Stealth Wealth Discussions with Sam Dogen - The Best Passive Income Model Podcast | Lyssna här

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

that time.

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

difficult as well.

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

experience for him.

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.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

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.”