Merit
00:00:00.000 | Hello, everybody. It's Sam and Sydney from Financial Samurai. And in this episode, I
00:00:04.760 | want to talk about merit, and whether merit is going downhill and whether we should still
00:00:12.260 | work as hard as possible to try to get ahead. Because in 2023, I'm going to try to take
00:00:18.760 | it easier because you know, bear market return on effort is lower. It's been a long road
00:00:24.920 | since the start of the pandemic, and I'm just burned out and I just want to coast. What
00:00:29.800 | are your thoughts about merit, Sydney, and whether we should work as hard as possible
00:00:34.880 | to get ahead?
00:00:35.880 | Well, it's funny because you are burnt out, which I totally understand because you had
00:00:40.200 | a really, really tough year. I felt like the second half of 2022 was was disappointing
00:00:46.560 | for myself. So I set higher expectations in my own goals for this year. So I plan on working
00:00:54.320 | more and at least in the first half of the year. So I'm coming from a different perspective.
00:01:00.820 | But I do think that merit is important. For me personally, when I'm making progress, that's
00:01:06.280 | when I feel the happiest.
00:01:07.880 | Right? Well, you wouldn't want to just be like handed a promotion or a raise. Just be
00:01:12.960 | let's say let's say your boss, you know, really liked you because I don't know you're pretty
00:01:18.520 | or you grew up in the same neighborhood as your boss and Sydney, Sydney deserves a raise
00:01:23.320 | in promotion without being here as long as Fred. How would you feel about that?
00:01:28.800 | Everything. I think everyone is selfish for themselves. If they could get something like
00:01:32.880 | that easily, then perhaps sure, why not? But I was in a situation where I was working really
00:01:38.040 | hard. And I had some colleagues who were working, you know, I would say decently hard as well.
00:01:44.220 | One guy what I felt like was slacking off a lot. And he and another colleague of mine
00:01:49.280 | got promoted ahead of me during a round where I was fully expecting to get promoted. And
00:01:56.040 | there were some politics going on in the firm at the time that were perhaps the main reason
00:02:01.640 | why it didn't work out that round for me. But that was a really hard time in my life
00:02:06.040 | that just I was I was so upset.
00:02:09.480 | Right. And so basically, your hard work didn't pay off. Merit was not rewarded.
00:02:14.740 | Not at that point in time. And it was tough.
00:02:17.880 | So the great thing about not getting paid and promoted that year was you finally listened
00:02:24.840 | to my thoughts and advice on, hey, maybe you can negotiate a severance and be free. Because
00:02:30.720 | before this Passover of your promotion,
00:02:34.080 | I was way more skeptical.
00:02:35.640 | You were super skeptical. And why were you skeptical even though I did it myself?
00:02:41.080 | I guess I felt like this my scenario was different. I was happier at the time. I didn't feel like
00:02:48.340 | I wanted to get out until that happened. And I was I was upset enough that I knew I needed
00:02:56.000 | something to change or a lot of things to change. So I definitely became really motivated
00:03:01.440 | to turn things around in a way that would benefit myself.
00:03:06.840 | Right. So I would say in conclusion, not in conclusion, in conclusion to your story, Merit,
00:03:12.840 | I think most people simply want to get rewarded for the work they put in.
00:03:17.920 | Yeah, I yeah, anybody who's working hard wants to get wants to get not just rewarded for
00:03:25.600 | that, but recognize, yeah, that's what I was looking for.
