Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

With what money?

I go the mall sometimes during the weekday lunch hours, and I would see the local high school kids buying lunch at the food court. How on earth do they have the money for it? The allowances they get from parents must be hefty. I make above the American median household income, and I only feel comfortable enough to get Chipotle once in a while. Kids, with no income - how are they doing it?

Especially these days when $10 can’t even buy you a meal at McDonalds. At least back when I was in high school, there was the dollar menu. That’s a lot of McChicken for the $20 my father would give me once in a while. A dollar now can literally buy nothing at the Golden Arches. I understand inflation, but people aren’t making that much more money? A suitable food allowance for a higher schooler of today must be in the hundreds per month.

I guess there’s a lot of rich parents out there in San Francisco.

No wonder it’s said that child rearing is so expensive. With the recent inflation it’s got to be more than the quarter million to raise a child from baby to 18 years of age.

My parents most certainly did not spend a quarter million dollars to raise me. They didn’t have to money to. Not even close. I think it’s people’s expectations of what entails child-rearing that drives up the costs. Childcare, birthday parties, toys, trips to Disneyland (allowance when they reach teenage years); a lot of it is more wants than needs.

I read an article about parents getting into debt to bring their kids to Disneyland. News flash: if you cannot cash flow a Disneyland trip, you cannot afford it. There’s no rule that a child must experience Disneyland. For sure they will be sad when they hear from their school friends who went, but I didn’t have Nike shoes growing up, and I turned out just fine (allegedly). No emotional damage at all.

For a rainy day

In a pleasant surprise, my health insurance premiums - subsidized by my employer - will not be going up in 2025! I was fully expecting it to, because one, inflation is causing everything to be more expensive these days. And two, Kaiser Permanente had to pay its workers more after their strike last year. Did you think a corporation is going to eat into its profit margins? You’re hilarious.

Just as well, then. Whatever difference I thought I’d had to pay more in the coming year will go right into the savings account.

Towards what end? I’m not sure. I am seeing a lot of people my age (mid 30s) having babies these days. Personally, I have no interest (or prospects) to be doing so myself. Not that I don’t think I wouldn’t be great at parenting. If anything, I am leaving positives on the proverbial table. Word on the street is that people who have kids tend to happier and live longer. As a person who is deathly afraid of dying, and has always strived to maximized longevity, why haven’t I made any babies already?

One things for sure: it is not too expensive to raise children. Our expectations toward what goes into child rearing have simply inflated. Baby showers, birthdays, the best diapers, humidifiers, bottle warmers, etc: I was raised with none of that stuff! My working-class parents could not afford it. And I turned out okay, if I do say so myself. Daycare? In Chinese culture, that would be the grandparents. No need to spend thousand(s) dollar per month.

Social media can make it difficult, I reckon. It’s like an arms race to show who can provide the “best” childhood for their kids. Don’t complain to us about how expensive it to raise kids when you go into debt for Disneyland. Public parks are free.

Again!?

It’s not very nice to wake up to an email from Squarespace saying the price of a website subscription has, once again, gone up. This, after the company has already raised the pricing only last year. Inflation may have slowed to “normal”, but Squarespace certainly doesn’t think so! It might not be right now, but at some point I have to rethink whether or not it is worth the $200 per year just for the ability to say: I’ve got a website!

Is Tumblr still free? (Who owns it now anyways?) Maybe I should go back to blogging on that. It wouldn’t look as nice, but that extra $200 per year can easily cover a single trip to Costco. Hashtag browsing.

You ever look at your W2 during tax time, and wonder out loud where the heck did all your money go? You’ve made a certain amount of money this past calendar year, and yet your checking account can barely cover a month’s worth of bills.

All of these subscriptions we enjoy can add up to a large number, given a long enough timeline. $15 per month here and there may seem eminently affordable, but I would say those are the phantoms leeching away your monthly paycheck. For me, my subscriptions combined is easily $160 per month. While that can barely cover a single trip to Costco, imaging saving that amount every month. Do it for a long enough timeline…

That said, asceticism does not interest me. You got to spend your money on something, right? Though I think it’s important to periodically reevaluate whether or not something is worth the time and money. This website of mine remains worthy. But if prices keep going the way of these past two annual renewals, I’m going to have to think about it.

Afford to maintain

My BMW M2 is due for its annual service in September. Good news for me, I already prepaid for this last year. $800 for two annual services seems like a fantastic deal to me, especially so with all the inflation going on.

It would be naive to think the inflation hammer missed the automotive maintenance and repair industry. Apparently, there’s a shortage of skilled mechanics. You know what that means: labor cost is higher to keep the few good ones. Even if parts and material costs remains flat (I see the five quart jug of motor oil I bought back in 2022 is only $3 dearer), the price for an oil change would have certainly increased due to the higher shop rate. Can Jiffy Lube even do $20 oil changes anymore?

It feels like $100 is the new $20.

The average transaction price of a new car is $48,000. Auto insurance premiums have increased about 20% for everybody. Gasoline prices (for 91 octane) have stayed consistently above the five dollar mark this entire year (San Francisco Bay Area). The math of car ownership is quickly becoming a painful one. It’s no wonder people skimp out on vehicle maintenance. A car only needs periodic oils changes, and nothing else, am I right?

