Entries Tagged 'Life' ↓

This is a continuation of my family’s immigration story originally written by my dad in Chinese. For more of my dad’s narrative see the category marked Fifteen Years in America. If you can read Chinese you can read the original at my dad’s Yahoo blog. He has just finished Chapter 8. Enjoy!

In addition to “Introduction to American Economics” and “Mathematics for Business”, I also chose “English” and “Basic Accounting”. At that time the college had an English requirement. Every student must pass “English 100″ to get a diploma. I’m not sure what level of English this is equivalent to in China, but at that time I only scored 540 on the TOEFL and I did not qualify for “English 100″, yet. Under “English 100″ there were “English 10″, “English 20″, and “English 25″. After I took a placement test, my student advisor suggested that I should take “English 25″, which is Basic English Writing.

The professor of Basic English Writing was a tall and slender British woman named Cary. She was a bit over 30 and spoke with a heavy British accent. When I learned English in China my professor had a Russian background, and did not speak with a standard accent. Additionally, my college class was the first class after the end of The Cultural Revolution, and we did not have a lot of great educational materials. Additionally, since my major was agricultural economics in college, I had to learn a lot of Marxist political and economic theory. At that time I bought a full set of “Das Kapital” and read it through, so I didn’t have time to learn English. After I moved to America, I realized that British English sounds different from American English. When I worked in Duke’s Lane, I could distinguish different English accents such as Australian, New Zealander, and Singaporean.

Cary is very strict with her students. Every time I received my papers back I would see her edits blooming like red flowers. Behind each paper she would write very detailed and helpful comments. I remember I wrote an essay titled “My Daughter Xin”. The essay chronicled how Xin started to learn Chinese at age two and how she was able to read at age three. When she was nine I brought her to America, and when she just came she did not know any English so we let her stay back one grade in school and repeat fourth grade. After half a year, she managed to catch up to her classmates. Additionally I wrote about her hobbies such as collecting coins and stamps. Finally, I wrote that my wife and I wished that Xin would have a bright future. I think Cary was also a mother because she really loved this essay. After some edits, she sent my essay to the school’s English magazine and published it. Unfortunately, I no longer have a copy of the magazine, but my wish for my daughter to have a bright future has been realized.

In a blog post I wrote on 7/27/07 titled “When can parents let go?” I wrote, “If someone asks me what the greatest benefit of leaving China is, I would say that we have found a place where children can freely develop.”

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Basic Accounting was a course that related to my future job. I had an excellent professor named Rose Kar. She was a little over 30, and already had an PhD in Accounting from the University of Texas. She taught at Kapiolani and also the business school of The University of Hawaii at Manoa. After my wife Helen switched to the business school she was also a student of Rose.

Rose Kar’s teaching style is very focused and logical. She also built upon the material like links upon links of a chain. Another thing I noticed is that she likes to save time. When you listen to her lectures, you must be very focused. From the beginning of the lecture to the end, she would start from the left side of the blackboard and work on one problem. After the lecture is done the entire board would be covered and the problem is done. When she is demonstrating a problem she would welcome questions from students. I remember that I liked to ask some weird questions. For example, in several different types of transactions, how would you balance several depreciation methods and find the best method?

A Chinese proverb says, “professionals watch for special techniques, and amateurs watch for entertainment”. Since I was a professor, I felt that I gained quite a bit from Rose Kar’s class. Her class definitely gave me a great foundation in accounting, and that helped me in my future job immensely. Rose Kar also liked a student like me who liked to ask questions and challenge the professor. After one semester, I received an A in the class, and she recommended that I should become a tutor at the student learning center and tutor other students in accounting.

After one semester, I received an A in all four of my courses. In the second semester the school gave me the coveted Pacific Scholarship, and that waived all of my tuition. That was a great boost to my confidence and life.

Chapter 5 is coming up next. In the next chapter my dad learns how to make hamburgers. If you don’t want to miss a thing, feel free to subscribe!

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Well, 2008 is really flying by.  Now we are in the first day of July I think it’s time for a mid year review of my goals for 2008 which I set on 12/31/2007.

Personal Goals

1. Get more involved in volunteering - I am still looking into this, but I think the biggest obstacle is my weird working schedule.  I work from 11am to 7 or 8pm on most days.  Maybe I can find things I can do at home or before I go to work.

2. Get more than 1000 visitors to this blog daily - When I set down this goal I was only writing The Baglady.  In January I was invited to write for Wise Bread and then I started San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble in March.  So combining all three blogs now I get on average 2000 pageviews  a day. This is a huge improvement.  So I think I will have to revise this goal to getting 4000 pageviews a day on average by the end of the year.

3. Lose a little bit of weight - Well, since getting the Wii Fit and getting some motivation from my family I have been exercising with the hubby almost everyday.  So far I lost about 2 lbs, but I feel that I gained a little bit of  muscle and my thighs are more toned. So I guess we will carry on and see what happens.

4. Help out around the house a bit more - I am working on this, really.  I try to listen to the hubby when he tells me to clean certain rooms.  This weekend he said that my bathroom is above average in cleanliness.

