Search Results for: copyright song

How To Copyright A Song And Earn Royalties: Introducing Cutie Baby

Published: 06/05/2018 | Updated: 02/26/2019 by Financial Samurai 30 Comments

As a new parent, a lot of your time is spent trying to soothe and get your baby to sleep. Besides providing a constant rocking motion, one of the best ways to soothe a baby is to sing to him or her, regardless of whether you have a lovely voice or not.

Eventually, everything you say becomes a song because a pleasant melody is what babies love.

For example, instead of speaking, I will sing to my wife, “Wheeeeen was the last time he aaaaate?” Or, “Did we forgeeet to change his diapeeeeer? lalala.” It’s a rite of passage that parents speak parentese or sing-songy.

Over the first three months of my son’s life, I came up with a number of songs that helped him stop crying or actually pass out within five minutes. However, given my previous voice training was back in elementary school, I’m a terrible singer. Fortunately, my little one doesn’t know that. All he knows is that hearing the sound of my voice makes him feel safe.

I have three goals for this post:

1) Share how musical dreamers can copyright a song.

2) Help new parents get their kids to go to sleep with a brand new lullaby that can be easily sung.

3) Highlight the many different ways you can earn royalty income once you’ve copyrighted your song.

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Personal Lessons Learned Since The 2008 – 2009 Financial Crisis

Published: 04/09/2020 | Updated: 01/13/2021 by Financial Samurai 76 Comments

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers went bust. I remember this day clearly because I made a $200 side bet with my friend over the weekend that the US government would bail them out. To my surprise, the US government didn’t rescue Lehman, and the stock cratered that Monday and never recovered. This is my most poignant memory of the financial crisis.

Despite all the economic devastation, I wouldn’t mind rewinding time and going back to 2008. I’d rather be 31 than 42, simply because I love life and want to live as many years as possible.

As we potentially head into another recession due to the coronavirus locking up economic activity and the collapse of oil prices causing tremendous job loss in the oil & gas sector, here are some lessons learned during and since the financial crisis.

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Help With Anxiety And Suicidal Thoughts As An Entrepreneur

Help with anxiety and suicidal thoughts as an entpreneur

Dear Financial Samurais,

Kate Spade’s suicide was a shock. Here’s a woman who seemingly had it all: fame, fortune, and family. Yet she still ended her life at the age of 55. She had been fighting depression for many years.

Her suicide is the first time I’ve been able to relate because as an entrepreneur it’s common to struggle with anxiety and doubt on a daily basis. The greater your success, the higher your anxiety due to greater expectations.

She and her husband also sold their business when they had their first child, just like how we sold our SF rental house when our son was born to make more time for him.

On post days, I naturally wake up 1-3 hours earlier than my normal 6am because I’m worried I have a typo, a link error, or might receive some sort of backlash. Such anxiety is one of the reasons why I’m considering removing the comments section and making my posts more bland going forward.

It’s also extremely painful to spend hours, days, months, and sometimes years creating something new and have nobody appreciate your work.

The reason why I waited three years to start Financial Samurai was because I was embarrassed by my writing. What if nobody reads? It was a very lonely endeavor the first six months. Even my dad, who is my editor ’til this day, tears up my content every week. That’s his job, but sometimes, it would be nice to hear an “attaboy.”

The reason why I waited a year to publish the Cutie Baby lullaby page is because I was embarrassed by my voice and lyrics. What if nobody listens? Not even my wife listened to my podcast with the song a couple hours after I asked her a second time that morning. She was too busy taking care of our son, who is the reason why I podcast and created the song in the first place. No matter, I plan to continue podcasting for the remainder of the year because that’s what I said I’d do.