00:03:29.720 | Right. And on the flip side, I actually don't know anybody who is happy to get rewarded
00:03:35.880 | based on their identity or because their connections or whatever. I just feel that, you know, you
00:03:41.920 | feel deep down, you'll feel guilty, you'll feel undeserved. You'll feel actually not
00:03:48.160 | worthy like an imposter, as some people, I think really are, you know, I play tennis
00:03:53.960 | at my club, and there are some very wealthy people. And some of them, because their parents
00:04:00.160 | made tons and tons of money, are on this kind of career life walkabout, where they have
00:04:07.200 | they're always starting a business, they're the CEO of some business. But this business
00:04:10.960 | doesn't go anywhere. It's almost almost like a front to, you know, give them something
00:04:15.680 | to do or to give them some status or to give them something of their own, because they
00:04:19.920 | were never able to get anywhere on their own, because their parents hooked them up with
00:04:25.600 | their parents. So one of the things that I think about regarding merit is, you know,
00:04:29.400 | I think, to be able to instill in our kids, a strong work ethic, grit and determination
00:04:36.520 | is wonderful, because it'll enable them to struggle forward and get things they want
00:04:44.640 | on their own. Yeah, for sure. So one of the reasons why I want to talk about merit is
00:04:50.240 | because back in my old high school, school district, the Fairfax County School District
00:04:55.000 | in Virginia, northern Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, also known as TJ, also consistently one of
00:05:00.680 | the top ranked high schools in the country, was found out to have hidden from 1200 students
00:05:07.680 | supposedly over the past five years, that they had achieved national merit, commended
00:05:13.160 | awards. So commended awards are students who score in the top 4% of all PSA t test takers
00:05:23.680 | in their state. And when asked the TJ administrators why they didn't notify these students, they
00:05:32.680 | said they didn't want to hurt the other students feelings. Also, they wanted to really push
00:05:38.160 | for equal outcomes for students. They hired a consultant supposedly for $455,000 over
00:05:44.000 | a nine month period to specifically push the agenda of equal outcomes for students. Now,
00:05:51.480 | what are your thoughts on that? I was shocked when I heard that, especially at a high school
00:05:56.640 | level. I can understand, you know, wanting equality for students if you're in preschool,
00:06:01.600 | because children at that age are way more vulnerable. You know, they're not developed
00:06:06.160 | enough to handle competition, I guess you could say. But at the high school level, it's
00:06:12.600 | just it's terrible. I feel so bad for the students and their parents to have found out
00:06:20.480 | about that and to have lost out on opportunity and scholarship money. It's it's really, really
00:06:26.840 | upsetting. It is pretty upsetting. And I'm just trying to imagine if our kids were in
00:06:33.560 | high school, they worked really hard. They did well on a test or SAT or whatever it is.
00:06:40.480 | And then it was hidden from us. I guess on the one hand, if we saw the score, we'd be
00:06:45.920 | like, okay, that was a pretty good score. If it's over 1200 1300 out of 1600. Surely
00:06:52.200 | they must have achieved something. But on the other hand, to just have it hidden from
00:06:57.040 | us before college applications, and the fact that it's a public school, right? It's a public
00:07:03.840 | school, and they spent $450,000 on a consultant to give them this type of advice. Yeah, that's
00:07:09.720 | terrible. I mean, think think how how that money could have been so much better utilized.
00:07:16.840 | And so many students could have been unaffected by such negative advice. It's it's really,
00:07:24.640 | really shocking. Well, here in San Francisco, I think it was like the East Bay, some East
00:07:29.320 | Bay Public School District spent $40,000 for eight hours of consulting from the Stanford
00:07:36.040 | professor to talk about how we should eliminate algebra from eighth grade. And so everybody
00:07:43.600 | starts at the same in ninth grades to give them an equal footing. Oh, yeah, I remember
00:07:47.800 | that too. Yes, ridiculous. So it's interesting how we're really trying to mold our children
00:07:53.480 | to be the same. And this is kind of what I realized. After homeschooling our son for
00:07:58.920 | 18 months, we taught him a lot. We you know, we spent all day with him, right? And then,
00:08:03.800 | you know, we'd sit down and teach him Mandarin, math, whatever. And then what we realized
00:08:08.120 | when he finally started attending preschool, and now kindergarten, is that he had learned
00:08:12.720 | all this stuff two years ago. Yeah. And so we either have to keep on supplementing his
00:08:18.680 | education, or we can just kick back and just have him learn as everybody else learns. Because
00:08:26.200 | it's not like, you know, if I learn math better than you, like, it's just not in my nature
00:08:32.960 | to just let the school handle everything. They do a phenomenal job, no doubt. But I'm
00:08:39.440 | not going to make him held back if he's interested and able to learn something new. So I, you
00:08:48.120 | know, maybe someone might call me to agro, but I give him a math worksheets, you know,
00:08:54.760 | at home, you know, on occasion to like earn video time, for example, like, he's like,
00:08:59.520 | Mommy, I want to watch iPad. I'm like, Okay, well, let's earn it. Let's do some math worksheets.
