Financial Samurai » triumph

An Inside Look At The Yakezie: Stage One Recap!

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:00:59 +0000

Well, here we are! It’s been six month since the original challenge was announced and I want to congratulate all of you for making it this far! The network has grown to be a powerful one and now it’s up to us to harness it for the greater good This is where the 2nd challenge comes in, which officially starts on August 15th when Yakezie.com is launched.

The 2nd challenge is simply to use the power of the Yakezie network to help others through monetary means or donations of our expertise, while at the same time grow our online revenue by various rates (i.e. 25%, 50%, 100%). The good thing about percentage increase targets is that we can all challenge ourselves whether we have a $100/month site or a $10,000/month site. More will be explained once Yakezie.com is launched. The first challenge of getting our Alexa rankings below 200,000, and now below 100,000 still stands. As long as we are part of the network, we should strive for progress or at least a steady state of satisfaction.

Some of the most interesting types of posts around the web are voyeuristic posts about what goes on inside the mind of the blogger. Part of the reason why DVDs are such a hit is because of the “special features” section where you can watch outtakes and behind the scenes featurettes. Many have asked whether I had a grand plan all along for this group, and the simple answer is no. It was because all of you that the group flourished. I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts as The Yakezie grew. Perhaps you’ll do the same and post your own write-up as well!

DECEMBER, 2009 – BEFORE THE YAKEZIE. Alexa Ranking 94,000.

Gosh, blogging is hard. How do some people stay consistent for so long? It would be great to be able to blog full time, but only a few are so lucky. But then again, as someone told me, as soon as you start depending on your hobby for income, it stops being fun. I won’t know until I get there, but hanging on the beach blogging somewhere sounds like a good life to me! I’m making progress but getting another guest post rejected is demoralizing. Forget about being a “staff-writer”. Nobody seems to want to read what I have to say. Blog networks tell me to “check back later” after I’ve had more experience.

At least the advertisers are listening. I’m surprised how many people come out of the wood work to offer advertisement dollars. Where do they all come from? OK, thanks for contacting. It’s chump change still, but hey, that’s a selfish way of thinking. Maybe someone else could use the several hundred dollars a month. Let’s give it to those who need it more. Blogging only for money is uninspiring. But, blogging and knowing money is being diverted to help someone else is inspiring. Stay consistent. That’s the only way you’re going to get anywhere.

JANUARY, 2010. THE LAUNCH. Alexa Ranking 78,000.

New year, time to reflect. Six months went by fast since launching Financial Samurai in the summer of 2009. Despite the road bumps, this is some of the best fun I’ve ever had! The Alexa ranking keeps going lower, which helps me stay the course. Meanwhile, I’ve seen a couple blogging buddies disappear over the same time period (Five Pence Piece and Gen Y investing where art thou?), and I wonder if they’d have stuck around if they started tracking their rankings as well?

I’ve got a feeling there are lots of us out there who’ve been rejected and just need a chance to be heard. But, how am I supposed to be a scientist if I can’t get an “A” in biology? In other words, this blog needs to at least have some good fundamental traffic and get up there in the rankings before I can do something greater.

Let’s start our own darn group. I’m sick of rejection. I went to college, I know how to type and so do many other people. But, what should I name it? One word, thematically Japanese perhaps? Yakuza? Nah, that’s taken, and it has bad connotations. Yakezie, pro-nounced Ya-Kay-Zee? Yes, I like the sound of it. Good, it’s a word that’s never been created before either. Write the post. Maybe someone will read it and join.

FEBRUARY, 2010. GROWTH. Alexa Ranking 70,000.

Maybe there are people reading? 30+ members already, nice. TAKE THAT you exclusive blogging networks! Us little guys can create our own too!

How do I help galvanize action? Some are so gung ho, some aren’t as much. We each have our own busy schedules to lead so it’s impossible to have some kind of set standard. Can’t force anybody to do anything, and people have got to put in the time themselves. The more they put in, the more they’ll get out of the experience. Need to lead by example.

Oh drat, Wise Bread changed the rules on us and included blogs from major mass media publications in their list. Our progress is temporarily stalled as we all dropped two spots, respectively as a result. Time to write an update post (“Progress Through Adversity”). Neat, a week later, the rules are back to normal and the piggy back blogs are gone. We do have a voice. Stay humble, but stand strong.

MARCH, 2010. CREATIVITY. Alexa Ranking 65,000.

I love everybody here! There are some amazingly talented members with a lot of unique skills and insights! Thanks Forest and Beating Broke for creating the Yakezie random post widget! Thanks Greg for creating the badge! Thanks Joel for creating the Yakezie ranking list and to Daniel-san at Sweating The Big Stuff for coming up with the original Google Docs list! Thanks Greg again for starting the Yakezie Google Groups with tons of discussion every single day! Thanks Elle from Couple Money for giving the Yakezie a shout out in her guest post on ProBlogger! Thanks Monevator for also highlighting the Yakezie on Remarkablogger.

The Yakezie is like an open source platform where members are free to do whatever they want with it. Good for them for being so creative. I wonder what members will come up with next? Oh nice, we’re talking about potentially an eBook, a Carnival, and a giveaway. Neat. The possibilities are endless!

Hmmm, I guess one of my new year’s resolutions of getting to know 3 new people a month is going to be pretty easy. We’re already at 50 members!

APRIL, 2010. CONFLICT. Alexa 58,000.

Uh oh, growing pains. A couple bloggers don’t want to put the badge Greg created up on their sites. They’ve voiced their frustration in Google groups. I, along with several other earlier members are wondering why they bothered joining in the first place since their sites are already pretty popular.

I never created any official requirements for joining, but I guess some guidelines should be in place since the group is getting quite large and the Google spreadsheet system we use to track our members only holds 50 spots. The discussion gets heated within Google groups, and I know people are wondering where I stand.

I jump in, head first with a proposal for a vote. Vote passes that members should follow a set of rules which are later added to the original Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge post. This ain’t no hit and run. We’re in it for the long run. Hmmm, maybe I’m being too vocal.

The two bloggers decide to leave. Unfortunate, but fine by us, as there are many others who want to join. Looking at one who left, he’s almost dropped to page 3 from page 1 on WB’s list. The other, I donno, he seems to be an angry person. He doesn’t like me, oh well. I’m bound to collide with some. He’s far more advanced than us in the blogging world in terms of SEO etc. We don’t care at this point. We’re just having fun and building relationships. Good luck to them.

MAY, 2010. STAY TRUE. Alexa Ranking 51,000.

Hmmm, I have a lot of controversial posts which might agitate some readers and Yakezie members (Pro Flat Tax, The Dark Side of Early Retirement, West Coast Is The Best Coast , The Emergency Fund Fallacy etc). Am I supposed to write in a more agreeable way, or should I just continue being myself? The group has grown to 80 members from all sorts of backgrounds: women, men, rich, not so rich, foreign, local, religious, non religious etc. I’m bound to piss someone off. What to do? I want to write about stuff I want to read. I’ve gotten this far just being myself, it doesn’t seem right to change too much. I won’t. This is what running your own site is all about.

Hopefully people can still respect my thoughts even if they don’t agree with my thoughts. Looks like people are getting along quite well, and relationships are being formed between various members on their own. Good, that’s what I was hoping for.

It’s really hard to keep track of everyone now, and a lot of members have said the same thing. Dr. Dean comes up with a neat survey for us to fill out. The number one concern is how big we’ve grown Let’s see, if I make sure to read five new sites a week and interact, it’s only going to be a matter of time before I get to know everybody. I wish everybody would just come visit me here and comment so I can get to know them. Oh, stop being so lazy.

JUNE, 2010. THE FINAL STRETCH. Alexa Ranking 41,500.

We’ve got something here. Best to register Yakezie.com and create a true home base for the entire team. Yakezie.com is where the list will be, as well as a place all members can showcase their writing talents. Furthermore, members should use Yakezie.com as a launching pad for whatever projects they are personally working on at their respective sites. Examples include a giveaway, invention like Little House’s Frog Cap, ebook, and so forth. I can see how the Yakezie.com platform can launch ideas in a hurry!

Maintaining one blog is hard enough, how will I maintain two? I really won’t, because Yakezie.com will be for everyone. I want to be a participant in Yakezie.com, where I can comment and help promote other people’s stuff. I’ll be your biggest fan! I’m happy to pay for all the start up costs (hosting, design, content) and see where this goes.

I wondering if a system based on honor could work where we have enough administrators on Yakezie.com who will write, edit, and post at will based on a loosely defined regular schedule.

JULY, 2010. LOOKING FOR YAKEZIE LEADERS! Alexa Ranking 40,500.

