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The Average Hours Worked Per Week Explains Why It’s Easy To Get Ahead

Published: 01/12/2022 by Financial Samurai 51 Comments

One of my most reviled posts is called, Do People Really Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less And Complain Why They Can’t Get Ahead? The post paints me as an unsympathetic person full of tough love. “Thank you sir! May I have another!”

I wrote the post back in 2011 when I was burning out from working in finance. Every week was a ~60-hour grind of doing the same thing I had been doing since 2009. Whenever I heard someone complain on the bus or online about their single-digit-hour workday, it irked me.

Oh, how I wished for a 9 AM to 5 PM workday. Instead, I was always expected to get in by 6:30 AM and stay connected until 9 PM because I needed to correspond with my colleagues in New York and Asia who were in different time zones. 

Wanting to go straight to the corner office without putting in the work is human nature. As an old man now, I empathize with those of you who want six-pack abs while eating donuts every day. Sign me up! Nevertheless, I encourage you to act more rationally if you want to get ahead.

There are extremely smart people out there who are also working extremely hard at their goals. If you’re of average intelligence, as I am, it’s very difficult to be successful by working normal hours.



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In Search Of The 2-Hour Work Day While Getting Paid Full-Time

Updated: 01/12/2022 by Financial Samurai 44 Comments

I’ve made the case the best time to work may be during a pandemic. With fewer things to do, you might as well spend more time making more money. Further, if you are able to work from home, you could actually figure out a way to work less and still get paid in full!

Since March 2020, I’ve talked to many tech friends about their work schedules. About 80 percent of them said they loved the flexibility of working from home because they had more freedom. They also said they were able to work fewer hours and get the same amount of work done. As a result, they could play more tennis during the day, catch a SF Giants matinee game, take long naps, and travel everywhere.

Hearing about their flexible work schedules made me really think about going back to work full-time. Our worlds were converging, therefore, I thought I might as well get paid. Besides, with two young children, having subsidized health care, paid time off, 401(k) matching, and a steady paycheck sounded good.

But my wife knocked some sense back into me by asking whether any of my tech friends had kids. None did. Therefore, the freedom my friends had working from home would be different from the freedom I was imagining.

I put my dreams of getting paid to do less aside until now.



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Are You A HENRY? High Earners, Not Rich Yet

Updated: 04/07/2022 by Financial Samurai 96 Comments

It occurred to me while writing my book that a good percentage of you are HENRYs. A HENRY is a “high earner, not yet rich” consumer who is on the path to financial freedom.

HENRYs mostly earn six-figure incomes who also save and invest aggressively. However, HENRYs often don’t feel rich compared to others. As a result, HENRYs are often a little anxious about their current status in society.

Nobody really feels sorry for HENRYs given their plentiful opportunities to make a fortune. Perhaps the only thing keeping a HENRY from achieving their lucrative destiny is grit.



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Why The Smartest Countries Are Not The Happiest

Updated: 04/14/2022 by Financial Samurai 36 Comments

Being smart is generally a good thing. You can use your smarts to make more money and do more things with ease. However, what if you live in one of the smartest countries in the world. Can your smartness shine through when many of your peers are equally as intelligent?

Or what if you live in one of the happiest countries in the world. If you’re not always happy, will you feel like there’s something wrong with you? Surely, there are some unhappy people living in Norway and Sweden, two countries that consistently rank in the top 5 happiest countries in the world.



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Investment Returns Versus Active Income: When Work No Longer Matters

Updated: 03/22/2022 by Financial Samurai 97 Comments

At some stage in your investing journey, you may experience a situation where your investment returns surpass your active income (non-investment income). The first time this happens, you may feel excited as you imagine the possibilities. But you likely won’t quit your job just in case it was a fluke.

However, after several years of your investment returns surpassing your active income, you will develop a lot more courage to do something new.

Perhaps you might finally ask for that well-deserved sabbatical without fear of your year-end bonus getting slashed. Or maybe you’ll have the guts to start severance negotiation talks so you can pursue a new career.

The power of compound annual returns is why you should save aggressively and invest for the long term. It is also why you need to think twice about splurging on big-ticket items like a car you don’t really need.

That $40,000 car you bought 10 years ago would be worth around $150,000 today if it was invested in the S&P 500.



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Ask People What They Do, They Might Surprise You

Updated: 02/11/2022 by Financial Samurai 44 Comments

When you’re working, one of the most common questions to ask new people you meet is what they do. Before the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, I happily said I worked in banking. A big part of my identity was where I worked for 60+ hours a week.

After leaving finance in 2012, I noticed I gradually lost interest in what people did for a living. Part of the reason was that I didn’t want anybody to ask me what I did for a living. I lost all my status.

