Finance Xpress

We made it! My goal for 2022 was to do less work and have more fun. 2020 and 2021 were difficult years thanks to the pandemic so I needed a break. Overall, I give 2022 a B. The year was great from a family and health standpoint. But the year was piss poor from a

The post 2022 Financial Samurai Year In Review: Family Over Money appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In 2022, I published 156 posts on Financial Samurai. Every post is written based on firsthand experience because money is too important to be left up to pontification. For background, I worked in finance from 1999 – 2012. Along the way, I got my MBA part-time in 2006 and started Financial Samurai in 2009. Since

The post The Best Of Financial Samurai 2022 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America. If you’re looking for an easy sport to pick up that’s loads of fun and inexpensive, pickleball is the sport for you. After playing 29 USTA league tennis matches in 2022, my shoulder, knees, and feet began to break. The wisest thing would have been to take time

The post Why You Should Play Pickleball: The Best Sport Today appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you plan on committing a crime, it’s good to know beforehand how bail works. This way, you can wisely conduct a cost-benefit analysis to see whether you can afford to pay for your crimes. If you can’t, then it may be best not to do something illegal. In addition, please note that the terms

The post How Does Bail Work? Bail And Bond Mean Different Things appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of my biggest fears for renters has come true. Rents are surging due to rising home prices, increasing household formation, and not enough inventory. The main question now is: How long will rent increases last? We shouldn’t feel bad for those who’ve been against homeownership for years. You can find plenty of them commenting

The post How Long Will Rent Increases Last? Some Advice For Renters appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Taxes are our largest ongoing liability. As a result, it behooves us to optimize our taxes as much as possible. This post will discuss all the smart money-saving tax moves to make by year-end. After fake retiring in 2012, my desire to maximum my income went away. Instead, I wanted to shield as much income from

The post Smart Money-Saving Year-End Tax Moves To Make appeared first on Financial Samurai.

2023 housing price forecasts from various institutions range from -22% to + 5.4%. There is no consensus as to which way house prices will go. However, the bias is towards the downside. There is also the issue of forecasting the national median home price and the price of your local housing market. While we care

The post 2023 Housing Price Forecasts: More Bears Than Bulls appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Minimalism and early retirement go together like peanut butter and jelly. Each item compliments the other. Minimalism helps get you to early retirement sooner because you are lowering your cost structure. Early retirement makes you want to simplify life so you can remain retired and enjoy your time more efficiently. Since 2012, I’ve worked on

The post Minimalism And Early Retirement Go Perfectly Together appeared first on Financial Samurai.

For the first year in retirement, I murmured this phrase over and over again, “I’m bored.” After regularly working 60 hours a week and interacting with clients, I suddenly had too much time on my hands. Instead of being bored, maybe what I really felt was loneliness. After my wife took the bus to work

The post Surprising Solutions To The Loneliness Epidemic appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Below are the newest 2023 Wall Street S&P 500 forecasts. The S&P 500 price targets range from 3,675 to 4,500. This implies returns of between -7.5% and +13% from the Dec 8, 2022 close of 3,963. The key risks to the S&P 500’s performance include earnings cuts and valuation compression. If these two things were

The post 2023 Wall Street Forecasts For The S&P 500: Huge Dispersion appeared first on Financial Samurai.

I have a love-hate relationship with owning rental property. On the one hand, my rental properties are one of the main reason why I had the confidence to leave work behind. On the other hand, my rental properties are my main source of investment stress. Whenever there is a tenant issue or a maintenance issue,

The post A Love-Hate Relationship With Owning Rental Property Real Estate appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Are you confusing your good fortune due to your own skill rather than due to luck? I’m here to argue that above average wealth is mostly due to luck. Therefore, stop deluding yourself into thinking you’re so great! As President Obama said in a July 13, 2012 campaign election speech, “If you’ve got a business,

The post Your Wealth Is Mostly Due To Luck: Be Thankful! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Despite the pandemic and a bear market making things difficult for so many, there is still so much to be thankful for. We need to all be thankful for the luck we’ve had so far. Personally, I’m thankful for luck. The more we can recognize luck in our lives, the happier we will be. I’ve

The post Thankful For Luck: A Phone Call That Changed My Life For Good appeared first on Financial Samurai.

There are very few occupations that provide the ideal combination of riches and status. Being a professor is one of them. Tenured professors are able to make six-figure incomes. Getting a PhD or a post-doctorate is the pinnacle of academic achievement. Meanwhile, most people respect professors for their positive contributions to society. After I retired

The post Being A Professor Is The Ideal Occupation For Riches And Status appeared first on Financial Samurai.

