Reading Time: 3minutesPenFed Credit Union is asking me to lobby the congress on rewards Credit Cards
Or rewards credit cards. Today I received an email from PenFed Credit Union and they are asking me to lobby the congress on rewards Credit Cards. I no longer have their credit cards, I used to have their reward cards, and earned quite a bit gift cards from them. Basically I redeemed the points for various gift cards.
Some background
On the Credit Card rewards, and the legislations to eliminate rewards Credit Card:
Honestly at this stage of my life I have got “free” iPhone from the credit card rewards, and I got free stay at the Park Hyatt at Shanghai Pudong. But I am ready to give up those perks for the common good. 1% cash back from discover debit sounds good enough for me (see below screenshot). I understand I may be a bit superficial in the sense, that I received quite a bit benefits from the credit card rewards and now I don’t care. I think I am not taking sides on this: it’s a good position to be. I do understand the impact of credit card fees on the smaller retailers. Here in St. Louis, we have a Chinese grocery store that used to accept only cash, and debit cards, somewhat like Aldi did until a few years ago. Grocers have quite low profit margin and the 2 or 3% credit card swiping fee (processing fee) is meaningful or significant for them.
Who wants the free cup from my new dental office, btw?
This is a free cup given to me by the new dental office – as a good well gesture I guess. But I really don’t need it. Recently I am in the mode of declutter, and hope to clean up the house a bit so that we have more real living space 🙂 In a way rewards credit card is the same thing, basically it encourages or nudges the cardholder to spend more, I heard one research is credit card users will in general spend 15% than the consumer who uses cash only. I noticed this cup is from a company I know (Ariel Premium Supply) and I know a few people working there. Compared to the credit card companies, Ariel makes not a lot of money, but I think Ariel is in the rewards business too.
Full disclosure: a few years ago I worked in the loyalty and rewards platform for a major Credit Card co. and once I spent 2 hours trying to give a Card Holder (CH) 13 cents worth of points.
(Update 11-03-2025) Come across this Chinese blog post 被裁员是祸是福 -没准是柳岸花明又一村 and I agree. In English it’s called blessings disguised as curse 🙂
(Original) A touchy topic. I have been in the tech industry for almost 23 years, and I have seen my share of the layoffs. I saw the layoff very early in my career, and the most recent ones in last year or so amid the big tech post pandemic layoffs.
Layoffs are usually not pleasant. But putting emotions aside, I recall an older wise gentleman once told me: it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it gives an opportunity for someone to look beyond the daily grinding, to reflect, to pivot or reposition and hopefully find something better or more suitable for someone (not exactly words, here someone is actually yours truly back in the early 2019).
Also sometimes the old timers (the good old employers) will ask in the employment history section during a job app: have you ever being involuntarily terminated from an employer? While I am not a lawyer (my wife is), but my legal advice here is: this is somewhat like the situation when I was in the US Consulate in Shanghai back in 1997, when the visa officer asked: what’s your plan after the graduate school? One thing I was 100% sure is: I was not going to say that I planned to stay in the US for good 🙂 I think an honest answer then is probably “I don’t know” or “I am not sure”. Remember in 1997 although the Hong Kong was returning to China, at the time the US was still way ahead of China, with the exception of the Chinese food here. There were a lots more economy developments in China compared to the US since then.
Two traumatic layoffs that left me impression
It was Oct 11, 2001, a month after the Sept 11, 2001. We knew the layoff is coming, after our company bought a rival company. The day came and it was not the 1st time I saw layoff, I think I saw a smaller layoff shortly after I joined the company in fall 2000. But Oct 11, 2021 is probably by far the worst in my career, we had 3 coworkers being let go on that morning. I worked closely with one of them, and the coworker cried or sobbed when the news broke. Her husband also worked at our team. Later the department manager rallied or tried to console the people who being left (we had about 30+ people, mostly devs). And we also learned the overlapping dev team at the acquired company were all let go. I recall there were quite a few ethnic Chinese people, who probably had similar background with me, but they may have came to the US a few years earlier than me. A side note amid all this is a QA engineer (test engineer) was laid off, and a few weeks ago during a townhall he asked question to the CEO about layoff 🙁 That day the company laid off about 18% of the people, and that’s probably 1,300 people.
