My early days in the US

I started my investment in 2000 when I got my 1st real job in the US at the age of 30. Then after less than a year, I went back to school for my PhDs due to internet stock bubbles.

Like many readers, I started with mutual fund—vanguard in 2000. During my PhD period, I lived on scholarship, managed to send a few hundreds to my parents in China, paid my rent (leased a room in a house), and also invested a portion to mutual fund.  By the time I got my PhD, my account grew to about $60k. That’s a remarkable accumulation and growth, considering I came to the states with only two suitcases and 1K USD or so.  The success lies in low burning rate—-paid $360 a month for a room in a shared house, $70ish for food.   For entertainment, I occasionally went with friends to a budget movie theater at $2 per movie on Tuesday night. Eating out was rare, less than five times a year.

Current Me

Looking back, my consumption has changed a lot. My lifestyle and consumption are now approaching those of a typical American.

My spending has ballooned on necessities on mortgage payment (I moved to Denver in 2022), house maintenance, car insurance. House maintenance can eat up a big chunk of income if not careful. here is my expenses on my house maintenance this month (June 2023)

• $25o–parts online purchase—- on replacing controller board on my GE refrigerator (installed it myself)
• $58–relay and new filter
• $100—on repair of water pressure breaker of irrigation system ( plumbers quoted for $500, not including parts), I fixed it myself, luckily with oral instructions from an acquaintance.
• $50–indoor irrigation system for houseplant while I am away to visit my folks in China
• $25–outdoor irrigation extension for a raised vegetable bed while i am away.
• $250–car registration related
• $500–gifts for family and relatives back in China (mainly fish oils etc.)
• $3000—flight tickets, hotels and trains etc.

This adds up to $4233.  Here, I do not count time I spent learning about water pressure breaker of irrigation system.

Water pressure breaker: My previous house does not have it. Thus, I didn’t know I needed to winterize it late in the Fall. Not until a few weeks ago, I tried to turn on irrigation by adjusting the controller, and water didn’t come out no matter how I turned the X-core controller. I figured it out that I must have shut off water source and it is probably the fixture outside the house—-the cap of the water pressure breaker was printed with its name, “water pressure breaker”. Anyway, it took me at least a week to learn about the system and how to fix it.

Controller of GE refrigerator: newer refrigerators are much more fragile and much less reliable.   My refrigerator has not been working well since last November; it behaves like a lunatic that Hums, clicks, cools and not cool.    By watching many youtube videos,  I figured it is either the breaker relay or the controller. Bought the former and it did not make a difference. After buying a new control board and replacing the old one, I got it to work normally.

I have a duplex in St Louis—-rented to students.  Two Chinese folks living there do not pay rent and got the house infested with cockroaches. Here are the costs

• $300:  Filed eviction with an attorney, asked for cancellation one day later. The attorney still asks for $300.
• $500: yard cleaning
• $100: pest control
• $ 500: cleaning inside the house
• $500: utility tenants owe but now I have to pay for them as they now abandon the unit.
• $1000: pay for someone to manage the mess.

This adds up to $3000. There will be more repairs inside the house: a refrigerator needs to be replaced–budgeted at$600, so totaled $3600

Adding  these two big expenses together leads to about $8000. I have not considered car insurance and house insurance renewal yet.

 What is the conclusion?  Property maintenance is expensive. If you own any property, leave enough cash for repairs.

Online “One-Click Shopping Makes Spending Invisible. Monthly Review of Your Expenses is  a Must”

Indeed, I need to tighten up my belt, or to be precise—not to click “place order” online easily.  Click-and-pay makes spending is indeed the most painless way to spend.  You can be in air-conditioned comfortable home, swipe or click. Stuff will arrive at your home steps sometimes in the same day. And, you even do not have to incur the inconvenience of  entering your credit card number if you have it stored under your account.

When I visited DMV for my driver’s license and license plate last week, I paid real cashes to avoid the 1.2% fee.  These cashes have been in my wallet for over two years!  Physical handing out cashes does make one feel  a pain in the stomach, no matter how insignificant it is. Re-experiencing this kind of pain indeed is refreshing. Swiping with Credit card makes this pain go away. Online shopping is far worse than shopping at a physical store and paying with a credit.  It cultivates mindless consumption and may lead to unnecessary debts.

In reality, it is hard to go back to pay everything with cashes in an e-commerce age; one way to key your subconsciousness alert and stopping you from  wasting money is monthly review of your credit card statements: 

• how much do all the spendings add up?
• where do they go?
• are the spending necessary or just impulsive shopping out of boredom?