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The Katana: Help Haiti If You Can 1/17/10

Updated: 04/06/2021 by Financial Samurai 15 Comments

So far over $7 million has been raised to help Haiti by just texting the word “HAITI” to 90999.  You’ll get a confirm receipt from your mobile carrier once sent. Please consider donating!

This week on Financial Samurai, we’ll share our thoughts on the latest government rhetoric, highlight a guest post by Flexo, introduce a new fun challenge, and perhaps discuss one of the key things to consider for job seekers.

THE SAMURAI FUND UPDATE: +3.85% vs. S&P 500 +1.88% as of Friday, Jan 15th. 203 basis points of outperform puts us in the Top Tier of all funds.

Stars: Lenar +25%, Toyota +8%, GE 9%, Harmon +7.4%,, Calgon +7%, Big Lots +7%.

Dog Poops: Lumber Liquidators -7%, Berkshire -1.6%, Steris -1.25%, ABM -1%, Monsanto -1%.

Looks like there’s some good demand from new entrants, and investors who want to give us several hundred million more to build new positions!  Contributors, please provide an update on your name in the TSF page above, especially if your name is sucking wind.  Will be making room for new names in February.

Week In Review: Let’s Help Haiti

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti was a devastating 7.0 magnitude natural disaster. The epicenter was near Leogane, about 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

It’s estimated 3 million people in Haiti were affected. And several hundred thousand people died in the tragedy. Haiti is asking for emergency aid to help survivors.

SAMURAI WEEK IN REVIEW

* People now realize that converting to a ROTH IRA is pretty ridiculous as Kevin M reminds us that the first $18,700 (equivalent to $470,000 in pre-tax funds at 4%) you withdraw from your retirement funds is tax free. 

Meanwhile, JoeTaxPayer highlights that if you retire with $2.17 million in today’s dollars, you only have to pay 15% tax!  You’ll have to retire with more than $5 million dollars to average a 25% tax rate, based off a 4% income return. 

$5 million is only 50X your $100,000 “average” income. Always good to dream big for those of you who’ve justified your ROTH IRA contributions.  Joe, you made my day!

* Family seems to be the number one reason why people choose to freeze during the winter, and melt during the summer. FYI, it is possible to make friends in paradise folks. It’s also possible for your family to fly out and visit you on the beach. If you’re miserable, don’t limit yourself! Just think about how much easier it is to travel now vs. 300 years ago.

* The “Get Financially Naked” book giveaway ends on Saturday, January 23rd. It’s a great little book for couples who feel they need some help in improving their communication as it relates to finance. With all our book giveaways, we’d like to share them with those who’d like and need them the most.

* Americans really shouldn’t complain about our finances since we’re wealthier than 99% of the rest of the world. That said, it’s all relative, and if everybody is wealthy, then it’s really hard to feel special. The key seems to be to amass your wealth, and move elsewhere!

Further Reading

  • Earthquake Disaster In Virginia Has People Fleeing And Californians Wondering “Huh?”
  • Is It Better To Give Randomly Or Selectively?
  • Improving At Golf Is Like Improving At Life: Impossible After Awhile!
  • The S&P And Deven Sharma Wants To Destroy Your Wealth And Future
  • Osama Bin Laden Is Dead: Good Or Bad?
  • How To Help Japan Recover From A Terrible Earthquake

Keigu,

Sam Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

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Filed Under: Budgeting & Savings, Investments Tagged With: community, irrational, Reality

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. Suzan says

    January 21, 2010 at 1:57 am

    It’s so kind of you to keep Haiti’s earthquake victims in mind.

    Reply
  2. Credit Card Chaser says

    January 18, 2010 at 3:37 pm

    @admin

    Now you’re talking!
    .-= Credit Card Chaser´s last blog ..Are Credit Card Companies Evil if They Don’t Waive Fees on Haiti Donations? =-.