Another case, while at the Mercy Health, we also knew the layoff was coming. And this time around we lost our QA engineer again (see the pattern here?), as well as an old engineer who cried / sobbed quite loud. I vowed to myself: never put myself into this kind of position when I reach his age (which is getting closer and closer, btw 🙂
My own share of layoffs
I had experienced 2 layoffs myself so far. Both times I was a bit surprised. But I think the second time it worked out for me better as my severance package is better, also due to the timing, it helped us bought our single family house at the right time before pandemic in summer 2019 (so here is another side benefit in addition to the career pivot).
The 1st time it was a bit sour taste. But I was not totally caught off guard either. I know one or two project leaders (they are more like team lead, not managers) didn’t like me. And I couldn’t do much to change the situation (the dynamics). The layoff came, the admin assistant was really nice actually. Looking back I think she is one of the few people who probably knew a few days in advance. I calmed down and negotiated a calm exit before my China trip then (year 2011, I had to email recruiters when I was in China, which is not ideal). I got a contractor position quickly after I came back from China. In this particular case, I actually learned that individual who said bad things about me before my manager(s) once got into a fist fight with another coworker there. I think looking from another angle, avoid toxic people at work place is a good idea 🙂 I do recall the evening in which I just lost my job, and I went to the Bread Co, thinking I would probably spend say $15 off my $40k savings: I may have seen a friend there, but I forgot exact who etc. I did couple interviews before the China trip, and no offer before my flight 🙁
Technically there was another case that I was laid off, in Nov 2013, very briefly. My contract job ended and they gave me 2 weeks notice via my recruiter. And I recall I saw a “Lord’s Prayer” in the weekend I learned the news, while at a friend’ friend home attending the 1st friend’ baby shower. That “layoff” left me a sour taste as well. But luckily I was interviewing before this and was able to quickly secure a new job offer in a few days.
Strategies
I think the most important thing to remember is never assume your job is there tomorrow. Because we have very little control. CEOs came and go, and little guys (or girls) like us can be let go really at any time. Never assume your work is so important that your boss or your company will keep you forever.
Along those lines, make sure you have the urgent savings account, which should at least cover 6 month of living cost: thinking mortgage / rent, grocery, gas, car payment (if applicable), and health insurance (remember if you pay out of your own pocket, it will not be cheap, as companies usually subsidize some cost aa a part of the benefit). This part is important because it gives you a peace of mind when you got the layoff. Note not every company offers generous severance package. The money you have will also help you have some breeze room when looking for new jobs.
Also get prepared. Always get your resume or LinkedIn profile updated. Test the market once a while. For coders (programmers, developers, software engineers), make sure you do some coding every day / week etc., don’t just sit there and do nothing. Learn something new if there is not much coding work. Nowadays there are so many online free resources for one to learn. In face, in terms of job market, for developers (software development engineers), the job market is usually pretty good. So as long as the developer knows something and can contribute, he/she usually won’t be in the job market for too long. I cannot say that for other positions in the IT job market, e.g., recruiter jobs are very much business (econ) cycle, so there is this famine and feast kind of situation. Similar can be said for the Quality Assurance (test engineer) and manager positions. I saw a director at the credit card got laid off, initially that individual worked for a contractor position as project manager, until eventually going back to similar position as before: took couple years.
But again here we need to be mindful that we are the ones who are responsible for our own careers: e.g., there is a manager position opening up at a software company or an IT shop, and someone hinted that you jumping at the opportunity. Remember what I just said: in terms of the job opportunities disparity between devs and managers, or architects for that matter. At one time of my career, I did become an architect as well, but I decided that was not for me longer term. I like to be closer to the coding.
