With four children depending on her, Jihan, 37, feels the pressure to make every paycheck count. But, for a long time, building a cushion for her family seemed financially impossible.
“I used to think that in order to save, you have to make so much more money,” Jihan said.
Jihan lives at Miraflores, a National CORE affordable housing community, and works as an English language teacher and interpreter. When she saw a flyer for Hope through Housing’s Money Match program, she challenged herself to save $200 a month.
Money Match provides a one-to-one savings match of up to $1,200 over six months. Participants attend monthly online financial coaching sessions with Chase Bank and receive guidance and regular check-ins from Hope through Housing’s Pathways to Economic Empowerment team.
For Jihan, that support began with putting her income and expenses on paper. She identified forgotten subscriptions, canceled streaming services her family rarely used and began taking occasional jobs after recognizing how an additional $100 or $150 could contribute to her savings.
To curb online shopping, Jihan began withdrawing most of each paycheck as cash, leaving only enough in her bank account to cover bills. Buying something online meant making a trip to deposit cash, giving her time to reconsider the purchase. “I discovered that much of what I was buying were things that I didn’t really need,” Jihan said.
Over six months, Jihan saved $1,200. With an equal match through Money Match, she completed the program with $2,400. Her new goal is to build an emergency fund capable of covering three months of expenses so her family can manage if she is unable to work.
The financial coaching sessions also helped her consider a longer-term goal: buying a home. Learning about down payment resources and the homebuying process helped her see a possibility she had once considered out of reach.
“I know to some people $200 a month might not be a lot, but it was big enough to make a change in our life,” Jihan said.