00:09:03.400 | And sometimes he's like, but then other times, he's like, Okay, and we'll sit down together
00:09:08.360 | and we'll do, we'll do some subtraction and addition and things like that, that are way
00:09:14.880 | more advanced than kindergarten, but he's able to do it. And he's learning. So why not?
00:09:20.400 | Well, I mean, the counter argument is, you know, other students might feel left out,
00:09:26.280 | they might feel dumb, or not as smart. And we don't want to hurt little ones feelings.
00:09:33.000 | Yeah. Well, what we're doing at home doesn't impact other kids. I think we're getting a
00:09:39.560 | little sidetracked. But no, no, we're not. Because this hurting other people's feelings
00:09:44.480 | starts at a young age. And then we have to decide when to stop protecting other people's
00:09:50.400 | feelings. And let them go into the real world and get beat up every single day. I think
00:09:56.640 | I think what they're doing at the high school level is really sad. It's way too late to
00:10:03.280 | be trying to make students feel equal. They're teenagers for goodness sake, they're applying
00:10:08.360 | to college. And yet they're trying to the war has begun build skills to help them get
00:10:13.960 | jobs. It's, it's really Yeah, it's ridiculous. Well, it is interesting because other countries
00:10:20.240 | like let's say, China and India, they don't have this type of equality for equal outcomes
00:10:27.040 | for all. It's like super cutthroat, the college entrance exam. Yeah, it's like upper outdo
00:10:32.520 | or die. And you can see how their hunger and our declining hunger might eventually enable
00:10:40.540 | them to overtake America, right. But hopefully at that time, then we'll turn into Europe,
00:10:45.480 | where you know, we might have 20 30% unemployment. But supposedly, you know, the top 10 happiest
00:10:50.520 | countries in the world are always from Europe. And they're living, they're not working as
00:10:55.520 | hard work life balance, good healthcare system. And I'm trying to I'm trying to look at the
00:11:00.800 | positive side of things, because I've seen the future. And the way things are going,
00:11:04.640 | I think America could eventually turn into Europe. But they're happier than us. They're
00:11:10.920 | more chill. They've got a big social network. Yeah, they don't innovate and create, you
00:11:17.720 | know, the next iPhone or whatever. But well, I wouldn't I wouldn't put a blanket, you know,
00:11:24.360 | statement like that over all of Europe. But I mean, culturally, they do have a lot of
00:11:29.800 | differences than we know how we are in the US now. It's work to live in Europe. Whereas
00:11:37.200 | in America, it might be more live to work at the margin. And so I in 2023 want to work
00:11:47.680 | to live. Actually, I don't want to work. I just really fade and just enjoy life and enjoy
00:11:54.560 | the wealth that we build that we spend 20 plus years building. But you have you you
00:11:59.560 | have the experience and the the success that you have already accomplished. So I think
00:12:06.680 | your attitude is okay at this stage in your life, because you've done so much already.
00:12:12.520 | But to teach high schoolers that they should just coast and you know, no matter how hard
00:12:19.280 | they work, they're not going to, you know, get any farther than someone else is is just
00:12:26.080 | it's really disheartening. It is disheartening. If they know that no matter how hard they
00:12:33.480 | work, it might not be for anything because life is hard and the job market is so competitive
00:12:39.320 | out there. If they're not ready for the real world, they're gonna get a beat down. Yep.
00:12:44.440 | So let's look at some ways we can survive this declining merit based performance society.
