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Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

8 Cars in 10 Years: I Have A Car Addiction Problem

Updated: by 27 Comments

If you have a car addiction problem, you’ve come to the right place. Back in my 20s and early 30s, I bought eight cars over a 10-year time frame. It was clear I had a car buying problem that needed solving.

I originally wrote this post on July 11, 2009 when I first started Financial Samurai. Today, I no longer have a car addiction problem. I’m mainly focused on safety and reliability to transport my family. However, I also appreciate the benefits of driving a luxury automobile as I do drive a 2015 Range Rover Sport.

If you are a fellow car addict, you’ll appreciate this post. I went on a journey of discovery until I went full circle.



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Do “C” Students Deserve “A” Lifestyles?

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Do “C” students deserve “A” lifestyles? I don’t think so. But it is probably because “C” students think they deserve “A” lifestyles that there is so much tension, debate, and misery in the workplace.

“C” Students And “A” Lifestyles

Back in the 9th grade, I remember goofing off quite a bit with my buddies. We skipped class, stayed out late, and essentially did a lot of stuff that was detrimental to our grades.

Despite working with plenty of Spanish speaking colleagues during my part-time job at McDonald’s, I still only got a “C” in Spanish because I didn’t care.  All I wanted to do was have fun, eat all the apple pies I could and get paid my big $4 an hour!

My parents were clearly perturbed by my lack of effort (hey, isn’t working at McDonald’s from 6am-1pm on Saturday’s pretty good?) and spoke to me one evening and asked, “How are you ever going to be a great business man if you can’t even get an “A” in math? Do you think award-winning scientists get “Cs” in high school chemistry? Do you think Andre Agassi doesn’t practice hard every single day?”

Crap, I think they are right. Shoot, if I ever have surgery, the physician better not have slacked off in surgery class!

Related: The Most Ridiculous Trip To The Principal’s Office Ever



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

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Financial Dumbass

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!

Related: Perpetual Failure Is The Reason Why I Continue To Save

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!

Related: Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead?

RECOMMENDATION TO BUILD WEALTH

In order to optimize your finances, you’ve first got to track your finances. I recommend signing up for Personal Capital’s free financial tools so you can track your net worth, analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees, and run your financials through their fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator.

Those who are on top of their finances build much greater wealth longer term than those who don’t. I’ve used Personal Capital since 2012. It’s the best free financial app out there to manage your money.

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

Grades Don’t Matter! Be A Screw Up In School If You Dare

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Bad Grades. F is for Failure
F Is For Failure b/c you spent too much time on FB

Grades obviously do matter. However, here’s a post arguing the other side, that grades don’t matter. I assure you grades do matter if you want to get a job at Goldman Sachs and eventually make $400,000 a year working 90+ hours a week!

For all those who didn’t perform well in college, don’t want to perform well in college, aren’t willing to go back to grad school to give yourself a second chance, and like to make excuses for not trying harder, you’re in for a real treat! 

It’s clear from the comments in my article “Examples of Good Resumes That Get Jobs,” your GPA doesn’t matter.  As someone who has participated in the hiring of dozens of individuals all these years, I’ve got it all wrong and I’m glad you called me out on it.

I’d like to think of myself as a very flexible person who sees both sides of the equation.  Hence, in this post, I want to highlight why your GPA doesn’t matter at all, and why you should feel confident in never putting your GPA on your resume.  Working hard is overrated and employers are certainly looking for as many C and B students out there as they are A students.



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The Top Schools In The Nation Are All Party Schools!

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Let’s look at the top schools in the nation. Could it be that the top schools are all party schools? It looks like it!

The Top 20 Party Schools In The Nation, Ranked By The Princeton Review For 2021:

  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison
  2. West Virginia University
  3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  4. Lehigh University
  5. Bucknell University
  6. University of Iowa
  7. University of Mississippi
  8. Syracuse University
  9. Tulane University
  10. Colgate University
  11. University of California―Santa Barbara
  12. University of Delaware
  13. University of Rhode Island
  14. Wake Forest University
  15. College of Charleston
  16. University of Maine
  17. University of Vermont
  18. University of Florida
  19. University of Colorado―Boulder
  20. Florida State University

What do Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University have in common?  They are considered the Top 5 best schools in the nation according to recruiters!  Wall Street Journal has this unique ranking system where they essentially ask corporate recruiters to rank their best schools.

I’ve seen a lot of college surveys before, and not once have I ever seen any of these schools in the Top 5, let alone in the top 10.  Let’s be honest, for the same cost, would you go to one of these schools over Harvard, Yale, Penn, MIT, Michigan, or Berkeley?  Most would say “probably not,” so what gives?

Let’s have a look at why recruiters are so excited about these schools.

* Size. The average student population of the top 5 schools is around 28,000.  This means that out of a class size of 7,000, there’s a higher chance of finding someone they like.

