From "Yuppie" to "Yappie" to "Yuffie": Career and Life Goals for 2020
Written By: Nick Nguyen | Read full profile
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a typical yuppie
Throw back to the 1980s when the term “Yuppie” was born (short for young urban professionals). These folks were notorious for being part of the “old boys clubs” with degrees from Ivy leagues and having upper class lineage. Their parents were typically doctors and lawyers and they were obsessed with 2 things: (1) money and (2) appearances.
In Mid-2018, one of our brilliant sources of inspiration, Wong Fu Productions, decided to borrow this term by defining a “Yappie - a young asian professional who acts like a Yuppie.” They called out to millions of followers around the world as we all had that “AHH I CAN RELATE!! ...story of MY LIFE!!!” moment.
They showed the world that asian cultures had a “check box” to fill to be considered successful. Yappies just wanted that stable 9-5 job, typically as an engineer, doctor, or lawyer, so they can afford that “mec-say-deez” (for my Vietnamese-American readers) or “benzie” (for my Chinese-American readers out there) and settling in a nice suburb with that 6-figure salary.
Well that leads up to this kind of lifestyle:
You work your tail off until you’re 65 and if you were lucky and managed that 6-figure salary strategically, you’ll have just barely enough in your retirement accounts to quit in peace. What they didn’t tell you was that you’ve only made enough to withdraw about 60% of your original yearly salary each year until you die. (Unless the stock market crashes and all your retirement stocks go to crap and you have to get a job again.)
My siblings and I are currently working towards a timeline that generally looks more like this:
Have you ever wanted to have multiple fun careers that you actually like doing? Love doing a lot of different things? Well each green block could represent you doing that! They’re about 3-5 year blocks because it takes on average 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill (take 10,000 divided by a 40-hour work week to get ~ 250 weeks or ~ 4.8 years).
Ever deal with burnout? Well now you can relax every 3-5 years with a 1-2 year break (or until you get completely bored and just want to try something new). This timeline assumes that you want to follow a typical life and start a family. Now you can take time off and take care of your kids without anyone deciding how long your maternity/paternity leave can be. Maybe you want to travel every few years without having to worry about your health giving out. Or maybe you need to take a year off because of a back injury.
This is all possible if you hustle during those green blocks, living frugally and building assets through side hustles and passive streams of incomes.
The Nguyen Sibs have coined this way of life as being a YFFIE (pronounced “Yuffie”).
This decade is the time of the “Yuffie.” We’re young, frugal entrepreneurs aiming to be financially independent! It’s not about working towards that fancy car or giant house. Nor is it about that 6-figure salary at a fancy tech company or becoming a C-level exec at a firm. These jobs should be a hobby to keep yourself sharp and mentally stimulated. . . NOT something that you work your entire life for only to reach it and decide, “hmm, well what do I do now?” Don’t let yourself be a modern day slave - instead aim to be free!
And if you feel like you’re “too old” to be a yuffie, think again! As Dr. Daniel Amen says in his book: Use Your Brain to Change Your Age. My parents give up so easily now that my siblings and I are older, writing off their struggles to continue innovating because of “old age.” But the cliché that “age is but a number” still holds true.
"When you want to talk to someone and get them to agree with you, you’re selling them your thoughts, ideas, and opinions."
Don’t think you’re interested in entrepreneurship because business isn’t your jam? Well jokes on you! Everything in life (un)fortunately is a business. You know that saying, “Mind your own business?” People usually say it to someone who’s nosy, but let’s take it literally for a moment. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad from Rich Dad, Poor Dad broke it down for us when he said that poor and middle class people need to do a better job at minding their own business. When you apply for a job, the business is yourself - you have to sell your skills, qualifications, and competency to your future employer. When you apply for school, you’re selling who you are to admissions committees to see if you’re a good fit. When you want to talk to someone and get them to agree with you, you’re selling them your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Turns out you were an entrepreneur your whole life - who knew?
And finally, no - being frugal isn’t the same as being cheap. We’ll elaborate on the differences in a later post. Just know that small changes in your life will compound and lead to big changes over time. So why not invest 1% changes today, so that you can be one step closer to freedom tomorrow? Cause let’s be real. Ridding yourself from the shackles that is money will leave you free with the most important commodity of all - time.
Follow the Nguyening Lifestyles fam on Twitter or Instagram and share your progress with the hashtag, #YFFIENation as you continue your path to financial independence!
*Nguyening Lifestyles is not a registered financial service provider and does not give financial advice. All information in these posts are for entertainment purposes only. Nguyening Lifestyles is not liable for any actions or outcomes that transpired after your reading of the following post.
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