We’ve got roughly a month until the site is launched and I’m looking for leaders who want to gain administrative access to help get this puppy off the ground. Each leader will get their own bio, with a special color coding that identifies them as an administrator. A leader’s responsibility is simply to find talent in their respective categories, help edit their stories to the Yakezie standard, and allow people to flourish. A leader will also have priority in publishing their own stories on Yakezie.com which will in turn help promote their own sites and projects.

There’s little doubt in my mind that Yakezie.com is going to be a win-win-win scenario for everybody. Can you imagine if it becomes big one day, how neat it would be to have “Yakezie Leader” under your resume? To be a part of something great from the ground up is a wonderful thing. I just get excited thinking about being a Yakezie Leader myself!

If you are not one of the Yakezie Leaders, that’s quite alright too. You are a Yakezie Ambassador and a great representative of our group!

THREE MAIN VERTICALS

There will be three main verticals on Yakezie.com, the most intricate of which will be Yakezie Personal Finance due to the various sub categories such as: career, education, frugality, and retirement. The other two verticals will be Yakezie Lifestyle where the focus is on living the life you’ve always wanted, and Yakezie Scholarship, which is about giving back our services and money to people in need. I will elaborate further on the new site.

From previous discussions, the following members have stepped up to take the challenge as a Yakezie Leader:

Public Relations: Nicole at Rainy Day Saver – East Coast Representative, Neal at Wealth Pilgrim – West Coast Representative

* Looking for an International Representative, which can be divided into Europe, Asia, Latin America if necessary. Canadian rep is open if anybody would like to do that.

Yakezie Personal Finance (Family Finance): Jesse at Personal Finance Firewall

Yakezie Personal Finance (Debt Destroyer): Jeff at Deliver Away Debt

Yakezie Lifestyle: Earl at Wandering Earl. There’s a whole world out there of new lifestyle bloggers to get to know. This is where financial freedom and life converge!

Yakezie Scholarship: Looking for folks who are especially passionate about education and charity. Teachers are especially a great fit. I’d like to help work on this angle.

Some Key Positions Open: Social Media Leader i.e. Twitter & Facebook, Podcaster, Interviewer, SEO. Bucksome Boomer mentioned working on a Yakezie Blog Frog page which could be neat.

To make things manageable, I’d like to get a total of around 10 Yakezie Leaders to help run Yakezie.com. Each Yakezie Leader is responsible for their own slice and is given autonomy to create and develop as they see fit. Ideally, the leader can be one for at least a six month time period, if not longer. Once you see the giving back aspect of Yakezie.com in the Yakezie Scholarship vertical, I think you’ll want to be a leader for quite a long time.

JUST REMEMBER TO ALWAYS HAVE FUN

What I do want to highlight is that if as soon as you stop having fun and don’t feel like we’re going in the right direction, speak up and share your thoughts. You should never feel that being a Yakezie Leader is a burden, and too stressful. If you do, you can simply ask one of your fellow Yakezie members to sub in, or completely take your place just like how we did with the Yakezie Carnivals. I do believe that if you’re like me, you believe in purpose and the joy of helping others.

All Yakezie members should think about things of their own they would like to promote on Yakezie.com. Hopefully many of you can show case your talents through a “Yakezie Member Post” (as opposed to guest post) where you’ll get a fantastic concentration of eyeballs. Many of us have built wonderful relationships with others on their own and this is what I’m most proud of. Friendships are what give life meaning. The Yakezie, first and foremost is about selflessly helping others!

Members, feel free to throw your hat in the ring if you want to be a Yakezie Leader and identify which vertical or sub category you are most interested in.

All suggestions, questions, comments welcome. I know I’m probably missing something inadvertently, so please feel free to remind me below, and I’ll add it to the post!

Regards,

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

Follow on Twitter @FinancialSamura and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Three Keys To Motivation And It Has Little To Do With Money

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:00:41 +0000

Here’s a short 10 minute video I stumbled upon which eerily highlights several things I do and why (ie play guitar), as well as touch upon reasons why some people are willing to do things for free, and others strongly consider giving up big salaries to just work on a hobby.

NODDING MY HEAD

I find myself agreeing with pretty much everything the video has to say. Money has become a secondary motivational factor for me over the past several years. Something just happened where I’ve become satisfied in making what I make, oh my! Sure, I have a “make $1 million bucks” goal for 2010, but that’s really just one of those fun, see if I can do it goals. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are things I look forward to now.

Progress is a wonderful feeling, which is why I try and play a musical instrument and sing in my free time. Music also helps fill the void when I’m injured due to sports. Going from not knowing the chords and the words of a song, to mastering a tune from memory that’s good enough to record is an unbelievable sense of accomplishment. I’ve been working on getting the finger picking of Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe” for the past month, and I can’t seem to get it right. But dammit, I’m going to keep practicing because it’s such a beautiful song!

After you have a certain amount of money and experience, you definitely want autonomy. You’re no longer a fresh college grad that is constantly micro-managed by senior colleagues. A sure fire way for a company to lose a star employee is to restrict their freedom and ignore their good work. Blogging is an incredible example of autonomy. Nobody is going to tell me what to write and that’s so liberating. I’ll thrive and fade with my decisions alone.

Purpose is something that can either be questioned before you start your journey or after. You can be a high school or college student who has no freaking idea what you’re supposed to do in life. Or, you can be a 20 year veteran in the workforce who has built a great resume, as well as financial security, but realize you’re middle aged now and wonder if there’s more to life since you’ve already conquered insecurity, be it financial or otherwise.

The purpose of this site was never to make money. The purpose was to just create something tangible that serves as a creative outlet for someone who was once creative. I want to be that kid in pottery class again, molding that wet clay on a rapidly rotating swivel stick.

Readers, what are several motivating factors for you in your life or in your job? Have you noticed money increase or decrease in importance as a motivational factor?

Regards,

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

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

Isner vs. Mahut: The Greatest Match In Tennis History

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:00:18 +0000

As a tennis fanatic, it would be remiss of me not to mention the greatest match in tennis history when American John Isner beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 70 to 68 in the 5th set last week. That’s right 70 games to 68 games in the fifth set because one must win by two in the fifth set at Wimbledon. The 11 hour, 5 minute match spanned over 3 days and finished when John Isner hit a solid down the line two-handed backhand to seal the deal.

The previous record for longest match was at the 2004 French open, lasting now just a paltry 6 hours and 33 minutes. It is completely unfathomable that a match could last so long, simply because it is unconscionable how Nicolas Mahut could hold serve over 60 games in a row to survive! The physical endurance is one thing, but what’s most impressive is the mental fortitude both players had to never give up.

LESSONS LEARNED

1) Anything is Possible. If someone were to say that a match would go 30 all in a 5th set, I would say “NO WAY” and probably confidently bet my life savings and my lucky underwear! Even if someone asked for 20-to-1 odds ($10 to win $200) to bet that it could happen, I’d still call them crazy and happily take the other side. I’d probably bet up to $1,000 and then proceed to lose $20,000! Now I’ll think carefully when I hear impossible sounding feats. Anything is possible!

2) Standards Always Go Higher. When Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 in the 2009 Wimbledon final, we all thought that was one of the greatest finals in history and that a 16-14 score would never be breached. Fast forward to 2010, and Roger and Andy’s match sounds downright mediocre. The same goes for anything we do, be it creating a product, or being a solid employee. Standards don’t go backwards, they go forward. We’ve got to continuously innovate and try harder.

3) Everything is Mental. At some point, you know that the bodies of John and Nicolas were screaming to stop and give up. But, with the crowd of thousands cheering them on, they started to zone and battled away cramps and fatigue to last a marathon. Personal finance, physical fitness, blogging, work performance and everything is all mental. If you have the right mindset, you will likely succeed in anything you try. If for a second your mental fortitude breaks down, it’s game over. You’ve got to want it like no other.

4) Consistency is Key. John won because he hit one more ball in than Nicolas. If you workout three times a week for 52 weeks in a row, it’s pretty much a sure thing you’re going to be much more toned than if you maintained an erratic schedule. If you post 2-4 times a week on your site and get to know one new person online a week, there’s no doubt your blog will grow. If you get into the office first, and leave last every single work day, you will move ahead in your career. The list is endless. Stay consistent, and watch everything start going your way!

5) Pace Yourself For Long Term Success. A day after John’s match, he lost in just 72 minutes 0-6, 3-6, 2-6 to unknown Thiemo de Bakker. John’s serve was 20 mph slower than average, and he just didn’t have any energy left understandably. You don’t want to go from playing the longest match to the shortest match. Volatility is generally not good for your career or any venture you take. The biggest risk we can take is taking no risk at all. If we burn out before reaching our potential (See “The Dark Side Of Early Retirement“), it’ll be just one darn shame. Balance out your work and your life, but at the same time stay consistent as well.

