New_Year_2023
00:00:00.000 | Hello everybody, it's Sam and Sydney from Financial Samurai and we want to wish you a Happy New Year!
00:00:06.000 | Happy New Year!
00:00:07.000 | So in this episode, we just want to recap 2022 and also talk about our goals for 2023.
00:00:15.000 | So I thought maybe you should start first and share what are some things you really liked and disliked about 2022.
00:00:23.000 | Well, I felt like 2022 was a tough year for the first six months. We were really, really focused on your book.
00:00:33.000 | And we were under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress. We wanted it to be a great success and we hadn't felt that amount of anxiety in a while.
00:00:41.000 | And I think all of it paid off immensely. It was so exciting to see the whole process from start to finish.
00:00:50.000 | And when it finally came out, when you finally got to hold it in your hands the first time, how exciting was that?
00:00:57.000 | It was pretty exciting. Buy This, Not That started in 2020, early 2020.
00:01:03.000 | And it was a way for me to say, well, screw the pandemic, screw suboptimal times. I'm going to make the most out of it.
00:01:11.000 | Which is something that I've really wanted to do. And what I've been doing, that's kind of been my mindset since I was a kid.
00:01:18.000 | When I sprained my ankle, I just say, screw you, ankle, I'm going to play anyway. And long term, actually, that might not be a good idea.
00:01:25.000 | But that was that. Yeah, first half of the year was difficult. Did I feel anxious? I know.
00:01:32.000 | Yes, you did. I don't know if I felt anxious about the book editing process.
00:01:38.000 | No, that was my stress. Yeah, I was more anxious about the book marketing.
00:01:43.000 | Because, you know, one of my goals in 2022 was to get on podcasts and do live TV interviews, which I actually did.
00:01:51.000 | And those live TV interviews, if you've never done them, which I'm assuming most have not, is the hardest and most stressful thing.
00:01:58.000 | Because you only have between one to maybe four minutes, probably only like two or three minutes to say something.
00:02:04.000 | So you got to be succinct. You got to be precise. You can't stumble on your words. Yeah, there's no retakes.
00:02:10.000 | There's no retakes. So, you know, just interesting in marketing or having a conversation, doing a 30 minute or an hour long interview is so much easier than being put on the spot for one minute to three minutes.
00:02:25.000 | The other thing I didn't realize about the first half of 2022 was how much time I spent dealing with my contractor to remodel our previous primary residence, which was a fixer that we bought in 2019.
00:02:41.000 | Yeah, that was so painful. Man, I just I just cannot ever remodel, do a gut remodel ever again.
00:02:48.000 | It's so stressful. It's not worth it. And because it took so long and it cost more as usual, I think fully remodeled homes going forward are going to be more valuable.
00:03:00.000 | People are going to appreciate it more. People are going to pay up for them because it's just so hard to get permitting, to get approval.
00:03:07.000 | Materials these days. Gosh. Yeah, materials boomed. Well, now then they busted everything.
00:03:13.000 | Well, labor costs are up as well. So if you can find a fully done house, I would look for that.
00:03:20.000 | I would not take on a remodel project unless you're in your 20s or 30s without children.
00:03:25.000 | Or if you're only trying to do one room, which is still hard, but easier than trying to do an entire house.
00:03:32.000 | Yeah, I mean, one room. No problem. Just do some paint, change some fixtures.
00:03:37.000 | That's easy. But yeah, doing one kitchen, four bathrooms or however many. No, three bathrooms.
00:03:44.000 | We did three bathrooms. We gutted the ground, added square footage. Yeah, it was a lot.
00:03:50.000 | But here's the thing, though, like all hard things, it it feels worth it at the end.
00:03:55.000 | You know, the good thing I have a saying, the good thing about hard work is that it's over and we get to reap the rewards for hopefully years and years to come.
00:04:04.000 | Yeah. So what are some of your highlights and lowlights of last year?
