What’s a SPAC?

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is a company that takes another private company public by merging with that company.

Why?

This allows the private company to go public without having to go through the red tape of a typical Initial Public Offering (IPO) which makes taking a company public easier.

Why not?

The red tape is there for a reason. Red tape forces companies to go through valuation and standard processes in an effort to protect the consumer from purchasing a potentially “bad” stock. Moreover, the private company pays the SPAC a premium to avoid the headache of a traditional IPO.

In the finance world, SPACs have existed for a long period, but they’ve become mainstream as of late. It’s hard to tell the long term advantages or disadvantages.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

The Federal Reserve is not LITERALLY printing money. (PART 2)

If you missed out on my post from yesterday on Quantitative Easing, you can find the link to that in the comments below.

Today, I want to talk about the other way the Federal Reserve “injects” money into the economy. And that is “Debt Monetization.”

It’s basically a cheat-y loop the government uses to buy from itself. The U.S. Treasury issues securities, which is then purchased by the Federal Reserve. Basically, one branch of the government buys something from another branch of government.

In effect, this gives the government more money to spend (i.e. invest) in infrastructure of other government expenditures.

So no, the Federal Reserve is not sitting there with a huge printing press and literally printing dollar bills and giving it to banks! It’s (typically) through one of these two methods: Quantitative Easing (Part 1) and Debt Monetization (this post).

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#TheMillionImpactMission

The Federal Reserve is not LITERALLY printing money. (PART 1)

A lot of people I talk to imagine a movie scene with a printing press and millions of dollars flowing through it. That's not what the Federal Reserve does.

In fact, the Federal Reserve can't create or print money. That honor belongs to the U.S. Treasury.

So what's all this talk in the news about the FED printing money?

They use their budget (their “credit card”) to purchase PREVIOUSLY ISSUED U.S. Treasury securities from commercial banks like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, or Wells Fargo and thus increases the amount of liquid money in the economy to be spent or invested.

This is one method called “Quantitative Easing.”

There's another called “Debt Monetization” but that's a topic for tomorrow :)

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#TheMillionImpactMission

How I’m getting paid to attend the University of California, Davis…

First things first — no, I’m not a super genius who got a full ride research scholarship to attend UC Davis. I knew a couple people who did, and they were far ahead of my capability.

Instead, I did something everyone can do: apply for scholarships.

I spent at least 3 hours a week on applying for scholarships. Out of maybe 15 hours of work, I would usually come back with one scholarship (usually valued at $1000 - $5000).

At the low end of $1000, I made $66 per hour doing this. At the high end, $333 per hour.

”But Justin, you’re still working for that!”

Yeah, well, its minimal work for the payout. Much better rates than minimum wage.

Even better, if you fall into one of the very supported groups (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc), there is a ton of support funding for these communities.

So students, set aside 3 hours every Sunday afternoon and pay for your college without manual labor.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

After studying Personal Finance and Game Theory, most people are playing a losing game with money.

With some people being billionaires and others not being able to have a positive net worth, there is obviously a wealth gap.

Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. And unfortunately, many of those people have less income than expenses.

That’s not even all bad. The “Middle Class” has higher income than expenses, but are conned into buying liabilities (car, motorcycles, etc).

In Game Theory, there is a concept of an expert. An expert is anyone who can tell you the probability of something happening at a higher accuracy than a coin toss (50%).

Experts (rich people or their advisors) play by a different set of rules.

Their rule? Use money to buy assets that make money to buy more assets that make money until their working income is just a drop in the bucket.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Story time: Learned some new code + a new redesign.

I was talking to Steve Dougan, James Kuttner, and Orlando Hui over at Doorvest a couple weeks ago.

Steve: “What do you do for fun?”

I gave him a non-answer — “I’m honestly pretty boring. I like learning and reading.”

James wasn’t satisfied and asked me again.

Me: ”You know, I really like doing design work for fun.”

I’ve never really said that to anyone. People are usually pretty content with the first answer. But you know what, design has always been an interesting field for me.

I think that’s why I love watching The Futur with Chris Do on Youtube. He combines Business + Design (my two favorite things)!

Anyways, for my spring break project, I decided to do a bit of a redesign on my personal website. I went back to the dark side!

I’m not a designer by any means nor do I know HTML and CSS inside and out, but I love it.

P.S. You can find a collection of all my random thoughts and a bit more about me on my website! (Link in comments)

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Why people like Gandhi and Buddhist monks rate their lives as happier than most millionaires

Meaning.

People who do (what they call) “meaningful” work are far more likely to rate their life as “happier.”

