For the first time in a while, I attended our regular Friday home game last night from 9pm to 2:30am.  I used to love going all the time until I started this site actually.  Now, the thrill of writing and interacting has taken over.  Furthermore, I realize how hard it is to make a decent buck online.  To lose a couple hundred in one hand when you play well, yet get runner runnered is a horrible feeling!

No longer are my poker outcomes compared to my normal salary.  They are now compared to my online income which makes things that much more painful when I lose since my online income is so much smaller.  In fact, I use my online income as the barometer whenever I’m thinking of spending frivolously to help keep me in check.

A lot of us poker players like to justify our habits by saying that poker isn’t gambling and that it’s skill.  Although I believe poker is 60% skill, that still leaves 40% left to chance.  Would you bet someone $500,000 if you had a 60% chance of winning and a 40% chance of having your hand chopped off?  I wouldn’t, but some would!

THE ADDICTION RETURNS TEMPORARILY

I bought in for $200 among a sea of sharks with average stacks of some $$400 high.  Everybody loves to make fun of me when I play because I’m known as the tight one.  “Uh oh, Sam is in?  Watch out for those pocket Aces!” they would chide.  “Yes, guys, I only play pocket Aces, so watch out!” is always my retort.  I have an absolute allergic reaction to losing money because I pretend I’m a minimum wage blogger trying to survive in this hard, cruel world.

After being down about $35 bucks for most of the night, I had finally won a couple hands than put me in the black by $90 at 1am.  $90 divided by $200 is a 45% return I reasoned, and it was time for me to go.  To put things in perspective, I was still the smallest chip stack with $290 as now people averaged $700 as re-buys built the action.  But, my buddies wouldn’t let me leave because the rule of course is that you can only leave early when you go broke, or else you have to stay to the bitter end.  Oh yeah, now I remember the other reason why I’ve stopped playing!

The Last Hand

Up 45% and the second to the last hand of the night I’m dealt pocket Queens.  My heart starts racing, because my goal is to just limp or fold until the clock struck 2am. After someone raised pre-flop to $6 with 3 callers, it was my turn to decide.  There’s no way I’m playing 4 way with Queens against these degenerates so I pop the bet by 7X to $40.  Call, call, call!  Crap, they really do love to gamble.  The flop comes 10, 7, 3 and everyone checks around to me.  Of course I bet the pot, a crisp $100 bill gets thrown in the middle, leaving me with only half my chips remaining.  Everyone folds except for the animal to my left.

By this time I’m thinking shitake mushroom, I’ve got $140 committed to the pot and there’s no escaping now.  Why didn’t I quit while I was ahead?  I should have just done something Herculean and limped in and not controlled the action by raising pre-flop.  My pocket queens could be losing to two pair, trips, pocket Kings, or pocket Aces.  When the 4th card hit, a seemingly harmless 5 came out.  I checked.  After a brief moment, where I was hoping my opponent would also check, but he bet another $140!  My heart sank.  Fine, whatever, I’m pot committed so I shoved the rest of my chips in.  Going from +$90 to down $200 sucks, and I promised myself during the show down that I wouldn’t return for another 6 months.

When I showed him my pocket Queens, he sat stunned.  I think may have begun to cry.  He mucked his cards and stared at the remaining $50 left in chips, cashed out, and walked away.  I took him for $290 on just one hand to double up to over $600 and that addicting feeling and thrill was back!  “Nobody pushes me around,” I start thinking in my head.  I feel invincible on the inside, like I belong with the sea of sharks dictating the action.  On the outside, I just tell everybody I got lucky, thanked them for playing, and until we see again.

AFRAID OF THE RUSH

There’s no doubt that in those last tense moments a wave of exhilaration came over me.  I was afraid and excited at the same time, longing for every little posturing and eye twitch to reveal itself.  For that moment, I was a poker junkie again, ready to quit my online endeavors and turn pro.  Of course, that is preposterous thinking, but it was fun while it lasted.

I’m back to reality now, sitting in front of my computer typing away.  I think about how each $200 bet is like working for several hours online trying to get an advertiser.  The rush of gambling is intensely pleasurable no doubt about it, but it’s not for me.  I don’t like the person I become when I lose as I’ve lost plenty of big hands before.  No, I probably won’t be returning to the Friday night home game for a while.  I’m too afraid of what the rush will do to me.

