Book Review: Investing in Japan
The best book I have read about investing in Japan Investing in Japan, by Steven Towns, is the best book I have read on investing in Japan. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying very much because it is also the only book I have read on investing in Japan. The book was written in 2012 and is […]
J401k poll
Do you have a J401k account? Something for the weekend: a quick poll on the J401k (確定拠出年金). Do you have a J401k account? * Yes No I’m not eligible What’s a J401k account? Submit
Public Servant Pensions
If you are in the kyosai nenkin system, you should read this My university reminded me yesterday about the coming changes to public sector pensions in Japan. From October this year, Kyosai Nenkin (共済年金) will disappear, and all public servants will be moved into the Kosei Nenkin (厚生年金) system. Kosei Nenkin is also known as […]
Buying property in Japan
I promised I wouldn’t do this… I’ve previously written about property on this site. As an investment I think there are still quite a few question marks, but depending on someone’s circumstances it may make sense to buy. Our circumstances are now moving in that direction. We’ve been renting a ‘mansion’ (condo) on the outskirts […]
The Utter Boredom of Successful Personal Finance
It’s like watching paint dry, but less exciting It looks like we’re going to hit our next investment target this month. After that I think it will take us another couple of years to hit the next one. Of course, these arbitrary targets that I set for us aren’t particularly important. They, like writing this […]
Charity Revisited
Out of sight, out of mind? I wrote about charitable giving in December. It’s about halfway through the year now, so it’s time to review everything and see what we can change going forward. There are two schools of thought on this. I wrote about the Tony Robbins version in my post above. Basically it […]
Some Questions
NISA, Rakuten Securities, Offshore Accounts One very welcome result of my talk at the Pan-SIG has been some new visitors and members to the site. One new Forum member, OkinawaInvestor, sent me a list of interesting questions which I will try to answer here, with the usual proviso that I am not an expert and […]
Public Lecture
Personal Finance: One Teacher’s Story Last Sunday I was lucky enough to have the chance to present on personal finance at the 2015 Pan-SIG Conference in Kobe. I was hoping to post a video of the talk, but we ended up sitting in a circle and talking, so it would have included the audience. Instead, […]
Postmortem
My first public lecture Last Sunday was my first public lecture on personal finance, and I am really happy with how it went. The Pan-SIG organizers honored my request to be scheduled on Sunday afternoon (I had to make it a day trip). I actually ended up being in the last slot! In the end […]
Junior NISA Accounts
Starting in April 2016 [NOTE: From 2024 Junior NISA Accounts are no longer available.] It seems as if the government has finally gotten around to implementing the Junior NISA account. Basically this is a NISA account for children (it’s available to anyone under 20). It’s designed to allow parents and grandparents to invest on a […]