2020 Roundup
All in one place Once again there will only be one roundup post this year. Here is the 2019 post if you want to see what that year looked like. 2020 was… not great This year has been very stressful, and we were among the ones lucky enough not to suffer any health or financial […]
The Monday Read
Merry Christmas Edition So close to the end of 2020 So a belated Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you are enjoying a bit of a break over the new year. 2020 will soon be over, and although I learned a lot this year I won’t be sorry to see the back of it. Here’s […]
Progress Report 2020
The Progress Continues This year we will continue combining all the progress report posts into one huge long report. I think they work better as one big long post. You can see last year’s post here (spoiler alert: this year’s is almost identical). We’re going to cover the following areas in order: iDeCo Progress NISA […]
On Tsumitate NISA
I have changed my mind! I have yet to use tsumitate NISA myself, and until recently my advice to people looking to choose between ordinary NISA and tsumitate NISA was to go for ordinary if you could afford to invest the full amount and tsumitate if you couldn’t. But I have changed my thinking on […]
The Monday Read
Snowpocalypse Edition Well, let it stop snowing already, please. Bah, humbug. After that tremendously warm autumn, winter is here with a vengeance. It is at least seven degrees colder today than it usually is in Sendai in December, and it’s been snowing on and off for days. Hellish to drive on, we have fresh powder […]
Supporter Memberships
If you really really like the site I support half a dozen people through Patreon, paying them a dollar or two every month. One blogger and four web comic artists. I don’t receive anything in exchange for this support, but I am happy to provide it because I enjoy their work and would like them […]
The End Game
Safe withdrawal rates and asset management in retirement I really enjoyed watching The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix series about a fictional female chess player in the 60s) last week. In chess, there are roughly three periods of play: the opening, which is highly structured; the mid-game, which is more chaotic and allows for inspired genius; and […]
The Monday Read
Let it snow? edition Apparently it snowed this morning briefly, but I didn’t notice because I was asleep… oh, well. We wrote up the (existing) forum rules again this week: And the forum has been very active this week: This week’s links This is pretty insane: https://marginalrevolution.com/…/new-crispr-based-covid… This explains a lot https://www.theatlantic.com/…/wear-your-mask…/615796/ I enjoyed reading […]
How to invest
Every situation is different I tend to live in the future, perhaps too much so. I am constantly making plans and thinking about different options. My financial and professional situations seem to be heading for some changes, so I have been poring over spreadsheets for the last couple of weeks (to be honest, at least […]
The Monday Read
End of year is approaching edition Only about fifteen more years until the end of 2020, eh? Looking forward to seeing the back of this one. Russia just started vaccinating people, and the UK is going to start next week apparently. Nice of them to test it out for us! I’m not in any hurry […]