One of the most important factors to a person’s rating of life is not exactly correlated with how pleasurable they think their life is, but rather how meaningful it is to them.

I think that most people see the luxurious lives of those on their yachts all the time — and we think that’s THE life. The life we want.

Hey, maybe that’s what you actually want. But for the vast majority, happiness is not achieved by being rich. It’s about finding something greater than ourselves.

Or finding meaning.

For me, I want to impact 1,000,000 other people. Hence, The Million Impact Mission.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Stop asking for someone’s opinion.

Instead, ask for their advice.

Marketing and psychology professor Robert Cialdini says that asking for “advice” has a positive association that makes people want to work with you.

Advice means that the other person joins your team. You become their partner-in-crime against whatever you’re asking them about.

Opinion, on the other hand, makes the other person look inward. They focus on themselves, and they forget about you.

So, next time you talk to someone and you want input — be smarter and ask for their advice.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

One of the best things about being a student…

…the title of “Student”

I think the title of being a student is far too underutilized.

When you talk to professionals and tell them “I’m a student looking for advice.”

You hit on two points that excite most people.

1. People see their previous selves in you as a student. Most likely than not, they were a student at some point. Bonus points if this person is an alumnus or alumna of your school!
2. People love to mentor others. Bonus points if you’re interested in the same things they are!

Look, you’re already spending 30K+ / year to go to school. Might as well eek out everything you can. And having the title of being a student is one of the best perks.

Connect with professionals, make genuine friendships, and enjoy the ride.

P.S. I mean GENUINE. “Networking” without making friendships is a waste of time.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Those close to me know I do a lot with data.

I study Data Analytics @ the University of California, Davis, Data Science @ Codecademy, and I do data at my current internship @ XY Planning Network.

I collect analytics from these posts. I know that if I do the traditional “Here’s how I overcame this thing” LinkedIn post, I get the most likes and engagement. Random posts with my thoughts gets the most “comments” engagement. And personal finance posts get the most “likes” engagement.

For job seekers, I think data collection should be a part of the job search. Create a system (a spreadsheet or even pen and paper is fine) that allows you to track what’s working and what’s not.

Even if you network, it’s still a numbers game.

Keeping track of which cover letter language works best to get interviews versus not is important. You can continuously craft the “best” cover letter. Or the best resume. Or even the best interview language.

Once you’re at your best, you’ll be at the optimal point to find a job.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

STOP INVESTING.

…until you have enough cash.

Look, investing is all the craze today. In fact, it’s a meme that’s been gamified. And now, it’s cool and accessible to be an investor.

But investing is not the first step in personal finance.

👉 Keep at least 1 month of expenses in your Checking Account

👉 Keep another 3-12 months of expenses in a High Yield Savings Account

👉 Pay off all high interest debt (>8% interest)

Done these three? ✅

Then, start investing. Investing before this is stupid and risky.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

As we (hopefully) near the end of COVID as more get vaccinated, the joys (and miseries) of remote work are getting more traction.

Pre-pandemic, employers told us that employees are more productive with supervision and that employees were expected to work 40-hour weeks.

One, if that was true, you hired the wrong employee. (But this is a thought for another day…)

But two, work-hours is not exactly correlated with productivity.

Post-pandemic, employees are proving that they can be more productive at home and their work doesn’t take them 40 hours. Not only that, but they probably saved 8+ hours of commute time each week.

Not only that, but it caters to people’s unique situations. Introvert? Fine, stay home. For me, I’m a night owl — I’m literally twice as productive at night. Mornings? I’m barely hanging on.

The future of work — decentralized and remote work — means more freedom, time-savings, and better work-life balance. Don’t worry, my office-loving folk, the option for an employer to supervise will probably always be there for you still.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

My generation grew up believing that stress and anxiety was bad. And for some reason, we are the most stressed and anxious generation.

I think most people are tired of COVID posts, but Gen Z (young adults and teens) report some of the highest stress levels of every other generation during the COVID era.

Were we misguided? Stress and anxiety (and suffering in general) is always associated with being something we want to avoid.

But we need negative emotions. YES! We NEED negative emotions. Not only that, but we need to start embracing them instead of avoiding them.

It’s important to realize that stress and anxiety are what has kept has safe since the dawn of time. It’s an impulsive part that tells you that you need to keep moving forward.

👉 The stress of having that 11:59PM deadline creep up on you makes you work faster and more focused.

👉 Meeting with a Founder and/or CEO makes you more conscious of phrasing, body language, and the value of preparation.

Negative emotions signal to us that there is something there and that we need to push forward. We need them. They have utility and embracing them allows you to tap into it.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Quick Tip: Making LinkedIn more accessible.

