 Are Asians just too cheap sometimes? When does Frugal turn into cheap and cheap turn into just a bad decision? Yeah, I mean, usually the older Asian generation is sort of the era that's stereotype to be cheap, Andrew. But this is coming from the youth. Let's run the clip off TikTok. How might Frugal boyfriend save money on his bananas? Andrew, they're morsies, saving for Bell, but always coming out with something viral, giving us yanks, something to talk about. No, why, Mike? This can't be real. I would say this has got to be a joke, but it's based in some truth. And why is it so believable just because he's Asian? Guys, first of all, let me just break this down. If you actually wanted to see savings on this banana peel tactic, you'd have to buy like six bananas, peel all of them, then you really see that drop in weight by the economies of scale. And then you'd have to chop it up, put them in a Ziploc bag and freeze them so then they could last longer. They don't turn brown. Anyway, guys, I mean, let's get into the comments section because you know what it was, Andrew? Like you said, I think that this was kind of a joke comedy hack from TikTok, but it really sparked a much larger discussion, Andrew, because a lot of Asians were triggered by their childhood where they felt like their upbringing may have been overly cheap. They're like, no, I saw something like this when I was younger. My mom did this. No! So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, Andrew. I think that this was a great entryway, not just for the comments section, but for us to bring up the question, what is the cheapest thing you have ever seen your Asian parents do, Andrew? Like you said, is this an Asian parent thing or is it an immigrant parent thing? I think it's a thing when your parents or your family comes from like either war or struggle. So I don't only want to say it's Asians. I don't think Chinese people invented cheap. I know Jewish people are also known to be very frugal too in their own way. But it kind of in a different way. Yeah, but I think if you are coming from out of any sort of like civil war, revolution, war, right? If you're a refugee, if you're family's refugees, there is some chance you're going to do some cheap stuff. Say the truth, though. Say the truth. Do you think the Chinese have the stereotype of being the cheapest even amongst the already frugal Asians? Let me tell you this. I think that there's a lot of Chinese people and Chinese people are very frugal. So yes, I do think the stereotype of being cheap is particularly typified by Chinese people. In media, that's how it feels. Obviously, China creates and builds a lot of like cheap items too, but that's not really their fault. Anyways, guys, let's get into it, man, because there is quite the discussion. And there's so many topics we got to get through. How cheap is too cheap? Is frugal versus cheap versus value minded versus being smart with money different? Should you just focus on earning more instead of spending less so you can have a better life? Should immigrants avoid such embarrassing behaviors? And when does extreme cheapness almost slip into cultural deviancy and become uncool? Yeah, or illegally cheap. Alright, let's get into the comments section first, Andrew. Somebody said all that just for it to expire quicker. That technically would be illegal. Do you think it's illegal to peel the banana before you weigh it? I think it's stealing or destruction of property, I would say. Somebody said, how would you like it if I just took all the pits out of the peaches? Or if I slap all the water out of the fish before I weigh the fish? Right, what if you start cutting over open avocados and taking out the pits? Other people, Andrew, were like, wow, he is so small for that. Jealous, I didn't think of that. I mean, what do you think it is, Andrew? Do you think some people, and obviously we're particularly pointing out a segment of Chinese people, all Asians can be like this, where they just love saving money even if they got money? Yeah, I feel like the idea, like there's such a dopamine rush of saving money. And even me right now, I buy a lot of stuff on sale. I will look at the sale items extra hard. Are you saying that some people, because in the American sense, Andrew, you would get a dopamine rush when you spend money to get the thing that you want. You're saying it's inverse. They get the dopamine rush when they save the money. Yeah, but it's not about you releasing dopamine by getting a worse product. You just released dopamine by getting a good deal on a good product. Right, right, right. And I think that this is where it's cheap versus frugal versus now you mind it. You know what it is? It's kind of that thought that crosses your mind, David. It's like he he he. Yeah, I just bought this for 20% off. Other people are buying it for a full price. Somebody said that the weight of the plastic bag and the cost it added must be giving him sleepless nights. Yeah, some people hate that. Somebody said, dude, this guy will have more money than all of us. Very smart. And someone said, I don't know, because one of these days, he's not going to wash his hands and he's going to have to spend $5,000 on a doctor's visit. Other people said, dude, this is frugal, but man, to be honest, he will have money in the bank, but this mindset will keep him limited in terms of upside. And somebody said, that's a man who clearly comes from a culture that loves money more than anything, but has no idea how to make more of it. Yes, I was a way to put it. I did what a way I'd never heard this quote before. I think what you see is the Eastern and Western mindset and the Western mindset, especially in America is just make more and spend more versus in the Asian mindset, it's like make more and just spend less. Would you say, though, that this is especially true from an older generation, maybe 60, 70, 80 years old? Yeah. When do you start to see a change amongst the, you know? I feel like parents who are in their fifties, I'm starting to see it change because fifties, if your parents are in their fifties, that means you are in your young twenties, probably if not, like your teens, where then they're a little bit more removed from like the war time and, you know, all the wars from Asia. I mean, cultural revolution. There was an era when all that stuff was happening. You mean all the rationing, the lack of like, there was no growth mindset at that time? