Saturday, January 14, 2017

A Retired Immigrant: An Economic Profile on K.C.

http://www.bernardwolf.com/media/original/CityscapeLA-copy-DUP.jpg

K.C. was born in a rural southern Indian village in 1937. Unlike his other siblings, he sought to leave India for greater economic opportunity. For him, immigrating would have to be through education, specifically through engineering. Completing high school, and undergraduate studies in India, K.C. was granted the opportunity to receive a Master’s in Engineering at Oklahoma State University. In 1965, once out of graduate school, K.C. attained a job in San Francisco, California, working as a Construction Engineer at Fred Early Construction. Three years later he was promoted to Construction Project Manager within Fred Early. While in San Francisco, K.C. bought his first house, in the suburbs, and got married. In 1970, in San Francisco, K.C. began work with a larger construction company, Dillingham. Working as a Project Manager, K.C. eventually was asked to transition to Los Angeles, California to continue his work. When in Los Angeles, K.C. had two daughters, and lived in a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood, in which he moved houses four times. K.C. continued to elevate up the corporate ladder, attaining the title of Vice President, and eventually Executive Vice President for Dillingham. A decade after obtaining the promotion, K.C. was asked to become President of Ray Wilson Construction, where he worked for 13 years, earning his highest salary, $275,000. In 1998, after leaving Ray Wilson, K.C. became a consultant for several Los Angeles-based construction firms. After officially retiring in 2005, K.C. moved to Portland, Oregon, to surround himself with his daughters, and his grandchildren. Currently, on an annual basis, K.C.’s retirement income is $120,000.

Assessing K.C.’s life through the principles of the economic perspective, it becomes evident that parallels emerge. With the economic belief that “institutions are the rules of the game,” it’s apparent that K.C.’s economic success, is a product of institutions. Beginning with the structure of education, K.C. was able to work hard throughout high school and undergraduate studies, which allowed him to received his Master’s in the United States. The institution of education, “was a key determinant of my success,” stated K.C. Furthermore, the fifth principle, “all choices have consequences that lie in the future and reshape what’s possible,” applies to K.C., as his decision to dedicate his youth years to academics, allowed for him to immigrate to America. His move to the United States forever changed in his economic standing. “If I had stayed in India, I would’ve worked in the fields and continued my life as a villager,” stated K.C. His decision to use education as a means of expanding his opportunities, had a profound impact on his economic well-being.

Much of K.C.’s economic success, is attributed to his ability to escalate through the corporate ladder. Beginning with his first job in San Francisco, K.C. was able to secure a “strong wage,” due to his Master’s in Engineering. His depth of study in the field of engineering directly boosted K.C.’s human capital. As a master in his field, K.C. was of higher demand, and was immediately able to ascend to, what he called, “an above entry level position,” as a Construction Engineer. By starting at a higher position than most first-time workers, K.C. was able to accelerate his way through Fred Early Construction. Additionally, by quickly moving up to an executive position within Fred Early, K.C. became a viable prospect to move into an executive position within a larger construction company. The wealth of experience K.C. attained at Fred Early, built upon his human capital. With each promotion K.C.’s services become more demanded. Throughout his ascension, and ultimate arrival as the President of Ray Wilson Construction, K.C. cited a growing demand for construction. Beginning in the 1970s, according to K.C., malls, and mass retailers became growingly popular. The rise of the mall, meant a heightened demand for corporate construction. The growing demand for construction, meant a growth of construction companies. There is an apparent connection to the supply-demand curve: as demand for construction increased, so did the size of construction companies. As construction companies grew, Project Managers, like K.C., became more integral, and were handsomely compensated. K.C. attributed his rising wages to scarcity. As he gained more experience, people with K.C.’s repertoire became increasingly numbered. Simply said, K.C.’s wages and human capital shared a linear relationship: his wages increased at each level he was promoted. K.C. discussed the role of taxation in his life, claiming, “Taxation didn’t significantly alter my wealth, and I often felt that I was doing justice by putting money back into the system.” Over the course of his professional, and retire life, K.C. was assigned a exceedingly livable wage reflective of his human capital.

