Be intentional with your money

This is what I just learned from a youtube video talking about what you should be doing with your money. (They're all kind of the same, but it's probably is still important to put the notes down somewhere.)

Notes are:

Step 1: Optimizing your investment strategy

Tax advantage account (IRA, 401K), max out, invest

529 plan is for education, can be used for anyone

Backdoor IRA for high income people

Taxable brokerage account (once you max out the above)

DO NOT try to time the market, consistency is the key

Short term goal is < 5 yr, keep in cash, CD

5-9 year goal is medium term

> 10 yrs is long term, can be more stock heavy

Step 2: Leverage passive income, less reliant on job income (more of stock, dividend)

Real state is a lot more complex

Step 3: Create your financial independence plan: what is the life you are building

putting number on those goals

(having kids, move, travel, any hobby that costs money)

The rule of 25 (based on 4% rule)

Update beneficiary

Simple term life insurance, if you have dependence

Be intentional with your money

Resist the urge of panic sale (of your stocks)

End of 2024

2024 has not been my favorite, a hundred percent.

Research/work wise, absolutely a shit show. Achieved absolutely nothing, or let's say, I know it's time to leave, and  hopefully leave the entire bench work behind. (That's the hope but it's not easy to fully transition out, so we'll see.)

I did a bunch of outreach tho! (High schoolers, summer undergrads, and SciSat to smaller kids) It's all fun and kinda made me feel ok about doing all these. And I for sure learned (or knew) what I can do better in terms of teaching. Well, at this point, I don't see why I'll use these experience for my teaching statement cuz I'm not gonna try TT positions at all. LOL 

Sad but real.

Other stuff, hmm, visited the lab gangs early summer, it was really nice to catch up with people. Relationship wise, I think it's been good! Well, really need to figure out how to come out to the hen. I just really don't see how to deal with that. That whole emotional blackmail is just absolutely I can'e deal with.

Health wise LOL

Somehow got Lyme disease in July. Hiking in MA, of course. The whitest moment of my life LOL. 

Travel, hmm, March back to Taiwan (and visited nowhere), October to Hawaii, very pretty and tropical, June and July back to CT and MA. That's about it I think? It's a "I thought if I don't go anywhere and just focus on research I will get good returns" but at the end I was soooooo burned out that I am at this very moment really don't want to do any research anymore. Like, why did I get myself into all these BS.

All the stress, bruised self esteem. 

In 2025, I honestly just want to prepare to get a new job. And research here, I mean, work is work. I will do what I was told and push it forward, that's it. I cannot deal with this guilt anymore. Do whatever I can and move on.

But, a more streamlined work flow would be nice! That's maybe the one thing I learned.

Fingers crossed!

It's been a while

Wow hey, I really was not sure this is still here!

Pretty cool that google is keeping this service. It feels kinda millennial LOL

Anyway, too many things have happened in the past few years. Many ups and many downs, still very stressed about future, still very stressed about being ordinary.

But anyway, life moves on.

Coming back to New Haven 2020 Spring

這次回台灣也是感觸良多啊，但主要就是在糾結未來到底要在哪裡生根以及思考到底要如何照顧老媽這種事情。

有些有趣的事情可以記錄下來

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[手腕橈骨骨折]的老媽

這似乎是個很常骨折的部位

總之開完刀（自費鈦合金的骨頭支架？大概六萬）手還是有腫但是有慢慢消

好像可以讓手指動一動幫忙消腫，反正不該動的部位基本也都用石膏固定住了應該是沒差

總共好像要固定一個多月的樣子......

大家記得要多補充鈣質跟Vitamin D3 (骨折就不妙了

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另外一個有趣的地方是這次過JFK and TPE 的海關都不用填海關申報單

以前都要的說

貌似JFK在試圖變更系統成電子的 (but I'm not sure about it)

不過這次通關花了1.5 hr排隊，依舊相當崩潰

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想想覺得台灣的食物還是好吃的 (我家附近的某鹹酥雞攤)

Taiwanese comfort food 就非這莫屬了

Love, Simon

好看，can't get over it.

It's a very cute story, though it definitely triggered me thinking back of my high school days. Or not just that but all those days that I supposingly should be crazy but actually not. The days that I studied but not enjoying life, or missing all the things all teenagers should have. Am I not deserved to have a good love story?

Maybe I'm really not deserved to have it.

Feeling bad

認識S之後每天都想跟他聊。

S是F大學的助理教授，搭上線之後就覺得算蠻有趣的人，也算好聊，唯在下的對話能力真的比較差，總句點別人，想想自己還是更nerdy一些吧。

令人頭痛的是，聊的時候心情很好，但沒話題後心裡又覺得挺糾結的，不知道S對我到底是什麼想法，是不是我一直在煩他，就又不敢開啟對話。想是單身太久，特別容易暈，心裡夢想著可以怎樣的，實際上又覺得既然不可能何必浪費人家時間，當朋友就好了，每天都在無限循環裏面煩惱。

希望有機會可以突破瓶頸(sigh)

養蟲蟲 and MOE workshop

蟲蟲塔 (Mealworm tower)

This is for Xenorhabdus transformation from M-form to P-form, by injecting cell cultures into those bugs. It's kinda fun actually (probably because I'm dark inside lol). I'm still hoping that science would work well and stay in academia, cuz there are still some exciting things needed to be discovered.

Anyway, this is gonna wait for 36 - 48 hours for the bacteria to propagate in the mid gut, and the worms would paralyze, turn black, and maybe diarrhea (?) and die. After that I'll have to grow the P-form Xenorhabdus again.

I think it's cool to coculture Sf21 or other insect cell lines and figure out what triggers the transformation, cuz still nobody knows what that is.

The other thing happened today was the MOE workshop. Although I already kinda know how to work with it, there's still some details that I had no idea. And surprisingly, they said that there's only ~45 people in MOE company, which is kinda amazing.