Hello, everybody. It's Sam and Sydney from the Financial Samurai podcast. And in this episode, we want to talk about the savers mindset, whether we can all have it or whether it's just inherent or not. So guess where we just came back from, Sydney? Where did we come back from?

The mall? Actually, we did come back from the mall. We went to some Panda Express. I bought some sides, some sweet shrimp, and some Kung Pao chicken and all that. And the funny thing is, I had never gone to Panda Express until about eight months ago. And now, every time I go, there are long lines.

And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this place is good business. And the owners are billionaires, by the way. And it's a private company. And I realize, wow, the food tastes pretty good. And I'm an Asian person. I've grown up-- I grew up in Asia. I like good Asian food, great Asian food.

So I would think, ah, Panda Express, whatever. But I tried it. I was like, eh, it's not bad. It's probably full of sugar and stuff like that. But the main thing is that it's so cheap. I basically bought enough to feed four of us for $38 after tip and tax.

And I thought that was pretty good. What do you think? That's good pricing. Food is crazy expensive today. Crazy expensive. You were asking me to go buy some of the Korean barbecue stuff. Because it's so good. I mean, it's so good. But it's so expensive. It's like $18 to $20 for an entree, right, for one.

So if you multiply that by four, that's $80 versus $38 I spent for four. And luckily, it was closed. Because that means I didn't have to spend the $18, $20 to buy your entree. You're going to have to eat Panda Express. Ha, ha, ha. It's all good. So on the way home, guess where we also stopped by.

Oh, that's right. We made a pit stop at the gas station. The gas station. Not any gas station. Not the Shell gas station. Not the Chevron gas station. But the Speedway Express gas station. Which, for folks who don't know, at least I didn't really know, it's just the non-top-tier gasoline that's way cheaper.

So on our car, it's a Range Rover Sport 2015. When you open up the lid to fill up the gas, it says premium recommended. So since we bought it in 2016, December, I had always thought that premium meant anything above 87 octane. So 89 octane or 91 octane in California.

So given I want to save money, I was like, OK. I'm just going to add 89 octane sometime. Because it's more expensive than 87 octane. And what I didn't realize until 2024, when I started on this kick to save as much money as possible, is that premium actually really means 91 octane or greater.

And there are parts of the country that have 93 octane. Did you know that? 93 in some place. I did not know that. Anyway, so for all this time, since December 2016, I've been filling up Moose, our Range Rover Sport, with premium 89 octane or 87 octane. And all this time, the car has run just fine.

No knocking noises. No nothing. And so I went on this deep dive. And I thought, uh-oh. Maybe this has been bad. This is because my check engine light did go on. But it went on for a completely different reason. Because a PVC valve was cracked and broken. And it was allowing more air to flow into the engine than it was supposed to be.

So I went down this deep dive rabbit hole. And so there are top-tier gasolines with supposedly twice the amount of, quote, "detergents and additives" to clean up the fuel injectors and carbon deposits in your engine. And then there are the non-top-tier gasoline, such as Speedway Express. And I've been adding non-top-tier gasoline and 87 octane gasoline to a premium-recommended car for a long time.

And nothing has happened. But the funny thing is, as I started to research more and more about how these top-tier gasolines have more additives, I started experiencing FOMO and the desire, thanks to, I think, what is really mostly marketing, to add more premium gasoline. But I'm proud to say that I didn't.

Once again, I started to add the 87 octane Speedway Express gasoline, fill it up the tank, 23 gallons. And I saved myself $0.70 a gallon had I had gone to Chevron and paid for Supreme. And that's like $15, folks. $15 on a tank of gas? I think that's worth the savings.

What do you think? I think so. It seems like you've found a good compromise. And how you have decided to manage the car, it's been doing great since we had it. Very few problems overall. So hey, it's a great, simple way to get some savings. Yeah, and the funny thing is, when I wrote this in my post on the three sneaky ways our expenses catch up to us, I had so much backlash from people who were ardently supporters of fueling top-tier gas, from mechanics to just enthusiasts.

But really, none of us, unless we're driving F1 car racers, or we have like, I don't know, 911 Turbo or a Lamborghini, none of us really need this super high octane gas, premium gas. I don't think the vast majority of us can tell the difference. Can you tell the difference?

I can't tell the difference. But again, you do most of the driving. Maybe some of these car enthusiasts, they're driving a lot of mileage per year and being on the highway a lot. So maybe they can tell a little bit. But I think based on the type and amount of driving that we do as a family, I think it's fine.

Yeah, I mean, in the city, the speed limit is like 25 to 35 miles per hour. So maybe you drive 30 to 40 miles an hour max in the city. You don't need high-performance gas. And the thing is, if you really, really are concerned about carbon deposits building up, you can just buy a bottle of Tecron on Amazon for like $18 and then dump it in your tank with up to, what, 20 gallons of fuel.