* Sports. The top 5 schools all have big time basketball and football programs.  Americans are obsessed with sports, which is why every single one of you should also play and at least follow sports.

* Public. All five schools are public schools.  We are in a period where it’s all about the middle class and not standing out.  Anything private, that costs more than the average annual income of an American isn’t going to fly.

* Competition. It’s much easier getting into these top 5 schools with an average acceptance rate of ~50% vs. 15% for the traditionally accepted top schools.  As a result, there’s a less “the world owes me” type attitude as students are more humble and eager to please their perspective employers.

* Representation. Being a recruiter isn’t exactly the hardest job in the world to land.  As a result, there is a high likelihood that most of the recruiters come from the very schools they have voted to the top!  We all want to take care of our own, and recruiters are no different.

CONCLUSION

Surveys are great because they can be manipulated to suit the surveyor’s beliefs.  Everybody looks out for their own, and the Wall Street Journal is no different.  Look into the management of the WSJ and I’m sure you’ll find one of them who is an alumni of their Top 5. The top schools in the nation really are party schools.

Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University are all fine schools.  They just aren’t the top schools the WSJ believes them to be, otherwise they’d have the most Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, Nobel Laureates, endowments, and so forth. 

Frankly, the WSJ might as well rank colleges by their proximity to the Pacific Ocean!  Now that would be a great survey! Did you go to one of the top schools in the nation?

Recommendation To Build Wealth

After learning about the top schools in the nation, sign up for Personal Capital, the web’s #1 free wealth management tool to get a better handle on your finances. In addition to better money oversight, run your investments through their award-winning Investment Checkup tool to see exactly how much you are paying in fees. I was paying $1,700 a year in fees I had no idea I was paying.

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. Definitely run your numbers to see how you’re doing. I’ve been using Personal Capital since 2012 and have seen my net worth skyrocket during this time thanks to better money management.

Refinance Your Student Loans

Refinance your student loans today. Check out Credible, a student loan marketplace that has qualified lenders competing for your business. Credible provides real rates for you to compare so you can lower your interest rate and save. Getting a quote is easy and free. Take advantage of our low interest rate environment today! The top schools in the nation tend to be very expensive.

Related posts:

Should I Go To Public Or Private University?

How To Get Into An Elite Preschool Or Private Grade School

Student Loans For College Are An Inevitability

2011 Income Tax Rates: Raise Taxes On Millionaires Not Us

Updated: by 48 Comments

Here’s a look at the 2011 income tax rats when Obama was President.

President Obama’s State of The Union address was well delivered.  He said almost everything right – from restoring spending discipline to improving education to allowing everyone access to affordable health care.  The one thing President Obama didn’t say correctly was regarding taxation.  He said illogically not to let millionaires get away with their tax cuts at the expense of X, Y, and Z.

Can anybody guess where the inconsistency is in President Obama’s words on income taxes?  On the one hand, President Obama attacks millionaires, yet he so strongly pushes to raise taxes on individuals making only $200,000 and couples making $250,000!  Last time I checked, someone making $200,000 a year isn’t making a million dollars.  And someone making $200,000 a year isn’t necessarily a millionaire!

SAVING FACE THANKS TO POOR NEGOTIATIONS



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How Higher Taxes Saved Me A Boatload Of Money

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When the state of California raised the sales tax by another 1% on April 1, 2009 I was pretty pissed.  What kind of government expects their residents to pay a whopping 10% tax on everything they buy?  Pedro doesn’t want to pay $200 in taxes on his $2,000 60-inch LCD TV.  Nancy shouldn’t have to pay $300 more on her $3,000 diamond encrusted bracelet.  And I certainly don’t want to spend $5,200 in taxes on a handsome $52,000 BMW!  That’s just ridiculous!

We the people of California deserve our luxury items just like every other parrot-brained consumer in America.  Who’s to dictate what we can and can’t waste our hard earned money on?  Certainly not some bureaucrat in Sacramento counting all his money under the table, no way!

GOVERNMENT WANTS YOU TO SAVE WHILE THEY SPEND

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The Ultimate Solution For A Fair Income Tax Policy In America

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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

The other action item wealthy people do is track their net worth. You can only truly optimize your wealth if you know where all your money is going! Sign up for Personal Capital, the web’s #1 free wealth management tool to get a better handle on your finances. I’ve been using them since 2012 and have made much wiser financial decisions since. In addition to better money oversight, run your investments through their award-winning Investment Checkup tool to see exactly how much you are paying in fees. I was paying $1,700 a year in fees I had no idea I was paying.

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!

Retirement Planner Personal Capital
Is your retirement on track? Check for free after linking your accounts

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
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.

Related: How To Pay Little Or No Income Taxes For The Rest Of Your Life

The Carrot That Makes You Jump Through Hoops

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Needs the carrot that makes you jump through hoops. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get lazy, get out of shape, and do nothing.

