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The Financial Samurai Podcast Episode 1: Genesis

Updated: 12/13/2017 by Financial Samurai 89 Comments

Financial Samurai Podcast Dear Readers,

Welcome to The Financial Samurai Podcast! I decided to start a podcast to try and connect with readers in a new way. I’ve been writing online since 2009 and I feel very comfortable whipping out any sort of writing fairly easily. I thought it would be fun to mix things up and good practice since I hardly ever speak in a public setting. Things will probably be a little rough at first, but I’m sure the podcasts will get better through practice over time.

The initial goals of this podcast are to:

1) Provide a new medium of communication for those who prefer listening, rather than reading.

2) Provide a new way to convey ideas that aren’t as easily captured in my writing.

3) Improve as a speaker.

4) Be a friendly voice when you’re feeling confused, lost or down.

5) To go on a new adventure. It feels great to do new things.

PODCAST EPISODE 1 OUTLINE

The first episode is 36 minutes long and will include the following notes below.

1) The Financial Samurai value proposition e.g. why bother listening and reading. 

* Readership. There are over 500,000 visitors a month who visit Financial Samurai from all over the world.

* Experience. I worked in the financial services industry for 13 years and have an MBA.

* Focus on building wealth not just saving money.

* Joy of writing. By the time I started my site at age 32 I had already built a reasonable net worth by 30. I write because I love to write and connect with others. Making money online is tertiary. I will give you my unabashed opinion of why I think the way I do.

2) A brief background on my career and why I started Financial Samurai. 

* I grew up in developing countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Zambia in the 70s and 80s. I also lived in Osaka, Kobe as well and went to China and India for school and business since 1997. I really got to witness the dichotomy between the rich and poor. My parents were middle class foreign service officers who were always frugal.

* Wall St. was an ass-kicking. I got in at 5:30am and worked until at least 7:30pm every evening. I gained weight, got sick, and was stressed out. No weekends off. Life was terrible, but it was a great boot camp that prepared me for the future.

* I knew after the first year I couldn’t last for the long term, so I started saving like crazy.

* Moving to SF allowed me to survive for much longer than I had expected… 10 years longer in fact.

* Financial armageddon really beat me down. Financial Samurai was born from pain. I lost 35%-40% of my net worth in 6 months that took 10 years to accumulate.

* You the readers, and now listeners are my biggest motivation.

3) A discussion on the transition from working a day job to doing something new and more risky. 

* I suffered from golden handcuffs. and the one more year syndrome.

* There was a moment in Santorini, Greece that made me realize there was potentially life after Wall St.

* I had to figure out how to negotiate a severance package and amicably walk away.

* Never quit, get laid… get laid off. If you quit.. you don’t get severance, a reference, unemployment, Cobra and job assistance training.

Subscribe To Financial Samurai On iTunes

I’ve created a Financial Samurai iTunes channel to subscribe to. This way, if you prefer listening, you can always get the latest audio version delivered directly to your iPhone. As of now, the channel can only carry the latest five podcasts.

Further, I’ve created a Financial Samurai Podcast Page that has every single podcast I’ve published, including the links to the respective posts. Bookmark it or search for it in my search box. I’ll be updating this page once a week.

 

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The best feature is their Portfolio Fee Analyzer, which runs your investment portfolio(s) through its software in a click of a button to see what you are paying. I found out I was paying $1,700 a year in portfolio fees I had no idea I was hemorrhaging! There is no better financial tool online that has helped me more to achieve financial freedom. It only takes a minute to sign up.

Finally, they recently launched their amazing Retirement Planning Calculator that pulls in your real data and runs a Monte Carlo simulation to give you deep insights into your financial future. Personal Capital is free, and less than one minute to sign up. It’s one of the most valuable tools I’ve found to help achieve financial freedom.

Planning for retirement when paying for private grade school

Are you on the right retirement path?

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Filed Under: Podcast

Author Bio: I started Financial Samurai in 2009 to help people achieve financial freedom sooner. Financial Samurai is now one of the largest independently run personal finance sites with about one million visitors a month.

I spent 13 years working at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. In 1999, I earned my BA from William & Mary and in 2006, I received my MBA from UC Berkeley.

In 2012, I left banking after negotiating a severance package worth over five years of living expenses. Today, I enjoy being a stay-at-home dad to two young children, playing tennis, and writing.

Order a hardcopy of my new WSJ bestselling book, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. Not only will you build more wealth by reading my book, you’ll also make better choices when faced with some of life’s biggest decisions.

Current Recommendations:

1) Check out Fundrise, my favorite real estate investing platform. I’ve personally invested $810,000 in private real estate to take advantage of lower valuations and higher cap rates in the Sunbelt. Roughly $160,000 of my annual passive income comes from real estate. And passive income is the key to being free.

2) If you have debt and/or children, life insurance is a must. PolicyGenius is the easiest way to find affordable life insurance in minutes. My wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less with PolicyGenius. I also just got a new affordable 20-year term policy with them.

