Questions/Concerns you wished you had discussed before they got here

[morocco4ever 63]

I will finalize by saying no amount of talking/prepping will fully prepare someone for life here. All we can do is try to work together to make the best of the situation. Also, I would recommend recording the conversations about life here so they can't come back and say they weren't warned.

Amen to that!

I'm not sure that talking about it would have done any good, but I wish he had come here with a better understanding of how things can follow you here until the day you die. Parking/speeding tickets, your credit score, etc. These things just don't go away because you don't deal with them, and you can't pay someone off to make it disappear at a discount. And they can really affect your life down the road. If you don't pay your speeding ticket they WILL take away your license. If you lmake late payments on your credit card you WILL have problems securing low-cost credit in the future. They don't mess around with that stuff over here. Although it might not seem like it sometimes, the systems we have in place to track these sorts of things are superior to what they have in Morocco, and even many places in Europe.

Credit rating is something that I stressed to my husband. He didn't realize the importance of it until we checked on the interest on a loan me vs him. He couldn't even get a loan! I had to explain to him that this is because he was invisible to the credit bureau. So to build his credit we got him one of those easy to get credit cards with a low limit. He charges much of our purchases on it and we pay it off immediately. His limit is now increasing slowly. The problem that he doesn't understand still is that he thinks that by doing this for a few months he should have a great credit rating, and can now get a great loan. Patience isn't his strong point...lol

As for the snow, I had warned my husband about how cold it gets here, and how deep the snow can be. The timing of his arrival was impeccable. He rested the first day, which was a Friday. Then Saturday morning I woke up to one of those snow storms of the year. I grabbed a snow shovel, his coat and gloves, took it into the bedroom to wake him up and yelled out "Welcome to the US". OMG I can't tell you how funny it was to see how wide his eyes got when he saw how much snow there was. We went out together and shoveled, and of course got plenty of pictures to show his family. He didn't make it through the entire driveway and sidewalk before he felt like a popsicle, so I finished. I guess I am used to it.

[doodlebugg 10]

If you lmake late payments on your credit card you WILL have problems securing low-cost credit in the future.

funny story. Usama got his first credit card a few months back. I showed him how to make his payments online and then I was done with it. I didn't hold his hand for this and I guess I should have because he got a late payment notice! I was like how the heck did you do that I thought you were paying this bill! Turns out say the next bill is due on 10/10/09 right, he'd pay three times from now until then thinking he's paid three months worth. rofl. Never thought of THAT one!

[ya falaha! 0]

Doh! It's an understandable mistake.

The mister doesn't have any credit cards...yet. I'm hoping it stays that way for awhile. He sees how much trouble they can be.

If you lmake late payments on your credit card you WILL have problems securing low-cost credit in the future.

funny story. Usama got his first credit card a few months back. I showed him how to make his payments online and then I was done with it. I didn't hold his hand for this and I guess I should have because he got a late payment notice! I was like how the heck did you do that I thought you were paying this bill! Turns out say the next bill is due on 10/10/09 right, he'd pay three times from now until then thinking he's paid three months worth. rofl. Never thought of THAT one!

[LaL 418]

As for the snow, I had warned my husband about how cold it gets here, and how deep the snow can be. The timing of his arrival was impeccable. He rested the first day, which was a Friday. Then Saturday morning I woke up to one of those snow storms of the year. I grabbed a snow shovel, his coat and gloves, took it into the bedroom to wake him up and yelled out "Welcome to the US". OMG I can't tell you how funny it was to see how wide his eyes got when he saw how much snow there was. We went out together and shoveled, and of course got plenty of pictures to show his family. He didn't make it through the entire driveway and sidewalk before he felt like a popsicle, so I finished. I guess I am used to it.

[ya falaha! 0]

Bad, mean wife!!!!

As for the snow, I had warned my husband about how cold it gets here, and how deep the snow can be. The timing of his arrival was impeccable. He rested the first day, which was a Friday. Then Saturday morning I woke up to one of those snow storms of the year. I grabbed a snow shovel, his coat and gloves, took it into the bedroom to wake him up and yelled out "Welcome to the US". OMG I can't tell you how funny it was to see how wide his eyes got when he saw how much snow there was. We went out together and shoveled, and of course got plenty of pictures to show his family. He didn't make it through the entire driveway and sidewalk before he felt like a popsicle, so I finished. I guess I am used to it.

[morocco4ever 63]

Bad, mean wife!!!!

As for the snow, I had warned my husband about how cold it gets here, and how deep the snow can be. The timing of his arrival was impeccable. He rested the first day, which was a Friday. Then Saturday morning I woke up to one of those snow storms of the year. I grabbed a snow shovel, his coat and gloves, took it into the bedroom to wake him up and yelled out "Welcome to the US". OMG I can't tell you how funny it was to see how wide his eyes got when he saw how much snow there was. We went out together and shoveled, and of course got plenty of pictures to show his family. He didn't make it through the entire driveway and sidewalk before he felt like a popsicle, so I finished. I guess I am used to it.

Who me?

[S and S 12]

My husband just got his first debit card. I want him to get used to that first, but he already understands how the credit system works here as I talked about it a lot before he came. Credit cards still scare him though, so he likes the idea of easing into it.