During the recent stock market correction, I decided to buy the dip. But this time, I didn’t just buy my usual dip-buying amount of $25,000 to $100,000. I went much bigger. All told, I spent over $1 million buying the S&P 500 and various tech stocks like Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon as I've been chronicling| Financial Samurai
As I watch my stock portfolio tank, I take solace in knowing that my real estate portfolio continues to chug along despite the chaos, fear, and uncertainty. With mass government personnel cuts, new tariffs against Mexico, Canada, and China, a heated Oval Office exchange between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky, and sharp words from| Financial Samurai
Dear Readers, Welcome to Financial Samurai! My name is Sam Dogen (doh-gun), the founder and main writer for this site. Financial Samurai is one of the leading personal finance sites in the world with roughly one million organic visitors a month. Everything is written based off firsthand experience because money is too important to be| Financial Samurai
As a stock market investor and consumer, I’m disappointed in the new reciprocal tariffs President Trump has imposed—10% on imports from China and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada, including a 10% duty on Canadian energy imports (oil, natural gas, electricity). If trade wars persist all year without resolution, corporate earnings could take a 2%-5% hit, which means a| Financial Samurai
In this Financial Samurai podcast episode, I speak to Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise about his outlook for residential commercial real estate in 2025. Despite high mortgage rates, he's taken a positive view and he shares the main reasons why. Listen to my conversation with Ben by click the play button below or go to| Financial Samurai
I decided to invest in two private funds: 1) Kleiner Perkins 20 (KP20), and 2) Kleiner Perkins Select2. Kleiner Perkins is a top venture capital shop which has made more recent home run investments in Figma and Ripple. This article will explain why I invest in private funds even though they charge higher fees. KP20| Financial Samurai
Want to learn how to become a millionaire by 30? Here’s my story on how I reached a million dollar net worth in my late-20s. It involved a lot of luck, a lot of effort, and a lot of risk. I believe all Financial Samurai readers will eventually become millionaires due to disciplined saving and| Financial Samurai
Financial independence is the best. Financial DEpendence is the worst. If you truly love your spouse, you would make them financially independent. Don't let them always feel like they have to ask for money or ask for permission to spend money. If you plan to get married, then you better not get divorced. Otherwise, what's| Financial Samurai
The desire to retire early and live a financially independent life has been around since the beginning of organized labor. Let's explore who started the FIRE movement and how it has evolved over time. In 1992, the book, Your Money Or Your Life, was published by Joseph R. Dominguez, Monique Tilford, and Vicki Robin that| Financial Samurai
The 60/40 portfolio is a classic investment portfolio consisting of 60% equities and 40% fixed income. If you are within five-to-ten years of retirement or are in retirement, a 60/40 portfolio is a common recommendation. Thanks to a low or negative correlation between stocks and bonds, soon-to-be retirees or retirees have been encouraged to hold| Financial Samurai
I'm a fan of both stock dividends and rental property income, my two favorite sources of passive / semi-passive income. When younger and less wealthy, rental property income may be preferable. As you age and accumulate wealth, you'll likely appreciate stock dividend income more for its simplicity. However, stock dividend income's main drawback is that| Financial Samurai
There is a never-ending debate between real estate versus stocks as a better investment. Currently, ~50% of my net worth is in real estate while ~30% of my net worth is in stocks. Perhaps the main reason why is because I believe real estate is less risky than stocks. With real estate, you don't wake| Financial Samurai
Investing in private real estate (or real estate crowdfunding syndication) is one of my favorite ways to generate passive income. Real estate is also my favorite asset class to build wealth for the average person. I’ve been investing in private real estate since 2016 to build more wealth, capture strong demographic trends, and diversify my| Financial Samurai
When I was 23 I got lucky, very lucky. I went fortune hunting and ended up making a lot of money. A $3,000 investment turned into $155,000 in two months. The stock was VCSY, a Chinese internet company with a homepage consisting of a simple dial pad. I had no idea what the company did| Financial Samurai
Dollar-cost averaging is the act of consistently investing in a particularly security over a set interval of time. Whether you know it or not, you are likely dollar-cost averaging every time you get a bi-weekly or monthly paycheck. For example, at the beginning of the year, you may elect a fixed percentage of your pre-tax| Financial Samurai
It's safe to assume the vast majority of you reading Financial Samurai want to be rich. I trust those of you who've been reading this site between 2009 and 2012, when I was writing heavily about investment strategies, have indeed become much richer. The compounding forces since then have been enormous. We are probably one| Financial Samurai
Passive and active investing are two ways to make investment returns in the stock market. Since my first job in finance, I've always actively invested some of my funds to chase unicorns. The question is: what is the best split between passive and active investing in the stock market? If you are only a passive| Financial Samurai
If you want to get rich, it's probably wise to buy real estate as young as you can. Inflation is too powerful of a force to combat. The earlier you buy real estate, the more you can let your returns compound. In addition, buying real estate keeps you disciplined as a forced savings mechanism as| Financial Samurai
