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Is It Better To Rent To Males Or Females?

Updated: 04/26/2021 by Financial Samurai 63 Comments

Nobody quite understands the challenges of being a landlord until they’ve been one. Finding ideal tenants is top priority, and it’s not always easy. I’ve been for over 13 years now and have some crazy stories. In your search for tenants, you may be wondering whether it’s better to rent to males or females.

First of all, don’t rush the tenant screening process regardless of a tenant’s gender. It can be easy getting tenants in, but it can be near impossible getting them out.

Time To Find An Ideal Tenant Again

One night back in 2010, I remember getting t a written notice in the mail informing me that my tenant of 2.5 years was moving back East. I wondered, how could he leave paradise to move back home to the sweltering heat of New Jersey?

I’ll never know. Anyway, I was really sad to see him go because he was as close to the ideal tenant as possible.

Ned always paid on time. He was quiet, didn’t have raging parties, and never bothered me to come fix anything. OK, so there were a couple times he needed an extra week or two to pay rent, but in the end he always delivered.

What I Look For In A Tenant As A 13-Year Landlord

I’ve learned a lot about the tenant vetting process over the years as a landlord. I currently own three rental properties in San Francisco, where I’ve lived for around two decades.

Here’s a list of attributes I look for in a tenant when I’m reviewing rental applications. Note, my initial screening does not pay attention to whether or not I should rent to males or females.

Great credit (680 or higher, and the higher the better).
Not a psycho killer or a clearly mentally unstable person. You know the ones with crazy eyes when you talk to them.
Has a stable source of income, which could include interest income if s/he has no job.
Good prior landlord references.
Has enough money in the bank to cover at least 18 months of rent if he/she lost their job.
Longer than 1 year duration at his or her job. Longer the better.
A pleasant demeanor, i.e. not an axe murderer or an asshole.

If a candidate possesses all of the above attributes, I’m more than likely to rent my apartment to them.

It’s really not worth taking a risk on a poor tenant only to miss out on months of rental income due to non payment, or litigation!

Now, the next question I have is whether it’s better to rent to males or females and whether it matters at all? Let’s discuss.

Who Makes Better Tenants: Males Or Females?

As a landlord, all you want are three main things.

On time payment
Zero complaints
Minimum wear and tear

In other words, if I could rent to a robot who doesn’t have to move and always sends me a check electronically on time, that would be the best!

1) Dependability

Dependability is pretty much a wash between men and women. Men are just as flaky as women. And women are just as dependable as men. Usually.

Actually, if I exam all the females I know, they are all pretty damn dependable. Whereas some of the guys I know just tend to be complete flakazoids who are never on time. OK, women are favored here 60/40.

2) Complaints

Men tend to pride themselves on being able to unclog the toilet, change light bulbs, fix holes in walls, and paint. Women, typically not so much.

I’ve heard stories from other rental property owners where women will call their landlord to squash a spider. Come on now, a spider is like 1/1,000,000 the size of you! Men get the nod 70/30.

3) Wear And Tear

This is a tricky factor to determine whether it’s better to rent to males or females. Men tend to enjoy throwing parties with lots of loud music and fountains of alcohol. For example, keg parties, strip parties, bachelor parties, birthday parties, you name it!

I rented my house to 5 guys once. It was a complete disaster. The neighbors constantly called me complaining about them throwing parties. They didn’t abide by the lease terms on noise, staying off the roof, etc. And man were they total slobs. They stained and scraped the floors and walls, bashed a hole in the wall, cracked my tile floor, etc.

Not only that, they bought used furniture on Craigslist that was infested with bed bugs and then tried to blame me for the infestation. When I finally got them all out, I said never again!

Women don’t throw ragers as often as men for some reason. Furthermore, it is the unmarried woman who tends to sleep over at the boyfriend’s house more often than vice versa. Hence, there typically is less wear and tear if you rent to a woman. And therefore women are 70/30 favorites when it comes to wear and tear.

Related: How To Deal With Bad Tenants

Conclusion

Based on my three variables, there’s no perfect answer on if it’s better to rent to males or females. You may be having having trouble deciding which is the safer sex to rent to as well.