00:12:52.520 | Ultimately, my hope is that we do more to serve the financially disadvantaged people
00:12:57.920 | across all people, because it really is the lack of resources, whether it's time with
00:13:03.720 | your parents or financial resources to study to spend time to take risks. I see this very
00:13:13.000 | clearly now that I'm 45 years old, and I've been through this arc of my life. Those without
00:13:18.480 | as many financial resources are at a great disadvantage. And these are the people I think
00:13:22.920 | we need to help more. And this is one of the main reasons why I record on Financial Samurai
00:13:28.760 | and write on Financial Samurai to help bring further financial education, knowledge and
00:13:33.920 | wisdom to anybody who wants to listen and to read. Now let's go through seven ways to
00:13:40.560 | thrive in this changing society. So one, I think it's important we have to understand
00:13:46.000 | our gatekeepers. If you're not yet financially independent, you will have to succumb to the
00:13:51.240 | gatekeeper who decides whether you get in get paid, get promoted and so forth. TJ, if
00:13:57.000 | you look at the racial makeup of the student body is about 72% Asian 20% white, two and
00:14:03.200 | a half percent Hispanic 1.7% black and 4.7% other. So in other words, it's a minority
00:14:09.880 | majority population. And so you would think the TJ administration would reflect somewhat
00:14:16.480 | its student body, very logical assumption. However, if you look at the administration,
00:14:23.000 | it is looks like it's like 70% white and 30% black. So there's no representation of Asian
00:14:30.400 | folks in the TJ administration. And what we know from historical past elections, if you
00:14:36.080 | look at President Obama's election and against Mitt Romney, people vote based on racial makeup,
00:14:42.400 | regardless of a lot of the policies. It's very interesting. Just look at the data. And
00:14:47.280 | people will naturally fight for their own kind and suddenly fight against or at least
00:14:52.960 | not stick up for people of different backgrounds. So I think it's really important that you
00:14:58.480 | understand your gatekeepers before you decide to join any institution. Look at who the bosses
00:15:03.240 | are, look at who the administrators are. Know that if you have no representation, you are
00:15:08.840 | probably consciously or subconsciously going to get excluded from opportunity. Please be
00:15:17.920 | aware. The second tip, once you understand the gatekeepers is to learn how to assimilate
00:15:23.720 | with the gatekeepers. Very interesting. So when I was working in finance, all my bosses
00:15:30.720 | in the beginning half of my career were English. So the head of the desk in New York was from
00:15:35.880 | England. The head of the desk in Hong Kong was from England. The head of the desk in
00:15:41.760 | London was from England. And they had their network of English men. And then there was
00:15:47.480 | a power struggle. And the head of the Asian business was Korean, really good guy. And
00:15:55.440 | then suddenly the head of the New York desk was Korean. And then the head of all these
00:16:01.200 | other desks were Korean. Ah, is that bias? No. Look here in San Francisco, the mayor
00:16:07.520 | of San Francisco, London Breed is black. Now, the district attorney is black. And the police
00:16:15.080 | commissioner is black. So we have these biases. And you if you want to get ahead, you need
00:16:21.560 | to learn how to assimilate with your gatekeepers. If your boss's favorite sport is pickleball,
00:16:28.040 | you too should learn all the rules of pickleball and become a pickleball fanatic. If your boss
00:16:35.440 | believes in saving the whales, then you too might want to learn about the literature on
00:16:42.340 | how whales are slowly becoming extinct. And what you can do to help save the whales. This
00:16:47.880 | is the game folks. If merit isn't going to be rewarded as tightly as in the past, you
00:16:54.160 | need to cozy up to the powers that are the people who control everything and get on their
00:17:00.200 | good graces. Three, have a concurrent backup plan. You know, you could be the best employee,
00:17:07.680 | the best student, whatever it is, you're doing something and you know, you're cozying up
00:17:10.960 | to everybody. You're assimilating well. However, unless you're a relative or a close friend,
00:17:17.640 | you never really know for sure whether you're a part of their crowd. You know what they
00:17:21.920 | say publicly versus behind closed doors can be very, very different things. Just asked
00:17:28.920 | ex Clippers owner Don Sterling about what he was saying about his players on a recorded
00:17:34.700 | phone call or a recorded conversation. So you can never fully count on the gatekeeper
00:17:39.680 | to accept you based on merit. This is why I have this philosophy where the new three
00:17:45.440 | legged stool for retirement is to count on you you and you don't count on anybody else
00:17:50.240 | to defend you or take care of you. It's great if they do, but don't count on it. So I need
00:17:56.560 | you folks to really think about your side hustles. If you have a day job, or your x
00:18:02.560 | factor find something you can do on the side that you enjoy that you can generate wealth
00:18:07.200 | and income from. Because one day you might get let go you might get pushed out from a
00:18:12.040 | power struggle, you might not get promoted and paid. Be around long enough, bad things
00:18:17.400 | and good things will happen. Number four, become an entrepreneur. One of the main reasons
00:18:22.580 | why I left my banking job in 2012 was because there was a breakdown between performance
00:18:27.280 | and pay. Instead of complaining, I devised a way out and that way out was negotiating
00:18:34.240 | a severance package. The thing is, in work, the higher you go, the more political it becomes.