CONCLUSION

Chances are high that we’ll never be world class athletes or CEOs of mega-cap companies. That said, we should always learn from people at the top of their game to boost our own. In “The Mental To Physical Connection For A Healthier Lifestyle“, the article recommends we use sports or general physical activity to balance out work and our creative sides. It’s important to be tethered to a counter force so that we don’t burn out. If we can stay consistent with whatever it is we are hoping to achieve, there’s no doubt progress will be made!

Regards,

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

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

Staying Calm Under Pressure

admin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:41:50 +0000

Even at 7:30pm the night is hot. That’s what happens when you go barbecuing somewhere in the South Pacific in the middle of summer. You can almost taste the grilled chicken from the remnant fumes simmering off the grill. Dinner is served!

The family gathers around the picnic table. We take a deep breath and begin to eat. In just the first bite, my father freezes, tries to swallow and let’s out a little gag. We ask him what’s wrong, and he shakes his head not knowing. One of us gives him a glass of water, and still, no change. My father raises up his hand, excuses himself and says that he has to go to the emergency room.

DOUBT AND CONFUSION

Is it really that bad I think to myself? It’s not like he was convulsing or anything. “Shall I drive Dad?” I ask.

“Nahh,” he responds and tells me to enjoy my meal. Dad lumbers to the car and drives his usual slow self away, careful not to run any stop signs.

Five hours later at about 12:30am I hear a car pull up to the driveway with a loud car door thud seconds later. The brakes, oh how those brakes squeak, reminding us to replace. I rush downstairs and ask Dad if everything is OK. He pulls out a little plastic vile, starts to jiggle it back and forth, and reveals a prideful grin.

“What’s that Dad?” I ask incredulously.

“This son, is a site to see!” as he opens up the vile and pulls out a piece of gauze. “Come look closer.” As I inched my way closer to the vile I noticed something long and grey. “This son is a once inch steel bristle from the steel brush we used to clean the grill! It was lodged in my throat!”

“Holy sh*t Dad! You weren’t kidding when you said you needed to go to the ER.”

“Nope.” My dad then proceeded to carefully lay the metal bristle back on the cotton gauze, and back into the vile. Like saving a bullet from a bullet wound, Dad will always save this thorn.

INDEPENDENCE

Many of us really thought he was faking his injury because of his demeanor. It was almost surreal how calmly he excused himself from the picnic table. If you had an inch long metal bristle piercing the front side of your throat, and couldn’t swallow, what would you do? I’ve had contact lenses disappear into the back or the bottom of my eye sockets and I’m in a frenzy.

Dad would be the perfect candidate to shoot a real life Animal Planet commercial on what TO DO when a grizzly bear attacks. Without witnessing countless examples of his Zen-like responses, I’d be less balanced. My face would probably contort more when people are late, and I’d probably panic more at things outside of my control. For this, I’m thankful.

Of all things, independence is what I’ve learned most from my father. He gave me the leeway to do whatever I wanted in life, all the while exposing me to a myriad of his interests, so that perhaps some would rub off on me one day. He never forced me to choose, but instead gave me the freedom to make the right choices. He showed me not to count on handouts and to believe in myself. When he drove himself to the emergency room and waved us off, I was reminded of independence once again.

Thanks Dad and Happy Father’s Day!

Readers, what are some of the things your father have taught you in a direct or indirect way?

Regards,

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

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

The Katana: 200th Post And A Thank You To All Readers!

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Dear Readers,

It’s been a wonderful journey so far and I want to thank you for visiting my tiny slice of the matrix. We may not always agree, but that’s the beauty of it all. Through differences of opinion, we’re allowed to learn from each other and flourish mentally, and hopefully financially as well. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to hold your puppy hostage or something if you challenge my opinion! Hope you feel the same.

Sometimes it’s hard to to respond to all of your wonderful comments (7,100+ so far), yet I will always try. I wish there was an easy way to tag all of the most interesting comments and show case them. Perhaps I still will! It’s so fun to visit other sites, comment, and interact, I want you to experience the same here.

Each blog has a different personality and tone to it. I’d like to think that Financial Samurai is unique with a flavor that challenges conventional thinking. We can go back to basics regarding budgeting, savings, and retirement planning. Or, we can continue blazing new trails. It’s really up to you frankly. What would you like to read more of going forward? Generally we should enjoy writing what we’d enjoy reading.

Finally, I thought it would be fun to dedicate this song to all the female readers who helped share their viewpoints. Five String Serenade was composed by Mazzy Star in her 1993 album, So Tonight That I Might See. The original plan when I learned Five String Serenade 12 years ago was to sing to a girl after an evening picnic on a beach somewhere. I never got the chance until recently, and now it’s been recorded, in my own version for you. Funny how things never turn out quite like you plan.

Here’s to another 200 posts! Thank you again!

5 POSTS THAT COME TO MIND

Diamond Engagement Rings Bling Bling! - A comprehensive guide to getting the right stone and understanding what women really want. Furthermore, you’ll find a new rule on how much to spend. It makes perfect sense!

Everything Is Rational – The Answer To All Things Irrational – There’s no need to question anybody for their choices ever again. It’s good to mind our own business and not force our will on others.

The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams – A story about someone who makes multiple six figures, but is thinking about giving it all up for his hobby.

If A Panda Didn’t Look Like A Panda, Would The World Still Care? – A look into how we’re fooled by attraction, and why it’s necessary to floss and brush your teeth.

Don’t Have Children If You Can’t Take Care Of Yourself - A discussion about the cost of kids and why we have so many when there are so many orphans who need our help.

SOME MEMORABLE POSTS FROM AROUND THE WEB THIS MONTH

Thank You To The Militant Who Stole My Car by Wandering Earl. One of the best personal adventures I’ve read in a long time. Furthermore, it’s personal finance related!

Living On One Income by Centsible Life. A nice story about going from multiple jobs to just one, and making more than all combined. Hope you can show us more on the how for your next post!

Low Interest Rate Savings: Beating The Odds By Investing In Your Mortgage by Money Funk. A logical solution in this low interest rate environment. Great mortgage calculator widget find!

How I Survived Two Armed Robberies And So Can You by Len Penzo. Another great story. Don’t be a hero and look away while keeping your hands visible!

Keigu,

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

Pretend You Have Arrived So You Can Become

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:00:43 +0000

Samurai Nadal

Before every tennis match, I watch a short video on Youtube of a favorite tennis pro to get inspired. All that goes through my mind are beautiful strokes and luscious sounding *thwacks* each time the ball leaves my strings. I prepare my tennis bag with the right equipment: grip, Advil, Gatorade, a change of clothes, flip flops, hat, and sunglasses. My outfit matches, down to my shoes and I say a little prayer. Essentially, I go through a routine that any pro would go through, pretending to be one myself, in order to get ready for battle.

Pretending you have arrived, so you can become is a way for us to get in the right frame of mind so we can tackle many of your challenges with full vigor. If you are not mentally tough on the court, you will defeat yourself before even giving your opponent a chance to defeat you! In essence, you are your own worst enemy if not properly trained.

Some may think that if you are a pretender, you have a risk of becoming delusional. There’s no doubt we often over estimate our own abilities, however, I encourage all of us to increase the belief in ourselves. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.

PRO BLOGGER

Anybody who has a blog knows that it’s a lot of work. There’s a statistic that says most bloggers don’t make it after six months. I don’t know exactly what “not making it” means, but suffice it to say many quit due to burn out.

Every time I sit down to write an article, I pretend like I blog for a living. It doesn’t matter I work ~50 hours a week at my day job. What matters is that in order to successfully compete, I must realize there are those who are able to spend 50 hours a week just on their sites! As a result, I’m constantly in search for new marketing ideas and thinking of ways to write better content.

I often envy journalists and columnists of large publications. They are in a field they probably aspired to be in since college, and they have editors to make their writing perfect! As a blogger, I am the editor, writer, content director, marketer, and tech help. I don’t have a multi-million dollar marketing campaign behind me, and it takes a long time to get noticed. Oh well! I’m just going to have to try that much harder.

Because I’m motivated to compete with professionals, I don’t mind the the challenge. Besides, creating this site is simply one of the funnest things ever! If Financial Samurai can rank higher, or be recognized by some mainstream publication like it did on The LA Times a couple weeks ago over a professional blogger, that makes the time spent all the sweeter.

The beauty of the Internet is that anybody can start a website and compete against anybody in any field. Every single big site started small, so keep the faith you will one day get there.

NBA BALLER

Samurai Jordan

Basketball is actually my first true love. There’s no more beautiful a sport than basketball, where you actually have to use your entire body to play. The problem is that injuries rack up in a hurry, and if I want to be able to walk when I’m 50, I better tone it down. I’ve got the sleeveless jersey, loose fitting shorts, and Jordan retros as a point forward. In my mind, all I think about is “making it rain” from beyond the three point line.