Tips
Remember try not to be emotional. Also you are entitled to ask “why the layoff on me”? Although the answer is usually “the position is eliminated” or something similar. Remember the employer usually has better resources in terms of legal expertise or lawyered-up. In reality just like in the situation of “being dumped by your significant other”, there is usually signs or legit reasons whey it happened. Ideally you should know and not be caught totally off guard. And hopefully you were waiting for the severance package. For that my advice is not to sign anything on the spot. Just like an offer letter, you may want to bring it home, cool down, talk to someone, before signing anything official.
Also sometimes looking back the writing is on the wall or the hints are usually there. Like the two traumatic (large) layoffs I mentioned above. Get prepared before the actual layoff happens (again refer to the strategies above). No need to overly worry about the look the admin assistant gave you though, just be prepared when you work for someone or a company, you know in the USA the employment is at-will: meaning people can let you know anytime. This is quite different from the families. And don’t got tricked into thinking company’s sometimes misleading “we are families” kind of talk. We are in a employee / employer relationship, for now. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
Last but not least, don’t use your company device for anything that’s in your private life. An example, your kids pictures, your family pictures, if you have company iPhone, try not to use it for those sort of things. And if you do, as a minimum try to make copies and delete the pictures on the phone before turning it in. You know the iPhone has settings that allow you to do that, and do it as needed. You never know what other people are going to do to the company devices that you turn in.
Psychological Impact
I don’t think this is trivial. I believe just like being dumped by your first significant other (boy friend/girl friend, husband/wife), this “being rejected by someone” feeling is usually hard, but at the same time it’s also quite common and normal. If you always got what you wanted, and were never rejected by someone, congrats 🙂 I think some of the websites will use the first name or name of your 1st boy friend or girl friend as an option (btw, this does not work very well in the Muslim countries, from what I heard). The reason for that is simple: people would almost never forget that name 🙂
Over the time though, we can overcome this “being rejected” feeling. It never goes away. But it can be controlled, and hopefully we can direct to something or some endeavor that we can use our passion there.
Another potential side effect, is the stigma associated with layoff, which is totally unnecessary – and I touched those good old companies’s specific question “have you ever involuntarily terminated from your job”? Again not legal advice just ignore those. Things don’t always work out as we liked. As long as we learn something and try not to make same mistake (again and again), we are making progress 🙂
Job Search
Last but not least, some job search observations / tips. Related to that, some may point out that although in the US, the employers cannot discriminate against applicants’ age, in reality though, this is still a factor and most employers in fact have preferences on employees’ age. I recall in the company I worked for 8 years, and I know a coworker worked there for 40+ years, and I heard he was laid off after I left (I resigned from that company in Nov 2008, yes it was during the financial crisis :-(. His layoff has nothing to do with my leaving, and I believe there is age factor there.
(Update 09-10-2023) Came across this video “One peril facing job-hunters? Being ghosted” at CBS Sunday Morning. This is actually quite common during a job search, from my experience. Don’t take it personally and move on.
(Update 09-20-2023)How Virtual Layoffs Became The New Normal For Workplaces. Btw, I just learned another contractor got laid off at my work place (my impression is current work place is pretty bad towards contractors, as I was at the other end of the table about 10 years ago, they did give me 2 weeks notice, so it softens the blow a bit). Talking about contractors or contingency workers in the IT and software industry, this is a very common way for an employers to add more people when needed, and get rid of them when not needed. Quite brutal in the sense of “job security” or “provide for family”. Something to keep in mind when jumping ships. || Also from SubStack: Layoff lessons: Four things I wish I knew.
(Update 12-18-2023) Came across this blog post from a former colleague, looks good. From my personal experience, healthcare is a tough industry to work.
