Financial Samurai

In celebration of tax time, I surveyed five of my married friends to answer two questions: 1) Did you pay more or less in taxes after you got married, and 2) How much more or less did you pay?  The answers I got were concerning.  They all responded they paid more and by a magnitude of $3,000 to $25,000!

It’s just not true that the “marriage penalty tax” no longer exists.  The IRS just renamed it the “love me long time tax.”

I’m by no means a personal income tax expert.  All I’m doing is highlighting facts from people around me, and proposing the likely reasons as to why their taxes went up.  Our income tax system is so darn confusing, hopefully someone can shed some light on the situation!

TWO QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AND UNDERSTAND Read more…

Dr. Troy from Nip/Tuck

I had the pleasure of speaking with Flexo & Tom from Consumerism Commentary the other day about the genesis of this site, The Samurai Fund, as well as various Codes of Honor.  To go soon after one of my favorite authors, David Bach of the Automatic Millionaire series is a treat!

Why is it always so funny to hear yourself speak?  For a couple minutes before the interview I tested out my native Australian accent.  Realizing the audience would hail mostly from the US, I decided to scratch my bush tongue and speak in a more conventional “American” accent.  Hope the enunciation was clear.  Thanks to my mates Julian McMahon who plays Dr. Christian Troy from Nip/Tuck and John Noble aka Dr. Walter Bishop on Fringe for the inspiration!

To listen to podcast #43 on Consumerism Commentary click here.  When the Plutus Awards come out, they’ve got my vote for “Best Podcast” for sure!

Three main points of contention in the interview:

1) How much do you think luck plays in investment success?

2) Do you believe people can truly retire after 20 years of work, no matter what job they do?

3) Why are some people against the code of “get in first, leave last” during the initial phase of one’s career?

Readers, feel free to share your opinions on any of the above points and provide feedback from the podcast!

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our RSS or E-mail feed.

Well folks, the weekend of love has arrived!  Some are going to eat by candle light, while others will walk the beach during sunset here in California or Hawaii.  For my friends out in Snowmageddonville, perhaps marshmellows in front of the fire place while playing a fun game of Scrabble.  Amazingly, there are some who believe their significant other when they say, “don’t get me anything.“ If you actually believe this line, you also mistakenly believe taxes aren’t going up next year!

I’m absolutely sure there are those against the Valentine movement, how it’s one big marketing gimmick for guys to spend more money than they should.  Unfortunately, you’re right, but there’s no stopping the movement. If you end up doing nothing, not even a small gesture like a back massage, you’re screwed, and not in a good way!

The one thing I caution ladies not to do is push.  The more you push about what you want or want to do on Sunday, the more your guy won’t want to do anything.  If you keep hinting about chocolate covered strawberries, you’re going to get one big fat biscuit of nothing!  So shhh, let the man figure something out and get creative.  Of course, ladies can always do something for us men too yeah?  Nah, it’s always on us men.

WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SINGLES EVERYWHERE! Read more…

Kaneshiro Takeshi

“Why won’t he marry me?” pops up a lot nowadays.  Seemingly beautiful, smart women can’t find the love of their lives, and when they do, they can’t lock them down.

Women have it tougher today.  It amazes me how some can juggle career and motherhood so well.  Those who do deserve a gold star because there are only so many hours in a day.

What’s less talked about is the pressure society puts on men to succeed.  Women need to know that men have it rough too.  Society expects us to provide, and provide some more!  Ever since I was a kid, my parents stressed the importance of education, so that I can make enough money to support a family and support them.  The pressure was latent, but immense making each poor grade or non-promotion that much more stressful.  When you’re a teenage boy, frankly all you want to do is chase girls and not plan out the next two decades of your life!

The Super Motivated Boyfriend (SMB) is a curious being.  He is a potential gem to any women out there with enough polishing.  Polish him too much and he loses his edge and rolls away. It’s important to understand his ambitions, for once you do, wedding bells won’t be far away!

