Hello everybody, it's Sam from Financial Samurai and this is a special episode because I just want to thank everyone all 200 plus of you for coming out and encouraging me to continue Financial Samurai on the post up next for Financial Samurai less retirement more Entrepreneurship, it's been a really really interesting summer because I've been gearing up for figuring out what to do on Financial Samurai After hitting the 10-year anniversary mark on July 2019 Basically, the decision was to keep on going or sell over the years I've had many many offers to buy Financial Samurai and I've Said no because I wanted to hit that 10-year mark because that was my promise and I don't break my promises And so now after the 10-year mark, I was thinking well now that I'm a dad I'm in a different stage in my life in my finances.

Maybe I can let my baby go But I always feel bad. I always feel guilty about Selling your baby because who does that who sells their own children? Not me. I don't plan to do that. But I think there's always a price for everything No matter how much you think you want to hold on So it's been tough for me and one of the things I want to do is help other people get to that 10-year mark because I truly believe if you can get To that 10-year mark no matter what you're doing.

You're gonna be successful You're gonna surprise yourself on the upside too many of us quit way before that mark way before our efforts give us some feedback and give us some results and I think that's a really darn shame and so when I spent about triple triple the amount of time trying to put together that post on achieving a 10-year goal.

I was surprised to be frank I was really surprised how there were only about 15 comments in over the first 24 hours Versus 30 comments on average and I started to think to myself And what's the point? What's the point of trying so hard when nobody really cares? And I think this is the reason why a lot of people don't try their best because they're afraid of rejection They're afraid that just people don't give a damn.

Everybody's so busy with their lives. I understand it You know as a dad, I feel I'm suffocating for time and energy, which is why I wish I had my son Seven eight years earlier when I was in my early 30s. We're all trying to climb up the corporate ladder or Stop neglecting our spouses or thinking about ways to keep in touch with our parents more because life always gets in the way So what are you gonna do?

You can spend time commenting on financial samurai instead of doing all those other important things Of course not and I understand it But still I cannot defy the way I felt and I know I'm being a little bit melodramatic Wondering is there anybody out there? But that's how I felt and you can't deny how people feel and this is why I encourage all of you guys to give more Love more encouragement to your friends and the people you really care about I remember when I was in my 20s trying to survive the banking world in New York City I'd get in at 5 30 a.m.

I leave at 8 30 p.m. Gain a lot of weight got plantar fasciitis I got tremendous amount of allergies my Heart my body was just breaking down But whenever I got that email that one sentence email of encouragement from just a colleague or some boss In a different department just thanking me for something something small It just gave me tremendous amount of motivation and I think it'll give all of us tremendous amount of motivation if we just recognize effort But regardless of what happened I always try to see the positives of every bad situation or every less than ideal situation I'm a super optimist and I hope you guys look at things in an optimistic light as well and so the upside for not caring or not having that much feedback is that Simply I can start focusing on monetizing financial samurai guilt-free and with joy So for 10 years, I've been operating financial samurai under the formula of 90% fun 10% business I started the site right in 2009 when I still had a job So I didn't really need any money And I just wanted to find a cathartic way to get over the financial crisis because I was losing so much money I didn't really think about monetizing financial samurai because I just wanted to write right from the heart write stories Connect with other people who might be going through the same thing I was going through and it felt so good to build this little community And so over the years I kept to that formula and I think that's the formula that has worked to get me here But it probably won't work to get me where I want to go and over the 10 years It's been awesome hearing from many of you from those of you who started reading when you were in college to now being in your early 30s with a family with a home and Getting your finances, right?

and to those of you who are in your 70s who've been reading since your 60s and how You know your children have grown up to become independent adults and have their own children It's been wonderful wonderful to read all your feedback and all your encouragement and it's what keeps me going but something changed in 2017 it was the birth of my son and that formula of 90% fun and 10% business Started to change a little bit.

Why because I really believe that no matter how much money you have As soon as you see your son or your daughter and you hold him or her in your hands Things will change. I think every new parent feels a visceral need to make more money to provide for their family It's just part of our DNA to ensure the survival of our species and there's a great great quote called have children and the money will come and The reason is is because you just get motivated to be provider unless you're some Abnormal person who doesn't care about your offspring.

You're probably gonna work harder You're probably gonna eat better and you're probably gonna be a little bit more attentive and caring because you need to make it work So for 10 years, I've been feeling a little bit guilty trying to monetize financial samurai. I don't want to read boring stuff I don't want to listen to boring stuff I just want to write and speak about things that I'd be interested in and that I think you guys would be interested in But what I realized after the lack of feedback from the 10-year anniversary post is that I shouldn't really think so deeply about what you guys all think of me and This is the problem that I think we all face.