This is probably my only successful merge arbitrage speculation so far. By “success” I meant I am out after the recent US FTC failed attempt to stop the merge. Note the UK authority could still pose challenges or stop this thing completely. Although the market does expect the deal to close eventually.
I didn’t speculate on those frequently. I do recall I did a few such as the CNOOC / Chevon bidding war on a company, as well as the InBev buying Budweiser. For this one Activision I started buying after the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting. And I did trade the stock here and there during the process. The main thing I am happy about is not how much money I made (about $1,000 I think, I didn’t bet heavily on it, btw), but I was able to hold my position towards the end (I mean almost the end, close to the $95 closing price).
Reading Time: 5minutesStock chart for AT&T ends on 07/14/2023 – this actually the low point of stock for a while as you can see the new chart here
(Update 12-19-2024) I gave it more thought here at my Substack.
(Update 12-31-2023) I just looked at one of my IRA accounts in which I hold mostly stocks. The dividend yield is about 1% (I hold about 45% of the portfolio in $BRK). There are two points of the views on dividend based investing, some people argue we don’t always need the dividend. In the example of $BRK, basically we can trust the management, and we just need to sell the stocks to get the “dividend” for our spending need. Below is a YT video that explains this.
(Update 12-15-2023) Costco is issuing a special dividend of $15 per share, and this spurs some interest on some investors. Quote Motley Fool: “This will be Costco’s fifth-ever special dividend. Previous special dividends were paid in 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2020 in the amounts of $7, $5, $7, and $10, respectively. This makes the company’s 2024 special dividend of $15 its largest, by far.” I only have a few shares of $COST, btw. Below is a bigger $COST shareholder.
But I have more $KO, and I believe today 12-15-2023 is also the day Coca Cola pays out quarterly dividend: it’s 46 cents a share. Note $BRK has much more dividend income from $KO.
Other dividend stocks I have: $DVN and $PFE. Both declined significantly this year. I bought $DVN in the hope of getting the dividend yield, and it seems with the oil price slipping (in the near future), this didn’t work out for me yet. You may also notice $DVN’s dividend dropped compared to last year.
In the case of $PFE, the situation is much more dire: as shown in this Yahoo Finance Video.
Last but not least, Steve Baller, the former CEO of Microsoft, is getting lots of money from $MSFT dividend.
I have invested or to be more precise speculated in the US stock market since 2003, and this will mark the 20 year anniversary. In recent years, I gave more thoughts to the dividend, both because the dividends are becoming more meaningful, as well as I am thinking about potentially switch from a 9 to 5 job to multiple income streams, e.g., dividends, adjunct teaching at college, ads income from this blog (this seems to be hardest so far, btw :-), etc.
A few things to keep in mind when doing dividend-based or focused investing.
Make sure the company can afford or pay the dividend from its Free Cash Flow (FCF). If something is too good to be true, it’s likely not true. Case in point, if you look at AT&T stock now (07-21-2023), the dividend yield is 7.5%. The problem with AT&T and some other companies (e.g., $SCS, Steelcase the office furniture maker came to mind) is with the debt and deteriorating business or economy, they may not be able to pay the dividend continuously. I know one company that cut dividends recently: VF Corp ($VFC). More on AT&T, I had a tweet on its return in the last 29 years: I think I still need to calculate it myself. Not sure if the chart below includes all the cash dividends and the stock dividend (“Additionally, shareholders of AT&T received 0.241917 shares of WBD for each share of AT&T common stock they held at close”) $T #dividend.