Readers, have any of you ever been hooked on poker or gambling in general?  Have you ever come to a moment where you realize you’re at the edge of the cliff, and one more step and you could lose it all?

Money saving tip: Really start comparing gambling to some of your side income endeavors to put things in perspective.  If it takes you 10 hours of work to make $100, you might think thrice before placing a bet.  It’s easy to just think of your money as chips and frivolously bet it all away.  Have a limit of how much you can lose, and once you hit that limit, walk away.  Leave that ATM card at home and don’t borrow money from friends.  Live to fight another day.

Regards,

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

It’s hard to imagine anyone never getting bullied through grade school.  Inevitably, there’s some immature, insecure kid out there looking to pick a fight.  Do you keep quiet or fight back?  You might be surprised to hear, but I’ve ALWAYS fought back until the bullying stopped.  I’m described as a very cheerful person who is always smiling, but when provoked, you will feel my wrath.

I remember growing up as a kid being taught to just walk away and ignore a bully.  For some reason, I could never listen to that advice.  I didn’t care if I got injured fighting back.  It was what I had to do to defend my honor.  What’s even worse than being bullied, is when you see someone you love get taken advantage of.  That’s when shit really hits the fan!

PERSONAL STORIES OF BEING BULLIED

Example 1: In the 6th grade, we’d always play a game of soccer during lunch period.  The teams always seemed to be split between the richer kids with all the nice toys, and the less well-to-do kids.  I was in the latter group.  Dribbling the ball mid-field one day, I got checked and then tripped by an annoying prick who had done this to my teammates multiple times before.  I had enough and rushed him, kicked his legs out from under him and watched him fall on his back.  He started laughing it off and cursed at me so I proceed to ram the heel of my sole into his solar-plex.  He began to gag, then cry.

We both had to “face the wall” during next period.  During that time, he actually turned to me and apologized.  That was the end of his bullying of me and my teammates and we became friends.

Example 2: In the 8th grade, I had been minding my own business shooting hoops when another bully snatched my ball and proceeded to kick the ball all the way to the other side of the outdoor court.  I told him to go get my ball a couple of times and each time he taunted me back saying, “What are you going to do about it?”  After his third taunt, I told him, “This is what I’m going to do about it” and opened my right palm outwards and with my entire weight behind me, I smacked him hard in his right ear.  He went to get my basketball, and then proceeded to go to the nurses office to attend to his burst eardrum.

I remember going back to my locker after finishing hoops to an angry girl who had a crush on the bully.  She started cursing at me because I had injured him.  I just walked on by.  By the end of school, the bully had his right ear wrapped when he came up to me and apologized.  “Sorry, my fault,” he said.  I accepted his apology and apologized that I burst his eardrum.  He said he would regain full hearing again in 30 days, and not to worry.

Example 3: I arrived early to 10th grade Biology class one day and had my pick of seats.  Before sitting down I decided to tie my shoe and propped one leg up on a chair.  In the midst of tying my shoe, one asshole, who is about 6 ft 3 inches tall and 220 pounds decided to annoy me.  He told me to “move out of the way” so he could take a seat behind me.  The classroom was empty, and he could have easily just walked around me, but nope.  I told him let me finish tying my shoe first, when he then proceeded to shove me while on one foot.  I fell to the ground, and needless to say I was pissed because my head could have smacked a sharp metal edge.  I immediately got up and punched him at an angle into his right eye socket so that his eyeglasses would smash right in his face before my fist upon impact.

We proceeded to RUMBLE, but was soon broken up by our school “Narc”, who was also my varsity tennis coach.   I got suspended for one day, and he got suspended for two.  When we returned, he apologized, I apologized and we moved on.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WHEN A BULLY STRIKES?

Based on my examples above, you can fight back to the point where the other kid relents.  The bully will probably then apologize, and then it’s up to you to be the better person and forgive.  However, the BIG PROBLEM with fighting back is that if you don’t thoroughly obliterate your bullies hopes in one swift attack, you encourage retaliation.  The whole point of fighting back is to show the bully you are the wrong person to fuck with, and to realize his or her messed up ways.

The BEST way to deal with a bully is to actually have a very calm and mature conversation with him or her.  Ask these questions sincerely: “Why are you doing this to me?”, “Please tell me what I did in the past to provoke you?”, “Is there any way we can be cool and get to know each other?”, “Can I buy you some Doritos and let’s go talk about it?”. It takes courage, but when they start to internalize these questions, there is a good chance they’ll realize what they are doing is completely idiotic.

