Motivation

2024 Financial Samurai Goals: One Last Year Of Intense Focus

Happy new year everyone! For 2024, my theme of the year is, “One last year of intense focus.” This marks my 15th year running Financial Samurai, coinciding with both my children starting full-time school in September. Fatigue has set in, reminiscent of 2011 when I pondered leaving investment banking for good. That burnout prompted a […]

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2023 Financial Samurai Year In Review: More Fails Than Wins

I’ve been writing year-in-review posts for over a decade now. It’s a rewarding way to document what went well and where I can improve. While 2023 brought more failures than wins, being alive and healthy fills me with gratitude. My theme for 2023 was “Back To Easy Living.” After an exhausting pandemic period, I aimed

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The Best Of Financial Samurai 2023 – Posts And Podcasts

At the end of every year, I highlight the best posts and podcasts on Financial Samurai. Determining the “best” of Financial Samurai is both objective and subjective. For those new here, I started this site in July 2009, at the depths of the global financial crisis. I had been considering launching the site since 2006,

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Five Unusual Things I’m Thankful For (Despite All The Bad)

Instead of sharing the usual things I’m thankful for (health, family, being Asian, etc.), I thought I’d share some unusual things I’m thankful for this year! 2023 was supposed to be a return to easy living. Alas, I don’t feel very relaxed. The combination of keeping Financial Samurai going and being a dad is grinding

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To Succeed, Intrinsic Rewards Must Dominate Extrinsic Rewards

If you want to succeed long-term, make sure you are working mostly for intrinsic rewards not extrinsic rewards. I believe the right balance for success is to have >70% intrinsic motivation and <30% extrinsic motivation. If most of the reason why you are doing something is due to extrinsic motivation, you will likely burn out

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Maybe You Don’t Deserve Good Fortune But Enjoy It Anyway

Good fortune tends to come to those who save and invest over a long period of time. However, sometimes your good fortune goes beyond expectations. In such scenarios, you may experience money guilt. Money guilt arises when you don’t feel like you deserve your good fortune. With literally eight billion people in the world, why

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The Joy Of Low Expectations: When Nobody Believes In You

After every tennis match I lost in high school, my father would console me by saying, “You just weren’t good enough.” Those words stung each time I heard them. But they were true. Over time, my dad stopped coming to my matches because I told him the pressure of his gaze wasn’t helpful. With no

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Having Absurd Dreams Are OK Because Sometimes They Come True

In one of my recent newsletters, I supposedly wrote something absurd. It didn’t occur to me I was being absurd until a reader called me out. Read for yourself the introduction before I got into stocks, the economy, and more. Happy Father’s Day to those of you who are fathers and still have fathers. And

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