Lester T -

Triggers: What I learned about my triggers

Posted on May 10, 2024May 10, 2024by Lester T

“F*CKKKKKKK!!!!!”

I screamed out loud in my car, parked outside the Department of Transportation here in Chiang Mai. Thankfully, no one was in the car or walking near the car; else they would be scared, running away from the psycho inside.

My forehead and palms were sweaty. My cheeks ruddy. My eyes dilated. I was angry. On a scale of 1-10, an 8.

Why? I received a phone call earlier that morning from Hyundai telling me that I needed to visit the DOT to process paperwork and obtain my license plate. This was after weeks of hearing nothing, and the service rep said it had to happen today because the residence certificate I provided would expire tomorrow. So I rushed to the DOT. I waited over an hour in the Thai heat – only for the official to tell me I need to get another residence certificate; she could not accept one that would expire tomorrow. Why not? This would mean waiting in another line, paying another 500 baht, and repeating another bureaucratic process.

Why the overwhelming anger? Why would a delay in the process elicit the “Hulk” inside me to emerge, making him scream and bang the steering wheel?

I was triggered. Hearing the official tell me I would need to repeat the process reminded me of something in my past – some unresolved issue from long ago.

Thai Life

Globetrotting Part 2: Where I have traveled in East Asia since mini retirement

Posted on May 9, 2024May 9, 2024by Lester T

This post continues from the Part 1, in which I covered where I globetrotted in Southeast Asia for the year and a half I have mini retired. This post covers where I have been across East Asia.

As with the prior post, I have listed next to each destination: 1) an estimate of how long of a flight it is from Chiang Mai (unless otherwise noted), 2) how much it cost me last time to fly there (one way), and 3) a quick listing of the experiences I had while traveling there.

Thai Life

Globetrotting Part 1: Where I have traveled since mini retirement

Posted on May 7, 2024May 9, 2024by Lester T

Wanderlust. It’s the word that comes to mind when I describe this feeling I have had since my early 20s. After September 11, 2001, I took some time off from college – and decided to teach English in a rural village in southern Thailand. It was during these few months as a volunteer teacher when I realized how large the world is and how much I wanted to explore it, to experience its opportunities, to live life fully.

I spent the better part of two decades repressing this wanderlust. I was raising a family, saving up and investing, and grinding away in corporate America. Oh, how I looked forward to the 3-4 weeks of vacation I had. My ex and I decided to spend half of those vacation days traveling as a family, and the balance traveling as a couple. And oh, how much I relished those days of exploring. We traveled everywhere – from closer spots like San Jose, Costa Rica and San Juan, Puerto Rico to more remote locations like Brisbane, Australia and Budapest, Hungary. Sure, these precious days spent with my family quelled some of my hunger for travel, but at the same time, it planted a seed in my mind: if we could travel for longer periods of time, where would we go?

Mini Retirement

Rebalancing: How I actually rebalance my portfolio

Posted on April 24, 2024April 24, 2024by Lester T

This entry is a little different from my others in that I’ll be laying out a step-by-step guide on how I actually rebalance my portfolio every quarter. For some of you, this may be pretty mundane – something you already know how to do – but perhaps for others, this could help build your confidence that you don’t need a financial advisor or a trading background to rebalance your portfolio. I will do my best not to get too technical, and I’ll use some simple examples to illustrate the math used.

Self Discovery

100 Things: My Minimalist List of the Things I Own

Posted on April 19, 2024April 19, 2024by Lester T

It’s been almost three years since I initially took the 100 Things Challenge. I believe it’s one of the pillars of being minimalist – and maintaining my personal items at or under 100 things keeps me honest about what I truly need to be happy. Since 2021, I moved abroad to Thailand, forcing me to really consider what to keep versus give away or sell. The move experience also taught me to be more choosy about what to buy over here in Thailand, avoiding the painful experience of giving away things at far less than what I paid for them.

