Off Hour Hustle
Chloe is a software engineer and personal finance content creator at @offhourhustle. She blogs about side hustles, personal finance tips, and her financial journey on her blog Off Hour Hustle. In her free time, she enjoys climbing, being outdoors, and personal development.
I grew up seeing my immigrant parents work extremely hard to fight for their American Dream. My parents immigrated to the United States in their 20s with a couple hundred in cash and a language barrier that made it impossible to find a white-collar job. However, they saved money extensively and worked hard to make life as easy as possible for my brother and me.
I was conscious that money didn’t grow on trees and tried my best as a child to save. I chose not to ask for a stuffed animal at SeaWorld when I was in elementary because I wanted to save my parents money. I sometimes skipped meals in high school when I was running low on my lunch balance because I didn’t want to ask my parents for more funds. However, I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the challenges they went through when I was younger.
As I grew older, my parents began to tell me more things. My mom had gotten laid off from a Korean newspaper company upon returning from maternity leave. At her next job, she woke up at 5 in the morning to take the bus to her minimum-wage job more than an hour away. My dad worked full-time as a schoolteacher and ran a tutoring business in his basement in the evenings. This caused him to have health issues so he eventually left his schoolteacher job. They worked incredibly hard, sometimes sacrificing their health and were frugal, saving whatever they had left over.
I was raised to have a debt-free mindset: don’t pay for things you don’t have the money for. This led us to use cash and debit for everything. I didn’t know much about investing growing up, if at all. The small amount of investments my parents had were hit by the dot-com bubble and they sold soon after out of fear. Then they turned to a small amount invested in real estate and were hit by the real estate crash in 2008 and sold soon after as well. Investing was a scary concept and it simply led my parents to lose more money than we gained. Saving money was the way to go.
My parents valued education, just like many other Asian immigrant families. They pushed me to study hard to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer because those occupations meant stability in terms of salary and status in society. While these are indeed stable careers, there are so many other occupations and opportunities that lead to a financially stable lifestyle. However, with an Asian-American upbringing, I failed to see otherwise.
One big thing I did learn about personal finance from my parents was that America is truly a capitalist country. My dad started a tutoring business and taught me about how he wrote off taxes via his business expenses. Many Asian immigrant families may relate but writing off taxes is the way that immigrant families are able to scrape by to strive for the American Dream.
I was fortunate to be able to stumble upon resources that allowed me to get savvy with my personal finance upon college graduation. I pay everything with credit and pay off my bills in full, because I understand the benefits and detriments of paying with credit. I max out my tax-advantaged retirement accounts, am always reading the latest news about the market, and am hungry to learn new things about how to better manage my finances. I learned that debt isn’t necessarily bad and many people leverage debt to build long-term wealth. I use this knowledge to help my parents in situations they may not know what to do in and help them research topics I may not know about.
Personal finance is a daunting topic and there aren’t many helpful resources out there to get started. No one teaches you how to budget, plan for retirement, or negotiate for a better salary in college. It’s even more difficult when English isn’t yours or your parents' first language. We grew up with immigrant parents who may not have known much about personal finance but it’s important to take the leap of faith and start your journey so that you can help yourself and your family build your wealth for the future.
Check out Lotus Magazine’s September/October 2022 Issue for more content!
