Family Savings

Waste not, want not. A quick glance around my family’s home would reveal a great deal

about the Asian values to which my parents subscribe. The centerpiece of our living room, a

large television set, is bulky and outdated, but still delivers clear picture and fulfills the needs of

the family. Our furnishings, neither rustic nor opulent, make our home look like a place that is

lived in, rather than a place that is simply inhabited. If one were to sit at our table during dinner,

it would be clear that nobody in our family wastes food. All of these small observations help

characterize my family as a family of thrift and careful planning, traits that stem from our

Vietnamese heritage.

As immigrants from Vietnam, my parents did not have much of a head start in terms of

financial success. Both came to the United States with no money and very few possessions. After

they had met in Santa Ana College and were married in 1982, they were only slightly better off.

At the time of marriage, both of my parents held jobs at Hughes Aircraft as assembly line

workers for minimum wage. However, my father completed his Associates degree and soon

saved enough to start his own business repairing equipment for chiropractors. While business

was slow for the first two years of operation, my father’s business soon picked up and allowed

him to buy a house before having my sister and, later, me. At this point, my mother was still

working for Hughes Aircraft Company, but given the inadequacies of babysitters, my parents

were unsure that continuing to try different babysitters for my sister was the best way to raise

her. Consequently, five years after my sister was born, my parents gave birth to me in 1992 and

my mother quit her job in order to take care of me and my sister full time.

With my father’s business becoming widely adopted with chiropractors in Southern

California and my mother staying at home to take care of me and my sister, life in my family was

relatively stable compared to other families that moved around frequently. My parents

understood the value of savings and investment, which allowed us to live comfortably ever since

my dad started his business. As seen in Economic Insight 1.1, incentives matter (Walton &

Rockoff 8). By holding back and refusing to spend money on the latest and greatest technology

or lavish furnishings for our living room, my parents made sure that there was always money for

vacations and emergencies. Not unique to my family, this tendency to save money and avoid

unnecessary expenses stems from Asian thrift, a colloquial term for what is simply a tenant of

Confucianism and a mainstay of many Asian cultures. While this may not be in line with what

most people may want from their lives, it is in line with the American Dream. Through their hard

work and resilience, my parents were able to climb the socioeconomic ladder to the middle class,

exemplifying the social mobility that many Americans desire on a daily basis.

Although my family’s financial policies may seem to be overly cautious to many, our

consistent caution in spending any money has served us well for years. While my parents may

not govern any countries or head any large, multinational corporations, their immigrant roots

have allowed them to attain and maintain their financial success, which is no small feat in the

current economy.