Welcome_To_The_Financial_Samurai_Podcast
00:00:00.000 | Hello everybody, it's Sam from Financial Samurai and welcome to the Financial Samurai podcast
00:00:04.920 | I just wanted to share some background about me and why you should listen to the Financial Samurai podcast on your way to financial freedom
00:00:12.880 | So I started financialsamurai.com in the middle of the crisis in July 2009
00:00:19.000 | It was literally about the bottom of the previous financial crisis
00:00:23.140 | I had lost about 35% of my net worth within six months and I was pretty devastated
00:00:29.180 | I had thought about starting financial samurai in 2006, but I was just too busy
00:00:35.340 | I just graduated from business school at UC Berkeley and I was like well
00:00:39.340 | It's time to get going and utilize my MBA to make more money in my day job
00:00:44.920 | My day job was in the Asian equities department at a major investment bank
00:00:49.500 | Two years in New York City and 11 years in San Francisco, and it was a really really great time
00:00:56.240 | But the financial crisis really kind of knocked me knocked me on my back and it was just a really really tough time
00:01:03.000 | so I thought writing was better than smoking or drinking as a cathartic way to make sense of all the chaos and
00:01:09.960 | Over time the site has grown to be my biggest passion
00:01:14.440 | It's something that I just truly love to do every single day and I've been writing three times a week since 2009
00:01:21.520 | so over ten years now and in 2017, I
00:01:25.440 | Decided to regularly focus on doing this podcast
00:01:28.320 | Because I thought it was a new way to keep in touch and to get in touch and to reach more people
00:01:33.280 | Who also want to reach financial independence sooner rather than later?
00:01:37.460 | All right. So let's start a little bit from the beginning here
00:01:40.560 | I grew up in the Philippines Zambia Japan Taiwan and Malaysia for 13 years
00:01:46.040 | Before coming to the United States for high school and college
00:01:49.600 | My parents were both in the US Foreign Service and were stationed all around the world when I was growing up
00:01:55.780 | Due to my upbringing I caught the travel bug very early on and it has never never left
00:02:01.140 | I visited over 60 countries as of 2019
00:02:04.360 | But I've slowed down my travels since having a boy in 2017
00:02:08.860 | I'm very pro public school because I went to a public high school and I went to the College of William and Mary
00:02:14.780 | For in-state tuition and it's also a public school. So I'm totally biased
00:02:19.500 | I just don't think people should spend a fortune going to private school to get an education that I don't
00:02:25.060 | Know I don't think is worth as much as was 10 20 30 years ago
00:02:29.660 | Because we can all learn everything on the internet for free
00:02:33.220 | One of my goals after college was to work overseas in Asia
00:02:37.220 | Since that's where I grew up for 13 years and I came very very close when my dad's friend offered me a job to work
00:02:43.700 | At his eyeglass parts factory in Shenzhen China in 1999. It was very tempting
00:02:49.460 | China was absolutely booming in 1999 and it just opened up its economy to foreign investments and I thought well
00:02:56.740 | Gosh going to China would be great because I could improve on my Mandarin skills and I can maybe make a fortune as an entrepreneur
00:03:03.500 | there
00:03:04.660 | But I kind of chickened out because I got a job at an investment bank called Goldman Sachs in New York City
00:03:11.620 | Which is something unheard of for someone coming out of the College of William & Mary because it was a non-target
00:03:17.540 | Public school and so after I think it was around 55 interviews and seven rounds over a six plus month time period
00:03:25.540 | I finally got the job and I'll see to myself after going through all that to just reject them
00:03:32.140 | I think that would be really really foolish and
00:03:35.060 | It just goes to show you that you never know what might happen if you get on a bus at 6 a.m
00:03:39.700 | On a Saturday morning to go to a career fair. It was one of my best moves I ever made I got on this bus
00:03:46.820 | Nobody else got on the bus even though 30 of my fellow students signed up
00:03:50.620 | So the bus driver after waiting for 45 minutes decided to take me in the bus
00:03:55.460 | to some home base and swap the bus out for a Lincoln Town car and
00:04:00.140 | Go up to that two and a half hour drive to Washington DC. So I that was the first time I felt like a boss
00:04:05.660 | After working in New York City for two years
00:04:08.780 | I got a great offer to come to San Francisco for another competing investment bank
00:04:13.980 | And it was interesting because it was a total leap of faith because I knew nobody in San Francisco
00:04:18.780 | But I said, you know what?