I just noticed this Tweet (thread): S&P Dividend Aristocrats (Wikipedia; 5 year performance comparison with S&P 500, google finance, it seems they did NOT include the dividends in the calculation). I have $KO (#CocaCola) on this list. But Number 2 on the list Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG) looked interesting to me. I just realized it’s based in Missouri (wiki), in fact, the town Carthage, Missouri is close to Joplin, MO, and it has two interstates passing the town: I-44 and I-49. Note their products are also interesting (e.g., this geosynthetic solution and their specialty products, as well as their history. They seem making components for office furniture too – reminds me of Steelcase and my recent purchase of an office chair. The family appears to no longer controls the company. Their current annual dividend is $1.84 (rate is %6.26 per Friday 7-21-2023 closing price of $29.38). I think I will do a deep dive into the company next. Btw, recently I realized this is a hard time for new graduates to get into the IT/software development field, I just noticed there is one position for this company (IT support, I know it’s not ideal, but still something to think about as an entry-level job).
I think I probably say a word about why invested in “stocks that issue cash dividend”. Besides the benefits of cash, a company that issues dividends regularly in some way shows two things: 1) Financial strength (again show me the free cash flow); 2) They care about the shareholder, in some cases the owners probably have a lot of shares too and they actually rely on the dividend for their lives. On the other hand, this does not mean the companies that doesn’t issue dividend are not good, in fact, Berkshire Hathaway the company famous investor Warren Buffett doesn’t issue regular dividend. I recall he said once they did issue 10 cents (source: “Other than a ten cent per share dividend that Berkshire paid in 1967, the company has never paid a dividend to shareholders since Warren Buffett took control in 1965.“) dividend, which looking back it was an expensive mistake. The reason being they invested in the money (say $1) instead of give it to shareholders right away, they get way more than $1 down the road.
PS: Leggett & Platt reminds me of another Missouri based company (Monett, Missouri), ironically it’s a banking ( technology company named Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY). They provide technology and service for financial services industry, with a focus on smaller banks or credit unions. It has an excellent return if we look from its IPO. It has a small dividend, and is in the S&P 500 index. Maybe someday I will drive around those two towns, and see if I can find special sauces that made them successful. Note the greater St. Lotus area has some S&P and Fortune 500 companies too: such as Emerson Electric (EMR) on this list (tweet). Btw, the all time return of JKHY (+47,569.44%, from 1985) is much better than EMR (+1,717.33%, from 1983). Not sure if Google finance has the complete set of historical data. Btw, Leggett & Platt (LEG) Inc performed similar to EMR in this period. I probably looked at JKHY about 15 years ago, not definitely not as serious as Warren Buffett. Warren probably reads the annual report for the company he is interested (plus the reports for 8 competitors).
Market sentiment week of 07-17
It can be better summarized by the unusual_whales tweet on the $ABNB share sales of its cofounder. While I am not saying the insiders always time the market, but it still reminds me of this: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sells more than $285 million in Microsoft stock. I recall about 6 month later (April 2022), $MSFT and Nasdaq had a peak / climax. Again I am not predicting the same this time around 🙂
I thought about this for a while. The last time I planned to switch, was a few years ago, at our previous home (condo), for some reason the AT&T technician could not find a port for the broadband, per my wife (I was likely working at the credit card company at the time). And the technician gave up. I vaguely recall the reason for the switch was to reduce the monthly bill. Internet providers usually gave a good introductory price for one year, before jacking up the prices. And in the case of Charter, they jack up prices almost every year. Once I called them, and said I wanted to switch, and then they lowered the price by $10 a month. Basically switching providers or phone calls are two ways I know to lower the broadband bill.
I didn’t think of switching during the move – partially due to the unpleasant experience I had with $T (AT&T, T is their stock ticker symbol). Partially because Charter/Spectrum gave a good intro price for a year for new customers (here new as a new address, or a new account). I recall it took me some effort to figure out which cable to plug into my cable modem (the broadband modern for Charter), set up the Wifi router, and my IP phone (iTalkBB, refer to this old blog post here, time flies. Probably time to cancel iTalkBB now.) and I didn’t bother to switch to AT&T until very recently. I did recall about 2 summers ago, we had a power outage, and Charter Internet came back as soon as the power is back (both the cable modem and wifi router needed electricity). But the communication lines were damaged especially the AT&T cables, if my memory is correct, and it seems today during my AT&T install, another outside technician needs to come to the outside terminal and do some work – likely a fallout from 2 years ago. Again back to the topic.