Basketball culture is very strong. If you don’t look the part, you won’t be taken seriously in my local gym. People from all over the city come to compete, and you will get hooted and hollered all night long if you look out of place. Ballers travel in packs, and it’s showboat central sometimes. Showboating is showing off to the crowd, while trying to make your opponents look bad in the process. We never showboat, because we aren’t idiots.

We play fundamental basketball, always moving, swinging, setting picks, and taking high percentage shots. And guess what? We are 80% winners. When we don’t win it’s because our opponents simply outsize with 6′ 6″ point guards who can take one jab step, fake me out, and end at the rim with a dunk. Remember, this is my local gym, not the NBA! Our tallest guy is 6′ 4″ and plays center.

By getting into the mindset that you are an NBA player, you start believing your shots will go in upon release. Without the proper mindset, you’re going to brick it every single time. When the last buzzer sounds, if you’re the winner, you’ll get respect no matter what you look like. It’s all about respect in the end, but not so much in the beginning.

MUSICIAN

Samurai Johnson

My 10 year old acoustic guitar has given me more pleasure than I could have ever imagined. With a beautiful cherry wood top, and a lemon oil smell emanating from the fret board, just touching the guitar brings an instant smile. Unfortunately, I’m quite mediocre at musical instruments. I’ve tried them all, including the violin, trumpet, saxophone, and drums and I’m not very good at any of them.

Despite my lack of musical talents, I still try to play the guitar until my finger tips turn purple from one too many slides. I lock myself in the back room of my house pretending to be Jack Johnson playing his latest songs. Whoever I pretend to be, I realize they are gifted because of practice. And so, I practice and practice and sing as if no one is listening.

The guitar has been my outlet when my body is too sore from tennis and basketball. After a 2 hour long singles match, my feet blister and my knees ache. It takes me at least three days to fully heal now from just one or two before. It actually pains me more to have to rest and not play, but that’s where my guitar comes in. When the time comes when my fingers are just too raw to continue, I’m ready to play sports again.

CONCLUSION

A positive attitude is tantamount towards progress. When we were kids, we wore costumes and turned into our favorite superheroes and fairy tale characters. Sometime during adulthood, we forget what it’s like to pretend. That joyful feeling of being someone else eludes us as we grow up. How sad.

If you’re going to do something, you might as well aspire to do your best. Pretend you have arrived, so you can one day become. I guarantee that if you do, you’ll have a grand old time in the process!

Readers, what are your favorite hobbies you could do all day long?

Any strategies you employ to motivate yourself to do better?

Keigu,

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

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

The Dark Side Of Early Retirement

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:08:45 +0000

If you look carefully around the web, you’ll read scores of articles about the desire to retire early. Yours truly wishes to finish up no later than 45, as I believe working for 20 or so years is a long enough time. I’ve done the math with various living and return scenarios and it can be done. But the question is whether it’s a good idea? Perhaps not.

Now that the economy is in recovery mode, it’ll be interesting to see how attitudes change towards early retirement. Will those who’ve short circuited their careers feel the pull to return to full time work and maximize their earnings potential again? I believe so. What about all our “lifestyle design” and “digital nomad” friends who had a rough time landing something stable they truly love? Possibly they’ll come back too.

Those who are able to retire early are often cherished. I certainly admire those who are able to cut down their desires to the bare bones and live a very frugal lifestyle. I also admire those who’ve been able to strike it rich very early! That said, perhaps early retirement isn’t a good idea for the large majority of people. Let’s explore several reasons as to why people want to retire early, why they exist, as well as understand why it may not be a good idea. Someone has to argue the other side, so it might as well be me.

WHY PEOPLE WANT TO RETIRE EARLY (IT ISN’T THAT OBVIOUS!)

1) Haven’t found the right job. The number one reason why people want to retire early is because people haven’t found a job that gives them enough fulfillment to do for the rest of their lives. Nobody quits a job they like. If there was a job paying $80,000 a year to hike in the mornings and get massages in the afternoon, I’d do that forever!

2) Easier way out. People give up or are sub-optimal performers at what they are doing now. Let’s say you are a research scientist who after 10 years never produces any relevant research, and finds no cures. Instead of going on with your failure, you decide to give up, and get out of the game. Early retirement is kind of like the cowards way of not having to be the best any more. Some even liken it to suicide.

3) People are lazy and want things now. Society has shifted our ideals from hard work and thinking long term, to instant gratification. Nobody has the patience to work for decades before being eligible for a pension. We all think we know more than we do, and deserve to be the rich boss now. When we don’t get our way, we quit, rather than letting people know we couldn’t reach our potential.

4) A feeling of hopelessness. During the downturn, a tremendous amount of people began writing about a location independent lifestyle, and breaking free from the 9-5 and really doing what you want. It’s because of this downturn, that many people were displaced, and had nowhere to go. If they did, perhaps they’d think differently. In an economy where everybody is losing money left and right, what’s the point of working?

5) Realization that time is precious. With the median lifespan hovering around 80 years old, you only have 15 years of retirement to enjoy your life if you retire at 65. People in this camp have a heightened awareness of time, and therefore do everything possible to make sure they are financially stable sooner, rather than later. I’m a strong believer in this thought process, but at the same time, I don’t want to cut short my potential.

THE DANGERS OF EARLY RETIREMENT

1) Oops, you change your mind. Imagine retiring at 37 after 15 years of work after undergrad. You spend the next 3 years traveling the world, living a leisure lifestyle and experiencing new things. At age 40, you realize the reason why travel and play is so fun is because of work! You have the urge to get back into the game, but who’s going to risk hiring a 40 year old with a 3 year employment gap? The employer will suspect you are rusty, and may just bolt after a year.

2) You run out of money. No matter how conservative we are in our retirement money needs, something unforeseen may happen. Maybe you have a medical disaster, or your house blows down. Maybe your investments tank due to a massive economic downturn. Who knows what the future holds. But if you partake in “normal” early retirement, without the mega-millions windfall, you may find yourself needing more one day. Again, a large employment gap is perceived as riskier by the employer and you may be un-hireable.

3) You lose touch with friends and family. It’s nice to have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. But, if your friends and loved ones are busy working all day, they can’t join you on your midday hike or adventure to Bora Bora. They may also have a family to attend to during the evenings and on weekends.

4) You may find it difficult to start your own family. Unless you have a tremendous amount of money, raising a child may be too expensive an endeavor to undertake as early retirees. If you never wanted to start a family, chances are you haven’t been saving for a family. Let’s say you’re a woman who turns 35 and suddenly realizes the safety window for having a baby is closing rapidly. May be tough to even get pregnant, let alone support a new born without the right support network.

5) You lose your own self-respect, and the respect of others. Unless you’re out there saving the world, you might start getting depressed you are contributing very little to society. Others will stop respecting you because you aren’t doing anything productive either. A great many rich early retiree friends from the Dotcom bubble have mentioned they wish they didn’t get rich so quicky work a little harder for their money.

CAREFUL WHO YOU LISTEN TO

Early retirees will croon about how great their lifestyles are. I’m sure, in some ways they are spot on. But notice how they seldom write about the hardships they face. They can’t, because it’s important they continue highlighting how awesome everything is, to justify their decision to no longer work. Can you imagine spending 16 years going to school (grade school + four years of college) only to work for 10 years? Some would surely say that’s a waste, would they not?

The worst that could happen is some aspiring scientist, musician, lawyer, or teacher decides to give up their careers because they believe traveling around the world on a shoe-string budget is so glamorous. Years later, they realize their fingers don’t remember the notes anymore and the chemical formulas are one big haze. Maybe they would have made it as a concert pianist, or helped discover the cure for seasonal allergies, ACHOO! What a shame they never reach their full potential.

EARLY RETIREMENT IS SELFISH

As I strive to fulfill my goal of retiring by 45, I’ve come to the realization there’s an unhealthy focus on self. “What do I need to amass to be comfortable?” should be replaced with “How much do I need to be comfortable while helping others?”

It’s absolutely selfish for me to even consider working less than the number of years I went to school. I think back upon my childhood years and how much effort my parents put into raising me. My mother would spend hours a week sitting down with me after dinner to explain mathematical equations. My father would read all my essays and fix all the punctuations and grammatical mistakes. I would feel like a disgrace not to at least try and do great things.

45 is just an age goal. If I haven’t achieved my potential by then, I don’t plan on retiring even if I have the money to do so. The point of having an earlier-than-normal retirement goal is to help keep someone focused to achieve whatever it is they set out to achieve. Like an exam that’s 3 months away, we don’t study until the week before. Hence, better to believe the exam is only a week away so that we are better prepared.

CONCLUSION

Early retirees sometimes like to pity those who have to work. Yet perhaps we should empathize with those who are lost and haven’t found something they truly love to do (point #1). It’s impossible to all be great humanitarians working tirelessly until the age of 65. It’s easier just to give up and tell the world how fabulous your life is, and how you’ve retired on your “own” terms.