Women generally just seem so much more respectable and less violent. How many serial killers do you know are women? In the movie “Pacific Heights,” Michael Keaton was a man and not a woman.

My gut tells me women are better, but the funny thing is my last tenant of 2.5 years was a man, and he was great! Ultimately, you’ve got to look at your prospective tenants individually, regardless of their gender.

Do a thorough background check. Call and review all their references. Verify their employment. Have multiple conversations with them. Make them get renters insurance. And go with your gut. If they are annoying you from the beginning, they will highly likely drive you even more crazy over time.

* Please note that it is illegal to discriminate against a potential tenant based on sex, race, or creed. However, it is legal to ask a question and wonder out loud.

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Fundrise Due Diligence Funnel — Less than 5% of the real estate deals shown gets through the Fundrise funnel

Are You A Financial Dumb Ass? Be Honest With Yourself To Get Rich

Updated: 03/08/2022 by Financial Samurai 59 Comments

Every now and again, I stumble across something that makes me wonder, “Are you a financial dumb ass?” Someone forwarded me a post from a year ago where a PF blogger spent $60,000 on a luxury car right after revealing his net worth was only $55,000! He clearly violated my 1/10th rule for car buying everyone should follow.

I mean seriously, is that not a little messed up or what? It’s almost as dumb as a minimalist owning multiple Apple products, a health nut who smokes and drinks soda, a vegan who wears leather shoes, and an evangelist who embezzles millions from you.

When I innocently asked why he spent more on his car than his entire family’s net worth, another commenter responded that it was because the blogger wanted to save money by spending money so he wouldn’t have money left over every month to spend. Huh? What? Hmmmmm. That’s just dumb.

Let’s Not Be A Financial Dumb Ass Any More

The barriers to entry for being a personal finance blogger are really low. Just look at all the dumb things on this sight for example! The hurdle is so low that you can write about amazingly stupid financial moves, and still have a nice readership following.

You can literally write about anything and proclaim you have the keys to wealth, without being wealthy yourself yet. In 2009, Iwas inspired by Ramit Sethi, who wrote a book on how to be rich as an inexperienced 26-year-old! Now he’s plenty rich and selling $2,000+ e-courses on how to make money online. The point is, don’t wait until you are an expert to start. Start and figure things out on the way.

You can write about the detriments of home ownership, while never having owned a home. You can rag about how idiotic politicians waste our hard-earned money without ever having stepped in their shoes. Whatever the case may be, all of you should consider starting your own blogs and get rich!

Don’t let honor and pride get in the way of doing what you want. This was my biggest mistake when trying to grow Financial Samurai. I thought I needed the firsthand experience and expertise before writing about something. Instead, I should have just written about anything and hired a bunch of freelancers like many of my competitors to grow! Well, better late than never to realize my mistakes.

We have blogs about how to blog. We have blogs making a lot of money teaching others how to make a lot of money blogging. There are blogs out there that talk about blogs that talk about blogs! There are even self-proclaimed social media and self-help gurus.

They better have the bomb ass life or else I ain’t listening to them! There are blogs that talk about relationships and marriage by single people who’ve never been married. There are bloggers who making $30,000+ a month who still pretend to write like they are poor as to not alienate their readers.

The point is, we are free to do whatever we please. So long as we have an opinion, there will be those who will want to listen to what you have to say.

My Own Financial Dumb Ass Mistakes And More

Frankly, I love financial dumb ass posts. They makes me laugh and want to comment profusely. I’ve got a lot of dumb posts that have engendered a lot of conversation.

One of my favorites is, “How To Increase Your Job Security For Life“. What an idiotic idea, making babies to save yourself from a layoff! Or is it? Kids are not only a great unemployment insurance, they must also be very cheap, otherwise you would never see poor families with multiple kids.

I’ve talked about how we should implement a flat tax system so that everybody has skin in the game to help our nation thrive. Seriously, what kind of dumb ass system is a flat tax where everybody pays an equal percentage of their income to taxes above a certain poverty threshold? It doesn’t make sense that those who make less, pay less and those who make more pay more with a flat tax.

