A couple days ago I asked a friend if he was proud that China is hosting the Olympics, but he is Taiwanese American so I expected he would say no.  He said that he identified himself as an American and he just didn’t care about the Olympics that much and he wasn’t even proud when America hosted it.  He reads my blog so he knew that I actually cared about the Olympics being in China and I consider myself Chinese.  Then he said that  I  have  a lot of  American values  and  a lot of  and it is about 60/40.  At first  I said to him, “what American values do I have besides eating burgers and getting fat?”  He laughed at me and said that is a big part of American culture for better or worse.  Then he said that I believe a lot of things that are “American”.  For example, I think that compensation should be merit based and that I am a Christian.  I suppose I did pick up those traits in America, but it is hard to say what is truly American because this country is like a mosaic of so many ideas and cultures.  That is one thing I truly love about America.

It is hard to deny that America is a country with incredible opportunities, freedoms, and diversity.  There is really no other place like this in the world and every single day I am still amazed by this country’s creations, influence, and wealth. When I was younger I actually wished that I was born in America and I was an actual American citizen because I would be granted everything this country had to offer.  I hated that  so many Americans have had so much for so long and  they didn’t appreciate it and I envied them for being so lucky to have been born in this country.  Very few people knew how I felt because everyone thought that I was an American by the way I spoke and acted.  I am actually eligible to apply for American citizenship in a few years, but I am thinking twice about it because I no longer  want to give up my Chinese citizenship.   I have grown to see the value in being Chinese as China is becoming more free and economically developed.

The greatest problem with America now besides is that it is so very disjoint and everyone bickers all the time.  It is no longer the United States; it’s the Blue States and the Red States.   Theno longer belong to the people, but to corporations with lobbyists.  There is just so much discord and dissatisfaction within United States now that it is hard to love this country that taught me so much.  At this pace, the United States’ growth  cannot match what can be accomplished by more than one billion people united in China and it makes me sad that this  brilliant country is doing so little with so much.

As I have said before in my first article about the Olympics, China still has a deluge of problems that it needs to work out, but I am definitely proud of how far it has come.  I am so glad that this event is happening in spite of so many naysayers and attacks.  Just yesterday I heard a couple coworkers say that they’re surprised that China pulled it off and the Olympics actually started despite a gigantic earthquake and years of international disapproval.  I chuckled a bit in my cube because I thought it was funny how Americans generally underestimate the Chinese.  Anyway, this Olympics will be fun to watch, and I will be rooting for China.

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Besides that, we found out that our rent is not increasing. This is the advantage in finding a nice landlord. I know that his HOA fees went up a little bit, so keeping the rent the same actually means he is losing a little bit of profit, but having good tenants that pay on time like us is very valuable to a landlord, too.

As usual people are asking me when I will have babies. Honestly, that is up to God and the hubby. Obviously I can’t have a baby on my own, so I don’t know why I get the most queries about this subject. So I tend to say, “ask my husband” now. As I have said before, I prefer to have the first kid before I turn 30, but it is not totally up to me.

Finally, my husband and I are playing in the . He named our team Team Chimerica. It’s a combination of the words China and America, and also looks like the word chimera. He has been chronicling our battles against ancient evil . If you have never played before then my hubby’s posts may sound like insane nerd babble, but this cooperative game is the only board game where we don’t try to kill each other but instead work together to fight an Ancient One and other monsters.

That is all for this really random post. There are more personal finance topics to write about and more evil to fight, but for now I must figure out what to have for dinner.

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On one hand I know that losing some weight would be great for my health and my family really cares about me, but on the other hand I really love to eat. In the long run being fit will probably save me money on health care but my lifestyle is so sedentary that I find no motivation or desire to exercise. Anyway, I am making an effort now to exercise more so I can still eat what I like to eat. I purchased on Friday and today I went to hike Mt. Tamalpais with the hubby and the parents. I only got to the West Point Inn before my left leg was filled with pain. Along the entire trail my parents made fun of me being the last one in the line as I plodded up the hills while huffing and puffing. My dad laughed at my slow march and then showed off his muscles to me and my hubby. He said, “you’re less than half my age and you can’t climb this? COME ON!” Then he loudly sang some Chinese song horribly out of tune and went about a mile ahead of me. On the way back I fell on my butt two times because the trail was steep and slippery. The hubby and I clung on each other for support and made it back to the car. As a reward, we had lunch at a restaurant in Sausalito called Spinnaker which had a wonderful view of the bay. That lunch probably undid all the calories I lost from the hike. Finally, when I got home I found a blister on my big toe that was as big as my little toe. Today’s harrowing experience showed me that I am definitely a lot less fit than my college years since in 2005 I hiked a much longer trail without that many problems.

Hopefully getting will help me organize my exercise routine. The hubby said he will do it with me and maybe that will motivate me a bit more. Though at work my coworker laughed at the idea of the WiiFit. He said, “you know you could just go outside and run instead of holding a little white remote and run in place!” I guess that is true, but I really wouldn’t jog outside when it’s completely dark. I am pretty i in losing about 10 lbs in 7 weeks with the WiiFit, but I don’t know how I would do and how long I keep up with the routine. However, the hubby’s incentive of cutting down his entertainment budget aligns the goal of losing weight with saving money, and perhaps that’s enough motivation for me to keep at it. We will see how this goes and I will report on whether or not this works.

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Anyway, there are a few games where I can eviscerate him one on one, but he never plays those with me. So what does all of this have to do with money? Well, I think personal finance and managing your money is a very complex game. There are rules, goals, and strategies and everyone plays a variation of it. This is how I visualize it.

try before you buy viagra- Another thing the hubby didn’t mention is that I could be a pretty good team player in cooperative games because my “vicious” energy to crush my opponents is now directed at the larger and more powerful system of the game. I think personal finance is the same thing. Everyday our own financial health is pit up against larger money systems which we cannot control on our own. For example, inflation and the stock market are things people want to “beat”, and we do it by creating and buying into mutual funds, or sharing information as to how to stretch our dollars. These are cooperative mechanics that are quite valuable. So when it comes to our money, I think the hubby and I are on the same side.

try before you buy viagra – I have written before that if the goal of earning money is to just get more money then life is no longer fun. There need to be breaks from extreme savings and money management to you earn. Otherwise, the game would become a total grind and having millions of dollars would still seem meaningless.

try before you buy viagra- When you get stuck in a game you can look up a solution online or see how others played it. The same is true in personal finance. You can read about how financial products work and how others used them.

try before you buy viagra – As I mentioned in the beginning of this article. I knocked my hubby’s block out scoring him 15 points, but he was out of the game. That’s similar to knocking out debt. You may have to sacrifice a bit of luxury to completely pay off a lender, but after it’s done that adversary is completely out of your game.

try before you buy viagra – Every good game involves a bit of luck. I don’t think everyone starts off on equal footing so some people do have to work harder than others, but it’s never hopeless. A good player of any game could overcome bad luck.

try before you buy viagra- I think the end game is to get to a point where you don’t worry about money anymore. For some people this could be death, but I think you don’t have to necessarily be dead to get to a point where you have no more financial burdens. It is possible to generate enough passive income through investments and other ventures.

Ultimately, games are created to simulate many aspects of real life, and the topic of financial management is many times more complex than a single board game.  I think the one thing that makes real life so hard is that the rules and missions aren’t so clearly stated and there is a constant metagame of figuring out what to do.  Once you settle on a single mission, there is always a chance of finishing it.   So, what do you think your end game is?

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