The Dirty Money Talk

I still remember when I was little and went to the market with mom one day, I saw her give out money, take the grocery and money (change) back. I didn't have the idea of change. I thought that people earn money by buying stuff until my mom told me otherwise. She also kept emphasizing that money is hard earned, and money has forged in my mind as something precious. Of course I was raised up being told money can't buy you everything, but the other half of the saying is more important: but you can't live without money.

I started to get allowance from the age 9, like, 1 Yuan (~A$0.15) per month. I think I spent the most of them on snacks available from tiny stores around my school. That much would probably buy me an ice cream or a medium pack of potato chips. Of course that wouldn't be enough for me, but I get money on other occasions such as doing chores around the house.

But the big thing would be Chinese New Year, I'd get lucky money (that's exactly why Chinese kids all looking forward to the Chinese New Year, it's like Christmas in the western world) from parents, grandparents, other relatives, family friends, business partners of family members etc. This figure easily runs into thousands Yuan each year. But of course my parents wouldn't let me touch the money that easy, because they need to give out lucky money to kids of the family and friends and business partners too. What they did was starting from age 9, they set up a bank account for me and put a portion of the lucky money I got each year in there, usually only a few hundreds, until when I was in high school I put basically all I get in there.

The first time of course dad took me to the bank and taught me how to write the slip for deposit (that was back in the early 90's, of course now they're all computerized and not needed anymore), I was lucky to have known how to write those very traditional (very complicated) Chinese characters for numbers beforehand (I learnt them from a calender which marked months with those characters), they're not really taught in schools because they don't really have a use outside of the banking system these days. I got a booklet instead of a card as record for savings (those booklets are still being used alongside cards in China these days). My parents keep the booklet. So the money has my name on it but it's not really accessible by me.

Ever since I'd go to the bank alone and fill those forms out and make those deposits every year, when one year I started a debit card with the bank for this account and hid the card from my parents, guess what, I have the access to my money now! I had been a bit reluctant to use the money because even for me it doesn't come easy (only once a year!).

I get more allowance with age, so when I am in middle school I get like 50 Yuan per month. But problem is I'm not content with snacks anymore. I started to buy music, and lots of them. And I only buy them genuine. I started off with cassette tapes, which costs like 10 Yuan each so I could afford them. But then there comes the CDs, which are usually imported and over 100 Yuan each, pretty expensive for my allowance. What I did was saving up from my lunch money, putting only half of whatever I get for lunch money into the card for the canteen, then use the rest to buy CDs. I could only afford one or two per month (of course unless it's Chinese New Year), but I'm happy with that. The sad thing is none of my classmates really respect that I only buy genuine music and they voted me as the 'most extravagant' in the class. I don't think I deserve it but well who cares. But thinking back it actually sort of contributed to who I am now.

The greatest discovery of my life so far had to be those 'recycled plastic' stores. There are heaps of excess or pre-release samples of foreign CDs, DVDs and the like shipped into China for disposal treatment. They are all supposed to be punched and then go through treatments before going to the landfill, however these guys that run those stores had some sort of links to the customs and they are able to grab those things before they are destroyed and sell them. As mentioned before most of them are punched but you can always dig deeper into the piles and find some that escaped it. These things are sold cheap, starting from 10 Yuan you can get a pretty decent CD not punched. Of course some of the big name artists are still sold quite expensive, but I just enjoy digging into them and always find something new. I got the whole discography of some of my favourite artists simply by digging into those piles. I got so many priceless and rare founds in them. This habit dramatically increased my CD collection to over 400 by the time I left for Australia to study.

I started earning money when I started uni in China (the one that I dropped out after a year). The thing about earning money for me is that I found the more I earn the even more I spend. I suck at saving money. Even now I'm still the same. Of course now I need to rely on myself while not earning much at all. For the moment earning for me only means the ability to loan more, because my material desire cannot be satisfied from what I get from my job. Is there a balance point that I could earn enough for what I want? I hope so. Would my desire grow with it and always outweighs it? I tend to consider myself as not having to ambitious material needs, I only want to be good enough to myself - good food, good brands on everyday supplies and appliances, music, games, independent branded stuff and innovative electronics. When I get a bit more I'd like to spend more on photographing and travelling around. I don't want a property for myself, probably not for quite a few years even if I had that money, because I don't really know how long will I stay in any place at all. What made it worse is that I believe there's a huge bubble in the Australian real estate market at the moment, that I'm waiting for it to burst any time.

Now the problem is how I achieve that balance point that I wanted. Well I sent out a few job applications today, not sure how well they'd go but I'll have to find out I guess. Wish me luck.

Recent Stuff, A Bit of Everything

I know when I use the word 'recent' in my titles it's been a while since my last update to my blog. Not that I've been too busy or whatever though, I was just lazy, and I hereby admit it.

I am still struggling to find another job. Now that I've been put on even more pressure than before as my current boss is seeking to sell this business. It's not like that business is bad in our shop and actually quite the contrary. But I totally understand my boss as it is way too hard for him having to be there 7 days a week with less than 20 days off including public holidays per year for over 2 years. I'd be so over it too if I were him. But anyway that'd mean I need another job ASAP. So far there had only been one out of hundreds of resumes I sent out that got a reply without the word 'unfortunately' in it. That doesn't mean I'd got the job though, I'm still waiting nervously for them to come back to me after two weeks. That position is in the middle of nowhere but I don't really mind, it's a good opportunity for me to gain professional experience anyway and I actually start to think of myself as a country boy.

I've read a fortune about me for the year the other day, and I was like 'no wonder'. It seems that I wouldn't be very well off all year long, that I need to be careful about betrayals, cheats, financial problems, and avoid getting into troubles the best I can. That pretty much sums up this year so far for me... The only good news seems to be, this year is almost over. But I think I'd need to read the fortune for my next year earlier next year.

I am pretty sick of the recent 'occupy somewhere' trend. Do you really want to be represented by those good-for-nothing jobless morons sitting there claiming you are one of them, the 99%, while you are working hard to achieve a better life? You are already distinctively better than them just by going to work and work hard instead of relying on welfare and whining about it. So how many are they really representing? 1% is more like it. The bottom 1%.

Qantas made a brave move to grounding every single flight to fight the unions. I have the say the age of unions has passed, now they are not much better than leeches suckling on the company. Strike campaigns went way too far in the recent months for Qantas that I hear about them at least every week on the news. What good causing inconvenience to passengers and drive them away to other airlines do for workers asking for a pay rise anyway? It only risked the very existence of the company and hence their jobs. At least for now I would be reluctant to book flights from Qantas. It was lucky that the government intervened and forbade further strikes for now. If you do care about Qantas as an iconic Australian brand then you do need to appreciate what they are doing to protect themselves. And by the way, why would you judge a CEO who runs a business which generates $20 million revenue per day for getting paid $5 million per year for salary? He deserves more than that.