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How Millionaires Will Spend Their Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

Published: 04/14/2020 | Updated: 01/13/2021 by Financial Samurai 137 Comments

If you want another reason why having a high net worth is better than having a high income, all you’ve got to do is look at who gets stimulus checks from the new CARES Act. That’s right. There are millionaires getting coronavirus stimulus checks.

If your latest tax return shows an adjusted gross income of under $75,000 for single filers or $150,000 for joint filers, you get a $1,200 or $2,400 stimulus check. With each child, you get an additional $500. Once you make over $98,000 as an individual without children, and $198,000 as a couple without children, you no longer get any benefits.

To make between $75,000 – $150,000 a year in investment income at a 4% rate of return requires having a portfolio of $1,875,000 – $3,750,000. At a 3% rate of return or withdrawal rate requires having a portfolio of $2,500,000 – $5,000,000. Therefore, plenty of millionaires who are retired or semi-retired will be eligible for stimulus checks.

Yes, many of these people are the same millionaires who are also getting healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Even though the ACA is supposed to help make healthcare affordable to the middle class and poorest of Americans, I guess you can’t blame these millionaires for legitimately taking advantage of the system.

Based on all these benefits offered by the government, if you want to be a millionaire who lives the best lifestyle while also getting continuous maximum government benefits, then strive to have a net worth between $2,000,000 – $5,000,000.

Out of curiosity, I asked several millionaire stimulus check receivers about what they plan to do once the free money arrives. Here are their profiles and what they had to say.



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How Much Money Do The Top Income Earners Make?

Published: 04/12/2020 | Updated: 01/01/2021 by Financial Samurai 1,327 Comments

Ever wonder how much money do the top income earners make? When you know how much the top income earners make, then you can better shoot to be a top income earner yourself. After all, everything is relative when it comes to money.

Americans are rich by world standards. With an average GDP per capita income of ~$65,200, America consistently ranks in the Top 20 richest countries in the world. Many of the world’s top income earners live right here in our great country.

Other rich countries that have a higher GDP per capita than America include Liechtenstein ($139K), Qatar, Monaco, Macau, Luxembourg, Bermuda, Singapore, Isle of Man, Brunei, Ireland, Norway, Falkland Islands, UAB, S. Maarten, Kuwait, and Gibraltar. Countries with similar GDP per capita to America include Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia.

If at birth, you had the mental capacity to choose where you’d like to live for most of your life, living in a top 20 richest country will more than likely help you become a top income earner as well.

Even if you end up being the most mediocre producer, you are still miles ahead of much of the world. Too bad many of us can’t pick where we want to grow up and earn a living. As such, it’s nice to understand how we compare against the rest of the world to give us some perspective.

Let’s take a look at what the top income earners make in America.



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Want More Money? Ask Yourself This One Question

Published: 04/11/2020 | Updated: 09/20/2020 by Financial Samurai 26 Comments

Believe In Yourself, Squaw Valley
Once you believe, it’ll start raining money

If you want more money, one of the most important things is believing you deserve to have more money. There are trillions of dollars out there for the taking. Why shouldn’t you enjoy some of the world’s prosperity as an honest, diligent, and talented individual as well?

I began developing my money mindset after reading countless stories of CEOs earning millions of dollars while driving their companies into the ground. They would get massive multi-million dollar severance packages for crap work that even a baboon could do. As soon as I started believing in my worth, my confidence shot up and the money started coming in.

For example, IBM’s CEO got a $100,000 base pay raise to $1.6 million in 2015 along with a $3.6 million bonus in 2014, and a $13.3 million stock incentive reward payable in 2018. Meanwhile, IBM was down ~20% over the past two years while the S&P 500 was up 40% for 60% underperformance! 

For half the compensation, you and I could do just as good a job as the IBM CEO. I’m picking on IBM here because I bought the stock in my active portfolio. One day this dog will bark!

On a more common level, I’ve seen people who are utterly unqualified get hired for jobs making multiple six figures with multiple six figures in stock options. Every time I see such an event I’m thinking to myself a couple things. The first is, What the hell were they thinking?!

The second question is the subject of this post.



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Maximum Unemployment For Maximum Stock Market Returns

Published: 04/10/2020 | Updated: 05/09/2020 by Financial Samurai 43 Comments

Are you a little befuddled that with every record-breaking unemployment claim, the S&P 500 surges higher? After 6.6 million jobless claims on April 9, 2020 and even more the first week of May, the total number of jobless claims in 2020 stands at roughly 30 million or almost 20 percent of the working population.

