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Why I Wrote A New Personal Finance Book: Buy This, Not That

Updated: 07/01/2022 by Financial Samurai 61 Comments

After two years of writing and editing during the pandemic, my book, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom is done! It comes out on July 19, 2022, in stores everywhere.

After spending a combined 30+ years working in finance, studying finance, and writing about finance, I firmly believe Buy This, Not That (BTNT) will be one of the best personal finance books out there. It is the book I’ve always wanted to write to help readers everywhere live better lives on their terms.

During the course of my writing process, I also read over a dozen nonfiction books to understand what makes good books great and some books not so great. I then worked in my ideas with my editors at Portfolio Penguin Random House to make the book shine.

Money is too important to be left up to pontification. As a result, everything I’ve written in the book is based on firsthand experience. This way, I can share with you the good and the bad to help you make better decisions.

The secret to stop saying, “If I knew then what I know now,” is to simply learn from someone who has been through what you will go through.

I’ve also set up financial frameworks to help guide you on your path to financial freedom. Think of BTNT as your financial coach who gives you the confidence to face life’s biggest dilemmas in a smart and practical manner.

Pre-order a hardcover copy of Buy This, Not That by clicking one of the retailers below to ensure delivery on the release date.

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Financial Independence Is Only Part Of The Journey

Once you get your money right, you can start better focusing on things that really matter to you. After all, money is only a means to an end. And for those of you who treat money as the end all be all, I hope my book will help change your philosophy.

Once you achieve a certain level of financial independence, where your passive investment income covers your living expenses, the world opens up.

The ultimate goal is to move money into the background so you can stop obsessing over it and start focusing on doing things that matter.

I show you how in the first half of my book. With actionable advice under a logical framework, I help you move forward with confidence.

Solving Dilemmas We May One Day Encounter

In the second half of my book, I talk about many of life’s dilemmas and how to approach them using my 70/30 decision-making framework.

If you believe there is a 70% probability or greater you will make the correct decision, go for it! At the same time, have the awareness of knowing you may get things wrong 30% of the time. Unless the outcome is death or financial ruin, you will be able to learn from your mistakes, recover, and make better choices over time.

My book encourages you to think in probabilities, not absolutes. If you think in absolutes, you will likely miss out on a lot of great opportunities because you’ll feel you need 100% certainty before moving forward. However, if you start thinking in probabilities, plenty of new possibilities opens up.

Here are some dilemmas the book explores:

  • Pay for private school or public school
  • Join a startup or work for an established company
  • Start a lifestyle business or go for the grand slam
  • Job hop or stay a loyal soldier
  • Live in an expensive coastal city or move to a low-cost area 
  • Invest in real estate or stocks
  • When to rent or buy
  • When to invest in tax-advantaged versus taxable accounts
  • Angel invest or don’t
  • Buy a fixer or a fully remodeled home
  • Marry or cohabitate
  • Marry for love or marry for money
  • Have children early or late
  • Return to work or be a stay-at-home-parent
  • Combine your finances or keep separate accounts
  • Get a divorce or stay married
  • Seek fame to boost your wealth or stay low key
  • Support your adult children or let them learn to swim

And so many more topics.

Again, money is just one part of the equation. It’s how we use our money to make better choices that matters most. If any of these topics interest you, Buy This, Not That will help you minimize regret and maximize satisfaction.

Why I Wrote Buy This, Not That

I wasn’t planning on writing a traditionally published book. As a tired father of two young children who also publishes three-to-four times a week on Financial Samurai, I already had my hands full. However, when Noah, an editor at Portfolio Penguin approached me on December 2, 2019, about the idea, I was intrigued.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I thought why not! If I was going to be stuck at home anyway for who knew how long, I might as well make the most of a suboptimal situation. Besides, such a challenge doesn’t come around too often.

Back in 2008, something similar happened. The global financial crisis was starting to deepen and I was losing a boatload of money. However, it was in the summer of 2008 that I finally decided to propose to my girlfriend of nine years. I knew that even if I lost all my money, I didn’t want to lose her.

Now, every time I think back to the global financial crisis, I immediately think about our small beach wedding, not the economic calamity during that time period. By writing Buy This, Not That during a pandemic, I’ll look back and feel good knowing I did something productive to help others.

Here are some more reasons why I wrote my latest book.