Throughout K.C.’s professional life he experienced several recessions. As a member of the workforce, he, firsthand, saw the business cycle playout. During the recessions of the1970s, and early 1990s, K.C.’s construction companies saw significant dips in clients, and often had to lay off lower-level employees, in order to remain cash flow positive.  However, after recessions, K.C.’s companies would often experience periods of expansion, in which their client list, number of employees, and wages would all increase. The expansion was often catalyzed by the Federal Reserve’s lowering of interest rates, which subsequently lowered the interest rates of commercial banks, allowing companies, including K.C.’s constructions company, to borrow more. The ability to borrow at a greater degree, had a multiplying effect, as more people were hired by K.C.’s company, lowering unemployment, resulting in the expansion of the consumer base.

The Business Cycle

The trends expressed in K.C.’s companies were emblematic of the Phillip’s Curve, in which unemployment and interest rates share an inverse relationship. During periods of recession, as in the 1970s and 1990s, more people are unemployed, so the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, allowing companies to borrow more and expand their firm, hence combatting mass unemployment.

The Phillip’s Curve



Another means to which K.C. gained greater economic security was through investing. K.C., beginning with his first job, was able to make enough money to the point that he could begin both saving and investing. K.C. throughout his life made it a point to invest, as a means to actively expand his capital. However, he stated, “I’m a risk-averse investor.” He elected to invest in companies with large market caps, as larger market caps were symbols of stability. K.C. also addressed taxes on capital gains, stating, “Similarly to Federal taxes, I felt that my capital gains were taxed fairly. He recommended that younger people follow his method of investing, due to the consistent, albeit relatively low, returns. However, K.C. unlike many, was able to grow his wealth at an exponential rate, due to the sheer amount of liquidity he had. With high-wage jobs, K.C. was able to invest more, than the average-wage worker. K.C.’s story of investing is reflective of Thomas Piketty’s idea that the wealthy get wealthier, due to their ability to invest. K.C. had the luxury of being able to invest starting at a younger age, which allowed him to have substantive amounts of capital once retired.

Throughout my interview with K.C., two interesting themes emerged: education and perspective When interviewing K.C., it became clear that education plays a significant role in future earnings, and the opening of opportunities. K.C.’s in-depth study in engineering was integral in attaining economic security. Had K.C. chosen to not study engineering, he would’ve never have had the opportunity to achieve the same financial success, let alone immigrate. Yet, by far the most interesting point K.C. made in the interview addressed the perspective of wealth. When living in India, K.C.’s family was considered upper-middle class. And when I asked K.C. what socioeconomic class he felt a part of, he stated, “upper-middle class.” K.C. laughed when stating that, as there is a significant disparity between upper-middle class in India, and in the United States. Upper-middle class in India, for K.C., meant property ownership, whereas in the United States, upper-middle class, in regard to K.C., meant having copious amounts of liquidity. The dichotomy highlighted by K.C. suggests that economic terms and identifiers are relative to their environments. A lack of proper global perspective when assessing an individual’s economic story can have significant implications regarding the interpretation of material. For example, had I not learned the true meaning of upper-middle class in India, I would’ve assumed that the characteristics of upper-middle class in the United States were identical to those in India.

Overall, the opportunity to interview a retired immigrant, provided an intriguing insight into how I want to live my own life economically. K.C. encouraged me to start saving and investing capital as soon as possible, in order to obtain future financial security. Yet, what I learned, from K.C., the value of pursuing opportunities both big and small. K.C. remarked, “Had I not taken the opportunity to move to the United States, I would’ve followed the footsteps of my family, remaining a villager.” The global economy is built on individuals, firms, organizations, and countries making choices. And much like the global economy, K.C.’s economic life story was heavily dependent on his ability to make decisions.


Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Gunnar Economic Profile

Gunnar Fairbairn
Ralph Drayton
Economics
12th November 2016

Interview Answers
1. Sam, 71, male.
2. Live in own home
3. BA History, MFA English

4. Retired stock broker/former teacher
5. 85,000 (Retirement, Social Security, Mandatory Distributions)
6. Wage is basically reasonable
7. Middle class
8. About the same.  They both worked and had the benefits of belonging to unions.
9. Delay in buying first house.  No help from family getting a down payment, and timing delay was several years that peer group proved to do much better by starting earlier.
10.  Govt. was helpful in forgiving educational loans in exchange for teaching.
11.  Dreams and fears of the economy have had little to do with things.
12.  Yes
13.  The moment you receive your first paycheck, pay yourself first: 15%.  Do this every month.  Your employer may make this convenient by offering a 401K.  If you save your money each month and don't have a 401K start purchasing a small piece or real estate, a lot, an acre of farmable land, something you can get $ from, by renting it to a goat, or whatever, even a small house.  Do this early in your adulthood.  Don't make excuses about $$$.

