Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Worthless to anyone but me

An email got through the spam filters to offer me an opportunity to sell this very web domain. That is silly, because I’m pretty sure I am the only Healy Chen on this planet. Healychen.com is absolutely worthless to anyone but me. Not even a nice try. Just stop it.

For the record: I am wiling to let this domain for a few thousand bucks. No sane person should want to buy it for that money, however. But I’ll take it if offered!

You guys remember back in early April when the stock market retreated about 20% from all time highs thanks to President Trump’s tariff plans? Man have we recovered quickly. The markets are hovering near all time highs again.

What does that mean? I hope you bought during the dip, because I certainly did. And that chunk of cash is absolutely hard-carrying my portfolio performance for 2025. If anything, I now have regrets that I didn’t buy more.

Of course, we should not time the market, because most of us will fail. The reason I bought during this recent dip is my investment time horizon is long. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s a get rich long scheme. I plan to hold stocks until well into retirement, so when the market offers a 20% discount to buy more, heck yeah I am taking that advantage.

In the (very) long run, markets will always go up. Let’s say for the sake of argument the American stock market doesn’t grow any (or even declines) over the next few decades. If that were to be true, there would be way greater things to worry about than simply our investments. See: Argentina.

No more stains ever

Not sure why it took me so long, but I’ve seen the light: the Tide to Go instant stain remover pens are absolutely magic. I finally have had enough of stubborn kimchi stains (I eat Korean food quite often) on my white t-shirts. A three pack of the pens on Amazon is mere six dollars, a real bargain. One for the home, one for the backpack, and one for the car.

Funny enough it was not removing the red dots of kimchi juice that I first discoverd the magic. Instead it’s a perennial favorite: splashed coffee. Against a white shirt it’s nearly as notorious to remove as Korean fermented cabbage. However, a few dabs of the Tide pen completely removed the stains. Couple that with immediate laundry, and there was no trace of coffee to be found.

Next time someone says Proctor & Gamble is some evil corporation, they should turn in their Tide to Go pens forever.

The price of coffee has certainly gone up since President Trump enacted import tariffs of varying degree and size. Sadly for Americans, most of our consumed coffee is grown overseas (like Columbia and Brazil). ChatGPT says the United States doesn’t have the warm and humid temperature conducive for coffee planting. That’s explain why at my local Peet’s Coffee, a medium cup of drip is now over four dollars (after tax). Why would Biden do this?

Even those of us who make coffee at home are feeling the spike in bean prices. But it’s not like we are going to stop drinking coffee. I most certainly will not! A 25% percent tax is not enough of a deterrence for an addicted coffee drinker. The box of Keurig cups I buy would have to double in price before I seriously consider stopping. There’s precedent: the price of McDonalds seemingly doubled since the pandemic, so now I don’t eat there.

In the meantime, I will begrudgingly pay the tariff.

Are we not entertained?

Are we having fun with the tariffs yet? With so many things that we buy being manufactured in China, it's about to get expensive really quickly. The proverbial death by a thousand cuts. The best position to be is not needing to buy anything beyond pure sustenance for the foreseeable future.

Or you had the foresight to buy the things before the tariffs hit. Anecdotally, I've heard of people buying new cars before foreign-produced vehicles get taxed. Another person bought the made-in-China MacBook Pro before Apple has to figure out how to pass along the cost of a 145% tariff on Chinese imports. I'm going to convince my dad to upgrade his iPhone 11 somewhat soon.

I myself bought a set of bumper weight plates from Rogue Fitness. The plates are made in China, of course. As of this writing - April 11th - the price for the same set has already increased $25. Surely it will go up even higher still when inventory gets replenished with shipments coming after the tariffs went into effect.

Or maybe not? The directive coming out of the White House is so inconsistent. Hard to predict how much inventory will cost in two weeks' time because tariffs might not be a thing anymore. And then a few days later, it may be back again!

The people who are truly getting fucked over are the small businesses with a Chinese supply chain. You can easily imagine the situation where an order was made before the tariffs, but it shipped after the tariffs. Congratulations, your cost of goods sold is so expensive that you no longer have a viable business.

Better move that supply chain to the States, am I right? (Sarcasm.)

Direct flights, baby

As a member of the jet-setting class entirely reliant on credit-card points (rather fake-rich if you ask me), I've had the pleasure of sitting in the various classes on an airplane. (Right to privilege jail, right away.) As obvious as it may be that the further front you sit the more comfortable, in my experience it doesn't ease the pain of the truly long-haul flights. 15 hours from San Francisco to Hong Kong is arduous no matter if you are wealthy enough to lie completely flat to sleep. A pressurized metal tube with superbly dry air is a bad combination no matter what.

I think the lever to pull in terms of comfort is shortening the time spent on an airplane. It's a shame there were never follow-up to the sound barrier shattering Concorde. For the rest of plebs in the real world, direct flights are absolutely worth the extra costs.

Since 2014 - only interrupted by the COVID pandemic - I've flew back (birth) home to Guangzhou, China every single year. 2025 marks the first year I took a direct flight from San Francisco. Previously I had to make a transfer at Hong Kong, entailing another four hours of travel time on top of the 15 hours I just continuously spent on an airplane. Usually I am completely spent by the time I reach home.