1) It Had To Be Written

Buy This Not That Book Best Seller On Amazon

One of the reasons why I started Financial Samurai in 2009 is because I noticed there weren’t any personal finance bloggers with finance backgrounds. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to fill this obvious hole. I thought about money a little differently and wanted to bring my expertise and perspectives to the world.

When I was approached by Portfolio Penguin Random House with the book idea, I noticed there also weren’t many nonfiction finance books that were written by people with finance backgrounds. Therefore, I figured I might as well fill the hole again!

After being able to escape corporate America at 34 and live the life I want for the past 10 years, I just had to write a book that could help other people potentially do something similar. Once you see how something is done, it’s much easier to believe a similar path is possible for you.

2) The Importance Of Financial Education

There’s a whole world of consumers out there who love to read books and not blogs. Therefore, it was only logical to write Buy This, Not That to try and reach them.

Creating maximum impact in an affordable way is important. I could create $2,000+ e-courses like some of my peers do. However, I felt packing in all the information in a book that costs $27 or less was a more accessible solution.

After 13 years of writing on Financial Samurai, I’ve also gathered a wealth of different perspectives from over 90 million visitors. These perspectives have helped me make better decisions and be a more empathetic person along the way. Buy This, Not That includes many blindspots I’ve had to potentially help others see things more clearly.

The world is in need of more financial education. A personal finance course should be mandatory in high school or college, but it is curiously not. I live in this bubble where I studied economics in college, got my MBA, worked in investment banking for 13 years, and have written over 2,500 personal finance articles since 2009.

The things that seem obvious to me or others with finance backgrounds don’t seem as obvious to those without financial backgrounds. Therefore, my goal is to bring more financial education to those who seek to grow their wealth in a risk-appropriate way. It’s our duty to share what we know.

3) Narrow The Growing Inequality Gap

Since the global financial crisis in 2008-2009, the rich have gotten extraordinarily rich compared to the middle class. Meanwhile, those in the top 0.1%, have blown past the top 1% as well. I want to bring their secrets and ways of investing and thinking to the public in order to help more people build wealth.

While writing Buy This, Not That I also had an epiphany as to why so many personal finance authors write mainly only about saving money, budgeting, and index funds. I kept wondering why not also write about more interesting and potentially lucrative topics? After all, you can only save so much. But income and investment returns are unlimited!

After over a year of writing and re-writing my book, I finally understood why. Without a finance background, writing about anything else is much more difficult. Hence, I’ve tried to introduce helpful financial concepts while also making them easy to understand.

My hope is with the knowledge you will gain from reading Buy This, Not That, you will build way more wealth in your lifetime than you thought possible. And if this happens, your standard of living will go up and the growing inequality gap will ultimately narrow.

Why I Wrote A New Personal Finance Book: Buy This, Not That - net worth levels by class

4) New Perspectives With More Representation

As an Asian person who lived in Asia for 13 years, I used to be part of the majority. Then when I came to Virginia for high school and college, I became part of a minority that made up only six percent of the U.S. population. The juxtaposition was eye-opening.

At times, it was hard to fit in. I got into fistfights, was suspended once, and felt like I was often battling to be given an equal opportunity to participate. Although some of the experiences were harsh, they also gave me tremendous motivation to try harder.

By high school, I clearly realized the world isn’t fair and never will be. Therefore, instead of complaining, I accepted the way things were and focused on what I could control. I bring this fighter’s mindset to the book to give you the motivation to push on through no matter who you are or how difficult your struggles. Think of BTNT as your competitive advantage to getting ahead.

We know people are biased towards people who look, think, and talk like them. It’s why podcast interviewees, award-winners, bestsellers, and families who attend elite schools tend to be quite homogenous.

Therefore, I thought it would be nice to change things up a little and provide new perspectives. Maybe there will be more love and understanding for Asian folks in America if they read a good book by an Asian person who helps them. Perhaps kids who seldom see anybody who look like them will be inspired to write their own book or do something out of the ordinary.

Including People Who Live In High Cost Areas

In addition, a large percentage of every country’s population lives in more expensive urban cities. High cost of living areas presents some unique challenges which I address in the book.

With how bifurcated America is, I’m hoping to create an understanding bridge between those who live on the expensive coasts and those who live inland. Ultimately, we all have the same goals of supporting our country and doing more of what we want.

I’m convinced most conflict in this world is due to a lack of understanding of other people and their personal situations. Let’s spend more time getting to know each other and less time judging people for their choices.