During the pandemic, we learned that Americans can save a lot more money if we want to. Take a look at the historical American personal saving rate chart according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the St. Louis Fed. After lockdowns began on March 18, 2020, the U.S. personal saving rate skyrocketed from

The post Americans Can Save A Lot Of Money If We Want To, Don’t Worry! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In order to become a good-enough investor, it’s worth doing a post-mortem analysis of your investment calls. Constantly reviewing what we got wrong and what we got right is important for improvement. We must not confuse any investment outcome with improper reasoning. If we do, we will suffer from Dunning-Kruger, which could lead to deleterious

The post Post-Mortem Analysis Of A Bullish Investment Thesis appeared first on Financial Samurai.

You don’t need to be a great investor to make lots of money. You just need to be a good-enough investor. Once you’re good enough you’ll be able to ride an almost constant tailwind toward financial independence. Further, you’ll learn to no longer blow yourself up and lose all your progress. One of my favorite

The post How To Become A Good-Enough Investor: Investing Lessons Since 1996 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Suing your employer as part of a mass layoff is probably not going to get you anywhere. Instead, you will likely end up wasting your time and money. In addition, you may also end up hurting your reputation and future employment prospects. Mass layoffs and what happens next fascinates me due to my experience during

The post Suing Your Employer For Laying You Off Is Probably A Bad Move appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Want to get into an elite university? Develop a better personality so you can receive a higher personality score during the admissions process. In the Supreme Court case regarding using race-conscious admissions (affirmative action) at Harvard University and UNC, we learn Harvard assigns a personality score to every applicant. By assigning a lower personality score

The post How To Develop A Better Personality To Get Into An Elite University appeared first on Financial Samurai.

For over 20 years, I’ve been a tennis club member. Player levels range from beginner to ex-professionals. Everybody gets along and rallies around a sport they enjoy, no matter their level of wealth. But I just realized something odd. And the realization wouldn’t have come had I not become a father. After almost three years

The post Where Are All The Adult Athletes? Sports And Your Career appeared first on Financial Samurai.

The high-yield corporate bond spread is an important stock market indicator. The larger the spread, the greater the concern high-yield corporate bond investors have about the stock market and vice versa. The high-yield corporate bond spread is the difference between the yield of the bonds issued by riskier companies and risk-free Treasury yields. The spread

The post The High-Yield Corporate Bond Spread Is A Stock Market Indicator appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Do you know what is really hard? Deciding to walk away from a whole lot of money in your prime. If you decide to retire early or take a lower-paying job out of joy, you must accept the death of your maximum money potential. Over the years, many readers looking to retire early or do

The post Overcoming The Downer Of No Longer Making Maximum Money appeared first on Financial Samurai.

During a bear market, one of the things I like to do is embrace losing. The more you can embrace reality, the more you can accept reality. And the more you can accept reality, the easier you can move on with your life. Recently, I ended up losing ~$1 million in real estate. It was

The post Losing $1 Million In Real Estate Never Felt Better appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Although going through another bear market is a bummer, the positive is we can all generate more passive income! And given we can now generate more passive income we can get that much closer to financial freedom. For investors, this bear market with its surging interest rates may very well be a gift. The key

The post It’s Easier To Generate More Passive Income In A Bear Market appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Since 2009, one of the things I have focused on is trying to help readers have a risk-appropriate asset allocation. A risk-appropriate investor invests according to their true risk tolerance. When you invest according to your true risk tolerance, you usually become a calmer, wealthier person. Over the long run, your investment asset allocation is

The post How To Have A Risk-Appropriate Asset Allocation When Investing appeared first on Financial Samurai.

A recent experience made me realize the best time to own the nicest car you can afford is when you have children. The nicer the car, the safer the usually is. Although there’s a nice mental health benefit to driving an old beater, I’m willing to spend up as a father in my 40s with

The post The Best Time To Own The Nicest Car You Can Afford appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you ever get disabled, your active income generating abilities may be in jeopardy. As a result, it’s wise to have disability insurance to cover you when you can no longer work. Bad things happen all the time. During the pandemic, my myopia got worse. Further, if I spend longer than an hour on my

The post How To Get Disability Insurance And Maximize Benefits appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Enjoy your life, no matter the economic situation. If you do, then you’ll always be winning. The key is to recognize reality and take appropriate action. If the Fed raises the Fed Funds rate to 4.5% and keeps it there while inflation and the stock market plummet, the world will be temporarily ruined. As the

The post How To Enjoy Your Life After The Fed Ruins The World appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Since 2012, I have tried really hard to stop playing the status game. After all, leaving my Director job in banking meant losing status. After my career was over, I turned down multiple TV show appearances, podcast interviews, and speaking gigs. To be able to just do my own thing felt incredibly freeing. I wrote

The post When To Play The Status Game Again: Money, Fame, And Impact appeared first on Financial Samurai.

