.76)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (01:11.07)
My husband got a postdoctoral fellowship in Baltimore, Maryland. And just before that, we had recently got married. So, yeah, so he was going to come here and I joined him a little bit after. And, you know, that's how we started our life together in the U S as a newly married couple. And.
It was sort of a honeymoon slash you're migrating to a new country slash getting to know each other. So there was a whole, yeah, there's a whole lot of new experiences, not just one. So it was interesting. What about you, Jane?
Jane Mepham, CFP (01:44.604)
I love it. Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (02:03.334)
I have to say that's a great story of starting life together where you're moving to a new place. Mine was a little different than that. So I grew up in Kenya. I went to school there all the way through high school. In
I was really keen on traveling and I'd seen my dad travel quite a bit. And I remember I used to do some things around tennis and so I used to kind of travel a little bit. And at one point I thought, you know what, I think I want to pursue the American dream that everybody talks about. And that's how I ended up, you know, my whole family helped me, but getting on a plane with a one way ticket on an F1 visa.
Boston and the thing I remember is it was very different to see the list from where I was coming from.
And I came in as an F1 student, which is probably why I'm really passionate about talking to students on F1 visas. So I arrived, went to school. Obviously it's a multi-year journey and I'm happy to talk a little bit about it. And at some point I ended up getting on a work visa and here we are, obviously lots and lots in there. But um.
Manasa Nadig (03:00.974)
course.
Manasa Nadig (03:26.24)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (03:26.694)
It's the very specific things that I remember. So for example, the people that I met as I came in, and some of those people have really made a huge impact on my life, and I'm still in touch with some of them. But it's almost like, as you say, having a brand new canvas and really trying to figure out how do I make it in this new place? How do I figure out? We spoke English, which is good, but it sounded
different. Let's just put it that way from the way everybody else spoke. I had to get used to the food also tasted different and that's all I'm gonna say. The money was completely different. The financial system was different. And so it really was a journey in starting to figure out my new way of life. But the one thing I knew and this is what I like to call the immigrant mindset is
Manasa Nadig (03:57.569)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (04:07.084)
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (04:22.018)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (04:22.186)
we're here, we're going to make it. We've come so far, there's no way we're turning back. So I'm curious, can you think of like your early days, any, any things that kind of seek out to you? Any stories?
Manasa Nadig (04:29.282)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (04:37.91)
Deaf, yes, of course. I have so many vivid memories of my first few years in America. Yes, so yeah, just like you said, there's so many cultural differences. My husband and I, we came from India, and you're right. We speak English. The English that we speak in India, of course, has...
Jane Mepham, CFP (04:47.378)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (04:55.828)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (05:07.238)
a British influence, so the syntax and the grammar, everything was different. And, yeah, and, you know, when I came here, obviously, in the beginning, I was, I followed my husband. So really, I was following his American dream of coming to the US. Yes, but when you come here, and it, and it so happens with a lot of other
Jane Mepham, CFP (05:09.55)
Mm-hmm. Right, right.
Jane Mepham, CFP (05:24.868)
Right, right, that's true.
Manasa Nadig (05:34.646)
women, you know, who come to the US and then they are on dependent visas. I was on a J2 visa. My husband was on J1, which is usually given to researchers and students and so on. So it was interesting. The J2 visa had an ability to where you could go and you could work. So that gave that right off the bat gave me the freedom to
go out and find a job. So it was definitely an advantage. And that kind of opened up a lot of different experiences for me. Of course, food, the culture, and all of that is, you read about what it's like. And you have seen movies, to your point earlier about this particular movie about
Jane Mepham, CFP (06:07.338)
Mmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (06:18.695)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (06:30.866)
True. Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (06:33.298)
Eddie Murphy. But of course, you know, I mean, then you do land here. It's not the same thing. It's totally different. And what your individual experiences is completely new. And it's, it's nice. And one specific thing that I remembered, and it's so, and it's, you know what, though, we have, we must tell our listeners this, it's kind of poignant.
that we were talking about this earlier, right? Like we're recording this episode on July 4th, and which is, and then, yeah. So yeah, I landed in mid-June in Maryland and it was kind of a muggy afternoon and all of these images that I had in my head from movies and reading and all of that was like America.
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:01.643)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:05.15)
Yes!