00:18:39.960 | It's not so much how smart you are, how well you do your job, it's really who you know.
00:18:45.360 | And this networking is so important, but it's so painful to do sometimes for many, many
00:18:50.440 | people. And if you haven't built up your support network from those in charge, your chances
00:18:55.720 | of ascending to the top are slim to none. So entrepreneurship, solopreneurship is one
00:19:03.240 | of the best ways to find that tight correlation with performance and pay. Because as an entrepreneur,
00:19:11.920 | if you don't do the work, nothing happens. If you don't hustle, market, write, create,
00:19:18.720 | produce, nothing happens. And so when something does happen, it is one of the most wonderful
00:19:24.920 | addicting feelings you'll ever have. You know, the first dollar you make as an entrepreneur,
00:19:29.200 | I think it's equal to like $10 you make working for someone else, because you created something
00:19:34.880 | from nothing. Bypassing the gatekeepers is one of the reasons why so many restaurants,
00:19:40.880 | convenience stores, and other small businesses like laundromats are owned by minorities.
00:19:46.600 | You know, they might not have the communication skills or the English skills or the college
00:19:51.440 | pedigree, whatever it is, but they bypass the gatekeepers by starting their own business,
00:19:58.440 | taking that leap of faith. All right, number five. This is an easy one. Actually, maybe
00:20:03.200 | it's not easy. Maintain long term friendships. They say friendships change every five, six,
00:20:08.640 | seven years. And the reason why is because we're all selfish. We're busy with ourselves.
00:20:13.720 | And we don't put the effort to keep the connections alive. We don't send gifts, we don't send
00:20:19.720 | text messages or phone calls and just catch up to say what's up without any agenda. As
00:20:25.000 | a 45 year old, many, actually most of my friends have over 20 years of experience now. So some,
00:20:31.720 | actually, all of them have ascended in their careers, right? Managing directors, doctors,
00:20:36.040 | department heads, CEOs of companies. These folks have just become more wealthy and more
00:20:42.060 | powerful over time. And because I've maintained some friendships with some of them, I can
00:20:48.720 | definitely do a better job. If I need help, they will be able to help me. And that's just
00:20:54.560 | life. People want to help those who they like. And so if you can maintain your friendships,
00:21:01.320 | as your friends get wealthier and more powerful, life becomes easier for you. And maybe life
00:21:07.220 | will become easier for your children as well. All right, six, develop a thoughtful personality.
00:21:15.080 | If you're always thinking about helping someone first without asking for anything in return,
00:21:19.520 | you're going to build these credits, these lifelong credits that you hopefully will never
00:21:23.000 | use. But one day, if you face a problem, which we all will face, you will have a tremendous
00:21:30.160 | number of credits, tremendous number of people and friends who will want to help you out.
