Getting something from nothing/ Carlos Pueblo

Getting something from nothing/ Carlos Pueblo

This is not Tao philosophy, growing Yo from Wu, as one of the famous Chinese

idioms. What I mean is the common sense of getting something from nothing. I

try to buy fixed rate annuity of 2.6% for five year, it is with a capital amount

and growing interest during the duration and I define as growing something with

something from the beginning. If I borrow the money and put into use and grow

a profit which I call it growing something from nothing. Nations around the world,

corporations big or small, and individual are all practicing this way, borrowing,

growing something from nothing. Some succeeds and some fails in history of

mankind. It is because of the cash flow issue. Cash flow will determine the life

and death of a nation, corporation, and individual.

I borrow two credit card short term loans, the funds are in my account within

one and two days. With 2% and 3% fee, the banks release funds very quickly.

Originally I try to purchase a 5 year fix rate, 2.6% annual rate, annuity to get

a commission to make up some of the fee expanse; however, it is too complicate

to complete the application because of agent’s continue education requirement

and my left eye is not working. I decide to try some bank promotion and I find

a bank with a $50,000 new account and deposit for 3 months for $500 bonus.

It is 1% for 3 months while I get nothing in a year with any of my banks nowadays.

First, I ask my son Arthur to open an account and I provide the fund. He agrees.

I make a deposit to his checking account with bank C from the fund provided by

credit card banks, A & B, then I go to Bank D to close a checking account of

$26,000 payable to myself. Bank C will not accept the bank check of D because it

is  not endorsed to him; therefore, I must deposit it to my own checking account.

I still cannot withdraw the fund immediately due to availability, the bank must

Receive the fund in order to release it, or I must have equal amount existed.

I ask Amy’s help. She transfers that amount to Arthur’s account in the afternoon.

His account may not have all fund available; however, I shall argue with the banker

if there is a penalty for insufficient fund, That means if the bank draw the supposed

deposit amount today. I write a check back to Amy with the evidence of Bank D

closed account statement and a deposit of that amount to my Bank C checking

account to support the valid of such check. We must very clear in accounting even

within closed  relatives that is a famous Taiwanese proverbs. 

無中生有/莊峻華

無中生有/莊峻華

這和道家所謂之有無，相差甚遠，我說者為俗世之有無。這幾天我在

考慮購買年金，此為有本錢之有，生利息之有中生有；如果這本錢是

借來者，而且有能週轉賺錢，就是無中生有，國家，公司，和個人，

都想無中生有，週轉靈活與否，能論國家，公司，和個人之生死。

我向兩家信用卡銀行借錢，一家一日即將款項匯入，我銀行帳戶，一

家是隔兩日，算是迅速效率，而且沒有文書工作，如此三家銀行介入。

很快手續費是2%-3%，兩萬五貸款，約是六百餘元美金，電話面談，求

驗明正身，每家約十五分鐘，因為我是兩家銀行之常客，很有信用。此

六百多元是有，是有本生意，於是我開始想賺錢生有。

第四家銀行有廣告，開設新存款帳戶三個月，給利息1%到五百美金為

限，我因為已有該帳戶，所以除外，於是我就想到元兒，他同意，於是

我開始搬錢，先存一張支票兩萬五入他第四家銀行，支票帳戶；到第五

家銀行，關閉一無息帳戶，拿到一張銀行本票，但此本票只能存在我在

第四家銀行之帳戶，不能存在元兒帳戶，這我能了解，因為防止詐欺；

於是我開始動腦筋，愛美有現金兩萬五，可以讓我週轉，可以讓我存入

需要之款，到元兒帳戶，兩帳戶都在第四家銀行，我再還愛美一張支票

兩萬五，就是剛才之第三家銀行本票存款，一般銀行兌現時間，自己決

定，無論於本票不本票，我覺得合理，當然合法，而且效率很快。

說來此為人頭，法律上並無不法，我和元兒之間，贈與應該在年度範圍內

，現在又加上愛美，必要時也可以寫借條，我們父子間有借貸關係，而且

很不錯，彼此相信。再來就是與愛美間之，金錢關係，我想應該也無問題

，我不能開空頭支票，罰款甚重，而且她是存到元兒帳戶，數目算大，但

是金錢來往，三十多年信用。

我也想到已開好帳戶，拿不到轉帳存款，所以我已經想好藉詞，我是捧上

個人支票和銀行本票，到此銀行當日存款，非常守信用，一般銀行不是立

即放款，除非是領自己帳戶存款，一般都是等到帳戶有錢，始得放款，何

況這是轉帳，從自己之一帳戶，轉到另一新帳戶，毫無詐欺之慮，當然無

需不足額罰款。

Vogue magazine/ Carlos Pueblo

Vogue magazine/ Carlos Pueblo

Amy brought three pretty Vogue magazine back home the other day and I

read one book over, felt like a magazine of fashion, current day edition of

Japanese lady’s club magazine. Once my mother had a copy of such Japanese

book as a blue-print to make a few coats for her children. Amy agrees with me

and points out that one of our neighbor’s mother, at my mother age, had

been a career tailor and used such book for dress making and alternation.