    Reply
  3. admin says

    January 18, 2010 at 10:57 am

    @LeanLifeCoach
    Good pick Lean! “Will it hold?” You tell me! You’re the analyst, and that’s why I’m paying you! lol. I will start the Samurai Hedge Fund as soon as everybody knows how to spell “Samurai”! :)

    In fact, I may add a couple short positions from contributors, just so the fund morphs into a hedge fund, so we can collect the 2% asset management fee, or $34 million bucks! whee

    Reply
  4. LeanLifeCoach says

    January 18, 2010 at 10:44 am

    TM finally gets some steam…. will it hold?

    Rock On SamauraiFund…

    So when are you launching the Samaurai Hedge Fund?
    .-= LeanLifeCoach´s last blog ..Sometimes More Is Less =-.

    Reply
  5. admin says

    January 18, 2010 at 8:08 am

    @Credit Card Chaser
    NP! Good work coming up with all these calculators.

    @Kevin M
    Thnx for clarifying. I thought so, but wanted to give credit where credit was do, just in case. Thanks for first bringing up the $18,000+ tax free credit for us during retirement. I’m pretty sure a majority of people, including myself weren’t aware. Sweet!

    Reply
  6. Kevin M says

    January 18, 2010 at 7:36 am

    Actually Kevin M (me) is not related to the website you linked to.

    Reply
  7. Credit Card Chaser says

    January 17, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    Thanks for the mention!
    .-= Credit Card Chaser´s last blog ..Are Credit Card Companies Evil if They Don’t Waive Fees on Haiti Donations? =-.

    Reply
  8. admin says

    January 17, 2010 at 10:56 pm

    @Charlie
    Eh? What’s amending their convertible senior notes indenture mean? lol. I guess it saves them money, so that sounds good to me! Good stock pick cHARlie! :)

    Reply
  9. Charlie says

    January 17, 2010 at 10:27 pm

    Go Samurai fund!! In the news: HAR, Harman International, reached an agreement to amend their convertible senior notes indenture last week. The CEO said “This amendment will allow us to save millions of dollars in unnecessary interest expense while maintaining financial flexibility. We also view this as a vote of confidence by the Note holders in Harman’s improved balance sheet and financial performance.”

    YTD returns look good so far, up 7.4% yihaw!

    Reply
  10. admin says

    January 17, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    @Investor Junkie
    You’re right, gotta think long term! Just keeping folks on their toes.

    Reply
  11. Investor Junkie says

    January 17, 2010 at 10:13 am

    @admin

    Hmm… No I can’t. Isn’t this supposed to be long term? a few weeks isn’t long term ;-)
    .-= Investor Junkie´s last blog ..Weekend Reading for January 16, 2010 =-.

    Reply
  12. admin says

    January 17, 2010 at 10:07 am

    @Investor Junkie
    No prob. That’s for highlighting what a MLP is. Unfortunately, Lumber Liquidators is the biggest dog in the fund, and is at risk of being booted, unless you think there’s a more compelling story.

    @Money Funk
    The thing with GOOG is, they are right next door to me, so it’s a little more painful than if one lived outside of SF!

    @David @ MBA briefs
    NP man. Maybe you will glean something fishy from their cash flow or balance sheet statements through your Stock Pro analyszer series!
    .-= admin´s last blog ..An Ambulance Screams By, Do You Feel Happy Or Sad? =-.

    Reply
  13. Investor Junkie says

    January 17, 2010 at 9:45 am

    Thanks for the mention!
    .-= Investor Junkie´s last blog ..Weekend Reading for January 16, 2010 =-.

    Reply
  14. Money Funk says

    January 17, 2010 at 9:18 am

    Thanks for the link love! I still can’t decide what to spend on, but I have an inkling I will figure it out soon. :)

    BTW, I wish I told myself to join 5 yrs before it went public, too. LOL.

    Reply
  15. David @ MBA briefs says

    January 17, 2010 at 6:49 am

    Thanks for mentioning my post on Aesop’s Fables, and sorry about ABM last week. I’ll let them know they need to shape up or else. Good thing we’re long.
    .-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..How to analyze stocks like a pro – part 5 =-.

    Reply

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