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There are several research studies that point to $75,000 a year where happiness increases no further. The $75,000 is largely derived through day job income given most folks do not have any other income sources. I make an argument that $200,000 is the income level where happiness increases no further due to various tax credit and deduction phaseouts, AMT penalties, income tax targeting and general attitudes towards people making more than $200,000 a year. Here’s an income definition for what is considered rich as well.

So what about online income, especially if working online is just a hobby? Let’s discuss!

THE VARIOUS STAGES OF ONLINE INCOME HAPPINESS Read More

The temptation of selling one’s site frequently comes up and I’d like to make an argument for why you probably should not sell your site in this environment.

It’s safe to say from a financial perspective, anybody who sold any type of asset from 2008-2011 probably wishes they had held on. Stocks have rebounded by over 130% since the S&P 500 hit 666. Real estate is roaring back in the major cities and is now spreading its fever back into speculative cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix Even gold, which produces nothing is up over 50% since 2008.

The one thing that hasn’t increased is interest rates. The 10-year bond yield (risk free rate) has fallen to under 1.7%, the best 7-year CDs are at 2%, and money market funds are around 0.2%. With interest rates so low, people have been saying 10+ years that interest rates must go up. Yet, one look at the historical 10-year bond yield chart shows that interest rates have been going down for 30 consecutive years!

Savers and retirees on fixed incomes have really been the victims of such a low interest rate environment. At the end of the day, the value of an asset is a function of its earnings. If your asset’s earnings are on the decline, then the present value of your asset is also in decline.

IN SEARCH FOR YIELD AND INCOME Read More

A friend asked how many of my posts have over 100 comments so I decided to find out with the “Most Popular Posts” widget. It turns out that Financial Samurai has roughly 70 posts with more than 100 comments and several hundred posts with over 50 comments. In other words, every 10th post or so becomes “a whale post” which leads to a tremendous amount of recurring traffic.

In this post I’d like to share with you some strategies that will really provide a boost to your site. I’m confident that if you follow these strategies, you’ll get random folks flocking from all over to be your biggest fans, or biggest detractors. More important than seeking adoration is attracting enough traffic for growing a life sustaining blog.

STRATEGY #1: CREATE POWER CATEGORIES Read More