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| Practical VS Luxurious Blog #2
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My family and I went to Las Vegas two weeks ago, which was during the Chinese Lunar New Year. Before the trip, my feeling was like “yeah, I am going to have some fun”. On the way to Las Vegas, I was so excited about having an honorable chance to visit such a beautiful and large gambling city. After we took off the airplane, I surprisingly shocked because I didn’t know that even there are slot machines inside the airport. We got to the hotel and everything was set. We had lunch then walked around in the crowded city until it turned dark. WOW, the city was so resplendent and luxurious. These tall buildings were surrounded with giant billboards that were built with millions of light bolts. Obviously, I liked the nights than days there. The first day, we traveled around the city and been to most the scenic places of Vegas.
On the second day, my parents stayed at the hotel for gambling. Unfortunately, I was not 21 years old yet, so I couldn’t stay next to my parents. I was forced to go away from the slots machines or the gambling tables. But I hated the places like that. Smokes everywhere. So, my brother and I were walking around in the shopping mall. I saw an expensive wallet, which I wanted to buy since I had my first job. We headed back to the hotel, and I discussed with my mom about the wallet. She held back my idea of buying such an expensive wallet. She said that I was not supposed to own an expensive wall since my status is still a college student, and asked what the point was for having that wallet. She ordered me to cancel my idea and said that I was too luxurious, and lastly she told me not to waste money on it. While we were eating dinner in the hotel, my parent told us how they had fun (lose money away) in gambling. I was so angry at that moment about how my mom didn’t want me to waste money on a wallet, a thing that I can keep. On the other hand, they were playing the slot machines (just press the button and watch the icons rolling) or the gambling tables to waste money. They were silenced.
Why did my mom told me not waste money while she was already wasting money? Before this time, I had asked her the same question about wasting money. Her answer was “I could use “my money” whenever I feel like it”. I answered her the way she answered, but she was like mad and said, “Are you moving out to live alone soon and all on your own?” What else could I say besides being silent? Besides being luxurious, I have found out that I had a practical thought. I explained why they didn’t win any money from the gambling. The truth is that every gambler must have lost more than won. The dealer is always the winner. For example, in a six people gambling table including the dealer, although one of the players wins in the round, the other four players are losers. And the dealers will never lose. For another example, when the players are playing the slot machines, they have to set their goal to a minimum number in order to win or not lose money. When they insert a 20 dollars bill, they have to set the minimum goal to at least win or lose 5 dollars then stop, keep the 20 dollars bill and play with that lucky 5 dollars and so on. Because human beings are greedy, they will not stop playing until they lose everything.
My dad was a great example; he used $200 to play. The highest amount he reached to was $1500, but he didn’t set his win or lose goal. He got greedy and lost. Fortunately, he stopped when he still had $700 left. He gave my brother and I each $50 and $300 to my mom. The last day before we were leaving Vegas, he’s gone stupid and got greedy about winning more money. Finally, he lost all the money that he had left. So the total of money he had left was around $300, without calculating the amounts my mom had lost.
Due to this trip, I have learnt that when we are doing something, we have to really set a realistic goal to the thing that we are going for. Or else we will have nothing left. The other thing I have learnt from this trip is the money that we have now is not really what we owned. We earned the money, the money is safe in the bank but we haven’t spent them or enjoyed anything from using it. What we really owned, which not just the numbers that are on the bill or numbers in our account, are the essential things that we can touch or already enjoyed.
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Posted by InotStupid on 2008-02-22 02:24:09 | Rating: | Views: 93
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In my opinion, every decision your parents make for you is always basic on your benefits. Since you just got your job, you should start saving your money up for education or emergency. You can’t always depend on your parents. I guess the reason that you’re not allowed to buy such an expensive wallet is because you are still dependent, more important, having no economic fundamental. I am sure that by the time you finish your education, get into your career and start earning your money, your parents won’t stop you buying a even more expensive wallet. Keep that in mind. You will understand your parents as you get older and become more mature.
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Posted by WinterWolfy
on 2008-02-22 03:44:57
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I totally agree with you that when we are doing something, we have to set a realistic goal to what we're going after. I think greediness is one of human's most evil characteristics. We all have them - it just depends on how serious it is.
In terms of spending money, I think we all have some sort of experiences that we want to spend MORE than we need. Therefore, as u've suggested, its a good idea that we set our own limits on how much we would spend on something. In order to prevent excessive lost/ use of money.
As teenagers, it might be a good idea to listen to what parents say. They may not "know it all" but they certainly know more than we do ....
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Posted by to_break_the_unbr...
on 2008-02-22 22:03:03
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i agree that we do have to set our own limit for every aspect of our live, but that is a lot harder then it seems. Greedyness is terrible. My parents have said the same thing to me. we can spend our money on w/e we want. Parents advice may seem dumb now but it will help us all when we get older
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Posted by SSteimnitz
on 2008-02-23 02:01:36
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I understand your frustration with this situation. You do have to remember that your parents are the providers and have steady income so that allows them to do as they please. Your mom was only trying to help you and you might not see it that way yet but one day you will. I used to feel the same way you did but now in my late twenties and having lived on my own I understand what my parents were trying to teach me. It can get upsetting at times but you ahve the rest of your life to buy yourself nice things that are expensive. They go out of style so quick anyway.
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Posted by nenesf
on 2008-02-23 02:44:47
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I agree with you. I hate grambling too. From your experience, I also learn that I should set a range of amount of money that I will spend to buy something. Sometimes, I really like something and I buy it without thinking. When I take it home, I realize that it was so expensive and do not know how to deal with it. For example, if I buy a wallet which you love to by, I will keep it in my room since I will worry that it would be damage if I use it. However, if you buy something but you do not use it, it means you are wasting your money. I think you should by an economical and cheaper wallet.
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Posted by angela_trieu
on 2008-02-23 03:29:03
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I think you experience happend to you for a reason. Everyone needs to know how to spend their money wisely, and its better to learn now then later. Your parents just wanted to let you know that money should be spent wisely. But their example did not show that obviously. Its weird how parents do that. I also learned to start spending my money wisely and start thinking about what i buy before i actually buy it. I think that learnig how to spend your money wisely is something very important to know because its something you have to practice for the rest of your life
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Posted by lnl
on 2008-02-23 23:56:01
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