[quote=carlsbadworker][quote=flu]Let’s put it in perspective. Folks that bought a place say in Shanghai in 2003, are probably seeing 400% gains today. Selling said place and buying say a $1million place say in San Marino(even though folks might think is expensive, overpriced, etc) is still probably “safer” than keeping it in Shanghai. Plus, even if things depreciate, I’m sure folks would still come out ahead.
If folks want to talk about stereotypes, just go to almost any new sales office here. All the builder agents/etc don’t seem to have any issues bending over backwards when they see an asian couple walk in.. It’s so obvious, it’s almost ridiculous.
But for your “average asian couple”, Most asian couples (not all, but most)…also are dual income with woman making same as men (chances are both are relatively equal in profession/experience and tend to be in professions…. Also, tend to be more miser on everything else.
Where you start seeing deviation, are in the second and third generations that have been corrupted by american vices…like me.. who tend to be much more materialistic than my ancestors, wanting cars, booze, and boobs.[/quote]
OK. Now you are proving my points. How many Asians are selling a place in Shanghai and buying a house in US? They are minority. The average Asian bids the price of Shanghai apartment 4 times higher than they are in 2003. Is this financially smart? How? Average Asian approaches investment decisions as gambling. So you see property market rises to insane level and stocks went up and down with no relationship to the fundamental. Part of it, I can understand. They all want to get rich quickly because the overall financial environment can change overnight with the whim of its rulers. But part of it, is most people are only capable of being a miser rather than generating future cashflows from savings.
And for Asian people in US, since most Asian couples are dual income, why do they have to be miser on everything (except housing and education)? Because they have no idea how much wealth they needed and how to generate sustained cashflow, so they tend to over-save (maximize 401K in both spouses’ accounts) and do nothing when inflation kicks in. They buy bigger and more expensive houses, but a very small percentage of Asian people that I know own investment properties. It is a surprise given their income level. I think it is because most can’t tell the difference between expenses and investments.[/quote]
I won’t go into the discussion of asian “new money” versus “old money”. In sort, “old money” is traditional enginerd types that came here on a student visa and emigrated here, became U.S. citizens, etc… “new money” are the people that came here post asian economic boom…Essentially, they bought their way here..Setting up a shop/business/or shell company, so that they can emigrate and bring their kids here. New money kids tend to be spoiled brats. I grew up with several of them, who had nicer cars @16 than most parents here would be able to afford for themselves.. More of my classmates had 7 series BMW’s and Porsche’s than many of my friends now. We called them FOB’s, and eventually they thought it was a compliment and were damn proud if it. The first way of these new money folks came from Hong Kong. The second, from taiwan. The third wave came from Korea. The forth (current) is from China. (Japanese I think were the only ones that showed considerable restraint during their economic boom). I guess that’s why I’ve dated more japanese women than any of the rest combined. (It was more affordable)…
Regarding the double income enginerd type family. Of course this is true. How else do you think enginerd folks from China are able to stay in the U.S. after the student visa expires? It’s not like the U.S. is handing out green cards to these people of the bat. It’s called a JOB…And the U.S. companies are usually pretty good at exploiting these folks by applying for their green card using these slowest possible way (third priority, second if you have a phd) that takes probably 7 years. American’s don’t need to feel that bad though…With the exception of the “new money” folks (which probably was the creation of american consumerism), the enginerd types are usually the best of the best here, as in this category education was the only way for them to come here.
As far as asian mentality. The two most important thing have been historically house and education. It’s about improving the economic situation of your family. It’s probably a foreign concept here. But traditional asian families do tend to make sacrifices for their future generation, even if it meant taking the miser approach.
I keep saying this over and over again. Education and house (in that order) are probably the last two things they will try cut out..Want to make money off of asians? Create a tutorial/enrichment program for their kids. Totally recession proof. If you’re trying to sell arts/crafts/etc, good luck with that. It’s not about prioritizing education or house above those things. THOSE THINGS AREN’T EVEN ON THE NEED/WANT list. You won’t find me at too many garage sales or swamp meets. Because I don’t need/want to spend money on all that clutter than I’m going to end up donating anyway. Hell, I have issues buying a $3 birthday card that hallmarks wants to charge for now…And sorry, if you’re one my asian friends, your kids gets a gift that either isn’t wrapped or wrapped with the 99cents christmas wrap paper that was on sale after Christmas, and a “hand made” card from my kid (yeah, I know it looks like crap, but come on, you’re kid’s going to throw away that fancy card in the trash anyway)…And besides, I know you’re going to do the same thing to me also, and we both understand this is bullshit so we both agree it’s easier on our wallets not to do this… One the other hand, if you’re not asian, your kid gets the the gift that is wrapped with the “in-season” wrapping paper and the glossy hallmark card that I know your kid will throw away anyway, because well, I don’t expect you to understand and you would think my kid is from a cheap/weird family that would create havoc on my kid’s self esteem.
On the other hand, it’s completely ironic when the U.S and State governments completely overrun their budgets, that one of the first areas they cut from are dollars to public schools. I joke about this so many times. Right about the time our economy started to go south, I was telling friends. Hey, don’t look now, but public school is going to get a lot worse because are dumb-dumb elected officials did the same thing in the 80ies too…Go figure….
Are these double income asian folks really rich from salary? Probably not from the salary they make. They probably hold the lower tiered white collar jobs (many probably not management/directors/etcs… Though it’s much different now)… Rich from the sense that they saved a shitload of money? Definitely…My parents were classic example…My mom retired when she was 55, my dad at 65 (and went back for to be a consultant for the defense industry post retirement)..Never spend much when they didn’t have money. And when the money rolled in, never changed their spending habits. Likewise, one of my friends who was a MD at Merrill on an insane pay rate, still shopped at walmart all the time and clipped coupons.
I think this is completely different to how many (not all, but many) americans think. I’ve noticed that often, when folks get a raise, they end up thinking, “cool, I can spend more now” and end up spending more than their raise…I think several have seen this in the RE bubble period too, where folks are we making their RE purchasing decisions based on bonus/raises they were expecting to get the next year. I find it surprising that at work on how many people have depended/counted on a raise. In my friend, it meant a difference of anywhere from 5% to 15%, and really after taxes, it’s not THAT much of a difference…And yet, some would say how much they needed that to keep up.. (Personally, I the raise was important to me as validation of my self worth the employer relative to my peers, that that I needed the difference because my financial budget already counted on it…
It’s not an intentional slam on americans, just appears that’s the case. On piggington, it’s different, because I think the crowd here tends to be more responsible financially. But like I said, it’s really an exception than the rule.
