Jamestown, Virginia was the first permanent English settlement established in 1607. Their main goal was to harvest tobacco for profit in the New World. Unfortunately, Jamestown is also where slavery in America began when African slaves were brought to the colony in 1619.
Slavery was finally abolished 258 years later on December 6, 1865 with the passage of the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution by Congress. It’s scary and absolutely shocking it took so long. Because of our country’s past racial injustices, affirmative action was launched in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to ensure that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”
Due to the advancement in technology and medicine, our standard of living 150+ years later has never been higher. We’ve also seen huge progress in narrowing the gender wage gap and reducing discrimination against the LGBTQ community. However, it feels like our country is more divided along racial lines than ever before. Perhaps still having rules based on race is making all of us more racist? Instead, how about shifting towards helping people who are in difficult financial situations across all races.
At 55 years old, Dr. Lin has been practicing dentistry for close to 30 years. He grew up in Oakland and attended UC Berkeley for undergrad thanks to his stellar academic record. When he graduated, Dr. Lin’s parents gave him three choices of what to do with his life: 1) Dentist, 2) Doctor, or 3) Lawyer. Not very pleased with his limited choices, Dr. Lin choice the “easiest” of the three and became a Dentist by going to UCSF.
Why bother working hard all your life for a chance at financial freedom if you don’t have to? Instead of directing all your energy to making more, saving more, and investing wisely, it might be a better use of your time to identify where the wealthy and the potentially wealthy hang out.
Part of my goal during sabbatical is to explore other opportunities. I’ve been in the private sector for 13 years and I’m looking to do something else. I’ve been fortunate to 
Every now and again, I stumble across something that makes me wonder, “Are you a dumb ass?” Someone forwarded me a post from a year ago where a PF blogger spent $60,000 on a luxury car right after revealing his net worth was only $55,000! I mean seriously, is that not a little messed up or what? It’s almost as dumb as a minimalist owning multiple Apple products, a health nut who smokes and drinks soda, a vegan who wears leather shoes, and an evangelist who embezzles millions from you.
In America, we are truly blessed with opportunity to help us chart our own course and grasp success as much as we desire it. Services provided by financial institutions are one of the things that we as American citizens have easy access to, allowing us to utilize financing and credit to further our goals in aspects of our financial strategies on both a personal and business level.