00:04:09.000 | Well, besides the remodel and besides the release of the book, Buy This, Not That, which became a instant Wall Street Journal bestseller, pretty proud of that,
00:04:19.000 | was running in place with the wealth creation. It was kind of depressing.
00:04:25.000 | Let's just be frank. Stock market closed down almost 20 percent, the S&P 500 down 20 percent, pretty much giving up all its gains in 2021.
00:04:35.000 | So I felt like I was running in molasses. 30 percent of our net worth was exposed to stocks, which is down 20 percent, which meant that our net worth declined by 6 percent.
00:04:47.000 | Now, we ended up with a flat net worth only because of passive income savings and online income.
00:04:57.000 | So in other words, I think you can see that as a positive or negative.
00:05:02.000 | The first rule of financial independence is not lose money, because if you lose money, you lose time.
00:05:08.000 | So this way, we didn't really lose time and we have all the time in the world because we don't have day jobs.
00:05:14.000 | But on the negative, it's basically we worked kind of for free.
00:05:18.000 | All the hours that I spent working on Financial Samurai, writing the book, editing the book, marketing was for nothing.
00:05:27.000 | I don't say that.
00:05:29.000 | Let's just be frank. I think in finance, we got to be real.
00:05:33.000 | The only positive thing I did at the end of 2021 was reduce our asset allocation to stocks from 35 percent to 30 percent.
00:05:41.000 | Because 2021 was crazy and my long term asset allocation goal is to have 25 to 30 percent in stocks.
00:05:49.000 | But I did experience something pretty great and that was health wise.
00:05:54.000 | So in spite, in spite of losing a lot of money in the stock market, my health improved.
00:06:00.000 | My shortness of breath issues cleared away and I also lost five pounds.
00:06:06.000 | So what this tells me is that I have the proper asset allocation and I'm satisfied with the money we have.
00:06:16.000 | You know how some people, they say, oh yeah, we're good, we're good.
00:06:20.000 | But then, you know, maybe in the background, they're like working as hard as ever to make way more money.
00:06:25.000 | Or they say, you know, they feel no pain, but deep down, they feel tons of pain.
00:06:30.000 | So I think one of the things about our bodies is that it doesn't lie to us.
00:06:36.000 | It's like an honest child that tells us the truth no matter what.
00:06:40.000 | It reflects how we are feeling stress wise and more.
00:06:45.000 | Yeah, I could see that.
00:06:46.000 | Another thing I'm really proud about is doing all this dad stuff.
00:06:51.000 | Yeah.
00:06:52.000 | Daddy moments.
00:06:53.000 | Our son graduated from preschool.
00:06:56.000 | So proud. We've got such a great picture of him graduating with his cap and gown.
00:07:02.000 | And also teaching him how to ride a bike on November 13, 2022.
00:07:07.000 | After seven sessions, he finally did it.
00:07:10.000 | And the hardest thing was actually letting go.
00:07:13.000 | Oh.
00:07:14.000 | You know, I basically ran behind him holding his shoulders or holding his neck, hurting my back in the process.
00:07:21.000 | Nonstop, just running, running, running.
00:07:23.000 | It's hard. I tried it too.
00:07:24.000 | I was like, "Well, I'm glad that you did most of the work."
00:07:27.000 | Yeah.
00:07:28.000 | But I made a commitment to do 16 sessions once a week for 16 weeks.
00:07:34.000 | By the end of the year, he would ride a bike and he did it.
00:07:37.000 | And his joy and the smile on his face was priceless.
00:07:41.000 | I was there to capture that video.
00:07:43.000 | Yeah.
00:07:44.000 | So those are the moments where we just think, you know, money stuff is important.
00:07:48.000 | But so long as you have enough money to, you know, feel relatively comfortable, to do what you want, it's all this other stuff that is truly priceless.
00:07:57.000 | Yeah.
00:07:58.000 | So how about you? What are some highlights of your 2022?
