[4] For example, a Black professional may earn a desirable income, but may have expenses that do not appear in the household budgets of people from more individualistic cultures, such as paying for the basic needs of a parent or other family member who is unable to afford healthcare, housing, heat, or other essentials.
Africans who have moved abroad also experience a very high level of pressure because their families have unrealistic expectations about their income compared to the cost of living in a wealthier country.
[9] Other causes are structural, such as historical loss of land ownership during European colonization of Africa and the inability of corrupt or impoverished governments to provide tuition-free schools or guaranteed pensions.
[9] These expenses mean that a Black professional with poorer relatives or with greater amounts of debt is unable to save as much money as another person at a similar income level who does not have the same familial financial pressures.
[8] Caring for these struggling relatives raises the quality of life for the family members they help, but it does so at the cost of reducing their own individual savings for buying a home or for retirement, and it perpetuates the inequality of wealth.