The reason why the terms 'starving artist' or 'starving writer' exist is because they are true. It is very difficult to make money in the arts. However, if you want to be a professional writer and not starve, let me provide you with some insights. For background, I've written over 2,500 articles on Financial Samurai| Financial Samurai
Zillow recently released an intriguing study that outlines the income needed to afford a 'typical home' in different cities. The study considers a 10% down payment and utilizes the Zillow Home Value Index to determine the median home price in each city. A 10% down payment is lower than my recommended 20% down payment based| Financial Samurai
For the first year in retirement, I murmured this phrase over and over again, 'I'm bored.' After regularly working 60 hours a week and interacting with clients, I suddenly had too much time on my hands. Instead of being bored, maybe what I really felt was loneliness. After my wife took the bus to work| 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
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
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
I recently caught up with Ben Miller, CEO of Fundrise in person, about their venture product's latest investments in private AI (artificial intelligence) companies. With OpenAI closing a new round of funding valuing the company at $156 billion valuation after just raising money at a $80 billion valuation in early 2024, the AI space is| Financial Samurai
Exciting news for homesellers and homebuyers! The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has reached a settlement in its lost $1.8+ billion lawsuit on price fixing and collusion, agreeing to pay $418 million in damages. This settlement marks a significant shift in the homebuying and selling business model, where sellers traditionally paid both their broker and| Financial Samurai
Now that cash flow is tight, I've reviewed all the expenses where I could potentially cut. One such expense is a private sports club membership. I joined the club in February 2023 when it was raining nonstop for three months. I was getting cabin fever so I decided to pay $180 a month for access| 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
My family and I could have been set for life. Instead, due to my inability to beat back real estate FOMO, I blew up our passive income. And because our passive income is now much lower, we are no longer financially independent. Desire is the cause of all suffering. Due to my desire to own| Financial Samurai