00:08:01.000 | Well, one thing that comes to mind is something that happened just a few weeks ago is we finally got my mom to come visit us.
00:08:10.000 | Oh, yeah.
00:08:11.000 | It took forever to convince her to come.
00:08:14.000 | Like she's been wanting to come for a long time and, you know, something would always come up, some excuse.
00:08:19.000 | And then she finally decided that she wanted to come for Christmas.
00:08:23.000 | And so we started to plan out the trip.
00:08:25.000 | And then she changed her mind.
00:08:26.000 | She said, "Oh, I can't come."
00:08:27.000 | And then I convinced her to come again.
00:08:29.000 | And it was so much back and forth.
00:08:31.000 | And about four days before she was supposed to arrive, she said, "I can't come."
00:08:36.000 | And I had to pull out all the stops, convince her that she really needed to come.
00:08:41.000 | And thank goodness she did.
00:08:42.000 | We had an amazing week with her.
00:08:44.000 | And then there were all the crazy flight cancellations that were happening on the East Coast like a day or two before she was supposed to fly home.
00:08:54.000 | And thankfully, everything went smoothly.
00:08:57.000 | She didn't have any delays.
00:08:58.000 | She got all the way back home safe.
00:09:00.000 | So that was kind of a highlight, you know, the biggest highlight at the end of the year for me.
00:09:05.000 | Right.
00:09:06.000 | To get, you know, getting her out here to see the kids and us.
00:09:09.000 | Yeah, it had been three years.
00:09:12.000 | And before that, during Thanksgiving, I got my parents to come out.
00:09:15.000 | Yeah.
00:09:16.000 | And so they hadn't come out in three years as well since our daughter was born.
00:09:21.000 | And so it was really good to see family.
00:09:24.000 | That's the one biggest downer about the pandemic is fear and uncertainty and distance from family.
00:09:30.000 | What else?
00:09:31.000 | Another one that comes to mind is we had some great family vacations, which reminds me that we paid off our vacation property mortgage.
00:09:39.000 | Yeah.
00:09:40.000 | This was our Lake Tahoe vacation property mortgage we bought in 2007.
00:09:46.000 | Bad timing.
00:09:47.000 | It's been an albatross on my neck.
00:09:50.000 | But we got a good deal relative to 2006 prices.
00:09:54.000 | But then prices kept on going down.
00:09:56.000 | However, since our kids were born, we've been able to take them and fulfill our dream of having children enjoy the water slides and pool and so forth.
00:10:08.000 | So paying down that mortgage.
00:10:10.000 | Yeah, we finally did.
00:10:11.000 | 15 years.
00:10:12.000 | There was about 50,000 left at the beginning of 2022.
00:10:16.000 | The mortgage rate was 4.25%, which was the highest mortgage we had out of our mortgages.
00:10:22.000 | But now it doesn't look that high, right? With average 30 year fixed at around 6.2%, maybe.
00:10:28.000 | But it still feels great, folks, to pay off your mortgage.
00:10:32.000 | What's most interesting is our cash flow has gone way up.
00:10:37.000 | So the mortgage used to be $2,500 a month.
00:10:40.000 | And predominantly, most of it was paying off principal since we only had 50,000 left.
00:10:45.000 | And it's been 15 years.
00:10:47.000 | But by paying it off, you, we now have 2,500 more a month in cash flow, which is, what is that, 30,000 a year.
00:10:56.000 | And also, weren't you tacking on automatic $1,000 a month to principal?
00:11:01.000 | Yeah, extra.
00:11:02.000 | So that's $3,500 a month in cash flow.
00:11:05.000 | And I'll talk about this in a future post.
00:11:07.000 | Because this feels really good.
00:11:09.000 | It's not just paying off the mortgage.
00:11:11.000 | It's like, ah, we got all this cash flow to do what we want.
00:11:15.000 | We can reinvest that money.
00:11:17.000 | We could spend it.
