Author says penny saved is penny earned

When Yukong Zhao was looking into purchasing investment properties in 2009, the director of China business development at Siemens met some Americans who had lost their homes. As he spoke with them, he realized that they had never prioritized saving money, a financial principle that was for him entirely instinctive. He began thinking about what he calls "Confucian values", and how they had shaped his attitudes toward money and life.

In The Chinese Secrets for Success: Five Inspiring Confucian Values, Zhao presents an outline of those tenets for American and Chinese audiences.

"I wrote this book for the many Americans who, like me, believe in 'American Exceptionalism', but also recognize that their lives can be further improved by learning from the strengths of other cultures," he writes in the book's introduction. "More specifically as a Chinese-American, I wrote it to offer inspiration and proven solutions drawn from my cultural heritage to Americans seeking ways to deal with the tough challenges in their lives: impact of the financial crisis, rising global competition, decline of American education and lack of financial security."