It’s such a financial dumb ass proposal that the post garnered well over a hundred comments saying how stupid it is! Let’s only make the top 50% of income earners pay for everything, since only the top 50% of income earners use all our governments resources.

Why would anybody bother saving any money for retirement when we have the government to provide us a safety net? We’ve got 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, fantastic pensions, social security and medicare. If it was up to me, we’d employ the 5-year unemployment program called the “Shock & Awe Yeah” (SAY)! We’ve got a government who can’t stop spending the top 50% income earner’s money on everybody, so let it rain baby!

More Financial Dumb Ass Ideas

Who are the cheapos who don’t live it up and don’t spend everything they earn? Life is short and we can die tomorrow. There’s no point working if you don’t spend. If the government safety system doesn’t work, you can always find yourself a working spouse!

So many people decided to convert to a ROTH IRA in 2010. Can you believe that people voluntarily decided to pay taxes to a government whose spending is out of control? The more money you give the government, the more they will spend on things that won’t benefit you! Come on folks, please be aware of all the disadvantages of a Roth IRA. Be smarter and not a financial dumb ass!

Converters and contributors of a ROTH IRA believe that when it comes to paying taxes during retirement, they will be making more money during retirement than when working (???) largely because they will have accumulated 20-40X their average lifetime income! When people are struggling to save just 10X their annual income in retirement, these patriots think they can accumulate double to quadruple. Hmmmm.

And then there’s Alexandra Wallace. She is a dumb ass for making a public rant that could potentially offend 2 billion people! Doesn’t she know that her name will be forever linked to someone who hates Asians? The majority of all employers will Google your name just to make sure nothing crazy comes up.

She must be a trust fund baby, because she’s going to have a tough time finding a full-time job unless she wipes her identity clean and changes her name.

Ok, ok. Let me share my financial dumb ass mistakes.

My $350 dumb ass chair massage.

Just recently, I went to park at a local drugstore parking lot in the middle of the day. The lot has a 1 hour time limit so I figured I’d go to the bank to deposit some cash money and then hop on over to the Chair Massage Store and get a free back rub before buying my sundries.

I sunk my way in one of those ridiculously priced $6,000 leather machines and kicked back enjoying a massage I would have paid $80 for otherwise. The clerk literally let me keep on going for 45 minutes! All was wonderful until I got back to the parking lot 1 hour 20 minutes later to find Moose GONE! WTF!

The parking Nazi called the tow company on the 55th minute mark and it ended up costing me $350 to go rescue Moose! What a burn! I’m such a dumb ass!

$30,000 for hope, which is not a strategy.

I remember losing some $30,000 (roughly 25%) in a gas trading company because I overly concentrated my risk on one stock and foolishly thought gas prices, and therefore its stock price would rebound. Well, they didn’t and I had to pull the rip chord in late 2006 only after three months of holding.

If had bought a more regular size position and had a stop loss, I would have lost only about $10,000. At least I wasn’t the only casualty as Amaranth Capital lost US$6 billion betting the same way. Damn, that was an ugly dumb ass trade!

A $200,000+ vacation property mistake.

I once had the idea of buying vacation properties all over the world, to relax all over the world, while making an income as well during retirement. It’s a decent idea if everything stays stable, but of course the real estate market blew up. I realized I was in the midst of things blowing up, and the trader in me couldn’t resist buying a place $115,000 cheaper than what the owner had bought the place for just a year ago.

Well guess what? The place went down another $100,000 + a year later because the mortgage market for vacation properties dried up and nobody could get a loan! The mortgage market has since thawed out a little, and the rents do cover most of the costs, but damn I should have waited just one year longer, or at least bought after seeing an uptick.

Although I never plan to sell, I’m still a dumb ass idiot for buying too soon. At least I’ll have some fond memories while I’m up there! Note: I classify vacation property differently than rental property. One is a luxury + rental income, the other is purely for income.

