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I have a friend from college who grew up here in San Mateo.  We often discuss things like Asian parents and also the ridiculous real estate here on the Peninsula.  He is also a pretty frugal guy who makes a good income.  We often exchange articles about bailouts and real estate and discuss them.  The most hilarious comment I got from him about these articles is, “I want to punch them in the face”.  Here are some examples of folks he wanted to punch in the face.

When CNN featured this gallery of people who went through foreclosure, my friend said to me, “Are we supposed to feel sorry for these people?  I want to punch them in the face, with the exception of the guy that became disabled”.  I thought the most egregious example of a deadbeat out of the four families is the third one here.  This is  a guy that obviously knew that he was walking away as a financial decision.  He actually said that he “landed on his feet in just about every way”.

Here is another guy that my friend would like to punch from the article titled “Mortgage-modification program questioned, protested. “

“The government cannot do anything to make Rafael Aponte’s home affordable.

Aponte has been unemployed for three years since being laid off after 17 years at National Display Co. That is how long he has owned his Northern Liberties rowhouse, now in foreclosure.

Protesting near the National Constitution Center, where a congressional panel yesterday tried to gauge the progress of homeowner-rescue programs, Aponte said his lender had agreed to modify his mortgage, then had withdrawn the offer.

“They said that without a job, how could I pay even that?” Aponte said. “They’re right, but it isn’t fair.” “

I thought that this article was hilarious since the guy admitted that the bank was right that he couldn’t pay, but still complained that it’s unfair.  The article actually went on to say that the mortgage bailout money should have been given directly to the borrowers.  Seriously? I say thank God now that there are banks that are smart enough to deny loans that they know wouldn’t be repaid.  Another precious quote from the above article is the following:

“Getting a homeowner’s DTI [debt-to-income] ratio to 31 percent won’t help the unemployed, since 31 percent of their income is zero,” said Paul Willen, a senior economist and policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

This made me laugh pretty hard, too.  When did you learn that 0 multipled by  anything is 0?

If my friend were to be face to face with these folks, I am sure he wouldn’t actually punch them in the face, even though someone needs to knock some sense into them.  What we are frustrated about is that many of these foreclosees are painted as victims in the media and coddled like innocent babes by the politicians.  Yes, the economy is in the pits right now, and many people are unemployed, but that is not an excuse to throw away personal responsibility.   If the government continues to bully banks into making loans to people who they know have no intention or ability to repay those loans, then this situation will not get better.  Unfortunately, that is still what I am seeing.  The banks are still portrayed as the ultimate villains that aren’t helping enough homeowners in trouble.  The truth of the matter is that a lot of these folks intend to walk away from a vastly depreciated asset anyway, and the modification efforts will just give them a few more months of free housing.

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Today is officially the first day of my 36th week of pregnancy.  Last Tuesday I had another ultrasound to check my baby’s position and size.  According to the ultrasound machine he is 4lbs and 13 ozes plus or minus 12 ozes at 34 weeks and 3 days, and that is an average size for 34 weeks of gestation.  In the next 5 weeks he is supposed to gain 1/2 lb per week on average so hopefully he will be between 6 to 8lbs when he finally comes out.  His head is already down and his feet are jabbing me in the ribs constantly.  I have been keeping my blood sugar in check and it seems that everything is fine.  It seems that this weekend a 19lb baby was born to a diabetic Asian woman in Indonesia, and several people have told me that it’s a good thing that I have kept my blood sugar in check because that baby’s size is due to the extra glucose in the mother’s blood.  I am pretty sure now that my kid will not gain more than 3lbs per week in the next five weeks.

Anyway, the hubby and I took several classes on preparing for childbirth and breastfeeding in the last few weeks at Kaiser.  I think the classes really helped in letting us know what to expect at Kaiser and I was pretty reassured because they do  promote a normal vaginal birth if it is possible. It was also good to know when to go to the hospital and what trouble signs to look for and the classes involved the dads quite a bit.   We have asked our parents how they dealt with our births since we were both the oldest child for them, and to be honest they weren’t super helpful because we were both born in Asian countries decades ago and the procedures were pretty different.  My mom just told me that it hurt a lot and she doesn’t remember much of it, and my dad said that he pedaled my mom to the hospital on a bike with a wagon.   Apparently dads weren’t even allowed in the delivery room and he just remembers that he went home and boiled 8 eggs and brought them to my mom at the hospital after I was born.   My parents also had extremely conflicting advice on what and how much to eat during the pregnancy so I am glad that there was more reliable health education at Kaiser.  In general it seems that people love to give pregnant women advice, and a lot of the times it can be confusing and conflicting.

