When people talk about the desperate US job market, it is easy to get pessimistic about the future. Someone even asked me if I regret having come to the US and my children might have an easy life in China. Had I stayed in China, I surely would have a different path, most likely as a teaching professor. Yet, regret is never part of me.

I believe there is a future for every one of us even if the future of US economy is not bright and cheerful. The key to success in job market is global solution, which is the nature of future job structure, the one that defies any national boundary. This globally interweaving job market belongs to not any nation but bold and outstanding individuals who never for a second cease to look for global solution for global problem. Computering technologies and remote access via internet bring about unlimited possibilities, making outsourcing a cheap solution even for doctors and professors. If we can use big screens for global conference, we can use it for global classroom, too, bringing education to every corner of the world, either Africa or Latin America. Pretty soon people will have to seek ways to lower the cost for higher education in US.

Bold thinking plus careful planning will give one a head up. No country is isolated and we all float or sink together. Protectionism is loser’s solution, hurting the doer more than anybody else.

You have to face global community if you dare to rise above. This is written for my children and their generation.

Our clinic asked everybody to make donations to sponsor a family in need. This family hands us a list of what they want for Christmas. The list includes Jeans, Any new release DVD’s, Revlon new completion #2 makeup, any kind of kid movie on DVD, Axe for men, board games, Wal-mart, Best buy or Game Exchange gift cards, any kind of musical DVD, remote control car, Action figures, Transformers, Bi-onicals, … I become so impatient going their list.

I am not going to donate anything. Here’s why:
(1) I never did Christmas shopping for my children and never encouraged them to get anything for nothing, as if there were a real Santa burning money for all the kids in the world. Why should I deviate from my normal practice this time?

(2) As far as I can see, they can live very well without these stuff. That is, they don’t really need any of them and they just want something extra. I will take care of the need first and wait till I deserve it to indulge the want. They can do the same.

(3) I never bought anything that I cannot afford, other than the house. I wait till I have enough for the purchase. Why can’t they wait till they have enough? Nobody’s life is easy.

I have made clear my position on Christmas shopping. Yes, I am firmly against this wasteful practice of shopping spree, commercialization of a religious holiday, as if it were Jesus’ wish for everybody to buy and spend in celebration of his birthday.

Even more stupid is the saying “shop till you drop.” Indeed, shop till the nation drops. How ridiculous can we be? Watching Christmas shoppers often reminds me of the statement that the average intelligent level of the nation is that of a six-grader. No wonder I become impatient so easily among six-graders!

P.S. Before posting this, my daughter read the draft and asked me “Did you email it to your co-workers?” No, not that I am afraid of anything but that I don’t care sharing any of my thoughts with those around me. Here’s one funny thing at my office, some of my co-workers always do the writing on my behalf when writing is needed. Because they know my English writing is pitifully incompetent. Bless their hearts.

Last weekend I read from the Internet about mistakes that parents are likely to make regarding teaching children on money management. Oh boy, all of them sound so familiar. Here are a few mistakes.

(1) Set no limit. One is lucky if one’s child behaves responsibly. Otherwise, one should set a weekly or monthly or yearly limit on how much a child is allowed to spend.

(2) Neglect giving life lessons in daily life. Of course, life lessons include money management. A child starts boosting his/her financial IQ right from home with the parents.

(3) Leave children out of the picture when you make long-term financial plans, considering children too young to understand or sparing them the burden of financial matters of the family.

(4) Fail to start a kid’s saving account and to give the kid an opportunity to manage his/her own finance.

(5) Fail to explain how credit cards and bank work. Actually, many parents themselves fail to set a good example in using credit cards.

I have to confess, at some point during my previous parenting, I have committed the above mistakes, one by one without missing any of them. I am glad to say I am getting better now, after enduring some irreparable losses. Hopefully, readers who are like me, will become wiser because of their previous mistakes.

This is from the seminar that I attended on market America last Saturday evening while my daughter was skating. Talk about early retirement so that you can start doing whatever you enjoy, it seems an unrealistic dream for the majority of Americans (95 – 28), 67% of them at age 65.

