If you want to achieve financial independence, every investment we make serves one purpose: to buy back our time. Time is infinitely more valuable than any object, experience, or luxury. Given how short our lives are, we should use our money not just to accumulate more, but to buy freedom. Once you have freedom, you can […]
Practice Converting Annual Investment Returns Into Time Saved Read More »
Roughly 40% of my net worth is in real estate, my favorite asset class to build long term wealth for the average person. Real estate was my primary reason for being able to generate enough passive investment income to leave work in 2012. It has also been responsible for two of my largest capital gains
2026 Real Estate Outlook: Better Times Ahead For Investors Read More »
As a FIRE parents raising two children in San Francisco, we rely heavily on our investments to remain free. If we significantly misjudge returns, we increase the probability of having to go back to work. Going back to work is not the end of the world. Ideally, however, we would like to avoid it until
Investment Outlook For Public And Private Stocks In 2026 Read More »
By many objective measures, 2025 was a good year. Investment returns were solid. I published another bestseller in Millionaire Milestones. My kids are healthy, happy, and continuing to grow in loving environments. On paper, I should feel satisfied. But the reality is different. The downside of writing consistently, responding to hundreds of questions, managing the
New Year’s Resolutions 2026: Less Optimizing, More Living Read More »
I’ve been aggressively buying the dip since March 2020, when I wrote How To Predict A Stock Market Bottom Like Nostradamus. My daughter was born four months earlier, and something inside me clicked, pushing me to invest aggressively for her future in an increasingly difficult world. Since then, I’ve continued to buy virtually every meaningful dip
Be Careful Buying The Dip Too Often, Too Soon Read More »
Happy New Year 2026 everyone! With another year wrapped up, I thought I’d do a 2025 year in review so I can one day look back fondly as an old man. Overall, I give the year an A for effort, which is all I can really control. Unfortunately, the result didn’t match the effort, as
2025 Year In Review: A For Effort, B Minus For Results Read More »
In July 2009, I started Financial Samurai to make sense of the financial destruction unfolding at the time. I had been toying with the idea since 2006, when I graduated part time from UC Berkeley’s business school, but kept kicking the can down the road. After losing around 40 percent of my net worth in
The Best Of Financial Samurai 2025: Over 100 Million Readers Served Read More »
I’m back in Honolulu for the winter holidays, visiting my parents, and I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months. Especially after spending about $41,000 remodeling and furnishing a neglected two-bedroom in-law unit attached to their home. The goal was simple: test whether the in-law unit could comfortably house my wife, daughter, and son.
Almost Burned Down My Parent’s Home Twice In One Week Read More »
As I watched my kids tear through their Christmas presents, I felt an unexpected twinge of melancholy. I knew the thrill over that one toy they had wanted for so long would be fleeting. Soon enough, it would be replaced by the next obsession. Having kids has a way of pulling you backward in time,
Eliminated a Regret and Fulfilled a Childhood Dream for Free Read More »
Every year, as December rolls in and holiday lights start appearing on houses, a curious phenomenon shows up in the stock market: the Santa Claus rally. If you’re an investor, it’s the kind of quirky, seasonal pattern that’s worth understanding, both for context and for timing your year-end investment decisions. So what is it, exactly? The
Betting On The Santa Claus Rally To Finally Come Through Read More »