00:04:19.940 | I'm probably gonna get fired at Goldman Sachs because of dot-com bubble bursting in 2000 and this was 2001
00:04:27.220 | So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna take this job and I'm gonna go for it
00:04:30.940 | So I came out here and 11 years later
00:04:33.820 | I had a really great career because I thought I thought there's no way I could last more than five years in investment banking
00:04:41.340 | Because I was getting in by 530 a.m. And leaving at 8 p.m. On a regular regular basis
00:04:46.660 | So in 2009, like I said, I did start financial samurai and it was my passion project
00:04:52.620 | I started working on it before work
00:04:55.500 | sometimes during my lunch break and after work, it's all I could ever think about and in
00:05:00.620 | 2011 two years after I started it it started gaining a lot of steam and I was in Santorini Greece with my wife on a
00:05:08.540 | Cruise and she had gone off to hike around and check out some various shops and I was tired
00:05:15.380 | so I plopped myself up in a bar overlooking the crater checking my phone because there was Wi-Fi at the time and
00:05:21.780 | In my inbox was an advertiser a client who was based in London who said hey, I'd like to advertise on your site
00:05:29.820 | Are you interested if you put up this link? I'll give you $1,200 and I'll see myself really
00:05:35.860 | 1,200 bucks just to put up a link and I was hesitant because I don't know that's a lot of money and I'm on my
00:05:43.140 | Phone I'd never done this before but he said hey just put up this link copy this code into your page and
00:05:48.780 | Once it's up, let me know and I'll PayPal you the 1,200 bucks
00:05:53.060 | So I got to work it took about 20 minutes to figure things out and I was drinking my overpriced
00:05:58.500 | Mythos beer that was like nine bucks at the time and then I quickly put up the code and the advertisement and then boom
00:06:05.820 | Within 15 minutes. He sent me $1,200 and that was the moment. That was my up. Aha epiphany
00:06:12.420 | Whatever moment or I thought maybe there is life after investment in banking and that's when my my gears started turning in my head
00:06:21.180 | How do I leave this industry that I no longer enjoyed right? I was oh
00:06:25.940 | I was already doing it for 12 years up until 2011 and I thought aha
00:06:31.140 | Maybe I can follow some of my peers who got let go with an amazing severance package during the financial crisis
00:06:38.380 | and
00:06:39.540 | So I started thinking about it and I started talking to people who got let go and I realized wow these people
00:06:45.580 | Were pretty hooked up once they got let go
00:06:48.380 | So in February after I got my terrible bonus for 2011, I raised my hand and I said hey boss
00:06:55.020 | I'm interested in doing something else
00:06:57.740 | but in exchange
00:07:00.100 | For training my subordinate to take over my accounts and have a really really smooth transition
00:07:05.380 | I would like to get all my deferred compensation in terms of stock and cash and
00:07:09.700 | I would like to get a severance equal to what normal people would get laid off would get
00:07:16.060 | Who had worked at the firm for 11 years and it took about two months two months of negotiating and hemming and hawing and wondering?
00:07:24.260 | What's up?