This kind of career has been fading away for a long time since the garment

Industry and international trading; however, it is still alive in big metropolitan

area such as New York, Tokyo, and London etc. Alternator is still in demand

in Taipei, U.S. minority community, for example wedding dress. Once someone

is good at a sewing  machine, dress making and alternation become an art.

I have been very impressed when I travel via London Tube, subway, during early

spring. The lady passengers show off well tailor woolen coats with various colors

and designs.  You can see that in the Manhattan area subway. This is the fashion,

vogue, for a higher income society. If it is during the summer, fashion scenery

becomes more vividly all over the world. I like to wear suit to work because that

I have had such taste ever since college era. I had attended my sister’s wedding

in a rural area with my new custom tailored suit, made of imported wool from

Scotland via Hong Kong. I saved my hard earned pay of a private tutorship for

several months. I wear those for my early tenure in the U.S., then imported

suit and garment flood the market.

Tailor business has shipped out of the industrial nations and the traditional tailor

has been obsolete for a long time. Tailor is no longer a career which a woman can

choose for. I can name many of the career tailors in my memory at my early

childhood, yet only very few alternators at present especially in Houston.

I was on an AVE, a Spanish high speed train, from Madrid to Barcelona, I ran into

a Chinese lady alternator returning from her business service. Two years earlier,

I was on my way back from Leiyu Island of Kinmen, I helped a lady wedding dress

alternator carrying extra luggage home. She was pretty busy answering phone

calls for her customer’s wedding schedule. There is a Mrs. Lan of our friend who

has worked at Macy’s department store until her retirement. She is good at

tailoring. I went to Camden Lock, London and found an active old fashion store

with many Singer sewing  machine collection that reminded me the one which we

had at home when I was a kid. 

時尚雜誌/莊峻華

時尚雜誌/莊峻華

愛美從外帶回三本時尚雜誌，十分精緻，幾天後，再翻閱一次，帶回

許多回憶。我說時尚雜誌，類似日本之婦人俱樂部雜誌，小時候先母

有一本，我猜是農務課長，後來之農督處長王有德奧桑贈與，她是當

年少數糖廠奧桑，夫人，日本學校教育，超過公學校六年者，王夫人

上街買菜，都是洋裝，就是吳服，先母將該雜誌，小心包上一層厚紙

，一方面溫習舊日學到日語，另一方面，等候機會，自行裁縫洋裝，當

年家境清寒，鮮有布料，我覺得先母有業餘水準，能夠通過日後，師大

家政系，裁縫學分，但尚無法謀生。聽畢後，愛美笑曰鄰居愛美之已過

世令高堂大人，賴瓊華女士，也是手持一本婦女俱樂部，當裁縫師傅養

家。小學同學婉芳先堂大人，也是在家裁縫，貼補家用，典明兄令岳母

大人，從褒忠龍岩糖廠，到我們虎尾青木麵包店旁，裁縫營業。

當年成衣業，尚未如今之發達，所以富者家庭，在嫁女之前，偶會送愛

女到台北羅斯福路，龍泉市場附近之日本老裁縫學校，登樂美安，短期

上課補習，也有長期學習專業訓練，比實踐家專，服裝設計科更為投入。

我在倫敦，東京，紐約旅行，冬天地下鐵車廂上，常見淑女絨裝，色彩

美麗，非常講究，聽峻嚴說道，有些台灣奧桑能裁縫，在紐約待遇甚高，

真有本領者，就是在大百貨公司，改洋裝也可以，上班到退休，我們同

鄉中之森生兄奧桑，淑珠姊就在梅西工作到退休，而且先生工作調職，就

業不受影響。

美國社會，不甚講究豪華，回家後都是便裝，就像我們家琳兒，商業顧問

，衣服也多半是郵購，乾淨整潔為要，不能奇裝異服。我因是平埔族之後

，五短身材，在台灣還訂做西裝，到了美國，都是購買成衣，過去穿西裝

賣保險，現在西服參加同鄉會活動，有人都以為我是演講人。幾次回台北

師大男生宿舍，都找不到那位西裝裁縫師傅。

Short time credit card loan/ Carlos Pueblo

Short time credit card loan/ Carlos Pueblo

Yesterday morning, I made two, a one year and a one and a half  credit

card loans. The whole process were done by phone calls and at the end

two loan amounts were submitted for approval and then would wire to

my bank account directly. I believe each call lasts only 15 minutes or less

and at the end of the day, one credit card security e-mail arrived and

verified the purchase, that loan amount was on it and was approved.