Thai Life

China Tips: 6 Essential Tips for Navigating China

Posted on April 13, 2024April 13, 2024by Lester T

My family and I just got back from China. This was my second time in China, but my kids’ first time – and I wanted to make sure I was prepared. We took advantage of the 144 hour transit visa, which gave us five days (four nights) to explore Beijing and cross a bucket list item I had for the year: hike the Great Wall of China. While I would say that Americans really have nothing to fear with traveling to China and exploring the country (I think this fear illogically stems from media coverage and our current nationalism attitudes) I would say that China is not the most convenient place for Americans to visit and navigate, given technological restrictions and few people able to speak English. This post covers several tips I have if you are planning a trip to China and want to be best prepared.

Thai Life

144 Hours: My Experience Using China’s 144-Hour Transit Visa

Posted on April 11, 2024April 11, 2024by Lester T

It was super easy to get the 144-Hour Transit Visa in China for my family of four. In this post, I’ll highlight some need-to-know FAQs so that you can also obtain your 144-Hour Transit Visa for your trip to China.

Self Discovery

Minimalism: Why I Believe Less is More in my 40s

Posted on April 3, 2024April 4, 2024by Lester T

Bigger is better, right? And what better example of the American appetite for bigger things than the home we have. Since graduating from my MBA back in 2008, I have purchased three homes. The first was a modest 1,100 square feet two-bedroom condo. The second was a noticeable upgrade: 3,700 square feet four-bedroom single family house. The last is the record-breaker: 4,105 square feet five-bedroom single family house. And what do you do with more space in a house? You fill it with stuff! We had big stuff: mattresses, bed frames, sofas, TVs, desks, chairs. We amassed a ton of small stuff too: flatware, electronics, linens, even a box full of ‘complimentary’ hotel liquid soap and shampoo bottles. I saw the sign posts: the larger U-Hauls I would rent when we moved residences; how many Amazon Prime cardboard boxes I had to cut the tape off and collapse to recycle; and how little we used certain things like the waffle maker (used not even once!) and tennis rackets for the kids (used once – and kids didn’t want to play again).

After two decades of accumulation, I was not any happier. My Canali suits and Zegna ties didn’t make me happier. Holding onto my collection of outdated iPhones and coveted CDs purchased from Blockbuster music in the 90s (e.g., Live Throwing Copper, Backstreet Boys Millennium) didn’t make me happier. And the waffle maker certainly didn’t! So why did I own so much stuff? Why was I holding onto these things? These questions dovetailed with the other existential questions I was grappling with as I turned 40.

Mini Retirement

Allocation: How I Invest My Nest Egg

Posted on April 1, 2024April 1, 2024by Lester T

“I want to learn how to invest like you. What do you invest in?”

I get this a question a lot. And I usually answer with a curt “You know…stocks and bonds.” In the off chance that this curious person follows with, “Yes, I want to invest in stocks and bonds too. But how do I know what to choose?” That’s when I share what I’m about to share on this post.

Portfolio Allocation is really what the question is about: how I allocate my dollars across the seemingly infinite options out there. And people get PhDs and win Nobel Prizes for theories that guide portfolio allocation. But that’s not what this post is about.

You don’t need a MBA or even a Finance class to learn a few important things about investing in stocks and bonds. But there’s something to be said about getting to the simplicity of things – having spent over two decades investing in the market, reading all of these investment books, talking to CFAs and financial planners, and yes, getting my MBA and taking Finance classes. And the simplicity of things is where I’ll start – principles of how I allocate my portfolio – before I give you the percentages of my allocation.

Self Discovery

Vegetarian: Why I am a vegetarian in my 40s

Posted on March 28, 2024March 28, 2024by Lester T

I have been an omnivore for the first four decades of my life. My immigrant parents raised my siblings and me to view meat as a luxury item, especially steak. I recall how once a week, my mom would grill two slabs of 12oz ribeye steak to feed the five of us. My dad would encourage us to eat the marbled pieces of fat (“it’s the best part!”) and would often highlight the fact that we were so lucky to enjoy something that he could rarely eat back in Vietnam. As a child, I formed this belief that eating meat meant being wealthy. Wealthy people eat meat, because they can afford it.

Fast forward a few decades, and now I am in my 40s, wealthier than I have ever been, living in a country where I can live a life of luxury. So why did I decide to, among all things, become a vegetarian? Why give up meat?

This post lays out the beliefs that I now have around my vegetarian diet. I did not write this to encourage others to become plant-based too, but rather to affirm for myself why I choose this diet and why it works for me.