With a once working American population of ~158 million, I’m now wondering how many Americans will have to file for unemployment before stocks stop rallying.

Is the inflection point at 50 million unemployed? Or how about 100 million unemployed? Whatever the case may be, the stock market continues to perform well into the unemployment crisis, the lockdowns, and the global pandemic.

Record-high unemployment claims

Nobody knows for sure, but what we do know is that stocks rally after dismal unemployment figures because investors expect the Fed and the Government will provide even more monetary and fiscal stimulus. The worse the numbers, up to a certain point, the more monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Given I’ve got plenty of extra time to think and write during the lockdown, I thought it might be interesting to see what life would be like under maximum unemployment of 70%. 30% of the American working population still needs to work in order to run the government, provide food, shelter, clothing, energy, and technology. So let’s just agree that 70% or 110 million people is the maximum unemployment level.

Given we already have 17 million registered for unemployment, at a rate of 6 million unemployment claims a week on average, we will get to 110 million unemployed in 16 weeks, or by July 30, 2020.

Similar to Governor Gavin Newsom’s bold proclamation on March 18, 2020, that 25.5 million Californians will get coronavirus by May 14, 2020, I will make the assumption that by July 30, 2020, 110 million Americans will find themselves unemployed if lockdowns extend until then. This is a possibility since the decision of how long we should shutdown is being made entirely by extremely wealthy people who are getting paid either way.

For those wondering, as of April 9, roughly 19,131 Californians or 0.07% of the Governor’s estimate have gotten the coronavirus. So with only 25.49 million more people to go, I guess presidential hopeful Gavin still could be right just like how I still have a shot at making the NBA.



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Living In An Expensive City Can Make You Richer, Happier, And More Diplomatic

Published: 04/07/2020 | Updated: 07/20/2020 by Financial Samurai 110 Comments

Chrysler Building, NYC

Living in an expensive city has been the main way for millions to get ahead for decades. After all, most of the high paying jobs are all in expensive cities, which is why they are expensive in the first place!

When asked about career advice, I always recommend people just follow the money. New York City has all the financial firms. San Francisco has all the tech, internet, and venture capital money. While Washington DC and the surrounding suburbs have all of our tax money to spend on massive government contracts!

I’ve lived in all three types of cities for extended periods of time. In my experience, I’ve seen massive fortunes made in multiple ways.

If you want to “get lucky,” then you might as well go where there’s the most opportunity in an expensive city. Because twiddling your thumbs in a dying town, complaining why you can’t get ahead doesn’t make sense. We live in a free country with no state border controls.



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Staying Unemployed: Why I’m Giving Up On Going Back To Work

Published: 04/03/2020 | Updated: 01/12/2021 by Financial Samurai 56 Comments

At the beginning of 2020, I was excited to start applying for jobs after my six-month paternity leave was over in June. After eight years of unemployment, I had done everything I wanted to do. Now with two kids, rising living expenses, and the possibility of a downturn, finding work would be the responsible thing to do.

My focus was on being a full-time dad to my daughter during her first six months after birth. Constant sleep deprivation is no fun. After six months, I planned to look for work in the tech, media, or finance space in the SF Bay Area.

Although I had anticipated a downturn, I thought I would have more time to prepare. Further, I did not foresee us purposefully shutting down our economy to combat an invisible common enemy.

The coronavirus has already negatively impacted our family so much. I was looking forward to working in an office for 12 hours a day and participating in happy hours with colleagues again. Alas, my dreams have been put on indefinite hold.



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Who Are The Top 1% Income Earners?

Published: 04/03/2020 | Updated: 01/04/2021 by Financial Samurai 256 Comments

Triangle Showing Top Earners

It’s normal to rage against the top 1% nowadays. With the coronavirus pandemic raging on, there is going to be a widening wealth chasm between the top 1% income earners and everyone else. If you happen to be doing well, I highly suggest you keep things under wraps.

With tens of millions of people unemployed due to forced economic lockdowns, there is a lot of uncertainty and unrest. The economy is in temporary ruin, yet the NASDAQ is at a new all-time high and the S&P 500 is not far behind.

Who Are The Top 1% Income Earners?

As a landlord since 2005, I’ve been able to screen many tenants over the years. During this process, I’ve discovered many people make top 1%-level incomes ($400,000 between 2005 – 2010 and $470,000 for 2020+).