We worry about what other people will think about us and what we do Instead we need to understand what our own principles are what our own goals are be aware of the feedback of others, but then follow our path because we are all individuals and My number one goal now is to provide for my family So that at least my son can grow up to be a happy independent adult again My wife doesn't work So I have all the pressure to manage our finances and manage any type of passive or active income We generate so we can live the life that we want and this is one of the main Problems of living in one of the most expensive cities in the country if not The most expensive city in the country San Francisco is that it just takes so much to get ahead There's a latest economic report from one of the big brokerage houses that you need $343,000 and change as a Minimum household income to afford the median priced home in San Francisco about 1.6 to 1.7 million Think about it.

You need a minimum of three hundred forty three thousand. That's nuts I thought that okay with a family of three, maybe 250 would be enough But I'm clearly very very short and I like challenges. I like goals, but I thought that was kind of nuts But you know what instead of hating on the data and saying that's crazy.

That's ridiculous and object You know objecting to the data. I'm just gonna embrace it and I'm gonna say you know what I Need to make more to provide for my family because that's what the data says Regardless of our lifestyle regardless of our budget. Let's give it a go.

So in order for us to close that $100,000 retirement income gap We need to generate an additional two and a half million in after-tax capital up to 6.7 million in after-tax capital based on a withdrawal rate or return rate of 1.5% to 4% so the decline in the 10-year bond yield which is the risk-free rate down to 1.5% is really a bummer for retirees or those who want to retire and Just thinking about trying to accumulate an extra 6.7 million in capital sounds nuts.

That's crazy So at this pace, we're never gonna be able to be comfortable retiree, right if we think about needing $350,000 of investment income, but hey Why not dream big because it takes the same effort to dream big as it does to dream small and if the bigger you dream The more you'll try to figure out ways to get there.

You might not get there. You might not get there ever But you'll probably get farther than the person who doesn't dream big and that was one of my main takeaways from my 10-year To success post so I thought about it in the hot tub and I was thinking how am I gonna get to that number?

how am I gonna make up for this huge gap that these economists and real estate folks are now telling me and That is to simply try to monetize financial samurai more So instead of going the 90/10 split of fun and business, I'm gonna try to do the 70/30 split Maybe 60/40, but I'm gonna start 70/30 for the first year and see how it goes after one year I'm not gonna make a 10-year operating goal anymore because that is just too much at my stage in my life with what I've got Going on, but I think 70/30 is a great balance because something else there's something else that I realized that I wanted to share with You guys all the largest sites in the world or at least in America the personal finance sites Have a formula of more like 10% fun and 90% business I'm talking about the most boring stuff you could ever read But the reality is that the most boring stuff you could ever read is the stuff that does the best It's quite a conundrum But you know, that's not entirely true after I talked to several other folks in in the industry There's a little bit of an optical illusion going on So I'm comparing apples to oranges.

So financial samurai is an organically driven Website so all the traffic is not paid. It's organically driven through search or word-of-mouth or Just me doing a guest post on a larger site and that's how I gain traffic and that's pretty cool I don't have to spend tons and tons of money what someone told me and it's quite a light bulb moment Is that look the most boring?

article you read might be very popular, but it has a lot a lot of Marketing dollars behind it to make it popular and that's what I was thinking. Oh, yeah, that's right. I did some consulting at some FinTech startups in their marketing department. They spent like fifty thousand hundred thousand five hundred thousand dollars to boost their Their articles and their products.

So why am I trying to compete with them? But the thing is, you know what they're they're successful and if I want to grow I need to take some of that success and Formulate it into my own So I think 70/30 is a good start and that means a little bit more sponsored posts a little bit more guest posts a little bit More review posts on products that I think will help the listeners in the community in essence I want to try to create a financial supermarket where I highlight things that could be useful to different folks and different stages of their financial journey instead of just me as a father of one maybe to Try to live an expensive lifestyle in expensive, San Francisco So boom, there it is This was the awesome takeaway from the silence of that post To be able to shift shift gears change the formula do something that I've been guilty about trying to do for so long But now that I need to do because I'm a father so you see there's always a positive There's always a positive to something you think is negative, but really there's some great things that could happen And I think with this new formula It's gonna be synergistic because it's not like the two thousand plus articles that I've written over the past ten years goes away This new type of content with new writers and new perspectives is going to provide Synergistic benefits for all readers.

So I hope you welcome me on this journey and encourage me and let me know Are there any products out there you want me to talk about are there any? Industries or things that maybe I just haven't focused on that I should address because I'm always interested in learning because learning is something that just is just part of me and that's something that I Want to do and help other people learn because the more we know I think the more we can make Educated decisions on our financial journey.

The reality is I'm gonna still write and share with you guys what I think No holds barred. Okay, I'm gonna try to be a little bit more PC and less offensive I do realize that sometimes I can be a little bit too opinionated But I'm gonna have my voice and I'm gonna have different types of voices and styles as well I think it's gonna be fun So hopefully you guys can come along on the journey and help make it happen for all of us.

Thanks so much