Raymond Gan | Linkedin post

Here is the link. 

As an Asian immigrant who grew up in a low income, blue collar family, I was always frugal growing up + did not spend frivolously. I always save most of my income. Always buy used cars. Rented cheap apartments. Had roommates/housemates + did not live alone. Got into MIT + Cornell but turned them down for Berkeley, since it gave me 3 scholarships. I never borrowed any money for college, graduating with $0 debt.

I lived with all sorts of strange people for cheap rent. Lived 2 years in Redondo Beach (southwest LA County) with a woman in her 3 bedroom condo. She (my landlord) had a passion for construction workers + invited them to stay with us, including some of her homeless friends. I'd wake to see strangers sleeping in our living room. My landlord was a hairdresser who owned a bus she converted into a mobile salon, after stripping out its seats. Many women would come into our kitchen for hair appointments. She drove to Google in Irvine + did hair for its employees on her bus.

One day her 21-year-old son moved in with us, as my new roommate. He'd just left 3 years of prison. He was covered with tattooes. He hung the German flag on his bedroom wall, then I saw a SWASTIKA tattoo on his chest.

Yes, I lived with a neo-Nazi ex-convict! Sometimes his ex-con friends, also out of jail on parole, would come by to hang out. One morning, I heard loud banging on my bedroom door. "Police! Open up now!"

6 cops were outside my bedroom, yelling "Hands up! Go outside now!" All my roommates sat outside on the ground. The cop took my wallet. Since my roommate was out on parole, cops were doing a surprise inspection, checking for guns or drugs.

"Omg Raymond!" You say. "Did you move out?" Hell no. I was paying only $700 rent to live 1 mile from a gorgeous beach, in a townhouse with 2 swimming pools, a jacuzzi, + a gym. I stayed about a year longer. Surprisingly, my neo-Nazi roommate was always friendly to me, though he'd say racist nonsense.

While most I know in LA pay $1000-2000/month rent, I paid less than $800/month for a cheap room in Koreatown, one of the cheapest parts of LA. Could I have lived in Santa Monica, the most expensive part of LA, next to the beach, paying $3000/month for 1 bedroom? Sure.

I did live in Santa Monica 1.5 years but only paid $950 rent to live 5 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. How? I shared a bedroom with another dude but slept in the living room.

When IBM laid me off years ago, I didn't worry about money. I had years of savings + instead went to community college to study premed, then switched to work in spinal surgery.

If I get laid off now, same. I have years of savings + don't really have to work for years.

Money = Freedom. I work not mainly because I need money, but because I CHOOSE to spend my time learning + working on my specific technical problems, in my chosen industry (streaming TV).

Yet "36% of employees earning $100,000 or more say they are living paycheck to paycheck": https://lnkd.in/dG5yJvSt