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Financial Samurai

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The Secret To Perfect Happiness Revealed! Make Over $500,000 A Year

Updated: 03/09/2023 by Financial Samurai 93 Comments

Are you interested in learning about the secret to perfect happiness? The answer is to make over $500,000 a year, a top one percent income.

In an amazing Gallup poll highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, it says that 100% of those who make more than $500,000 are “very happy”! That’s right. Not 98%. Not 99%. But a pure 100%.

Wealth And Happiness Chart

This is a breakthrough research finding that has amazingly received little publicity. When you find perfection, it must be revealed!

Surely this study is more earth-shattering than a University of Alabama PhD finding that those who ate more fried chicken had a higher chance of a stroke. More money, more delirious happiness, not more problems, silly Biggy.

Read: Evidence Making Money Has Never Been Easier

Perfect Happiness Will Save The World

The simple solution to eliminating wars and eradicating all levels of sadness is to make over $500,000.

Folks like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Li Ka Shing, The Walmart clan, Ray Dalio, and anybody who just inherited a bunch of money can make a difference in the lives of so many. All they have to do is donate $425,000 a year to median families given the median household income is roughly $75,000 in 2023.

I want to see a tag-team cage match between Princeton economist Angus Deaton and Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman who say that $75,000 is the ideal income for maximum happiness vs. Michigan Public Policy professor Betsey Stevenson (currently serving as a Member of the Council Of Economic Advisers) and Michigan economist Justin Wolfers who conclude that $500,000 is the magic number. Don’t you?

If what Kahneman says is true, that $75,000 is the ideal income for maximum happiness, then why aren’t all Americans truly satisfied with what they have? Ah hah!



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Once You Have F You Money, It’s Hard To Tell Others To F Off!

Published: 01/25/2023 by Financial Samurai 139 Comments

F you money. FU money. F*ck you money. It’s all the same. F You Money is having enough money to tell others to F Off without fearing financial repercussions.

I’m sure some of you have dreamt of telling your annoying micromanager to F Off. But you can’t because you still want that raise and promotion.

If you spend any amount of time online, you probably want to tell some folks to F Off as well. But given online is generally forever, you tend to hold your tongue unless someone really offends you.

If you live in an expensive city, you need at least $3 million per person to have F You money. If you live in the heartland, where I continue to buy real estate, you may only need $1 million per person to have F You money.

Hence, one way to get F You Money is to conduct geoarbitrage!

The Origin Of F You Money

The term F You Money seems to have first been mentioned by Johnny Carson in a Rolling Stones interview in 1979 and then by Burt Reynolds in the 1986 movie, Heat.

I’ve heard the term since the 1990s on Wall Street. When Goldman Sachs finally went public in 1999, there were plenty of partners with F You Money walking around the halls.

In fact, I still remember randomly bumping into a 20-year GS partner in Montreal post IPO. He was at a coffee shop on a date with a young woman other than his wife. I was there taking an Asian company management around visiting Caisse de dépôt, a Canadian money manager.

I guess the partner said F You to his marriage! Or maybe not. We never discussed the encounter upon our return to HQ in NYC. That might have been a career-limiting move.

All I know is the GS partner was living it up with his tens of millions in new liquidity. He couldn’t give a damn what anybody thought of him, let alone some peon second-year analyst!

How Much Is Considered F You Money?

Based on over 9,000 votes in the Financial Samurai poll below, $5 million is the #1 vote-getter to feel financially free. To be clear, $5 million is the minimum net worth hurdle, not the maximum.

I personally chose $10 million because $10 million is what’s necessary to generate ~$350,000 in risk-free income based on today’s risk-free rate. However, by taking slightly more risk, $10 million should be able to generate $400,000 – $500,000 a year to live the F You Lifestyle.

When your investments can generate a top 1% income by themselves, that’s clearly F You Money.

Therefore, between $5 million to $10 million seems like a reasonable minimum range before you can consider having F You Money.

The more expensive the location you live in, the higher the hurdle and vice versa. Just don’t forget to keep up with roaring inflation.