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:19.922)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (07:23.626)
was snow, it was cold, there were people in long fur coats and things like that. And then here I was, and the weather was exactly the same as where I had come from. There was thunder and lightning and there was rain. So, but yeah, that's one thing that really sticks out in my memory. Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:26.976)
Hahahaha
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:47.575)
So it's interesting you talk about when you landed, so because I was going to school I had to follow the school calendar. So I got here, I think it was around...
Manasa Nadig (07:53.181)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (07:58.966)
probably August, like around August 15th, I remember, and school was starting in two weeks time. And again, you have these very vivid ideas and things of what you've seen, and you come in with expecting to see things play out. You have your own ideas, let's just put it that way. And I think the thing I realized is, once I got here, I landed in Boston, and at that time the weather was fine.
Manasa Nadig (08:22.176)
Yes.
Jane Mepham, CFP (08:29.26)
The people were very, very different. Again, I'm coming into a situation where I've grown up in a completely different culture. So my values are already set. The way I think about things is already set. But I also have this huge hunger to learn more. And again, I'm looking at this like this is my one shot at making it in life. This is my opportunity to pursue the American dream. So I'm coming in with all these ideas, but also very, very determined.
Manasa Nadig (08:37.923)
Hmm?
Manasa Nadig (08:42.135)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (08:45.889)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (08:58.84)
And the thing I realized, oh, I learn almost right away, as long as you're very determined and you're willing to talk to people, you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone to ask questions. You do get help. So when I look back and people say to me, what are the three things, or what are some of the things you'd advise, for example, somebody coming in on a student visa to do? So the first thing I say to them is,
Manasa Nadig (09:25.928)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (09:28.86)
in about the student visa. So there's obviously very specific requirements. You need to stay in status. You can't work without special permission, but you can pursue the OPT, that kind of thing. So that's the first thing I say to FoxLine, everything you can about this visa. And it's the same thing I say to advisors. If you're working with people that are on any visa, whatever that visa is, make sure you know everything about that visa. What can they do?
Manasa Nadig (09:32.301)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (09:39.38)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (09:42.958)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (09:58.76)
not do. And then secondly I say I know it's really comforting to want to be around people that want to speak your language and where you make a joke and they get it right away and they're all these jokes with some times tail that sounds so much better when spoken in your home language.
Manasa Nadig (10:14.776)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (10:21.93)
But despite all that and despite all that comfort, I said to folks, please try and get out of that little bubble and move into the community and try and integrate and get to know people around you. Because the thing I realized is as a people, we are always very afraid of what we don't know. And so one way to make sure, you know, the people that,
Manasa Nadig (10:22.337)
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (10:29.175)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (10:42.583)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (10:45.898)
around you, the community know you is by you going out and getting out into the community. Again, it's very comforting to be in your own bubble and it's okay and it's fine and we should do it. But you really should try and move out into the community, learn how they do things. You kind of start to pick up on how people think and some of it you just have to observe, observe the culture, the way people interact with each other.
Manasa Nadig (10:55.564)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (11:10.913)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (11:13.866)
And that way you do actually have a chance to succeed regardless of whatever visa you're on. So when you look back on like your early life and you kind of had to go back to you've just arrived, what would you tell your younger self in terms of like the visa and just getting on and getting used to the American life?
Manasa Nadig (11:22.54)
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (11:39.939)
Oh, there's so much I can tell my younger self. But I should have done and I should have not done. But when I think back, really, you're right. It is very important to get out of your comfort zone and go out and talk to people, which is kind of...
Jane Mepham, CFP (11:43.322)
Sure.
Jane Mepham, CFP (11:49.382)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (12:05.922)
The one is that gives you an opportunity to get out. And what I found as a personal anecdote is when I realized that I had come here, what do I do next? I had the opportunity to have a work visa. The first thing I did was go to the nearest university and go to the library.
Jane Mepham, CFP (12:10.846)
True. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Manasa Nadig (12:36.35)
this is, and say, hey, speak to the library over there and say, and I asked her, I said, I have just arrived here and what are my options, what can I do? So she suggested, and this was just totally new to me at that time, was she suggested, why don't you volunteer here in the library, you know, just volunteer for a few days a week.
and a few hours a week, sorry, and see what you explore, talk to people, take the time to find out what you would like to learn more about, and what's a better place than to learn about things and read up stuff than the library, right? And so that was something that really opened up my mind. But just to give you a quick background, of course, like I said,
my husband and I are from India. When I was growing up in India, I lived in a lot of different places growing up within India. You know, my father had this job where we moved from one place to another. And so I already had this kind of mindset where I would be thrust into new situations and new cities and new friends and new people every so often, you know. So...