To have a top one percent net worth is an impressive achievement. Your net worth is literally higher than 99 percent of the population. However, what is a top one percent net worth amount exactly? Further, it's probably more appropriate to shoot for a top one percent net worth by age, not the overall top| Financial Samurai
If you're wondering about active versus passive investing performance, you've come to the right place. Overall, it's better to be a passive index investor because it is very hard to outperform various stock market indices long term. The vast majority of active equity and fixed income fund managers underperform their respective indices. One of the| Financial Samurai
Although being a millionaire sounds nice, it's not that impressive anymore thanks to inflation. In order to be a real millionaire, you will need to have a net worth of at least $3 million, not $1 million. A $1 million net worth provided a great lifestyle before 1990. Not so much today. If you retired| Financial Samurai
Your net worth composition will likely change the wealthier you get. The wealthier you get, the generally more conservative your net worth allocation. However, wealthier people also have more of their net worth in business equity as you'll see below. For example, my net worth composition in my 40s looks nothing like it did when| Financial Samurai
Fat FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) is being able to live it up in retirement without having to sacrifice your spending. If you are Fat FIRE, you can easily survive without a job because your investment income more than covers your best life's living expenses. You don't need to work part-time or do anything to| Financial Samurai
Practice stealth wealth if you know what's good for you. Showing off how much you make and how much you have is not the way of the Financial Samurai. You will be crucified by the public if you show of your outsized wealth. People will not give you credit for the risk you took and| Financial Samurai
Coming up with a sizable down payment is one of the key barriers to affording a home. Learning how to invest your down payment if you're planning to buy a house is a whole other issue. On the one hand, you want to invest your down payment conservatively so that's it's available once you find| Financial Samurai
If there's one generation wealthier than ours, it's the 'Bank of Mom and Dad' generation. Given that our parents have had, on average, three decades longer to save and invest, it's natural that they have accumulated more wealth. For adult children in need of financial assistance, finding a tactful way to approach their parents for| Financial Samurai
U.S. Vice President Kamala Devi Harris and her husband reported more than $2 million in income on their 2018 federal tax return. The majority of their income came from her husband’s work as a partner at the law firm DLA Piper LLP. This article will go through Kamala Harris’ net worth. As a U.S. Senator,| 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
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
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
In a previous post, I discussed the futility of working when your net worth is declining. During a stock market crash or recession, your Return on Effort (ROE) for working drops significantly. Therefore, the only way to increase your Return On Effort is to work less, not more. At some point in your life, you’ll| Financial Samurai
Starting on July 16, 2024, we had a mini-stock market crash with the S&P 500 declining from 5,667 to 5,186 by August 5, 2024 (-8.5%). The NASDAQ saw a larger drop, falling from a high of 18,647 on July 10, 2024, to 16,200 on August 5, 2024 (-13%). And the bloodletting might not be done| Financial Samurai
The proper asset allocation of stocks and bonds by age is important to achieve financial freedom and stay retired. If you allocate too much to stocks the year before you want to retire and the stock market collapses, then you're screwed. If you allocate too much to bonds over your career, you might not be| Financial Samurai
Everyone with children should contribute to a 529 plan. It is a tax-efficient way to save for college since none of the gains are taxable if used for approved college expenses. Today, it costs about $200,000 in total for four years at the most expensive public colleges and about $400,000 for four years at the| Financial Samurai
In the second half of 2023, I significantly impacted our passive income, causing our household to technically lose its financial independence. Prior to this, we had been financially independent since 2012, when I left my banking job. My goal now is to regain financial independence by December 31, 2027. To achieve this, I need to| Financial Samurai
In 2007, I had a dream of taking my future family on a ski vacation. I was an avid snowboarder and my wife enjoyed the tranquility of Lake Tahoe. After receiving a good bonus, I bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo at Everline Resort in Palisades. Our son came ten years later, but we didn't go| Financial Samurai
New luxury car prices are way too high| Financial Samurai
Who stands to gain the most from the settlement reached with the National Association of Realtors regarding commission price collusion? The clear beneficiaries are residential real estate investors and owners. Why? Because they were the ones burdened with paying the so-called 'standard' real estate commission ranging from 5% to 6%. Following the judgment against the| Financial Samurai
Net worth composition for the top 1%| Financial Samurai
Living paycheck-to-paycheck is an unpleasant financial experience. Not only does it mean needing to spend everything you have to make ends meet, it may also create an ongoing feeling of despair. Never feeling like you’ll ever get out of the rat race and retire is demoralizing! You might even have to get into debt to| Financial Samurai
Everybody wants to become a millionaire. Unfortunately, not everybody's chances of becoming a millionaire are the same, partially because the playing field is not even. This article looks at historical data on your chances of becoming a millionaire by race, age, and education. Getting to at least one million dollars in net worth is a| Financial Samurai