Don’t Be A Dummy If You Want To Get Ahead

No matter how perfect one seems, know that they have a lot of dumb ass in them. This is the reason why you should never give up. There will be openings at work, in relationships, and in life where you just have to pounce when mishaps happen. Eventually, it will be your turn to be a dumb ass and the reverse will happen so don’t feel guilty.

It really doesn’t take much to get ahead. You just have to be a little bit smarter, and a little bit savvier than the dumb ass person next to you. At the same time, you need to always appear dumber and more aloof than you really are.

Personal finance is really straight forward. Yet, you see a lot of stupid activity anyway. My advice to you is to secretly do all the right things.

Can someone tell me whether I should go buy a $2.6 million Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 now? A company expense perhaps? Thanks!

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Planning for retirement when paying for private grade school — Link up your accounts and see whether you’re on track to retirement in great shape or in poverty

Zynga Rejected My Application So I Unleashed The FURY!

Updated: 08/05/2021 by Financial Samurai 46 Comments

One thing I plan on doing in retirement is find a potential encore career. As a computer and internet junky who has built up a reasonable size blog, a foray into the social media sector seems like a natural extension. I want to make sure that I exhaust all options before I really kick back and harass my father on the golf course a couple times a week.

Applying to positions is so easy now thanks to the internet and LinkedIn. It takes around five minutes per online application and you will get an e-mail confirmation immediately after pressing send. For those who don’t know, Zynga is an online social game maker of Farmville, Words With Friends, and other names that rely predominantly on Facebook’s user platform to make money via ads and virtual goods.

Given I’ve been reminded about Zynga with Mark Pincus’ handsome face all smiling down below in my post, “How The Rich And Powerful Become More Rich And Powerful,” I figured why not shoot them an application despite their horrendous reputation for long work hours and ruthless management.. I didn’t talk to Mark at Marissa’s party, but I did swing by their sweet offices once in the SF Design District.

For most of June and July, Zynga’s stock hovered around $5 a share, a 65% decline from its recent March 2012 high of $14.20. I figured in my ever optimistic self that it was better to get options at $5 than all the poor folks who joined earlier in the year at much higher levels.

And so, between scrubbing my chiseled pecs during bath time earlier this month, I submitted my application. A couple weeks later I got this rejection letter:

TIME TO UNLEASH THE FIST OF FURY!

I started crying my eyes out when I got the e-mail. How could they reject someone like me! I’m a hard working, loyal soldier, who plays Words With Friends for free, and partied with the big boss, Mark Pincus! Come on now! Don’t they know who I am?

Like a Prom Queen scorned by a fickle King, I decided that if I can’t have Zynga, NOBODY CAN! I went into the deepest cracks of my cobwebbed mind to conjure up the most potent of spells. After 20 seconds of practice, I chanted:

“Ommm, howwwww, could, youuu, wrooong, meee ZyngaaaaaaaH. Youuuuu, muuuust, paaaaaaaay, for this dishonorrrrrr. Saaay gooodbyeeee to youur leeetle foooze ball tabullll and shittttttay gamezzzzz!”

After the close on Wed, July 25, just days after the spell was cast, Zynga shit the bed and slashed 2012 forecasts by 70%. The stock tumbled 40% to $3 a share.

Oops, wrong spell! I meant to just give the recruiter a little morning diarrhea, not blow up the entire company!

LESSONS LEARNED

* Don’t make me mad because I have spellz.

* Watch what insiders do. They sold $500 million worth of stock at $12 in April, 2012.

* Winds change, trends change, tastes change.

* Not all startups will make you rich. In fact, many start ups will make you poor by wasting your time and underpaying you.

* There are blessings in disguise all the time. Be optimistic.

* Don’t be overly reliant on one source of traffic (FB).

* When in motion, objects tend to stay in motion.

* Not everything is as it seems.

* You can talk the talk, but bullshit walks. Numbers are what matters for public companies.

* Don’t be naive.

* There will be casualties of war.

* Don’t take things personally.

* It’s only money.

