Guest Post: Offshore Investments
Buyer Beware Today we have a guest post from a RetireJapan reader, B. They have very kindly written up some details about an offshore insurance ‘investment’ they took out a few years ago. Long term readers will know that this kind of investment (and the ‘advisors’ that sell them) are the reason I started RetireJapan. […]
The Monday Read
Golden Week is Coming Edition Well, Golden Week starts this week. Please stay home and stamp the reproduction number into the floor. I wish the government would act more competently than it seems to be, but in the absence of that, we can all do our part. I’ll be spending time playing board games with […]
Life Changing Money
Let’s call it ten million yen Personal finance can seem overwhelming at first. There are so many moving pieces, details, and jargon. And then there is the language barrier. And your Japanese friends and family are likely to try to discourage you from embarking on such a risky endeavor. Truly the hardest thing is to […]
Hospital Food in Japan
Surprisingly Not Too Bad I was in hospital recently for an operation, and ended up spending eighteen days in the hospital as an inpatient on a ward. More than the operation, before going into hospital I was most worried about the food. I’m a somewhat fussy eater, and there are a lot of foods here […]
The Monday Read
Rain, rain, go away edition The problem with Sendai in the spring is the wind. It is a cold and bitter wind, and this year especially strong. Cars pushed into the next lane, washing blown away, doors snatched out of hands strong. And today? Rain. Cold rain like a grey blanket, just like back home. […]
Transferwise is now Wise
They are all grown up and sophisticated now Site favourite Transferwise changed their name recently, to Wise. I guess they want to emphasise that they don’t just do transfers, but in fact have a number of different offerings for consumers. This came to my attention because they sent me a number of emails about it, […]
Applying for a My Number Card Online
Whose number? Your number? The other day I applied for a plastic My Number card online. Despite all my reservations and blog posts about how much I dislike the system, I finally cracked. The final straw was the fact that the 通知票 are no longer valid if the address has changed since they were issued, […]
The Monday Read
Spring is here edition Well, spring is here it seems. Today is the most glorious day -probably the best one so far of 2021. Hope everyone is keeping safe out there! Article for beginners I wrote an article for Gaijinpot, and it was published last week. It’s aimed at beginners, so I would be really […]
The Monday Read
I’m back, did you miss me? Well, I got out of the hospital yesterday 🙂 Was in there for eighteen days in the end, and while that probably wasn’t entirely necessary, it was a positive experience overall. The food was better than I expected, the surgery went well with no complications so far, and the […]
Online Coaching (April 2021)
Now taking bookings from June I updated the coaching page (slight price increase, no longer offering in-person sessions, slighty more detail). We’ve been doing a lot of coaching recently. I guess Covid and the last year gave people a chance to take stock of their situation and start thinking about how to improve things. Not […]