I really enjoyed my engineering studies, but just before my senior year in college, I began obsessively learning everything I could about investing, knowing that starting early was one of the most important steps towards financial independence. I started accumulating a portfolio of single-family home rental properties and currently own a portfolio of nine properties in the St. Louis area.

A couple of years out of college, I realized that through my obsessive learning, I knew more about financial planning than engineering, and I made the career switch early on. I got my start at Morgan Stanley in 2014 as a Wealth Advisor Associate.

You mean how Asian am I?

I was born and raised in Hong Kong until my family and I immigrated to Kansas City, Missouri in 2002 when I was 13 years old. My father is from Shanghai and was a refugee to Hong Kong when he was 17 due to a lack of food and opportunities for work and education. My mother is Chinese-Filipino and we would spend each summer vacation in her hometown of Manila, Philippines to visit family and eat Filipino food, such as halo-halo and Jollibee. Both of my parents are of Fukienese descent and are now retired. My father spends his time working on his garden and koi pond, while my mother is an avid couponer and stocks our pantry with too much food that we will never finish.

My wife of 10 years is from Fujian, China and came to the United States as a graduate student. We met while I was working in St. Louis and she was in school. She introduced me to the culture and language of mainland China, as I had not had much exposure to them in Hong Kong or the Philippines.

This is a difficult question for many Asian Americans to answer. I will share my experience and hope that you find it insightful.

Similar to the experience of other children of immigrants, I have often struggled with feeling not Chinese enough for other Chinese people and not American enough to fully fit in at school or work.

It was after building a community of other Chinese Americans in St. Louis and meeting others like me that I finally realized that being Chinese American is its own identity, with its own food, values, and culture (including our own Superhero!) and I did not have to choose one or the other to belong.

This realization helped me recognize that I had a unique combination of skills as a Chinese American financial planner to best help Chinese immigrants achieve their own American Dream. As a result, one of my firm's focuses is serving Chinese immigrants.

I am "American" enough to understand how our financial system works and to partner with other CPAs and estate attorneys to best help my clients. I am also "Chinese" enough to serve, educate, and help Chinese immigrants who lack access to a fiduciary they can relate to.

I am most fluent in English and my Cantonese and Mandarin is good enough that my parents do not nag me about speaking more. Ha!

Since my mom and the maid we had in Hong Kong, which is a common part of a middle-class HK household, were both from the Philippines, my sister and I spoke English as our first language and it continues to be our most fluent language.

I learned Cantonese from growing up in Hong Kong and continue to speak it with my father.

I learned Mandarin from my wife of 10+ years and we speak Mandarin 95%+ of the time in our household. I often joke that trying to win an argument against your spouse is a fantastic way to learn a second language.

My clients appreciate that I can communicate and educate them on basic financial concepts in a language they are comfortable with. You can see my Youtube videos in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin for examples of me speaking.

With the help of certain apps and websites, I can read and write in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, which I do on my firm’s blog.

I also understand a little bit of Tagalog from listening to my mother speak it. Growing up, I often heard her say "nakakainis ka" to me. (Translation: You're so annoying.)