The Financial Samurai Podcast Sam Dogen: Financial Samurai founder, personal finance blogger

I spoke to my wife about how my saver's mindset naturally kicked in after purchasing our new house in October 2023. Our liquidity was tight, and we were literally living paycheck to paycheck for six months. This is when my frugal gene kicked in and made me lock down expenses.
This experience taught me that experiencing financial difficulty often triggers a saver's mindset. The key is to maintain this saver's mindset at all times, not just when you're in a crunch.
Articles Referenced:
Embrace Living Paycheck To Paycheck For A Better Life
Why Earning Less Passive Income Has Changed My Life For The Better
Three Sneaky Expenses That Are Ruining Your Budget
Recommendations
Real estate is my favorite asset class for most people to build long-term wealth. It's important to invest your savings to try and beat inflation.
If you'd like to invest in real estate without a mortgage, check out Fundrise, my favorite private real estate platform. The investment minimum is only $10 to help you diversify and earn more passive income. 
Financial Samurai is a six-figure investor in Fundrise funds and Fundrise is an investor in Financial Samurai. 
Join 70,000 others and subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. You'll increase your chances of achieving financial freedom sooner if you do. 
 
 

Property bidding wars are back, despite persistently high mortgage rates, due to the strength of the economy and the stock market. This episode discusses why people are getting into bidding wars and the best time of the year to buy a house. 
Articles referenced:
Understanding Why People Getting Into Property Bidding Wars
Analyzing Housing Price Dynamics: Helping Buyers Buy At The Best Time
Real estate is my favorite asset class for most people to build long-term wealth. If you'd like to invest in real estate without a mortgage, check out Fundrise, my favorite private real estate platform. The investment minimum is only $10 to help you diversify and earn more passive income. 
Financial Samurai is a six-figure investor in Fundrise funds and Fundrise is an investor in Financial Samurai. 
Join 70,000 others and subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. You'll increase your chances of achieving financial freedom sooner if you do. 

I talk to Emily Luk, Co-Founder and CEO of Plenty, a wealth platform for today's modern couples about her career path from VC, to joining a big startup, to creating her own startup. I wanted to now why she lifted a cushy job with good pay.
If you're a couple interested in a great tool to manage your finances together, check out Plenty. They've got a great cash flow tool that enables individual, joint, and private money management. Plenty also offers Direct Indexing investment at a low cost. 
I've personally met the team multiple times in their offices in San Francisco as I consulted for them. 
If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Every episode takes hours to produce and every review means a lot.
Thanks!
Sam

For the longest time, I've wondered the following about some men:
Why claim to be retired while having a working spouse? Why work so many hours after having a newborn? Why leave your family when your children are still young and need fathers the most? Doing these things didn't make much sense to me until I had an epiphany: every person has a different inherent desire to provide thanks to biology. And given biology is innate, we cannot help the way we are! 
Read: A Provider's Clock For Men Is Similar To A Biological Clock For Women
For those of you with children and/or debt, it's imperative to get an affordable term life insurance policy to protect your loved ones. Take a look at Policygenius, an insurance market place that will offer affordable life insurance quotes in one place with no obligations. 
My wife and I got matching 20-year term policies during the pandemic and felt an enormous sense of relief. 
Thank you for your shares and reviews of this podcast. They help keep me recording! Sign up for my free weekly newsletter to never miss a thing. - Sam

In this episode, I catch up with Ben Miller, Co-founder and CEO of Fundrise about artificial intelligence and the latest investments by the  Innovation Fund.
We discuss how company valuations are calculated in the fund, a defense AI investment, and so much more. 
The Innovation Fund is an open-ended venture capital fund with only a $10 minimum. You can see what the fund is investing in before you decide to invest and how much. Unlike traditional closed-end venture capital funds, you can gain liquidity if you want in one quarter.
Check out the Innovation Fund here. Financial Samurai is an investor in Fundrise and Fundrise is a long-time sponsor of Financial Samurai. 
Personally, I'm bullish on artificial intelligence and will be building $500,000 worth of exposure to AI companies and funds that invest in artificial intelligence over the next five years. In 20 years, I don't want my children asking me why I didn't invest in AI near the beginning. 
Related post: Artificial Intelligence: How To Protect Yourself And Benefit Financially 
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If you enjoyed this episode, please share, rate, and review. Every review means a lot as each episode takes hours to produce. 

I speak with Colleen Kong-Savage about becoming a children's book illustrator and author, as well as a freelance graphic designer while living in expensive New York City.
Colleen has a new book out entitled Piano Wants To Play. It is a wonderful book for children and adults of all ages who appreciate music. It is also a touching story about rekindling the joy we had as children.
Colleen has been a long-time illustrator for Financial Samurai, creating all of the custom Samurai-themed graphics, including the logo and the Financial Samurai mask.
As you may know, it can be challenging to make a living as a creative professional. Therefore, I'm proud to support Colleen's endeavors.
If you're looking to support artists, the best way to do so is to purchase their work and hiring them. Please consider purchasing a copy of Piano Wants To Play and visiting Colleen's website at ckongsavage.com.
If you want to learn more about being a children's author and illustrator, you can check out the resources at www.highlightsfoundation.org and www.scbwi.org.
If you enjoyed this episode, I'd appreciate a review and a share!
To Your Financial Freedom,
Sam