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Comments

  1. Ms. Frugal Asian Finance says

    August 17, 2017 at 7:31 am

    I didn’t know you also had a podcast. I was so excited to see it. I can’t find the episodes though. Are they still available?

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      August 17, 2017 at 8:49 am

      I tried for three episodes, and decided it was too much work. The Blubrry plugin was messing up my feed, so I canned it for now. Need to find a new solution.

      But here are some podcasts I’ve recently been on:

      Reply
  2. Kimberly George says

    January 24, 2015 at 12:56 pm

    This rocks! New to your blog…LOVIN it. Can’t wait to hear more from you.

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      January 24, 2015 at 2:30 pm

      Nice to hear from you Kimberly. Welcome to Financial Samurai! How did you find me in the first place? Always curious to know.

      Sam

      Reply
      • Kimberly George says

        January 24, 2015 at 2:46 pm

        Hello there Sam. I discovered your blog via Google on the post that you created about the importance of maximizing your 401k contributions.

        I have been putting 11% of my earnings into my 401k, but after reading your post, I think I am going to start maxing it out. Anywho, please keep up the great work.

        P.S. Wishing I had found your site sooner…

        Reply
        • Financial Samurai says

          January 24, 2015 at 7:31 pm

          Good stuff! I say save until it hurts! B/c if it doesn’t hurt, one isn’t saving enough.

          Reply
  3. Ray @ Squirrelers says

    October 1, 2014 at 1:02 pm

    Great job on the podcast. This is an “exceeds expectations” podcast for a 1st one, and my expectations would be high in the first place for FS :)

    Your voice lends itself to podcasting, which is fortunate. Beyond that though, delivery and pitch were excellent. You shared good stories and transitioned smoothly from topic to topic. Looking forward to your next one.

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      October 1, 2014 at 2:08 pm

      Thanks Ray. You shouldn’t have high expectations for me, since I have no expectations for the podcast myself since I’ve never done one until now!

      Reply
  4. tom says

    October 1, 2014 at 7:38 am

    Great podcast. I never listen to these things, but was curious about yours. You hit it out of the park. Great content and great voice!

    Your voice certainly lends itself to something like this. I agree with you on trying to develop an NPR-style as they are the creme de la creme of radio personalities.

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      October 1, 2014 at 9:44 am

      Appreciate the feedback Tom! Im kind of conflicted, because the folks who know me well find it odd when I don’t laugh as much or say silly things. But I just love the NPR style… so soothing and calm, no matter what the subject is. Might be a demographic thing.

      But, I’ve been listening to a lot of comedy stations on Pandora recently, and they are a riot!

      Reply
  5. Anton Ivanov says

    September 26, 2014 at 7:16 pm

    Congrats on starting your podcast Sam! Looking forward to listening in :)

    Reply
  6. Financial Samurai says

    September 26, 2014 at 7:48 am

    Thanks mate. I’m definitely going to continue working on my voice and transitions over the next 12 months. Feels like going back to school for a master’s in radio journalism or something haha. It’s pretty hard work.

    Maybe I’ll just invite a friend over to rap with me. Sound quality really deteriorates over Skype I’ve found.

    Reply
  7. Kyle says

    September 25, 2014 at 7:07 pm

    I think I just found another podcast to listen to on my way to school.

    Great work Sam.

    -Kyle

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      September 26, 2014 at 7:46 am

      Thanks Kyle. I’ll be experimenting with different lengths soon. The next one will only be 12 minutes. Let’s see.

      Reply
  8. Jason says

    September 25, 2014 at 1:35 pm

    Sam,

    I don’t listen to many podcasts, but I thought this was fantastic. Was awesome to hear your voice – it really adds another dimension to your ‘online’ personality, and feels like I know you much better now (and similar to a couple of other readers, I was suprised by your voice! It’s perfect for podcasting and I really enjoyed listening, but for some reason I think I imagined it being less deep, and a little more fast-paced and enthusiastic? It’s a bit like when I speak with people on the phone and picture what they look like – whenever I meet them in person I’m always a million miles off what they actually look like!).

    The stories were a great part of this too, especially when you sounded like you were starting to relax and tell them as if sitting in a bar with a buddy over a drink.

    I personally thought the length was perfect, literally to the second – I pressed play after hopping on the train last night to head home from work, and I pulled my keys out to open my front door just as you were saying ‘thanks for listening!’. :)

    Great stuff Sam, good to see you trying something new and different with your site! Best of luck with this!

    Cheers,

    Jason

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      September 25, 2014 at 2:15 pm

      Thanks for the feedback Jason. I think my pace will pick up as I get more comfortable podcasting. I’m still finding myself thinking before speaking instead of just speaking. But also want to develop an NPR-style deep, rich, and methodical style which I like to listen to.

      I recorded this podcast length just for your train ride. Glad I got it down to within 10 seconds! I’m going to try a length 1/3rd the length to see what happens next.

      Thx

      Reply
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