The Monday Read
Basic income, pre-funerals, and the good life Woo, it’s Sunday evening again. Where did the time go? (people that know me know exactly where the time went -it’s going to be a rough month or two work-wise) Hopefully you are doing better 🙂 Here are this week’s links: ​What do customers want? The illusion of […]
US Social Security in Japan
Not many options Something for US citizens today for a change 😉 The other day I came across the excellent ACA information page for US expats on the subject of social security. You should look at the page for the details, but the following are probably the most important points: US citizens can claim Social […]
Reader Profile: Dave and Amy
The English School Owners I’m really happy to be able to bring you another Reader Profile today. Dave and Amy run a number of English-teaching related businesses and are active in the teaching community. I finally met Amy last year at the Tokyo RetireJapan seminar and she’s been an enthusiastic member of our gang ever […]
The Monday Read
Future Japan is a little worrying How’s your Monday going? Here are this week’s links for your delectation: Andrew Hallam’s backstory: do you want to make money or just fool around? There is hope for all of us: inspiring teacher millionaire interview. Slightly worrying: many Japanese care homes turning away seniors over lack of guarantor. Eeek: Japan’s […]
Goodbye THEO
It was good while it lasted I was planning to keep my THEO account for at least the rest of this year, but decided to close it last week instead. It didn’t seem to make much sense to keep putting money into it once I had decided it wasn’t a good fit any more. We […]
Investment Accounts in Japan
Now witness the power of this fully operational online broker account The three big online brokers in Japan For most people (US citizens see the note at the end of this post), the best option for opening investment accounts is going to be online. Banks and full service broker offices tend to have higher fees, […]
The Monday Read
Cobra Kai​ I have been enjoying (wasting money on?) Cobra Kai this week. And reading a bit online. Here are this week’s links. Great article: crypto’s big lie.I mostly don’t bother: loyalty cards in Japan thicken wallets but lack in payoffs.Portfolio design: When Bonds Are The Players You Don’t Want To Pick.Bad financial advice: The Worst Investment […]
Changes at Shinsei Bank
Cutting back on freebies Shinsei is breaking its product to save moneyI’ve been a big fan of Shinsei Bank for a long time now (for banking, not investing or mortgages). They have an English language website, fairly decent online interface and service, foreign currency deposit accounts, free cash withdrawals from ATMs in Japan and abroad, […]
UK State Pensions 5
Finally the end is in sight My online forecast from a couple of days ago We’ve written about the UK state pension before (apologies, non-British people! This should be the last of these posts), but the sheer incompetence and disorganization at HMRC means this series has grown to five posts. It should have been one […]
The Monday Read
Is it the rainy season yet or what? Golden Week is over and it’s a long way until the next decent holiday in the summer. Only one thing for it: reading random stuff on the internet 😉 Last week we finally got The RetireJapan Guide to NISA formatted. It’s looking pretty good now, and is […]