If you catch the bully SOLO, you will have the best chance of breaking through and connecting with him or her.  Bullying usually occurs in front of a crowd, so that the bully can show off and feel good about himself or herself by putting someone else down.  Seriously, a lot of bullying is due to low self-esteem.  Get them by themselves and have a talk.  This is the secret, peaceful way to dealing with a bully, and for that matter racists too!

Readers, have you ever been bullied before?  How did you deal with it? What about work place bullying? Does that ever occur?

Thanks to Kevin from Thousandaire for evoking long lost childhood memories in his post,”When It Comes To Bullying, Nobody Wins.”

I’m 100% behind the Australian kid who got bullied. What kind of idiot bullies an older, much larger kid anyway? As you can see, the bully is trying to show off in front of his friends and girls. Speaking of girls, I love the girl at the end who says, “I think you need to back off alright!?”. Again, a solution to bullying is to get the bully solo and ask him point blank questions as to why he’s bullying! Both of them learned a lesson, and I’m sure the bully apologized and they’ll be better adults because of the incident.

Regards,

Sam

Linda shines at Davis Polk & Wardwell, one of our nation’s most prestigious law firms.  Just eight years after Yale Law School, at the age of 34, Linda achieved her life long dream of making partner. At last I have arrived, Linda first thought to herself, recounting all the hours she spent since high school studying to get perfect grades and a perfect resume. That was five years ago.

One day while working on an important case, Linda walked by the pantry only to overhear her associates whisper about her. She couldn’t quite catch everything they said, but phrases such as, “She’s almost 40,” and “Is she still single?” zinged her ears. Never one to doubt, Linda kept going for the rest of the week. The case is the priority, her mission, if you will. Her clients are fighting a hostile takeover from a competitor, and she and Davis, Polk & Wardwell must defend.

Breaking Down

At 11:00 PM on Friday, she finally returns exhausted to her grey-scaled, minimalism-inspired condo at the St. Regis Residences. With a soft glass of Cabernet, Linda looks out to the Bay Bridge and begins to cry. Why am I crying?, Linda thinks to herself. I successfully defended my client and the competitor is looking to sweeten their offer. My clients will be filthy rich! I’ll be filthy rich.

Linda is unhappy because at 39 she is alone. There’s nobody to share her $2 million a year income with and so she shares it with her apartment instead. She buys the most expensive amenities, such as the textured Brazilian cherrywood floors and Waterworks fixtures. She pays $2,600 a month in homeowners association dues alone so that she can have all the pampering in the world. One touch of a button and housekeeping will come and take away her laundry as well as shine her marble bathroom floors if she asked. What’s the point of working so hard if not only to simplify my life?, Linda wonders.

If Looks Could Kill

Despite the frequent client wining and dining, Linda is extraordinarily lean. With high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, she looks almost like a gaunt cross-country runner who indulges in the latest protein bars. Her eyes are green and intense; she is a woman of focus and intent. She’ll snap you with her stare, yet is unable to melt you with her smile.

Linda can’t believe that almost fourteen years have passed since she first graduated from law school. People told her that her thirties would be the best years of her life. In many ways they were, as she had one success after another in her career. But, despite all the studying in college, she misses her twenties because she had her youth and her future. As trivial as it may seem, Linda misses having long hair and the ability to wear a pony tail if she wanted to. No, that’s unprofessional and inconvenient, she told herself once she turned thirty. If I am to be taken seriously, I need to have shoulder length hair that is simple, yet powerful. Linda has all the power she’s ever wanted now.

The Case

The one that got away was not a case, but a man she met during work right after she got promoted. He was a new lateral hire who came in as a second-year associate. Peter, age 28, was her subordinate. After many endless weeks of working together, they fell in love. On the weekends they would get away on road trips up to Napa Valley and stay at their favorite resort, Auberge du Soleil. Linda paid the $700 a night resort fee of course.

One weekend, as they were lounging by the pool, sipping Arnold Palmers and holding hands, the most senior partner’s wife appeared. Peter and Linda’s hands immediately released, but it was too late. The partner’s wife had already spotted them and she was shocked. How could one of their newly promoted partners and a second year associate be having a relationship? The partner’s wife was aghast, and Linda and Peter were ashamed.