How much money do you need to feel financially free? (What is your FU money amount?)

View Results

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How To Survive The War On Merit: When Hard Work Isn’t Enough

Updated: 03/04/2023 by Financial Samurai 71 Comments

Getting ahead based on merit is the ideal scenario. Having success given to you based on anything else strips away the satisfaction of earning what you deserve.

Since 2020, however, there seems to be a growing “war on merit.” The San Francisco School Board voted to end Lowell High School’s entrance exam so that every student could attend in the name of opportunity and equality. As a public school, I understand the rationale.

Over on the east coast, Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School also decided to eliminate its entrance exam. TJ, as the school is commonly known, is also a public school and is consistently ranked one of the top high schools in the nation.

Growing up in Northern Virginia, I never considered applying to TJ. My parents didn’t push me nor did I have a particularly keen interest in math or science.

I just remember losing a tennis match to TJ’s #1 player, who went on to attend Harvey Mudd College. He’s now a computer engineer at a tech firm and probably makes about $500,000 a year.



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2023 Financial Samurai Goals: Back To Easy Living

Updated: 03/24/2023 by Financial Samurai 58 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! I’ve made goals publicly for over ten years because it helps keep me accountable. Making goals also makes the year more exciting and challenging. Hence, here are my goals for 2023.

Once again, I’ve divided the goals into five categories: Health, Wealth, Family, Financial Samurai, and X-Factor. My goal is to achieve 70% of my goals.



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2022 Financial Samurai Year In Review: Family Over Money

Updated: 03/24/2023 by Financial Samurai 22 Comments

We made it! My goal for 2022 was to do less work and have more fun. 2020 and 2021 were difficult years thanks to the pandemic so I needed a break.

Overall, I give 2022 a B+. The year was great from a family and health standpoint. But the year was piss poor from a financial standpoint due to the bear market.

As I start this post, I can’t remember what happened in the first half of 2022. You might not either, which is why I recommend you do a year in review as well. Time for me to scroll through my picture library and jog this old brain.



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The Best Of Financial Samurai 2022: Just Keep Showing Up

Updated: 03/06/2023 by Financial Samurai 26 Comments

In 2022, I published 156 posts on Financial Samurai. Every post is written based on firsthand experience because money is too important to be left up to pontification.

For background, I worked in finance from 1999 – 2012. Along the way, I got my MBA part-time in 2006 and started Financial Samurai in 2009. Since 2009, I’ve written over 2,100 personal finance articles.

Check out my About page for more details. You can also subscribe to my free weekly newsletter where I discuss all things personal finance.

I still haven’t hired a staff writer to help with the workload. But I might in 2023 if I can find a great storyteller who can tackle different personal finance perspectives from firsthand experience.

Given I’m a man, finding a woman, preferably with a finance background is a logical choice. Hit me up if this sounds like you. Hmmm, maybe I can convince my wife to write more in 2H 2023 as well.

In the Fall of 2023, our daughter will start attending preschool three times a week. She’ll be our last child, so we will spend as much time with her as possible before then. In the meantime, I’m sure I can convince my wife to do more podcasts with me, like this Apple episode on loneliness.

My goal on Financial Samurai is to help you achieve financial freedom sooner so you can do more of the things you want. Without further ado, here are the top Financial Samurai posts of 2022.



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How To Enjoy Your Life After The Fed Ruins The World

Updated: 03/24/2023 by Financial Samurai 191 Comments

Enjoy your life, no matter the economic situation. If you do, then you’ll always be winning. The key is to recognize reality and take appropriate action.

The Fed hiked another another 0.25% on March 23, 2023 to 4.75% – 5%. Despite multiple consecutive lower-than-expected monthly CPI numbers, a blowing up of regional banks and Credit Suisse, the Fed indicated it will hike to a terminal rate of 5.25% or thereabouts. Most investors were hoping the Fed would stop at 5%.

