Before making any big financial decision, always do a cost-benefit analysis. Focus on the costs more because most people are too mesmerized by the benefits. Great marketing and perennial optimism can lead to great disappointment.

In the post, The Second Biggest Financial Mistake You Can Ever Make, I made the argument to never expect your income to always go up. If you do, you run the risk of buying things you cannot comfortably afford.

The expectation of always getting paid more, despite a bear market, is odd to me. When I worked in finance, even if we performed well, we sometimes were paid down if the overall firm was doing poorly.

If you always feel entitled to more, this may be detrimental to your long-term wealth. With your back never against the wall, you won’t be motivated to find new ways to make money.

Let me share a passionate disagreement from a reader who is a lawyer. No matter the economic environment, he believes employees should always get paid more. It’s a great example about how two people can see capitalism differently.

I’ll then explain my decision to forgo $12,500 in MBA tuition reimbursement so long ago. I’m thankful for the reader’s feedback. Without it, this post would never have been written.

If you’re like me, chances are you are not part of the elite. Like 75% of college students, you may have gone to public school. For various lengths of time, you may have been underemployed or unemployed. Further, you definitely didn’t come from a rich family with prominent connections.

Despite not being one of the elites, life can still be pretty good. Personally, I enjoy being a nobody so I can more easily do as I please. When nobody is watching your every move, life feels totally free!

However, when the elites do go on strike, we should probably pay attention. Because no matter how hard the gatekeepers try to keep us shut out from the pinnacles of success, it’s always good to understand various points of view. Maybe then we can one day climb to the top of society’s ladder as well. If we can’t, maybe our children can.

Let’s explore what The New York Times strike means for the rest of us. I’ll also discuss whether we should redefine what it means to be an elite and whether the term really matters. No matter how much we have, we seem to always want more.

But first, let me share some background on my experience with The New York Times.

Despite the pandemic and a bear market making things difficult for so many, there is still so much to be thankful for.

We need to all be thankful for the luck we’ve had so far. Personally, I’m thankful for luck. The more we can recognize luck in our lives, the happier we will be.

I’ve been a super-optimist all my life and I plan to continue being one until the day I die…. a 100 years from now.

During this Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to re-share one extremely lucky event that occurred in my life. Without this lucky event, my life today would be totally different.

There are very few occupations that provide the ideal combination of riches and status. Being a professor is one of them.

Tenured professors are able to make six-figure incomes and earn valuable pensions. Getting a PhD or a post-doctorate is the pinnacle of academic achievement. Meanwhile, most people respect professors for their positive contributions to society.

After I retired from finance in 2012, I considered getting a PhD. Given I had enough passive income, I could afford to return to school for several years. With a PhD, I would then have the option of becoming a university professor.

Teaching is something I thoroughly enjoy doing, as hopefully evidenced by my writing on Financial Samurai. I’m always curious about new concepts and theories because the world is always changing.

Suing your employer as part of a mass layoff is probably not going to get you anywhere. Instead, you will likely end up wasting your time and money. In addition, you may also end up hurting your reputation and future employment prospects.

Even after 10+ years of being unemployed, hearing about mass layoffs is still jolting. It brings to the surface suppressed memories from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. In 2009 alone, I counted seven rounds of layoffs at my firm.

I tried to hire one of my closest friends at the time who just had a baby. Lehman Brothers laid him off with roughly $25,000 in unpaid corporate card expense reimbursements. Unfortunately, he didn’t make a good impression on my Aussie colleague so he never got hired. Mostly due to his pride, our relationship deteriorated after.

Ultimately, I survived the layoffs. Then in 2012, I asked to be included in the next round of layoffs so I could receive a severance package. In retrospect, getting laid off was one of the best things that could have happened to my life. But at the time, the decision was suspect.

As someone who wrote a book on how to negotiate a severance package, it always makes me happy to see public case studies. The latest case study is on the “golden parachutes” received by three ex-Twitter executives.

A golden parachute consists of substantial benefits given to top executives if the company is taken over by another firm, and the executives are terminated as a result of the merger or takeover. Common benefits may include stock options, cash bonuses, and generous severance pay.

If you receive a golden parachute, you’re more than happy to jump off a cliff or even out of a burning plane. You will land softly on your feet and feel like you won the biggest lottery ever!