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Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

Control The Urge To Splurge: How To Save More Money

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Are your spending habits out of control? You’re not alone. We are constantly tempted to spend money and splurge on things we don’t need.

Clever marketing tactics, FOMO, the YOLO economy, and the desire for more have become a common part of daily life. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you care enough about yourself and your future, you can learn how to control the urge to splurge. By the end of this post you’ll be on your way to saving more money!

The Temptation To Splurge

I went shopping one weekend in 2009 to buy myself a new pair of comfortable brown leather loafers for work. I’d worn my $60 Timberland loafers from Shoe Pavilion (discount store) for two years. Sadly, they were starting to get holes.

I have to say, when it comes time to shop for work attire, I’m just so uninterested. Back when I was working a traditional office job, shopping for work clothes was a “work expense” I resented.



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If Given A Choice, Always Pay By Cash To Save Money

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After some debate between paying by cash or by credit card, I decided to pay $750 in cash to fix my car fan instead of paying $1,004 with a credit card to get points and peace of mind.

By paying $750 cash, I’d save $254 and still get a one-year warranty and receipt. By paying $1,004 with a credit card, I’d only get 1,004 Chase points. This is equivalent to about $10 – $30, depending on how I use them.

The savings difference should make paying by cash a no brainer. However, I always like the convenience of paying by credit card along with its accompanying purchase protection.

I’ve bought some bad products or paid for some bad service before. Once you pay by cash, it’s harder to get your money back. The huge benefit of using a credit card is fraud protection. You can get your money back while they investigate. And this in turn helps prevent that same scammer from victimizing others.

How much would you be willing to pay to have someone fight to get your money back? I’m forever appreciative of a large financial institution for crediting me back $2,000 after my kidnapping in Beijing. If I was just carrying around $2,000 and had it stolen, I’d be SOL.



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How To Write A Real Estate Love Letter And Save Big Bucks

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How To Write A Real Estate Love Letter To Get The Best Deal Possible

A well-written real estate love letter can reduce a buyer’s purchase price by 1% – 10%. If we’re talking about a $1 million property, that’s $10,000 – $100,000 in savings. Therefore, learning how to write a real estate love letter is essential if you want to save on your next property purchase.

At the very least, a real estate love letter can help you get a counteroffer when a seller receives multiple offers. Staying in the race is vital if you really want the property.

Yet most people, out of ignorance or laziness, don’t bother writing a real estate love letter when making an offer. Be different from most buyers and write one!

Care Enough To Put In The Time

After every job interview, writing a hand-written note can make the difference between landing the job or not. Yet, few people bother to write a hand-written thank you letter either.

I firmly believe one of the reasons why it’s so easy to get ahead is because most people don’t care enough to try. Folks are kinda clueless when it comes to building rapport with others. Instead of first trying to give, it’s all about taking, taking, and taking some more.

There is no downside, only upside, to writing a real estate love letter to try and make a connection with the seller. The listing agent has a fiduciary duty to present all offers as is. Thus, the greater the connection you can make, the greater your chance of getting the best deal possible for a property you want.

Another person’s lack of emotional intelligence is your pot of gold! As someone who loves real estate and writing, let me share with you how to write the ultimate real estate love letter.

For background, I have written over 2,500 articles on Financial Samurai since I started the site in 2009. I am a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. With about $140,000 of my passive income coming from my various real estate investments, I am an expert at writing real estate love letters.



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Build A CD Step Stool, Not A CD Ladder In A Flattening Yield Curve Environment

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When you’re young, you spend time accumulating wealth. When you’re old, you should spend time protecting wealth. Building a CD step stool to protect a portion of your wealth is a smart way to go.

Multi-millionaires go broke all the time because they exposed themselves to too much risk and temptation. Think about all those pro athletes who would still be rich if they had just kept all their money in a bank.

You just never know what type of risk is lurking out there. Nobody would have guessed a coronavirus pandemic would have shutdown the world economy for over three months in 2020.

History OF CD Rates

From 2010 through 2021, money market and CD rates were particularly horrible. Retirees depending on fixed income were forced to take more risk. Thankfully, such risk paid off when the S&P 500 and the real estate market across various parts of the country took off.

