Lessons from Personal Finance Workshops 

I learned a few things too. Last weekend I had the chance to go and speak to the Gifu and Nagoya JALT chapters about personal finance. I’m very grateful to both chapters for inviting me and making it possible for me to fly down to present. These were the longest workshops I have done, and […]

Personal Finance Workshops in Nagoya and Gifu

Saturday in Gifu, Sunday in Nagoya I’m really excited about giving two RetireJapan workshops in Nagoya and Gifu this weekend. The respective JALT chapters have very kindly invited me to come and run workshops on personal finance in Japan. Details below: Gifu JALT 19:00~ (Saturday 24th October) click here for details Nagoya JALT 13:30~ (Sunday […]

J401k for public servants

It wasn’t to be So I just tried to apply for a J401k account, and part of the process involves getting your employer to sign off on it. Well, looks like someone forgot to update the laws, so even though we are now paying into Kosei Nenkin, we are still not eligible for a J401k […]

Shearon’s Hierarchy of Work Situations

Just like Maslow I had a thought the other day: there is a hierarchy of work situations. I have written about this before here, but there’s a bit more to it… Any teachers reading this are likely familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Today I present to you: Shearon’s hierarchy of work situations 🙂 It […]

Stock Markets Around the World

The end as we know it… Stock markets are kind of freaking out at the moment. Our holdings are down over two million yen so far and it seems like things are just getting started. This is very interesting for me as it’s the first correction I have had money in, so it’s the first […]

Book Review: The Millionaire Fastlane

And now for something completely different… I just finished re-reading The Millionaire Fastlane, by MJ DeMarco. I first read it in August 2012 and enjoyed it at the time. DeMarco makes sense, and he has a very different message from the usual sources we have here on the site. However, this time the book electrified […]

Junior Investment Accounts

Getting ready for the Junior NISA Rakuten Securities has started taking applications for Junior Investment Accounts (they are running a cashback campaign for the next couple of months) with a view to getting ready for the Junior NISA Accounts starting next year. I presume all the banks and online providers will have something similar. This […]

The Four Stages of Employment

Which one are you, punk? I just read a great blog post about stages of employment. Please check it out. Which stage are you at? I’m flexible at the moment, and hopefully will be free in 5-10 years time. How about you? Please post your status in the comments.

The J401k survey results

A little worrying… Thank you to everyone who answered the J401k survey over the last couple of days. The results so far are slightly worrying, but not unexpected. After all, the book I read about the J401k said that only around 0.2% of the people who are eligible for the account actually have one! The […]

Book Review: The Automatic Millionaire

A good book for beginners The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach, is a simple approach to personal finance based on a few key concepts. I believe it should work well if implemented, and I’d recommend this book for people new to thinking about personal finance. If you already have a handle on things, however, there […]