5) Steady Navigation Through Bad Times

As someone who has worked in finance since 1999, I’ve gone through the euphoria and despair of the first Dotcom bubble. Then I went through the investment mania of 2007 and the devastation a few years later with a significant amount of capital.

After each collapse, I’ve learned how to strengthen my finances so that no matter what happens, I’ll most likely be OK. I want to share what I’ve learned to help more people survive downturns without too much harm. Reading Buy This, Not That will help armor your finances and provide security for your household.

For so long, it’s only been good times. And you may have read only the perspectives of people who’ve only experienced good times since 2009. This can be very dangerous. Bad times will eventually come, which is when you’ll need financial guidance the most.

It is hard to understand your true risk tolerance and how bad things can get if you don’t go through a prolonged bear market yourself. Although the March 2020 crash was violent, it was also quick to rebound. Now things are once again very uncertain, which is where BTNT readers will outperform.

Buy This, Not That will help you navigate through stormy waters so that no matter how wretched the economy, you will not drown but thrive. Having peace of mind during difficult times is priceless.

Thank You For Reading Buy This, Not That!

I’m thrilled for y’all to read Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. I actually violated my publisher’s recommendation of keeping the word count to 80,000 words. Instead, I wrote about 111,000 words so I could add as much value as possible given nonfiction finance books are all priced about the same.

It is a big book full of vital information to help you enjoy a better life. There are so many important subjects that I believe you’ll actually be left wanting for a book two!

Buy This, Not That is meant to be read and discussed with friends and loved ones. You’ll have a great time debating my reasonings and making your own cases. I truly believe discussion and listening to the perspectives of others is the best way to learn and grow.

Pre-order a hardcover copy of Buy This, Not That by clicking one of the retailers below. As a thank you for placing a pre-order, you’ll get access to my behind-the-scenes interview as a free bonus. Simply fill out this form with the details of your pre-order purchase.

If you order 2 or more hard cover copies, I’ll send you a free signed bookplate as well. Please fill out this form after completing your purchase to submit your purchase details and mailing address.

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To Your Financial Freedom,

Sam

P.S. If you’re interested in bulk ordering (>30) for your book club, company, or organization, please e-mail sales AT financialsamurai DOT com. I will put you in touch with Penguin for a bulk order discount. Otherwise, Amazon provides those who pre-order the lowest price guaranteed based on whatever discount they offer from now until release.

So far I’ve video talks with folks at Google, Yelp, William & Mary, and several other organizations. If your organization would like to support my book and listen to a private talk, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment.

Real Estate Versus Blogging: Which Is A Better Investment?

Published: 06/18/2022 by Financial Samurai 96 Comments

Real Estate Versus Blogging Financial Samurai

As a blogger since 2009, I love blogging. As a real estate investor since 2003, I also love real estate. Therefore, I thought it would be smart to do a real estate versus blogging showdown! Exactly which is a better investment? They require different amounts of effort, capital, and skills.

In Stocks vs. Real Estate, I compare which asset class is best suited for which type of person. My preference is for real estate due to its tangibility, income, utility, and one’s ability to improve the asset class. Your physical real estate portfolio is unlikely to lose a ton of value overnight as with a stock portfolio.

With stocks, you are a minority shareholder with no say in the business and not utility gained. At least with real estate, you are the king or queen of your holdings. You make the decisions and get all the rewards and losses.

But what about real estate versus blogging? If you’re looking to build next-level wealth or are searching for new ways to make money from home, then choosing between real estate versus blogging is something to consider. After all, we’re all spending more time at home. Blogging could be the best work-from-home job there is!



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Travel Blogging: One Key To A Happier Retirement

Published: 05/09/2022 by Financial Samurai 18 Comments

While working in finance, I fantasized about travel blogging. I saw a bunch of people write about all the new places they visited. They chronicled the food they ate and the activities they did while making money online.

Given their niche was travel, they could also deduct their travel expenses from their online income. It was a sweet, sweet deal. As a result, I tried my hand at travel blogging for one year between 2012 – 2013. It was wonderful.



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Reflections On Making Money Online Since 2009

Updated: 05/10/2022 by Financial Samurai 24 Comments

Financial Samurai has technically been making money online since it started in July 2009. I think the site made $3 the second month the site was live. Whoo-hoo! Although I didn’t focus on making money online, the site began to generate revenue anyway. Do something you love and the money will follow right?

