Financial Samurai

It’s amazing how quickly time goes by.  Usually, I get nostalgic this time of year, reminiscing about all the memories over the last 12 months.  Not this year.  Let us remember that we went through an economic blitzkrieg in 2009, and I am so glad it’s over!

The one thing I am really hopeful for is a rebound in employment. Over the past 3 months, I’ve encountered so many positive job data points in my industry from friends and acquaintances on the job front, I’m absolutely hopeful those who are seeking jobs, or better opportunities will find them in 2010.  Companies always over fire during downturns, and therefore have to scramble to rehire in this upturn. Below are five more predictions you don’t even have to think won’t come true!

FIVE PREDICTIONS THAT MOST CERTAINLY WILL COME TRUE Read more…

Here’s a guest post from Ryan at Planting Dollars.  I was intrigued by one of his comments of “failing forward” (not falling forward) and asked him if he’d be interested in writing a guest post about the topic.  Please enjoy and visit his site afterwards.  He has my envy of living in Hawaii and pursuing his dream of being a shark photographer!  Best, Sam

Have you ever noticed that some of the most successful people in the world seem to just naturally fit in their role? It’s as if they’ve been perfectly sculpted to be the best actor, businessman, or even blogger.

I have a secret to tell you… It’s because of their previous experiences… The one’s you didn’t see before they became wildly and unbelievably successful. These people are actually the biggest failures in the world! But shhhhh, I didn’t tell you that…

Don’t believe me? I want you to try something… The next time you talk to a successful person simply ask them this question:

“What failures have you experienced on your journey towards being where you are today?”

They’ll probably talk your ear off for hours and you’ll begin to realize this: They’ve just swung the bat of life a few more times and eventually hit one out of the park.

SCULPTING A MASTERPIECE Read more…

The S&P 500 is up about 22% year-to-date, and up 69% since bottoming at lucky 666 in early March.  Being up 22% after being down 40% in 2008, still means the average portfolio is down 27% from the 2007 peak.  You may fool yourself into thinking the average 401K balance of $50,000 has recuperated most of its losses, but you’re confusing contribution with performance i.e. going from $50,000 down to $30,000 (40% loss), but contributing $16,500 + a 22% rebound ($6,600 on $30K) = $52,000 does NOT mean you’re back to even!

The tipping point in your 401K, where performance starts outweighing a maximum $16,500 annual contribution is roughly $200,000. Once you have $200,000, the real juice comes from performance where an 8% return equals roughly the maximum contribution you can make every year.

There are two lessons to be learned in 401K land: 1) Contribute the max to your 401K every year, and in 10 years, you will likely have $200,000 given company matches, and performance (even in this past decade) and 2) Once you reach $200,000, you’re going to hurt like no other if you lose 40%, or $80,000 of your portfolio, so diversify!  The sword cuts both ways.

IN SEARCH OF LUCK WITH FORESIGHT

I’ve only had a couple big stock hits in my life, and I attribute it all to LUCK.  Of course, I also attribute all my loss making ideas to BAD LUCK, and not to poor timing, bad fundamental analysis, and generally not understanding what the hell I’m investing in!

Essentially, I believe with a lot of luck and a little bit of effort we can outperform the markets.  Hence, let’s see if the PF community can outperform the S&P 500 with our own randomly unscientific stock picks based on permutations of our own names and blog titles!

THE SAMURAI FUND – CONTRIBUTION GUIDELINES: Read more…

Hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas!  We spent time catching up with family and exchanging small gifts.  Nobody went overboard on spending, which is exactly the way we all like it.  My parents have a penchant for re-gifting things from many years ago, and most of this year’s presents are no different.  One of the boxes contained 15 year old polo shirts that emitted a strong scent of moth balls!  I will cherish them forever, or until they fall apart, whichever comes first.

Our family realized early that buying presents for each other was quite unnecessary after we kids grew up.  We therefore made an unspoken pact to gift each other things with no effort or pretense.  In fact, it’s almost become a game as to how much of our used stuff we can offload onto each other!  I gave a couple over-sized shirts from 2003 to my father, and a packet of dried plums to my mother.  We all laughed at our gifts and took some happy photos.

Our idea of Christmas is the reunion of family.  We’re a family that’s constantly scattered throughout the world, and when we get to reunite, we don’t waste much time giving gifts.  Instead, we talk stories over meals, lots of meals that test all our dietary New Year’s resolutions.

May none of you have to go back to the office until Monday, January 4th or work too hard if you do!  We’ll be coming out with some fun short posts for the rest of the year since it doesn’t seem like too many people are around.  Happy Holidays!