Further, many of us were able to refinance our mortgages at all-time low interest rates. Credible is my favorite lending marketplace if you’re looking to check rates. They get pre-qualified lenders to compete for your business for free in under three minutes.

Then in 2022, inflation figures were high, the Federal Reserve finally started raising rates, and we saw an upward trend in the 10-year bond yield. As a result, we also started seeing significantly better CD and high-yield savings rates at direct, online-only banks like CIT Bank.

Where the markets and rates will be in 6-months, 1 year, or 5 years, however, is anybody’s guess. Let’s say we see a flattening yield curve again. What’s the best course of action? Financially savvy individuals should optimize their cash and build a CD Step Stool and NOT a CD ladder. The first step is a one-year CD and the second step is a two-year CD at most.

With each expiration of the CD, the strategy is to re-invest the proceeds in another 12 – 24 month CD. Only if the yield curve steepens should you consider building a CD ladder where you’re investing in three, four, five, seven, and 10 year CDs.

Let’s look at various financial scenarios where building a CD Step Stool may or may not make sense. 



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The Stupid Things People Do To Save Money

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Stupid things people do to save money ex. Bumbleride Deluxe Baby Stroller

As a frugal person and a personal finance writer, I love saving money. But there are smart ways to save money and stupid ones. I’ve put together a collection of stupid things people do to save money in this post for your entertainment. In addition, I hope you can learn from these examples to better maximize your time and efforts to save and build wealth.

Hilarious Example Of Stupid Things People Do To Save Money

Here’s a hilarious example of stupid things people do to save money that I witnessed.

One time I was driving my old SUV Moose to the local Chevron station to puut air in his 18 inch beasty tires. When I pulled into the gas station, I came across the picture above.

Study the picture carefully, what do you see? What you see there are two lovely moms trying to figure out how to use an industrial powered air pump to inflate their baby stroller!



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The Healthiest Foods To Make You Fit And Rich

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Well now, it looks like some people weren’t very happy with my defense of people who like to eat out to win business or order food delivery to save time and their marriages.

I’m not sure whether the true anger lies in going against the food preparing norm or highlighting the truth about how we can all be doing more for our health and our finances.

I don’t shout angrily on the internet when I disagree with something. Nor do I insult people with different beliefs. Instead, I like to listen carefully to feedback and adopt any good ideas to improve my life. And I’ve got a good one that could really make a difference!

In the near future, I plan to drop my writing frequency from 3X a week to once a week and stop podcasting once a week in order to cook more for my family and to save money.

I calculate by cooking at home, I’ll save between $500 – $1,000 a month, equivalent to the monthly cash flow savings I’ve earned from refinancing my mortgage. Not bad! Although I might also suffer revenue loss 10X greater, that is neither here nor there. All good things are worth the initial sacrifice.

Further, I’ve been looking for a good reason to give up my posting cadence after reaching the 10 year mark. I’m tired and want to mix things up. After the second year of writing, I started consistently getting thank you e-mails or comments every week from readers saying how XYZ article helped them. As a result, I started feeling guilty that if I didn’t post regularly, I would be letting people down.

Thanks to reader feedback, it’s time to make a change for health and wealth!



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How AOC And Other Congressional Members Can Afford To Raise Kids In Washington, DC

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How AOC And Other Congressional Members Can Afford To Raise Families In Washington, DC

There are two things people seem to want more than anything else: money and power.

For the sake of money and power, we study like crazy, work like dogs, delay starting families, then abandon our children once we have them, all for these two things that really don’t make us much happier. How strange we are.

Billionaires are in the top 0.1% of wealth. They make “everyday multi-millionaires” sometimes feel like uncomfortable failures.

But who are the billionaires of power?

They are our politicians who pass laws that affect the livelihoods of millions. Members of Congress, The President, and Supreme Court Justices are all part of the top 0.1% of power.



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Wedding Spending Rules To Follow If You Don’t Want To End Up Broke And Alone

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If you want to start your marriage right, then following these wedding spending rules so you don’t end up broke and alone.

Given roughly half of marriages eventually end in a divorce and wedding ceremonies last for at most 12 hours in America, it’s wise to spend as little as possible on a wedding just in case things don’t work out.