That's what they recommend. And then do that every single oil change, every 5,000 to maybe 10,000 miles, and you're probably good to go. That's a great compromise. Yeah, it's a decent compromise. So it is interesting that once I started doing the deep dive on, quote, "the better quality fuels," I was like, oh, I should do that too.

And it just really, I think, shows what marketing and FOMO can do to your budget. And this realization also made me want to get into this saver's mindset, the frugal mindset, I think, that many of us who are practicing saving and investing and trying to achieve financial independence sooner rather than later have been doing or adopting for a while.

Do you have the frugal mindset? I do. And I think especially this year, with us moving and having a big lifestyle change and a shift in how our finances are structured, I think we've both been really looking at ways to save money again, and we feel great about it.

Why don't you tell the listeners about your recent experience with your jacket? My jacket. Tell them the jacket story. Well, it's not a big story, but the point is I had not been thinking from a "safe first" mentality for a while until we bought this house. Because after we bought the house in 2023, cash flow became tight.

And with all these capital calls from the private investment funds that we do in artificial intelligence, venture capital, and so forth, we were really short on-- I think we were literally living paycheck to paycheck, counting our dollars and wondering how we're going to allocate money to these capital calls and pay for our higher expenses now.

And so the saver's mindset really kicked in. And it hadn't kicked in before because we've always adopted this pay yourself first, where you take money out of your paycheck first before you can even see your money and just invest it in your solo 401(k), 401(k), IRA, taxable investments, and so forth.

So with the saver's mindset, suddenly everything started looking like a savings opportunity to me. So one was gas, right? Second was this Nike jacket that I've owned for two years, maybe three years. I wear it almost every other day. The parents at my school probably see me wearing the same thing every other-- it's almost like a uniform, but it's just warm, long sleeve.

It's got zipper pockets, which I need. And the zipper finally broke. It was like a two-way zipper that just finally stopped working. And I was like, OK, let's go online and see how much these jackets cost. And they cost like $110 to $120 after tax. And because I have the saver's mindset now, I was thinking, well, is there a better way to do this to save money?

And we did find a way. We went to the local dry cleaning store. Then they said they could fix it. I was hoping they would fix it for like $18, but I guess due to inflation and labor, they said $28. And since I dropped you off to go investigate, I just said, well-- I texted you back, said, OK, fine, let's do it for $28.

So there you go. I saved about $90. And I plan to wear this jacket for years to come because I decided to save. Yeah, I think that was a great idea because even before we moved, I remember you were thinking about replacing your jacket because the zipper was always starting to fray at that point.

And you were getting a little frustrated with it. And then you said, well, I'll wait. I'll think about it after we move. And then, yeah, the zipper finally just completely fell apart and wouldn't work at all. And then you came up with the idea, hey, let's see if we can have someone just replace the zipper because the rest of the jacket was fine.

And it worked out quite well. When you got it, it was just as good, wouldn't you say? Looks good enough. I mean, it's good enough, in my opinion. And the other thing is I made a promise not to buy anything for the remainder of 2023 after we purchased the house.

And I didn't buy anything. So I was like, OK, well, yeah, I was tempted to buy, but I didn't buy it. And I made another promise for 2024 not to buy anything as well. So one of the things that I buy most frequently, like a material item, are shoes.

Because I go through tennis shoes, pickleball shoes, I would say every four to six months where the tread just wears flat and it becomes slippery and, frankly, not that safe to play in, especially if the court is a little bit wet, right? And so shoes are $100-- well, they're probably like $80 to $160.

And that's just the way it is, right? That's the cost of playing a sport often. And so I was going to go buy shoes. I love shoes, by the way. And they're not that expensive. I remember growing up as a kid, I'd love all the Michael Jordan shoes. My favorite version is, I think, the Jordan 4s, the Fires.

I love the Agassi shoes from Nike. But they were always too expensive. So I always got hand-me-down shoes. And I realized, OK, I'm trying to save money. I promise not to buy anything. Well, I actually do have these old shoes that I bought two, three, five, six, seven years ago that I just kept as collector's items in my boxes, frankly.

And I thought, you know what? I'm finally going to wear these shoes because I have a reason. I want to save money. And I want to declutter. So I thought that was pretty positive. Definitely. There's so many ways to simplify and save if you have the motivation to do it.

And for example, one thing I started doing differently with all of our kids' stuff-- because as parents, you go through a lot of things with kids-- toys, books, clothes, shoes. I used to take all of the items that our son had grown up, that our daughter wouldn't use, and that she'd outgrown and wouldn't use, and I would just donate everything to charity.