* Companies are allowed to lie, “As you know, we are growing rapidly!” Uh, I don’t think so!

Readers, would you work at Zynga? Do you think there will now be a mass exodus of employees at Zynga, thereby increasing my chances of working there? Do you think insiders new about the bad trend in April? Will Zynga survive as a public company a year from now?

Oh, and don’t feel sorry for Zynga executives and major shareholders. Here’s what they got when they sold in April:

Marc Pincus, Zynga’s CEO, sold 16.5 million shares for $200 million
Institutional Venture Partners, a Zynga investor, sold 5.8 million shares for $70 million
Union Square Ventures, a Zynga investor, sold 5.2 million shares for $62 million
Google, a Zynga investor, sold 4 million shares for $48 million
SilverLake Partners, a Zynga investor, sold 4 million shares for $48 million
Reid Hoffman, a Zynga investor, sold 688,000 shares for $8.2 million
David Wehner, Zynga’s CFO, sold 386,000 shares for $4.6 million
John Schappert, Zynga’s COO, sold 322,000 shares for $3.9 million
Reginald Davis, Zynga’s General Counsel, sold 315,000 shares for $3.8 million

Photo: Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury 2, PD.

Update 2020: Zynga is still in the dumps. They can’t innovate or create cool new games on their own.

Learn How To Negotiate A Severance Package

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Deep Thoughts On Twitter: Cold Food And Suffering

Updated: 04/03/2021 by Financial Samurai 19 Comments

If you ever find yourself in a bizarre situation or want to get some interesting answers to a question, turn to social media. I recently got some deep thoughts on Twitter over cold food and suffering. Here’s how it all went down.

I clicked the 2 minute super nuke button on my microwave before leaving to park my car. Moose was left outside after a late night of partying. And I didn’t want the parking crazies to give me a lovely $70 ticket for blocking my own driveway.

Two minutes should have been enough sizzle time to keep my food toasty before I got back. Eight minutes later (checked and read the mail too), I came back to ravish my leftover Pad Thai. Oh, how disappointed I was my food was cold.

Amusing And Deep Thoughts On Twitter

And so I tweeted:

“If room temperature is considered warm, why does my food always get cold? #Deepthoughts as I ponder the meaning of life while writing.” via @FinancialSamura

My question was sincere, in the moment, and with no time to think. I got a couple sincerely interesting responses.

Read More…

Instead Of Twitter Love What About A Twitter War?

Updated: 04/07/2021 by Financial Samurai 38 Comments

Instead of Twitter love, what about Twitter war? I’ve been on Twitter since 2009 and I’m also a shareholder.

Twitter is a truly amazing platform. I’m impressed with how some can literally Twitter all day and not get tired. There is definitely an addictive element to Twitter which makes the program so alluring. There are a ton of announcements of self greatness which I am very fond of reading for some reason.

Twitter Love Examples:

* “I rock because I created an awesome commercial about my product!”

* “My stock picks are up huge and outperforming the markets!”

* “Check out my net worth, killing it up 10%!”

* “Take a look at my new Gravatar picture! What do you think? Ain’t I cute?”

* “Happy birthday to me! Come celebrate with me over on my site!”

* “Thanks!” -> What? “Sweet!” -> What? “Cool!” -> What?

Read More…

Blink And Blink Again: Your Unconscious Mind At Work

Updated: 02/16/2021 by Financial Samurai 33 Comments

It’s safe to say that before you began reading this post, you had no idea you were blinking. Blink, blink, blink. Whatcha going to do about it now that you are aware of your fluttering eyelids? My guess is that your memory will last as long as a gnat, and you’ll forget as soon as you finish reading this post.

It’s amazing how we can blink roughly 36,000 times a day and not even be aware. Yet, if we were to be consciously aware of our need to blink, we’d probably drive ourselves mad. How great it is that our bodies protect ourselves from insanity by doing the things for us we have no desire of doing ourselves.

Blink – SUDDENLY YOU’LL WAKE UP

Our little habits create ourselves and we don’t even know it until we wake up one day and say “Holy shitake!” I did that once with my 401K after contributing the max every year for 10 years. Every month, roughly $1,300 was deducted from my paycheck for 120 months until it accumulated into a nice sum of money without even realizing it.