So you’re wondering what income level is considered rich. After all, if everybody makes $1,000,000 a year, are you considered rich if you make only $500,000 a year? Probably not! In other words, rich is relative and also subjective. When Obama was president, he considered single people making over $200,000 to be rich. He specifically

The post What Income Level Is Considered Rich? appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Let’s say you’ve currently got about $250,000 in cash. With the global financial recession building, opportunities are piling up. However, things could get worse in this bear market given we’re only nine months in. How would you invest it? 2022 has so far been a terrible year for both stocks and bonds. Real estate has

The post How I’d Invest $250,000 In Today’s Bear Market appeared first on Financial Samurai.

With U.S. treasury bond yields zooming higher, the interest in buying treasury bonds has followed suit. Let me show you how to buy treasury bonds online. Treasury bonds are risk-free investments if you hold them until maturity. Treasury bonds are issued by the United States federal government to finance projects or day-to-day operations. As inflation

The post How To Buy Treasury Bonds And Buying Strategies To Consider appeared first on Financial Samurai.

With the Federal Reserve determined to hike rates to 4.5%, another global financial crisis might be brewing. The Board Of Governors are all very rich, so they’ll be OK. However, a world of hurt could be coming for the middle class. Thankfully, balance sheets are stronger this time around. Many of us have also diversified

The post Personal Lessons Learned Since The 2008 – 2009 Global Financial Crisis appeared first on Financial Samurai.

There are some people who think that achieving financial independence before 65 is only for people with high incomes. I disagree. The disgruntled will go on about how it’s not fair other people are able to escape the rat race early, while they’ve got to grind on because they’re earning less than six figures a

The post Achieving Financial Independence On A Modest Income: $40,000 In Manhattan appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the main reasons why I wrote Buy This, Not That was to help readers feel less regret over time. Regret is one of the worst feelings, especially if it is a type of regret that could have been prevented through knowledge. The easiest way to stop saying, “If I knew then what I

The post Conduct A Regret Minimization Exercise To Help You Move Forward appeared first on Financial Samurai.

During the global financial crisis in 2008 – 2009, I expected the San Francisco Property Assessor Office to automatically lower my property tax bill. After all, home prices had topped out at the end of 2006 and had declined about 5% a year for three consecutive years. Instead of receiving a property tax bill reduction,

The post Downgrade Your Property Statistics Online To Lower Your Property Taxes appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Market timing is the strategy of making buying or selling decisions of financial assets by attempting to predict future market price movements. By timing the market, the hope is to make a profitable decision at the time of action. Market timing gets a bad rap partially because it’s difficult to do consistently to profit. However,

The post Why Market Timing Real Estate Is Easier Than Timing Stocks appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In a previous article, I highlighted the negatives of early retirement nobody likes talking about. It might have seemed like the negatives of early retirement outweighed the positives, but it’s not the case at all. I just wanted to provide some balanced perspective before you make one of the biggest decisions of your life. Jump

The post The Surprising Benefits Of Early Retirement I Never Anticipated appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Early retirement sounds great and it is great for the most part. But there are negatives of early retirement life that also needs to be discussed. I retired early in 2012, at the age of 34. Then I unretired a year later because early retirement felt unnatural. Since retiring early in 2012, I’ve redefined what

The post The Negatives Of Early Retirement Life Nobody Likes Talking About appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you want to upgrade your home, get excited! The perfect time to upgrade your home is coming. Meanwhile, be patient and build your cash reserves. I really can’t believe the good fortune for move-up homebuyers. The supply of homes has stayed relatively steady, but the demand for homes has been dropping since 1Q 2022

The post The Perfect Time To Upgrade To Your Move-Up Home Is Coming Up appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Not only are we born with creativity, but we also have the power to become more creative with effort. The more creative you are the happier you will likely be. There is a tremendous amount of fulfillment when you create something from nothing. Being more creative could make you more money as well. It takes

The post How To Be More Creative: Advice From A Writer, Artist, And Pianist appeared first on Financial Samurai.