I started Financial Samurai in 2009, and I’ve been writing 3-4X a week since. I’m constantly looking for motivation to continue because life is too good in America. If you’re wondering, the secret to success is being competing for 10+-years in a row!

It’s crazy to revisit this post I wrote in 2010, more than 10 years later. However, it is absolutely clear to me now that people are successful stick with things.

The Carrot To Make You Motivated

One of my best friends is blessed with skinny genes.  At 5′ 3″ tall, she weighs all of 105 pounds.  When we go out to eat, she doesn’t just order a glass of iced tea and salad with dressing on the side.

She goes all out with mash potatoes, creamed spinach, BBQ oysters and then a nice juicy ribeye for a main course!  I gawk in amazement at her appetite while secretly groaning at trying to keep up towards the end.  After all, shouldn’t she eat 40% less than me if she weighs 40% less?  Guess not!

Despite my friend’s envious genetics, she isn’t exactly iron woman when it comes to sports and outdoor activities.  After three miles on a 10 mile bike ride, she’s pooped and waves at me to take a break.

Meanwhile, I’m going “lah, lah, lah” in my head, not even breaking a sweat as I soak in the glorious views of the Bay.  I let her catch up and we take a five minute pit-stop where she catches her breath as I go do some stretches and sit-ups.

The Gimmick



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“Capitalism: A Love Story” DVD Review

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Michael Moore thinks he is pointing out injustices through his latest documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story“.  Instead, Michael simply reminds us that life isn’t fair in a free market economy where those who work hard sometimes get the short end of the stick through no fault of their own.

Review Of Documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story”

I find it ironic that one of the wealthiest documentary filmmakers is bashing Capitalism. Despite highlighting that 33% of “young Americans” now believe in Socialism (37% for Capitalism, 30% undecided), it’s hard to argue for a better system. 

It’ll be interesting to see if these young Americans still believe in Socialism by the time they reach their thirties and make some money. Socialism just creates a new set of problems for society. 

Is it really that bad buying a foreclosed property from someone who can’t pay their debt on time?  Property vultures are necessary to provide a floor in many devastated markets or else things go to zero and more people suffer.

There is a sense of self-righteousness when Michael tells the viewer that he can’t fight the system alone and encourages all to rise up. Michael you aren’t alone. Thousands upon thousands of us fight for what we believe in every single day. 

I wish Michael would put his money where his mouth is and donate all his proceeds to helping victims he continues to highlight.

A STRANGE PLACE

Have you ever seen a journalist report from some God-forsaken place where malnourished children are starving in the background? Do you ever think to yourself, instead of jibber jabbering away, why don’t you just shut up and provide some food for the starving children behind you? 

The documentary is kind of like that. Michael mocks ministers, judges, companies, government, and Wall St. He does so to the point where I start thinking, why not just do something other than make a documentary?

There are some important parts to the documentary which made me want to stand up and cheer. Most notably was the 6 day factory worker lock-out which got Bank of America to finally pay them $6,000 in unemployment benefits from zero. 

That made me proud, because people were standing up against a company who just threw them away like garbage. Digging deeper though, why is Bank of America responsible for their benefits just because they got some bailout money? Shouldn’t the company itself be responsible?

TIME FLIES

The problem lies in the timing of this documentary. Nobody could have foreseen that in just one year since Lehman’s bankruptcy, the economy would rebound so quickly. The fear mongering has subsided and a sense of normalcy has returned.

He praises Obama for his promises, which one year later have not all been kept. Making a shady deal with the Senator of Nebraska to get him to vote for the health care bill by exempting Nebraskans for paying is not right.  As a result, after 30 years of Democratic rule in Massachusetts, a Republican takes former Edward Kennedy’s place.

Michael trashes Wall St. for receiving $700 billion in bailout money, making it seem like everybody in the industry had a part in forcing people to buy homes they couldn’t afford. One year later, a majority of the $700 billion has been repaid with handsome returns boasted by the government. 

Are the taxpayers thanking Wall St. for their profits? No, because frankly, as taxpayers, we pay the same amount of taxes regardless of where our money goes!

CONCLUSION

I commend Michael for making another hit documentary about this latest downturn. The snark is entertaining and therefore worth the watch. He makes the viewer think about issues, but he does not convince me that Capitalism is indeed ‘evil” as all his interviewed priests proclaim. 

If Capitalism is truly evil, why is The Church one of the richest institutions in the world? If Capitalism is evil, is Bill Gates also evil for donating billions to fight disease and poverty? No, Capitalism isn’t evil and Michael Moore will profit handsomely once again.

Further Reading

Related: The Secret To Your Success: 10 Years Of Unwavering Commitment

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Regards,

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

Buy this not that WSJ bestseller 728