That was something that I think like I have, it was a mindset that was already inculcated in me growing up. So for me, just going out and talking to new people and making sure that I was understood, even though I knew that my English sounded different a little bit, but not so much I felt. Especially because we lived in a university town at that time and people over there kind of used to having people.
you know, students come from many different countries. So that was, that was of course one thing that I did was to go out and volunteer. And once I got out and started talking to people and getting these different information from what I could do, I realized that, you know, this like said, a J2 visa was the one where you could work.
Manasa Nadig (14:56.518)
So it opened up opportunities for me. I applied for a job and I did start working. Did I answer your question?
Jane Mepham, CFP (15:06.882)
You did. So it's going back. The person that you spoke with the library told you to volunteer and you did. And that really gave you opportunities to kind of explore other areas. But it sounds like you already had the mindset. So if you had to go back, you'd say, keep that same mindset, right? Be willing to explore and be willing to look at all the opportunities around you. So I keep thinking,
Manasa Nadig (15:21.548)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (15:27.442)
Yes, yes, yes.
Manasa Nadig (15:34.529)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (15:36.336)
here to your point, people will come in and say, how do you move from your family thousands of miles and come into a new place and, and they kind of try and look at it through their eyes. And they'll be like, I don't think I can ever do this. I don't know how you do it. How do you answer that question?
Manasa Nadig (15:56.702)
Yeah, that is always very difficult. Yeah, it is, you know, getting out of your comfort zone is one thing, moving to another country is really, really getting out of your comfort zone, but that is a huge step. There will be, I was homesick, I have to confess. And I think that...
Jane Mepham, CFP (16:13.13)
Right, right.
Manasa Nadig (16:24.398)
Back then, international phone calls were very expensive. And it is different now. Communication is almost free. It's almost taken for granted. It's not a big deal to open up your WhatsApp or your FaceTime and you can talk to your parents and your family back home. But the important thing is,
once you are out of your comfort zone is to have a goal of what you need to achieve in the next few years really going back to your question about what I would tell my younger self I think that's what I would tell my younger self is have a plan you know it of course this plan is going to have
be affected by other things. It would be affected by your visa status, about the kind of employment that you might get and whether you get married, who you get married to, or you don't, you choose not to marry, or you choose to go back to your country in a few years. These are all options that are open now, of course, but it is important to have a goal.
to know where you're going and work towards that. What do you think?
Jane Mepham, CFP (17:57.138)
Yeah, so the first thing I say to folks is it's hard. And I'll be the first one to acknowledge it's hard, you're leaving family to your point. Initially at that point, we didn't even know when we'd see them again. So yeah, it is hard, there's no doubt about it. And so when I talk to people, I'll say, yes, it's hard, and it's going to be hard. So the question is, how do we manage that with what we're trying to achieve? And so I go back to my parents sent me to the US, they made all the sacrifices
Manasa Nadig (18:05.167)
Mm-hmm. I agree. I agree.
Manasa Nadig (18:11.82)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (18:27.032)
that they did. My whole village helped to send me to the US because they had a vision. They knew if I came to the US, I will be able to pursue my higher education, be able to get a great job and really have a great life for my kids. And so I keep that in mind. And when I started out, like I said, I learned everything I could about the F1 visa and I learned what I needed to do to stay in the country, which was to get the H1B and then
Manasa Nadig (18:34.754)
Hmm.
Manasa Nadig (18:52.471)
Mmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (18:57.892)
and I focused and when I say focus I mean I drew up a plan that would allow me to get to the end point as fast as possible so for example with the with the F1 visa thing I ended up finding I was able to connect with this professor who became my advisor and I had to go to school to ask for a different advisor by the way the first one they gave me we just didn't do too well together so I
Manasa Nadig (19:03.842)
Hmm
Manasa Nadig (19:23.808)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (19:27.032)
I need somebody that will believe in my dream of I want to complete this program in as short as a time as possible. And so they connected me with this computer science professor, God bless her. And when I told her what I wanted to achieve, she looked at me and said, if you're willing to work, Jane, we can do it. It meant drawing up a two or three year program where I'll be able to take so many classes and be able to do some practicals in there and that sort of thing.
