The decisions you make in your first 90 days decide the next ten years.

I’ve moved countries three times: Korea, Singapore, then the US. By the third move I thought I knew how to land. I didn’t.

In Austin, with no SSN, there was no credit report for a landlord to check, so I paid two months’ rent as a deposit.

I didn’t know that once I became a Texas resident I had 90 days to get a Texas license. I didn’t really know what a 401(k) or an HSA was, so I put a lot into my 401(k) before deciding whether I’d even retire here. That money is locked in now. I filed my first return with TurboTax and still wasn’t sure I’d done it right. Later I learned TurboTax can’t even handle the nonresident return many people need in their first year.

Before moving I didn’t understand that an L1 ties you to one employer, or that the H1B is a lottery. I ended up in a three-year green card process.

And I wanted to belong here, but reaching out across a culture so different from where I grew up made me anxious. So I didn’t ask. I figured it out alone, usually right after it would have helped.

None of it was bad luck. Each one was a decision with a deadline, and nobody told me it was a decision.

— YJ, founder