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Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

Fixing Our Absent-Minded And Forgetful Selves

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Fixing Our Absent-Minded And Forgetful Selves

Have you ever had a period of time where all you did was lose and forget everything? Being absent-minded is tough. For the past four months, I’ve been wondering whether I’m in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease or something of that nature. It makes me worried. Wait, what was I saying again?

Just the other day, I brought my tennis bag to work so I could go directly to the club and meet a client. When I opened the bag in the locker room, there were no shorts, only sweat pants.  Not ideal in this mini-70 degree heat wave we’re having, but doable.  As I rummaged through my bag further, I discovered I had no shoes either!  No wonder why my bag was so light, I thought to myself in retrospect.

Walking out of the locker room and to the front desk, I asked Peter whether they had any demo shoes or left-overs. Unfortunately there were none, and as I waited for Peter to feign a thorough search, I could see my client stretching on the court waiting for me.  Drat, no time to go home and fetch.  Instead, I ponied up $90 bucks and bought a brand new pair of tennis shoes right there, even though I literally have five pairs at home!



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The Fittest People May Have The Lowest Self-Esteem

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I’m focused with physical fitness right now. As a father of two kids, I want to be fit enough to play with them and live long enough to see them become independent adults. Further, COVID-19 has shown to attack people not in ideal shape. However, I do wonder whether being obsessed about fitness is healthy. Could the fittest people actually have the lowest self-esteem?

Just yesterday I thought, “What’s the point of being thin if I don’t have four pack abs?” And then I started thinking what kind of person thinks about these types of questions?  Unless you are a swim model, it’s pretty unproductive and pointless if you ask me.

I’ve come to the conclusion that those with the highest self-esteem may be some of the least fit and most indebted people on Earth. These folks essentially doing give a damn about what anybody else thinks! 

Meanwhile, the fittest people who are constantly thinking about their looks, and who are always at the gym exercising and pumping iron may have the lowest self-esteem. They are constantly checking themselves in the mirror to admire their physiques, even though they already know they look fine.

Kind of ironic right? But of course, we all know that being fit and looking good tends to boost self-confidence as well. It’s just fun to look at the other side of the story.

Be Who You Want To Be – A Discussion On The Fittest People



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Dear Personal Trainer, You Are Worth The Money!

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Ouch. I’m so sore it feels so good baby! I gave it a go with Meredith the personal trainer for a free 45 minute trial session and she did things to me that no woman has ever done before. She made breathe heavily and sweat profusely!

She showed me exercises I never would have thought of doing to solely focus on getting me into shape for tennis.

45 Minute Trial Routine

* Sumo squat rope wave. Whuh?

* Three TRX exercises to improve the quads, core, and shoulders.

* Wind sprints on the treadmill 3 minutes jog, 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds rest 8X up to 12 mph. I would never do these voluntarily. Why suffer?

* Pro-roller stretches to roll out the calves, quads, IT bands and hamstrings. Talk about pain all over.

* Side stepping through a maze for quickness and agility.

* Core training with cable pulleys three different ways.

* Four different stretches for the back, torso, and legs.

In retrospect, all the stuff I’ve been doing at the gym has been all wrong. I was doing bench presses, butterfly squeezes, lat pull-downs, biceps, and triceps. That’s it really. I never bothered to do anything cardio, or work on the muscles that would help improve my serve or backhand. I just went the easy route. There is also 100% NO CHANCE I would have ever done any wind sprints or anything to make me sweat. Again, I hate working out so I just focused on doing the easiest exercises that required the least amount of effort!

USING THE BLOG AND PERSONAL TRAINER TO SAVE SOME MONEY

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Hire A Personal Trainer Or Get Buff On Your Own?

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If you hate working out, hire a personal trainer to get you motivated. A personal trainer will help kick your ass when you don’t want to do anything.

Working out sucks. I hate it with a passion because I find it so wasteful to expend energy on doing nothing. I would rather use the energy to build a house in Somalia, landscape the backyard, or play sports than lift some stupid weights. 

That said, working out is also convenient because there’s a gym right across from me that I attend before every team or client dinner outing.  I figure I better pump some iron and jog a little before blitzing my diet!

