How I'm Saving for Retirement
Without financial knowledge growing up, I must admit it was difficult at first to really think about retirement. Eventually, I realized that if I didn’t want to work myself to death I would have to start thinking about my finances and where I’m eventually headed. Sadly, this realization came later than I’d hope when I was already in my 30s. Still, I won’t admit defeat and will work even harder to make sure I can retire. Early if I can.
Read full storyThe Bay Area: My Favorite Omakase
Omakase from Amami San SushiBorrowed from Restaurant's Yelp. If you’re a follower or you’ve simply read a few of my articles, you’ll notice that a common theme of mine is the lack of food variety while growing up. I was never fond of fish as a child because of bones. When I grew up, I never ate sushi because, well, it was expensive and we didn’t grow up with a lot of money, as I’ve said before, so eating raw, fancy fish was pretty much out of the question.
Read full storyThe Bay Area: My Favorite Butter Chicken
Rasoi's Butter ChickenBorrowed from Restaurant's Yelp page. Growing up in Fresno, CA with a very big extended family meant I was mostly eating home-cooked meals or y’know...extended home-cooked meals. This meant, my exposure to Indian food during my early years was very, very limited. In fact, I can’t remember a single time I actually ate Indian food when I was still living in Fresno. It wasn’t until I grew up and came to the Bay Area for college that I started venturing out.
Read full storyThe Bay Area: My Favorite Japanese Curry
My favorite Japanese curry was a discovery during my college years. While living in Daly City, CA and attending the Art Institute of California in downtown San Francisco, I would occasionally spend my weekends hanging out with my roommate in the Westlake Shopping Center off of John Daly Boulevard.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 8: My Approach to Research and Testing In The Past
Research and testing is a vital part of any conversion cycle, as discussed by Peep Laja, founder of CXL. In this week’s article, I wanted to take a moment to relate it to my professional experiences since my company’s website, and my products to some extent, are still pretty new so I haven’t reached a point where I would like to start testing. Of course, I’m hoping that will change in the next couple of months! So, if you’d like to follow along, please check out 8ight5ive Games’ website and sign up to be a part of our mailing list!
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 7: Reflecting on the Growth Marketing Minidegree
With only six more weeks to go, I wanted to take the time to reflect on what I’ve learned thus far with CLX in their Growth Marketing minidegree. It has been roughly six weeks since I started the minidegree program with CXL Institute focusing on growth marketing. For anyone who is unaware, CXL is an online organization that makes knowledge accessible for anyone willing to put in the effort to learn.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 6: Utilizing Sophia Eng’s Strategies for Growth Marketing
Relating my own discoveries and implementations to Sophia Eng’s strategies from her lesson in CXL Institute. Last week, I went over various channels that Sophia Eng, a Digital Marketing Strategist at InVision App, suggested as good starting points for digital marketers. For this particular article, I’m hoping to discuss her strategies further as it relates to how I’ve utilized it or, for any strategies that I’ve yet to implement, how I plan to do so.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 5: Channel Optimization
Sophia Eng gives a deep dive into tracking key performance indicators and utilizing particular channel-specific strategies. This was another really interesting topic for me as I went through Sophia Eng’s lessons on identifying and amplifying growth channels. Eng is a Digital Marketing Strategist at InVision App where she designs and delivers global content strategies, tactics, and channel distribution plans for billion-dollar brands, startups, small/midsized, and large enterprise businesses across various B2C and B2B spaces.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 4
Continuing my lesson with Paul Boag as he explains the importance of user-centric marketing. Thanks again for joining me this week as I continued my lesson with Paul Boag. If you didn’t get a chance to read through my first article with his lesson, please feel free to do so here. If you’re new here, this article is week 4 of a series of 12 where I’ll be documenting my journey across CXL Institute’s Growth Marketing Specialist minidegree. You can check out the other articles I’ve written on my profile.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CLX - Week 3
Paul Boag explains why user-centric marketing can help improve conversion in your campaigns. In my third week with CXL Institute, I moved on to a 2 hour and 45 minute lesson with Paul Boag, a user experience consultant who has worked with numerous companies to improve conversion. I was particularly excited about this lesson because in my career, users always throw you curveballs no matter how equipped you thought you were. I went into this lesson with a specific expectation of learning more about how to predict user actions and build your product for it. Instead, Paul taught his lesson from the user’s perspective opting to design his campaigns from the user’s perspective towards the company versus from the company’s vision of the user. This was refreshing but I have to admit, there were times I didn’t quite agree with Paul.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 2
In our second week with CXL in the Growth Marketing minidegree, we’re back with John McBride as he shares his insights into building a successful growth process. If you want to read about my first week, you can check it out here.
Read full storyGrowth Marketing with CXL - Week 1
With respect to everyone who’s not having such a great year, I am going to set aside all of the craziness that 2020 has brought for a minute. Instead, I’m going to take a few short sentences to celebrate the fact that my application for a scholarship to the CXL Institute was accepted!
Read full storyThe Bay Area: My Favorite Egg Rolls
I've been in the San Francisco Bay Area for about 16 years now. In that time, I've never truly found egg rolls that hit the spot. Egg rolls that reminded me of home. That has finally changed!
Read full story3 Methods For Paying Down Debt
Learning about and following these methods helped my net worth hit new highs. When I was still living in Fresno and attending Fresno City College, I was pretty consistent with credit card payments and rarely spent money. I didn’t check my credit or even fully understand what credit meant at the time, yet I guess I had really good credit. I continually received credit limit increases and never had an overdraft despite rarely having more than a few hundred dollars at any given time, most of which came from my job where I fixed ATMs.
Read full storyHow I Track My Expenses
No, seriously. You should be tracking where every single cent is going. I didn’t grow up with money. My parents emigrated from Southeast Asia to America as teenagers to different parts of California and eventually met in Fresno where they married. Growing up, we struggled. My father had to work two jobs while attending college in order to provide for us. We lived off big blocks of cheese and Kix cereal where the occasional McDonald’s visit was a miracle. Yet, I never felt the struggle. I never felt the pinch. For that, I’m super grateful to my parents. But, what that did was leave me without a strong understanding of money.
Read full storySave Over $30,000 With Multiple Methods
Saving isn’t just about getting rich enough to retire early. Sometimes, it’s just ensuring you have a lifeline when you need it. Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on UnsplashVisual Stories || Micheile.
Read full storyGive Yourself $1,300 This Year
You’ve done it. I’ve done it. We’ve all done it. A quick Google search will result in various articles urging you to save money, create a budget, and have a backup plan. However, I think it’s pretty safe to say saving money is relatively difficult. And for good reason.
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