As the economy recovers, perhaps we’ll be able to bring back our lifestyle design friends to their home countries to work again. Our early retiree friends will stop fearing failure as employers open their arms wide open and allow them to succeed. Entrepreneurial ideas flourish once again due to an abundance of capital. The more the wealth gap widens, the more the early retiree crowd will want to get back to work, and realize their full potential.

There comes a point when working isn’t about money anymore since we have enough. If we all reach this point, we’ll no longer be focusing just on ourselves, but on helping others as well. We’ll be doing something we love, that provides a sense of purpose. Here’s hoping we all get there!

Readers, do you agree or disagree that early retirement is a selfish proposition? Are we all just inherently selfish to begin with?

What is your ideal age of retirement and how do you know when is the right time?

Do you think once we’re back to a raging bull market, there will be less people who want to retire early?

Keigu,

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

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

Nick Vujicic Shows Us How to Get Up And Never Quit

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:00:31 +0000

Nick Vujicic was born with no arms and no legs. He admits to us there were plenty of times when all he wanted to do was give up. Nick didn’t understand the point to his life and therefore wanted to end it. Thank goodness he’s alive because he’s shared his story with millions of people around the world, inspiring them to keep on going.

Just the other day, someone forwarded me an article about this young woman venting because everybody is a workaholic at her office. She tells us how incredibly amazing it is that she gets in at 8am and works until 6:30pm everyday. In other words, she’s asking for praise and sympathy for working normal hours. The kicker? She was unemployed for over half a year and just started this job!

Whenever I feel like complaining about how unfair life is, I stop and think about people like Nick who have it just a little bit harder. Is he complaining? No. He is trying harder, and so shall I. Perhaps so shall we all! Let’s eradicate the sense of entitlement that lingers among everyone of us; some more than others. We shall not whine about our jobs or complain why our love lives crumble. Let’s take ownership of our own actions. If you are a complainer, please go somewhere else!

Readers, who inspires you to keep on going?

Regards,

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

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

5 Money Habits I Learned That Will Never Make Me Rich

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:27:35 +0000

Here’s an insightful post from Allan from The Philippines. He shares with us his story about growing up poor and working his way up. It’s always great to read about international perspectives. Hope you enjoy!

They say we are creatures of habit. This is especially true when it comes to money. When the going gets tough, it is easier to resort to what’s comfortable. When that happens, your own money habits take over. The only question is – will your money habits get you through and make you rich?

Money Habit # 1 – Playing with money

Learning my money habits started when I was still a young kid playing outside the house on a sunny afternoon. The first money habit I learned was playing with money. Yes, literally. But not with actual money. My friends and I would play games betting on carefully folded cigarette packs looking like play money. A red Marlboro is worth PhP 50 (US 1$). A green local brand “Champion” cigarette is PhP 5 (10 cents). A Philip Morris cigarette pack is worth PhP 100 (US $2).

It was all play money then. And it was easy to get. I only need to wait for my father to finish his cigarette pack and I’d be on my way to earning my (play) money for the day. Sometimes, we even played with coins, taking turns and rolling them on the floor like a dice. Playing with money was fun!

Somewhere between playing with other kids and being conscious on what’s cool, I learned that money can buy me things. But since we were poor, I had to make do with my worn out clothes. After some time I’ve already outgrown it so much, I already looked like Winnie the Pooh.

It’s not so much about other kids having better clothes. It was more because I was not able to play outside as much as the other kids. My mother would always remind me to do my house chores. Wanting to go out and play instead, I would reason out “how come the other kids are not doing any chores?” To which my mom lovingly responded,

“Because we are not like them. They can do whatever they want because they are rich. We are poor. ”

That was the first time I realized we were different from other people. We were poor. I began to notice how worn out my clothes and shoes are. I remember even going to school with no shoes on.

That’s one lesson I took to heart. If you don’t have money, you are poor. If you are poor, you need to work to have some money.

Money Habit # 2 – Working for money

Growing up with a family of farmers, I knew how hard my parents worked just to put food on the table. My mom would sometimes ask me to help out in harvesting tobacco leaves at a nearby town. She’d motivate me by paying for every tobacco leaf I was able to harvest. With promise of a paycheck, I willingly agreed to go.

The next day, I woke up early in the morning, went with her to the farm, and started plucking tobacco leaves left and right. After hours of standing under the grueling heat of the sun, I managed to harvest loads of tobacco leaves. That day, I went home enduring an aching back and torn muscles. But I was happy. I was able to help out my mom and it also made me PhP 100 (2 US $) richer. That’s actual money, not a Philip Morris cigarette pack. :)

It was hard work. I was so tired I thought I was going to get sick the next day. Good thing I was able to watch my favorite TV show that night – a Japanese game show called ‘Takeshi’s Castle’. I was able to laugh it off and sleep soundly that night.

One thing was clear from then on. I must first have to work before I can expect to earn money and get paid. If I don’t get paid, I don’t have any money to spend.

Money Habit # 3 – Spending money

After graduating from College, I was fortunate enough to get hired by a multinational IT company as a Mainframe Programmer for a monthly salary of PhP16,000 (about US $320). It was big money for me then, coming out straight from College without any working experience.

When I got my first paycheck, I was so thrilled. I thought it was the best time of my life. Why shouldn’t it be? I had money to buy what I could not afford before. Even if it’s just a new pair of shoes. Even if it’s just occasional dinner out with friends. Even if it’s just a nice shirt or two. After all, the money I earned was finally my “own”. It was liberating.

But not for long. The more I consumed, the more I realized I wanted more. I wanted more money to buy that new mobile phone. So off I went and tried the only way I knew how to make more money then – work hard on my job. As a result, I got promoted almost every year and my paycheck steadily increased. Sooner than later, I realized that even with the higher pay, it seemed like it was still not enough. I was still always short of cash.

That’s when I realized, there’s actually another way to get more money – borrow.

Money Habit # 4 – Borrowing money

Once I started earning quite a bit, I got comfortable spending for stuffs. It got to a point where I bought something even though I didn’t have the money to pay for it. I only had to use my new credit card.

In one day, I bought a new washing machine, a refrigerator, a gas stove and a new pair of shoes all at the same time. Worse, all the balance had to be paid off at the end of the month. I didn’t know there’s a thing called “monthly installments” then so I never bothered to ask. All I cared was showing off, pretending to have a lots of money using my new credit card. Looking back, it was one of the most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t pay ALL of the balance after a month. In the first place, the reason I used the card is because I didn’t have the cash. I tried to pay as much as I can but after months of painfully paying a little bit above the minimum I was getting nowhere near paying the balance off.

To make matters even worse, I got myself in deeper trouble by doing cash advance on my credit card just to have the cash to pay for my rent. I paid the hefty cash advance fee with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I had no choice. I could get thrown out of the apartment if I didn’t pay up. It was a humiliating and painful experience for me. From then on, I bowed not to allow myself to experience the same thing again.

Money Habit # 5 – Saving Money

The next day, I went straight to our company’s cashier and signed-up for an automatic savings program. The program automatically deducts a percentage of my paycheck and transfers it into my savings account.

I started with only 2% of my paycheck enrolled into the savings plan. After 3 months, I increased it to 5%. Another 3 months and I increased it again to 10%. After a year I felt comfortable enough to increase it further to 20%. In my mind, if the money does not reach my hands, I won’t be able to touch it. I won’t be able to spend it.

I was still paying off my debt at this point but the automatic savings plan was a big help on my confidence. It was liberating to know that I had some money saved somewhere, even if I don’t see it.

After years of saving, I was finally able to pay up my credit card debt. I was so scared of debt, I immediately had my credit card cut off the day I paid the whole balance. I felt finally free after a really long long time!

Months of saving through the automatic savings plan was a big help in building my emergency fund for around 6 months worth of expenses.

This proved to be a great thing since a few months after, my sister slipped while walking through our staircase and sustained a head injury. I was shocked. With adrenaline rush kicking in, I managed to bring her up to the hospital. To this day, I still thank God that this happened when I already had a bit of money saved up. I was able to buy the necessary medicine. I was able to pay for the hospital bill. I was able to pay for the operation. More importantly, my sister got well without any complication. I can’t imagine how it would have turned out had this happened while I was still heavily in debt.

Why these 5 habits will never make me rich

Looking back, I certainly have come a long way as a young kid playing with cigarette packs pretending they’re money to now a debt-free IT professional with an emergency fund able to help out his sister in an actual emergency.

In all honesty, I really think these 5 habits alone will never make me rich. I’m still a long long way to go from financial freedom. Saving money is good, but making it grow is another thing. At least it’s a good starting point. I’m eager to learn the money habits of investing and starting on my journey to becoming truly rich. When that happens, I’ll have another 5 money habits to share to you.