Intellectuals Succeed: An Economic Profile of a Teacher & Former Stock Broker
Retired Decently
            I interviewed a retired man in his early seventies and found that thanks to a few personal finance decisions made early on he now enjoys a comfortable retirement. In no way was he rich, but he thought ahead from the time he went to college. Upon examining what he attributes to his success, such as personal finance forethought, union pensions, and education its easy to see how he came to financially healthy retirement. I intend to examine those decisions and apply some of what I’ve learned in economics this year in reflecting on his economic profile.



            Though he says he was lucky for the government forgiving his student debt in exchange for teaching I think his academic boldness was bound to put him on better financial footing than most people. In 1950’s it wasn’t a requirement to go to college and college educated workers didn’t make substantially more money. He went though and got a BA History, MFA English, which added a ton to his human capital in the labor force.
           
            Though a bit blurry this chart shows lifetime incomes of those with a bachelor’s degree, high school diploma, some college, associates degree, and above. With a bachelors and a masters, he stood in the best position to have the highest possible life income on average. Getting a masters was risky in terms of student loan debt, but the amount of people going to college before the 1950’s was much lower. Also less money was being spent on renovating them for a growing student base making Sam’s education much cheaper with inflation adjusted numbers. The federal government also forgave that debt in exchange for teaching. That’s a very good deal.

He taught history at Catlin Gabel for a number of years, but also became a Stock Broker. Its general knowledge that Stock Brokers make a lot of money and know well how to save for the future. Also the pay is much different from that of teacher. In one of these fields he was part of a union or both because didn’t specify. I expect it was a teacher’s union. His wife at the time was part of a union too. So even with raising three kids he would enjoy job security, healthy pensions upon retirement, and a higher than average pay as displayed in the chart below.

            Race, gender, and class is another factor in dealing with the cost of raising a family and one’s general overall income. In class we discussed systemic poverty once and I don’t think there was any danger of him falling into that cycle. He started out middle class and prepared for upper middle class with education and considers himself middle class now. He is white and male and predominantly men like him get paid more than black male counter parts. Though the gaps are well exposed now, the race and gender gaps played to his favor back in the 1970’s and for the majority of his working life. Today 73% of white families own homes compared 45% to 47% for Blacks and Latinos. Owning a home is great investment because with the rise of inflation overtime you end up paying less then what you bought the home for in some cases. Inflation rises devaluing your debt, but raising the value of your home. Buying that first home was a bit of struggle he remarked in the interview, but he eventually did get one as he says here “Delay in buying first house.  No help from family getting a down payment, and timing delay was several years that peer group proved to do much better by starting earlier.” It seems here he missed out a bit financially among his peers, but he was still able to the make investment, which most definitively benefited him in the long run because he owns his home today.
            With the background of an academic and several profitable careers behind him his retirement pay had to at least be “reasonable” as he puts it. He now makes about 80,000 a year in retirement, which is above the national average income of 51,000 a year and certainly more than minimum wage. His advice out of this interview is advice my parents also have given me.
            “The moment you receive your first paycheck, pay yourself first: 15%.  Do this every month.  Your employer may make this convenient by offering a 401K.  If you save your money each month and don't have a 401K start purchasing a small piece or real estate, a lot, an acre of farmable land, something you can get $ from, by renting it to a goat, or whatever, even a small house.  Do this early in your adulthood.  Don't make excuses about $$$.”
            Under the belief of dollar cost averaging the first part makes a lot of sense. Investments will grow over time and continuous investment results in more invested when it is cheap then its expensive. A 401k would balance his income in stock and bonds and the stock would provide a nice profit with consistent investment that usually yields higher returns due to people buying more when a stock is low and less when a stock is high. He seems to also be ahead of the trend when it comes to saving for ones retirement not through a home, but through a bank account.
           
