Hello everybody, it's Sam from Financial Samurai and welcome to the Financial Samurai podcast 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 So I started financialsamurai.com in the middle of the crisis in July 2009 It was literally about the bottom of the previous financial crisis I had lost about 35% of my net worth within six months and I was pretty devastated I had thought about starting financial samurai in 2006, but I was just too busy I just graduated from business school at UC Berkeley and I was like well It's time to get going and utilize my MBA to make more money in my day job My day job was in the Asian equities department at a major investment bank Two years in New York City and 11 years in San Francisco, and it was a really really great time But the financial crisis really kind of knocked me knocked me on my back and it was just a really really tough time so I thought writing was better than smoking or drinking as a cathartic way to make sense of all the chaos and Over time the site has grown to be my biggest passion It's something that I just truly love to do every single day and I've been writing three times a week since 2009 so over ten years now and in 2017, I Decided to regularly focus on doing this podcast Because I thought it was a new way to keep in touch and to get in touch and to reach more people Who also want to reach financial independence sooner rather than later?

All right. So let's start a little bit from the beginning here I grew up in the Philippines Zambia Japan Taiwan and Malaysia for 13 years Before coming to the United States for high school and college My parents were both in the US Foreign Service and were stationed all around the world when I was growing up Due to my upbringing I caught the travel bug very early on and it has never never left I visited over 60 countries as of 2019 But I've slowed down my travels since having a boy in 2017 I'm very pro public school because I went to a public high school and I went to the College of William and Mary For in-state tuition and it's also a public school.

So I'm totally biased I just don't think people should spend a fortune going to private school to get an education that I don't Know I don't think is worth as much as was 10 20 30 years ago Because we can all learn everything on the internet for free One of my goals after college was to work overseas in Asia 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 At his eyeglass parts factory in Shenzhen China in 1999.

It was very tempting China was absolutely booming in 1999 and it just opened up its economy to foreign investments and I thought well 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 there But I kind of chickened out because I got a job at an investment bank called Goldman Sachs in New York City Which is something unheard of for someone coming out of the College of William & Mary because it was a non-target Public school and so after I think it was around 55 interviews and seven rounds over a six plus month time period I finally got the job and I'll see to myself after going through all that to just reject them I think that would be really really foolish and It just goes to show you that you never know what might happen if you get on a bus at 6 a.m 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 Nobody else got on the bus even though 30 of my fellow students signed up So the bus driver after waiting for 45 minutes decided to take me in the bus to some home base and swap the bus out for a Lincoln Town car and 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 After working in New York City for two years I got a great offer to come to San Francisco for another competing investment bank And it was interesting because it was a total leap of faith because I knew nobody in San Francisco But I said, you know what?

I'm probably gonna get fired at Goldman Sachs because of dot-com bubble bursting in 2000 and this was 2001 So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna take this job and I'm gonna go for it So I came out here and 11 years later 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 Because I was getting in by 530 a.m.

And leaving at 8 p.m. On a regular regular basis So in 2009, like I said, I did start financial samurai and it was my passion project I started working on it before work sometimes during my lunch break and after work, it's all I could ever think about and in 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 Cruise and she had gone off to hike around and check out some various shops and I was tired so I plopped myself up in a bar overlooking the crater checking my phone because there was Wi-Fi at the time and In my inbox was an advertiser a client who was based in London who said hey, I'd like to advertise on your site Are you interested if you put up this link?

I'll give you $1,200 and I'll see myself really 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 Phone I'd never done this before but he said hey just put up this link copy this code into your page and Once it's up, let me know and I'll PayPal you the 1,200 bucks So I got to work it took about 20 minutes to figure things out and I was drinking my overpriced Mythos beer that was like nine bucks at the time and then I quickly put up the code and the advertisement and then boom Within 15 minutes.

He sent me $1,200 and that was the moment. That was my up. Aha epiphany 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 How do I leave this industry that I no longer enjoyed right?