Recently I had some intermittent issues with the Charter/Spectrum internet so I decided to switch. The intermittent/reliability issue is both from my observation and from informal surveys among friends (thank you friends 🙂
I placed the installation order last week, and a technician came today. I did some surveys before today. So I pointed out the outside and inside cables. Installation took a few hours. The setup is relatively straightforward, I mean the embedded Wifi router. It’s done via an app called Smart Home Manager. The technician is friendly and helpful too. In addition to pointing out the app, as well as showing me how to get to it, he told me to switch off Charter shortly to avoid a new monthly bill.
I did a speed testjust now, it seems Charter still has a faster download speed, but the upload speed is comparable. I will update this post as time goes on.
PS: I recall The Sound of dial-up Internet both in China and in the US. It’s a bit funny when I was applying for US graduate schools in the fall of 1996, I borrowed the email and computer access card from my friend in Fudan U. The professor in Rolla thought I was a graduate student in Fudan: which probably helped my application a bit as they are more prestigious than my graduate school 🙂 I still remember those days when I wrote emails on a terminal of a UNIX machine. Copy, paste, and save information or write information to a disk seems like a century ago, in today’s smartphone, and ubiquitous Internet world. Also, just came across this post back in 2014 when I had to do some magic or hack to make the iPad work with Wifi at home.
PS2: the monthly cost, was $80 per month for Charter, vs $50 a month for AT&T. AT&T has a slightly slower download speed, from the speed test. Also, some offers one may be able to use. Rakuten (eBates): I used it and I saw $112.50 cash in my account (this will cover the $99 installation cost, btw). Some Chase credit cards may offer cash back for AT&T fiber (I think they all broadband will likely work): I plan to use my Amazon Chase card as it has a $50 offer. Last but not least, I had a twitter poll for this.
Update 01-28-2024: I used offer from Amex Gold too. Also it seems Dosh App gave me cash back on the top of the Amex offer. Now we are talking about double dipping 🙂 Last but not least, I realized that I used the link at ebates (now rakuten) and I received $112.50 cash back from them as well (on 08-15-2023). So in summary, at least for now, the AT&T service (about $55 a month) is mostly free for me/my family at this time. I do expect to use fewer offer from now on. And I don’t plan to switch back to Charter soon as their service seems still spotty from time to time.
(Update 09-25-2025) I believe the annual fee for the Amex Gold card is $325 now. The perks: $10 a month on both Uber Eats and Grub Hub; $7 a month back on Dunkin Donuts. Total $27 x 12 = $324. So, this basically pays itself right there.
(Original 06-06-2023) I owned an Amex Gold card for a while. Sometimes I tweeted about it. I was thinking about giving Serenity a card (I talked about it in my blog), too. In fact, the other day Mother’s Day 2023 to be precise, we had her “pay” for the dinner. Note the reason I used the double quotes is I still pay the credit card bill :-).
I mentioned/talked about Amex Gold Card in my other blog post: you will need to scroll down a bit to read the benefits of Amex Gold. I think for the most part, the benefits cover the annual fee of $250.
One thing I did notice recently, is that the Gold Card does not provide airport lounge access. For that access, it requires a platinum card: an Amex centurion lounge or a Delta Lounge. Btw, this video explained various airport lounges well. To summarize though, it may make sense if someone travels quite a bit (meaning probably once or twice each month). And it seems the $495 a year Amex Delta platinum card (Delta Lounge) and the $695 a year Amex Platinum (centurion lounge) are the way to go. For infrequent flyers, thinking Priority Club is worth trying via a day pass. (Update 06-13-2023) I came across another YT video that offers an interesting perspective – It’s Over: Why I’m Cancelling My American Express.