For every 100 people, by the time they should reach age 65,
1% become wealthy,
4% financially fit, do not need to work,
28% dead, without actually reaching it,
5% still working, out of necessity,
62% flat broke, not having enough to live by even if they work their butts off.

What a dreadful picture! I think of one of my neighbors who told me she had to work into her 70s. I can’t believe only a tiny 5% of Americans do not need to work by age 65.

I believe there are two main explanations — either the majority of Americans do not earn enough to enjoy early retirement or they do make plenty but equally do they spend that plenty. Simply put it, they have not saved enough from their earnings. I see too many cases that fit second explanation. It is rather disheartening if you are one of the working 65-year-old in America. But you got nobody to blame but yourself. One can always do better than this if one starts saving for retirement right after the first employment.

On the way home that night, I shared it with my daughter. “I will be one of the 5%, financially fit not to have to work way before that age,” said she. I am sure the thought of this will transform into the desired reality.

I just learned a new acronym today. JOB = Just Over Broke. For quite a few Americans, a job mean JOB when they live from paycheck to paycheck without any savings. Once they lose the job, they are literally broke, bankrupt, destitute, down-and-out indigent! Sooo terribly sad.

Last weekend, a friend of mine called telling me that her 14-year-old daughter had been babysitting since last year and had saved $1,500. She asked her mom where to invest this savings. I am very much impressed. I don’t know what to say. She has more economic sense than some of adult American friends that I know of.

By the way, sometimes I see the term indigent stamped in a patient’s medical record cover, which means no money and no insurance. How many choices of treatment can an indigent cancer patient have? Not many.

On Monday, on the way home from the skating place, my daughter and another Chinese girl were chatting all the way. The topic was how much money they would make in the future. One said one million, the other said over two million. I was too tired to join the conversation, much as I wanted to. I am sure my daughter and her generation will never know the experience of JOB if they ever learn something from the current economic bitterness.

My son has been very much into startups since his high school years, from his internet venture to this summer job, and endless plans and ideas. Out of my wild ignorance, I often interpret it as his desire to be his own boss, an extreme form of individualism, the product of American education, so unlike me with an overdose of patience to work with the most absurd species. I started looking at his startup from a new perspective after I read these words by Paul Zane Pilzer.

Pilzer, author of many books including The Next Millionaires, made a comment on the virtue of startup, “When you create a business, you create something that improves the life of your customer, of another person, maybe of ten people, of a thousand people, of a million people. There’s no higher calling. ”

So nicely put. I feel ashamed for not being able to take on this higher calling.

Can’t believe half of the year has gone!

Last weekend I was reading the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by Harv Eker, 2005. There is an interesting statement in the book. It is something like this, statistics showed that number one cause of divorce in America was money. Also see part of this article: “Why money is the leading cause of divorce”, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18930297.html

This reminds me of an incident happened last weekend in my household. My son will come back for the coming long weekend. Since the other adult let his nephew drive my son’s car to his school, I said we needed to get the car back for my son. The other adult said, “How can we do this after we gave it to him? If our son needs to drive, he can drive my car and I can walk to the office.”

I was not prepared for this answer, because I thought we let the nephew drive my son’s car while my son was not home and we could get the car back any time my son’s home. “I offered him the car when he wanted to buy his own car” was the answer. I know what that means.

See the nature of the transaction seems to have changed from car-lending to car-giving and I have no idea thing would turn out this way. I should have thought of this before the car was given away. Now I cannot have the car back, unless the nephew cannot find a job upon graduation and has to go back to China.

Let it be. I said no more. Not because I am nice and generous but because I am tired of fighting. I simply do not have the energy for even an abrasive exchange of words.

Besides, my son stays home only for the weekend. Perhaps he never stays longer than a weekend. One step further, I have no objection if anyone wants to walk 2 miles to work, if my son does stay stay longer.

I have no doubt that the event would turn out differently if it happened elsewhere. Now you know why money plays such a key role in dividing a family. I write it down only because I sincerely hope my children can be wiser in handling situation like this.

