{"id":93474,"date":"2026-04-22T21:27:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/?p=93474"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:27:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:27:57","slug":"buy-this-not-that-showing-up-is-more-than-half-the-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bricktowntom.com\/blog\/04\/buy-this-not-that-showing-up-is-more-than-half-the-battle.html","title":{"rendered":"Buy This, Not That: Showing Up Is More Than Half The Battle\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone! Today, we have a guest post from Sam Dogan aka. Financial Samurai. I am chilling in the Maldives and I can’t get any work done<\/a>. Fortunately, Sam offered to write a guest post for Retire by 40 and sent me his new book to review. I’m about halfway through Buy This, Not That<\/strong> and it is the best book on Financial Independence I’ve ever read. Sam will show you how to achieve financial independence and stay there. I’ve read many books on financial independence, but they all seem a bit outdated. Buy This, Not That is 100% applicable for us today. It’s really good. Check it out if you haven’t read it yet. Sam, take it away!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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One of the reasons why I like to follow Retire By 40 is because Joe and I actually have pretty similar backgrounds. He’s an Asian guy. I’m an Asian guy. He has a son. I have a son. We both retired in 2012 and we both run personal finance sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main difference between us is that I consider myself a fake retiree<\/a>. After all, these posts don’t write themselves! After 10 years of not having a day job, I’ve come to realize I always need to be doing something challenging. Perhaps part of it is because my wife also doesn’t have a day job and we’ve got two young kids.<\/p>\n

Once my son was born in 2017, it seemed like my DNA kicked in where I had to step it up. There was no more leisure lifestyle as a stay at home dad who enjoyed writing online. Instead, I felt like I needed to make more active income and passive income<\/a> to provide. <\/p>\n

Without the safety net of employment, it’s been hard to completely let go. As a result, I’ve always been open to new challenges and opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Opportunity To Write A New Personal Finance Book During COVID<\/h2>\n

When an editor at Portfolio Penguin approached me at the end of 2019 to write a book, I was intrigued. I didn’t want to write a book given our daughter was just born in December 2019<\/a>. The 4th trimester is generally the hardest period to raise a child. Further, we also had a rambunctious 2.5-year-old to care for as well. <\/p>\n

However, back in 2012-2013, I tried my best to get a literary agent with no luck. Therefore, for an editor from a reputable publishing house to offer me a book deal felt too hard to turn down. I knew if I didn’t accept the offer, I would look back with regret. <\/p>\n

When the COVID lockdowns began in March 2020, life got real tough real quick for stay at home parents. Signing a book deal was essentially like taking on a full-time job again along with my writing on Financial Samurai. I was overwhelmed and constantly felt under pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the great thing about hard work is that it doesn’t last forever. Two and a half years later on July 19, 2022, I published, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book became an instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller and #1 Bestseller on Amazon. In a sea of established book authors, it was fun to break the status quo. <\/p>\n

What’s unique about the book is that it not only helps you build wealth sooner, it also tackles some of life’s most common dilemmas. These include:<\/p>\n