00:11:19.000 | And so forth.
00:11:20.000 | So, yeah, you know, there's a whole debate on paying off your mortgage or not.
00:11:25.000 | I follow the FSDARE method, basically allocating a certain percentage based on the interest rate.
00:11:33.000 | So if the interest rate is 4.25%, I would allocate 42.5%, so times that by 10, right, towards paying off debt and then the rest towards investing.
00:11:44.000 | But I've never regretted paying off a mortgage.
00:11:47.000 | Or paying down extra principal.
00:11:49.000 | It just feels good.
00:11:50.000 | It just feels good, especially during times of uncertainty.
00:11:53.000 | So a lot of people poo-poo paying down debt, you know, let's say at the beginning of 2022.
00:11:58.000 | But if you pay down even 0% rate debt, you outperform the S&P 500 by 20% because that's how much the S&P 500 went down.
00:12:07.000 | So something to think about for 2023 and beyond.
00:12:11.000 | Alright, so overall, I would give 2022 a B+.
00:12:16.000 | We didn't make any money, but we progressed in terms of our health and our family.
00:12:22.000 | What would you give 2022 in terms of a grade?
00:12:25.000 | For myself, probably like a B-, I felt like I didn't do as much as I wanted the second half of the year, but I felt really good about the first half.
00:12:36.000 | Alright, so let's move on to 2023 goals.
00:12:39.000 | What are some goals you have for this year?
00:12:42.000 | Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is weight.
00:12:47.000 | I know you have a goal about weight.
00:12:49.000 | Mine is to shed a few pounds because I've been having a little bit of weight creep.
00:12:55.000 | So what I'm going to do this year is get back into a regular exercise regimen.
00:13:01.000 | And thanks to you, I am now playing pickleball.
00:13:05.000 | You are a pickleball addict.
00:13:07.000 | I am a pickleball fanatic.
00:13:12.000 | So I'm hoping, I won't be playing as much as you, but I'm hoping to play about two times a week.
00:13:18.000 | And if I'm not, to just do some hiking around to just keep myself active.
00:13:23.000 | How about you?
00:13:24.000 | Yeah, in terms of weight, I did finally lose that five pounds that I've been wanting to lose every year for the past five years.
00:13:30.000 | And it was also due to pickleball.
00:13:32.000 | And I don't have a weight loss goal.
00:13:34.000 | I have a weight maintenance goal.
00:13:37.000 | At 45, it does feel a little bit harder to stay in shape.
00:13:41.000 | But I believe if I can play tennis and pickleball on average total four times a week and just eat in moderation,
00:13:47.000 | I should be able to stay at 168 pounds at 5'10", which is totally fine for me.
00:13:53.000 | I can still fit in all my clothes from the past 15, 20 years.
00:13:57.000 | Although the ideal weight chart says I should be 151 to 163 pounds.
00:14:04.000 | I mean, if I want to apply to be a Bowflex man model, a fitness model, I guess.
00:14:11.000 | But this is not priority at my age.
00:14:14.000 | I don't even know if a Bowflex model would weigh that little.
00:14:17.000 | I mean, people are really skinny.
00:14:19.000 | These models, these fitness models.
00:14:21.000 | I know several people who are 140 pounds at 5'10".
00:14:24.000 | Are you serious?
00:14:25.000 | Yeah, but like, you know, those cheapo.
00:14:27.000 | Very, very lean.
00:14:28.000 | Super lean, like all the actors and all that.
00:14:30.000 | When you meet them in real life, you're like, "Wow, you are super skinny."
00:14:35.000 | It is really interesting.
00:14:37.000 | What else? What other goals do you have?
00:14:39.000 | I'll talk about another thing that comes to mind that you also spoke to as well is about parenting.
00:14:45.000 | We're trying to come to a more aligned parenting style,
00:14:50.000 | which I think you're going to write about in a future post, which will be a little bit of a teaser.
