“You can trade your time for salary, but don’t trade your dream for anything” via Vincent on @JunLoayza’s Blog

- @DianaWei

According to my experience, my ex-colleagues have two reasons for staying at their positions. First, as you said, they have to support their families. Second, they don’t know what to do. I mean, they don’t like their jobs because they envy rich people, so they complain but take no action to change their situations.

My situation maybe better than you. My parents have retirement pension, not much, but enough for their living,(I guess China is more suitable for old man?) and my younger brother have a job. So I don’t have to worry about my family.

Can you imagine that something inside just keep telling you “You are running out of your time, this is just a wrong way.” This is the main reason I choose to startup. I will try my best to make it happen unless something have prove that I am in the wrong way.

IMO, you can trade your time for salary, but don’t trade your dream for anything.

thanks for your post. Maybe you could talk to your parents about your concerns, I’m sure they appreciate your concern and care for them. Sometimes just knowing that someone is out there willing to help is nice, and you can find solutions together.

Work nights and weekends tirelessly. You won’t get any sleep and you’ll hardly see your friends, but that is the life of an entrepreneur

Here you say that it may be better for someone to stay at their corporate job for stability while getting their startup off the ground.

But in another post you refer to the entrepreneurial black hole, how many people decide to work for a few years and then start a business, and that many people never get out of it.

So if you’re in your early to mid twenties, what in your opinion is the best way? Getting an interesting corporate job for stability while you spend time building other things or risking it all early while you’re young?

Call it filial piety or first-gen Asian responsibility, what you are feeling is rooted from Eastern conscience that separates us from those with non-immigrant families. I am Indonesian (26 yo), expat-child or TCK (third culture kid) who was fortunate enough to have grown up in multiple countries because of my father’s corporate expatriate assignments overseas (he is a geologist) and married to a first generation Vietnamese (27 yo) from a low-income family (MIL does nails, FIL is on disability checks). We have accepted the fact that we will have to support both of his parents in retirement. We are both engineers, love to travel, he is very artistically inclined and has dreams to be an artist/musician. However, we are both grounded enough to realize our responsibility and duty as children to take care of our parents. The old saying goes, “we are all children until our parents leave us”.

To return to your question and a possible answer would be: EARLY RETIREMENT. My husband and I have decided to live off 1 salary for 20 years (living off the less salary, saving the greater) perform well enough so we can both achieve corporate expat jobs in the same country, SAVE and retire early at 45 such that THEN we can quit our jobs, live comfortably off market gains, raise our children overseas and pursue our dreams. At the same time, taking advantage of our young age to learn about investing in the markets early as time is the second-to most precious commodity, next to health. While it may not be available in all industries, the corporate expatriate position is the holy grail of living a balanced life of traveling, comfort, career success and financial stability. The company will fund your living expenses abroad (rent is paid) and provide generous pay packages as an “inconvenience” bonus for moving while your children can go to international schools and pick up a new language on the way.

I know I have given an unpopular option, since it will involve going back to that steady job or career, but with sound investing skills and a desire to not keep up with the Joneses, you can definitely achieve both: help your parents by the time they reach retirement age AND pursue your dreams at your early retirement age. And while you are at it, wisdom will grow and your future blog-readers and children will thank you for it.