Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

How To Convince People You Are Middle Class When You’re Actually Rich

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As the wealth gap continues to widen, it may be beneficial to learn how to convince people you are middle class when you’re actually rich. Otherwise, you might become target enemy number one when the revolution comes!

To get things out of the way, I feel rich. Not only do I feel rich, but I also have enough passive income to be time rich. Being time rich is my favorite form of wealth. After chronicling my journey to financial independence since 2009, there’s really nowhere for me to hide. Hopefully, people will give me some credit for all the years of hustle since graduating from college in 1999.

To avoid the guillotine, my hope is that consistently writing free content 3X a week to help everyone achieve financial independence will be appreciated. After all, I’ve got nothing to sell, except for a severance negotiation book, which many readers have said gave them the courage to change their lives for the better.

Even when many large media sites put up a paywall during a global pandemic, Financial Samurai stayed free. My goal has always been, no matter your level of wealth, to provide access to anybody looking to improve their personal finances.

Besides, as a minority, there should be more leniency as well when the uprising comes. It’s cool to be a minority nowadays. That is, unless Asians are considered not enough of a minority worth fighting for. In which case, please have mercy!



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The Easiest Way To Make Money From Home

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Let’s say the next black swan event isn’t a pandemic, but a zombie apocalypse. Or maybe World War III breaks out due to a fight for scarce resources. Clearly, instead of venturing out into the wild, we all need to find the easiest way to make money from home!

The pandemic has been a little strange for our family. Before all the lockdowns began, I had already decided to try and make more money online. My son turned two in 2019 and we faced a new expense: $1,950/month for preschool. The weight of $2,200/month healthcare premiums plus $1,950/month preschool tuition started cracking my back.

We wanted him to go to preschool to learn how to play with others. With an anticipated more difficult pregnancy with baby number two and another expected 3-6 months of sleepless nights postpartum, preschool would be a welcome help in 2020. Then the virus came.



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What If You Go To Harvard And End Up A Nobody?

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Harvard University consistently is ranked one of the top universities in the world. But what if you go to Harvard University and still end up a nobody? When I say nobody, I’m just talking about being an average person working an average job. Not someone still living in mom’s garage playing video games all day at age 40.

A happy life is all about managing expectations. If you matriculate at Harvard, whether for undergrad or graduate school, great things are expected of you. And if you don’t do great things, are you a disappointment? Many would say so.

Education has been on my mind a lot lately after my son got into preschool this fall. If he likes the school, it goes through the 8th grade. Is it worth spending tens of thousands a year for the next nine years? I’m not so sure!

In addition, I was a high school tennis coach for three years observing how the kids went through the pressure of trying to get into a good university. I sometimes wondered whether their grind was all worth it. Supposedly my high school is one of the best in the city, yet not every graduate goes to a university like Harvard. In fact, most attend regular schools any high schooler could have gotten into.



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Don’t Make Over $400,000 A Year: Look At How Goldman Analysts Suffer

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If you want to be happy, don’t make over $400,000 a year at your job. It usually requires long hours and lots of stress to make over $400,000 a year. Any envy about people making high incomes is often misplaced. Earning multiple six-figures doesn’t just come to you.

Further, if President Biden gets his way, he will eventually get around to raising the top federal marginal income tax rate to 39.7%. The combination of long hours, high stress, and higher taxes makes the grind not worth it.

I’m sure some of you who don’t make over $400,000 a year think you’ll happily go through a lot of suffering to make such an elevated income. My hope is that you actually do so you can realize making a top 1% income or even a top 0.1% income is not very fulfilling.

I’m also sure some of you who are currently making over $400,000 a year are happy with your current situation. I mean, who cares about finding love or spending time with your kids when you can make so much money! Zoom calls 8X a day for the win!

For the disbelievers out there who think it’s worthwhile to make $400,000+ from a day job, let me share some insightful feedback from a recent Goldman Sachs analyst survey about their well-being.



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The Value Of A Severance Package Has Gone Way Up: Take Advantage!

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It dawned on me a severance package can be valued like a risk asset (stocks, bonds, real estate etc). The value of a severance package can go up or down based on its projected income, your need for a financial buffer, and your ability to negotiate properly.

Enhanced federal unemployment benefits since the pandemic began have helped save millions of Americans from financial ruin. For those of you who are strategically looking to leave your job, enhanced federal unemployment benefits have also increased the value of a severance package. After all, unemployment benefits are a key income stream that come with a severance package.



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The Best Money-Making Solution After Being Rejected By A Company

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Have you just been rejected by a company you desperately wanted to join? Are you now feeling melancholy because your future isn’t going as planned? Don’t worry! I’ve got a money-making and heart-mending solution for you.

In Three White Tenants, One Asian Landlord, I wrote about my experience getting rejected by over 100 tech companies back in 2012. As part of the unemployment benefits process, I was required to apply to at least five companies a week.

Instead of trying to use what little connections I had in the tech industry, I just applied to jobs that sounded suitable online. Googling each company’s job openings and then applying directly on each company’s website was the most efficient way to go. But it wasn’t the most effective.

