The Financial Samurai Podcast

When some people first hear that I engineered my layoff, they get up on their Clydesdales and say something like, “I would never do that. It sounds unethical.” I’m always surprised by this response in this day and age of zero job security. No longer are pensions common. No longer do employers keep their employees Read More... The post Quitting Your Job Is Selfish: Engineering Your Layoff Is The Ethical Way To Go appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In real estate, there’s a saying that goes, “money is made on the purchase, not on the sale.” With a well-timed purchase, you get to pay fewer property taxes over the life of ownership and generate a much higher compounded return due to a lower base. The market is a wonderful place because it allows two Read More... The post How To Purchase Property Below Fair Market Value With Just A Few Words appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In a previous post we learned that the wealthier one gets, the larger the business component in the individual’s net worth composition. Once you hit a net worth of $100 million, the business component reaches roughly 50% of net worth. Although most of us will never reach such levels of wealth, it’s obvious you should start a business if you hope to get really rich one Read More... The post How High Net Worth Individuals Invest: Their Asset Allocation Breakdown appeared first on Financial Samurai.

After the 10% 1Q correction, I did a lot of reflecting and decided that I had too much risk exposure. As a result, I decided to move from roughly a 70/30 stock/bond weighting down to a 55/45 stock/bond weighting by selling stocks when the market clawed back to even and buying a slug of bonds after the 10-year Read More... The post Financial Samurai Mid-Year 2018 Investment Review And Outlook appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Now that I’m a 41-year-old father, I’ve been reflecting on whether the financial goals I set in my 20s were necessary in order to have children. I have a couple of friends whose families were ruined because they were always under monetary stress. We all know that children are expensive. The budget route for each child is ~$250,000 for 18 years. The expensive coastal city route is closer Read More... The post Have A Net Worth Goal Before Having Children: How About $1 Million appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Financial loss creates stress. And given stress kills, your goal as a retiree should be to remove as much stress from your life to live as long and happy as possible. Recently, I’ve been thinking about being OK with no longer making a lot of money from investments. With such huge returns in the S&P Read More... The post The Ideal Financial Scenario In Retirement: Conservative Returns, Steady Income appeared first on Financial Samurai.

When I first wrote about Understanding Structured Derivative Products As An Investment in 2012, I received some pushback. The media was going on about how structured products helped accelerate the financial crisis partly because investors didn’t understand what they were getting themselves into, much like how some adjustable rate mortgage borrowers didn’t understand how their loans worked. Read More... The post Examples Of How Structured Products Work And Perform appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Ever since high school, I’ve felt I’ve been a burden to my parents. I got in a lot of trouble as a kid and therefore felt extremely guilty accepting their financial support. Guilt is one of the main reasons I decided to go to a public university, for $2,800 a year in tuition rather than attend some private school Read More... The post How To Accept Financial Help From Your Parents Without Feeling Like A Deadbeat Loser appeared first on Financial Samurai.

I’d like to think that I’d be able to stay the course and go all-in during a stock market downturn like everybody I meet on the internet, but I’d be lying to myself. Experiencing rapid losses in 2000 as a 23-year-old freaked me out. Therefore, I sold all my after-tax internet and tech stocks within Read More... The post Your Risk Tolerance Is An Illusion: Wait Until You Start Losing Big Money appeared first on Financial Samurai.

During the last downturn, I lost about 35% of my net worth. I don’t plan on doing that again. Losing 35% is not as bad as the S&P 500 losing ~60% during its worst period, but it still hurt like hell due to the speed and absolute dollar amount of the loss. Realistically, my target Read More... The post How To Make Lots Of Money During The Next Downturn appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Sometimes I go to bed thinking how good life is. From the joys of breathing in clean air to the freedom of making money anywhere there’s internet access, life is pretty great. Sometimes I even go far as to think I’m rich. But then reality smacks me in the face. Since I turned 40, we’ve Read More... The post Here’s When You Know You’re Still Not Rich Yet appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Unfortunately, sometimes dreams don’t come true. In my quest to simplify life, I was blinded by the belief that the rental property I bought in 2003 would also be eligible for the full $250,000 / $500,000 tax-free profit exclusion if I moved back in tomorrow and lived in it for the next two years before Read More... The post Tax Free Profit Exclusion: Prorate For Long Term Rentals That Turn Into Primary Homes appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the things I learned after leaving Corporate America is that entrepreneurship is much harder than a day job. When you have to be the marketer, the creator, the accountant, the publicist, and the customer support, you often wonder how you can make any decision to move your business forward. But after over a Read More... The post Taking A Vacation From Parenthood By Going Back To Work appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Ever wonder how net worth compositions change the wealthier you get? Look no further as I stumbled across this great chart from VisualCapitalist.com that highlights how much each asset is as a percentage of net worth from the Federal Reserve of Consumer Finances. If you want to get rich, it’s good to study how the Read More... The post Net Worth Composition By Levels Of Wealth: Build A Business Already appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In the debate between stocks versus real estate as a better investment, a common issue that comes up is real estate’s lack of liquidity, and therefore inferiority. For example, reader Nate writes, “I prefer equities because real estate doesn’t provide a sufficient illiquidity premium to merit the leveraged risk and transaction cost. If stocks provide Read More... The post The Need For Liquidity Is Overrated If You Are Financially Competent appeared first on Financial Samurai.