2018 NISA
Tsumitate NISA launch We talked briefly on the blog about the new tsumitate NISA accounts that will become available next year. I got an email from Rakuten Securities last week telling me my new (2018-2023) NISA account application had successfully completed. The way the NISA system was set up was two five-year periods, so we […]
Running RetireJapan
For a site that is supposed to be about money… RetireJapan doesn’t seem to be very good at making it 🙂 Having revealed my Master Plan the other week, I thought it might be interesting to show you a bit of what is going on behind the scenes at RetireJapan, and what it is like […]
Amazon Fire Tablets
On sale now for Prime members This is probably of interest mostly to people who are already Amazon Prime members. The new Fire tablets are out, and Prime members get a 4,000 yen off coupon for each sized tablet. I couldn’t find an end date for the campaign, so if you are interested I recommend […]
Renovating a House in Japan 1
Back to the drawing board You may remember our ‘building a house’ series. Well, it is over for now. My wife and I had a good talk and have agreed to look at other alternatives. I had a meeting with our Ichijo rep last Friday and told him we’d be putting the project on hold […]
How to Approach Problems
Start with the end in mind Lately I’ve been trying to improve the way I think about things. I’m at a stage in life where putting effort into the right areas seems to be more important than putting in a lot of effort. Getting this right seems to hinge on figuring out what your goals […]
Only in Japan: Expenses
Things that make you go hmmmm ​Coming of Age ceremony, a nightmare for parents of young women Japan, wonderful as it can be, has its downsides. One of them is expenses that a) come out of nowhere, b) seem to make no sense, and c) turn out to be non-negotiable 😉 Someone (sorry, I can’t […]
The RetireJapan Master Plan
Hat tip to Elon Musk Inspired by Tesla’s Master Plan, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what is going on with RetireJapan (there is method to the madness, honestly). RetireJapan was born in late 2013. Since then it has grown into more than a hobby: it has become a something […]
Reader Profile: N00bster
The Cautious Investor I’m really pleased to have a new Reader Profile for you today. N00bster (a prolific contributor to the forum) was kind enough to answer our questions and give us a look at his financial journey. 1. Tell us a little bit about yourself Hi! I am N00bster on the RetireJapan forum. Initially […]
Prepaid VISA Card from Shinsei
Get started building a credit rating One common problem for people new to a country is their lack of a credit rating. This makes it hard to get loans or apply for credit cards. I got my first credit card here a couple of years after arriving -a Saison credit card from one of the […]
International Tax Reporting
And so it begins I got a letter from <HSBC> the other day. Opened it, read it, it said they were <implementing new directives related to the OECD tax information sharing treaty>. Picture me giving a damn, I said never. ​We wrote about the OECD tax information treaty on the blog last year. It is […]