One of my goals in 2016 is to win a tennis tournament.  To do so, I have to improve my endurance given I faded in both tournaments since we had to play back to back matches each day.  The season really gears up in March, leaving me with a solid two months to get in shape.  I know there is no way in hell I will be able to go to the gym 3X or more a week so I’ve thought about enlisting a personal trainer for help.

Personal Trainer: Spending Big Bucks

For $795, I get 10 one hour sessions with any trainer of my choice at my local club.  Yes, $795 sounds like a ridiculous amount of money, which is part of the reason why hiring a PT might just work!  If you’re spending $79.5 a session, it’s likely you will always attend and work your butt off to see results.  If the sessions were free, I’d probably slack off here and there until I don’t go at all.  Think about how often you go to your gym’s free classes.  If you’re honest, the answer is not as much as you should.

I always thought hiring a physical trainer was for clueless rich people who need a lot of hand holding.  I mean come on, who can’t read the little instructions on the machine and move one’s arms back and forth?  Who can’t go on Youtube and watch a workout video and emulate what they’ve seen at the gym?  And then I realized, maybe it’s not all just about getting fit.

Why Do I Feel Guilty With My Personal Trainer?

As I was surveying the 12 trainer’s bios with pictures on the wall, I found myself gravitating towards a very fit and attractive looking woman.  I could choose the beefcake body builder guy, the Madonna-arms looking woman, the crazy-eyed man, the woman in this post’s picture (momeee), or this attractive looking woman named Meredith.  Who would you choose if you had the choice?

Meredith has three years of personal training experience and is obviously in great shape.  She’s an ex-athlete herself and can empathize with me on all the mental anguish that athletes go through during crucial match scenarios.  I met her in person and she’s very friendly and fun to talk to.  She invited me to observe her train one fella and I obliged.  She was terrific and her client obviously felt the same when he told me to jokingly “get in line“.

Do you remember in school where there was this really hot girl (or guy) in your class you had a crush on?  The class could be the most boring subject on Earth, but it didn’t matter because you got a chance to see her for 50 minutes. 

A personal trainer like Meredith is like that.  She makes you automatically want to get in shape because she’s very attractive and you develop this unconscious desire to look good for her. 

OK, maybe it’s a very conscious desire since you’re scheming to ask her out once you’re ripped.  She not only introduces you to some great exercises, she’s also 100% behind you for a full hour.  Some people pay thousands of dollars an hour for this type of companionship.  Just ask Elliot Spitzer or Charlie Sheen!

So what do you think folks?  I know that if I spend $795 for 10 sessions with Meredith, I will be in the best shape of my life and ready to achieve one of my many goals for 2011 of winning a tennis tournament.

Recommendations For A Better Life

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PolicyGenius provides free, unbiased advice on more than 25 A-rated top life insurance companies they have thoroughly researched and vetted. Because life insurance prices are regulated, you don’t have to worry about not getting the best deals. PolicyGenius helps you compare the best quotes all in one place.

Related: The Healthiest Foods To Make You Fit And Rich

Updated for 2021 and beyond.

A Weight Loss Tip To Die For: Be Mindful Of Others

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Are you looking for a weight loss tip? Well here’s a weight loss tip I’ve to keep me in a fairly narrow weight band for the past 20 years.

With parties and business meals galore, it’s so easy to pack on some weight and transform your once slender figure into a mound of dough. Then, of course, there is a global pandemic to deal with.

Is there any wonder why many people fail their weight loss goals? You can be doing great all year and then BAM! You wonder how you gained so much weight.

The good thing about our bodies is that we have a natural mechanism to stop eating when we get full. Otherwise, we’d all be unrecognizable in about a month. However, if we’re honest, we know we often can’t control ourselves and overeat anyways. I can’t control myself when it comes to eating buttery cookies and gobble two at a time. Yum, yum.

My weight used to fluctuate in a 10 pound upward band, which is a lot considering I’m 5′ 10″ and every pound counts on the tennis court. I could be a taut 160 pounds one month and a soft 170 pounds just a couple months later if I wasn’t careful.

At my prime, I used to be 10 pounds lighter given I ran track as well. Oh, to be that fit again. Nowadays, my weight only fluctuates by 4-5 pounds since a visit to New Delhi and Agra in 2001 that changed my outlook on eating forever.

Seeing The World Changes You – Weight Loss Tip

Each time I travel to a foreign country I learn something new. For example, there are some 22 languages recognized by the Indian constitution, and some 300+ spoken languages in India.