5. Be awesome at my job - I have been at my job for almost 8 months now and I have pretty much settled in.  I learned quite a bit of new things so now my job isn’t that difficult once again.

Financial Goals

1. $100k+ in Income - I received a  small raise at work a couple months ago.  Since I was a new employee and had only been working there for four months they prorated my raise so it was about 3.5%.  I think after taxes I am earning about $100 more a month. It’s almost enough money for gas! Anyway,  I was pretty happy about it since I was expecting nothing.  My manager actually told me it was a special raise since pretty much all the other people who worked at the company for less than six months got no raise.  I believe him since in my last company all the people that has been at the company for less than nine months didn’t get a raise.  I guess it makes sense.    Anyway, my salary isn’t 100k, yet, but my blog income has grown quite a bit.  So it’s quite possible to break $100k in income this year.

2. Increase Networth by 40% - Well, we’re actually progressing nicely towards this goal.  Our networth has gone up 21% since 12/31/2007 despite the recent stock market drop. So I think we’re definitely on track for 40% by the end of the year.

3. Turn blogging into a business - I think with the income my blogging is pulling in I would have to file taxes as a business at the end of the year so I can write off some of the expenses I have incurred.  I would have to pay income taxes anyway so I might as well deduct some of the valid expenses I had such as hosting and software.

So all things considered, 2008 is turning out to be a good year.  I think writing down my goals really helped me in working towards them. Now I just have to stay the course for the second half of the year!

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Lately, one news story that has been really getting on my nerves is that of Laura Richardson, the Southern California congresswoman who defaulted on three separate homes repeatedly and most likely used her influence to take back a home that has already been sold. The investor that bought her home has filed a lawsuit against the congresswoman and Washington Mutual for illegally rescinding a proper sale. I hope the buyer James York wins because there was no possible way that the congresswoman didn’t know about the sale. She didn’t pay her mortgage for more than six months!! What did she think was supposed to happen? After the congresswoman’s mortgage troubles were publicized, more information came to light that she has a history of being a deadbeat and owed property taxes and many other debts. She took money out of her three homes to finance her campaigns, and made only a few payments on her Sacramento home. If debtors’ prisons were still in operation, this woman would be sitting in jail right now eating gruel . Instead, she is being treated to a fundraising party in her honor to help her with her debts. One thing that made me laugh and cry at the same time was that in this AP article she said “she is like any other American suffering in the mortgage crisis and wants to testify to Congress about her experience as lawmakers craft a foreclosure-prevention bill.” Right, she is just like any other American that buys three homes, pulls money out, stops paying the mortgage and property taxes, and then denies that she knew anything about an oncoming foreclosure. That is really believable and poignant!

Apparently, Laura Richardson is not the only representative with mortgage woes. A less publicized case is of state Senator Julia Boseman of North Carolina. She and her ex-partner Melissa Jarrell haven’t paid mortgage on their $1.3 million dollar mansion since August 1, 2007. In order to clean her own hands, Boseman has taken herself off the home’s deed without her ex-partner’s knowledge. The house is set to be auctioned, and I hope Boseman doesn’t use her political clout to take the house back like Laura Richardson did.

Finally, we have the bizarre story of Shirley Huntley, a state Senator from New York. She stopped paying her mortgage intentionally as an “experiment” to see if she gets proper notification from her bank. After four months of not paying her mortgage and facing foreclosure, she paid up everything plus legal fees to avoid foreclosure. According to the article, her “original mortgage in 1976 was $28,500. Three decades later, she owes $290,000 due to repeated borrowing against her home”. So did she really conduct an experiment or did she just try to cover up some financial trouble? Either way, at least this woman owned up to her debt and paid it off. The alarming thing is that she used her home as an ATM so that her initial debt ballooned to more than 10 times of its original size.

With representatives like these, I guess I understand why the housing bailout is so popular. Congressional rules do not prevent representatives from voting on issues that help themselves financially because it is hard to avoid, but is supporting financial irresponsibility really wise? Anyway, all members of Congress and the Senate are required to report their personal finances and you can see the reports at Open Secrets. I encourage all of you to take a look at your local politicians and see how responsible they are with their own money, because I believe a person really needs to get his or her own affairs in order before making laws that affect millions of other people.

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Today I read an  article on the New York Times titled “Lure of Big Paycheck Tugs at Graduates Considering Public Service“.  The basic gist of it is that top colleges are trying to encourage students to enter non-profit sectors and take jobs in public service, but many students are burdened with huge loans that they have to pay off so a secure job with a fat paycheck is the path they end up taking.  I am not surprised at this at all, but here are some of my thoughts in working in public service.

Most people are idealistic when they are young and then get disillusioned later, but I think I am the opposite.  In highschool I knew people that were truly believed that they could change the world for the better, but I wasn’t one of them.  I knew that after college I wanted a high paying job, and I wanted to be financially secure. I know that sounds selfish, but I figured that I am just practical. I also said to my friends that I would never work as a teacher or work for the government.  Now after graduating and working for three years at fairly well-paying corporate jobs, I think my thoughts on public service has changed quite a bit.

