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 Read More... The post Adjustable Rate Mortgages As...
When you’re young and naive, you tend to want to do things the right way. You’re taught by adults that cheating and lying are wrong. As you get older and wiser, you start to become aware of people gaming the system to get ahead. What you also realize is those who game the system seem Read More... The post Gaming The System For...
F you money. FU money. F*ck you money. It’s all the same. F You Money is having enough money to tell others to F Off without having to fear any financial repercussions. I’m sure some of you have dreamt of telling your annoying micromanager to F Off. But you can’t because you still want that Read More... The post Once You Have F...
Seeing your property’s value go up feels good, especially if it goes up more than what you made from your day job. However, the biggest downside is your property taxes will likely go up as well. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always stood up for myself. Whether it was getting bullied at Read More... The post Fighting My Property Taxes...
One of the great benefits of being an investor is that you can sometimes make more from your investments than from your day job. After several years of doing so, you might even start wondering what’s the point of working so much! According to Zillow, home value appreciation in 2021 was higher than median wages Read More... The post Making More From Your...
As a buyer, you love bad real estate agents because can take advantage of them to get better pricing. As a seller, you obviously want a good real estate agent so you can maximize your profits. According to the National Association Of Realtors, there are supposedly around 1.5 million real estate agents today. However, there Read More... The post How Bad Real Estate...
One of the things I enjoy is debating with still employed people about the appropriate withdrawal rate in retirement. I like hearing about all their money plans for after they leave a steady paycheck behind. The debate is not really a debate as I mostly just listen so that I can have something to revisit Read More... The post Your Withdrawal Rate In...
Despite being shareholder in Tesla stock since early 2018, I’ve held off on buying an electric vehicle. With limited funds, it always felt better to invest $50,000 in the stock for potential profit than spend $50,000 on a base-model Tesla car. Besides, I had just bought a 2015 Tata Motors SUV in December 2016 to Read More... The post Reasons Why Getting An...
Well folks, the bad times are clearly back again. There’s a growing chance of a recession. What’s worse, there might actually be stagflation, where inflation remains high while economic output declines. For those of you who’ve been consistently investing since 2009 or earlier, experiencing a recession is just a part of the economic cycle. Bad Read More... The post Four Important Signs A...
All of us are patriots to some degree. However, it’s good to beware of home country bias to protect ourselves from unexpected risk. Home country bias refers to investors’ tendency to favor companies from their own country over those from other countries or regions. After all, it’s usually better to invest in what we know Read More... The post Home Country Bias Investing...