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, let's be honest. Like, I don't know the exact dates, but all that stuff happened in Asia within a span of like 25 years. Yeah, Andrew, growing up, we're going to get into the stories, Andrew, growing up at Churchman, there was some families that were definitely cheap at the 10 out of 10 level. And to be honest, I'm not going to lie, Andrew. That is not that fun of a childhood for their kids. Right? No, no, not fun. Very embarrassing. Very embarrassing, actually. But other people are going to argue about this point. Somebody said, I'd be more, I'd be less embarrassed if he just stole the banana. Somebody else came through and said, yeah, I'd rather steal than do this. And somebody said, not even my Asian mother who grew up poor would do this. Where does he draw the line? And other people said, extreme cheap skates. Of course, in the TikTok comments section, and I'm not going to lie, the white Aussies are just the white looking people. They were even more embarrassed than any Asian comments. Like white people hate being seen as cheap. Oh, man. No, I think being cheap is such a diss, but I think being cheap to Asians, man. It's not like I think it's not the worst thing. I was not the worst thing. No, but I do think there is a point, David, where being cheap becomes just a bad decision. You end up wasting time, wasting effort, and you getting an inferior product. Yeah. No, that's true. It's true. If you're cheap enough, long enough, you will run into those things and you have to balance it out. Yeah. Honestly, I mean, I wouldn't say 100 out of 100 times you get what you pay for in life, but honestly, it's probably more than 50% of the time. It's more it's more true than it's not. David, what is this cheap thing that you saw recently in your life that someone did that you know or that you do? Oh my goodness, man. I got to say, you know, I think there's the obvious things a lot of people were pointing out that their Asian parents had a nice house, but maybe cheap furniture, maybe spent a lot on education, but the car was maybe 50-50. You know how like, I feel like a lot of Asian families, Andrew, it depends because some are like 10 out of 10 cheap, right? And some are like 5 out of 10, but like some people will spend on luxury bags as long as those luxury bags maintain the asset value. Yeah, but also, I mean, I think I guess, you know, to be honest, if you're going to spend money on a house, buy it and own it and have property, that is better than spending a bunch of money on cars, which are not necessarily an asset. Right, because you're saying the house can appreciate depending on the market trends. Yeah, the car is like 99% of them don't appreciate. Would you agree with me, Andrew? Everybody at church was probably at the most luxurious at the time we were growing up. Maybe the most loosest family with money was maybe a 6 out of 10 cheap, which is still pretty high on the American scale and then all the way to like 10 out of 10. Yeah, I would say like, I've definitely seen parents like return fruit to the supermarket, which you technically can depending on the supermarket's policy, you can return fruit, but I would say sometimes that's almost like depending on what your opportunities cost is, that's just a waste of time. Right, they're not thinking about the time and the effort and you can't do something else if you go spend and return or haggle over a $2. Or obviously, if the cheaper product you buy, the more likely something goes wrong or you don't like it, so then you feel like you want to return it and then that takes up more time out of your life versus paying just a little bit more for a better product that you're just happy with. Yeah, let's tell you, so I said at church people were probably fluctuating between 6 out of 10 and 10 out of 10 frugality cheapness. I'm just going to go ahead and say the middle class white kid is like is like a 2 out of 10, maybe a 1 out of 10. Yeah, they like to spend. Um, Andrew, do you think it's true that like canto people might even. Dumb on Cantonese Cantonese people from the villages, I would say might be more from my experience of what I saw at a very, you know, multi provincial Chinese church, they're moving towards the 8, 9 and 10 out of 10 level. Paul, I do, I don't, I guess, yeah, I would say so, maybe they feel like they're a little bit more frugal than even other groups of people. Like I know, for example, comparing Southern Chinese to our Vietnamese friends. My Viet friends were more unlikely. I can't speak for all of them, but more likely to just focus on hustling and making more money than saving money and penny pinching. Right, but they would also spend the money to get the dopamine to get the, to use the dopamine to feel more motivated. Yeah, people get dopamine from different things. So if you are a penny pincher and you love that, then you're going to