Zenji Net

Zenji (善事）means good deeds in Japanese. I have been contemplating how I can help others lately. Being unemployed, I have joined a FB group which supports many who are on unemployment. I have seen so many folks that are dependent on the UI payment from the CA and Fed government. It pains me and I really want to reach out and help each person and family in a bad or less than ideal situation. Of course, I realized that I myself, as one person, there are very limited things I can do to help.

But I don’t think it is just me, many of us would like to have a place to do good deeds to others, paying our gratitude and good fortune forward. In budhaist belief, this is one way to build happiness for one’s current and future life. And in the western thinking, as the golden rule says “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So Zenji Net can be a place where many contributors do good by helping those with less resources, which may not be limited to financial help, but perhaps more on helping with how to see things and learn various topics in arriving at financial prosperity (and Independence), health and happiness. I think organizing around the concept of doing good deeds everyday can be my contribution, my good deed towards others. Whether you would like to contribute/help, or you may want to learn about financial independence, health and happiness, I hope you will join us and refer people in your sphere to Zenji net. Let’s help each other to a better world! Thanks!

What is Cashflow?

Let me ask a question. We all want to be financially independent right? But how? Most people will say work hard/get ahead, save and live comfortably. But is it really so? To be FI means not to worry about income and doing what you like (with a lifestyle of your own choosing). What if you don’t have a steady paycheck anymore, can you still sustain your lifestyle? For how long? What if you just came out of a messy divorce, or a death/disability in the family? What about a disease that will take all of your savings to treat?

FI definition is affected by culture, housing price, and many other factors. In general though, learning about how money works, recognizing what makes positive and negative cashflow, and getting into investments early enough to generate positive cashflow would probably do the trick. Robert Kiyosaki puts it simply that any financial arrangement that puts money in your pocket is positive cashflow and any that takes money out is negative cashflow.

So cashflow in real estate is a very specific concept where your investment property generates some gross income, and taking out the operating expenses and loan payments, what’s left is the cashflow. Basically, that is your disposable cash to do whatever you like with, and imagine that you are receiving $5,000 or 10 or 20K/months and no mortgage to worry about. What kind of life will you lead? And what if you learned how to use OPM so you do not have to save up all the cash to get into REI?

Real estate investing has the potential to bring you to that state sooner than you think. Many multi millionaires are produced each year with REI. I am on this journey and would welcome your joining. But first, there are lots of financial education we need for ourselves. Our school system did not prepare us for what is needed to be generating passive income and cashflow.

Introduction

Hi this is Michael Chu, and thanks for joining me. I was reminded recently that people have common goals: becoming financially independent so they can do whatever they want in life (and many have wanted to make it a better world), companionship (since no one to share is not a fun life) and healthy, energetic body & mind. It’s a befitting reminder to start off in 2021, since those happen to be my personal goals in life as well, and I will address my blogs on these common themes. Won’t you join me?

So who is Michael? I came from a middle class family who fled communist China and settled in Taiwan, and due to my mom’s work, traveled to Kuwait and Japan before 12. An opportunity to come to the United States came up and of course I took that chance to change my life. Got through college at SJSU and started working in the Silicon Valley high tech industry, and worked hard to advance. Being creative in business solutions and love to work with people, I moved from corporate finance into SW engineering and finally marketing & biz dev.

Taiwan is a beautiful island, people are generally nice and has lots of great produce. Temperature is mild to hot and air is moist. And home to most advanced semiconductor production in the world.

I saw an opportunity to start my own business and that was a great experience. Took a long time to take shape but Triteck helped Seiko successfully sell into the largest account in the US and then took Toshiba to establish China market entry. I had a lot of fun while the contract with the sellers lasted. Then it was time to contemplate what to do next and I definitely wanted to go into the new tech (AI, autonomous driving, green energy, etc.) and I joined an AI company for almost a couple of years when COVID hit and in a large round of layoff, I am back on my own again.

Real estate is my passion, my pastime used to be going to all the open houses in the area and I had a few rental properties. So I will be spending more time now to help myself and my like-minded friends to use real estate investing to achieve financial independence. For that reason, I would like to be known as the cashflow realtor. More to come….