Manasa Nadig (19:31.214)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (19:35.831)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (19:41.191)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (19:47.235)
Hmm
Jane Mepham, CFP (19:56.792)
And the fact that she believed in me convinced me it's doable. It's the thing I like to talk about and I call it my prime directive, like from Star Trek. What is that one thing that you're going to pursue and pursue with everything that you have and not let anything else come in the way. And for me, those first couple of years was, I need to get this degree done. I need to get my OPT. I need to get a company that's going to look at me and look at other
Manasa Nadig (20:02.102)
Mmm.
Manasa Nadig (20:13.431)
Yes.
Jane Mepham, CFP (20:25.154)
students knowing I need the H1B visa and hire me and then be willing to get me my green card. It was that simple to me and that straight. And so with that framework, it's easy to say, I mean, it's, it's easy to kind of start moving forward saying, I know I'm going to miss my family. I know it's going to be hard, but this is the goal that I want to achieve. And so as long as you're working towards that goal, I find it gets a little bit easier knowing
Manasa Nadig (20:31.326)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (20:37.268)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (20:55.048)
have something that you want to achieve. And what I say to folks is it's only for a short period of time, you know, focus, get your H1B, get whatever else that you need, and then you'll be free to kind of move around and do, you know, whatever you need. So I think the focus, we miss the families, it's tough, we focus on our dream, and then be very, very patient for sure. Yeah. The other thing.
Manasa Nadig (21:02.68)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (21:17.28)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Tell me, tell me.
Jane Mepham, CFP (21:24.782)
Sorry, I was going to add as it's around the focus. So there's a focus. There's a focusing on the dream and going after it. And then the patients. Sorry, the other thing I was going to throw out is there's so many opportunities in this country, but you have to be willing to see them. OK, back to you.
Manasa Nadig (21:46.154)
No, I totally agree with that. And the opportunities are available. Or you find out about the opportunities that are available to you if you go out and you meet people, you talk to them, you're willing to. Again, coming back to square one is getting out of your comfort zone a little bit. And especially for a lot of people
you know, those like me who either came here because, you know, their spouse moved here first, or, you know, there was, there are other reasons why you've come to the US. You may not be a student or a spouse of a student or a researcher or a H1B worker, but the important thing is to get out of your comfort zone, to go out there, meet people, talk to them.
Jane Mepham, CFP (22:20.35)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (22:42.366)
Most people are really friendly, I find, and yeah, and are willing to help you. So that's what I agree with you. But just moving things a little to a different topic. Now, I'm interested that you came here, you were on an FN visa and you studied computer science, but then...
Jane Mepham, CFP (22:45.398)
True.
Jane Mepham, CFP (23:00.918)
Sure.
Manasa Nadig (23:10.83)
tell us how did you become a certified financial planner? And well, because that's how we met, right? Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (23:20.154)
That is true and this is probably going to be another episode. So I'm going to give you the very high level version of it. So I come in, you're right. I get my H1B visa and this company hires me and it was great. And the HR person says to me, Hey Jane, here's this thing that you need to use. To save for your future. And I'm like, and what is this thing? It's, it's, um, it's called a 401k.
Manasa Nadig (23:25.431)
Yeah.
Of course. Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (23:37.09)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (23:49.728)
you build your American dream. And I sat there frozen literally because I had no idea what a 401k is. But secondly, she just said to me, this is your key to the American dream. This is the thing that I've been pursuing and I've no idea what to do with it. And I looked at it and I asked around and I could not get anybody to tell me. They could maybe show me how to open it, but nobody could tell me how to
Manasa Nadig (23:53.528)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (24:19.608)
investments to go into what investments I could even go into how much to put in and Really as an F1 as an H1B visa holder what I could invest in or not and Walking away from that. It was this huge weight of I've come so far
Manasa Nadig (24:33.302)
Mmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (24:38.578)
I'm so close, but I think I'm just about to lose it. And really that's what prompted me to say, I'm going to learn everything I can about the U S financial system. So the next person in my situation gets this opportunity. They'll know exactly what to do. And really that's what has led me to being, I like to describe myself as the guide that I wish that I had had. And so of course,
Manasa Nadig (24:43.815)
Mmm
Manasa Nadig (24:53.25)
Mm-hmm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (25:08.472)
From there, it's many years I had to stay on the H-1B visa, get the green card, and then become a citizen before I could make the pivot. But once I did, and I used to live in Boston, and then it got too cold out there, so we moved to Austin. I found myself a couple of years ago saying, what is it that I want to do when I grow up? I realized when I started on that whole 401k story, I pretty much read every,
Manasa Nadig (25:08.999)
Mm-hmm
Manasa Nadig (25:19.136)
Mm.