But I am happy with the other benefits that come with Amex gold, including some of the offers. Note I like the flexibility Membership Rewards offer too, e.g., I can transfer the points to my HHonors account (the Hilton family hotels, 1 Membership Rewards point = 2 Hilton Honors points), or Marriott Bonvoy (Marriott rewards program, 1 Membership Rewards points = 1 Marriott Points).
I do have another Amex card, the Blue Cash, with a $95 annual fee. And I think the benefits such as 6% grocery store cashback and offers such as the Disney bundle covers the fee as well.
Note I don’t necessarily like or appreciate some of their “offers”, again, for example, this Fiji water offer, $20 off $80, and I mentioned some of the controversy of the famous Fiji water here. Also the CNBC Jim Cramer’s Investors Club, which is a $100 off $399 offer, again I would pass.
Last but not least, I pay off the balance every month. I think with the rewards credit card, sometimes I may have over-spent. This is something I believe Mr. Zhang Xin did right, as he explained in Chinese about his personal finance tips ( 我的理財觀超級老古板，當作笑話看就可以了章新談談心，老了改不了了 ), basically, he does not use a credit card (he uses cash, I assume debit card included), and he doesn’t invest or trade stocks, as he thinks that’s a gamble.
Offers vs Promotion
I worked for a major credit card company’s rewards program for almost 4 years between 2015 and 2019. And I personally created or oversaw some of the promotions (or campaigns) when I was there. Offers are a bit different. It’s another type of promotion from the consumer’s point of view, basically, the consumer just needs to enroll in that offer, when a qualifying spend happens, the cashback or other rewards will happen automatically. Right now, I mainly use the offers from Amex and Chase credit cards, as they are fairly straightforward and easy to enroll. A good example of an “offer” is this one – #AmexGold has an offer from #Steelcase for $150 off $750, you may want to check your Amex cards if you are planning to buy office chairs from the Steelcase website directly.
Yesterday, an interesting moment. I need a five dollar bill. And I asked my 13 year old and 8 (soon to be 9) year old. I asked my younger daughter 1st. She said, why don’t you go ask mom? My 13 year old was listening, she already went to her piggy bank. She didn’t have 2 five(s). I said it’s okay, I will give you 10 and and you gave me the dollar bills (6). No judgement I hope one day young daughter can be as generous as her big sister.
Btw, I gave my older daughter an Amex Gold card yesterday too. I plan to give my younger one a Chase Debit Card at her 9th birthday. Different banks have different age limit for credit or debit card. I think for Chase the age limit for debit card is 7. Also note I usually pay off all the credit card balance each month. So in other words I receive all the reward points for free (or almost free if we don’t consider the annual fees). I just noticed there is a 5,000 points reward if the new cardholder spends $2,000 in the first 6 month. I don’t think my 13 year will spend that much. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to spend that much either. More on the credit card and rewards on another post.
More about the Amex gold card – My 13 year old got her 1st CC. It’s an Amex Gold (technically it’s a charge card, which means there is no credit limit I think). It does provide the typical protection that a CC provides such as loss and theft. Yesterday I realized she will be herself, graduate from college and start working in 10 years. Our younger one will be in college too. || Time really flies. I remember when I was new to America, I saw the commercial/infomercial on the late night TV, and I cannot recall I applied for the Amex credit card 💳 or not. If I did, it would be a straight decline. 又突然想到我初中二年级的时候已经住校，而且好像是自己管理自己的粮票饭票菜票了[捂脸]。一个月见一次父母。
PS: today 05-12-2023 I renewed the Amazon Prime PBS Kids subscription ($4.99 a month, pas as you go) again for my 8 year old. I am a generous dad, right? I looked through my gmail “Your PBS KIDS Subscription Has Started”, and found that I subscribed three times, and cancelled twice 🙂
I think savers should look at high yield savings account #HYSA now. Personally I use the $AXP (#Amex or #AmericanExpress) and $DFS (#DiscoverCard). The rate as of today 05-05-2023 is 3.75% for both. I expect they raise the rate to 4% shortly after this week Federal Reserve’s 0.25% rate hike.