Let me tell you: direct flight is magnitudes better in experience. This year I was back in the heart of Guangzhou by 9:00 AM (previously it would have been at least 1:00 PM). Not only that, it's a slightly shorter flight to CAN compared to HKG. For the first time, I actually had energy in reserve on arrival day, rather than zombie it through until I can properly sleep on the first night.

Let's hope China and United States relations remain amiable enough that the direct route from San Francisco to Guangzhou remains viable. But honestly the next three years is super difficult to predict. As I write this there's a 145% tariff on goods originating from China into the States. It does feel kind of weird to be a former Chinese national with a U.S. passport traveling between the two countries…

Sitting pretty

With the (supposedly) looming 25% tariffs on all automobiles assembled outside of the United States, the people in the best position is drivers like me: owning a fully paid off car that’s made in this decade. So long as my BMW M2 doesn’t get totaled in an accident (knocks on wood), I don’t have to worry about the price increases that are sure to come. That is, if President Trump actually goes through with the threat.

With so much economic uncertainty in the near horizon, a debt-free position, with multiple months of cash in reserves, is more crucial than ever. The only reason a recent auto insurance premium increase did not cripple me is because my car is paid off. Funds that would otherwise have gone to service a loan (the average new car payment currently is a whopping $742 a month) now acts as a buffer.

And it’s having a money buffer that keeps the stresses at bay. Friends have checked in on me recently, because my place of employment is facing a budget deficit. Layoffs are definitely on the table. Am I worried about my job? Not as much as I should be, as perceived from the outside. A emergency fund runway for many months of spending allows me to not stress about any job loss. The world is not going to end. I’ve got the time and resources to reset at my own pace.

Even outside of losing a job, life will keep throwing financial curveballs at you. That’s just part of the game. Unexpected expenses are unexpected. Living on thin margins month-to-month leaves you vulnerable. Having a buffer is just good preparation.

I know, I know: sob story about how everything is more expensive, and people aren’t as privilege as me. Okay, someone please square this hole: if many folks are so struggling, then explain the record-breaking 2024 holiday shopping season?

Price sensitivity

The goal of President Trump’s tariffs threat is to bring manufacturing back to America, right? The downside of course is that things will become more expensive. Manufacturing didn’t leave America because of some evil corporate plan. The simple reality is that labor is cheaper elsewhere. Lowering cost of goods sold is a big lever to increase profits. Or have profits in the first place.

Tariffs are merely tacking those labor savings back onto the purchase price. There’s one for sure loser, and it’s the consumer.

For sure there are plenty of cheap crap coming out of China. But in the year 2025 it’s beyond pass time to acknowledge that China can also produce things of the highest quality. Did we forget the iPhone has been made in China since inception? The Apple smartphone is as precise a device as it gets.

“Made in the U.S.A.” still denotes a higher quality in people’s minds. Whether or not it’s actually true is up for debate. What is definitely true is that it’ll cost more compared to foreign-sourced manufacturers. I recently bought a barbell, and the unit made with American steel is $85 dearer than the Chinese-made equivalent from another company. The decision was easy.

Coming out of the high inflationary period of the pandemic, I am always looking for the best deals on anything. And doesn’t everybody? Who has the money to boycott Amazon (because big bad Bezos)? If a particular item is the cheapest on Amazon, I am buying it there. I do not have the income to support an artisan soap business at a farmer’s market. If you do, please go ahead.

I will live life as cheaply as possible, because everything else has gone up in price. Tariffs - if they come to full fruition - is only going to make it worse.

Let him cook

President Trump has enacted tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China. Begun, the trade wars have. For what reason, it’s not immediately clear. For the general public, the salient thing is prices will be going up. If you’re looking to buy a car this year, pray that it isn’t manufactured in Canada or Mexico! You really think automakers are going to eat that tariff costs entirely?

The best thing to do right now is to let Trump cook (as the kids say these days). Whatever he’s got planned, be it Project 2025 or whatever, let him execute. The good ideas will work, and the bad ideas won’t. You have to allow people to directly feel the consequences. Otherwise the lesson never gets learned. I wonder how Trump-voting Federal employees are dealing with the freezes and return-to-office mandate. Your vote, your consequences…

What’s disgusting to see is people appealing to Democrats to do something. First of all, it’s extremely pointless to badger the minority party. Secondly, the party that has been pilloried for their empathy (the path to DEI is paved with very good empathic intentions) can’t then be asked to utilize that same empathy to save you. It’s like the woman who rejects the nice guy but yet wants the supportive benefits the nice guy provides.

You cannot have it both ways. Democrats ought to turn off their empathy muscles for the time being. They should not let their tendency to want to limit harm be used to save the same people that rejected it. Like the nice guy that refuses to leave, at some point you’re just allowing yourself to be abused.

I’m for letting winning Presidents to implement their agenda. The market (read: U.S. population) will determine whether they are good or bad. High inflation knocked out Biden/Harris; if Trump - due to the tariffs - causes another high inflation period, the Republican Party will surely be in a precarious position in the next election cycle.