In New Delhi, all I saw were skinny people. And when I looked closely, all I could see on the streets was abject poverty. There are so many people in Delhi, you have to look past the layer of bustle to see the beggars on the street. You may choose to ignore, but I couldn’t. How could I when poverty surrounded me like a blanket of smoke in a dimly lit cigar room.

On the four hour drive to Agra where the Taj Mahal resides, the driver pulled over for a pitstop. No sooner had I got out, did both adults and children start tugging at my clothes asking for change.

The more rupees I gave, the more they begged. The more I tried to talk with them, the larger the swarm until my driver shrieked rudely for them to all go away. They didn’t budge and I had to force myself back in the car.

A Weight Loss Tip To Die For

As we drove away, I could see one spiny young man chase after us. He was unique, because he was on all fours and moved like a spider. It was as if he was determined to leap on the roof of our car and extract one last coin from my wallet.

His look was of great determination, but he couldn’t keep up so I dropped some coins out the window. The car’s rear wheels scrambled up a dirt cloud and that’s the last I saw of him.

But, I was wrong. I see him always in my mind.

The Mental Shift To Eating Better

I have visited many impoverished nations before and so far never one as dire as India. There’s something really wrong with so much concentrated poverty. I often wonder how they will be able to improve their standard of living, if ever?

It’s just strange to have a $1 billion dollar, 27 story home in Mumbai owned by Mukesh Ambani, yet have so much despair on the streets. I’m afraid that unless the government does something drastic, their lives will never change.

The reason why my weight doesn’t fluctuate too much anymore is because I’ve become more conscience of how much I eat. Be mindful of the suffering of others. This is the weight loss tip to die for.

When I’m feeling slightly full and I have thoughts about getting a second helping of anything, I think of the malnourished and the man in this picture above on my way to Agra and stop.

I know that it takes about 20 minutes for the body to register food after eating, so in those 20 minutes I wait and reflect if I’m alone.

We’re not even being asked to help the poor and the hungry, just ourselves.

During reflection, I am appreciative of the abundance of food all around me. I wonder how one nation could be so rich, and another so poor.

How can we ever over eat when others are constantly starving? Is it right to gorge ourselves if millions of children around the world are malnourished and can’t even reach a healthy weight?

We can’t ever let ourselves go because to do so would mean that we ignore the suffering of others.

Maybe we are ignorant and have never seen poverty. Why else would Americans who go to private school and have nice jobs claim they’ve never experienced prosperity?

Or maybe we just choose to turn the other way. But, even if you have never left the country, if you look hard enough you will see suffering all around us.

Once you see it, you’ll be hard-pressed to ever take your body for granted again. Fight on!

Recommendation For All Parents

If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that life is not guaranteed. We must do everything we can to protect our children while they are still dependents.

As a result, please get life insurance. Not only should you get enough life insurance to cover your liabilities, your life insurance term should last long enough to get them through college.

The best place to get life insurance is through PolicyGenius. PolicyGenius will help you find the best plan for the lowest price tailored to your needs. PolicyGenius provides free, no-obligation quotes so you can get the best rate. 

In the past, you would have to get a life insurance quote by applying to individual carriers – the process was completely opaque. Now, you can have multiple qualified life insurance carriers compete for your business after applying on PolicyGenius. It’s so much more efficient! 

After eight years of owning life insurance, my wife decided to check on PolicyGenius for free to see if should could do better. Lo and behold, my wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less money. All this time, she thought she was getting the best deal with her existing carrier.

If you don’t have life insurance, please get life insurance before you need to. Life insurance gets more expensive the older and heavier you get. If you get sick, depending on the severity of your sickness, you might not be able to qualify.

Update: It’s been 12 years since the trip to India and the pandemic and two kids finally blew my weight range above 170, to 173 pounds. For 18 years, I maintained a really good weight range of about 162 – 169 pounds. Now, I plan to get back to an ideal weight of 160 – 163 pounds by Feb 8, 2022. Any weight loss tips for us?

The Carrot That Makes You Jump Through Hoops

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Needs the carrot that makes you jump through hoops. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get lazy, get out of shape, and do nothing.

I started Financial Samurai in 2009, and I’ve been writing 3-4X a week since. I’m constantly looking for motivation to continue because life is too good in America. If you’re wondering, the secret to success is being competing for 10+-years in a row!