Japanese cars have a reliable reputation because they can survive on oil changes alone. German cars have an unreliable reputation because they absolutely cannot. For example: the M2 calls for spark plug changes every three years. Go see how long the engine will last if an owner ignores the book and just changes the oil every year.

I think German cars can be equally reliable as the Japanese, so long as you follow the maintenance manual to the letter. Obviously, that’s going to cost a hearty chunk of money annually. This is why I would hesitate to buy a used German car that doesn’t have a full stack of maintenance invoices matching the book. The only used car I ever bought - the 911 GT3 - had full dealership service records.

I am definitely saving up for future maintenance spend for the M2. It most certainly is going to get more and more expensive.

Not for a snack

A friend was introducing a Korean restaurant to me. The first thing I wanted to know was: how much? Readers of this blog would know I am price-sensitive like that. But then again, it’s difficult to pay $14 for a roll of kimbap (Korean-style sushi roll) when I know for a fact that same roll sold in Korea is around $2. It just seems wrong.

Moreover, kimbap is more like a snack food, something filling you take to-go. Think of as the Korean equivalent of a home-packed American sandwich. Would you pay $14 for a peanut-butter and jelly sandy? Sounds absurd, doesn’t it?

With the recent high inflation, you really can’t take numbers at face-value. Deadpool and Wolverine had an $211 million opening weekend at the box office. That’s a properly large number. However, I paid $19 for a Saturday morning matinee showing. Yes, just like everything else, the price of a movie ticket has gone up. It’s easier to get to $210 million when the cost of each ticket sold is higher than ever.

As for the movie itself, the third Deadpool film is fantastically fun. The story is super basic, but the ceaseless action and comedy more than make up for it. I’m not saying you should definitely see it at a theatre for the visuals. More like you would want to see it as soon as possible to avoid spoilers. There are a ton of surprises jammed into Deadpool and Wolverine. To have them spoiled by a random YouTube commenter for a video that has nothing to do with the movie whatsoever would be unfortunate.

At least movie tickets are tax inclusive. So are gas stations: the prices on the big board is what you pay. I like that a lot. The aforementioned $14 roll of kimbap still has to factor in tax and tip, adding at least 25% to the cost.

Spend spend spend

The 2024 Summer Olympics starts this week in Paris. If it seems like it’s only been a short while since the Tokyo Olympics, that’s because it was held in 2021. Thank you, Covid pandemic. We hardly think about you these days. Due apologies to the long Covid sufferers.

I keep hearing the term “revenge travel” these days. Coming out of the pandemic, people are eager to travel, to make up for the lost time. My only question is: “How the French are people affording to travel?” I flew out the country twice this year (already, though no more plans to do so) and honestly I had some trepidation about spending the money. It was all worth it, obviously. In these days of high inflation I would prefer to have a bit more buffer in the bank account. You just never know when the cost a thing (that you absolutely need, of course, like YouTube Premium) will suddenly spike in price.

Though, word on the street is that Japan is currently relatively cheap to travel to. Because the Japanese yen is weak point against foreign currency. Weeaboos rejoice: your American dollars will get you more things in Akihabara.

Maybe the revenge part of revenge travel is on bank accounts. Swipe it on credit cards, pay it (much) later. If a chance leak at a lab in Wuhan, China (allegedly, probably) can trigger a global death event without any warning, wouldn’t you live life with a more short term view? Let’s cram all the fun things we want to do now. Who cares if we don’t have the means to pay the tab - we might be dead in a few years anyways. (DJ Khaled voice: “Another one.”) In America, debt of the deceased dies with them - next of kin bears zero responsibility, unless they (stupidly) co-signed on the debt.

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person, still concerned with thinking for the long-term. YOLO is a good BTS song, not a protracted life strategy. Travel to Paris for the Olympics? Not in this economy of the $200 per night common hotel room.

Don't do it!

Recently my uncle asked me what's a good car to buy these days. To which I replied: "None?" Now is absolutely not a good time to buy a car if you absolutely do not need one (my uncle definitely does not). Interest rates are still (relatively) very high. One look at an amortization table is enough to scare me away from committing. I already have a car, and it is paid off. Not being indebted for a car is a great feeling.

But even if you can pay all cash - thereby bypassing any interest concerns, inflation is the next problem. The average price for a new car sold is ~$48,000. That is a thick chunk of change. I detest people who counter with, "Well, if you adjust for inflation, it's actually not that bad." That may pass the math test, but it certainly does not pass the vibe test (as the kids say these days.) Nobody is walking around looking at these inflated prices with a mental inflation calculator. All we see is a high number the only a few years ago was significantly smaller.

Sure, the lucky some of us received raises to compensate. For the plenty that didn't: inflation really sucks.

And it's not like the high prices are ever going back down. The Fed may say inflation is under control, but that doesn't mean prices have gone back down! They've only stopped increasing as quickly. What is now expensive remains expensive. That birthday cake for your kid will forever now be $50 (and above). If I had kids, I'd bake the car myself. A penny saved is a dollar earned, especially if it's in an index fund held for multiple decades.

I think my uncle was disappointed with my answer. Who am I to get in between someone wanting to spend money? So long as you have some saved for emergencies, have at it. Just don't be like the tech workers in this article where getting laid off was immediately catastrophic. We all should have (or start saving up for right now) at least a year's worth of money runway socked away. Hopefully in a high-yield savings account, and not under a mattress.