About Allan: Even with the insider knowledge of working as a mainframe programmer for a credit card company over the past 7 years, he still got burned with credit card debt. Alan is trying to learn better money habits and sharing them through his Rich Money Habits blog.

Over The Hill At 40 – Age Discrimination In The Workplace

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:00:21 +0000

Every large corporation has some type of annual “Diversity Training” course where we learn not to harass colleagues, send out crude jokes over e-mail, and discriminate against those unlike ourselves. Everything generally makes sense except for one rule that I once read: “One shall not discriminate against someone over 40.” I thought about this for a second, and I began to wonder if they had made a typo.

At age 40, one will have worked for 18 years out of college or 15 years out of graduate school on average. If the accepted age of retirement is 65, or 25 years away from 40, then the rule is implying that age discrimination starts before you are even half way through your average 40 year long career!

The other interesting fact is that most people are living longer nowadays. Forties are the new thirties as they say. People are looking younger and younger at various age milestones. Hence the question, why 40? Let’s explore the various reasons.

NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS ABOUT OLDER WORKERS

Older workers are…….

1) Slower and less adaptable to change. In the age of the internet, if you don’t know how to write html code, or work your way around a Powerpoint or Excel spreadsheet, you might as well be a dinosaur.

2) Less loyal to the job due to family. Families result in more vacation time and sick days, and less desire to work weekends and put in the extra effort.

3) Less malleable for a mentor to mold. Instilling work culture is more difficult, and therefore older workers will have a harder time fitting in.

4) More expensive and therefore squeezes margins more intensely during downturns. Due to the lack of flexibility in pay, there is less maneuverability.

5) Uncomfortable working for someone younger than them. Younger managers feel their discomfort and therefore naturally tend to shy away.

POSITIVE PERCEPTIONS ABOUT OLDER WORKERS

Older workers are….

1) More knowledgeable and experienced where no amount of smarts can match.

2) More patient and mature. They bring different insights to solve difficult problems.

3) More dedicated to their jobs because they are not just providing for themselves, but for their own family and perhaps even their parents.

4) Have more savings and therefore are more flexible to take pay cuts during downturns.

5) Work well with younger co-workers because there is a natural tendency for older people to help mentor younger workers even if they are more senior.

AGE IS JUST AN EXCUSE

If you let yourself feel discriminated against due to age, it’s your fault for letting it get to you. We start blaming exogenous variables that should have very little to do with whether we succeed or fail. Yes, if you are working at a company where the average age is 30 and you’re 50, maybe you will feel the young guns are out to get you. Or rather, since you’re the minority, you’ll feel special due to your valuable insights. It’s really what you make of the situation.

You can argue either way whether older workers are better or worse employees. It doesn’t really matter because you’ll never convince the world conclusively that you are right. One can always find the positives and negatives in any type of person because our perceptions are all different. We just need to focus on what we can control, which is our attitude, presentation, and work skills.

CONCLUSION

Perhaps the reason why so many of us, including Lyndon and I would like to have the option of retiring by our early 40s is because we unconsciously don’t want to face age discrimination. We’re given subtle, hard-to-notice messages telling us that we have at most 20 years in our careers to be someone before others start taking our place.

We all have latent biases that cannot be clearly proven. Rather than dwell on exogenous variables which cannot be helped, let’s work on making ourselves invaluable so that even when we’re 80, we’ll be able to make a difference if we want to.

Readers, are you convinced age discrimination in the workplace starts at 40?

At what age do you think age discrimination starts?

What about reverse age discrimination against younger employees?

What pros and cons am I missing about older workers?

Regards,

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

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

The Ripples OF Giving

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:00:48 +0000

The following is a guest post by newcomer Jeremy Johnson, a husband and father of two girls (a 2 1/2 year old and a newborn). He recently created a website dedicated to helping people realize their dreams and ideas, make progress on them, and see them through to completion. You can follow Jeremy on Twitter at @JeremyNJohnson. Enjoy!

Have you ever wondered why some people give thousands or even millions of dollars to charities and other organizations for a good cause? Why do some people spend hours on end selflessly parting with their finances and free time just to help other people? Could it be for the tax breaks alone?

There’s a formula for wealth and happiness that confounds the grumpy and unfulfilled person. It’s not that other people are just lucky and born happy. It is that the ‘lucky’ and ‘born happy’ person has discovered one of life’s most simple, yet lucrative formulas for real wealth and happiness.

You’re probably wondering what the magic formula is by now. What could possibly give you wealth and happiness that overflows your financial and fulfillment coffers? The formula is giving – giving of not only your finances, but of your time and talents, without expectation of reward. Pure and selfless giving well beyond what you could ever expect to receive back is life’s magic formula for real wealth and happiness.

The effect of throwing a stone into any body of water is really fascinating. Even a small stone will hit the water and cause a ‘ripple’, that is it will cause the water around it to cascade outwards creating an area of effect far greater than the size of the stone that initially hit the water. And the bigger the stone used, the greater the ripple effect.

Methods of Giving

Some may have the notion that giving a 10% tithe to a religious institution is important. Or some may believe that giving 10% of your income to a charity is sound practice. These are indeed both great ideas and will provide financial support provided you give your money to institutions that are reputable.

In addition to financial giving, a 10% (or some percentage of your choosing) of your time, abilities, and talents can and should also be given to others. And by giving, I don’t mean with the intent to get paid for it – that doesn’t count! This is simply serving one or more people with the unique gifts and talents you already have.

Financial giving is usually straightforward. You cut a check or hand over a pile of cash to the group or person you want to serve. But giving of your time, abilities, and talents requires the examining of the groups or individuals you wish to serve. It requires examining the unique value you have to offer and then finding the areas in which individuals and groups are challenged.

The Benefits of Giving

The giving of 10% of your time, talents, and abilities to help others where they are most struggling is not normal behavior. Life tends to pull us towards what we can do for our families and ourselves. By giving yourself to a cause greater than who you are, you strengthen others selflessly and increase your ability – and the needs of others at the same time.

If you think that’s crazy, think about reciprocity and karma. Think about affecting a large whole through your gifts and talents. Think about throwing a stone into a pond and from that small stone, a ripple effect moving outward, affecting a larger whole. Think about the wealthiest and most fulfilled people and the large number of people their charities benefit in the world, both financially, and through time and service.

The strengthening of a whole happens when others are made better through your unique gifts. Perhaps your unique gifts create something that saves the time of others, or brings people together in a cohesive group, which adds to the success as a whole. Perhaps your giving prevents someone from going downhill in their life and then that person begins to add value and the ripple affect grows and grows. Your ripple source will continue to bounce and affect others well beyond your initial offering.

Your simple acts of giving enhance those you affect. And by doing so, you are in turn enhanced and exposed – in a good way – as someone of great value. And if you don’t believe there is anything in it for you, think about the course of each life you enhance through your unique talents and gifts – and the people then enhanced by them. It’s often about your gift to the world and the faith that reciprocity will find its way back to you while at the same time not expecting it.

From personal experience, I know that giving of me reaps rewards far greater than had I sat on my can and done nothing or selfishly promoted myself. The rewards of selfless giving include financial and personal growth rewards! I’ve increased in human understanding and intelligence through serving others and learning what helps them. I am a more capable employee at my full time job because of the lessons in life I am learning through giving to others. This allows me to work in a position that pays a higher salary than I would otherwise get had I not learned to focus, solve problems, and learn to serve others.

My Own Personal Experience and Observations

Do you think people like Oprah Winfrey or Anthony Robbins are in the position they are because they got lucky? They touch many lives with their unique gifts and talents. And they spend time giving of themselves on a constant basis. Anthony Robbins and his charities feed countless people during Thanksgiving. Oprah developed a school program for young people.

I spent two years in Ireland in voluntary service (from age 19 – 21), which I paid for. I was not paid directly for my service. Indirectly, I am reaping the benefits of learning to work hard and serve others – even if it is many years after the fact. Who knows what ripples I created when I was a young man there and I do not need any financial reward to know I did wonderful things.

I recently discovered the Yakezie Oda – a like minded group of individuals with websites related to personal finance. I began observing their interaction with each other. From that observation, I noticed a need for a better way to manage the club and the Alexa rankings. I knew I had the technical skill to pull it off and I am so impressed with what I’ve seen from the members of it, that it was a simple matter for me to volunteer my time and energy to create a new, automated page to store their club and Alexa rankings that will ultimately save them time and energy.

What’s in it for me? Nothing – I do it freely. However, I do believe I have genuinely made some real friends in a short amount of time, and you cannot put a price on that at all. I promise any of you reading that if you solve the challenge that someone or a group is having with your unique talent, you will feel a sense of fulfillment, and increase your networking and friendship with those you help. But do it for fulfillment, for bettering and helping others, which in turn will strengthen the whole and not just yourself.