First of all, I think America really has a shortage of great teachers.  Most of my immediate family members have been teachers and professors in China at one time or another, and I think my dad enjoyed it more than most people. So I know that it can be a very personally fulfilling job. Anyway, I think one of the main problems with finding quality teachers is definitely financial.  The starting salary for highschool teachers in the Bay Area is around $30000 to $50000 depending on the school district and credentials, but the new teacher might have a buttload of student debt to pay off.  Couple that with the extremely high cost of living here in the Bay Area, I don’t see how we could get good public school teachers.  Good science and math teachers are especially hard to find because people who study science and math could get much more lucrative jobs. I went to Albany High School and I had a bunch of excellent science and math teachers who graduated from UC Berkeley.  They are mostly retired now, but any one of them could have taken up a more lucrative job as an engineer. I had a physics teacher that almost completed his electrical engineering PhD at UC Berkeley, but decided to be a high school teacher, and he was a great teacher.  If we don’t have more public school teachers like them, then the next generation of children will suffer as a whole.  Anyway, I know of one classmate who gave up her lucrative job at a large web retailer to apply for Teach for America, and I hope she is still teaching.

Next, I think many young people do not realize how much of their souls they have to give up for that big paycheck at that corporate job.  There are plenty of high profit businesses that have less than ethical practices.  Additionally, many highpaying jobs require you to work to your bone.  There is also corruption in public service, but for the most part I don’t believe it is encouraged.  Granted, there are plenty of great jobs in the private industry, too, but in the article I read a lot of these Harvard students are going to hedge funds, which I think are mostly shady businesses because they have very little regulation or disclosure. Of course, a public service job might also be terribly boring, but if it’s a job that helps people and fulfills you, then it might not be as bad.

Finally, there are lots of perks in public service and non-profit jobs, too.  For example, I think government employees still get pension for the most part, and my mom will get her healthcare covered after she retires.  Sure, the pay might be  lower, but a perpetual pension is worth quite a bit. Additionally, non-profit organizations  usually give more time off than for-profit corporations so that is worth something.  Also, I feel that there is a bit more job security in non-profit and public corporations.  Someone told me once that the government never fires anyone.  There is quite a bit of bureaucracy involved, and so people stay in a job forever.

Right now both of my parents work for non-profits.  My dad really thinks he is changing the world through his work, and I think that’s pretty cool.  My mom just started at a state university after working in a for profit company for all of her career in America.  She is trying to adjust to all the bureaucracy and a huge pay cut, but I think in the end she will reap the rewards of paid health care and a small pension. Now with that said, lately I have thought about getting a non-profit job sometime in the future because now I do want to change the world  for the better somehow.  However, I think I would be happier to do the job for free when I am financially independent.  As much as I have warmed up to the concept of public service, I am still practical and selfish by nature.  So I guess I will just have to spend a few more years as a well compensated corporate cube dweller.

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Today I read a rather refreshing article called “Casting off life’s cares” on the LA Times. Basically it tells the story of an ordained pastor named Dave Dixon who gave away pretty much all of his possessions and started to live on a boat and sing songs in a restaurant a few hours a week. His expenses are $565 per month, and he says that “time, not money, is the real commodity in life”. He says that his lifestyle is divinely inspired and “sees himself living out God’s message that faith and people, not possessions, are what is of true value.”

Interestingly enough, I wrote about Chinese proverbs today on Wise Bread and this article reflects the first proverb I wrote about, “an inch of time is worth an inch of gold; but it is hard to buy one inch of time with one inch of gold”. Time is definitely more precious than money, and Dave Dixon has that figured out.  Additionally, I think it’s great to see that someone realizes that you really don’t need much to survive in this world.  My friend the Retirement Hobo said that in South East Asia he was able to eat well on $1 a day, and $10000 is a good retirement fund there.  He might be exaggerating a bit, but I really think that if we are able to let go of a lot of luxury that we have we can live well on very little money.

I think it is awesome that this pastor Dixon seems to trust God so much with his lifestyle.  Though, it’s funny that the author of the article describes Dave as “quixotic” multiple times in the article. Obviously, some people might think that Dave is a fool for trusting God with his health and not having health insurance, but  apparently God provided for him when he had a kidney stone.  He may seem like a stupid bum living on a rickety boat, but I know so many people with huge houses that they slave over and complain about.  Can these people with so many more possessions than Dave Dixon say that they are really truly free and happy?  Dave said in the article, “my possessions made me work harder and stole my time”, and I agree with that sentiment.  We all have an extremely ephemeral existence on this earth, and for us to devote so much time and effort to acquire things we can’t bring with us to the next life is quite pointless.

Now, would I sell everything  and go live on a boat?  Probably not because I don’t like boats very much, but I wouldn’t mind living in a faraway city in Asia where rent is less than $100 a month.  I could even have a little piece of land where I can plant some tomatoes, peas, and corn, and raise a few chickens and ducks.  These are all things I had when I was a kid in China, and really that’s all I need to be happy.  It is a dream lifestyle that is so far removed  from my current daily grind in a glass tower, and maybe one day I can convince the hubby to go there.

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