I am definitely getting more excited about the arrival of the baby now, but I also realize that our lives will change pretty drastically.  In the breastfeeding class we were taught that the baby needs to be fed 8 to 12 times a day in the beginning because their stomachs are puny.  That is definitely more work than I would have expected, but we will deal with it.  The important thing is that we will have to work as a team.  As to finances, I have been asked a few times by acquaintances  if I will be a stay at home mom now that I have a kid.  To be fair, most of these people do not know that I have a fairly well paying job.  The fact of the matter is that we would have to live paycheck to paycheck if we were to live just on the hubby’s income right now, and even though many families do this I don’t feel like I would be comfortable living in that situation because that will definitely create more stress in our family.  I make enough to justify paying for childcare after my leave is finished and our families may also be able to help out from time to time.  Another thing is that we both want to retire early so it makes sense for me to keep my career and earn as much as possible right now.   Some people may think that this is selfish, but I think our marriage is a bit more stable than some others’ just because we are both financially capable  and we have never argued about something like not being able to pay a bill.   I think a financially secure family environment is usually better for a child because a little  kid shouldn’t have to share in the money problems of his parents.    On the other hand,  we will also make sure we don’t spoil our kid with stuff.  We are hoping to perhaps have one of us work from home in a few years and move out of the Bay Area, but that is a long term plan.   We have always wanted a kid, so we will make it work somehow.  Our parents managed to raise us with very little means and send us to college so we should be able to do it too.

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Last year my husband and I bought my in-laws’ home down in Southern California, and so we have been homeowners for 7.5 months now officially.   We have a really nice family living there now and for the most part things have been going smoothly, but there have been a few headaches that we’ve never encountered before.

First, the neighbors next door has completely neglected their backyard.  This isn’t exactly something we could fix because we can’t just jump over their fence, pluck out all the weeds, and clean their green pool.   I have contacted the public health department regarding their pool because you could see the green and brown slosh from SPACE via satellite photos and it can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  I’m not sure if it got cleaned up yet but they did get a ticket from the county.  They also have a couple psycho little dogs that barks day and night because they are probably not being fed.

Next, this weekend our home caretakers called us and told us that the water heater broke and it would cost over $1000 to replace it.   The water heater is over 20 years old so I guess it was its time.  It sprung a leak and damaged the garage’s wall a little bit, too.  We had the money to replace it in our emergency fund, but it was still an unpleasant surprise.  So I started researching a bit into our insurance policy and I read on the internet that this sort of thing is usually covered by home warranty policies.

I do vaguely remember that in escrow last year my inlaws purchased a one year warranty for us, so it is definitely still valid now, but I was at work so I couldn’t dig through my mountain of home-related paperwork to see what company held the policy.  So I called the realtor that took care of the transaction and she told me right away what the warranty company was and the plan number.

I called the warranty company and our insurance company to see what we could do about it, and the warranty company said they would cover the water heater replacement and the insurance company said they would cover water damage on the drywall.  The warranty company sent a plumber within 4 hours of my call and replaced the water heater, and they also checked out the drywall and said it is drying enough that it doesn’t need to be replaced.  Both my hubby and I were very relieved because we didn’t want the family living there to be without hot water for a very long time.  They have been showering in cold water for a couple days now.

It seems that my husband and I are the type of people who are unlucky (or lucky) enough to get the most out of insurances and warranties, so we are considering extending the home warranty when it expires considering that this time it did save us a bunch of money.  So I guess the lesson here is to be aware what your home warranty and insurance covers and does not cover.  If I hadn’t remembered that we had a warranty then we would have paid for the repair out of pocket.  Also, another obvious point is that owning a home is a lot more trouble than just renting.

I definitely do not regret buying the home with the hubby, but I guess things like these make me realize how big of a responsibility it is.    I think we are pretty both realistic about the fact that we will not make money from the house and we simply bought it to keep it in the family.  I do see the house as a backup plan for possible high inflation because we are locked into a 4.875% fixed rate, and there is a possibility that we would move down there.  So as stupid as it sounds, there is definitely a little bit of joy in knowing that after fifteen or so years we will own a piece of real estate free and clear.

Anyway, we are happy the current problem is fixed, and now we are more aware of what to do the next time something like this happens.  I think when we were young our parents took care of a lot of things like these with their homes, and we did not even know or care that much.  Live and learn I guess.

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Today I read an article subtitled “Could Silicon Valley become another Detroit?” Essentially it is a warning from the executives of HP about how the government’s lack of investment in science and technology could spell the doom of America. A senior fellow at HP Labs named Stan Williams saw first hand that countries like India and China are investing billions in research while America is spending billions on bailouts for failed companies. Here is what I have experienced in this matter.