For example, in my latest screening, I discovered the top 1% are a couple who met in law school at 25 and are now 28 year old 2nd year associates making over $450,000 combined.

The top 1% is also the 30-year-old Google software engineer from Caltech who brings in $500,000 a year, including RSUs, with over $300,000 in savings.

The top 1% is the 35-year-old cardiologist who is finally making over $480,000 a year after 11 years of post high school education and 3 years of residency work at $60,000 a year. By the time he’s 45, he will probably make over $800,000 dollars.

Where else can we find the top 1% income earners? Oh yeah, MBA grads who join Wall Street firms such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs at the standard $150,000 base salary and $35,000 sign-on bonus at age 29-30.

If they can last through the treacherous ups and downs of the markets, the multiple rounds of layoffs every year, the intense pressure of 60-80 hour work weeks, not to mention all the internal political land mines, they too will make over $400,000 a year by the time they are 35 year old second year Vice Presidents.

Let’s explore a little further who else makes top 1% money besides the usual suspects.



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How To Deal With A Micromanager Without Killing Yourself First

Published: 03/30/2020 | Updated: 01/12/2021 by Financial Samurai 116 Comments

How To Deal With A Micromanager Without Killing Yourself First

Micromanagers are the worst! There’s probably nothing more annoying for an experienced employee than to be micromanaged. I’m sure someone who is new to work finds being micromanaged just as annoying, but at least the boss has a good excuse. The novice could really mess things up without proper supervision.

Out of roughly 100 people I spoke to who were interested in leaving their jobs or had already left their jobs when conducting research for my book on negotiating a severance, roughly 70% of them said the main reason why they wanted to leave or did leave their jobs was because of a difficult boss. The boss was either unfair, unpleasant, uninspiring, or a micromanager.

When a boss micromanages an employee they effectively do three things:

1) Undermines

2) Demotivates

3) Creates self-doubt

In other words, micromanagers are horrendous bosses who will likely lose all of their employees over time.

One reader wrote in,

“Sam, I’m dying here! My firm recently hired this hotshot 30-year old MBA graduate who thinks he knows everything. He used to work in recruiting before getting his degree and this is his first job working for a tech firm. I’m 34 years old and have been working here for five years. Recently, he’s been on my ass about checking all my work, telling me how to do my work, and asking me every time I leave my desk for more than 30 minutes. I can’t even take a dump in peace out of fear he’ll start questioning my whereabouts! I’ve got way more experience than him, yet he gives me no respect. What do you recommend I do?!”

Meet him in the garage after work and deal with the situation like a man by kicking his ass! Was my initial thought. Anybody who shows no respect for their elders should be taught a lesson. But of course, we’re not living during the time of honor. We’re living in the time of “what have you done for me lately”.

I truly empathize with the reader because losing autonomy was one of the main reasons why I left my job. When you’ve got plenty of other means to make a living, working for a micromanager is NOT WORTH IT. But for those of you who have no way out yet, this post will discuss strategies on how to deal with micromanagers so you no longer have to feel miserable coming into work.



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Overcoming The “One More Year Syndrome” To Do Something New

Published: 03/25/2020 | Updated: 01/12/2021 by Financial Samurai 66 Comments

The “one more year syndrome” is a debilitating syndrome many people who want to retire face. Before you know it, the one more year syndrome might turn into five years or even 10 years of still working at the same place.

I faced a number of fears upon graduating from college:

1) Getting stuck in a terrible job

2) Not making enough to comfortably support a family of four

3) Not being able to financially help my parents if they needed assistance

4) Not leading a fulfilling life, and 5) Never realizing my potential

You could say I feared failure the most. Over time, my fear of failure was replaced with the fear of regret.

After ten years of working on Wall St., I started feeling comfortably numb in a job that paid a lucrative salary. Although my interest in the financial services business began to wane towards the end, I kept telling myself that all I had to do was gut it out for one more year to bank another six figure bonus.



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Follow The Money: A Look At The Best Paying Government Jobs

Published: 03/25/2020 | Updated: 11/03/2020 by Financial Samurai 86 Comments

This article looks at the best paying government jobs. Government jobs may not pay as well as private sector jobs, but the benefits and pension are very attractive.

In fact, due to a collapse in interest rates in 2020, the value of a pension has gone way up! It takes a lot more capital to generate the same amount of risk-adjusted income. Therefore, government jobs are even more valuable than ever before due to those pensions.

Before I get into the best paying jobs, I’d like to share a couple ridiculous articles about the government that will make you appreciate government jobs more.



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