00:07:25.380 | But they said Sam
00:07:27.580 | We agree. We're sorry to see you go, but we can give you this severance package. I think you're right
00:07:32.700 | If your heart's not in it, we'd love to take care of you and have you do something else
00:07:38.180 | So I accepted I took that leap of faith and I said, thank you so much
00:07:42.900 | I'll accept that severance package and be on my way
00:07:47.180 | It was no doubt scary to leave that multiple six-figure job security behind
00:07:52.500 | I mean I was getting profit sharing in my 401k of 20,000 plus a year
00:07:57.020 | So to leave all that
00:07:59.020 | Man, it didn't feel
00:08:01.020 | Great, but I was definitely excited and I told myself at the age of 34
00:08:05.500 | It was now or never if I failed at trying something new
00:08:08.980 | Then I can just go back to work
00:08:11.340 | It took I think two years for my series 7 license to expire
00:08:15.300 | So I knew I had two years and if I failed after two years
00:08:18.460 | At least I wouldn't regret having tried and that's kind of the key message that I have over and over again
00:08:24.820 | To put yourself out there and to try because the worst thing that can happen is that nothing happens
00:08:29.540 | Maybe someone might laugh at you, but who cares people who laugh at you are the people who aren't willing to try themselves
00:08:35.060 | They don't have the courage. So ever since
00:08:37.380 | 2012 when I left my full-time job, I've been dedicating about 20 to 25 hours a week writing on financial samurai
00:08:45.340 | Financial samurai is my baby and financial samurai is for anybody who wants to achieve financial freedom sooner rather than later
00:08:52.940 | So what differentiates financial samurai from so many other financial sites? Well one I started in 2009
00:09:00.460 | - it's written and spoken by a person who was in the financial services industry and who got an MBA
00:09:08.380 | So I am living and breathing everything finance
00:09:11.400 | Three I write about my personal experiences all the time and what I've learned and the mistakes that I've made
00:09:18.720 | So you don't have to make the same mistakes
00:09:21.180 | So if you want to build wealth by making more money in your day job or through your business or from your investments
00:09:28.260 | I think financial samurai is the place you want to be. I'm always gonna be sharing stories and lessons
00:09:33.300 | I've learned where I've made mistakes
00:09:35.300 | So you don't have to or the things where I feel, you know make a lot of sense in terms of investing
00:09:41.220 | you're never gonna get everything right, but at least if we share our thoughts and listen to how other people have
00:09:48.540 | Progressed in their lives. I think we can improve our lives ourselves
00:09:52.100 | If you're curious about my net worth you can check out the post the first million might be the easiest
00:09:57.900 | How to become a millionaire by 30
00:09:59.980 | Basically, my path was very lucky. I was able to get a good job out of college
00:10:05.940 | I knew that I didn't want to be an investment bank for decades like my parents were in their respective industries
00:10:11.980 | And so I saved aggressively
00:10:14.180 | 50 to 70 percent after tax for 13 consecutive years at the age of 28
00:10:19.300 | I was able to breach the 1 million net worth mark and I didn't really even know it and by
00:10:24.200 | 2012 when I left my day job for good and my net worth was about 3 million dollars and I don't share and my net worth
00:10:30.940 | After that because it becomes kind of like a distraction
00:10:32.940 | But suffice it to say it has grown because there's been this huge bull market
00:10:37.660 | I've been riding and I hopefully you guys have been riding and it's a very very lucky time to be alive
00:10:43.420 | and it's a very lucky time to do something new on the internet and
00:10:47.140 | Also do something more unconventional rather than just your day job
00:10:51.820 | I do have several tenants that I follow one is if the amount of money you're saving each month doesn't hurt
00:10:58.360 | You're not saving enough. It's the same idea with braces, for example
00:11:03.760 | You know, if you've ever had braces when you're feeling pain in your gum and teeth, that means, you know, it's working
00:11:10.340 | It's kind of like working out if you don't feel sore the very next day and you just want to sleep in or take a hot
00:11:17.700 | Tub bath. Well, you know you didn't work hard enough
00:11:21.180 | It's the same thing with your finances
00:11:24.540 | The more you feel that visceral pain of saving and investing the more you have to second-guess like oh
00:11:31.340 | Maybe I have to cut my spending down a little bit
00:11:34.300 | That is when you know, you're finally saving enough and the other very important principle that I follow is this
00:11:40.900 | Never fail due to a lack of effort because effort requires no skill
00:11:45.980 | This is a saying that I've held on since high school
00:11:49.260 | Because I recognized I was a really average person in terms of intelligence in terms of athletic ability in terms of looks and so forth
00:11:57.380 | The only way I could get ahead
00:11:59.860 | Was to try harder than most people because trying harder doesn't require any skill at all
00:12:05.500 | There are no excuses for not trying harder and if you fail if I fail, okay, whatever
00:12:10.940 | At least I tried and I won't regret having not tried my best
00:12:15.060 | So I hope you guys really enjoy your time on financial samurai. You can read the posts subscribe
00:12:21.340 | Via email or RSS. There's a private newsletter
00:12:25.580 | There's also a forum that you can check out just google it
00:12:28.660 | And of course, there's now this podcast that I've been regularly doing at least one episode a week for the past couple years now
00:12:35.920 | I'm always gonna try to talk about something topical something interesting something fun so we can learn and grow together
00:12:42.220 | I'm on the financial journey and just as all of you are
00:12:45.920 | I'm in my early 40s, and I'm a new parent now and I'm excited about the future
00:12:51.140 | I'm a super optimist and let's just see how well we can grow our finances and our lives going forward
00:12:58.180 | Thanks so much everyone. Talk to you later