But what I realized is I could try and sell a lot of it instead. So now I have a local store where I go, and I bring one or two bags of things every couple months. And they'll look through it, and they'll decide what they're going to try to consign for me and what they're not going to take.

And anything they don't take, I just go ahead and donate it straight away. But it's been a great way to just earn some extra money for new things that the kids need or groceries. So just little things do add up over time. Yeah, it's a two-for-one special. You declutter, you sell stuff, and you make money.

And that's great. And the other thing is we're using our son's old clothes, I've noticed, often now. And our daughter is using it now. Our younger daughter is using it, the pajamas especially, right, and just like the long-sleeve shirts. Yeah, we've been able to reuse a lot of stuff.

Yeah, and clothing for kids, growing young kids, is probably one of the most common recurring expenses because they grow so fast, especially shoes, right? I don't know, how are we going to make his shoes last longer? He seems to burn through them every two to three months. Yeah, he goes through shoes quickly because he runs a lot.

And I think maybe it's just the shoe itself that just can't last that long. I don't know, he's definitely gone through shoes quickly that I can't hand down because they'll end up with holes in them and there's no tread left whatsoever. But at least we're maximizing it too. It's full potential, put it that way.

Yeah, for sure. So another sneaky expense was the subscription expenses, right? I had signed up a couple of years ago for Apple TV because there was a promotion and then I wanted to watch Severance. It was a great show, it's like dystopian future. I love dystopian crazy stuff, Handmaid's Tale, all that stuff.

And I loved watching it for the first season and I was expecting the second season to come out, but it never came out, partially due to the writer's strike, possibly because Ben Stiller, the producer, decided to take a break, I don't know. So I went for one whole year in 2023 paying for Apple TV subscription without ever watching a single show.

And so once that Savers mindset kicked in, I said, you know what, I'm going to cancel that subscription, $9.99, right? And save $10 a month. And I canceled it too late. I canceled it, I guess, at the beginning of March 2024, so I had another full month to watch Apple TV.

And the funny thing that happened was I decided to maximize my Apple TV usage and watch something. And I ended up watching For All Mankind all four seasons. And it was an incredible show that I think everybody should watch. Unbelievable family story, full of drama. You cheer for people.

Wonderful, wonderful show. And now I'm going to finish watching Ted Lasso, I guess, the three seasons. It's pretty good, it's pretty funny. So I'm trying to get my money's worth after not using it at all in 2023, but that subscription is going to be canceled as well. Do you have any subscriptions that you forgot about that you should cancel?

- Yes, those auto renewal subscriptions are so sneaky. I had one for a photo app that I used when our son was young and I had more time, where it was called something like one second a day, where you'd go through your photo library and you'd pick a photo or a video each day and capture one or two seconds from that day.

And then it all gets stitched together into a big video file at the end of the year or whatever timeline you want for your project. And I was so addicted to this in the beginning and I did it for at least two, maybe two and a half, three years.

And then I just forgot about it because life got busy. And initially it was free, but then they started charging for it. And I forgot about it. And then one day I was going through my subscript, my list of subscriptions on my phone. And I said, oh my gosh, why do I still, why am I still paying for this when I'm not using it anymore?

I don't have any time. So I quickly canceled that, turned off the auto renew, but yes, auto renewal subscriptions are sneaky. So definitely check them regularly and see what you're paying for that you aren't using anymore and just cancel it, get rid of it. - Yeah, yeah, right. I think one of the final sneaky expenses that we all go through is just food.

We have to eat every single day, right? I remember the CEO of some, I think cereal company. He said, well, stop complaining about inflation and food costs and start eating cereal for dinner instead. And then that was, everybody was pissed off about that. But it's interesting because every time we go to the grocery store, I'm always negatively surprised, like shocked in a bad way about the bill at the end.

'Cause I remember in the past we'd buy groceries for under $100 per trip. And now it's like 160, I don't know, sometimes 200, but that $200 bill was because we bought some Toro sashimi from the Japanese supermarket, which was on sale for like, I don't know, $50 pounds, something like that.

I don't remember. But food, food is interesting because personally I have always struggled with my weight. I play a lot of sports. So every single pound that I pack on is really noticeable in terms of performance because it just slows me down or it weighs on my knees and stuff.

And so I'm trying to stay in shape and I'm trying to get down to that 155 to 158 pound ideal weight for someone 5'10. But no matter how hard I try, I can't. I'm always stuck at like 168 and I got to like 170, maybe like five during the pandemic.

It was pretty tough. So food expenses. The good thing about rising food expenses is I am definitely eating less food. I would say 15%, maybe 20% less food. Well, what do you think? - Yes, food is expensive. I've been doing most of the grocery shopping for us for a while and yes, I've seen prices get higher and higher over the last several years, especially.