During social settings, the last thing I wanted to do was think or talk about money. Therefore, I kept Financial Samurai and my old career mum. I knew others felt the same, so I never delved deeper into their professions, even if they volunteered.

The final reason why I stopped asking people what they did was that I often came away disinterested with their responses. Here in San Francisco, many people work in tech, finance, or law. If you’re not working in a well-paying profession, then you might be working at a startup that could make you rich.

There are some very fine people working in these professions. However, I just wanted to leave this type-A world behind, especially while I was in a social setting that had nothing to do with work. Unfortunately, my lack of interest in what people do cost me a deeper friendship.



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The Best Time To Work May Be During Or After A Pandemic

Updated: 01/12/2022 by Financial Samurai 56 Comments

Although there is a growing apathy towards work given some people’s investment returns are beating their work income, the best time to work might be right now.

One of the biggest things I disliked about work was having to commute. Now that my son is back in preschool, I have to leave the house by 8:30 am to drop him off no later than 9 am. Then I’ve got to pick him up by 3:45 pm, otherwise, we’ll be charged a late fee.

Driving 15-20 minutes each way is not that big of a deal. It’s just something I haven’t done since 2012. It’s more the obligation of having to be somewhere at a certain time that takes getting used to again.

Commuting Monday through Friday puts me back in work mode. I turn on my favorite podcasts, play them on 1.5X speed, and away I go. Invariably, there will be something that happens during my rush-hour commute that increases stress.

Therefore, perhaps I should get a job if I’m already going to experience the mundanity of the daily commute for the next 14 years. At least this way, my commute will feel more productive.

If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent for several years, thinking of coming out of early retirement, or disgruntled with your current job, this post is for you.



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A Pathetic Sabbatical: Workaholism Is Difficult To Overcome

Published: 08/27/2021 by Financial Samurai 28 Comments

And just like that, my two-month sabbatical is over. Did you miss me? Of course not! I continued to publish three posts a week and send out one newsletter a week like an addict.

There was only a one-week period where I felt like I truly took things down a notch. Our family went up to Sonoma where we enjoyed swimming in the pool every day. I also took my kids to Train Town twice, which was a whole lot of fun.

However, after our trip was over, it was back to life as usual. I had to give up several business deals to try and recuperate. However, two months later, I don’t feel very rested at all!



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Overcoming The Downer Of No Longer Making Maximum Money

Updated: 02/07/2022 by Financial Samurai 56 Comments

Do you know what is really hard? Deciding to walk away from a whole lot of money in your prime. If you decide to retire early or take a lower-paying job out of joy, you must accept the death of your maximum money potential.

At age 34, I was making a base salary of $250,000. Come year-end, my bonus would range between $0 to $500,000. Instead of suffering from the one more year syndrome for one more year, I decided to quit the money by negotiating a severance instead.

If I hadn’t left my job and averaged a realistic $500,000 a year in total compensation since 2012, I would have made $4.5 million by now. And if I had gotten regular raises and promotions, maybe I would have made more than $7 million after nine years. Damn, perhaps I should have stayed in finance after all!

The more you make, the harder it is to walk away. I told myself back then that if I didn’t leave, I probably never would break free from the golden handcuffs. Many people who dislike working in finance, management consulting, and big tech after a while have this same problem. It’s hard to drop your maximum money potential.

However, if you’re unhappy with your current situation, you must find a solution to overcome the desire for more money.

Some call this desire greed. But greed is not the right term if you’re still trying to build your financial nut. You’re only greedy if you have enough but still work like mad doing something you don’t like or that has no benefit to society.



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Preparing For A Sabbatical: What To Do While On Break From Work

Updated: 05/13/2022 by Financial Samurai 22 Comments

One of my biggest regrets while working was not taking a sabbatical. If I had taken a one-to-three-month sabbatical, I probably wouldn’t have left finance at age 34. Instead, I probably could have kept grinding until age 40 and made a lot more money.

Alas, I was too afraid to take a sabbatical because nobody else did. Everybody was afraid that if they took a sabbatical, their year-end bonus would be slashed. Further, all my colleagues, including myself, were hungry to climb the corporate ladder.

It was a shame not to have a sabbatical culture, even though our employee handbook clearly stated we could take one every five years. If there had been one, I’m sure employees would be much happier and employee turnover would have been significantly lower.

Thankfully, I’m my own boss now. The main pressure I feel is mostly self-induced.

In my Pre-Retirement Checklist For Post-Pandemic Life, I set June 15 as the date to start taking things down a notch in preparation for a sabbatical. Then I ended up taking a two-month sabbatical and now I’m back.



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