2022년 1월 23일 일요일 – Mountain View 생활 15주차
Importance of insurance
Claim cost for visiting Emergency Room last week has been released. Before disclosing how much I paid, we need to look at how the process goes on.
First, the hospital (provider) sends a bill to the insurance company. The insurance company discounts the bills. AFAIK, it is only possible when the provider is in the network. That’s why people are reluctant to go to out-of-network providers. If insurance doesn’t allow 100% of the bill, people should pay the amount that the insurance doesn’t cover.
The amount which the insurance company decided to pay is called ‘allowed by plan’. What percentage you should pay depends on your plan. A cheaper plan requires you to spend more. If your insurance premium is high, you will spend less. Your payment also depends on the amount you have already paid.
There are two concepts, ‘Deductible’ and ‘Out of pocket max’. Deductible means that you should pay 100% until your spent reaches that amount. If your deductible is $400, the insurance company doesn’t cover it until you spend $400.
After spending $400, the company covers some percentage of the bill. My plan covers 90% of the bill. After your spending exceeds the out-of-pocket maximum, the company will cover 100%. So, you don’t need to pay more. So, out-of-pocket is the maximum which you expect to use this year.
Anyway, ER claims $11000 to me. Anthem, my insurance company, discounted 40% and allowed $6500. Excluding $400 deductible, the company covers 90%, and my actual spending was $1100. That isn’t very pleasant. What if I didn’t have insurance? Or the ER wasn’t in-network?
Healthy LifeStyle
I successfully have woke up at 7 am for three weeks. Now, I feel less tired than before. Also, I go to the gym in my apartment every morning for 30 mins walking. In launch time, I usually walk 20-30 mins. Before dinner, I exercise for an hour at the gym in my company. Or I go to the golf club very close to my company. Right before I go to bed, I walk 30 mins. It is an extremely tiring and tedious duty. But I should keep this habit to live.
I also have changed my eating habits. I have banned noodles from my diet. And I always eat lettuce without dressing. It is a somewhat dull and monotonous meal, but I hope to become familiar with this.
Commute King
I commuted all day this week. It was the only way to increase work efficiency. There are 5-7 members in my office who commutes almost every day. Others are still working from home. I can’t imagine what will happen when people return to the office.
Bar Exam
My wife’s brother took a bar exam last week. He already passed the prosecutor exam, and this exam is the last remaining one. I’m proud of him and hope he to endure the demanding job.
One of my university seniors is also a prosecutor. He seems to be super busy. Even when I visited his office, he went back to his office after having dinner. He said that he had a rollaway bed in the office. It means that he occasionally pulls an all-nighter.
The number of police prosecutors is small compared to the number of cases they should handle. That’s why students prefer a law clerk to a prosecutor. Nevertheless, some students still want to be a prosecutor. I think they can’t keep their position unless they have a sense of duty.
Buying Home
Who said foreign people don’t think of houses as means for investment? When I asked people why Americans don’t prefer living in an apartment, they all said that the apartment prices don’t rise compared to the house.
How Americans recognize the apartment is the same way Koreans treat the Officetels. Unlike Korea, where a high population lives in small areas, Americans prefer houses. So, there’s no big apartment complex. There are less than 200 units in my apartment which are big enough in this city.
Also, there’s a restriction about the building height. At most, the building is five stories. Therefore, owners can’t get benefits from reconstruction, and that’s why the value of apartments never rises.
House is a good way for investment. People say that increased house prices would compensate the housing-loan interest in five years. However, their explanation makes sense only when the IT industry is still competitive.
Therefore, I’ll choose to rent a house for some years until my compensation is increased enough to save as much as we can spend for three years.
Smokeless Grill
Cooking BBQ is a stressful job. Sometimes smokes and smells fill the room and last a long time. That’s why I bought a smokeless electronic grill from Amazon. In conclusion, it doesn’t make smoke. But it takes more time to grill the beef. So, it is not a miracle at all.
Signals of Bubble
Last week, the global stock & cryptocurrency market turned to the bear market. People are screaming everywhere. I’m one of them because my RSU’s value was dropped by 12%. It was already expected when Fed announced the increase of interest rate. Since there’s no money in the market, the market prices fall.
Even though we understand why the market falls, we never know how big the impact will be. It took 15 years until the NASDAQ index recovered its highest value in 2000. People insist that the dot-com bubble will not happen since the IT industry produces real products in the market.
However, it is always true that the market value is an expectation of the future. People aren’t excited about what they are selling. Instead, they are interested in future products like full self-driving cars, meta bus, cryptocurrency, and AI. They aren’t realized. It would take more time than companies promised to their investors.