be a penny pincher for the rest of your life. But if you get dopamine from buying nice things, well, then you have to just make more money. Yeah, ultimately, I think you got to focus more on growing it, but it is a different skill set and it's a different muscle. Andrew, some of the cheapest things I've seen Andrew, and at one time we were playing video games with a Cantonese friend of ours, Andrew, and he refused to even spend the money in the video game to upgrade his gun to kill the zombies, but we're supposed to be on a team and he won't upgrade his gun. So he's using the gun they give you at default, but we need to get the bigger guns. Hey man, he worked hard for those dollars, but I'm saying, I guess like, but I'm saying that that goes to show you how deep the mindset coaching was that it transferred over even to video games, fake money spending. You know what you can't underrate is that some people still just like looking at that number grow, but that number means it's in your bank or in your wallet. It's not being spent. So you like to see that number grow, but you just sit there and the number grows, but you're not, you're not doing anything with your life. It also depends on how much you enjoy life. If you enjoy life, you have to spend money. No, you really do because to what? To go out to eat with your friends at nicer restaurants, buy anything on better service and I mean, just go watch movies constantly. You have to spend money. You know what I mean? Um, Andrew, I knew a guy who tore his ACL and a pair of basketball sneakers. Nike GT run. I'm going to call it out and those shoes. If you guys know sneakers do not have very good Achilles support. He tore his eight Achilles. I'm sorry, not his ACL is Achilles and then he went back and started wearing the Nike GT runs again. You're saying if you tore your Achilles and that costed you a surgery and a bunch of time, why would you go back to that shoe? What was his explanation? He goes, yeah, well, you know, I already spent a lot of money on my surgery. So I don't want to spend the money again on another pair of shoes, but he was underestimating the fact that he could sell those shoes and he could recoup some of the value and then just buy like some KD 14s on sale or something with better Achilles support. Exactly. Exactly. See that I would say is not being smart with your money. That's just being cheap. David, there is a difference between frugal, cheap and being smart with your money. You know, for sure, for sure. I mean, would you say that only using, I mean, I think there's parts where it blurs the line. Let's say, for example, you're from a very Asian family, traditional old school, you guys don't want to buy taco sauce. So you guys have a bunch of taco sauce packets from Taco Bell as your taco sauce substitute. I don't think it's wrong. As long as those Taco Bell packs are in season, like they're not expired. I can see that being valid because you're like a traditional Asian family. You know, why would you have taco sauce? I mean, I would say being smart with money would be more like knowing how to use your credit cards, right? And knowing when things are on sale and using your mileage for flights and things like that. Being smart with money, making sure you're not, your subscriptions aren't going overdue and you're not paying late fees or that you're not subscribed to too many frivolous things that you don't actually want to be subscribed to, right? You know, and being frugal is just like I'm only going to spend money on the things that I really like and need. And I know those five things in my life that I really like and I'm going to super be frugal about everything else. And then cheap is to the point where you're out with friends and it pisses them off. That's being cheap, right? And you're getting crappy products that is being cheap. For sure. I mean, overall, how do people get better with money to understand that they can get what they want for cheap? Because one thing I notice is like if you already have the thinking to get a lot of good items for cheap, it's almost like you probably it's like everybody who doesn't have a lot of money, they could get nice things if they knew that method of getting nice things for cheap. But that's the whole point is that they'll never know. Right. Because honestly, it takes some learning. I think being cheap is very, very simple-minded mindset. It's not very clever. Being frugal and smart with your money, that takes learning, but that's going to stick with you for a lifetime. So if you learn to be smart with your money when you're when you're young, it's going to help you throughout your life. Right. Like we said, guys, there's things that you can buy sometimes when you buy name brand things. Let's say, for example, Andrew, you cheap out and you get the bootleg Dyson vacuum. You cannot sell the bootleg Dyson vacuum and it probably won't be as good as, you know, whatever the pop in Dyson vacuum is the cordless one that everybody's using. Dicens are great value. The V11 Cyclone. Those are amazing. That dude, they're like on V14. Yeah. You can resell it. It works great. Makes you want to clean more. I mean, like we said, man, there's so many different things, but you you ultimately learn a lot of your money attitude from your parents. But I definitely would say read books, you know, follow some people that are really good with money on TikTok. They know how to spend it, but they know where to save it too. And let us know what you think in the comments section below. What is the cheapest Asian parent thing that you've ever seen or cheap from your immigrant parents? And until next time, we're the hop hop boys. We out. Peace.