FIVE TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR SMB TO MARRY YOU Read more…

The average tax refund is $2,400 a year, and 74% of Americans get a tax refund. I’ll consider you average for argument’s sake.  At today’s typical savings rate of 1%, you’re missing out on a whopping $12 bucks in interest income! Why $12, and not $24? It’s because you have to calculate the average balance of the year if you saved every $200/month payment diligently starting January 1st i.e. January $200, February $400, March $600 etc.

I’m definitely not a proponent of giving the government more money than they deserve, but missing out on $12 bucks in interest is something I can live with and so should you.

You have to ask yourself whether you have the discipline of saving that extra $200 a month, or using it to pay down debt. Most people are not disciplined enough to pay down debt and avoid buying junk. This is why we have such massive debt problems in the first place!  The government is essentially helping you “go broke to win big” by protecting 75% of American tax payers from blowing $2,400 a year without even knowing it.

A SIMPLE GUIDELINE & SOME COOKIES Read more…

The government introduced new legislation to tax all “big banks” 0.15% of their assets to recoup about $120 billion in TARP money.  What’s interesting is that the government is also taxing banks who did not receive TARP money, while conveniently leaving out AIG and the auto industry!

Three Takeaways From Asymmetric Regulation:

1) Because the government is imposing a tax on assets for all big banks, they are encouraging all banks to take excessive risk and accept hand outs in the future.  If a non-bailed out bank is getting punished, why not join in on the fun too?  Friends at government-owned Citibank all went down to the Rose Bowl using free $500 face value company tickets ($1,000+ in the after market) with tax payer’s blessings.  Meanwhile another friend who works at a non-TARP bank can’t spend more than $100 for a client dinner total, without having to get approval.  Message to friend: tell your bosses to party it up if Citibank is having a great time!

2) AIG is exempt from new taxation because AIG is 80% owned by the government.  If the government punishes AIG, they are punishing themselves.  Federal government employees are raking it in, and I’ve spent about one hour so far learning how be a $170,000 a year Department of Transportation employee if my blogging career doesn’t make it in three years.  So exciting to have such a lucrative back up!  Back off people, the job is mine!

3) The auto industry, which has paid back absolutely nothing, and is the biggest contributor of the $120 billion in tax payer losses is protected because the rank and file auto worker is deemed more precious than the rank and file finance worker.  I’m all for helping out hard working people who had nothing to do with the collapse.  But, what did your local TARP bank teller do? Nothing, just like the factory man at GM had nothing to do with the latest horrible design and corporate strategy of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse.  Remember when GM executives flew in their private jets to the Congressional hearings?  We need to support private jets for auto execs like we need to support higher taxes for more pork spending.

CONCLUSION Read more…

Craigslist is such a fun place to surf and save money.  I’ve sold a lot of junk, found some last-minute tennis partners, and even purchased some cool retro Air Jordans on the site.  There’s a sale everyday on Craigslist, hence why would you ever pay full retail?

I admit that I’ve clicked on some of the “Personals” section links in the past for fun (you know you have to), but no “Woman Seeking Man” post is funnier than the one you are about to read (originally posted circa 2007).  The great thing about the post is that it’s all about personal finance!

Thoughts That Crossed My Mind When Reading:

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

Does she really think her first post wasn’t a little over the top?

Wow, she is a woman who knows what she wants!  Sexy.

So this is where gold diggers roam.  Must take notes.

Damn, that guy is funny, but what a prick, no wonder why I didn’t major in finance.

KAPOW, good counter, but why does she have to talk about receding hairlines, that hurts.

Is the counter response someone else?  “She” writes a lot, and needs to type shorter paragraphs.

She has a trader boyfriend already!  What’s she doing seeking more men?!

Hmmm, better find a way to make more than $500K a year!

Enjoy and happy first weekend of the decade!