One thing that stuck out to me is that the reporter pointed out in Williams’ lab, “only 18 of the 75 scientists were born in the United States, and 10 of those American-born researchers are over 50 years old; only six are under the age of 35.” My experience in the Valley is that many people who work in high tech are foreign nationals and most of these people are either Chinese or Indian. So where are all the Americans? I think the problem is really quite complex and is a mixture of culture and the basic fact of population. First of all, the popular American culture is not nearly as obsessed with higher education as Asian countries like China, India, and Japan. In China you are pretty much expected to get at least a Master’s degree and it doesn’t surprise me that China invests a lot in its education system. In America kids are mostly taught that they could be anything they want, and that is a good thing.  However, most kids just want to be popular and accepted, and being a science geek will not win any social points. This is not to say that Americans do not value education, but a major problem is that higher education can be prohibitively expensive in this country. Even public schools cost tens of thousands of dollars a year and I am sure a lot of capable students are just priced out. Recently there was a report measuring higher education affordability and only California got a passing grade of C- for its large system of cheap community colleges. Finally, the irrefutable fact is that the total population of Chinese and Indians in the world is about seven times the population of Americans so there is a much larger talent pool to choose from. When you couple that with the fact that most Chinese and Indians are ingrained to study math and science from birth, it is really no surprise that there are less American scientists.

The good news for America is that there are still plenty of foreign nationals who are willing to live in this country and contribute to its economy. I am one of them, but I’m not sure how long America will stay as attractive as a golden mountain of opportunity and freedom. A lot of graduate students my age that come from China these days are going back to China after they graduate because they believe that China has more opportunities than America. As the article noted, Williams saw that in China a 28 year old recent graduate was able to get a $5 million research grant from the government for her research, but here in America a professor would have a hard time raising $50,000. Additionally, a major issue preventing foreign talent from staying is the draconian and frankly bizarre immigration system in America. It takes years for a foreign national to win legal rights to stay in this country, and while they wait they are often treated like criminals or indentured servants. For many brilliant young scientists, this crazy immigration system is really not worth the trouble. They can go back to their own countries and have all the rights of a citizen and make a difference for their people, so why should they go through the gauntlet here? This loss of foreign talent is an incredible waste for America because many of these students get fellowships and are trained by American companies and schools, but end up bringing all the things they learned back to their own countries. If the immigration system were easier on talent then I am sure more people will consider staying.

So will Silicon Valley become Detroit? I highly doubt that will happen in this generation because this area is still buzzing with innovation and there are also many immigrants here who have made America their home and they will continue to contribute. I know that there are people who hate us for having these high tech jobs here, but we would not have these jobs if there were enough qualified Americans. I do believe that America has to get serious about education and training in science to stay competitive in the world, and it has to start as soon as possible. I think the $39 billion pledged in the new stimulus package to upgrade schools around the country is a good start, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money that went to failed companies recently. Will the American government ever learn to truly invest in the future long term?

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P.S. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

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A lot happened in the last 24 hours that made me feel happy and fortunate, and I think I should write these events down.

First, I got two free meals yesterday since my company had a company meeting and a holiday party.  Spouses were invited to the holiday party so my hubby joined me at dinner time.  One of the special speakers at our company meeting was supposed to be Ronnie Lott, a former 49er and hall of famer, but he didn’t show up because his private equity firm was having troubles.  So instead he sent over seven autographed footballs to be raffled off at our party.  Every person got a ticket and when the winners were called the announcer threw the balls to them across the restaurant.  The second winner was an extremely excited engineer who held out his hands, but the ball landed straight on his forehead and he was knocked back a bit.  Then my husband won the next ball while he was saying he never wins things at raffles.  He stood up and the announcer threw the ball at him and he caught it!  He received some cheers and applause and he hammed it up a bit by raising his hands straight up with the ball.  Neither of us knew who Ronnie Lott is, but the hubby is hoping that he could sell the ball to fund the purchase of an arcade game stick.  We looked up the prices online and apparently memorabilia stores sell Ronnie Lott balls for $200 to $300.  The hubby was tempted to trade the ball for another prize at the party because some of our European coworkers didn’t really care about football and was able to trade for iPod nanos.  This was definitely one of the better company parties I have been to.

When we got home, my hubby called his parents since they are leaving the country tonight to do missionary work in the Philippines for an undetermined amount of time.  We have all been working towards this moment in the last few months with the purchase of their home and moving various things. Everyone was quite emotional, but there is also joy in that my in-laws will begin a new life for God.  It also made me feel very blessed to marry into such an awesome family full of love.

This morning we had a scheduled health exam for the life insurance I had applied for.  A slightly deaf nurse came to our home and took our blood and urine samples and took various biometrics.  I had written that we needed to buy life insurance a long time ago, but I never took the plunge.  I finally did it because we purchased my in-law’s home, and in case something happens either of our policies could pay off all the debts.  We bought a term policy and it is quite cheap because we’re both only 25 years old.

When I walked out the door  I saw one of my neighbors at the mailboxes.  She is  a 70 year old Chinese widow that talked to me a few times before because I am the only other Chinese person that lives in the complex. We said hello to each other and she said, “Going to work?”

I nodded.

“You’re lucky you still have a job! A lot of people are laid off!” She exclaimed.

“I know. I know I am lucky.”  I said as I walked out the door  to live another day.

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