By the time 2012 rolled around, I figured with the combination of my passive investment income (~$80,000) and online revenue I’d be fine if I took a leap of faith. Besides, my wife promised to keep working for 2-3 more years until she turned 35 as well.

If you’re looking to make money online, become an entrepreneur, or grow your business, let me share some important lessons I’ve learned along the way. These points are salient for anybody looking to grow their career as well.



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The Easiest Way To Make Money From Home

Updated: 07/01/2022 by Financial Samurai 29 Comments

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 was supposed to be a welcome help in 2020. Then the virus came.



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Making Money Traditional Publishing A Book: The Pros And Cons

Updated: 06/12/2022 by Financial Samurai 37 Comments

Before the internet, traditional publishing a book was the main way to get your book out into the world. Today, many aspiring authors have decided to bypass the gate keepers and go the self-publishing route.

Traditional publishing means that your book is published by an established publishing house. The largest publishers are the “Big 4” publishers: Penguin Random House, Hachette Livre, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (acquired by PRH in 2020). However, there are about 15 more reputable publishers today.

By going the traditional publishing route, you will have a team of professionals take care of the book design, sales, marketing, editing, ghostwriting (optional), and various other processes of the publishing world.

There are lots of cooks in the traditional publishing kitchen. But the meal has a higher chance of tasting good in the end. Then again, how many big budget movies have you seen that were absolute bombs?

The other alternative is self-publishing. This requires you to do everything yourself. If not, you have to recruit people to help you create the book, market the book, and then sell the book.

Due to huge platforms like Amazon and Createspace, it is easier to distribute a book than ever before. However, selling a book is also more competitive than ever before. If you don’t sell your book on your own platform, you also cannot control the price.



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Why Blogging Is The Best Business In The World

Updated: 03/28/2022 by Financial Samurai 145 Comments

The global pandemic has taught us all that having a job you can work from home is huge. Although my son’s school was shutdown, I was able to keep working as a blogger on Financial Samurai. The fact that I could keep my business open made me an even bigger believer that blogging is the best business in the world.

A successful business is one that has high profit margins, a defensible revenue stream, can be scaled, and is hopefully fun to operate. Blogging fits all these categories.

Making money is all about identifying opportunity and doing everything possible to succeed until that window of opportunity closes. But most people are too afraid to take any major risks. Why should we when we have the luxury of employment to keep us comfortably numb.

Opportunities And Taking Risks

The two most common people who take risks are: 1) those who start with little or nothing, and who therefore have little or nothing to lose, and 2) those who come from rich families and who also don’t have anything to lose. When your name is William Henry Gates III, you’re not exactly going to starve on the streets if you drop out of college.

For those of us in the middle class, we only make a change once we’re agitated enough to take action. For me, I decided I had enough of banking after 13 years. The correlation between reward and performance broke down after the financial crisis.

After 12+ years of writing online and 13 years of researching every single industry for my job in finance, This post identifies reasons why blogging is the best business in the world.

Anybody can start. The internet, after all, will be a lifelong trend. If you’re ready to start right now, signup with Bluehost today. They have the best pricing and make it super easy to get started.



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The Best Time To Start A Business Is During A Downturn

Updated: 03/08/2022 by Financial Samurai 24 Comments

The best time to start a business is during a downturn. During a downturn, there is less competition, more creativity, and more hungry people looking to start something new.

The post, Lessons Learned Since The Financial Crisis, really brought me back to the time when Financial Samurai was started in the summer of 2009.

The Global Financial Crisis has so far been the biggest downturn of our lives. I had just lost 35% of my net worth in six months and scared that I might lose it all. As a result, my mind started to turn and I finally got motivated to start an online business I had put off since 2006!

In this post, I want to figure out why Financial Samurai has survived all these years. My theory is that launching during a downturn has a lot to do with it.

Have Always Wanted To Be An Entrepreneur

Since I was 12 years old, I wanted to be an entrepreneur because I witnessed the fabulous lifestyles of those who called the shots instead of those who took orders. I just didn’t know what to invent. Back in 1989, you actually had to create a physical product to make money.

My entrepreneurial dreams died down after getting a job in finance in 1999. Only after graduating from business school in 2006 did my desire to start a company reignite. I was emboldened to put all I had learned from my professors to good use. Otherwise, what was the point of going to business school in the first place?