For the first time in my income-earning life, I accidentally paid my estimated taxes twice. If you ever do the same, I want to share with you what happens next and when you’ll get your overpayment back. Bottom line: Don’t worry too much. You’ll eventually get your money back within six weeks. How Could I

The post Accidentally Paid Your Estimated Taxes Twice? Don’t Worry! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Here in the San Francisco tech startup scene, we have a term called “the trough of sorrow.” The trough of sorrow refers to the sadness that comes after a setback or a big win. After a setback, you’re tasked with finding product-market fit to survive given your company has a limited runway of cash. You

The post Overcoming The Trough Of Sorrow: Defeating An Emptiness Inside appeared first on Financial Samurai.

You might be wondering why rich central bankers remain unrelenting in their desire to raise interest rates. After all, there are plenty of signs individual components of inflation are rolling over. Given interest rate hikes take three-to-six months to have an affect, the Federal Reserve could over tighten, thereby worsening the recession. American central bankers

The post Understand How Rich Central Bankers Think So You Can Outperform appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of my goals after entering the decumulation phase is to give more to charity. And one of the best ways to give to charity is through a donor-advised fund. All my wealthy friends have set up donor-advised funds, so it was about time I do the same. The following guest post about donor-advised funds

The post Donor-Advised Funds: The Most Tax-Efficient Way To Give To Charity appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Have you ever wondered what the ideal income is to live a comfortable life before retirement and after retirement? Well, look no further than the student loan forgiveness income threshold of $125,000 per individual and $250,000 per married couple. On August 24, 2022, President Biden unveiled a plan to cancel up to $10,000 in federal

The post The Ideal Income Is The Student Loan Forgiveness Income Threshold appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you’re in the market for a vacation property you will likely have to decide between purchasing a single-family home or a condo. However, what if you have enough money to buy a single-family mansion for $10+ million versus a condo at a luxury resort for $500,000+? I used to think a single-family mansion for

The post Vacation Property Comparison: Single-Family Mansion Vs. Resort Condo appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Quiet quitting is taking the younger generation by storm, especially those on TikTok. The idea behind “quiet quitting” is to do no more than what’s asked of you at work and then check out. Once you’re out of the office, there’s no more responding to work e-mails, slack, nada. A quiet quitter does not go

The post Quiet Quitting Is Wonderful For Financial Freedom Seekers And Parents appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Although about 30% of my public equity portfolio is invested in individual stocks, I don’t recommend the average person invest more than 10% of their portfolio in individual stocks. The main reason why is because it is hard to outperform the various indices over the long term. Although there are no fees for owning individual

The post The Best Reasons Not To Own Individual Stocks Unless You’re Obsessed appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Given inflation and mortgage rates have gone up aggressively since August 2020, was getting an ARM back then a bad move? Maybe, but I’ll argue no. Let me tell you why. One of the best things about running Financial Samurai is having readers criticize my financial beliefs and actions. So long as the criticism isn’t

The post Was Getting An ARM Before Inflation And Rates Went Up A Bad Move? appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you’re thinking about driving a cheap old car, I think you should. The benefits of driving one far outweigh the joy of driving an expensive new car. Something disappointing happened on the last day of our Lake Tahoe vacation. After loading up the car I swung around to the driver’s side. There, I saw

The post The Biggest Benefit Of Driving A Cheap Old Car: Better Mental Health! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the reasons why I will never remodel again is because I hate dealing with contractors and building inspectors. It is an unfair playing field because they hold more power even though the homeowner is the one with the funds. Please spend time remodeling while you’re in your 20s and 30s for economic returns.

The post How To Prevent Your Real Estate Contractor From Holding You Hostage appeared first on Financial Samurai.

What is the one thing you can do today to ensure better financial decision making, habits, and outcomes? You can build and maintain a holistic financial plan. And one way to do that step-by-step is using the NewRetirement Planner. It’s been over 1.5 years since I did my first review of their platform. So I

The post NewRetirement Updates And New Features: A Great Retirement Planner appeared first on Financial Samurai.

