In today’s episode, Mark Podolsky, the Land Geek, talks to Sam
Dogen who has been writing on personal finance for 7 years. He has
an MBA for UC Berkeley, rated a 5.0 as a tennis player, a 16
handicapper in gold, and speaks three languages pretty well. He has
lived in different countries and visited roughly 40 countries as of
March 2015. He has been seen in The Wall Street Journal, The L.A.
Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Bloomberg, Kiplinger, and now, is a
guest on the Best Passive Income Model Podcast.
Sam worked in equities from 1999 to 2012, servicing
institutional fund managers that they invest in. These were mostly
mutual funds and some hedge funds. He also helped take private
companies and placed institutional investors in public companies
when they go IPO. The kind of stress Sam had to deal with working
for the industry was getting to work at 5 AM in New York and 6 AM
in San Francisco just to keep his finger on the pulse in relation
to what was going on in the markets. There was never a dull moment.
Working in the industry was fun for the first 9 years until 2008 to
2009 when it was no longer doing so well because of the housing
market collapse. There was also a lack of correlation between
performance and he had to subsidize the less well-performing peers.
Then, the dot.com bubble burst in 2000. He particularly didn’t
enjoy being considered Public Enemy No. 1 by people who didn’t pay
their mortgages as was his experience working in the industry at
He started financialsamurai.com in 2009 to help allay fears and
worries of people who experienced the crunch. Eventually, he also
wrote a book called, “How to Engineer Your Layoff: Negotiate Your
Severance and Be Free.” The book advises people never to quit but
get laid off. Getting laid off gets you a severance package and the
mandatory Warn Act Pay, a requirement by states and by larger
companies to provide one or three months worth of pay that allow
people to transition during a mass lay off. It is different from a
severance pay. Benefits to be derived from getting laid off is
being able to get a better recommendation from your peers,
unemployment benefits which is currently at 26 weeks maximum per
state, COBRA, and other things that will help you transition
into the next phase of your life.
Getting laid off if you are a star performer is a little
different. You will need to build building blocks to get the
severance negotiation by having a good relationship with your
direct boss and the HR Manager at your office. Start the
conversation, research online, and perhaps you can volunteer
yourself to save someone else. This saves your manager from having
to deal with laying other people off. Dealing with a bad manager is
Sam’s book, “How to Engineer Your Layoff: Negotiate Your
Severance and Be Free” empowers the employee. We have way more
power than we realize. However, he mentions that putting stuff out
on the internet will not make you a desirable candidate to other
companies who may want to hire you and it doesn’t help the company
either. If you have someone who has been trained to replace you,
you can have a seamless transition. It’s about communicating with
the people around you. Sam speaks from experience. He was able to
get a severance package that has allowed him to take care of his
living expenses until 2017. Hearing from people who write Sam to
tell him their lives are so much better now has been the best
When asked about his definition of happiness, Sam equates this
with progress. His philosophy is that when your relationships at
home are progressing, you are happy. The difference between the
rich and the poor, according to Sam, is not that great.
Another concept Sam has come up with is Stealth Wealth. It is a
way you think about money and think about how you want to be
perceived by society in general. Having lived in different
countries where there’s so much poverty has helped give Sam a
different perspective. While others brag about their material
possessions, there are people who are suffering. Being stealthy
about what you own is better because you need to focus on purpose
rather than your material worth.
As a writer, Sam killed time and searched for stories by joining
Über and becoming a driver. He met many random people and noticed
the dichotomy between the wealthy and the others in San Francisco.
Hearing their stories and reading their emails and comments on his
LinkedIn account makes him happy.
Sam and Mark both agree that in this day and age, everybody
should try to leverage the internet in some way and try to make a
lifestyle they want. His comment on Mark’s Best Passive Income
Model is that he has a great passive income model and the key is if
it’s working for him, he should continue doing it. There’s a
plethora of ways to make money online but he says that Mark’s
business model sounds good to him.
Sam: Save an amount that hurts you a little
bit. If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not saving enough. Everything
starts with a fundamental aggressive savings model for you to be
free and build those passive income streams.
To better guide parents on how to raise financially savvy
children, I advise against having them read my articles on
“How
To Convince Your Parents To Buy You Everything You Want,” and
“No
Wonder Why Millennials Don’t Give A Damn About Money.” Children
should read “Spoiled
or Clueless? Try to Work Minimum Wage Jobs.”
Mark: Go to financialsamurai.com and read
the most commented posts on the sidebar, “How
Much Money Do The Top Income Earners Make?” “Creating
Powerful Friends,” “How
Much Should People Have Saved in their 401ks at Different
Ages?” and
“The 1/10th Rule For Car Buying Everyone Must Follow.”
“Scraping By On $500,000 a Year: Why It’s So Hard For High Income
Earners To Escape The Rat Race.”
Thank you for listening to the Best Passive Income Model podcast. Your support
helps me to invite guests who share their knowledge that you can
use to grow your business.