But nothing happened in 2006, 2007, or 2008 because I was tired. After three years of working 60 hours a week while also spending 20 hours a week on business school related activities, all I wanted to do was take a break. It really felt like a vacation to only have to work 12 hour days after graduation!

Only until the world started falling apart in 2009 did I finally decide to launch Financial Samurai. It turns out, there were other companies that were founded during the depths of the recession too: Uber (2009), Airbnb (2008), Quora (2008), Kickstarter (2009), Whatsapp (2010) and many more.

Let me share some reasons why the best time to start a business is during a downturn.



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Blogging For A Living: How Much Can You Really Make Online?

Updated: 03/12/2022 by Financial Samurai 229 Comments

Ever wonder how much can you make blogging for a living? With more people looking to make money working from home, trying to make money blogging is a growing pursuit.

I’ve been blogging consistently since 2009. After more than 12 years, it’s been a long and awesome road. In this post, I want to share how much bloggers can really make and how they make their money.

It took me 20 years to build a investment portfolio that generates over $250,000 a year in passive and semi-passive income. It took only five years to build the same income blogging.

Blogging for a living is the real deal if you stay consistent, build a brand, write strategically, and grow your network. Schools still don’t teach people how to start a blog or make money blogging. So, let me share some of the secrets.

Reasons Why You Should Try Blogging For A Living

If you’ve ever thought about blogging for a living, now is the time. The global pandemic has proven that online businesses that can’t be shut down are very valuable.

No matter how tempting it is to sell your cash cow blog, don’t! You will regret it. The value of cash flow has gone way up because interest rates have come way down.

Here are the main reasons why you should try blogging for a living.

1) Low barriers to entry.

Depending on where and when you buy, you need $1 – $2M in capital to generate $50,000 in net operating income with property here in San Francisco. It takes at least $1M in capital to generate $20,000 a year in dividend income from the S&P 500 index.

With both asset classes, you can also lose principal. With blogging, it costs as little as $2.95/month to run a website and you can get a domain name for free. If things don’t work out, all you’ve lost is your time and a minimal amount of money.

2) Enormous demand curve.

Financial Samurai can theoretically reach three billion people online through search engines, word of mouth, organic promotion, and advertising. If that happens, I’ll be worth billions and I’ll take each of you out to a steak dinner!

However, in real estate, you can only lock in one set of tenants and raise the rent once a year.

In the stock market, you are a passive investor with no control over dividend payouts or other strategic management decisions.

With a retail store, you can only capture your neighborhood traffic. The internet is growing in usage and size every day.

If you can create a successful blog with consistent, quality content that people want to consume, the demand curve is enormous.

3) Operating leverage.

Because costs are generally fixed (hosting and domain registration), operating profits soar the more traffic and revenue you get. It’s not uncommon to earn 80%+ operating profit margins as a professional blogger, depending on how much you pay yourself. Very few businesses can compare.

Now that I’ve convinced you pro blogging is the best business on Earth, perhaps you’re interested in knowing how much you can actually make? Before we get to the money, let me first highlight the types of people most suitable for succeeding as a professional blogger.



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Don’t Join A Startup If You Want To Get Rich: Baremetrics Case Study

Updated: 08/12/2021 by Financial Samurai 36 Comments

When everybody seems to be getting rich but you, it’s a disconcerting feeling. However, after 20 years of living in San Francisco, the startup capital of the world, I say that if you want to get rich, don’t join a startup.

We always hear about hugely successful startups in the news. Names such as DoorDash and Airbnb are the flavors of the month. With monster post-IPO share price performance, thousands of new millionaires will flood the San Francisco Bay Area. However, we seldom hear about the failures or the zombie startups that end up treading water for years.

Most startups either fail or have a mediocre exit. As a result, the below-average salaries employees earn to join a startup in exchange for equity often ends up being a bad trade. Employee shares are either diluted away or early investors have a ratchet clause that make them worthless.

When a startup does get bought out, it is the founder or founders who usually walk away with something meaningful. Sizable payouts typically aren’t going to the employees who helped make the founders rich. Founders know this, and sadly, they often still don’t try to take care of their employees once they receive their liquidity event.

In my quest to prevent people from entering startup purgatory, here is a new case study of how the founder of Baremetrics, Josh Pigford, walked away with millions while his employees were left with peanuts.

Pigford was very transparent, which should help future startup employees make better employment decisions.



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