Jane Mepham, CFP (25:38.392)
thing I could on personal finance. I subscribed to Money Magazine. I got all the Dave Ramsey books. I got all of them, Susie, pretty much every personal finance book that you can think of. And I actually started teaching personal finance classes at my church and talking to different people about it. And so when I finally had the opportunity, it hit me, people are coming to me to ask questions on what to do.
Manasa Nadig (25:53.804)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (26:08.312)
And these were not just American, I mean, these were not foreign born families. These were American citizens asking me, how do we go about this? And of course, any minute, any chance I would get out, talk and talk and talk and talk about money. And so yeah, a few years ago, I made the pivot. I went back to school. I decided to quit the whole tech career, which I really enjoyed. Don't get me wrong, but really be able to make the shift to help those who would have been in my situation.
Manasa Nadig (26:23.811)
Ha ha!
Manasa Nadig (26:33.576)
Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (26:38.232)
a couple years ago, I did my CFP and we can talk about that maybe in a next episode and ended up getting certified and ended up starting the firm, Elgon Financial Advisors, is the kind of firm that I'd have wanted to have or to work with because I'm very niched or niched depending on where you went to school. And I wanted a firm that would only work with foreign born families.
Manasa Nadig (26:59.454)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm. Yeah.
Jane Mepham, CFP (27:08.252)
we end up here today. Again, I'm happy to, I think we should do like a whole episode on that side of things. Um, yeah, yeah. So, so yeah, give us like a overview of how you go from J1 to owning your own business, doing taxes for foreign-born families.
Manasa Nadig (27:08.544)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (27:16.411)
Absolutely, yeah that'll be interesting, yes.
Manasa Nadig (27:29.122)
Hehehe
Manasa Nadig (27:33.098)
I know. Seems like a daunting journey, but it happened. So yeah, I was on a J2 visa and working. And then the big 2000 pivot happened. There was people, the IT world was going nuts about things. Yeah, the Y2K.
Jane Mepham, CFP (27:57.302)
Yes, yes.
Manasa Nadig (28:02.346)
And I guess we date ourselves, but you know what? Yeah, it's fine. Till the Y2K pivot was happening and everybody around me was getting on the IT wagon, bandwagon, but my educational background back in India was my bachelor's wasn't accounting and business. So I'd already studied a lot of accounting, of business strategy, economics.
Jane Mepham, CFP (28:07.345)
It was fun.
Manasa Nadig (28:31.314)
law and that was my background and that was something that of course I didn't want to be an accountant when I was a little girl but that at what I had you know chosen as my career back then and I had been working on my training to be a chartered accountant which is similar to a CPA in the US and so when I came here and I saw that
Jane Mepham, CFP (28:56.347)
Okay.
Manasa Nadig (29:00.166)
I had this opportunity to go out and work. And all our ducks were now lined up where I could go out and work. And I thought about it a lot. And I decided that accounting was something that I wanted to keep pursuing. And I didn't want to move away from it. Although, of course, you need to be tech savvy to learn a lot of things. Everything has that component, which
Jane Mepham, CFP (29:24.95)
Sure.
Manasa Nadig (29:29.714)
you know, get a lot of training on. But I stuck to this and I started working for one of the big box firms back in the day. And I realized that, you know, but though I let me backtrack a little bit, similar to your story though, when you said that, you know, you were reading up on finance and money, and there were a lot of people who were coming to you with questions about what is this and how
Jane Mepham, CFP (29:46.762)
Okay.
Manasa Nadig (30:00.386)
is you were able to help them out because you had read and you had more knowledge and you knew how to help another person who had come from another country navigate some of this retirement questions and other questions. Similarly, when my husband and I, we were initially having to file our taxes, we were on, like I said, we were on a J visa. So a J visa,
Jane Mepham, CFP (30:21.955)
Mmm.
Manasa Nadig (30:27.742)
if you are from India, has special tax treaty components. And the way you file a return based on, you know, your social security taxes and income taxes, et cetera, is different. So when I looked at that, I had to do a bit of reading. And remember, I was volunteering at the library. So I had material that I could go to.
And I started reading up on tax treaties and I realized that there was a lot of nuances to tax filing. And I started, and I filed our own taxes and there were other people who were F1 visa holders around us because we were in a university town and they had all these questions that somehow because I was reading up on all of these different things, I had answers to and I could help them.
Jane Mepham, CFP (30:53.382)
Nice.