Related Post: “Losing Your Way To More Money” (If you want to lose weight, you should read about my 6 month experiment.  Only one thing matters and it’s not exercise!)

Keiju,

Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Raging against the machine is in my nature.  It annoys me to no end when I read about injustices such as government raises during our recent implosion.  I once skipped a morning of work to demonstrate against an apparel company which used racist slogans.  Up yours Abercrombie!  As I age, I’m discovering a more peaceful side that just accepts things the way they are.

There’s a lot of messed up things in the world such as war, poverty, and corruption.  Some things we can try to explain, and some things we can’t.  And yet, I wonder if every irrational thing has a rational reason?  Let’s look at some examples and decide for yourself.

The Kid Who Just Wants To Have Fun

Everybody knows that grades start accumulating in the 9th grade, and without good grades and SAT scores, the chances of getting into a good college, and therefore landing a desirable job goes down.  Is it really so bad that Johnny High doesn’t go to Yale, and become a rich physician?  What’s so bad about community college and working for $20,000/yr at a dead end job which he enjoys?  Nothing at all!

Johnny High’s decision to not study hard in high school is perfectly rational.  He chose to have a whole lot of fun, while other kids were miserable studying and participating in extracurricular activities to boost their resumes.  When he’s 35 years old and still working at his job with the same salary, he’ll think back at all the fun he had in high school and smile.

Who’s to say that being a multi-millionaire physician and going to Yale is good anyway?  He could end up incredibly miserable, with tremendous amounts of anxiety everyday as a doctor. Instead, Johnny High chooses to live a more relaxing life, and doesn’t care about money.  If he did care about money, he would have studied harder.  And if Johnny starts to care about money, he may go to grad school and give himself another shot.

The Lady Who Loves To Eat Read more…

2009 was the year I rediscovered tennis.  Ironically, I figured I’d better utilize the club as much as possible because I couldn’t afford any other luxuries after the markets imploded!  Just last year, I failed miserably at breaking a 10 handicap (got to 10.2 and ricocheted) in golf and decided to quit before I threw my bag into the lake.

For the past 15 years, I forsook the game I played so diligently as a youngster.  It was boring running around, hitting a ball back and forth.  Now, I’m hooked again because of the camaraderie of the game.  Although tennis is an individual sport, there’s a team aspect to it if you join a league.  Meanwhile, my evil plan is to get my wife to get good enough so we can play some competitive mixed doubles my next summer!

PHYSICAL PROBLEMS MATERIALIZE Read more…

Basketballs For Chinatown Rec Center!

Randy Pausch made a difference.  He was a Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon who died of liver cancer at 48.  Before he died, Randy left a heartfelt video full of inspiration for us all to appreciate.  More importantly, however, was his message to his wife and three kids.

The most memorable quote from the video is when people ask Randy what’s his secret to obtaining tenure so early.  Randy responds, “Call my office at 10 o’clock on a Friday night and I’ll tell you.”

Why more young folks don’t come in first and leave last I don’t understand. If you’re not showing your work ethic and inquisitive spirit from the get-go, you aren’t going places.  Unless you know everything, work longer than everybody else, work harder than everybody else, succeed like nobody else!

Thanks to reader suggestions, we’re spending the $500 on more kids, rather than less, and in piece-meal amounts.  Our local recreation director mentioned they just got a $1,000 grant and suggested we look at a higher traffic center such as the one in Chinatown, so we did.  $200 down, $300 to go!

FAVORITE RANDY QUOTES & POSTS OF THE WEEK Read more…

Unbelievably, “Are Credit Cards Weapons Of Mass Financial Destruction?” won CreditCardChaser’s $500 AMEX Love/Hate challenge! There were several great entries from fellow bloggers, and we’re truly honored Joel picked ours.  You may not be able to tell, but hours were spent writing, re-writing, and editing the post.

One of the best comments from the entry comes from Geek, who writes, “Cash-only payers are subsidizing those who use credit cards because product prices are adjusted upwards to account for the fees credit card companies charge retailers.” This is powerful insight which we never really thought about before.  Well done Geek and thanks to others for their support and insight as well.

Peter from Bible Money Matters in his entry points out that as soon as McDonald’s started allowing customers to pay by credit card, the average purchase went from $4.50 to $7, a 55% increase!

Given such great insight from the community, we’d love to know how you’d spend the proceeds for needy children and what would you buy them?  It’s important we don’t buy them what we want or what we think they want, but what they really want and need!

Would You: Read more…