The reason why the terms “starving artist” or “starving writer” exist is because they are true. It is very difficult to make money in the arts. However, if you want to be a professional writer and not starve, let me provide you with some insights. For background, I’ve written over 2,500 articles on Financial Samurai

The post Making Money As A Professional Writer Is Hard, Here’s How To Succeed appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of my goals on Financial Samurai is to share different perspectives. Roughly 15% of the world’s population (1+ billion), lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning. This is the minority group I’m most passionate about fighting for in this extremely competitive world. My hope is that more

The post Overcoming Blindness: Achieving Financial Independence With A Visual Impairment appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Paying off a mortgage with a negative real mortgage rate is a suboptimal financial move. However, that’s exactly what I did in this unusually high inflationary environment. Bad move? Maybe. The mortgage rate was a 30-year fixed at 4.25% and the latest inflation figure was 9.1%. Therefore, it had a negative real mortgage rate of

The post Why Pay Off A Negative Real Mortgage Rate When Inflation Is So High appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Have you ever wondered how you can get life insurance for free? I’m not talking about getting free life insurance from work. It usually isn’t enough. I’m talking about how to get free life insurance outside of work. My wife and I have life insurance because with have two young children, a complicated net worth,

The post How To Get Life Insurance For Free: Make More Money appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Are you an underdog looking to succeed in this brutally competitive world? Do people ignore you, discredit you, look down on you, think you’re dirt, or even hate you for just being you? Well, welcome aboard! I’ve been the underdog my entire life. The number of rejections I’ve experienced is too large to count. But

The post Embrace The Underdog Within To Win: Who You Are Is Good Enough! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

The Fundrise Innovation Fund is a new fund investing in mid-to-late-stage private tech companies. More broadly, the fund intends to focus on companies within specific sectors that have strong macro tailwinds, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. The goal is to invest in long-term trends that expand over the next several decades. Since 2010, Fundrise

The post Fundrise Innovation Fund Review: Disrupting Venture Capital appeared first on Financial Samurai.

As someone who has been consistently invested in private real estate deals since late 2016, I’m now firmly in the window for receiving distributions. My investment thesis to invest in heartland real estate has turned out well, partially thanks to the bad luck of the pandemic. Although a couple of my investments in one fund

The post Private Real Estate Investing: Seven Takeaways After Five Plus Years appeared first on Financial Samurai.

From the guy who told you to buy heartland real estate in 2016, I’ve got another long-term investment idea I think you should consider. Investing in rare books and various types of memorabilia with autographs. Not only can investing in collectibles be lucrative, but it’s also a ton of fun as well. For example, I

The post The Next Big Investment: Rare Books And Memorabilia With Autographs appeared first on Financial Samurai.

After 2.5 long years, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Freedom, is now available for purchase! Pick up a hardcopy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore. To celebrate, I’d like to share what makes a bestselling nonfiction finance book based on insights from my Portfolio Penguin Random House

The post What Makes A Bestselling Nonfiction Book? Insights From A Major Publisher appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the best strategies to get ahead is to convince people you stink when you’re actually pretty good. By posturing yourself as inferior, you lower other people’s expectations of you. Once people think you’re not much of a threat, that’s when you can better navigate your way to victory! This post is for those

The post How To Convince People You’re Bad When You’re Actually Pretty Good appeared first on Financial Samurai.

The latest U.S. inflation figure came in hot at 9.1%. Below is the official June inflation data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, food prices were up 10.4% YoY with “Food at home” (groceries) up 12.2% YoY. Although elevated inflation is eroding our purchasing power, we don’t have to just sit there and

The post Combatting Food Inflation By Investing In Farmland appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Some people who critique my various budget charts are annoyed I list retirement contributions and investments as expenses. Therefore, I thought I’d explain my logic in this post. Once you start treating your retirement contributions and investments as expenses, you will begin to build much more wealth than the average person. And once you build

The post Treat All Investments As Expenses If You Want To Grow Richer appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the things I’m curious about is how real estate crowdfunding platforms add value for their investors after acquisition. Therefore, I asked RealtyMogul to share an in-depth look at one of their successful value-add multifamily real estate deal from start to finish. When I was a young man, I would enthusiastically spend a lot

The post A Successful Value-Add Multifamily Real Estate Case Study appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you’re still apoplectic that I challenged the sacred “4% Rule” from the 1990s and introduced the new Financial Samurai Safe Withdrawal Rule, do not fret! Just because you can’t save 200X your annual expenses or don’t want to only withdraw 0.5 percent a year in retirement doesn’t mean you’ll never be rich. Let me

The post How To Feel Rich Even If You Can’t Get Rich appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Are you trying to determine your level of financial satisfaction or dissatisfaction? After all, if you’re more satisfied financially, you should also be happier and less stressed. Good news! The FS Wealth Reality Ratio (FSWRR) will help you quantify your feelings and reveal the unhappiest cities in America! The core attribute about the FS Wealth