I was oh I was already doing it for 12 years up until 2011 and I thought aha Maybe I can follow some of my peers who got let go with an amazing severance package during the financial crisis and So I started thinking about it and I started talking to people who got let go and I realized wow these people Were pretty hooked up once they got let go So in February after I got my terrible bonus for 2011, I raised my hand and I said hey boss I'm interested in doing something else but in exchange For training my subordinate to take over my accounts and have a really really smooth transition I would like to get all my deferred compensation in terms of stock and cash and I would like to get a severance equal to what normal people would get laid off would get 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?

What's up? But they said Sam We agree. We're sorry to see you go, but we can give you this severance package. I think you're right If your heart's not in it, we'd love to take care of you and have you do something else So I accepted I took that leap of faith and I said, thank you so much I'll accept that severance package and be on my way It was no doubt scary to leave that multiple six-figure job security behind I mean I was getting profit sharing in my 401k of 20,000 plus a year So to leave all that Man, it didn't feel Great, but I was definitely excited and I told myself at the age of 34 It was now or never if I failed at trying something new Then I can just go back to work It took I think two years for my series 7 license to expire So I knew I had two years and if I failed after two years At least I wouldn't regret having tried and that's kind of the key message that I have over and over again To put yourself out there and to try because the worst thing that can happen is that nothing happens Maybe someone might laugh at you, but who cares people who laugh at you are the people who aren't willing to try themselves They don't have the courage.

So ever since 2012 when I left my full-time job, I've been dedicating about 20 to 25 hours a week writing on financial samurai Financial samurai is my baby and financial samurai is for anybody who wants to achieve financial freedom sooner rather than later So what differentiates financial samurai from so many other financial sites?

Well one I started in 2009 - it's written and spoken by a person who was in the financial services industry and who got an MBA So I am living and breathing everything finance Three I write about my personal experiences all the time and what I've learned and the mistakes that I've made So you don't have to make the same mistakes So if you want to build wealth by making more money in your day job or through your business or from your investments I think financial samurai is the place you want to be.

I'm always gonna be sharing stories and lessons I've learned where I've made mistakes So you don't have to or the things where I feel, you know make a lot of sense in terms of investing you're never gonna get everything right, but at least if we share our thoughts and listen to how other people have Progressed in their lives.

I think we can improve our lives ourselves If you're curious about my net worth you can check out the post the first million might be the easiest How to become a millionaire by 30 Basically, my path was very lucky. I was able to get a good job out of college I knew that I didn't want to be an investment bank for decades like my parents were in their respective industries And so I saved aggressively 50 to 70 percent after tax for 13 consecutive years at the age of 28 I was able to breach the 1 million net worth mark and I didn't really even know it and by 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 After that because it becomes kind of like a distraction But suffice it to say it has grown because there's been this huge bull market I've been riding and I hopefully you guys have been riding and it's a very very lucky time to be alive and it's a very lucky time to do something new on the internet and Also do something more unconventional rather than just your day job I do have several tenants that I follow one is if the amount of money you're saving each month doesn't hurt You're not saving enough.

It's the same idea with braces, for example 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 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 Tub bath.

Well, you know you didn't work hard enough It's the same thing with your finances The more you feel that visceral pain of saving and investing the more you have to second-guess like oh Maybe I have to cut my spending down a little bit That is when you know, you're finally saving enough and the other very important principle that I follow is this Never fail due to a lack of effort because effort requires no skill This is a saying that I've held on since high school 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 The only way I could get ahead Was to try harder than most people because trying harder doesn't require any skill at all There are no excuses for not trying harder and if you fail if I fail, okay, whatever At least I tried and I won't regret having not tried my best So I hope you guys really enjoy your time on financial samurai.

You can read the posts subscribe Via email or RSS. There's a private newsletter There's also a forum that you can check out just google it 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 I'm always gonna try to talk about something topical something interesting something fun so we can learn and grow together I'm on the financial journey and just as all of you are I'm in my early 40s, and I'm a new parent now and I'm excited about the future I'm a super optimist and let's just see how well we can grow our finances and our lives going forward Thanks so much everyone.

Talk to you later