Meanwhile, the 10-year bond yield is only at 3.4%, meaning there is a huge yield curve inversion. It’s the largest inversion in over 40 years. The bond market is screaming for the Fed to stop hiking, but it just won’t listen. Even with the bank run at Silicon Valley Bank, the Fed won’t stop.

As a result, the United States will likely go into a recession again in 2023 thanks to the Fed’s overly aggressive tightening. Over a million people will lose their jobs, banks will go bust, and trillions of wealth will evaporate. Instead of expecting inflation in 2023, we should start worrying about deflation again.

All the good done by governments to support billions of people during the pandemic will have been for nothing. Can you imagine struggling through a pandemic for three years, finally coming up for air only to be run over by a speedboat driven by a rich central banker?

When you are worth ~$100 million, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell most certainly is, you may not care as much about the middle class as you do about your legacy. Instead, you want the history books to emphasize how you were tough on inflation and gloss over the human suffering caused by your decisions.

Federal rate hike speed versus other times in modern history. Fed is hiking further and faster than any other time.


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What Income Level Is Considered Rich?

Updated: 02/02/2023 by Financial Samurai 414 Comments

So you’re wondering what income level is considered rich. After all, if everybody makes $1,000,000 a year, are you considered rich if you make only $500,000 a year? Probably not! In other words, rich is relative and also subjective.

When Obama was president, he considered single people making over $200,000 to be rich. He specifically called for raising taxes on singles making over $200,000 and couples making $250,000 every year he was in office.

At the end of 2012, there was a compromise in Congress for raising income taxes for individuals making $400,000 and married couples making $450,000 and above.

Why $400,000 + $400,000 doesn’t equal $800,000 before a married couple has to pay more taxes, I’m not sure. The government harkened back to its old days of believing one spouse should stay at home. Thankfully, the marriage penalty tax has all but been abolished.

Today, Joe Biden also believes anybody or any household making over $400,000 is rich. He has promised to raise taxes back to 39.7% from 37% for individuals making over $400,000 and married couples making over $450,000. W2 income-earners pay the most in taxes.

Therefore, if you are constantly stressed out making a lot of money, you might want to consider taking things down a notch. Making over $400,000 while working 80 hours a week is not considered rich. That makes you a time mendicant with minimal freedom to do what you want.



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Conduct A Regret Minimization Exercise To Help You Move Forward

Updated: 01/17/2023 by Financial Samurai 32 Comments

One of the main reasons why I wrote Buy This, Not That was to help readers feel less regret by making wiser choices. Regret is one of the worst feelings, especially if it is a type of regret that could have been prevented through knowledge.

The easiest way to stop saying, “If I knew then what I know now, life would be better,” is to simply learn from someone who has experienced what you might experience. But it can’t be learning from just any experienced person. It has to be from someone who is willing to share both the good and the bad.

It feels like most of us tend to conduct revisionist history, where we make bad things seem less bad to make ourselves feel better. However, if we mask the pain, we rob those we want to help with the truth. And if you don’t know the truth, you may end up making suboptimal decisions, which can lead to more regret!

Hence, as soon as you find me writing how everything is awesome, please slap my head to stay balanced. As a perennial optimist, I have a tendency to always look at the positives.

Related post: The Negatives Of Early Retirement Nobody Likes Talking About



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How To Be More Creative: Advice From A Writer, Artist, And Pianist

Updated: 01/14/2023 by Financial Samurai 13 Comments

Not only are we born with creativity, but we also have the power to become more creative with effort. The more creative you are the happier you will likely be. There is a tremendous amount of fulfillment when you create something from nothing.

Being more creative could make you more money as well. It takes creativity to solve problems and start companies. Once you shift more from being a consumer to a creator, good things start to happen.

After all, we are living in the “creator economy” where anybody with enough courage to put themselves out there has the ability to make money online. Sure, we might get ridiculed. But those who ridicule are too afraid to try themselves!

Making money only from your day job is so 1990s. Now, having a side hustle that harnesses our creativity to bring in extra income is more commonplace. With extra income, we could ultimately achieve financial freedom sooner. And once we achieve financial freedom, then we can take even more creative risks!



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