Assuming these retirement accounts are managed by big corporations whatever they invest in his bound to grow just due to the size of the overall principle. Meredith mentioned that a large portion some estimates being 40% of the stock market is invested in funds, money managers, and overall passive investing. Considering this and how volatile the stock market growth is today compared to when my grandfather was investing I’ve generally come to the belief that where these passive investors and money managers see value other should join the bandwagon because they bring a sizable investment principle with them and may just dictate the market.
            Some questions I have from this interview still are why did he get that masters in fine arts with little economic pressure fifty years ago? As a former stock broker how does he see the market today? How did the opening up of the investment world to more people effect the market in his view? Does he worry about wage slowing, but stock market gains rising?

All images had to go to the bottom of the page due to posting issues.
Cited Sources
http://apsforupte.org/upte-on-the-issues/fair-compensation/


           
I had the privilege of interviewing a middle-aged woman named Joyce Clawson, and was able to get a more in-depth look was what it’s like to get older, go to college, get a job, and go through the financial ups and downs of adulthood and parenthood. Joyce is a 55-year-old private therapist, and single mother of two, who has lived and worked in Portland for the majority of her life. She has done her best to plan for the future and be financially responsible, and in my opinion represents someone who has been very smart about how they have invested their time and their money, and who has ultimately created a happy life for them self. As I look forward to having the new responsibilities that come along with entering college, and then soon after entering the work force and adulthood, I have often found the entire prospect daunting. However, listen to Joyce’s path through life has put me more at ease, as she is living proof that if you are smart and keep your eye on the ball from early on, things will work out for you and your family.
As I said before Joyce has lived in Portland for nearly her whole life, but the few years she was away were the 4 years she was in Washington, at Pacific Lutheran University, getting her bachelor’s degree in psychology. Joyce was studying to become therapist like her father, and in order to open a licensed practice she needed to obtain a master’s degree. Joyce decided to move back to Portland and live with her parents while she studied for master’s degree in counseling phycology from Lewis and Clarke college in order to save money. While in grad school she also worked at Nordstrom to pay for the loans she was taking out, as well as save what little money should could. After completing her masters, Joyce still needed to complete 2000 hours of work at a mental health facility to become licensed and immediately got a job at a center for disturbed children in Portland. Joyce spent 8 years and a lot of money in tuition to raise her “human capital” by staying in school an extra two years as well as by working at the federally funded job. She did this with the hope that it would allow her access to a higher paying job, and ultimately a more financially stable life.
Joyce was correct about this opening the doors for more opportunity in her life, and she hit the ground running as a young adult. She got her own rental as soon as she was done with grad school, and shortly thereafter met her future husband. They moved in together and shared the rental that she was already living in. She put off entering private practice at first, and continued to work at the center for children, because it had a great insurance package and offered raises up to 16% annually. After getting married and entering private practice, she and her husband invested in buying a home in north Portland for 84,000, with they believed was an up and coming neighborhood and would turn out to be a smart move. She ended up selling the house for 394,000 in 2012, but owed the government 100k in taxes on the sale. She said this was very aggravating and even a shock, because she was right to invest in that area and was able to turn a huge profit, but lost about half of it to the government and the other half went to buying a new house. Because of this she was unable to save any money from the sale, and was initially very upset that this was the case. She lived there for 17 years, and during that time had two children, and got divorced. She said that getting divorced was the right move emotionally, but it required she take a financial hit. She went from living in a two income household to a one income household. She felt that she is now worse off than her parents because of this, as her parent tare both educated with degrees in teaching and counseling and were able to bring in more money. This choice reminded me of the economic principal, “choices has consequences that lie in the future and reshape what’s possible”. Because she split with her husband, she lost about half her income and had to become a single parent, which she said was very stressful both emotionally and economically, but the right thing to do in the end.
Currently Joyce makes a net income of around 98,000 dollars a year, and is living in southwest Portland. Her children are now in college and she is working full time as a private counselor. She feels like her wage is a livable wage, but also feels that it is still difficult living with one wage of this size, as it disqualifies her from any government aid. She ends up spending a lot of it on necessities and paying for her children’s college, which leaves her with relatively little to spend on superfluities. She believes she is middle to upper-middle class based on her wage and her level of education, and is relatively happy, but is more stressed out than her parents were. She has been saving for retirement since the age of 22, and in my opinion, is a perfect example of how someone should save for retirement. Just like we learned to do, she started early, puts about 12% of her income away each month, and has invested it in an IRA. She plans to move her investments to bonds in the next 5 or so years to ensure that she does not lose any of her retirement fund as well. She has been very smart about how she has gone about setting this fund up, and seeing how comfortable she is now, I feel encouraged to take after her in her methodically and responsibly planned retirement fund.
Looking back over what she has learned and experienced she gave me the advice to start saving as early as you possibly can for retirement, as well as be responsible about how you pay for college. She went to college when it was much cheaper, and going through the process again with her kids has made it clear to her that young adults need to be careful about the loans they take out. She said if you can go to community college the first two years and live at home before transferring to do your work for your bachelors and your masters if you get one. She felt that her most valuable expenses were those that she spent on trips with her children. As an adult Joyce feels like spending money on experiences with those you love it worth so much compared to anything else, and is something that you will remember forever.
I chose the photo below to represent Joyce because she is a hard working single woman, who has worked hard to get where she is today. She is middle age and still working as hard as she ever has.
source:
http://www.provident4women.com/insights4women/must-haves-for-working-women