Linda was petrified that all her hard work would be for nothing if word got out that she was having a relationship with one of her subordinates, seven years her junior. No, she’s worked too hard to let some man ruin her career. Linda rushed over and spoke to the partner’s wife in private, pleading her not to say a word. She agreed, but only if Linda stopped seeing Peter. Linda acquiesced.

Alone In The Darkness

It’s been five years since the incident, and Linda’s career has been on a rocket ship’s path. Word never got out about her fling with her subordinate and Peter left several years ago for richer pastures. Linda has everything she’s ever wanted, yet feels empty because she has nobody to share her good fortune with. Next week she turns forty and she worries whether she will be alone, forever.

Readers, what would do if you were Linda five years ago? Would you have defied the partner’s wife’s wishes for your love of Peter? Or, would you do as Linda did and break it off because she invested too much in her career?  Love or Career, which would you choose?

* Note: All names and the law firm have been changed for privacy.

Regards,

Sam

On Sunday, January 16th Yakezie.com received around 6,300 visitors thanks to Little House’s (Yakezie Scholarship Committee Member) efforts to reach out to other organizations online.  That organization was Fastweb.com, a site that helps students find monetary support for education around the web.

Not expecting such a surge in traffic, immediately things started going haywire.  My registration e-mail notifications started flooding in, and then personal e-mails started coming in asking why they didn’t get an e-mail confirmation to register to the allow them to apply.  Frantically, I tried addressing all problems over comments, Twitter, and e-mail myself as Chris was not near a computer.  When Chris returned, he did some testing and things seemed to work, but because of the sheer flood of visitors, things locked up.

Our e-mail system (Google) supposedly has a ~200 limit per day on sending e-mail notifications for new registrants.  After about 1:30pm on Sunday, the 200 limit was quickly hit but the registrants kept coming in.  As a result, any eager student who was looking to register and compete could not.  Oh my, how bad I felt for them.

MY FEAR AND GUILT

The main reason why I started the Yakezie Scholarship vertical was so that Members could rally around a common cause to help support a person financially to further their education.  We all have different personalities and goals, but I strongly believe that the Yakezie Scholarship and our motto of selflessly helping others will hold us together for the long term.  Education is the single most important attribute one can have and develop to get ahead.

I had two fears before launching the scholarship initiative. The first fear was that there wouldn’t be enough interest in writing a 700-1000 word essay to compete to win.  Success takes effort and audacity.  As a result, we made the essay process as meritocratic and transparent as possible.  If you comply with the guidelines, your Scholarship gets posted, readers vote, and the top three vote-getters win.

The second fear was that there would be too much interest.  With this fear, I decided to increase the number of winners from one to three, and work harder to rally support for the Scholarship fund.  For two consecutive months, Members, Challengers, and readers have pledged over $1,000 to help support three essay winners for their educational endeavors.  I’m so proud of everyone who have contributed.

The first Yakezie Scholarship received a total of 14 entrants.  Although I highlighted beforehand that we would only run the top 10 as decided by the committee, I felt bad denying someone who spent the effort a chance to win.  And so, I dealt with my guilt by running all 14 essays.  I was supportive of every single one of them, making sure they submitted all pertinent info while guiding them a long the way.

With the second Yakezie Scholarship, I now fear we will have over 300 applicants with only 3 winners.  I mentioned in a post on Yakezie.com that we would run the top 30 if we had more than 20 entrants.  I never imagined that our little initiative would receive potentially 10X the number just a month later!

HOW TO DEAL

I now fear more having too many applicants over too little going forward.  With a few applicants (<30), we can personally reach out to everyone.  With many applicants (100+), we can’t accept them all to be published since there is a limit to when each contest will end.  Furthermore, the Yakezie Network is a personal finance and lifestyle blog network where we plan to run our own content.  We’re careful to balance all three verticals of Personal Finance, Lifestyle, and Scholarship.

Thinking Out Loud Solutions:

1) We run our own Member Articles and guest posts on Yakezie.com’s homepage, while concurrently publishing the top 30 Scholarship Applicants on another page on Yakezie.com that can be found via the home page.

2) We rule out all essays which do not follow guidelines (i.e. 700-1000 words, answers one question, provides all pertinent contact info, bio, etc).  We are surprised by how many applicants don’t follow instructions.

3) We expand the Yakezie Scholarship Committee beyond myself, Chris, Jennifer, and a friend of mine so that more of us can evaluate the articles to be published and ensure the ones who follow directions and are the best written go through.