More readings: choose HYSA or Certificate of Deposit (CNBC – These 2 savings accounts have interest rates of about 5%: Here’s which one you should choose). Long word short, if you have money that you know you can put away for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or more, go for the CD to lock in the current high interest rate. The convention wisdom is the Federal Reserve may pause here, and after a while, may start lower the interest rate if they see the inflation is slowly under control (of course, all these are hard to predict). If you want flexibility, e.g., if you just want to put your emergency funds somewhere safe, I think HYSA is the way to go. We just got a floating (market) interest rate then: I don’t know about how you feel, personally I am okay with that. Btw, I just saw the Discover Card is offering 4.5% interest rate for one year CD.
Please email me at minjie dot xu at gmail dot com if you like to join
讨论美股个股为主(Latest update is at the bottom). 近年我个人比较成功的是OKTA：她家做identity cloud ☁️ (single sign on, security as a service etc). ZM没有拿稳比较可惜。I also long Berkshire Hathaway, Alibaba and GoodRx. Two disclaimers: 1) Your money 💰, your call (decision); 2) I am not big on macro trend / economics, neither am I big on market predictions: other than general things such as republicans are usually for less regulations, Democrats are for more tax / wealth distribution if you will.
(Update as of 12-28-2020: I sold off GDRX recently and I sold some $BABA today and last Thursday. I plan to sell remaining $BABA in the near future)
(Update 01-08-2021: 股市有泡沫，投机需谨慎).
(Update 11-01-2021: top 6 stock holdings in all my accounts are (in the order of most money => least): brk.b, sbux, ko, hun, SLB and DVN. The last 3 are chemicals, oil services and oil / gas producer. I believe we have at least 10 to 20 more years of internal combustion engines cars / trucks, and many many more years usage of chemicals (thinking painting, building materials etc.), plastics etc). ||
(Update 01-22-2022) The US stock market 📉 is entering the correction mode, as we have seen from last week. Be careful out there and pay attention to the cash management. Personally I try to keep 10% to 15% in cash in my account: everyone can pick a ratio that’s comfortable to her / him. Buckle up and we will see the other end soon or later.
(Update 03-01-2023) not much has changed, except the inflation and the Fed. Big tech/saas/cloud players mostly entered into a plateau after the recent spectacular run/crash, $ZM is a good example. But in longer term, i agree with Warren Buffett said: the America’s best day us still ahead and the growth of this country is the best tail wind for the stock market. This was true in the past 🐻 markets (personally I recall 2000-2002, 2007-2009), and will be applicable today as well.
PS: 05-17-2023 I did not post those in the WeChat group. I looked at my performance in the last 2 years. My biggest gainer is the $BRK.B. And I think I need to find revenue or gain outside of $BRK.B and other Berkshire Hathaway holdings: e.g., $AVTI, $AAPL etc.
don’t buy stocks all at once (portfolio and cash management);
don’t look at the previous high and use it as reference price when buying (on sale mentality);
don’t own too many stocks especially for newbies, because it’s likely a newbie doesn’t know or learned a lot about those companies. In stocks we want to know something other people may not know, e.g., quite a few people don’t know or realize that Activision Blizzard $ATVI is posed to receive the $3 billion breakup fees from Microsoft if the antitrust review does go through. Huntsman corp $HUN got a similar jackpot from PE firm when the firm wanted to back out from a deal;
consider S&P index funds as the default investment option for 401k/403b/IRA etc. There are quite a few such funds in the market, note I am not talking about ETFs. Personally I have those funds from fidelity and vanguard, and I know others offer similar funds too;
be greedy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy (VIX is a decent indicator for the turmoil/fear in the market).