It’s crazy to revisit this post I wrote in 2010, more than 10 years later. However, it is absolutely clear to me now that people are successful stick with things.

The Carrot To Make You Motivated

One of my best friends is blessed with skinny genes.  At 5′ 3″ tall, she weighs all of 105 pounds.  When we go out to eat, she doesn’t just order a glass of iced tea and salad with dressing on the side.

She goes all out with mash potatoes, creamed spinach, BBQ oysters and then a nice juicy ribeye for a main course!  I gawk in amazement at her appetite while secretly groaning at trying to keep up towards the end.  After all, shouldn’t she eat 40% less than me if she weighs 40% less?  Guess not!

Despite my friend’s envious genetics, she isn’t exactly iron woman when it comes to sports and outdoor activities.  After three miles on a 10 mile bike ride, she’s pooped and waves at me to take a break.

Meanwhile, I’m going “lah, lah, lah” in my head, not even breaking a sweat as I soak in the glorious views of the Bay.  I let her catch up and we take a five minute pit-stop where she catches her breath as I go do some stretches and sit-ups.

The Gimmick



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The Mental To Physical Connection For A Healthier Lifestyle

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La Paz, Mexico boat on clear water
Balandra Bay, La Paz

The mental to physical connection is so important for your well-being. If you only focus on one, you will feel unbalanced.

After my parents pep talk in the 9th grade, I realized there were two things I had to do in order to survive high school: 1) use my brains and 2) develop some pythons.

In other words, getting good grades, joining student government, and being a history buff wasn’t enough. Sure, I may have an easier time getting into some fancy college, but how was I supposed to get into girls? “Hey pork chop, did you know that General Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, marking the end of The Confederacy and the Civil War? Lez go out tonight!” “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Motley Crue played incessantly in my head at the time. Frankly, I can’t imagine it being much different for a lot of other teenage boys.

I made it a rule to balance the mental with the physical by playing sports. As a teenager, I had a strong fear that I was going to be stuck in nerdom if I didn’t. I was a study machine who needed balance. The sports that attracted the most groupies were football and basketball, but I was too chicken sh*t to bang down low. I chose tennis instead, which had decidedly less groupies. Good thing all you really need is one!



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Playing Until My Knees Swell And Feet Bleed

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knee

I’m a USTA 5.0 level tennis player. It took many years of league tennis battles to climb from 4.0 to 5.0. It’s been a great ride, but my knees swell and feet bleed sometimes! In the end, I’m not sure if all the grinding was worth it.

Playing Tennis Until My Knees Swell And Feet Bleed

2009 was the year I rediscovered tennis. Ironically, I figured I’d better utilize the club as much as possible because I couldn’t afford any other luxuries after the markets imploded! Just last year, I failed miserably at breaking a 10 handicap (got to 10.2 and ricocheted) in golf and decided to quit before I threw my bag into the lake.

For the past 15 years, I forsook the game I played so diligently as a youngster. It was boring running around, hitting a ball back and forth. Now, I’m hooked again because of the camaraderie of the game.

Although tennis is an individual sport, there’s a team aspect to it if you join a league. Meanwhile, my evil plan is to get my wife to get good enough so we can play some competitive mixed doubles my next summer!

Physical Problems Materialize

Despite all the passion, I have a couple swollen knees that makes sitting cross-legged difficult. If I try and extend my legs after sitting in cobbler’s pose, there’s so much pain, it’s hard to walk for the first several minutes. Meanwhile, my feet often blister due to the constant friction caused by unnatural side-to-side movements. The doctor says all I have to do is rest, but I can’t.

How can I rest when I get a daily e-mail from my buddies wanting a rematch after last night’s beat down? How can I rest when it’s just so fun to needle my opponents with smack talk for a couple hours at a time? I’m a tennis junkie. The competition is exhilarating to the point where you often feel like you’re observing yourself play, an out of body experience if you will.

When I’m on the court, all the pain miraculously goes away. It’s the next day when the aches reappear, yet I long to play again. I realize that if I don’t take care of my body and allow it to heal I risk my long term health. But, then I rationalize and say it’s about having fun now, no matter what the cost.