00:14:56.000 | You're a more tough love parent.
00:14:58.000 | I'm a softer love parent.
00:15:00.000 | And sometimes it can create a little tension where we each feel like we're being a little too, you know,
00:15:07.000 | far on one end of the scale than the other.
00:15:11.000 | So I'm going to try and do some tweaking with my parenting tactics and see if I can do a better job there.
00:15:21.000 | Yeah, you know, folks, I grew up kind of in a tough love environment.
00:15:25.000 | My parents were always working.
00:15:27.000 | If I fell, they didn't help me up.
00:15:30.000 | It was just the kind of grind on, grind on.
00:15:33.000 | And I see the benefit of tough love because if nobody helps you, you've got to figure out a way to help yourself.
00:15:41.000 | And I just fear raising kids that end up staying at home dependent on us well into their 30s because I see adult sons,
00:15:51.000 | adult sons in our neighborhood right now, at least five of them still living at home with their parents.
00:15:57.000 | And the ages range from 26 to 34.
00:16:01.000 | That is really worrying to me.
00:16:03.000 | And I think there's like this issue if you do deeper research on boys versus girls in academics, in, you know, building wealth, all that.
00:16:13.000 | And I have this fear.
00:16:15.000 | Do you think this is a rational fear?
00:16:18.000 | Well, I think it's rational based on what we're observing in the area.
00:16:25.000 | I don't have the same level of anxiety that you do.
00:16:29.000 | And I think it's because we have different personalities and different responsibilities.
00:16:37.000 | But it's definitely something that we're going to look into further this year.
00:16:41.000 | So here's an example.
00:16:42.000 | Let's say our son slips and falls after being told five times to not run on wet cement or a sidewalk.
00:16:50.000 | So he's crying and he's just reaching out to us.
00:16:53.000 | And I'll look at him and I'll say, "Embrace the pain.
00:16:56.000 | Be cognizant of the pain.
00:16:58.000 | If you did not want to feel pain, you would not have run."
00:17:03.000 | And this is a philosophy, you know, that I've had for years.
00:17:07.000 | And then I read this book called The Courage to be Disliked.
00:17:10.000 | And it also has that same philosophy where it says, "If you want to basically," let's say, "If you want something, you're going to take action to get it.
00:17:19.000 | And if you don't want something, you're not going to take action to get it."
00:17:22.000 | I have this belief that everything is rational long term.
00:17:25.000 | And we learn through pain.
00:17:27.000 | We learn through failure.
00:17:29.000 | We learn through misery.
00:17:31.000 | Because afterwards, everything gets that much easier.
00:17:34.000 | I'm laughing because sometimes you tell our son, "You like the pain, don't you?" when he falls down.
00:17:41.000 | Well, I'm trying to get into his head like, "Don't hit -- if you don't want to feel pain, don't do that."
00:17:48.000 | It's very rational.
00:17:49.000 | But what do you say if he's crying?
00:17:52.000 | I won't say those same words.
00:17:56.000 | But I'll usually remind him that this is why we were telling you to slow down because it's slippery.
00:18:03.000 | Now do you see why you fell down?
00:18:05.000 | You were going too fast.
00:18:07.000 | And then I'll still, you know, ask him after I've kind of gotten that out, "Are you okay? Do you need some ice?"
00:18:15.000 | No.
00:18:16.000 | No.
00:18:17.000 | No, nothing.
00:18:18.000 | What?
00:18:19.000 | I mean, it's so funny.
00:18:20.000 | We're talking right now.
00:18:21.000 | We're actually recording this in our car.
00:18:22.000 | And one of the adult sons is right behind us.
00:18:25.000 | He's got long, shaggy hair.
00:18:26.000 | He's checking into his house right now.
00:18:28.000 | It's like noon.
00:18:29.000 | Like, "Why aren't you working, dude?
00:18:31.000 | Like, what's going on?"
00:18:32.000 | I have this great fear.
