Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams

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Photographer With Big Lense

There is a curse of making too much money that I want to talk about. So many of us are caught up in this cycle of wanting to make more and more. This desire is making us unhappy. We need to learn to let go.

The luckiest people on earth are perhaps those who don’t make a lot of money. They’ve got very little downside and can really pursue their childhood dreams. Imagine if from the moment you graduated college, you landed a plum corporate job that paid just enough to keep you motivated, but not enough to enjoy your freedom.

The longer you work the more you realize there’s really no escape, because there’s simply too much at stake. This is the problem that plagues my friend, Lyndon.



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Creating Powerful Friends: Samurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge

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Financial Samurai - Samurai Alexa Ranking ChallengeThere’s a fun hypothesis saying that you are the average of the closest five people around you. I believe this to be true, do you? What’s interesting about the blogosphere community is that anybody with enough intention can start a website.  The link gives you a step-by-step guide as to how you can get up and running in under 30 minutes. Some blogs are interesting, some are not, but regardless we can all compete with the Business Insiders, Huffington Posts, and BuzzFeeds of the web in our own niche way!

Alexa is a dynamic website ranking and information company owned by Amazon, which has over 40 million users world wide. The tool bar is free, and easy to download. The Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge is straight forward. If you’re outside of the top 200,000, get in the top 200,000 within 6 months. I can’t even name 100 sites, let alone 199,999 sites. Can you? If you’re already in the top 200,000, get in the top 100,000. And if you’re already in the top 100,000, get in the top 50,000.

There are some who poo poo the Alexa ranking system, and I recognize their two main arguments:  1) The system only tracks visitors who have the Alexa Toolbar installed, and 2) There are cases where some websites with bazillions of users have a worse ranking than sites with less users.  We don’t know why, because we don’t fully know what goes into the calculations. It may be because readers don’t visit and just read off their RSS. That said, the Alexa ranking system continues to grow, and is the best system we got. At least 40 million webmasters around the world think so, and there has to be something to it if Google, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube are ranked #1, #2, #3, and #4, respectively.

Since starting this site, I’ve been rejected as a guest poster, didn’t even get responded to, let alone make it as one of the 7 finalists for one site’s staff writer tryouts, denied admission to a personal finance blog network, and even got my first carnival submission rejected. But through all the rejections, I took comfort in my friend, Alexa, who is always by my side motivating me to keep going. I’m sure many of you have been rejected as well. Here’s your chance to create our own network of powerful friends by joining the challenge!

BENEFITS OF BEING IN THE TOP 200,000

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You’re Rejected! How I Use Rejection To Motivate Me Every Single Day

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Rejecting every reason not to retire early

I first wrote this post on October 28, 2009 when I was just getting started with Financial Samurai. Nobody gave me the time of day and it was a rough slog! I’ve since updated the post 12 years later and continue to believe it’s incredibly important to seek rejection if you want to grow. 

Unless you’re perfect, there will be times when things don’t go your way.  You’re last to be picked in PE class, Yale says, “thank you, but no thank you”, and your girlfriend/boyfriend dumps you for another man/woman. Do you start sulking? Or do you get up, get angry, and prove to yourself you’re worth it?

Some people are so afraid of rejection, they never put themselves out there.  They let their childhood dreams die because society tells them to do this or that. They reject themselves before even giving others a chance!

Here are some lame excuses people who are too afraid to try, tell themselves:

“Why would this school accept me?”

“Why would she want to talk to me?”

“I don’t deserve a raise so I’ll never ask.”

“I’m not good enough to work for this firm, so I won’t bother applying.”

“What if everybody thinks what I say is stupid?”

“My writing is horrible, why would anybody want to read anything of mine?”

These types of thoughts crush dreams, lead to low-self esteem and mediocrity.



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The Worst Seat On An Airplane Is The Best Seat In The Office

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GTGTTBR
GTGTTBR (Got To Go To….)

The worst seat on an airplane is still better than being stuck in the office. Don’t fret!

For some reason, I generally get stuck in a middle seat close to the bathroom every time I go on a business trip.  It’s probably because I leave so little time between take off and check-in that I usually end up screwed!

The worst is when you’re just about to fall asleep and you get nudged by your neighbor for hogging the arm rest.  Come on neighbor, I’m stuck in the middle, the arm rest is mine!  The second worst thing is inhaling the lovely toilet aromas every time someone walks in and out.  Finally, add a crying baby next to you, and air travel is just lovely.



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Do Higher Taxes Lead To Socialism In America?

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Do higher taxes lead to Socialism in America? This is the question I had on September 1, 2009 when I was still slaving away at my corporate job. Paying lots of taxes while the world was falling apart wasn’t sitting well with me. I had also just started Financial Samurai in July 2009.

Now that the world is falling apart again 2020 thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more than likely we will have higher taxes in the future to pay for our spending. Therefore, I’m once again asking whether the grind is worth it.

Higher Taxes And Socialism

Someone once said, “nothing is certain except pressing the reply all button by mistake and taxes.” How true the saying as we face rising taxes under the Obama administration. 

Supposedly 32% of Americans filers pay ZERO TAXES! I doubt this statistic sits well with the other 68% of files who pay taxes. I also doubt the percentage of non-tax payers could be that high, but either way, even 15% is a lot.

The good thing for high income earnings is that the highest marginal tax rate has come down by almost half  since the 70’s. Furthermore, generally if you are paying no taxes, your adjusted gross income is less than $8,350 as a single, or $16,700 as a married couple.  

Wouldn’t you rather make more money and pay taxes than make little money and pay nothing?

It just feels bad that the average American pays a higher percentage of his or her wages in taxes than in savings.

Given we don’t blog for a living, and several readers asked me this afternoon “whether I think higher taxes lead to Socialism in America, Yes or No only”, my answer and thesis is therefore: “Yes, higher taxes do lead to socialism in America.”



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