00:21:35.560 | Having high emotional intelligence, having a thoughtful personality is huge. Because
00:21:41.680 | at the end of the day, we just want to help people who we like. And we tend not to help
00:21:46.040 | people who just come in here, you know, for transactional purposes, you know, someone
00:21:49.760 | on LinkedIn's like, Hey, how's it going? Can you buy this? Or can you do that? It's just
00:21:53.920 | so annoying. I'm not on LinkedIn very much. Because as soon as I get on, it's just like,
00:21:58.200 | help me do me do this, that it's like, ah, I can't I can't take it. So it behooves all
00:22:02.640 | of us to be a little bit more thoughtful, to be a little bit more empathetic to try
00:22:07.160 | to understand where the other side is coming from. And maybe to preempt their ask their
00:22:11.980 | needs and see if you can help them in any way possible. And then finally, the final
00:22:17.480 | way to overcome this declining merit based society could be my favorite way. I was talking
00:22:24.440 | to my dad about this. And that is to get so rich. Merit doesn't really matter. And so
00:22:31.360 | so far, these six strategies earlier, are all for those who are not yet rich, you could
00:22:37.920 | be rich, but not not really not yet rich. However, there is a point where you have so
00:22:42.840 | much money, that this this debate about war on merit, or whatever it is, doesn't really
00:22:49.400 | matter anymore. You have enough money where you can do as you please, your children can
00:22:54.680 | do as they please, they can't get into college, you can buy their way into college. I was
00:22:59.160 | talking to a Harvard alum who was on the, what is it called the admissions council for
00:23:05.120 | years. And I asked him, how much do you think it would take to buy your kids way into Harvard
00:23:10.440 | now, right with decent scores. And he said $10 million. And I said, What was that figure
00:23:16.280 | in the 80s? And he said $1 million. So you see inflation is screwing us. It's screwing
00:23:22.200 | us 10 million to buy our kids way into private schools. I mean, no wonder why so many public
00:23:28.080 | schools are rising in the rankings, because it's very hard to buy your way into private
00:23:32.040 | public schools. But private schools, you can just do whatever you want. It's a private
00:23:35.480 | school, right? You accept money, quid pro quo, name a building, whatever it is. So I
00:23:40.240 | think that minimum amount of money, where merit doesn't really bother you as much anymore,
00:23:46.840 | is when you have at least 1 million in liquid assets, because that 1 million can generate
00:23:50.600 | 30,000 to $50,000 a year in passive income, low risk. And if you want more luxuries, or
00:23:56.720 | you live in a more expensive area, shoot for 3 million in liquid assets, right? Because
00:24:02.040 | 3 million will generate 90,000 to 150,000 a year in passive income. And 3 million because
00:24:08.240 | of inflation is my definition of being a real millionaire. So it's quite aligned. And this
00:24:14.200 | is the other thing, the wealthier you get, the more I would say chill you get, because
00:24:20.880 | you just stop worrying as much about not having enough money, because money is a top three
00:24:26.480 | stressor in life. So this makes you more gregarious, more empathetic, kinder. I really believe,
00:24:34.160 | you know, the society is attacks rich people for being evil and mad and greedy. But I think
00:24:37.920 | the richer you get, you become kinder, you want to help people, you're not as, you know,
00:24:43.320 | sheltered, or you're not as jealous or envious and protective of your things, you want to
00:24:47.360 | give more. So this is something that I've discovered over the past 25 years. So Sydney,
00:24:54.400 | what is your favorite strategy on how to still survive and thrive in this changing society
00:25:01.560 | that is discounting merit based performance and reward? I think initially in your career,
00:25:07.640 | the first two that you have are really important. I remember when I first started working with
00:25:13.800 | one of my bosses, he kind of annoyed me and I just couldn't figure out how to connect
00:25:20.060 | with him. But then we started going out on team events, and I started to get to know
00:25:25.520 | him better. And once I understood who he was, what he was interested in, we started to have
00:25:30.560 | better and better conversations. And by the end of my time at that job, he ended up being
00:25:37.040 | the most favorite boss of my entire career. And it was because I decided to take the initiative
00:25:44.600 | to build a relationship with him. And it made all the difference in the world. Make that
00:25:48.960 | connection. It's just awesome. Yeah. So do you think hard work is still worth it? Because
00:25:56.460 | here's one of my dilemmas. You know, we're old now. Well, I'm old. You're not as old
00:26:01.720 | as me. I don't feel young. But our kids are only five and a half and three. So we're kind
00:26:08.840 | of in this holding pattern based on schooling, where, you know, it's like 15 more years until
00:26:14.100 | we can, like, travel the world again and do that all the time and be completely free.