4) We build better systems on Yakezie.com to handle the submissions and sort automatically.  Once we have a great system in place, we should be able to automatically sort by word count, title, etc and make evaluating easier.  We may need to permanently upgrade our servers from VPS to dedicated to handle future spikes.

I STILL WONDER WHY ALL THE TIME

800 words later, I’m coming to terms with my guilt because I realize I can’t help everybody.  Perhaps it’s due to my travels abroad that I’m so conflicted and think about poverty and inequality constantly.  Why are some people born with nothing, while others are born with everything?  How does someone born with less compete effectively against someone born with every advantage?  The answer I believe is through education.  Education is what allows us to make better life choices.  Education opens doors to new opportunities and provides a perpetual gift back to humanity.  Education is what sets us free.

The only thing I can control is making the Yakezie Scholarship as smooth and meritocratic as possible.  I’m trying hard every single day to make this opportunity work.  Inevitably there will be kinks along the way.  Sometimes, I wonder whether it’s easier to just give up.  I could free up 10+ hours a week, reduce my stress and not have to feel so bad about trying to do some good.  But then again, where’s the challenge in that?

Best,

Sam

Readers, do you ever feel guilty about how good you have it?  Does your guilt ever consume you so much that it becomes debilitating?  Do you ever wonder why some are so fortunate and others are not?

One of my old friends, Peter mentioned the other day that he got engaged.  He’s 37 and she’s 28.  They met about 4 years ago at a bar when he was somewhat inebriated but immediately hit it off.

Peter isn’t exactly the most studly looking guy standing at 5′ 7″ with a belly hanging over his belt, but he’s kind.  They are two months into their engagement and don’t plan to get married until next summer.  All was going well until one night, Peter’s fiance Nancy inquired about when she could upgrade her engagement ring!

YOUNG EXPECTATIONS

Can you believe it?  After only two months of being engaged, and not even married, Nancy has already asked for an upgrade.  Nancy is 5 feet 2 inches tall with a size 4 wedding finger.  My pinky finger is bigger than that!  Peter got her a beautiful 1.2 carat, princess cut diamond, G color, VS1 clarity with a platinum band.  Cost?  A cool 10 Gs.  Not bad if you ask me, especially on a woman her size where the rock looks closer to 2 carats.

Peter isn’t particularly wealthy, but he is older and owns a nice $850,000 condo in a prime part of San Francisco.  Surprisingly, Peter said he shrugged off her question and responded, “Sure honey, you can have whatever you want!”

What a wuss is all I could think.  I punched some sense into Peter and asked what he was smoking.  Peter later mentioned that while he was saying “whatever you want“, he was also thinking “whatever you want in 20 years baby!“  That’s my boy Peter!

I really wonder about this Nancy girl.  She’s not rich herself making roughly $48,000 a year as an aerobics instructor at a private club.  1.2 carats is certainly big enough for almost every single woman I know on the planet.  I just want to tell Peter to dump the girl and get his ring back because any girl this high maintenance and ungrateful so early is sure as hell going to be super high maintenance once she’s married!

CAN LOVE BE CONQUERED?

Peter is in love though, and who am I to judge?  He just laughs me off and makes excuses for Nancy saying she’s young and is just “playing around”.  I’m seeing gigantic warning signs as Peter is still struck by his luck that a pretty 20-something year old would fall for a older guy like him.  Peter thought for sure that he’d always stay single if he didn’t find someone after his 35th birthday.  As a result, Nancy is literally like a gift from the heavens!

Readers, what would you do if you were me?

Am I being overly dramatic for thinking that Nancy is one stuck up, high maintenance woman who is going to ruin Peter’s life down the road?

Is there ever a right time to ask for an engagement ring upgrade?

Regards,

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

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!  At least look for some flowers using Proflowers coupon code!

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!

For all the single folks out there, this weekend is your opportunity to slap Valentines in the face!  Yes, you might feel a little queasy when you see couples holding hands and nuzzling each other’s noses.  You might want to stay inside and read a book or some Financial Samurai so you don’t have to experience mushy love.  But, that queasy feeling is precisely why other than New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Eve is the best time to find someone!

Today is the day to call your single girlfriends and make plans for Saturday night.  Valentine’s Eve is the one night where wise, love-seeking, men go out and hope to meet like-minded women.   Careful about roaming SMB’s though.  They might be out just looking to have some fun before the big day!