I have no idea what my returns are, since there was also 401K matching and profit sharing as well. For all I know, my 10 year real rate of return was zero since the stock market performed so badly. The funny thing is, I don’t really care because it’s all fake money anyway since I can’t tough it until 59.5 years old.

The sum after 10 years is also much larger than $1,300 X 120 months because of all the matching and profit sharing so it’s hard to figure out. But, by doing something I’m supposed to be doing without even being aware, there it is, a nice sum of money that * might * be around when I retire.

The same thing goes for savings. If you regularly flush money out of your “go broke bank” and into your savings bank long enough, you’re also going to wake up one day and be astonished at what you’ve accumulated. You don’t have to manually transfer money each time your paycheck hits because everything is done automatically, just like blinking.

If you get a nice lovely bonus end of year, you may have to click some transfer buttons, but it’s all part of the unconscious routine to wealth accumulation.

Blink – SO EASY ANYBODY CAN DO IT

Blinking comes naturally to most people. Most everyone does it without thinking. Savings is the exact same way. Only someone with a genetic defect can’t or won’t save money consistently without giving it a second thought.

China’s gross domestic saving rate is roughly 45% of GDP and the Japanese save 30-40% of their income every year. So what in Hamburger Nation is wrong with the 330 million Americans with a sub 5% savings rate?

The answer is that the often quoted low savings rate in America is bogus because the way we calculate savings is outdated.

I firmly do not believe that you and I are that weak to only save less than 5% of our income. Just ask yourself how much you are saving, and the answer is clearly more than 5%!

Develop Good Habits

The best habits in the world are those you do without thinking. When you’re in an elevator, you let the ladies go out first and then ask for their phone numbers. When you’re subsequently on the date, you say nice things and pick up the check.

When you meet a friend, you’re always 10 minutes early instead of 10 minutes late. When you’re part of a personal finance blog network, you work on building healthy relationships.

When you have the privilege of getting a higher education, you take advantage and get good grades. So many good things are done unconsciously. Now all you have to do is remember to breathe.

Check out my top financial products page to help you reach financial independence sooner.

Regards,

Sam

My First Car Was A Heap Of Junk How About Yours?

Updated: 01/14/2021 by Financial Samurai 52 Comments

Joining Uber As A Driver With $50 Gas Promo — Rhino Joins Uber

My first car was pretty crappy. How about yours?

After getting my driver’s license at 17, I talked to my parents about finally getting a car. I don’t remember why I didn’t get my license at 16, but perhaps it was because I had such a spiffy bicycle the ladies loved. *Ring a ding a ling * was the sound of my bell every time I rode by a hot girl.

It always felt odd that I had to walk or ride my bike to school when other kids got to drive their new Ford Explorer SUVs, and VW Jettas. Even my parents drove an 8 year old car at the time. Oh well, I thought to myself. Perhaps one day.

THE HIDDEN GEM THAT WAS NOT A GEM

The day I got my driver’s license was one of the most memorable days. One, because I failed the written test the first time, and my mom wasn’t too happy. Two, because my parents took me to “Fresh Choice”, an all you can eat buffet restaurant to celebrate. I had dreams of rumbling in a 5.0 liter Mustang for my first car. Nothing sounds so beautiful. In fact, I actually test drove one of my classmates because he was selling it to buy an Acura NSX! “$9,000 and it’s yours Sam!” Yeah right. All I have is like $900 bucks, but I sure am glad I got to test drive!

My parents gave me a $2,000 budget, so I searched the Auto For Sale section of the papers gleefully to find my dream vehicle. Damn, even in those days $2,000 wasn’t too much money. There was no internet at the time mind you so all I could do was base my impression on some text in a paper. I finally stumbled upon one ad that just sung to me, “Excellent condition 1987 Nissan Sentra with only 135,000! Seller is running for District Supervisor. Only $1,699!” $1,699 was $500 cheaper than all the other comparables and I thought I had a deal.