Some reader read this posting as the writer being critical or resentful of others. Not here. Let me reiterate the purpose of this posting is not to be critical of anybody. As with all my writings, this one was written for my children only and with a total peace of mind.

I know I have talked a lot about money. How I hate this topic! Too bad living through this financial crisis, we simply cannot shake the topic out of our heads. Plus, as I come from a different culture and being rather old fashioned at that, I feel rather compulsive at seizing every opportunity to drill the concept of saving into my children. They grew up in the richest and the most wasteful land of all, that is, spoiled under our loving care without ever feeling deprived. Indeed, how I dislike this culture of massive consumption. Okay, here’s another one.

A friend of mine, a young one, talked to me about making money quickly, because that friend of mine needed money badly in order to pay the bills. I learn that some people take second jobs or even consider selling blood for money.

To be sure, my friend needs money all the time — for clothes, parties, for drink, hair, nails, rent, gas, water, electricity, cable TV, cell phone, etc. It is so sad that we have to sacrifice extra time in order to pay all these bills. Oh, how I hate having my precious time taken away this way!

I am concerned when I think of my children. Unless they have the ability to make unlimited income, they must find a system to make sure that they don’t over-spend their paycheck like most of young people today.

I told my daughter during our daily walk that, no matter how much or how little she makes, she must put down at least 10% of her paycheck into savings and must not get herself in a situation where she has to work two jobs to make ends meet.

I know my teaching runs against the mainstream practice of spending more than one’s income through borrowing. I seem to over-emphasize on saving instead of making money. Well, here’s my newest and greatest statement: you should either have the ability to make unlimited income or saving as much as you can. No matter what, never find yourself in any dire financial situation.

Yesterday during lunch time, I was on my way to SMW on 83red street. Suddenly, I heard police siren threatening from behind. I checked my rear mirror and saw a police car following me. “Do I look like a terrorist or what?” Not sure what was going on, I stopped the car. A young policeman stepped out of his car and walked toward me with a triumphant look.

He accused me of violating traffic law by “turning right on red light.” “I thought we could turn right as long as the traffic was clear,” I explained. “Not here,” the cop said with a faint smile on the corner of his month and a haha-got-ya look. He checked my license and insurance, then wrote a ticket of a heavy fine, saying he could double this fine and could send this traffic law violation to my insurance company, which means raising my insurance premium. I protested, he told me I could get into more trouble for showing contempt for law. I could saw the end result of throwing an egg against a rock and I didn’t want to be that egg. So, I shut up and drove away.

I have never tasted the destructive power of a law enforcement till that moment. I was mad beyond words. I told my daughter about this on the way home. Both of us were boilingly mad and throwing out bad words profusely. Finally, I said “Let’s consider this as a donation to the police department since money is in short supply everywhere and that policeman was just trying to raise money, except I cannot claim it as tax deductible donation.”

P.S. today I looked for the sign saying no turn on red at that intersection. Indeed, there is one. Still, it doesn’t say specifically no RIGHT turn on red as the conventional wisdom implies on left turn on red. Ouch, it hurts to pay for this ambiguity.

P.S. 6/18, I talked to someone else about this sign and was told blankly, “No turn on red means no turn whatever, left or right.” I knew it. Just need to be told again.

A neighbor of mine told me they never had enough no matter how much the bread-maker in the family brought home.

This brings to my mind another aspect of securing financial security — our financial situation depends on both making and spending money. Many people have their eyes on making money, but not on how they squander money like water and running faster than they can make. Imagine this!

We were at graduate school when my son came along unexpectedly. We lived on the meager income from part-time teaching and scholarship. While we never deprived ourselves, we still managed to keep growing thousands of savings.

Have you realized that your desire is fathomless but your paycheck is so miserably limited? Unless you know how to spend wisely, you will never be able to know financial security. How? Spend only on things you really need not what you desire. You reward yourself with some luxury only when you have done something deserving this. A simple and sweet truth for anyone who cannot make unlimited income for their equally limitless desires.