Play For Fun, But Be Safe

Like a consumer addicted to credit, I’m an old fart addicted to tennis.  The costs aren’t just physical but also monetary as well.  I’ve upped my insurance coverage, setting me back $600 in premiums because I’m going to check out both knees, wrists, shoulders, and head!  The head examination was due to an outrageous fight on

All these tennis injuries and the pandemic reminds me about the importance of getting life insurance. As we have all discovered, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

If you have children and liabilities, check out PolicyGenius, an independent insurance broker that is revolutionizing the way we shop for life insurance – for free! Answer a few simple questions on PolicyGenius’s website and instantly receive free, personalized and comprehensive life insurance quotes.

PolicyGenius provides free, unbiased advice on more than 25 A-rated top life insurance companies they have thoroughly researched and vetted.

After eight years of owning life insurance, my wife decided to check on PolicyGenius for free to see if should could do better. Lo and behold, my wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less money. All this time, she thought she was getting the best deal with her existing carrier.

If you don’t have life insurance, please get life insurance before you need to. Life insurance gets more expensive the older you get. If you get sick, depending on the severity of your sickness, you might not be able to qualify.

If you do have life insurance, I highly recommend checking PolicyGenius to try and get a better deal. Chances are high you’re not getting the best terms. 

Updated for 2021 and beyond.

Someone Has To Give Birth! Why Women Shouldn’t Be Penalized For Being A Mom

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Swans And Their Babies

Women shouldn’t be penalized for being a mom. After all, if you want kids, someone has to give birth! This post discusses the unfair double standard some women face in their careers if they take time off to have children.

I originally wrote this post on December 11, 2009 when I was 32 years old and still working in finance. I had gotten married one year earlier and just started thinking about having kids. However, due to the high cost of living in San Francisco, a busy work schedule, and this potential penalty my wife may have faced if we had a baby, we delayed having kids.

Now that I reflect more as a father of two young kids in 2020, not having kids sooner is one of my regrets. If I could rewind time, I would have tried to have my first kid at 34 (2012) and then at 36 (2015).

If you’re considering having kids, know that there isn’t a perfect time. That said, since you will love your kids more than anything else in this world, having them sooner enables them to be a part of your life for a longer period of time.

The following is a story about kids and the workplace you might not expect.



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The Book That Changed My Life And Made Me Rich Again

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Let me tell you about the book that changed my life. It is my favorite book that I tell everybody to buy.

Back in the last downturn from 2001-2003 I had incredible back pain. I couldn’t sit for very long, and my legs were going numb. Doctors told me I had sciatica, a pinched nerve down my spine that spread to the tips of my toes. Even the process of driving wore me out so I decided to stop driving altogether.

One day, my colleague and I were walking towards a restaurant to meet a client and he collapsed. Apparently, he was suffering from the same symptoms I was going through. However, in his case, he had a family to take care of with his newborn child, and he was losing much more than me in the downturn.

I was the junior guy. When rumors came along that our compensation was going to be slashed in half, I hoped out loud that I would outperform since I didn’t make much in the first place. Half of nothing is still nothing I reasoned.

Getting Crushed During The 2008 Financial Crisis

When my bonus was slashed in half like everybody else, I was not a happy camper and asked my mentor how pitiful was I? I didn’t complain too loudly due to the rounds of layoffs, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

He explained to me in a funny way I will never forget. He said, “Sam don’t worry. You don’t make much so it doesn’t matter anyways!” He went on to say, “Look at me. I have a big mortgage, a new family to support, got cut in half too and I make A LOT more than you do!”

Gee thanks! At the time, I didn’t really appreciate his brutal honesty, but fast forward seven years later, I know exactly what he’s talking about. My mentor’s absolute income likely declined 10X my amount, and he was so stressed out with his newborn child that his fear and anger manifested itself into debilitating back pain.

About two months after his collapse, he told me he was entirely pain free. The markets still weren’t great, and I remember having to fork out $700 bucks for a brand new Herman Miller Aeron chair because I couldn’t sit.

He gave me a copy of Healing Back Pain by Dr. Sarno. There was NO WAY I couldn’t read it after seeing him crumble to the cement pavement that day, and limping around for weeks after that his back pain was healed.

However, I was skeptical that an easy-to-read, 180-page paper back book could do wonders and get him to go out golfing with clients again.

None of the massages or chiropractic visits did anything to help my pain so what’s a fluff book going to do for me? Well, it turns out this was the book that changed my life.



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Buy this not that WSJ bestseller 728