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.
144 Hours: My Experience Using China’s 144-Hour Transit Visa
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.
Minimalism: Why I Believe Less is More in my 40s
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 Holding onto my collection of outdated iPhones and coveted CDs purchased from Blockbuster music in the 90s (e.g., Live Throwing Copper, Backstreet Boys Millennium) didn’t make me happier.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.
Allocation: How I Invest My Nest Egg
“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.
Vegetarian: Why I am a vegetarian in my 40s
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.
CM F&B: What to eat/drink when you visit Chiang Mai
Many of my friends across Thailand and abroad visit Chiang Mai – and I often get the question, ‘any recommendations on where to eat or drink?’ It’s a tough question to answer because everyone’s tastes are different, but I can recommend what I like the most, broken up by category:
- If you want to eat Khao Soi…
- If you want to eat Boat noodles…
- If you want a cheap, tasty meal…
- If you want vegan/vegetarian western food…
- If you want vegan/vegetarian Thai food…
- If you want pizza…
- If you want a cafe-hop stop…
- If you want to drink some latte art…
- If you want to enjoy some espresso cocktails and latte art…
- If you want to drink tea or matcha…
- If you want to drink a beer and hang out…
Health Insurance: What health insurance I have for my family
Part of ‘adulting’ is to purchase insurance for yourself and your family. As the sole bread winner for my family, there was significant risk in a scenario in which I could no longer work or provide for my family. And this becomes readily apparent after making the decision to move to Thailand; if I were to get into a major car accident here, would I have the financial means to weather the associated medical costs and care for my family in the mean time? Or given my heavy travel schedule – going to >10 countries last year – would I have proper medical attention in a foreign country outside of Thailand?
This post discusses how I evaluated health / medical insurance options for my family living here in Thailand – and outlines why I selected the insurer that I did: Cigna for our first year and Allianz Care for our current policy.
INTJ: Embracing my Personality Type
I remember taking my first Meyers Briggs (MBTI) personality type assessment in high school for a Gifted and Talented class I took as a senior. I was fascinated by what the resulting report said about me. INTJ – what does that mean? I avidly read the report as well as books on the topic. Fast forward, over two decades later, I am still learning about my MBTI type. It’s true – my type has remained pretty much the same year after year. Learning how I can be the best INTJ version of myself has helped me be a better professional, a better leader, even a better romantic partner – sharing with others how I like to consume information or how I need time alone to recharge – that it’s not anything personal to them, but just how I am built.
But how do I be the best INTJ version of myself in mini-retirement? Without the corporate environment, without the back-to-back schedule, without the structure I was used to, how do I adjust my behaviors to bring out the best of me? This post discusses some things I have learned about myself while in mini-retirement and outlines a couple of things I’m working on.
Bag: What’s in my Travel Bag
One perk about being in Thailand is the ease of travel to get to so many different locations in less than two hours. Using Chiang Mai as my home base, there are several major cities accessible with an AirAsia flight. I often travel for a week at a time, often five or six nights. I found that this is enough to really get the vibe of a city – and see if I want to revisit in the future.
I travel very light. This is for a few reasons. First, I want to avoid checking in bags, since this incurs fees with AirAsia and gobbles up time spent at the airport. Second, if I need to get on a Grab motorbike to zip from point A to point B (and not get stuck in traffic) then I refrain from using large baggage, especially with wheels. Third, I don’t like rolling luggage while walking on a busy city street or on sand at a beachside destination.
Loneliness: How I cope with loneliness
Disclaimer: I am a work-in-progress. This post is a work-in-progress. Coping with loneliness is difficult; I do not claim to have the silver bullet, but I can say that I’m getting better at it. This is a post about what I have found to be helpful – and not helpful – in facing those times when I’m alone.
I’m going to start off with what has not worked – has not served me – since I believe it’s really good context for the few things I have found to work for me:
What Does Not Work