Retirement

Happy New Year Everyone! The Dow closed up 5.5% in 2011 vs. a prediction of up only 5%.  A 50 basis points differential is a critical error that needs to be rectified if I want to get beyond a “B” grade given to me by a reader.  Apologies for my negligence!  At least the direction […]

Here is my Financial Samurai 2011 predictions review. It’s trippy reviewing my 2011 predictions 10 years later in 2021. But here we are! On January 2, 2011 I came up with the below predictions for 2011.  The idea behind making predictions is to test the mind and exercise some logic.  It’s important that everyone have

Here are the top 5 hits and misses for 2011. I started Financial Samurai in 2009. As we come to the end of the year, now is the time for reflection.  I generally don’t have many regrets because what’s the point?  I’m an optimist who likes to keep moving forward.  In fact, I have no

According to First Data, credit card usage was up 8.2% YoY in 1Q2011, 9% YoY in 2Q2015, and 10.6% YoY in 3Q.  If those aren’t healthy signs of consumers spending again, I don’t know what is.  What’s a little more shocking is that the latest November industry-wide car sales figures are up 14% YoY to

Do you have frugality disease or spending guilty? I do, which is one of the main reasons why I started to decumulate my assets at age 45. With the way I’ve been saving, I don’t want to die with too much money. Otherwise, that will have meant that I wasted a lot of time and

The Mediterranean is chilly in the Fall, ranging from 48-75 degrees Fahrenheit.  Anybody coming from San Francisco will feel right at home.  The cruise ship was packed with a couple thousand explorers.  Not only that, there were three other ships just as large following a similar itinerary.  Pretty good for the tail-end of the season

Dear Friends, help make Financial Samurai better! It’s been a blast running this site for the past two and a half years.  When Financial Samurai launched in the summer of 2009, the world was still falling apart.  What better time to start something creative! I’m not one to tinker much. Part of the reason is

Greetings from somewhere in the Adriatic Sea!  I’ve been on vacation this past week and I’m hoping you couldn’t tell.  It’s a little hard staying away given how addicted I am to writing and interacting online.  If I didn’t care so much, I probably wouldn’t have responded to 150+ comments, published three new posts, written

Give randomly or selectively? That is the question. One of the funnest things about being a part of the online community is the ability to host giveaways and win things as well. The predominant way hosts choose winners is randomized, likely for “fairness” sake and also so that the host doesn’t have to choose.  I can