00:18:34.000 | And I think part of this fear is because I have to provide --
00:18:38.000 | Unless he's secretly working from home.
00:18:40.000 | We don't know.
00:18:41.000 | No, I already talked to his father.
00:18:43.000 | He says he's lost.
00:18:44.000 | You know, he dropped out of school.
00:18:46.000 | So did his daughter.
00:18:47.000 | I don't know what's going on.
00:18:48.000 | You tell me, folks.
00:18:50.000 | What is going on?
00:18:52.000 | Actually, I know what's going on.
00:18:54.000 | The world is crazy competitive.
00:18:56.000 | Yes.
00:18:57.000 | It is so competitive that I wish all our youth good luck, love, and harmony.
00:19:04.000 | Please take care of yourself.
00:19:06.000 | Please develop good relationships.
00:19:09.000 | Because it's -- I feel scared.
00:19:12.000 | It's like having interview skills is one thing, but I feel like so many people can't even get to the interview stage with the amount of competition that there is for jobs.
00:19:23.000 | It's tough.
00:19:24.000 | It's tough.
00:19:25.000 | Like, any job you get is like winning the lottery.
00:19:27.000 | And what I also realize is this.
00:19:29.000 | I truly realized this after publishing my book.
00:19:33.000 | There are lots of quality works out there.
00:19:36.000 | Quality people, quality employees, quality books, quality products.
00:19:40.000 | But only those that get lucky enough with the most amount of marketing budget and the most amount of attention get to the top.
00:19:50.000 | Many, many thousands of people can replace the CEOs of great companies and still run them to the ground like they did in 2022.
00:19:58.000 | We are easily replaceable.
00:20:01.000 | And I know you furred your brow because I was kind of making a joke.
00:20:04.000 | What I'm saying is that there are CEOs in 2022 that got paid tens of millions of dollars, but they still saw their share prices go down 20 to 70%.
00:20:11.000 | I can do that just as well as they can.
00:20:14.000 | What I'm saying is that you've got to be lucky.
00:20:17.000 | Not only do you have to be good, you've got to be lucky to be embraced, to be recognized, to get ahead in this world.
00:20:24.000 | And one of the reasons why I'm still focused on academics, good work ethic, building a rental property portfolio, and maintaining a small business is because just in case our kids don't get into a university because of their identity,
00:20:39.000 | don't get a job because they couldn't get a good university and they don't have the connections,
00:20:44.000 | we will be an insurance policy that hopefully is never needed to make them survive and get them out of the house.
00:20:51.000 | What are the goals do you have for 2023?
00:20:54.000 | Well, for listeners here, you'll be pleased to know that I plan to record at least 30 more episodes in 2023.
00:21:01.000 | I think it's fun to connect with y'all and share new stories and bring in comment feedback.
00:21:08.000 | That's always great because it's about a community of financial samurai.
00:21:11.000 | Also, did you know that the Financial Samurai podcast has now achieved over 1 million downloads?
00:21:18.000 | Oh my God, that's huge.
00:21:19.000 | Yeah, we started in about 2017 regularly, haven't been promoting it, haven't gotten any advertisers, try to get straight to the point.
00:21:27.000 | But yeah, we've got 1 million downloads as of early 2023.
00:21:32.000 | Fantastic.
00:21:33.000 | So maybe we can, I don't know, grow to 1.5 million by the end of 2023.
00:21:38.000 | Generally, what happens is you build upon something for a while, for a while, and then eventually you see a hockey stick up and then that extra growth comes quicker.
00:21:49.000 | One of the challenges I had for 2022, because we were writing the book and doing the remodeling and raising kids,
00:21:55.000 | was would I have the motivation to continue to record without any advertisers?
00:22:02.000 | And I have to say, I was totally motivated inherently to do so without any advertisement dollars.
00:22:08.000 | I recorded over 43 podcasts, maybe 45, and it was fun.
