When you move to a new country to begin your career, this is the #1 rule: working more hours just to make more money is a bad strategy; focus on improving what you earn per hour. Do not be trapped thinking that working four jobs will bring financial liberation. What brings liberation is getting licenses, certifications, education/training, etc that will make one job to outperform four jobs.
The American secret is very simple: as a PhD student in Johns Hopkins, my salary was $36,000 per year, excluding about $60,000/year they paid for my fees and tuition. Excluding the tuition, just being a student, you were making close to $20/hour when minimum wage was less than $10. So, that guy who is in school is matching your two min wage jobs (with $60k credit for his degree and new learning).
If you get a license as a health EHR staff, you can get a 30% increase in wage. And that license can just take you two weeks of study. Because the American labour market is not designed like the way we have it in Africa, only you can move yourself up. Yes, you can be employed as a receptionist and retire as one after 40 years. But you can decide to upgrade and move within the same company. (In Nigeria, after every 4-5 years, people are batched based on length of experience and promoted in the public sector. In US, there is nothing like that.)
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Understand that you can earn more money than the person you report to. It is very common in our semiconductor industry. Being an operational supervisor does not mean you make more money!
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