Conclusion

Find your own unique talents, gifts, abilities, and just get to know people. You will find so many ways to give to others, not just financially. Just listen and watch people. You will quickly discover the challenges they are facing. Use your unique talents and gifts to fill in the gaps for the challenges and difficulties of others. If you are really interested in wealth, this is the greatest way to generate it – a high valued solution to a number of people’s problems. Not only is it fulfilling, but it increases your potential as a human being and solves real life problems. You just might find your life’s work while serving someone and have it be a means to provide for you financially for the rest of your life.

Readers, what are your unique talents and gifts? Who are the people that would most benefit from your service? Who are some people in your life that have shared their unique talents with you and made a difference in your life?

Keigu,

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

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

Wealth Is An Illusion Of Happiness

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:00:50 +0000

My name is Lyndon and I’m overwhelmed by all the feedback from “The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams.“ Thank you guys for sharing your thoughts, and thank you Sam for presenting my dilemma in a tasteful manner. It’s only right for me to provide some feedback and give everyone a little more insight.

WEALTH IS AN ILLUSION OF HAPPINESS

One of my happiest memories was studying abroad in Chile for an entire semester. I lived off beans and rice, and slept on a wooden plank bed. At night, sweat would bead up on my forehead until it dripped down across my temple and into my ears. It was that hot. Yet, despite having no money, I was so happy. Life was simple and the greatest pleasure I got was learning from others.

At the time, I told myself that if I could just earn $1,000/month and have my trusty camera, I’d be happy. Well, I lost my way when McKinsey gave me a job offer. Nobody turns down McKinsey, partly because nobody gets into McKinsey. The curiosity of the job compelled me to take it rather than pursue my interests.

I recognize I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work for a respectable company that may one day allow me to retire comfortably. Yet, I wonder about that semester abroad in Chile all the time. A couple years ago I went down to Chile and revisited the old AC-less dorm room where I used to live. It brought back so many good memories. Afterwards, my friend and I went back to our 4-star hotel, sipped on a Mojito and ate some ceviche.

It was then that I realized that despite living in a much nicer place on 100X the budget, my happiness compass pointed towards the dorm room of the past.

CAVORTING WITH THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND

One of Sam’s lines that hits me most is, “Ironically, it is the sympathy that Lyndon seeks, which makes him only hang out with people of his same socio-economic class. He understands that most of America won’t understand him so he shuns most people.”

It’s hard to read, but it’s true. I realize many won’t empathize with me, simply because only a minority of people in America make $300,000 a year. I expect people to throw mud and make fun of the situation while calling me a cry-baby. I realize it is equally ridiculous to try and garner sympathy, hence I don’t try. I keep quiet. I keep to myself because otherwise, you’ll think I’m arrogant when I discuss buying a European automobile, or discuss last night’s symphony.

Yes, most of my friends are all working stiffs who make six figures and lead relatively decent lives. We don’t expect anybody outside of our circle to understand the grueling hours required to make our income. We don’t expect people to understand that ever since we were kids, we were told we better succeed or else. Many of our parents are doctors and lawyers and politicians. Yet, how many people on earth can become successful doctors, lawyers, and politicians? Not many, and that is why the pressure is immense. We are not our parents nor do we live in our parents’ generation!

You’ll have to forgive me, and people like me for seeming callous and insensitive towards others. The truth is, we fear backlash and insensitivity by you, which is why we keep so closed off. In fact, perhaps this is why there are so many congregations of ethnic communities in big cities, the Chinatowns, the Little Italy’s and Harlems, etc. Maybe we all fear a certain type of backlash, and just want to feel safe.

IT JUST CAME

I didn’t ask to make the money I make. Income growth just comes with longevity. Longevity is due to performance, which ultimately means value creation for a company. A person makes $1 million a year because he probably generates $10 million a year in revenue for the firm. There’s nothing really fancy about income.

What I don’t quite understand is if people want to make more money, why not just join an industry that pays well? What not be a banker, lawyer, doctor, consultant, trader, engineer, Internet guru, Brittany Spears, professional athlete, or politician? OK, it’s hard to become successful at one of these professions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try.

Photography is my passion, but I realize that I’d have a better chance at becoming the President of the United States than making a living doing what I love. Yet, I still long for it, and practice every chance I get. On weekends I scout locations for my next photo shoot. I’ve got a website where I’m actively selling my services. I’ve even planned out my next three vacations to remote locations so I can capture that rare brilliant shot. I won’t stop trying.

THE DECISION

The bonus check hit the bank account the other day and I’ve made up my mind. I cannot leave McKinsey to follow my dreams. Someone in the comments section wrote so aptly, “Once your hobby becomes your job, it stops becoming your hobby!“ I’m afraid that if I become a professional photographer, I’ll begin to hate the entire industry. I’ll start being overly critical about my own work, and scoff at others who’ve been accepted.

I love photography too much to risk not loving it anymore. When Sam wrote about my situation, I was at the darkest stage of the year where I worked for 11 months without knowing what my bonus would be. Now I’m in the brightest stage of the year where I’ve worked for only one month and have the year ahead of me. I’m under no illusion that come March next year, I’ll have a part of me that will wonder whether I made the right choice.

As of right now, I’m happy again because I know what I must do. It’s important I create a realistic exit strategy and live below my means. You’re right. A $4,000/month two bedroom apartment is fixable. I’ll be looking to get a more “reasonable” 1-bedroom $2,500-$3,000/month apartment in Manhattan instead. A spreadsheet is open right now pro-forming my financial life over the next 10 years. All I know is I want to be done by the time I’m 40. Knowing this, means figuring out a financial plan to get there.

THANK YOU ALL for your thoughts. I appreciate every single one of them. THANK YOU Sam for letting me gain more perspective and finding a solution! Wealth is an illusion of happiness, but don’t let me stop you from trying.

For happiness!

Sincerely,

Lyndon

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The Elegance Of Failure

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:00:04 +0000

The following is a guest post from Neal Frankle at Wealth Pilgrim. Neal is a dedicated father, insightful financial adviser, and honorable Yakezie Challenger who always writes with a breath of fresh air. You can join his 2,500+ followers on Twitter @NealFrankle. Enjoy!

Failure is not only a necessary part of life, it can be a beautiful part of life.

This may sound like crazy talk.

After all, if you are a hardworking person, you work hard because you want to succeed, not fail.

And failure stings.

It hurts.

Man….it hurts.

That pain is real….but despite that temporary pain, those set backs are likely key ingredients to your future success. And the success I’m talking about dwarfs financial or career gains.

Let me explain by telling you about an experience I had several years ago.

BACK IN THE MOTHERLAND

When I was in my 20′s, I started a Masters program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. My goal was to study in Hebrew with the local students and complete the degree.

This isn’t such a lofty goal in and of itself, but when you consider that I didn’t speak a word of Hebrew 9 months prior to my enrollment, I think you’ll agree that it was quite a challenge – if not insane.

I studied as hard as I could. I worked night and day using every opportunity I could to improve my language skills.

Sure enough my hard work paid off – sort of.

Within 9 months I passed the entrance exam and was admitted to the Hebrew University’s Masters Program for Political Science. My language level tested out as fluent.

And that’s when my problems started.

While my conversational ability was pretty good, I couldn’t understand a word my professors were saying from day 1. I mean not one meshugunah word.

I doubled my studying and put everything I had into it… but it was no use. I didn’t have the skill or ability to learn as quickly as I was required to.

Within 3 weeks, I dropped out and returned to America.

I felt like a complete failure.

It took me years to let go of that experience.

IN AMERICA WHERE MY BUSINESS GROWS

When I came back, I focused all my energy on starting a business and this time, the universe said “YES”. I was fortunate enough to build a very successful business from ground up.

You could say that the door had to close on my Hebrew Political Science dreams in order for the door to open for my business aspirations.

That’s true of course. But had I just stopped there I would have missed a gift far more valuable.

You see, I felt like a loser when I didn’t make it in Israel because I confused having limited skills (in this case, language skills) with being defective myself. Then I felt like a winner as my business grew.

My emotional peace of mind was completely tied and dependent upon my success or failure.

For me, that’ s no way to live.

The elegance is seeing that your success or failure in an endeavor, doesn’t say anything about you as a person. I have limited skills – we all do. So what?

It doesn’t mean you are flawed as a person.

You can apply this lesson if you have financial stress, problems in your career or trouble at home.

If something doesn’t work out, it’s just the universe’s way of telling you to try something different. It’s not a statement about my value as a human being.

There’s a lot of freedom in that. At least I believe there is.

Understanding this makes it easier for me to be objective about how I spend my time. I have less invested in the outcome. All I have to do is my best and let the result go. And if I do my best, what more can I do? In fact, if I have done my best, what right do I have the right to beat myself up?