00:22:13.000 | Drop off our son at school, come to the driveway and record a 10 to 20 minute episode.
00:22:19.000 | And it worked.
00:22:21.000 | Yeah.
00:22:22.000 | But I will say for 2023, I want to take things down a notch.
00:22:26.000 | I wrote before that I've been publishing three times a week since 2009.
00:22:31.000 | But that's not the reality.
00:22:33.000 | I've been publishing more than, more like four times a week since 2009 because I have a weekly newsletter that comes out every Sunday morning.
00:22:41.000 | And you can subscribe at financialsamurai.com/news so you don't miss a thing.
00:22:45.000 | And because of this newsletter, I've had to often, actually every single weekend, work either Friday night, Saturday morning, or Sunday morning to write and edit it.
00:22:56.000 | And then I've got to send it to you or my dad to edit it.
00:23:00.000 | So that's not fun because I never get a weekend off.
00:23:04.000 | Right.
00:23:05.000 | I have to really be inspired.
00:23:06.000 | And yeah, I was pretty inspired to write my newsletters.
00:23:09.000 | But I will admit about 15% of the time, I didn't want to write it at all.
00:23:14.000 | Yeah.
00:23:15.000 | But that's one of the things.
00:23:16.000 | When you set out public goals, you are held accountable.
00:23:20.000 | You just want to do it and not let people down.
00:23:24.000 | So I'm trying to manage expectations for 2023.
00:23:26.000 | And maybe I'll just publish two times a week and a newsletter.
00:23:29.000 | So that's still three times a week.
00:23:31.000 | And if I'm still publishing a podcast, that's still a lot.
00:23:35.000 | It's kind of like anti-minimalism.
00:23:38.000 | I noticed in the past, I would publish three times a week.
00:23:41.000 | I'm good.
00:23:42.000 | I was good.
00:23:43.000 | Then I would do three times a week plus a newsletter.
00:23:46.000 | And then three times a week plus a newsletter plus two podcasts.
00:23:51.000 | And then I would write a page because I needed to update some kind of factual page.
00:23:54.000 | It adds up.
00:23:55.000 | It's like endless clutter.
00:23:58.000 | I wouldn't call it clutter.
00:24:00.000 | It's work.
00:24:01.000 | Yeah, it's endless work that just never stops when you have the ability to do what you want.
00:24:08.000 | So I'm a highly motivated person, so I just keep on going.
00:24:12.000 | But I need to throttle that back for happiness, sanity, and health.
00:24:16.000 | Yeah.
00:24:17.000 | All right.
00:24:18.000 | Well, in conclusion, 2023 is all about going back to the early retirement lifestyle to lead a more simple, healthier, and happy life.
00:24:30.000 | In a bear market, which we are still in, it doesn't make sense to grind so hard because your return on effort is lower.
00:24:40.000 | The time to grind is during a bull market.
00:24:43.000 | For example, can you imagine working 60 hours a week and then seeing your stock price decline by 50% in 2022?
00:24:51.000 | I mean, what a waste of time.
00:24:53.000 | That would piss me off.
00:24:54.000 | It's frustrating.
00:24:56.000 | So I really believe that when it's harder to make money, you shouldn't spend as much time making money.
00:25:03.000 | You should actually spend more time cultivating the things that matter more than money, like your friends' experiences.
00:25:12.000 | Experiences and family.
00:25:14.000 | The opportunity cost of making money is lower, so you might as well spend that time enjoying life more.
00:25:20.000 | Yeah, I think that makes sense.
00:25:22.000 | All right, folks.
00:25:23.000 | Well, if you want to read all about our 2022 year in review and our goals for 2023, you can just check out the linked posts in the episode show notes.
00:25:34.000 | And as always, we appreciate your positive reviews for the podcast and for my book, Buy This, Not That, at FinancialSamurai.com/BuyThisNotThat.
00:25:44.000 | And we'll talk to you folks later.
00:25:46.000 | Happy New Year!