And it's frustrating, but you just have to find better ways to save. And during the pandemic, we heavily relied on food delivery to the point where we were just spending way, way, way too much. And we've really cut back on that and I've increased my contributions to cooking. Not something I love, but it's actually a good way to de-stress if I've planned it out properly and I have enough time and I have all the ingredients on hand.

And one of the things that I've made that you might laugh about is lasagna, which is actually what I'm gonna cook tonight. And very simple, but it will feed us for four days sometimes if we stretch in salads or sandwiches or other things in between. But yeah, by that fourth day, I know you especially like, "I can't eat any more lasagna.

I'm so sick of it." But hey, it's a great way to save making big meals that you can stretch. And if after the second day, you just can't take it anymore, freeze it. A lot of things do really great if you freeze them. - Yeah, someone was, I was just reading somewhere.

The food is not supposed to taste good. If it tastes good, it's not good for you. And I thought about that for a little bit and it might be true because if it tastes so good, it's probably like processed food, sugar, all that, which we all know is bad for us and we should all try to cut down.

And learning how to eat the same thing over and over again, like maybe like military or like a strict dorm room or something, I think that's a good discipline to have. And that's some discipline that I have failed to work at for decades now. We're spoiled here in San Francisco, which is I think one of the top three cities with the best food.

And now with the invention of food delivery, grocery delivery, it just becomes so easy to order stuff that we want. I remember I was ordering like Bob's Donuts, but you know, the cronuts like once a week. And then I was ordering boba tea, which is like 1000 calories per large cup once a week.

And then, you know, oh, I gained five pounds. Well, why do you think that is or was because I was so easily ordering food that I didn't need to consume. - I'll add to that. There is a fun reality show out there on Netflix that's all about making new things with leftovers.

So if you like to cook, if you like reality TV, look it up on Netflix. Sorry, I forgot the name of it. But it's a fun way to see how creative you can be and how totally different you can make a dish just based on what you have leftover in the fridge.

And that helps reduce waste and it gives you something fun to do at the same time. - Sounds like a good idea. In conclusion, do you think we're born with a saver's mindset or do we have to cultivate it and develop it? - I would say it's a bit of both just based on my own experience.

What do you think? - I think it is more about how you're brought up, not so much genetic. I think it's more like 70% nurture, like your environment. Because I grew up with very frugal parents. My dad famously told me and I'll never forget it while I was in Malaysia in middle school, don't order that drink, order water with a lemon.

Why do you wanna spend so much money on drink? High margin business or product, save money. And so ever since he taught me that, I have been pretty frugal since middle school. And I try to look at things and I try to figure out whether there's a better alternative on the cost.

Or I like to go window shopping and then when I don't buy anything, I feel great actually. I feel great that I saved money by not buying anything even though I didn't spend anything in the first place. And so I grew up with this frugal mindset that has helped me.

First apartment I got out of college was a studio apartment that was shared with my high school friend. And I think if I didn't have that frugal mindset since the beginning, I wouldn't have done that. I would have got a studio for myself or maybe got a one bedroom apartment or something.

And so this frugality has stuck with me ever since middle school. So that's over 32 years now, 33 years. And I think it's gonna continue. And I think the good thing about that is that it spreads to you, our closest friends and family. And I hope it'll spread to our children who see that we don't waste our money as well.

- For sure, definitely. - All right, well, for all of y'all who wanna save money, look at your expenses, have a sit down with your significant other every week or every month when you get those bills and go through line item by line item what you can cut because I'm sure, I'm sure there's something you can cut.

Overtime is just a natural occurrence to buy more things, get more subscriptions and just to be a little bit more wasteful and not really as efficient as we can be with our money. And I'm really appreciative of a lot of the commenters who really criticized my budget that I had in, I thought, what was that post?

There's one post that I'll link in the show notes where I put a fictitious but realistic, it's not exactly ours, but it's pretty close budget on a household that's spending $280,000 or thereabouts a year. And that's a lot of money. And I wanted to go through line item by line item and I got so much pushback as normal, right?

Because anybody who doesn't spend that much money will find that amount of money to be a little bit ridiculous. And so I really appreciate that criticism and feedback because it helped motivate me to look at where we can cut. So I thank you. So keep that criticism coming, shine a light on things that I'm not doing that is congruent with my thoughts or actions.

Just point these things out. I think it really helps me. And if you want me to point things out that you're doing that you could optimize, let me know as well. I think we can all learn from each other. So if you enjoy this podcast, we'd love a positive review, share and subscribe.

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This way, I think it'll help you increase your probability of achieving financial independence sooner rather than later. Thanks so much. Bye everyone. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) you