WOMAN SEEKING MAN: “What Am I Doing Wrong?” Read more…

Ouch

This post is dedicated to a friend of mine who is a single mother of one. She inspires me because of her will, her positive outlook, as well as her ability to do it all and never complain.  I want equality for our mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends and wives.  Don’t you?  Best, Sam-urai

I was at a cocktail party the other night, and after several stiff vodka tonics, a female manager-level friend, “Julia”, began complaining about one of her staff.

She came up to me and said, “Sam, what am i going to do?  Nancy keeps getting pregnant!  She’s having her third child in the past 5 years, and now I’ve got to find cover for her again!” After Julia’s rant, she twirled her way to a slick looking fella at the bar and began chatting him up.

Initially I tried empathizing with Julia, given I do remember the feeling of having to cover for someone when they’re “sick“. But Nancy’s case is different.  After all, someone has to give birth, and after seeing one too many sex ed video’s from the 9th grade with images of globulous placentas seared in my mind, i’m glad it’s not me!  The Europeans would argue a 3 month maternity leave is not long enough given they practice a 6 month healing process.

Julia’s complaint brings us to the great debate:

Is it fair or even true that women are discriminated against and make less money than men on average? Read more…

What is this blasphemy you say?  One of our main tenets is to observe what people DO with their money, and not what they preach.  The public clearly loves Bank of America and Wall Street again because how else would Bank of America be able to raise $19 billion from us, to pay us back?

In an “Open Letter To Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup” we urged Vik to sell the 34% government stake back to the very public that bailed Citigroup out before year-end. Why?  So Citigroup can pay their employees big bonuses in 2009 by saying they are no longer under the government’s stewardship.  Sure, paying back $45 billion in TARP sounds like a lot, but Bank of America just did it!

In fact, joining Bank of America are Bank of NY Mellon Group, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and State Street who’ve all been able to pay back their TARP loans and pay their people handsomely this year.  This begs the question, what’s wrong with Citigroup, one of my main “go broke banks” used to optimize my finances.

SORRY, I DONNO

Read more…

Can you spot the heli-pad?

It’s Black Shopping Weekend and world stock markets are crumbling anywhere between 2-5% because Dubai World, the country’s main investing arm can’t pay its $60bn in debt for another 6 months!

Who would have thought that one of the most glitzy countries in the world would have trouble paying their own debt on time?  The fear of systemic contagion is real as investors sell first, and ask questions later.

If Dubai can’t pay their debts, who else can’t?  The US of course, but that’s OK!  Everybody will fund our debt as you observe the US dollar and US treasuries strengthen.  Don’t believe me?  The 10-yr US treasury yield has dipped below 3.25% again.  What inflation?  Cheap money forever!

Investors around the world can mock us, and debase our weak currency all they want!  You shouldn’t care, because all you have to do is watch what investors DO and not what they say.  Investors are rushing in to our arms today crying “We love you America!  Give us shelter!”

So many have disagreed with our “A Weak Dollar Doesn’t Matter Folks!” thesis.  Yet so many are going to shop till they drop for pieces of junk they shouldn’t be buying in the first place!  It’s Black Friday every day at Ross, TJ Max, and Craigslist, so save your stress and relax!  If you go shopping today and check your 401k and stock accounts when you return, you might just have to go back on Monday and return everything!

* CONTEST * Predict where the Dow Jones closes today (11/27) and win a free pat on the back!  I predict 10,288.  I’ll also highlight the winner in my weekly Katana wrap.

Readers, are there any out there who are relaxing at home in their pajamas being entertained by the media coverage of shopping frenzy?  Why don’t people just shop on-line instead, given similar deals?  If you make $20/hr from work, but stand in line for 5 hours to save $100 on a laptop, doesn’t the bring you back to even?

Dale Siegel is offering a second “The New Rules of Mortgage” book as a giveaway.  Why not just comment and give yourself a chance to win?  What’s cheaper than FREE?

Keigu,

Financial Samurai - “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Twitter @FinancialSamura and sign up for our RSS feed.