“HIDE AND SEEK”

I used to be sad during Valentine’s weekend when I was single.  It’s like celebrating Thanksgiving by yourself with no family.  However, like the ambulance story mentions, you can shift the way you think and focus on the positives.  Before going out this weekend, watch this video by Imogen Heap.  It’s a sad song that talks about love’s heartbreak and the search for something or someone new.  Get a little depressed, then realize you’re free and you have the power to seek happiness. This weekend could be the first weekend of the rest of your life!

Dearest readers, what are your plans for this weekend?  Do you plan to spend more money than normal on your honey?  What’s wrong with having fun during Valentine’s Day?  If you are single, are you going to go tear up the town and put yourself out there, not afraid of rejection?

Regards,

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

Author: Phil Villarreal was a syndicated film critic (one of the best jobs on earth) and is a general reporter for the Arizona Daily Star.  Phil contributes to OK! Magazine and blogs at becauseitoldyouso.com.

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.  244 pages in soft cover.  $12.95.

Summary: “Secrets of A Stingy Scoundrel” is a hilarious book that has been reviewed by many personal finance sites already.  Hence, I’ll take a slightly different approach.

First of all, Phil is one proud cheapo who is potentially helping millions of Americans (if they buy his book) save thousands of dollars a year.  Second of all, the breadth of stinginess is impressive, with nine chapters: Personal, Eating, Relationships, Household, Finance, Leisure & Entertainment, At The Workplace, Corporate Cataclysm, and Gross, Mean and Just Plain Wrong.

My favorite chapters are Relationships and Gross, Mean, and Just Plain Wrong.  Interestingly, the Relationship portion only has 3 tips vs. 30 tips in Gross.  Why is this Phil?  I think the main reason for the brevity is because Phil doesn’t want to totally ostracize the female reader and get the feminist movement on him!  Phil is also married, and I can see his wife shaking her head in disapproval with every tip he writes.

Come on Phil, you and I know there are at least 10 ways to really save money in a relationship!  You know, like forgetting your credit card, making a b-line to the restroom due to food poisoning, and asking the parents to pay for the wedding.  But wait, I think you touched on some of those already!  Can I be your guest contributor in your next book?  The titles of the three relationship tips are: Yay WNBA, The Dutch Are A Wise And Just People, Art Of The Well-Timed Fight/Breakup.

The Gross and Mean chapter is simply vicious. We’re talking “stealing” the bartenders tips, pretending you’re a clairvoyant on Craigslist, and never getting married (which should be in the relationships chapter!).  The chapter is full of ethical dilemmas which can be argued either way.  Maybe that’s the secret of saving a ton of money?  If you can consciously never tip the pizza man or your waiter, you’ll save 15-20% of your annual eating out expense.  In my case, that’s around $6,000 X 17% = $1,020 a year in savings!

CONCLUSION

Secrets Of A Stingy Scoundrel is a finance and humor book wrapped up into one.  I’m pretty sure we’ve done many of the things in his book already.  I remember when I was a kid, I’d go to 7-11 and fill my entire Big Gulp Slurpee cup with candy and then add in the slush!  I was poor, so don’t hate.  The book is a fantastic gift to friends, offering 100 “practical” ways to save money.  If I got this gift for my birthday or Christmas, I’d be pumped!

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES – 2 Books, Feb 6 Deadline:

* Share with us your one ethically challenged money saving tip.

* Sing up for our RSS or E-mail feedback and comment that you’ve done so.

* Tweet this post and follow on Twitter.

To Buy Click: Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel: 100 Dirty Little Money-Grubbing Secrets

Keiju,

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

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

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

A good way to decide is to take emotion out of the equation and just use a simple ratio. If the expected increase in monthly cash flow is less than 10% of your monthly net cash flow, forget about it!  The extra money isn’t going to make a difference in your lifestyle, but that extra nut at the end of the year will.  Turn it around, most financial advisers recommend saving at least 10% of your yearly gross income towards retirement.  For a small fee, the government is helping you get to that goal.

If you really want to know whether you’ll be able to save your extra monthly income, buy a bag of your favorite cookies.  Place them on your bedside table every night for 1 week, and see if you can avoid eating them.  Now imagine a bag of cookies appearing every 2 weeks or every month for an entire year.  Let me know how it goes!

All year long you condition yourself to live on less.  Come year-end, you’ll be happy you did!

Readers, what do you think the average person should do?  What’s the biggest refund you’ve ever got, and were you happy?

Keiju,

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

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