My Million Dollar Mistakes, Your Free Lessons

Top 5 Mistakes Which Made Me Money Wise Today

There’s Chinese folktale. There is temple on a mountain so high that people believe it reaches the heaven. In the temple, sits the statue of a Buddha, which took 100 years to build, and towering at 50 feet stature. The 10s of 1000s of steps leading up to the temple where people worship and pray to Buddha is made of the same time of stone.

One day the stone slab worshipers step on to arrive at the temple said to the Buddha, “we are from the same mountain, we are the same stone. Why do people worship you and step on me day in and day out?”

Buddha answers, “Perhaps you won’t want to be where I am today if you knew how many slashes and chisels I had endured to become a statue from the stone that I once was.”

I find this story so beautiful. Perhaps our entire life is a transformation from a raw stone from the mountain into a statue. Or perhaps, we simply become the slabs of stone which become steps of ladders leading people somewhere amazing.

Would you rather be a statue or a slab? I think both have its merits and functionalities.

This series of posts is titled “My Costly Mistakes, Your Free Lessons.” I am 100% transparent here sharing with you my mistakes. I hope that you don’t suffer what I had to go through and that you succeed with more ease, grace, and fewer trials and tribulations J

Mistake #1

I did not value my time.

1. Anyone close to me knew about my epic fail of working 7 jobs at once while double majoring at UC Berkeley and writing my Junior thesis in Organic Chemistry Synthesis. My then principle investigator tried to talk me out of my madness, “Don’t worry about your parents’ credit card debt right now. Focus on school and research. Once you graduate, I’ll get a job to pay off your parents debt much faster than your odd jobs right now.” I did not listen, to my own detriment.
2. History repeats itself. I was tutoring and making $60/hr, so I worked like a dog, some days 14 hours/day + 3 hour commute. I missed precious time I could spend with my kid before medical school started. I should have increased my hourly rate and work fewer hours rather than working myself to death. (I learned that lesson later, now charging $388/hr and limiting my tutoring hours to 26 a year.)
3. For a few months when Mini was 2, I would collect alumni and plastic bottles to get $0.50 each from the recycling centers.

Mistake #2

I did not value my health.

1. Since I was 17, I slept no more than 4 hours a night. It worked well in medical school, because I was single mom with 2 jobs. Everyone was amazed at how much I could do, research, volunteer, scholarship applications, 2 jobs, my kid, all the while ranking top 10 in my medical school class. There was no secret. I worked hard and I had 20 hours/day to work… I was killing myself in the vicious cycle of rewards, incredible productivity, and taking on more challenges progressively. After 15 years of sleep deprivation, I finally sought help, pretty much forced by my PD to do so. I am so grateful that she saw that I was an extreme workaholic dangerous to self and others. I am now sleeping 6-8 hours daily and it’s the best investment ever. Sleep. Health.
2. I spend so much time working and learning about how to manage money that I saved no time for exercise. I did not exercise regularly for a decade. Until recently (June 2016), I started and have been on track for a 30 day yoga challenge with Adrienne. I make conscious efforts to leave the PACS at work and run up and down 7 flights of stairs a few times a day.

Mistake #3

I did not value my mind.

1. I consume junk TV shows.
2. I waste time on Facebook. Learning how happy, successful my friends are, and wishing I were them.
3. I concern myself with the people who makes negative comments on my life/ my effort to reach out with my blog.
4. I live vicariously through realty TV shows.

Mistake #4

I did not know the time value of money.

1. I’ve worked and pay taxes since I was 16 in the US. I should have put my $ to work then in ROTH IRA. I waited until I was 30, that was the first time I put my money to work.
2. I had money sitting in bank accounts bearing less than inflation rate (2-3%) interest rather than investing it.

Mistake #5

I did not know/use the power of corporations.

I thought being employed as W2 worker and get defined (selected by my employer) benefits and health insurance coverage is the better than being my own boss. At 32, I finally learned the power of corporations. Business make money, spend it in investment/buying assets, then pay taxes on what’s left. Employees, make money, pay taxes, and spend what’s left. Without knowledge in tax codes and appropriate deductions, self-employment seems costly, the tax rate is much higher than that of an employee. But if you have a good accountant or just follow TurboTax, you could keep much more of your income being your own boss.

Plus, as an employee, you are trading your time for money. As your own boss, you likely will trade your employee’s time for money and using your assets to make you money even when you vacation.

I’ll be sharing more mistakes in the next post. I hope these are helpful. If you don’t avoid my mistakes and you practice mindful financial practice, you will be much more successful and faster than I am.

This series of posts is titled “My Costly Mistakes, Your Free Lessons.” I am 100% transparent here sharing with you my mistakes. I hope that you don’t suffer what I had to go through and that you succeed with more ease, grace, and fewer trials and tribulations J