00:26:18.560 | So one of my fantasies or thoughts is, well, if there is a decline in merit-based reward,
00:26:26.120 | maybe we shouldn't try as hard. Maybe schooling is not as important. Maybe we can just, you
00:26:31.600 | know, B's are fine. We don't have to stress that they don't get an A. And maybe we can
00:26:35.460 | just travel and see the country and just kind of be vagabonds and just be free spirit. I
00:26:40.320 | mean, I think a part of me would like that. But I still have this ingrained part of my
00:26:49.000 | personality that goes back to merit, because it's how I grew up. It's how I built my career.
00:26:57.640 | And I want our kids to be able to experience the joys of hard work and the rewards that
00:27:02.920 | come from it. And I want them to be able to grow up and be independent and figure out
00:27:07.760 | what they love and want to do and how to make money from it and build a life that they love.
00:27:14.760 | Yeah. You don't want them staying at home with us until they're 35?
00:27:18.480 | Until 35? No way. I want them to still want to come visit us and hang out, but live under
00:27:24.360 | the same roof at 35? No thanks.
00:27:26.360 | I don't know. I think I'll miss them.
00:27:28.640 | Of course we'll miss them, but we want to see them watch. I think any parent wants that
00:27:34.760 | for their children.
00:27:35.760 | But what if we buy a really large enough house, like compound, where they have...
00:27:40.480 | It's not the same though. They have to experience what it's like to live on their own.
00:27:46.680 | On a sofa.
00:27:47.680 | To have the responsibility of paying rent, getting all their bills in on time, buying
00:27:53.280 | groceries, all of these things that are part of life. They need to experience that.
00:28:01.200 | I still think I'll miss them.
00:28:02.680 | Of course we will. We might end up selling our house down the road and relocating to
00:28:09.600 | be closer to them. I think that'd be great.
00:28:11.600 | Maybe next door.
00:28:14.680 | They might not want that, but we'll see. I hope they will want to be around us when they're
00:28:21.000 | adults because it would just be so much fun.
00:28:24.760 | It would be fun. I think in conclusion, hard work is worth it for your own self-pride.
00:28:30.680 | You feel great when you work hard and you feel great when there's reward.
00:28:35.680 | And obviously when there's no reward, you feel bummed out, but that doesn't mean you
00:28:38.680 | can't still try hard again.
00:28:42.080 | The danger though is that you might not know when to shut it off.
00:28:47.960 | You might work so hard and you just run yourself into the ground and you don't stop and smell
00:28:54.040 | the pink jasmine flowers along the way.
00:28:57.440 | And then you look back on your life at 55, 65, 70, 80 and you kind of regret working
00:29:03.640 | all this hard for what?
00:29:04.920 | For more money, for more status, more fame?
00:29:06.840 | I talk about this all the time on Financial Samurai.
00:29:09.640 | I think about what is the right calibration of work, fame, fortune.
00:29:15.080 | And I feel like we have enough money.
00:29:17.760 | Going on the book tour with Buy This, Not That for three months, it's fine.
00:29:21.600 | Get on podcasts and video.
00:29:24.480 | It's fun.
00:29:25.480 | It's kind of thrilling, but it's kind of stressful.
00:29:26.480 | I had enough.
00:29:27.480 | I don't need to be on TV, all that.
00:29:29.640 | It's just not me.
00:29:30.640 | And maybe it's just a personality thing.
00:29:32.960 | So in conclusion again, I say hard work is worth it, but we have insurance policies in
00:29:40.120 | place just in case for them, our children, they get kicked to the ground and they cannot
00:29:47.960 | launch because of the gatekeepers.
00:29:50.160 | And that insurance policy, rental property portfolio, small online business where we
00:29:55.600 | can teach them the ways.
00:29:57.600 | That's frankly one of the reasons why I keep on going just in case they don't get a fair
00:30:02.320 | chance, which I don't think they will.
00:30:06.200 | But that's just life.
00:30:07.200 | And we got to move forward from there.
00:30:10.120 | All right, everyone, if you enjoyed this podcast, we'd love a fantastic five-star review.
00:30:15.000 | If you want to subscribe to our newsletter, it's at financialsamurai.com/news.
00:30:20.640 | And if you want to support our work, it's at financialsamurai.com/buythisnotthat.
00:30:26.680 | Take care.
00:30:27.680 | Thank you.