Manasa Nadig (31:20.934)
And I say, oh, you know what? You should do this. These are tax deductions that are available to you. And you can, you know, this thing that you, because you are from this country, this tax treaty, this article will apply to you. So move, you know, fast forward a few years when I have to kind of then make a decision about whether I wanted to stay in this field, in this accounting tax field, or.
Jane Mepham, CFP (31:21.43)
Great.
Jane Mepham, CFP (31:35.539)
Right.
Manasa Nadig (31:49.734)
maybe jump the bandwagon and go into IT tech, where it seemed like there was a lot of jobs back then, which is different now, but it was Y2K. So I said, we had a family discussion and we thought, I should stick with what I like to do and what I've already spent all these years gathering my knowledge about. And...
Jane Mepham, CFP (31:58.657)
Mm-hmm. Right, right.
Manasa Nadig (32:17.578)
I started working, I started working with different CPAs and then I started working with this one CPA who said, you're spreading yourself too thin. And yes, like you said, we can have a whole episode on this but she said, you're spreading yourself too thin. You should focus on starting your own practice and using that to, you know.
Jane Mepham, CFP (32:33.755)
I think we should.
Manasa Nadig (32:45.666)
help other people in this niche because I by then had all this experience working with foreign born nationals or US citizens who were naturalized citizens who had assets in different countries and things like that. So I got my enrolled agent license, which is a license from the Internal Revenue Service, rather stringent three part exam that you have to pass. And I...
put up my own shingle and I got into business. I did get a lot of help from the CPA who I was working with at that time. She mentored me and she really supported me. Yes, so yeah, that's my story, Jane.
Jane Mepham, CFP (33:22.606)
Mmm, that's great, that's great.
Jane Mepham, CFP (33:31.21)
So what I love through this story, you starting your farm, me starting my farm is we saw, first of all, we had those challenges, right? And then we knew there was a need because we realized a lot of people had the same challenges and they really had nobody to go to. They couldn't figure it out. And as we keep saying, you can read a bunch of stuff on Google, for example, but to figure out how that applies to you.
Manasa Nadig (33:40.823)
Yes.
Jane Mepham, CFP (34:00.904)
country. This is the tax treaty that applies in my situation. That's the challenge. And that's where when I think about financial planning, it's, we talk about it being customized, but it really is a challenge. So you have all that. And then we have all these people that we talk to and it's really been a journey and they all kind of led us to where we are today, having our coffee and having a chat. So it'll be interesting, I think at some point to talk about all the people that
we've kind of met on our journey and how each of them has impacted us and how each of them has kind of led us closer to our dream which I feel like we are living out today. We started out different fields but here we are.
Manasa Nadig (34:34.935)
Mm-hmm.
Manasa Nadig (34:42.146)
Mm-hmm
Jane Mepham, CFP (34:47.578)
enjoying what we love and helping people, which is so huge. So yeah, I'm excited about coming back to some of that. And so is there anything else you'd like to add in closing? I know there's still more we can talk about, but anything else you want to add to this?
Manasa Nadig (34:48.055)
Yeah.
Manasa Nadig (34:53.954)
guess.
Manasa Nadig (35:07.678)
Not really. I would definitely, I agree with you. It's been a challenging journey. You know, when you go back and you look at it, entrepreneurship has sort of this glamour around it, this aura around this, but what people don't realize is behind the scenes, it's a lot of really, really hard work, especially if you are in a professional kind of capacity, such as you and I, where we spend a lot of time
taking on continuing professional education and things like that. But coming to America, you know, I would definitely like to think that this was an opportunity that kind of for me, like I said, you know, came by through my husband, but I'm glad that I'm here. And I just love, love having my practice like and.
to your point about helping others in this niche because there's so much information out there. And yeah, we are on a podcast talking to people which may sound counterintuitive, but it is important to work with professionals. And I am so glad that you and I are in this space and we are helping people, foreign born nationals and people with, you know,
Jane Mepham, CFP (36:16.985)
I'm sorry.
Manasa Nadig (36:35.994)
requirement to have all this information and we provide them reliable information.
Jane Mepham, CFP (36:46.034)
Yeah, I have to agree with you. It's been a journey I enjoyed. And I think what I'm going to say, we have more to talk about. But in the meantime, if you know of anybody that would appreciate hearing these, please share the podcast with them. This is the International Money Cafe podcast. And you can find us on all the major sites where you listen to your podcasts. So until next time, this is Jane and.
Manasa Nadig (37:14.37)
Manasa here, bye.