The post The Unhappiest Cities In America Based On A New Wealth Reality Ratio appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Everybody wants to be considered wealthy. But how big of a net worth is required to be considered wealthy in some of the biggest cities in America? Charles Schwab’s annual Modern Wealth Survey shares its insights for 2022. In the U.S. overall, the survey says it takes a net worth of $2.2 million to be

The post Net Worth Required To Be Considered Wealthy In Various Cities appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the main reasons why people delay having children is its cost. Rising prices for daycare, preschool tuition, and shelter plus the opportunity cost of not working, partially explains why our population replacement rate is declining.  The cost of raising children worried me so much that I actually had a $1 million net worth

The post The Unexpected Financial Benefits Of Having Children appeared first on Financial Samurai.

There are three must-have amenities when I buy a home. A hot tub, a deck, and Toto Washlets (bidet). With work-from-home here to stay for millions, having both a hot tub and a deck can dramatically improve your quality of living. And once you go electric bidet, you will never go back. If you find

The post The Cost Of Building A Deck: Best Home Addition Ever! appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Food costs a lot more today than it did a year ago due to rising inflation. But what’s really going on in the US agriculture industry? Let’s take a look at what global trends are impacting the market with some insights by FarmTogether, a leading farmland investing platform and Financial Samurai sponsor. Historical Farmland Investment

The post Seven Global Trends Benefiting US Agriculture And Farmland Investing appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Recently, I was told by a producer of a certain podcast that I was being overly frugal. This comment came after an interview covering my upcoming book, Buy This, Not That was done. I had thanked her over e-mail and also asked her to tell the host I had finally gotten a headset for potential

The post Being Called Overly Frugal Or Cheap Means You’re On The Right Track appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Whether you are a fake retiree, a traditional retiree, or someone with a day job, cash flow is more important than net worth, especially during an economic downturn. Net worth is often an illusion that only helps to boost your ego when times are good. When times are bad, calculating your net worth loses it’s

The post Why Cash Flow Is More Important Than Net Worth: Focus On What’s Real appeared first on Financial Samurai.

As a blogger since 2009, I love blogging. As a real estate investor since 2003, I also love real estate. Therefore, I thought it would be smart to do a real estate versus blogging showdown! Exactly which is a better investment? They require different amounts of effort, capital, and skills. In Stocks vs. Real Estate, I

The post Real Estate Versus Blogging: Which Is A Better Investment? appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Are you a stay-at-home father or father who spends a lot of time with his children? If so, you may be second-guessing your decision to spend so much time with them during their early years. Without some reciprocating love, you might be wondering whether your effort is worth it. You see, the more time and

The post The Age Children Begin Loving Their Fathers As Much As Their Mothers appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In the past, I used to think the best house floor plan for a family with young kids was all on a single floor. The house would have 700 or more square feet per person and be spread out over a large lot. However, with many parents now working from home, I’ve changed my mind.

The post The Best House Floor Plan For Work-From-Home Parents With Young Kids appeared first on Financial Samurai.

In February 2012, I decided to negotiate a severance to break free from corporate life. By mid-June 2012, I had received a severance check and the last of my three months of WARN Act pay. Ten years of fake retirement later, I want to share with you some of my biggest takeaways. Overall, it’s been

The post 10 Years Of Fake Retirement Later: The Most Important Takeaways appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Inflation, like a boa constrictor, is squeezing us most noticeably at the grocery store and at the pump. Beyond tightening our budget, staying patient until prices eventually decline, and growing more passive income, what else can we do? Today’s post is sponsored by RealtyMogul, who writes how multifamily real estate may be used as a

The post Multifamily Real Estate As A Hedge Against Inflation appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Imagine getting a $55,077 mortgage credit rather than paying a mortgage fee to get a new loan. A $55,077 mortgage credit was what I was quoted for a $4.125 million, 10/6 ARM at a 3.625% rate. Surely receiving a large credit is better than paying a mortgage fee right? Not necessarily. The higher the mortgage

The post Why It’s Better To Pay A Small Mortgage Fee Than Get A Large Credit appeared first on Financial Samurai.

House prices have cooled and will likely decline in some of the hottest housing markets. However, on my quest to get financing to conquer my real estate FOMO, I realized a positive datapoint for the U.S. housing market. Well-qualified borrowers are paying much lower mortgage rates than the headline rates you see in the news.

The post Well-Qualified Borrowers Are Paying Much Lower Mortgage Rates appeared first on Financial Samurai.

