Publisher's Synopsis
The author, Bayfamily, was the forum moderator of Investment BBS on Wenxuecity.com, a popular Chinese American social website. Since 2005, he has published a series of blogs on investment and personal fi-nance, and he has attracted millions of page viewers. In 2006, he posted a blog on this investment forum about his goal to make ten million dollars in ten years by investing. He named his plan "Ten Million in Ten Years In-vestment Plan for an Average Income Family." Since then, he has pub-lished his investment activities and financial records every year for 11 years, and eventually, he achieved his goal and made ten million in 2018; a total of eleven and a half years, which is a bit longer than the planned 10 years. This book is a memoir and a record of his efforts to fulfill his ten-million-dollar goal. The book includes details of all of his investment ac-tivities, how he prepared himself, how he accumulated capital, how he found investment opportunities, and most importantly, the failures and hard lessons learned throughout the process.Bayfamily came to the U.S. in 1997 with only 200 dollars in his pock-et as a Ph.D. student in engineering. With his student stipend and interning income, he saved up ten thousand dollars in two years. Afterward, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he and his family only earned an average income. However, they made their first one hundred thousand in two years, and one million dollars in six years, all through saving and in-vesting. This book is organized into four sections to describe this invest-ment history: from zero to ten thousand dollars, ten thousand to a hundred thousand dollars, a hundred thousand to a million dollars, and finally, from a million to ten million dollars. The wealth accumulated in each section is one level of magnate higher than before.After the 2008 financial crisis, Bayfamily graduated from a top MBA program in the U.S. and worked in a famous investment bank. During the last ten years, most of his wealth was accumulated through three invest-ment activities: investing in the real estate market in China, purchasing Bay Area real estate during the market downturn in 2010, and holding Bitcoin since 2016.Under his "Money Walks" theory, a good investor should understand their own personality first before investing, whether they are a "lazy man" or a "diligent man." In an efficient competitive market, investors should use the "lazy man" investment strategy; in an inefficient competitive market, they should use the "diligent man" investment strategy. In terms of saving, Bayfamily believes diligent work and a simple life are virtues. An extrava-gant and exorbitant lifestyle is wasteful. People can always save one-third of their money, no matter what their income level. This is simply because those who earn one-third less than you are still living with a similar quality of life.On his first day in the U.S., he was taught five simple rules on person-al finance, which were passed down for generations by new Chinese Amer-icans immigrates. The rules of saving money are: keep a good credit score, avoid loans and excessive consumption, avoid legal disputes, fix and repair stuff yourself, and stay fit and healthy. This book "Money Walks" uses the author's own life experiences as an example to illustrate all these rules and principles. This book is Part I of the story.