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Cutie Baby: A Samurai Lullaby

Cutie Baby

Cutie baby
Mama’s here for you
Cutie baby
Is there anything Papa can do?
Cutie baby
You look so sweet tonight
Dream away baby
Everything’s gonna be alright
Little dragon baby
Grow up to be so mighty
Cutie baby
Everything’s gonna be alrighty

Cutie baby
Papa’s here for you
Cutie baby
Is there anything Mama can do?
Cutie baby
We’re so blessed to have you
Yawn away baby
We’ll always be there for you
Little muffin baby
Is there anything more we can do?
Cutie baby
You’ve made our dreams come true

Sweet dreams little one

Customize With Your Child’s Name

Cutie Baby is a lullaby constructed in a way where you can use your little one’s name in the lyrics. All you’ve got to do is replace the word “Cutie” with a different name and you’re good to go. If your little one’s name is long, or doesn’t rhyme why baby, that’s OK. All you’ve got to truncate the name and add an “a” or a “y” so it does.

For example: David becomes Davy. William becomes Billy. Katrina becomes Katey. Susan becomes Susy. Samuel become Sammy etc.

If you are a gay couple or a single parent, you can simply change the lyrics of “mama” and “papa.” The song is meant to be inclusive of all parents.

Cutie Baby Sheet Music

I wrote this song when my son was a couple months old. When it was my turn to take the night/morning shift, all I could do was think to myself while he slept for 1-2 hours at a time. The lyrics reflect my fears, my hopes, and my appreciation as a newborn dad.

I hope this lullaby will soothe your baby and let him or her more easily fall asleep. All your baby wants is to hear your lovely voice and feel safe.

Usage Inquiries: For those interested in using Cutie Baby for a commercial, TV show, movie, podcast, blog post, or any sort of production, please contact “financialsamurai AT gmail DOT com” with the title “Cutie Baby.” Cutie Baby copyright registration number is SR0000800220.

Any royalties received from Cutie Baby will be used to support children and adults with visual impairments such as nystagmus (involuntary movement of the eyes), ocular albinism (a lack of pigment in the retina), strabismus (misalignment of the eyes), and more.

Reader Versions Of Cutie Baby

I’d love to have readers record and e-mail me their versions of Cutie Baby. It would be a great honor.

RC, a mother of one from San Francisco:

Autumn Harrier, a mother of two from the Midwest:

DeForest, a father who loves to play the piano:

About the Author: Sam began investing his own money ever since he opened an online brokerage account in 1995. Sam loved investing so much that he decided to make a career out of investing by spending the next 13 years after college working at two of the leading financial service firms in the world. During this time, Sam received his MBA from UC Berkeley with a focus on finance and real estate. He also became Series 7 and Series 63 registered. In 2012, Sam was able to retire at the age of 34 largely due to his investments that generate passive income. He spends time playing tennis, hanging out with family, consulting for leading fintech companies and writing online to help others achieve financial freedom.

FinancialSamurai.com was started in 2009 and is one of the most trusted personal finance sites today with over 1.5 million organic pageviews a month. Financial Samurai has been featured in top publications such as the LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Sweet (Or Sweat) Dreams Of Becoming A Millionaire Again

Published: 03/13/2017 | Updated: 11/24/2020 by Financial Samurai 78 Comments

Many of us have dreams of becoming a millionaire. Well, I’d love to become a millionaire again after so many people showed so much doubt about my path to this financial milestone by 30.

In 2013, my overall income took a big hit. The glow of a six-figure severance paid out in 2012 was no more. Further, I didn’t have a job to pay my bills. All I had was my passive income and a relatively small amount of income that was coming from Financial Samurai.

I’ve always thought I was way too lucky to deserve the income I earned during my career in finance. All I did was study hard, get on a 6am bus to a career fair in Washington DC, and interview well enough to land a job that paid well.

Nobody from The College of William & Mary, a non-target state school, gets a front office job at Goldman Sachs in their world headquarters. I’ve been very lucky.

No matter how many times you hear of high income earners going bankrupt, if you are making at least $100,000 a year, it’s relatively easy to become a millionaire.

Working in finance almost felt like cheating. You not only gain extensive knowledge to make better financial decisions for yourself, you are also paid handsomely.

When I began looking for other employment opportunities outside of finance, I realized just how good the finance industry pays. It’s very hard to find jobs in tech/internet that pay over $250,000 a year.

But in investment banking, practically every 29 year old Associate makes such an amount. Many CEOs in other industries doesn’t even get paid that much.

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