We drove out to the aspiring District Supervisor’s shoddy apartment and took a look. What a junker! The car had a faded yellowish color, with a newly painted driver’s door, because obviously someone bashed into it. Even still, we took it for a ride, and I just loved it. We paid cash on the spot and drove it home.

With all the scrubbers and cleaning chemicals I bought from the auto store, I got to work detailing every single inch of my new baby. I even got one of those scented pine cone car fresheners to hang from my rear view mirror. It was a dream come true. My very first car to drive to school in!

FIZZLE POP

Too bad only a month had past when * boom * my clutch broke down and my car no longer could shift gears and move. No wonder it was $500 cheaper than all the other cars in the paper.

I had to replace all of the CV boots as well. $1,100 later, the car was as good as new. Curses to you District Supervisor! Now I remember why I don’t trust politicians. It all started at age 17. I’m glad I started with a piece of crap, because nothing could have been worse!

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Updated for 2021 and beyond

Is There Ever A Right Time To Upgrade Your Engagement Ring?

Updated: 11/12/2018 by Financial Samurai 104 Comments

One of my old friends, Peter mentioned the other day that he got engaged. He’s 37 and she’s 28. They met about 4 years ago at a bar when he was somewhat inebriated but immediately hit it off.

Peter isn’t exactly the most studly looking guy standing at 5′ 7″ with a belly hanging over his belt, but he’s kind. They are two months into their engagement and don’t plan to get married until next summer. All was going well until one night, Peter’s fiance Nancy inquired about when she could upgrade her engagement ring!

YOUNG EXPECTATIONS

Read More…

The Ultimate Solution For A Fair Income Tax Policy In America

Updated: 04/07/2021 by Financial Samurai 79 Comments

Do you want a fair income tax policy in America? So do I! I wrote this post on July 28, 2010 when I was working crazy hours. My hope was to make big bucks and be free sooner, than later. The potential to pay more taxes was disheartening.

Let’s review what was going on back then. Let’s also discuss how we should proceed w/ President Biden planning to raise taxes on households making over $400,000 a year. Man, I was really frustrated back then. But not any longer!

The Ultimate Solution For A Fair Income Tax Policy

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire next year, there’s going to be a big debate during the mid-term elections this November! But, should there really even be a tax debate? It’s obvious that we should NOT raise taxes on small business owners and higher income, hard working Americans in a nascent economic recovery!

Everybody knows roughly 47% of Americans pay no federal income taxes. Hence, the ultimate solution for tax legislation is to strip away tax voting rights for the 47% of Americans who pay no tax! Seems fair no? They still get to enjoy the benefits of other people’s contributions.

If you’re one of the 100+ million Americans who pay no income tax, isn’t it good enough to enjoy free public schooling, nice roads, friendly firemen and police officers protecting your neighborhood? Being thankful is a great disposition to have. Being greedy is not.

An Example Of A Family Making $120,000 Paying No Taxes:

“Say you’re married with salary income of $120,000, 401(k) contributions of $12,000, two under-age-17 kids, and a college student with $4,000 in education expenses. Assume you also bought a home this year that qualifies for the now-defunct $6,500 credit for existing homeowners. Finally, assume you’re eligible for the $1,500 credit for energy-efficient home improvements. Believe it or not, your 2010 federal income tax bill will be zero even if you only claim the standard deduction.

Your tax bill of $11,950 is completely wiped out by $13,300 in credits ($2,000 child credit, $2,500 education credit, $6,500 home buyer credit, $1,500 credit for energy-efficient improvements, and the $800 Making Work Pay credit).

In fact, you’ll get a $1,350 check from the government. Some of your credits are refundable ($13,300 of credits – $11,950 of tax = $1,350 of free money),” writes Bill Bischoff of SmartMoney.

2017 Marginal Federal Income Tax Rates — Assuming Trump doesn’t lower them. This existing tier doesn’t reward work ethic. It punishes!

VOTING TO RAISE TAXES ON OTHERS WHEN YOU PAY NO TAXES IS LIKE……..