If you’re still in love and much wealthier after 10 years, you can then spend more lavishly on a wedding party. This is when you can renew your vows, invite your closest relatives and friends, and have a good time without feeling as much financial stress.

Despite such pure logic, the average cost of a wedding in America in 2020 was $19,000 according to The Knot’s 2020 Wedding Survey. In 2021, the average cost of a wedding is running closer to $22,500, similar to pre-pandemic levels as people begin to gather again.

However, if you live in Manhattan, the average spend is closer to $77,000. In comparison, San Francisco weddings cost about $40,000 on average.

With the median household income in America at around $68,000 according to the latest US Census Bureau, spending $22,500 for a wedding is egregious. After paying taxes on a median $68,000 household income, the average couple is spending about 40% of their after-tax annual income on a wedding.

Why Couples Spend So Much On A Wedding

Here are some random responses I’ve received from couples who have spent $22,500 or more on their weddings:

“I wanted a night we’d never forget.”

“The wedding is more for our family than it is for us. We both have huge extended families that must all be invited.”

“Everything from the venue to the flowers cost so much nowadays. It’s hard to spend less.”

“I already spent $18,000 on a ring. What’s another $50,000 spread among 200 people?”

“I didn’t want to spend $200,000 on the wedding, my wife did. I hate weddings and would rather have just gone to City Hall for a couple hundred bucks. It’s all curated and fake for thirsty Instagram users.”

The problem is, a wedding only lasts a day. The opportunity cost of not investing the money in your new future cost result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wealth.



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How To Dress Well On The Cheap For A Black Tie Wedding

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Did you just receive a black tie wedding invitation and are in a bit of a panic over the dress code? I was in the same boat! This post will show you how to dress well on the cheap for a black tie wedding.

Here’s my own story about how I figured out how to dress to the 9s for a black tie wedding. After doing research, it look like we had to spend over $1,000 for the two of us to attend. But it’s totally possible to look the part without spending a fortune.

As soon as the economy opens back up again, surely there will be more black tie weddings to attend. There’s so much catching up to do post-pandemic!



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How Much To Spend On A Hotel While Traveling Abroad – Calculate Your Adjusted NHER©

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Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, Korea
Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul

When the pandemic is finally over, you might be wondering how much to spend on a hotel. I’ve traveled to over 60 countries in my lifetime and have stayed at hundreds of hotels.

Let me provide a framework on how much to spend on a hotel to get the best bang for the buck.

How Much To Spend On A Hotel In Asia

Before leaving for Asia I told myself I’d live it up by staying at only the finest 5-star hotels. Compared to America, Asia ex-Japan is relatively cheap. I had just finished paying down $100,000 in mortgage debt seven months earlier than expected and felt like I deserved to be rewarded.

Billing 60 hours a week for three months in a row as a consultant in order to expedite my mortgage payoff was also the antithesis of being an “early retiree.” 

All excited to start booking my hotels, I clicked the 5-star only search option online for Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. But instead of booking four nights at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul for $350 a night, I decided to book the Centermark Hotel in Insadong for only $120 a night after taxes and fees.

The Centermark Hotel was rated four stars and had free wifi. It was walking distance to all the major palaces and the Buchchon village. A $1,320 savings could easily pay for all food, transportation, and attraction tickets while in South Korea!

Then it was Kuala Lumpur’s turn to book a hotel. Originally I was going to stay at Villa Samadhi, a 5-star resort in the heart of Ampang where I used to live as a kid. The hotel looks like an oasis, perfect for a honeymoon retreat. At $250 a night for a suite with a private pool, breakfast, and wifi, it’s pretty good value compared to the prices you’d find for a similar suite in San Francisco.

But here’s the thing. My personal finance brain took over. The GDP per capita in Malaysia is only about $24,500 vs. $35,400 for South Korea and $78,000 for San Francisco! What business do I have spending $250 a night for a 5-star hotel in Malaysia as that would be equivalent to spending around $850 a night in San Francisco, something I’d never do! Instead of booking Villa Samadhi for $250 a night, I decided to book the four-star Impiana Hotel in KLCC for $120 a night. It just felt right.



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