Well folks, as anticipated, bidding wars are back with a vengeance, at least here in San Francisco. If I were a real estate agent, I would never encourage my clients to engage in a bidding war. Winning such a war often leads to what's known as the 'winner's curse.' This term signifies paying a price| Financial Samurai
If you're trying to figure out how much to spend on buying a house, the best home-buying rule I can offer you is my 30/30/3 home-buying rule. I came up with the 30/30/3 home-buying rule back in 2009 during the global financial crisis. Since then, many publications and industry pundits have promoted it since. If| Financial Samurai
Since 1999, I've been climbing up the property ladder to find the perfect house in a big city. What I've realized is that there's no such thing as the perfect house. There's a good-enough house or an almost-perfect house, but there's always at least one or two things missing to make a house ideal. Additionally,| Financial Samurai
The average percent of income donated to charity by levels of income is sadly very low across the board. According to several of the largest charitable foundations, the average income donated to charity ranges from just 3% to 5% of annual gross income. Not surprisingly, the average percent donated to charity is the highest for| Financial Samurai
If you're looking to achieve financial freedom before a traditional retirement age (60+), you must build passive income. This post will highlight the best passive income investments in our current economic environment. Passive income is the holy grail of personal finance. If you have enough passive income to cover your desired lifestyle, then you are| Financial Samurai
Given our primary residence is likely one of our largest assets, buying responsibly is prudent. At the same time, living a better lifestyle by owning a nicer home as we get wealthier is also something many people desire. Therefore, let's try and figure out what our appropriate primary residence value should be as a percentage| Financial Samurai
Are you wondering whether private grade school K-12 is worth it? I am since I have two young children, one of which is grade school age. During the pandemic, where many small businesses have been crushed, many families decided private grade school K-12 was not worth it. As a result, private school enrollment went down.| Financial Samurai
There's nothing better than being free to do whatever you want. However, unless you're born with a multi-million dollar trust fund, you'll unfortunately have to work for your freedom. This article will discuss how you can retire early and never have to work again. You can follow my savings guide to increase your chances of| Financial Samurai
How To Engineer Your Layoff eBOOK 'I bought How To Engineer Your Layoff for my sister who was then able to negotiate a $50,000 severance. Two years later, I used this book to help me negotiate an $80,000 severance during the middle of a pandemic! What's more, I got a month off to relax, and| Financial Samurai
Instead of being so honorable and making money all by yourself, maybe you should get your parents to buy you everything as an adult. Life would be much easier this way. If I could do it all over again, I'm not sure I would have scrimped and sacrificed so much in order to come up with a $120,000 down payment| Financial Samurai
Ever since the global pandemic began, the private jet market has been booming. But as a financially savvy person, you might wonder how much does it cost to fly private? Further, are there any cost-efficient ways to fly private? Flying private is one luxury that can improve your life once you become rich. No more| Financial Samurai
Your financial independence number is the amount of money you think you need in order to be free. Unfortunately, if nothing changes in your life after reaching your financial independence number, then the number simply is not real. You need to accumulate more capital and generate more passive income. Some people continue to believe once| Financial Samurai
After taking my family on a nine-day vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, my plan to relocate there is back in the cards! Since 2014, two years after retiring from my finance job, I've been contemplating moving back to Honolulu to spend more time with my parents. However, actually making the move has been much harder than| Financial Samurai
If you were to guess what the average new car price is nowadays, what would you guess? I guessed $25,000, since my Honda Fit is sweet for an economy car and only costs $19,600 new. Given I'm frugal, leaving a 20% upside pricing buffer seemed logical. Too bad I was way off! According to Kelley Blue| Financial Samurai
There is a never-ending debate between going to public or private school. Is private grade school and private university really worth it? I'm not so sure in this day and age of high inflation and free online education. Personally, I went to international private school while my parents were stationed abroad until I was 13.| Financial Samurai
Money dysmorphia is a negative and unrealistic perception of one's financial wellness or position. If you have money dysmorphia, you might constantly worry about your finances, even if you are doing well for your age. One significant reason for experiencing money dysmorphia is the unhealthy comparison with others facilitated by social media platforms like Instagram,| Financial Samurai
After publishing my post, 'When To Stop Contributing To A 529 Plan,' I felt a sense of emptiness. For years, I had been trying to find a logical way to decide when to stop saving for my children's college education. When I finally figured out the answer to my financial obligation, I lost some purpose.| Financial Samurai
New luxury car prices are way too high| Financial Samurai
During my time living abroad, about 90% of my friends were fluent in a second language besides English. This high percentage was expected, given that most of my classmates at the International School of Kuala Lumpur and Taipei American School were foreigners, where being bilingual or multilingual was the norm. Upon relocating to McLean, Virginia,| Financial Samurai
When my kids were born, I made a promise to be a stay-at-home father for the first five years of each of their lives. Mission accomplished with my son in April 2022, and my daughter in December 2024. I'm now wondering how I will fill the void once both kids are in school full time.| Financial Samurai