Business is Personal (Finance)

Recent Entries in china

• I hate mosquitoes

  April 10, 2010 11:24 AM
  About a month ago, I wrote about the 2nd worse thing about living in China -- the north/south wind combos that make floors and walls drip with moisture. Number 1 on that list is mosquitos. Living in San Francisco, mosquitoes... 0

• Foreigner's Finances comment summary

  April 6, 2010 11:34 AM
  Austin over at Foreigner's Finances was gracious enough to send some traffic to this site when he interviewed me in his continuing series on people living overseas. The link to my interview is at: Interview with a location-independent family man... 2

• Guaranteed Insurance Contracts

  April 2, 2010 1:59 PM
  The usual investing advice is don't mix up insurance with investing. The fees are high, the restrictions many, the fine-print hard to read. Basically, there are far better alternatives ... at least in the U.S.. An American investor can buy... 0

• China Office Build-Out

  March 22, 2010 11:11 AM
  When my company started more than a decade ago, we started as a few guys working out of a rented condo unit in San Francisco's SOMA district. Back then, SOMA had a reputation for being multimedia gulch due to a... 0

• North/south wind season and the cost of crappy windows

  March 15, 2010 1:38 PM
  Living in China has been a nice change in my previously life but like any place in this world, it is not perfect. There are some rather irritating parts of the lifestyle here and number 2 on my hate list... 0

• Birthday Parties

  March 14, 2010 12:18 PM
  With my daughter's birthday, everybody has celebrated a birthday in China. My wife's and my birthday were low key as usually. We went out to dinner (like usual) and then brought back a small cake to blow out candles. We... 0

• Yuan to appreciate?

  March 7, 2010 5:30 PM
  After a few days rest from my vacation, I started reading up on the news again and my eyes immediately went to these articles: China faces new pressure to let currency rise Why China should let the yuan rise At... 0

• Vacation Plans

  February 25, 2010 4:40 AM
  In my last post about the plethora of languages in China, I ended with a mention of practicing Mandarin for my upcoming trip to Hainan. In addition, I want to travel to the following places during this coming year: Beijing... 0

• Language skills for the 21st century

  February 24, 2010 10:07 AM
  Ask people for a generic skill to have to further job prospects and foreign language proficiency often comes up pretty high. And with more than a billion Chinese speakers and an economy growing in leaps-and-bounds, Chinese is right at the... 0

• Housing in China

  February 6, 2010 11:19 PM
  House Hunting After arriving in China, we spent the first week holed up in my brother-in-law's condo. A lot of time was spent sleeping trying to adjust to the jet lag and time zone differences. In addition, the Chinese people... 1

• Chinese New Year Lucky Money

  February 6, 2010 5:31 AM
  I previously wrote our Christmas spending was low but didn't think we'd get off so easy for Chinese New Year. Well that day is one week away now (February 14 for this year) so we've been busy getting ready. One... 0

• Wedding Costs ... as Guests

  February 4, 2010 7:23 AM
  Chinese New Year will soon be here and among the traditions is a top-to-bottom clean up at home. In the local dialect (Taishanese), the phrase translates to roughly "hit dust". The local merchants all have long, colorful brooms displayed for... 0

• Random follow-ups

  January 25, 2010 12:44 AM
  Follow-ups to some of my previous posts: Website Changes The web user interface is now consistent across all screens. In addition, some previously missing functionality has been restored. Copied style from Home (last 10 entries) to Category Archives and Search... 0

• Christmas Spending

  January 19, 2010 10:28 AM
  I'll need a few more months before I have enough records to make some sense of our spending. However, I can say our December was one of the lowest on record. In China, Christmas is a minor holiday -- store... 0

• Transferring money to China

  January 14, 2010 10:58 AM
  Living in China but collecting a U.S. paycheck (direct deposited into Vanguard money market funds) does require getting the money over. Here are some of the methods I have been using:Western UnionMost people use Western Union by bringing cash in... 2

• China visas

  January 13, 2010 10:20 AM
  I've just renewed my Temporary Residence Permit (basically a visa that is only issued inside China) so the visa process is still very fresh in my mind.If you are interested in a stay longer than a vacation and you are... 0

• Office Launch Soon

  October 20, 2009 12:01 PM
  My office in China is nearing the opening bell. The contractor is 98% done with just some minor issues to correct. Desks and computers have been delivered and I'm working day and night setting up the networking infrastructure. I've done... 0

• Computers in China Follow-up

  October 12, 2009 2:00 AM
  In this previous entry, I mentioned a few computer parts that were more expensive than what could be found in the U.S. These past 2 weeks, I've been asking for quotes for to put together computers for our office. It... 0

• Phone Service from China

  October 9, 2009 12:21 PM
  Working from China, most of my communication is through online channels. However, I still periodically have to speak to a human. Luckily, VOIP (Voice over IP) makes it very simple and cheap. With just an internet connection, a VOIP service... 0

• Apple iPhones in China (or how to get a free vacation)

  September 22, 2009 11:11 AM
  Now plenty of things are way cheaper here in China. In this previous post, I listed a few costs of living -- for example, breakfast for 40 cents. But some things are more expensive -- usually luxury goods. Some quick... 0

• Health care costs ... in China

  September 10, 2009 9:22 AM
  If you can fog a mirror, you know the big topic in the U.S. is health care reform. President Obama just made a big speech and people on both sides have been staking out their positions for months now with... 0

• Reality check on housing

  September 9, 2009 3:42 PM
  I was browsing the internet and came across this article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32756481/ns/business-real_estate. The meat of the article, I don't really care about. We all already know why we're in this mess It's the secondary headline that caught my attention.Official says a... 0

• The cost of living in China

  September 7, 2009 8:18 AM
  As I mentioned in a previous entry, the average worker in Taicheng/Taishan earns about $250 USD/mo. Hence, it is not surprising that the cost of living is much lower than anywhere in the developed world. Here's a before-and-after breakout of... 0

• Making the move overseas - Part 2

  September 1, 2009 10:09 AM
  If moving into a new home is a lot of work, moving overseas is even more so. Here's roughly how the move went down:3+ months beforeObtain passports for my kids. I wanted to wait until my youngest was at least... 0

• Making the move overseas - Part 1

  August 30, 2009 11:17 AM
  At this moment, I am typing this entry up behind the Great Firewall of China. It sounds like a rather big move to uproot my family but we had been mulling it over for a while. Our reasons for the... 0