Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

A Severance Negotiation Success Story For Parents Looking To Leave Work

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The #1 thing I recommend for anybody who aspires to retire early is to negotiate a severance. If you are planning on quitting anyway, there is no downside.

Every time I hear of someone quitting their job, I’m happy for them. But at the same time, I also liken it to a baby panda dying in the woods. Leaving so much potential money on the table is a travesty because of ignorance, fear of confrontation, or not knowing your worth. I want to change this.

I’m pleased to announce the 3rd edition of How To Engineer Your Layoff is now live! The book first went into production in 2012 after I engineered my own layoff from the finance world at age 34. Negotiating a severance package was my #1 enabler for retiring early.

Over the past six months, my wife and I have been diligently editing, updating, and adding to the book after our little one goes to bed. We’ve taken in all the feedback readers have provided since the 2nd edition was released in 2017 and made the book even better.

Here’s a summary of what’s new:

1) The third edition expands the ebook from 150 to over 180 pages. We’ve added three new chapters bringing the ebook’s total to 20 chapters. In addition, we’ve added a useful worksheet and checklist to go through to help guide you step-by-step through the severance negotiation process.

2) Thanks to continuous feedback from readers, we’ve been able to add new real-life case studies in the third edition to demonstrate just how beneficial it can be to negotiate a severance.

3) The third edition also brings in recent data, revised facts and figures, new charts and graphics, and an expanded featured posts section to help you learn more. We’ve also added helpful information on employment news, unemployment resources, market trends, and more.

To help celebrate the launch of the third edition, one of our readers, Mark, wanted to share his story of how negotiating a severance changed his family’s life for the better. His is a case study for working parents who want to be stay at home parents.

I’ve also created a $20 discount code “getlaidoff” until end of this month for anybody interested.



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How To Take Advantage Of Rich People So You Can Get Rich Too

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I’ll never forget what my contractor told me in the midst of my home remodel.

“After I’m done building your bathroom, I’m heading over to Pacific Heights and charging 2X more for a similar-sized bathroom,” he said.

“How is that possible when sheetrock, pipes, tiles, and fixtures all cost about the same?” I asked.

“Easy. Rich people don’t care. They have so much money that as long as I provide them good service, I can charge them whatever I want.” he said somewhat smugly.

“Good to know! Well, thanks for building my bathroom for the price we agreed upon. It’s looking great,” I replied.

I was going to tell him that if he did a good job building my master bathroom that he could then work on remodeling my condo in Pacific Heights. But after his comment, I decided not to!



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When People Doubt You, Just Keep On Winning

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When People Doubt You, Just Keep On Winning: Tips For Overcoming Your Doubters

After 10 years of grinding away, one of my friends sold his business for $73 million at age 32. It was a bootstrapped business, so he ended up getting over 80% of the gross proceeds. Can you imagine? Wow.

When I asked him what he did with his newfound riches, he said he took a month off to go surfing with his buddies. After he got his fill, he then started a new software business.

When I asked him why he decided to get back into the grind so quickly, he responded, “I want to see if I can go do it again to prove to everyone and to myself that it wasn’t a fluke.”

During my financial journey, I’ve met so many people who have done extraordinarily well, yet continue to work all day and night because they know they were extremely lucky to have achieved their success. By replicating their success they also eradicate their guilt.

Their work ethic and self-awareness are both inspiring and concerning. But I empathize with my friend because I have the same desire to prove my doubters wrong all the time. It’s in my DNA.



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The Best Life Hack For Americans: Taking Advantage Of Canada

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The Best Life Hack For Americans: Taking Advantage Of Canada

I’m always looking for arbitrage opportunities to help readers make more money and live better lives.

My favorite arbitrage opportunity for the next couple of decades is investing in non-coastal city real estate due to lower valuations and higher net rental yields. Technology is accelerating the flow of capital towards attractive real estate opportunities, and I want to get in front of that wave.

Recently, I found another multi-decade opportunity by looking north towards our friends in Canada. Despite the frigid weather for four months a year, Canadians have a lot going for them.

Their GDP per capita is a respectable $45,000. Few people go through medical bankruptcies because healthcare is heavily subsidized. Meanwhile, the average annual tuition for Canadian universities was only $6,571 for the 2018/2019 academic year.

Let me share how one Canadian friend is taking advantage of America and how we, in turn, can take advantage of Canada.



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How Uber Sold The False Dream Of Riches And Enriched Itself Instead

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How Uber Sold The False Dream Of Financial Freedom And Enriched Itself
My first tip

The sun was just starting to peek over the mountains so I pulled over to stretch my legs. It was 6 am.

