iDeCo Application Success
It was a long time coming My iDeCo application took a long time. I didn’t help matters by writing the wrong numbers on the application form (which meant an extra three weeks back and forth with Rakuten Securities) but my account is now finally up and running. My March payslip shows two monthly payments have […]
Success of the Master Plan
Might not matter? I’m definitely a planner. I love making plans and tracking progress. You wouldn’t believe the spreadsheets in my ‘planning’ file 😉 I tend to have several plans on the go at one time -plan A, plan B, plan C, etc. A couple of key events took this natural tendency of mine and […]
Review: Becoming Warren Buffett
Does he really go to McDonalds every morning? I managed to watch this a few weeks ago. It’s made by HBO, but I could not for the life of me find a way of watching it legally, so I ended up watching it on Youtube. It’s ninety minutes, and provides an intimate look at Warren […]
Portfolio: Accounts
What goes where Where should you put your savings and investments? Let’s look at some options. This is our sixth portfolio post. You can see the previous ones here: geography, risk, asset allocation, taxes, and time. Hopefully everyone is down with the basics of personal finance: spend less than you earn, save and invest the difference, do this for […]
Filing a Tax Return in Japan
Almost a joy. Almost. The early 90s would like their website design back, Japan Last week I submitted a tax return for the first time in Japan. Well, I submitted a tax return myself for the first time. Last year my wife’s accountant did it for me. I’d also been in to the tax office […]
Review: A Very Long Hill
A very short book A Very Long Hill is a short and very readable book on investing written by a teenage girl and her father. I first came across Maya Peterson when I saw her blog and this remarkable talk she gave at her school. Then I picked up her book and to my surprise […]
Portfolio: Time
Life slips away on cat’s feet As the author of The Millionaire Fastlane says, time is the only true currency. It is limited and cannot be increased. Most of us probably don’t value our time enough. This is our fifth portfolio post. You can see the previous ones here: geography, risk, asset allocation, and taxes. Time affects […]
Taking the Financial Planner Test 2
Somehow I managed to fail this easy test Long-time readers may remember that I took the Financial Planner test (3-kyuu) in January. I wrote about the test here and my experience taking it here. My results arrived a couple of days ago. As I discovered by scoring my own paper after the test, I barely passed […]
Review: Millionaire Teacher 2nd Ed.
Billionaire Teacher? I just realized I have never reviewed Millionaire Teacher on the blog. It’s been on the Further Reading page forever, and I recommend it to almost everyone who comes here, but this review of the second edition will be the first formal write-up. Oops. Millionaire Teacher is the best book I know of […]
UK State Pensions 2
Pension Harder I wrote about how UK expats can pay into the state pension scheme while abroad here. I applied to pay class 2 contributions (the cheaper ones) and now, three months later, I have received an answer from the Pension Service. It’s not a very helpful answer, but it does clear a couple of […]