If you vote to raise other people’s taxes, please pay more yourself. Otherwise, it’s like:

* Dr. Phil writing a book and telling someone to lose weight.

* Suzie Orman telling you to invest in the stock market when only 2% of her wealth is invested in equities.

* A recent college graduate teaching you how to be rich.

* A hardcore vegetarian who wears leather shoes.

* A priest who preaches acceptance but expects you to burn in hell when Armageddon comes if you don’t convert.

* The United States implementing economic sanctions against emerging countries for polluting.

* A boss who tells you to work hard but goes and plays golf every other day and takes long lunches.

* US Treasury Secretary Geithner saying raising taxes is “the right thing to do” but cheats on his own taxes.

A Fair Income Tax Policy Is All We Ever Want

Some may argue that voting is a fundamental right as decreed by the 15th amendment of the Constitution. I agree, go ahead and vote on whether the government should implement a flat tax on those who pay nothing. It’s only fair. Just don’t go around pretending as a non tax payer, you have the right to vote on persecuting others to pay for your own free government benefits.

It’s so obvious to any rational person that if you pay no taxes, you can’t possibly be able to vote for people whose agenda it is to raise taxes on others. Yet, millions of non tax paying Americans continue to support tax increases for the rich, who may very well be the ones who help keep the millions who don’t pay taxes employed!

Friendly Americans who pay no taxes, please have a heart and enjoy your spoils and stop punishing others further. For the 53% of Americans who do pay taxes, let us decide what is the right level of income taxation to help support the economy and you guys. We might vote to raise our own taxes and dis-incentivize ourselves to work hard. So be it. At least we get to vote on our own destiny! Thanks!

Track Your Net Worth For Free

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After you link all your accounts, use their Retirement Planning calculator that pulls your real data to give you as pure an estimation of your financial future as possible using Monte Carlo simulation algorithms. Input various expense and income variables to see how you stand. Your goal should be to get to a 90% probability of achieving your goal. Try it out yourself for free. Your future is too important not to take it seriously. You don’t want to end up old and not have enough money because there is no rewind button!

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Tax Savings Recommendation

Start A Business. We might never get a fair income tax policy. As a result, starting a business is one of the best ways to shield your income from more taxes. You can either incorporate as an LLC, S-Corp, or simply be a Sole Proprietor (no incorporating necessary, just be a consultant and file a schedule C).

Every business person can start a Self-Employed 401k where you can contribute up to $54,000 ($18,000 from you and ~20% of operating profits). All your business-related expenses are tax deductible as well. Simply launch your own website like this one in under 30 minutes to legitimize your business. Here’s my step-by-step guide to starting your own website.

Start a simple business to pay less taxes and contribute more to pre-tax retirement accounts. Instead of paying taxes on $100,000 in income, you’re only paying taxes on $12,000 for maybe a $2,000 tax bill, or 2% effective tax rate.

The Best Financial Advice I’ve Ever Heard From A Comedian

Updated: 01/04/2023 by Financial Samurai 33 Comments

Here’s the best financial advice I’ve ever heard from a comedian.

One of the best things about living in a big city is the diversity of people. Minorities are actually a 51% majority, leading to an abundance of food, culture, and festivities. Most importantly, a diverse community teaches us acceptance and understanding of each other.

Canadian-Indian comedian, Russell Peters recently visited San Francisco where I got to see him perform. He is an absolute riot! Russell pokes fun at the incredible ability by both Indian and Chinese to drive hard bargains. It’s interesting to witness what happens when they negotiate with each other! Keep an open mind, and I hope you enjoy the skit.

Three Key Lessons From The Video:

1) Never discredit the value of 50 cents, because 50c + 50c = $1 dolla!

2) Don’t be afraid to negotiate. It’s your money.

3) “Be a man! Do the right thing!”

Readers, what are some of your best negotiation strategies when it comes to buying things from vendors? Anybody big Dollar Store fans? What are some of your favorite comedic skits? Any other financial advice from a comedian you’ve heard?

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Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

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