As a partner with Masterworks for the past few years, I’ve been following their growth in recent years. It’s been a while since I’ve published a deep dive on the company. So this post provides an update on their Masterworks performance, growth, track record, and explains how art could help improve your portfolio. Masterworks is

The post Masterworks Performance Review And 2022+ Art Market Outlook appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Before I was addicted to real estate, I was addicted to cars. At one point, I had owned eight cars over a 10-year period. And out of those eight cars, one was considered a luxury automobile: the Mercedes G500. Buying a G-Wagon in 2002 was one of my biggest financial regrets. Thankfully, once I became

The post A Surprising Benefit Of Driving A Luxury Automobile You Might Not Realize appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Remodeled homes will sell for bigger premiums going forward because it has become so much more costly and difficult to remodel today. In the previous article, I focused mostly on the negatives of remodeling as it can truly be a painful experience. However, remodeling your rental property for more passive income and more value are

The post Remodeling Your Rental Property For More Passive Income And Value appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you’re in the market to buy a home, I’m not sure if you should buy a fixer-upper anymore unless you’re under 40 and hungry. Instead, you should consider buying a remodeled home to save your sanity. I’ve bought two fixer-uppers and I never want to buy another again. I’m too old and tired to

The post Why Remodeled Homes Will Sell For Bigger Premiums Going Forward appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Some people desire a gorgeous partner. While others desire so much fame they can never walk around in peace. However, real estate might be the most desirable thing of them all since we are spending so much time at home. As a result, real estate FOMO could also be the hardest type of desire to

The post Real Estate FOMO: How To Overcome The Hardest Type Of Desire appeared first on Financial Samurai.

During times of uncertainty, I prefer owning real assets. Unlike owning stocks, where its value can disappear overnight due to one bad quarter, real estate tends to hold its value better. Roughly 50% of my passive income comes from physical rental properties and investments in private commercial real estate. Therefore, I thought it would be

The post What’s New At CrowdStreet? Commercial Real Estate Outlook 2022 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

To celebrate May Asian Heritage month, I thought I’d share with you a fun story about what it may be like to be Asian in America. As a minority, you sometimes go through some interesting scenarios people in the majority may never experience. My goal of this post is to provide more perspective as we

The post I Could Have Been A White Man But I Remained Asian appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of my tennis buddies told me a funny story about borrowing money from his parents. He was 28 at the time and asked for a $30,000 loan to buy a condominium. Since his parents had the spare cash and weren’t making much from interest, they figured lending money to him was a win-win situation.

The post Lending Money To Friends And Family: How To Determine When It’s OK appeared first on Financial Samurai.

I’ve always been pretty focused on my staying healthy as an avid tennis player. My determination to stay fit and live as long as possible was heightened when I became a parent and then again when the pandemic hit. I’m sure a lot of you have similar priorities and want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The post How Farmland Investors Can Take Advantage Of The Health Craze appeared first on Financial Samurai.

A bear market is a part of investing. The last bear market happened in March 2020, when the S&P 500 tanked by 32% in just a month. Thankfully, the bear market recovered and a bull market ensued until the end of 2021. In 2022, another bear market has taken hold. Inflation is running rampant. The

The post A Bear Market Checklist To Thriving In A Downturn appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Recently, I got an upsell from my life insurance carrier offering $500,000 in accidental death insurance for $33 a month. This is on top of my existing 20-year term life insurance policy coverage of $750,000. It sounded like repetitive coverage. But I was interested in learning more since I actually wanted to get at least

The post Accidental Death Insurance On Top Of Life Insurance: Coverage Differences appeared first on Financial Samurai.

After sharing how one man retired at age 41 with a household net worth of $4 million, I thought it would be good to share another story about early retirement from a completely different situation. This story comes from money trauma and how it was conquered. One of the complaints about the $4 million retirement

The post Overcoming Money Trauma: Why I Retired To Taiwan With Only $600,000 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

While working in finance, I fantasized about travel blogging. I saw a bunch of people write about all the new places they visited. They chronicled the food they ate and the activities they did while making money online. Given their niche was travel, they could also deduct their travel expenses from their online income. It

The post Travel Blogging: One Key To A Happier Retirement appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Several years ago, I had lunch with Jilliene Hellman, CEO and Founder of RealtyMogul in San Francisco. Back then I was impressed with her in-depth knowledge of commercial real estate. Further, I liked her focus on building a sustainable business versus having a “growth at any cost” type of mentality. Given it’s been a while,