Please don’t get me wrong. I still believe it’s important to do the best I can. Put everything I have into it. But when things don’t work out, I don’t want to repeat the mistake I made all those years ago. I hope you feel the same way.

CONCLUSION

Don’t let your outcomes define you. It’s unhelpful and it’s untrue. Failure is elegant because it provides a lesson in self that no other classroom or experience provides. It allows us to value ourselves separate and apart from what we can and can’t do.

Readers, what are some of your life failures? Was there ever a case where you were better off failing, than succeeding? Are you afraid of failure?

Keiju,

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

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

Insuring The Uninsured Is Worth It

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:00:58 +0000

Congratulations to the Democrats for passing a smaller, less corrupt version of Obama’s health care plan to cover the 30 million+ Americans who are uninsured. I’ve read numerous articles about the pros and cons of this plan, and I still can’t figure it all out. An Associated Press article writes, “Obama practically needs a spreadsheet to tell people what’s going on and when.“ That said, progress has been made. I’d like to go over some of the basics, and end with a discussion.

LOOKING OUT FOR EACH OTHER

Unlike making money, we can only do so much with our health until genetics take over. We can eat fruits and vegetables until the cows come home. We can work out 5 hours a week and play another 5 hours of tennis on the weekends to improve our fitness. But who’s to say we don’t get cancer one day and die because we can no longer afford to treat the disease? As far as scientists can tell, if we’re destined to get some disease, we will. Wealth helps keep us alive.

Earning a living, on the other hand, is pretty straight forward. Don’t slack off in grade school, go to a good university, get a reasonable job, don’t slack off at work, add value, spend less than you earn, and voila! You will be rich when you retire. Along the way, you’ll find impasses such as economic Armageddon we just experienced. You might lose your job, or 30% of your net worth like I did. But that’s OK. We just go back to school, find another profession, extend our retirement age by a couple years and keep marching forward.

You can’t march forward if you are sick. You can’t even stand sometimes. This is where we MUST step in and provide a safety net for those who cannot help themselves.

HEALTH AND POVERTY

Watching a documentary about personal bankruptcies the other day, it was amazing to learn that 3 out of the 4 families profiled were living in poverty due to health related issues.

A beauty queen broke her neck, and couldn’t continue working. She now lives in a shelter because she couldn’t afford to pay her medical bills. A family of four live in their broken down car because the father severed a nerve in his arm at work, and could no longer operate the machinery. The insurance for rehab ran out, and he was left stuck, unable to do return to his old job.

If we had a better health care system, perhaps we’d have less health related bankruptcies. Is that so bad? Should we not try and help others out who bet on red but get black? We should.

THE OBJECTING CROWD

Everything comes down to money and service. Those who oppose ask how we can afford free coverage for 30 million more people? The opposition also asks with 30 million people in the system, does that mean my doctor’s visit wait jumps from 15 minutes to an 1 hour? Do the citizens who can afford to pay get crowded out as a result? Good questions, and I don’t have the answer.

However, if you were to ask me whether it’s OK to raise my taxes by a couple percent a year to insure that everybody in America can get proper health care, I say yes. Let’s say I earn $100,000 a year, and the tax increase of 2% is earmarked for health care reform. I’m willing to pay an extra $2,000 a year to ensure we all have the right to health care.

Whether my premiums go up $2,000 a year or my taxes go up by $2,000, it’s the same thing, so I’m not arguing where the money will come from. Ask me to pay $2,000 more in taxes a year for some pork spending I have no idea about, I would vehemently vote no.

Let’s say I do have to wait 45 more minutes for the doctor because of a crowding out effect. Fine, let me surf the web on my PDA, read some magazines, do some stretching, and perhaps take a nap. Maybe I have to wait a week longer than normal to see a doctor. That is a problem which will be solved by capitalists who will open more independent practices to meet demand. Just knowing that I will get assistance tempers my worries. And if you never had a shot at seeing a doctor in the first place, you won’t be complaining about a wait.

If I have an emergency, then off to the emergency room I go. I will be treated according to the degree of my trauma. Hopefully there won’t be millions of new hypochondriacs who abuse the emergency room system, but that is a chance I’m willing to take.

CONCLUSION

I feel it in my gut, opposing health care reform is bad. It’s as if the karma police is watching me. We can only do so much to control the outcome of our lives. We don’t know how long we will live, and whether we will die peacefully or painfully. Sickness affects a billionaire as easily as it affects a beggar. Why should someone lose everything just because they are poor? They shouldn’t, and that’s why I congratulate the passage of this bill again. Let’s just make sure everybody helps pitch in, and not just those who aren’t lucky enough to be Nebraskans or particular union workers.

Readers, are you for or against health care reform? Please highlight some of the NEGATIVES of the health care reform bill so we can get more into detail and provide a balanced argument.

* Note Consumerism Commentary has a great post highlighting “The New Health Insurance And Your Money.” Good overview of what the bill may cost you.

Keiju,

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

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

How To Apologize For An Error? Martyr Yourself!

fs — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:00:47 +0000

If there’s one thing I’m consistent at, it’s making some stupid error at least once a year. One of the classic errors happened my first year out of college. One of the IT guys and I were good friends, always winding each other up and cutting each other down. He sent out a department-wide e-mail saying the systems would be off for the weekend, therefore nobody should bother coming into work.

Instead of clicking “Reply”, I mistakenly clicked “Reply All” and wrote, “Isn’t this why you have a job? So you can fix my computer and we can work all weekend? Who hired you anyway?!” As soon as I sent the e-mail, paralysis took hold. I was mortified!

With my head tucked low, I immediately walked into my supervisors office and apologized profusely. “I am a complete bumbling idiot! I can’t believe I was so careless and stupid. I’m such a fool. Please forgive me!” I think I may have shed a tear, but I don’t recall exactly.

To my surprise, my manager laughed, and told me not to worry about it, and to go back to my desk. “No big deal Sam, don’t be too hard on yourself! Didn’t realize how much you enjoyed busting people’s chops!”

Phew, bullet dodged.

DARN, ANOTHER ERROR

A year passed, and I felt like I was gaining traction at work. In fact, I was trusted to host a meeting all the way in Anchorage, Alaska! Clearly, I had a graduated from peon status. All was good until I landed. I forgot to bring the presentations for the CEO of a large company who needed them for the next morning’s meetings. Once again, I was screwed both ways. My only job was to fly down to Anchorage, introduce management, give them their hard copy presentations and keep quiet. I blew it!

Feeling the sense of dread all over again, I mentioned to the CEO during dinner the night before that I completely forgot his presentations. “I am a total moron! I don’t know how I could have been so stupid as to forget your presentations. I am so sorry!” I blurted out while hitting the back of my head with the palm of my hand. I could see the CEO’s face wince every time I slapped my head.

“In my rush to the airport, not only did I forget to bring your presentations, I also forgot my dental floss!” I explained.

The CEO then started to laugh and said “Sam, don’t worry son. Everything will be alright. We’ll just pull up the presentation on our laptops, and show the clients this way. Have a scotch on me!”

During the meetings the next day, the CEO did as promised and whipped out the presentation using his Thinkpad and everything was fine. It was then, that I realized how to truly apologize.

ONLY TWO THINGS ARE NEEDED TO MAKE UP FOR A GOOF

1) Never make any excuses, unless it’s funny. Excuses are for losers. Address the mistake and accept the blame.

2) Scold and punish yourself louder and harder than your superiors ever would. The more you beat yourself up, the less your superior will feel the desire to beat you up! In fact, often times your superior will take the other side and have sympathy for you during your self admonition.

If you can take control of the situation, admit your fault, and then whip yourself like Sylas does in The Da Vinci Code, everything will be ok! The Martyr Method is highly scalable in practically any type of scenario you can imagine. Let me demonstrate.

MARTYRING YOURSELF FOR LOVE

Let’s say your girlfriend sees you ogling another girl while you’re walking down the street. As soon as you realize you are caught, you can say to her, “Oh my gosh, I am such a dirty pig. What I did was so disrespectful. You’re the only one for me!”

Ok, you’ve got to say this with a straight face, and not bust out laughing. If you can say the above line sincerely, I promise you, your sins will instantly be forgiven. You’ve taken the words right out of her mouth, and told her exactly what she wants to hear! One needs to preempt the scolding that’s coming with your own scolding. If for some odd reason your original line doesn’t work, you can also add, “How about we go on a shopping spree at Tiffany’s? My treat!”

CONCLUSION

Conflicts and mistakes are never fun. When it is clear you’ve made an error, just apologize, recognize your errors, and promise improvement. Nothing drives a manager more nuts than when a subordinate doesn’t realize what he or she has done. Your manager just wants to make sure you get it right the next time. It’s how you treat the error and how you move forward that really counts.

Readers, any dumb mistakes you’ve made during work or elsewhere? What solutions did you come up with to make things right again?

Regards,

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

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