I had only been driving for about an hour, but I had never come to this part of the Bay Area before. Right over the Golden Gate Bridge and down towards Stinson Beach I had dropped off a passenger.

Perhaps it was his “ride of shame” after a late night of partying? Or maybe he was going to some secret yoga studio retreat before the stock market opened at 6:30 am.

As an Uber driver, what my passengers did at unusual hours was always left up to the imagination.



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Conquering FOPA: The Fear Of Other People’s Approval

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Conquering FOPA: Fear Of Other People's Approval

Everybody has some degree of FOPA, or Fear of Other People’s Approval. We’ve become so accustomed to fitting society’s mold that we’ve stopped thinking and acting for ourselves.

But I argue that to truly make a difference and to truly live your best life, you’ve got to figure out a way to eliminate most of your FOPA. Once you do, you’ll be more comfortable taking on new challenges that may change the status quo.



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How To Get Your Spouse To Go Back To Work After Having A Baby

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How To Get Your Spouse To Go Back To Work After Having A Baby

I realized something quite surprising the other day.

Ever since my son was born, I’ve felt increased financial pressure to provide. It didn’t matter how much I had in the bank or how much our net worth had grown since the financial crisis, the pressure to earn more money was a constant.

It makes me wonder whether this type of pressure is simply hardwired into a parent’s brain in order to ensure the survival of our species.

When I asked my wife about whether she feels the same pressure to financially provide, she admitted she did not. After all, she has me.

Her pressure is to ensure that our boy gets cared for and loved as much as possible. As a father, I feel that same pressure, but probably not as intensely as she does.

We both agreed that we’d be stay at home parents at least until our boy was eligible for preschool at 2 years 5 months old. After he comes of age, we’d have the freedom to do whatever we wanted.

As the sole financial provider, one of the logical ideas I had was to go back to work. This way, we could earn more money, get subsidized healthcare, and let me assimilate back into the Borg after more than seven years of being away.

Going back to work isn’t my favorite idea because I dislike commuting, office politics, and being told what to do. However, it is a responsible option for my family.

Since we both believe in equality, I asked my wife whether it would be OK if she went back to work instead of me? After all, being a stay at home dad is easier once a child is weened.

My wife responded with a frowny face. She didn’t want to leave our boy and go back to work. She tried to allay my fears that everything would be alright. She told me we had enough passive income to support our frugal lifestyle.

I wasn’t quite convinced, so I came up with a plan.



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Increase The Value Of Your Professional Network By Befriending These Five Archetypes

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Increase The Value Of Your Professional Network By Befriending These Five Archetypes

For 10 years I acted as a mentor to incoming analysts or associates at one of the two investment banks I worked for.

Being a mentor was rewarding and a way to help younger folks navigate the often terrifying waters of a cutthroat work environment.

One of the main pieces of advice I gave was this: You should spend as much time selling yourself internally as you do externally. 50/50.

What I noticed during my career was that those who zoomed up the corporate ladder always seemed to have the strongest networks, regardless of whether or not they were the best producer.

The majority of people hate to network. They believe hard work is enough to get ahead. Unfortunately, from a career and financial perspective, networking is vital if you want to outperform.

There is no true meritocracy.



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Using Vacation Days Before A Severance Negotiation: BuzzFeed Case Study

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Using Vacation Days When Negotiating A Severance: BuzzFeed Case Study

BuzzFeed, a VC-backed news and entertainment website, recently announced it was laying off 15 percent of its workforce, or roughly 200 people.

BuzzFeed’s head of HR, Lenke Taylor noted that the company is giving all laid-off employees severance packages of a minimum 10 weeks pay.

Unfortunately, those employees who only get 10 weeks of severance pay are getting shortchanged by 20 days minimum. Let me explain.

Whenever there are impending mass layoffs with companies with over 50-100 employees, companies must file a WARN notification with the state.

A company doing a mass layoff must then pay the state’s required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act pay.

The WARN Act of 1988 is a US labor law which generally provides 60 calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees.

But in New York State, where BuzzFeed is headquartered, the WARN Act applies to private businesses with 50 or more full-time workers and requires companies to pay 90 days of WARN Act pay.

If you are a NYC worker getting 10 weeks of “severance,” that equals 70 days of pay. 90 days – 70 days = 20 missing WARN Act paydays. Yet so far, I’ve heard nobody fight for these missing days because few know the rules.

When an employee is laid off, generally what happens is that he or she doesn’t have to come back to the office again. The employee proceeds to receive his or her WARN Act pay based on a normal payroll schedule for the duration of the WARN Act pay.



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