Credit card loan for balance transfer has been very common nowadays.

I have been one of the early customers in the 90’s. I used it to pay off

my second lien of 9.5% interest, since then I have been taken such loans

continuously. I call this is a making magic loan, moving some money with

a minimum cost as a cash flow in American business .

Originally, I wanted to buy an annuity of 2.6% a year for 5 years to get my

cost back, then, I saw the owner of that life company , former sport figure,

I decided to back off. I would keep the amount as my cash reserve for the

next one and half years, then, I don’t need to worry about withdraw money

from my rover IRA. I’ll let the stock grow until I am satisfied to take out.

Running a family’s finance, home economics, is like to run a small business

in my family as an example, I must balance the budget. I like to delay my

withdraw of my pension fund as long as possible, if there is some left over,

I shall give it to my family, especially to the weak one. This is why I need to

be healthy and very wise to budget the money. I know how much I have

saved for the loan and this loan will help my income to maintain the expanse

for the period.

One of my favorite sentence in a famous Chinese book, the book of history,

the author, Shih Ma-chien, says making a battle plan inside the tent and the

war determine 1000 miles away. A smart general always utilize all what he has

in every battleground. I am that general in my family.

變錢2015/莊峻華

變錢2015/莊峻華

昨晨，電話給兩家大銀行借錢，這是信用卡公司之短期貸款，我需

要交2%到3%之手續費，信用卡公司，將金額直接匯入，我之支票

帳戶，我約是交六百餘元美金手續費，然後我向一人壽保險公司，買

下一五年定期年金，年利息是2.6%，一年和一年半後，我有存款，可

以繳清貸款，確是蠅頭小利，我說是變錢，就是借錢來週轉，美國政

府，私人公司企業，和個人，隨時都在變錢，能週轉者存，週轉不靈

者被淘汰。

 我的家政，家庭經濟，很簡單，我的主要收入是，社會福利金，大概

是一個月一千四百元，另外收入是，保險客戶，再來就是開車，機場

接送琳兒，這是勞力工作，最近左眼失明，不能開車，所以無此收入，

每個月我交兩人費用給愛美，琳兒交她自己給媽媽，所以大家都有預

算，大家都可以變錢。每天我都在心算，不要入不敷出，我的道理很

簡單，每個月我都準時還貸款1%，一年過後，本金減少12%，然後我

有存款每月週轉，到齊提前還掉本金，這段時間內，身體要健康，不

花醫藥費，威力在退休金之股市翻轉，等一年不行，再等一年，只要

能不斷週轉，有志竟成。

元兒收入，稍高於最低收入，於是我早就開始教他變錢，當然不是借錢

投資，而是廚蓄累積資本，不能無故浪費，台灣漢語曰，錢要花在刀口

上，尤其是辛苦掙來之錢，琳兒是大商業顧問，無暇他顧，愛美不敢，

但至少節約儲蓄，守本份管理資產和家務，我就是海闊天空。

這就是孔子之修身和齊家，以錢，家政之觀點，當然先有錢之認識，量

入為出，立於不敗之地，然後開始孫悟空，天翻地覆，穩定變錢，運籌

帷幄之中，決戰於千里之外。我在考慮購買年金，突然考慮到期限五年，

再加上明年幾筆到期貸款，我只好退縮，變錢遍一半，留下貸款現金週

轉用。

Left eye vision recovery/ Carlos Pueblo

Left eye vision recovery/ Carlos Pueblo

Last night at the dinner, I blinked with both of my eyes to check on my left

eye vision recovery. My left eye becomes better in function than before.

It has only been four weeks since the first procedure and three weeks after

the second. I can no longer claim that I am one eye blind for tax return benefit.

Of course I am still required to wait for the disappearance of the bubble and

the removal of several stitches left from the first procedure in order to say

fully recovered.

My new left eye lens will be closed as the right eye in vision, no near size

yet far size vision. I believe that is what the second eye doctor means that

he will give me a pair of glass to wear. I must wear a far size pair of glasses

in order to read. I don’t have to wear glasses while driving or other than

reading, at the most I can wear dark glasses for bright sunshine.

What a big change of my life with spectacle. I have had spectacle for more

than half a century. At the first , it looked as the end of the world because

that people around me called me nickname, eye glasses. I have been through

some attraction of contact lens and  laser procedure to get rid of glasses. It

has been no need or would not improve too much of my appearance for the

cost which I should pay. Finally, it comes to the Medicare and to avoid of

blindness, I have had the cataract procedure for a minimum expanse on my

part as a patient.

I am lucky after the unsuccessful first cataract procedure and the second

eye surgeon steps in for the correction and makes my left eye vision recovery.

There are many stories to tell and very much professionalism to learn in the

medical field especially from a physician and his staff nurses.