Reflecting back on my interview with Joyce, I felt the two most important things to understand about her economic history were her two investments of buying a home and getting a master’s degree. These investments worked out for Joyce, but after all that has changed since she initially made these investments, Joyce is a bit wary about how successful her decisions would be if implemented in today’s economic environment.
The graph below depicts the average price of a home during the time that Joyce owned her first home. It is an important graph to keep in mind as it shows that when Joyce bought her house in 1994 for 84,000, when houses were fairly cheap, she was buying a house that was about the average price for a home in America at the time. However, even though she didn’t sell at the housing markets high in 2007-2008, she was able to sell her home for 250,000 above the national average in 2012 when she sold for 394,000. Joyce was smart to invest in the area that she did, and it is because of that foresight that she was able to sell a home she got at the average price in ’94 for a price vastly above the average in 2012. Despite this success, due to Obama’s change to taxation on the sale of a first home, she was not able to reap all of the benefits she could of off of this wise investment. Currently it is more expensive to buy a home compared to when she bought hers, and ultimately a harder investment for young adults to make compared to when she made it back in the 90’s. Because of this rise in price it is likely a person won’t be able to make as large of a profit off of their first home, and because of that Joyce suggests that they wait to buy a home, rather than make such a large investment early in adulthood.

source- http://www.provident4women.com/insights4women/must-haves-for-working-women
This second graph is imperative to keep in mind as well, as it represents the rise in the amount of loans that students are taking out to pay for college in the past ten years. From 2006 to 2016 this number has just about tripled, and is becoming a higher and higher financial hurdle to clear and recover from at a young age. Joyce went to 6 years of school in the 80’s when the loans required to pay for tuition were much more reasonable, but currently loans are rising at such a fast rate that it might be worth it to just not go to college. Speaking with her rehashed all the things we spoke about when discussing if college was “worth it”. In all honestly nowadays it might not be depending on what field the graduate is entering, as it will put them in a significant amount of debt, and make it harder for them to save for the future, as well as afford things in the short term. It’s a situation that perfectly represents the principal of economics, “choices have consequences that lie in the future and reshape what’s possible”. If you go to school you will have access to higher paying jobs, but you may not be able to save as much for retirement, or afford to own a home until you are well into adulthood. If you don’t go to college you won’t be in debt, but will likely make less money and not have as a large of job selection. It is worth it for me to go to school, but if rates keep going up I can’t imagine it will be worth it in the 10-20 years. Things have changed a lot since Joyce attend university, and I can only imagine looking forward what college will look like when I am 55 if things don’t change.


It was a wonderful experience speaking with Joyce, and gaining insight about adulthood and managing yourself financially. I had not yet considered how drastically things can change over the course of 30 or so years, and that many things simply cannot be planned for. However, despite discussing how much is unknown and uncontrollable, it was clear speaking with her that it pays off to save and make smart investments in areas that you can control. The message that came through the most from her was that creating a solid game plan is a great start, but being able to work with the ebb and flow of the economic world as it changes is also very important, as things never stop shifting around.
sorry if images don't show