If I saw a job that sounded really good, I probably would have asked a friend at the company to help “move my resume along” or ask for a warm introduction. Alas, no job sounded that good. And I had no relevant connections. At the time, what I really wanted to do was take a break from the grind.

One thing to think about when using connections is this: if you get the job, you may always wonder whether you got it because of your connections or because of your abilities. This disconcerting feeling is why solopreneurship feels so good.

The Best Money-Making Solution After Being Rejected By A Company

Let’s say there’s a company you really want to join. You use the company’s product all the time and like their culture. You also think the company is going to be a fantastic stock performer.

Unfortunately, after going through a bunch of interviews, no offer is extended. The hiring manager decided to go with the person who looked like them and went to the same private school. No surprise! Instead of feeling completely dejected, there’s a better solution.

Invest in the company!

By investing in the company’s stock that rejected you, you turn the equation on its head.

As a partial owner of the company, the people who rejected you now technically work for you. The more of the company’s stock you buy, the greater they are working for you.

Of course, you won’t have the opportunity to invest in every company that rejects you. Some companies are private while other companies are organizations that don’t trade on a public stock exchange. However, when a public company rejects you, you have the opportunity to benefit.

Makes Perfect Sense To Invest In Your Rejector

If you think investing in the company that rejected you feels off, you simply aren’t thinking rationally. You’ve got to put your Financial Samurai helmet on and go to war!

Whether you know it or not, every time you accept a job offer, you’re placing a bet the company will be an outperformer.

After all, for most people, the greatest source of wealth is money they earn from work, not from their investments. The money can come from a salary, stock options, or restricted stock units.

If you’re willing to dedicate your life to a company, you better believe it has great potential! Otherwise, you have no business applying.

Therefore, it stands to reason that if a company rejects you, it must mean that you are not good enough for their company. And since you believe the company is awesome and you are awesome, the rejection means that the company must be even more awesome!

Look, we all believe we are competent, intelligent, and hard-working. However, there are different levels of excellence that we all can’t be a part of. Be careful suffering from Dunning-Kruger.

Therefore, the best way to benefit from other people’s excellence is to invest in a company you think is excellent. If a company rejects you, you should logically assume the company has the potential to become a winner because you’re a winner.

Whenever someone defeats me on the tennis court multiple times, I’m not going to irrationally think I’m better than him. Instead, I’m going to concede that I have work to do to catch up to his level.

Don’t let your pride get in the way of making money! Face reality.

Investing In Your Rejector Makes You Feel Good Too

So much about building wealth is having a strong money mindset. If you believe you deserve to be rich, you will likely do better than someone who wallows in the mire.

Think about all the CEOs out there with mega-million compensation packages who get mega-millions more in severance after they torpedo their companies into the ground!

After too many rejections, your mental health may take a beating. Not all of you will have the fortitude to keep forging on. But having grit is what helps differentiate the winners from the losers. Keep on fighting!

By investing in the company that rejected you, you get a psychological lift. The reason is because you get to benefit from their wins without having to do any of the work. And who doesn’t love to make money doing nothing?

Not only do you not have to do any of the work, you can also make yourself feel better by telling yourself their employees work for you. With such a mental lift after a rejection, you will then be emboldened to keep finding that perfect job fit.

Capital over labor for the win!

How Much Stock Should You Buy Of The Company That Rejected You?

The amount of stock you should buy depends on your net worth, risk-tolerance, cash flow, and level of desire. The greater the level, the more of the company’s stock you should buy.

Thanks to the elimination of stock trading commissions, you can now buy a small amount in a company without a commission drag. A $1,000 position may be enough to soothe your ego after a rejection.

However, based on my experience, once you start investing over $10,000 in a company, that’s when it starts to feel like you’re really benefitting. Every year that passes, if you still believe in the company, you can continue to invest another $10,000.

Another way to determine how much stock to buy in the company that rejected you is figuring out how much stock you would have gotten if they had accepted you.

For example, perhaps the company would have given you $120,000 in restricted stock units that vested over three years. Therefore, if you have the capital and conviction, you may want to buy $40,000 worth of stock in the first year and see how things go.

The potential compensation amount will be highly correlated to your existing compensation and net worth. Therefore, this method of buying the amount of stock you would have been given by year makes sense.

Investing Is A Great Equalizer

The more we put ourselves out there, the more we will get rejected. Don’t take things personally. Instead, use rejection as motivation to build greater wealth!

Even if true, once you start constantly thinking you got rejected because of your race, sex, age, weight, etc, you may end up down a deep rabbit hole. Your discontent may start ruining your overall attitude, making getting new opportunities even harder.

The great thing about investing in stocks, just like with real estate, is that it is also a permission-less activity. Therefore, if you feel wronged in any way, just invest in the company’s stock when possible.

If the company ends up winning, you do too without having to do any work. Of course if the company ends up crashing and burning, so do you, but not to as great an extent! Dedicating years of your life to a failure is no fun.

Get Rich Through Rejection

Over the years, I’ve bought stock in Netflix, Google, and Apple because none of them gave me an opportunity to work for them. Now, it really feels like their thousands of employees are working for my family.

Don’t let your lack of pedigree, connections, or appearance prevent you from participating in building great wealth yourself. Instead, use rejection as a way to get rich!