Full credit to #YourKoreanDad (or Nick Cho) for pointing this out and teaching it to me via Reels —

But hashtags can be accessible or not!

If you’re using multiword hashtags like my #TheMillionImpactMission, it’s important to put capital letters for each word for people who can’t see or can’t easily see their screens.

These people use “Screen Readers” that read the text to them. But these screen readers won’t be able to pick up multi-word hashtags without capital letters properly. For example:

👉 Not Accessible — #themillionimpactmission

👉 Accessible — #TheMillionImpactMission

Share with a friend to make them be more inclusive :)

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#TheMillionImpactMission

The more you want a job, the more unworthy you feel of wanting a job.

The more you chase happiness, the lonelier you become even if you’re surrounded by those who love you.

The more rich you become, the poorer you feel regardless of if you’re a millionaire.

This is the “Backward Law” by philosopher Alan Watts with a bit of my twist.

Most people assume that all we want in life is the positive experiences in life. But in reality, what most of us don’t realize is that the combination and collection of the acceptance of negative experiences that gives us the positive experiences.

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#themillionimpactmission

After a week of @Codecademy’s Data Science Career Pathway, I wish EdTech was the standard for me now.

I’ve been pretty critical of the cost-benefit ratio of higher education. I know that I’m fighting a losing battle for my generation. For now, higher-ed is here to stay.

But for the next generation, these edtech companies are quite something else.

Not only are they cheaper (Codecademy is only $150/year for students), they’re faster to learn from and they’re better.

I’ve learned from Hubspot Academy, Coursera, Skillshare, and Udemy and they all impress me for the most part. Not to mention every student’s savior: Khan Academy who is leveraging adaptive and personalized learning experiences to teach students.

Edtech is better, cheaper, and faster. Let’s make it the gold standard.

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#themillionimpactmission

I love this drawing by @lizandmollie!

Especially as a student, I talk to my friends and salary and job title are the only parts we talk about.

“Oh, Justin! Did you see Joe get that new job with a six-figure salary as a head of X department?”

Look I’m all for making a crap ton of money and having a fancy title behind it. Who wouldn’t be?

But at a certain point, working 30 hours a week making $85,000 may be worth more than working 65 hour weeks making $125,000.

One thing I would note is that the sizes of each piece may differ for some people! I think some people like their work, so maybe their free time goes more to work! Or maybe you care more about salary than being in good physical health. That’s up to you.

But besides that, figure out what’s important to you holistically.

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#themillionimpactmission

There’s a lot of random words when talking stocks.

Here are stock types explained:

1. Growth — stocks that are rapidly growing in revenue, but often don’t have profit (i.e. Tesla)

2. Blue Chip — large companies that have solid reputation (i.e. Apple)

3. Penny — companies that trade under $5 that are small and extremely volatile (i.e. RF Industries)

4. Speculative — almost like “Penny” that can potentially have high return potential, but don’t have to trade under $5 (i.e. Plug Power)

5. Dividend — companies that use their profit to pay shareholders (i.e. AT&T)

6. Defensive — companies that sell products that are always needed (i.e. Proctor and Gamble)

7. Cyclical — companies that sell products that are dependent on the health of the economy (i.e. Southwest Airlines)

So now you know, and now you can understand what your friends are talking about!

Make sure to share with a friend :)

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#themillionimpactmission

Quantity > Quality

We’ve all heard the story of the pot experiment where one group was tasked to make one perfect pot and the other group was tasked to make 100 pots. Lo and behold, the group tasked to make 100 pots made better pots.

I talk to a lot of students afraid to post on LinkedIn (or X social media).

“What if I fail, Justin?”

“What if no one likes my posts?”

“My post isn’t perfect yet!”

Y’all, you don’t decide who likes your posts. Nor do you decide if it’s perfect. Who decides? Your audience.

Sometimes I make posts that do really well. But I personally didn’t invest a ton of time into it. Or sometimes I invest a ton of time and no one ever sees it.

It’s not about spending the time to make it the highest quality. Your audience decides what’s high quality to them!

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#themillionimpactmission

Do you always put a message when sending a LinkedIn connection?

I’ve tested both personally. And based off my small sample sizes, I’ve had much more success getting in front of people by NOT putting a connection message.

Here’s my suspicion — most of the people I connect with that DO put a message are often spammers or salespeople (or both!). So, people are beginning to train not to accept people who leave templated messages.

Whereas putting no message (and just a connection request) is ambiguous. You don’t know what the person wants, so it peaks your curiosity more-so than a “Hey, I’d love to connect for XYZ!”

What do you think?

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