Personal Finance on Chen Kai Blog

Personal Finance (6): From Theory to Practice — A Beginner's Portfolio Path

Thu, 28 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

After five articles of theory, the question I keep asking myself is embarrassingly simple: okay, so what do I actually DO with my money now?

I can recite that stocks have higher expected returns than bonds. I know that compound interest is powerful. I understand that diversification reduces risk without necessarily reducing return. I can explain the difference between a money market fund and a bond fund, and I know that index funds generally outperform actively managed ones over long horizons.

Personal Finance (5): Bonds and Fixed Income — The Stable Half of Your Portfolio

Mon, 25 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Everyone says “put some money in bonds.” Every asset allocation pie chart has a calm blue slice labeled “fixed income.” And for years I nodded along, put some money in a bond fund, and moved on without understanding what I’d actually bought. Then one November morning in 2022, I opened my portfolio and saw my “safe” bond fund down 2.5% in a single week. That didn’t feel safe at all.

Personal Finance (4): Index Funds and ETFs — The Lazy Investor's Edge

Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

I used to think investing meant picking stocks. You research companies, read annual reports, stare at candlestick charts, and somehow divine which ticker is going to double. Then I learned about index funds, and I felt genuinely annoyed that nobody told me sooner. Not annoyed at the concept — it’s beautifully simple — but annoyed at myself for spending mental cycles on stock-picking fantasies when the answer was hiding in plain sight.

Personal Finance (3): Bank Wealth Management Subsidiaries — What '理财子' Actually Means

Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

I keep seeing the term “理财子” (lǐ cái zǐ) everywhere. Bank apps push notifications about “理财子公司 exclusive products.” Finance forums debate which 理财子 has the best returns. Colleagues casually drop it at lunch: “I moved everything to ICBC’s 理财子 last month.”

Personal Finance (2): The Product Zoo — From Money Market Funds to Gold

Sun, 17 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

The first time I opened a bank’s wealth management app — really looked at it, instead of just checking my balance — I felt like a tourist who wandered into an industrial kitchen. Every surface was covered with equipment I couldn’t name. “Fixed income enhanced.” “Structured deposit.” “FOF.” “Quantitative neutral strategy.” The labels on the buttons assumed I already knew what I was shopping for.

I didn’t. I was shopping for understanding.

Personal Finance (1): Why Asset Allocation Matters

Fri, 15 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

I have a confession. Until about six months ago, my entire financial strategy was: salary goes in, rent goes out, the rest sits in a checking account earning 0.2% annual interest. I’m a software engineer. I can build distributed systems, debug race conditions at 2 AM, and explain why B-trees are better than hash indexes for range queries. But I never once sat down and thought seriously about where my money should live.