The post RealtyMogul Overview 2022: Platform Improvements And New Initiatives appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Tappable equity is the amount of home equity available for homeowners to withdraw via a cash-out refinance or a second mortgage. It is typically calculated as total home equity minus 20 percent of home value. The 20 percent figure is used as a collateral cushion to protect the lender.  Tappable equity is a new term that I’ve

The post Tappable Equity: Usable Home Equity Has Exploded Higher appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Well folks, I did it! After two years of writing and editing during the pandemic, my book, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom is done! It comes out on June 28, 2022, in stores everywhere. After spending a combined 30+ years working in finance, studying finance, and writing

The post Why I Wrote A New Personal Finance Book: Buy This, Not That appeared first on Financial Samurai.

The following is a guest post from a long-time Financial Samurai reader named Joona. He shares his secret to retiring at age 41 with a $4 million net worth, a wife, and two kids ages five and eight. I really love hearing about early retirement case studies and how my writing has helped people reach

The post My Secret To Retiring Early With Only A $4 Million Net Worth And Two Kids appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the peculiar things about being an investor is that in order to make money, the other side needs to lose money or not make as much money. Over time, the results of your decision to buy or sell gets amplified for better or worse. Unless you have a ton of capital, it’s hard

The post The Audacity Of Vulture Investing: Taking Advantage Of Misfortune appeared first on Financial Samurai.

It’s been a year since I last published about farmland investing. Therefore, I thought it would be good to revisit how farmland investing has done during the heart of the pandemic and new opportunities ahead. I’m a fan of owning various types of real assets to build and preserve wealth. With stubbornly high food prices,

The post Farmland Investing: A Year In Review And New Opportunities Ahead appeared first on Financial Samurai.

One of the logical concerns in this current rising interest rate environment is how will home prices fare as interest rates go up? One way to answer this question is by discussing the number and percentage of existing mortgages by interest rate. For example, if most of the mortgages are locked in at a low fixed rate, do higher mortgages rates really matter? No, and yes as

The post Mortgages By Interest Rate: Expect Homeownership Tenure To Increase appeared first on Financial Samurai.

For the longest time, I’ve been a proponent of paying federal income taxes. Federal income taxes are used to pay for Social Security (~23% of budget), defense and security (~16% of budget), major health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare (~25% of budget), and other social safety nets. Somebody has to pay income taxes so

The post How To Feel Less Guilty About Paying No Federal Income Taxes appeared first on Financial Samurai.

If you’re a homeowner looking to live for free, buying Treasury bonds today just might be the key. Once you’ve got your housing expenses under control, life becomes much easier. One of the obvious benefits of owning a house with a fixed-rate mortgage is that your mortgage stays the same as rents increase. However, now

The post Time For Homeowners To Buy Treasury Bonds To Live For Free appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Decumulation is the process of spending down your net worth so you don’t die with too much money. If you die with lots of money left over, you’ve essentially wasted all the time and energy it took for you to accumulate that money. At the same time, nobody wants to run out of money before

The post The Best Decumulation Age To Start Spending Down Your Fortune appeared first on Financial Samurai.

It’s safe to assume the vast majority of you reading Financial Samurai want to be rich. I trust those of you who’ve been reading this site between 2009 and 2012 have indeed become much richer. The compounding forces since then have been enormous. We are probably one of the richest communities on the internet today

The post The Two Levels Of Rich: One Of Which Doesn’t Rely On Index Funds appeared first on Financial Samurai.

There are good reasons to go to business school and then there are bad reasons to go to business school. Let me share one of the worst reasons I’ve ever heard. I’ve changed some names and figures for privacy reasons. I caught up with a friend, Peter, who is a partner at a private equity

The post The Most Illogical Reason To Go To Business School I’ve Ever Heard appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a 5/1 ARM and a 5/5 ARM or a 7/1 ARM and a 7/6 ARM and so forth? Let me explain in this article because the difference adds to another dilemma mortgage borrowers should consider. An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) is a home loan with an introductory

The post The Difference Between A 5/1 ARM And 5/5 ARM And When To Get Either appeared first on Financial Samurai.

Since 2009, I have encouraged Financial Samurai readers to take out an adjustable-rate mortgage instead of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. The rationale was that we were in a downward interest rate channel, so why pay more in interest if you don’t have to? Further, the average homeownership tenure back in 2009 was only around 5-7

The post Adjustable Rate Mortgages As A Percentage Of Total Loans: So Low! appeared first on Financial Samurai.