When someone tells you, “no,” immediately think, “not yet.” There is always a silver lining or a solution to your problems.

And in the meantime, do your best to also build your passive income streams. This way, you may one day never have to face a gatekeeper ever again.

Rejects of the world, UNITE!

The Best Money-Making Solution After Being Rejected By A Company
[Thanks to Netflix for rejecting me in 2012. However, you guys are sucking wind after a great 4Q2020. Please work harder to make more hits, win more subscribers, and raise profitability. Work 24/7 if you have to. My boy needs a new soccer ball!]

Related posts:

How To Make Six Figures At Almost Any Age

Examples Of Good Resumes That Good Jobs

Who Are The Top 0.1% Income Earners Making $1 Million A Year

Readers, anybody else like to buy stock in companies that reject them? Where is the flaw in this type of thinking and investing? What are examples do you have where you turned a rejection into a benefit?

How The Rich Get Richer: Strategies For Competing In A Rigged Game

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How the rich get richer: helping you compete in a rigged game

Let’s look at how the rich get richer. After all, half the battle is staying rich for multiple generations.

Making money is like playing a competitive sport. You train hard all your life for those moments on the battlefield where you win all the spoils or go home empty-handed. You console yourself after a loss for having tried your best, but eventually, you realize the game is rigged.

For the past 12 years, I’ve played USTA league tennis. It’s a great way to stay in shape, meet new folks, and keep the competitive juices firing. Everyone needs to balance mental activity with physical activity if they want to stay healthy.

For the past six years, minus one year off due to the birth of my son and one year off due to the pandemic, I’ve played at the 5.0 level. It’s a treacherous level filled with ex-college players and even ex-pros. Few have a beer gut and everyone has at least one weapon, be it a cannon serve or a heavy topspin forehand.



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Three White Tenants, One Asian Landlord: A Story About Opportunity

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I realized the other day that all my tenants are White. I’d never thought about my tenants’ racial makeup until I read an article by Washington Post journalist, Michelle Singletary, entitled, “The Legacy Of Slavery Made My Grandmother Fear Investing.”

Michelle writes how discriminatory policies of the past shaped the way her grandmother approached investing. Her series of articles provides an interesting personal perspective on why there is a racial income and wealth gap today.

Here are some passages from her article that stood out:

When my first employer introduced a 401(k) retirement plan, I sought advice from Big Mama. But she actively discouraged me from “gambling” in the stock market.

“That’s for White folks,” Big Mama said. “They can afford to lose money.”

“The legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, and the New Deal — as well as the limited funding and scope of anti-discrimination agencies — are some of the biggest contributors to inequality in America,” says a 2019 report by the Center for American Progress

So, yes, it’s going to take more than a financial workshop to overcome the anxiety my grandmother lived with all her life and passed on to me.

There was only one investment that Big Mama trusted: her home.

The last line about Big Mama trusting only one investment, her home, really resonated with me.

This article will share some of the following insights:

  • Why there are so many Asian landlords and small business owners
  • Why real estate and small businesses are so highly valued among many minorities
  • How the lack of equal opportunity changes behavior
  • Where the belief of not depending on anyone but yourself comes from


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How To Convince Your Spouse To Work Longer So You Can Retire Earlier

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How To Convince Your Spouse To Work Longer So You Can Retire Earlier

Want to retire earlier? Learn how to convince your spouse to work longer!

One can either work hard for their wealth, inherit their wealth, or marry into wealth. No way is the right way to get rich. Although the most honorable way is probably getting wealthy with your own two hands.

When I wrote the post, “Stay At Home Men Of The World, UNITE!“, I was being a little silly. The post was just a fun way of forecasting life as a stay at home man as I sought to build my online media business. Years later there’s still a huge bias against men who are stay at home dads or non-breadwinners.



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When Earning $1 Million A Year Isn’t Enough To Retire Early

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Is earning $1 million a year, a top 1% income, enough to retire early? Most would say yes. However, some people who earn $1 million a year having a hard time letting that money go.

After all, all you’ve got to do is work one more year and you will make another $1 million!

This article explores when earning $1 million a year isn’t enough to retire early. Many high-income households in big cities are having a difficult time escaping the rate race to do something new.

When Earning $1 Million A Year Isn’t Enough To Retire Early

We know that a $300,000/year household income is pretty middle class if you live in an expensive coastal city like San Francisco or Washington DC.

However, we can all agree that earning $1,000,000 a year or more makes you rich, especially since a top 1% income level starts at roughly $470,000 in 2021. No household earning $1,000,000 or more should ever struggle unless they leveraged up and their investments imploded.

If you make $1,000,000 a year or more, you’re free to celebrate. Just don’t tell anyone lest you want an ax-wielding robber waiting for you in your living room after an evening of fine dining.

Let’s explore the lifestyle of a typical household earning $1 million a year living in New York City. They’ve anonymously shared with me their expenses, and I’ve done my best to tell their story without sharing their exact details.

This post will give you a taste of what it’s like to make $1 million a year. You’ll also get to decide whether making a top 0.1% income is truly worth the price.



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