The Financial Samurai Podcast

Ever since landing my first job post college in 1999, I’ve been determined to build enough passive income in order to not have a job. A future that included getting into work by 5:30am and leaving after 7:30pm each day for decades seemed too brutal to endure. In 2010 I decided that if I could earn about $80,000 in passive income, I would leave my Read More... The post Financial Samurai Passive Income Portfolio Update 2018 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In the 1960s, Columbia University psychologist Walter Mischel conducted an experiment on children that is now often referred to as The Marshmallow Test. Walter invited various aged children into a room individually and asked them to sit down in front of a table with one marshmallow. He told the preschooler that he could eat the Read More... The post Getting Rich Is About Willpower: Why Give Up When You Can Keep On Going appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Since making money from our investments might be getting more difficult, it’s good if everybody figures out how to improve productivity. During a downturn, corporations try to squeeze employees to do more after letting go of a bunch of people. But working more is not my definition of being more productive. Working the the same Read More... The post Five Steps To Improving Productivity: A Quora Case Study appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In the past, I used to wonder why two individuals with high incomes or two individuals with a large income differences would ever want to get married. Paying thousands of dollars in marriage penalty taxes didn’t make sense. It seemed obvious that the government wanted one spouse to give up his or her career to stay at home, even Read More... The post The Marriage Penalty Tax Has Been Abolished, Hooray! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

I’ve always told my wife that if all goes to hell, at least we’ll still have each other. After all, we met during college when neither of us had any money. We were happy just spending time together between classes in the Sunken Gardens at The College of William & Mary. Having to start over Read More... The post The Key To Living Longer: Fear Being Alone Far More Than Going Broke appeared first on Financial Samurai.

With the S&P 500 down over 10% from its high in 2018, we’ve officially entered correction territory. If the S&P 500 closes down over 20% from its high, then we will be officially in a bear market. Whenever the stock market goes through a rapid retrenchment after long periods of stable growth, it always feels Read More... The post Silver Linings Of A Stock Market Correction appeared first on Financial Samurai.

When the S&P 500 futures were pointing to another -5% opening on February 6, 2018 I got excited. After all, the S&P 500 closed down 4.5% on February 5. I get aggressive whenever the stock market corrects by 10% or more because history has shown positive returns in subsequent days and months. The initial down Read More... The post Contingency Plans For A Digital Bank Run appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Despite publishing cautionary posts about investing in stocks, bonds, and alternatives at current levels, the biggest caution I should be writing about is taking out massive debt to buy property at record highs. If you lose 50% on your stock and bond portfolio, you’ll be upset, but fine. If your property loses 20% of its Read More... The post It’s Time To Start Worrying About The Housing Market Again appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Thanks to the unrelenting rise in the stock market since 2009, there’s now a trend on social media to share your 401(k) balance, especially if it’s over a million bucks. Despite the distastefulness of bragging, just the fact that more people are talking about saving for retirement via their 401(k) is a good thing. Make Read More... The post Here’s When You’ll Become A 401(k) Millionaire appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Congratulations for being retired or having enough money to never work again! Don’t listen to the naysayers who tell you retirement life is boring. Be assured that only boring people get bored. One question you should consider thinking about, however, is exactly how much investment risk should you be taking. In 2012, I retired from the salt mines because I thought I had Read More... The post How Much Investment Risk To Take In Retirement: Various Portfolio Compositions To Consider appeared first on Financial Samurai.

After warning about financial destruction due to scams and get rich quick schemes, I’d like to balance things out with an uplifting financial story. As part of my productivity push, I’ve been spending some time answering questions on Quora, a Q&A platform, instead of spending time answering questions on Financial Samurai where the answers are Read More... The post The Best Financial Move I Ever Made Is Something Everyone Can Do appeared first on Financial Samurai.

This post is a reminder to myself and to all of you that we can and will lose money if we invest in risk assets for a long enough period of time. The only way to never lose money again is if we never make any investments. I’ve personally reached a level of investing discomfort Read More... The post Things To Do Before Making Any Investment If You Don’t Want To Lose Everything appeared first on Financial Samurai.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to track my investments with a detailed spreadsheet because my cash flow was increasing and I wanted to make sure the money was being properly deployed based on my risk tolerance. If I force myself to think for hours about how to invest my money, hopefully I won’t rashly spend it on completely wasteful things such as a Read More... The post Investing Lessons From A Surreal 2017 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone! The best thing about hard work is when it’s over. Once finished, you can basically sit back and enjoy all of the rewards if you wish. And if you hustle long enough, you might positively change your life forever. In 2017 I wrote 175 posts, averaging 3.3 posts a week. In addition I also published 173 pages, consisting of Read More... The post The Top Financial Samurai Posts Of 2017 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

I firmly believe tax policy changes behavior. The higher your taxes go, the BETTER your life becomes! Why? Because at the margin, the less money you keep, the less motivated you’ll be to work. Since the love of money is the root of all evil, the less time you spend chasing money, the happier you will be. One of Read More... The post How The New Tax Plan Will Ruin Your Life If You’re Not Careful appeared first on Financial Samurai.