2022 Planning

Goals for this year

Every year we start things off here on the blog with a look ahead, both for the site and me personally. Here is last year’s post for comparison.

Last year I gave myself a pass. We were still in peak pandemic, I was tired and run down, and I had a fairly major operation and hospital stay.

This year will (hopefully) be different 🙂

What is in store for RetireJapan in 2021?

Well, if it ain’t broke…

I think the Forum is wonderful. One of the best aspects of the site and RetireJapan. No changes needed here.

The blog is fine, but we haven’t been writing as many posts or as high quality posts as I think we can. In 2022 I plan to write at least one post a week as well as The Monday Read. Some of these posts will be new, and some will be rewrites of old posts that need updating.

The site needs a bit of a rewrite. It should be easier to find information, and the information should be more comprehensive and up to date. Expect some improvement here.

I’ve been meaning to update our two Guides for a while now, and possible write some new ones. I will try to make time for that this year.

We’re going to do another online conference this year. Hoping for bigger, better, and more useful. More details here, and you can sign up to the email list.

For a while now I’ve been meaning to create an online course to help people go from broke to 10 million yen in savings/investments. I’ll probably try to develop that a bit more, and if all goes to plan launch it at the end of this year.

And I still haven’t passed the Financial Planner test.

So lots to do, and hopefully a bit more time to do it in.

And the investing plan?

The huge growth in the stock markets over the last couple of years, combined with a weakening yen (most of our investments are ex-Japan, so they become worth more in yen the weaker the yen gets) means that our net worth went up by over 50% in the last two years.

The timing is good, as I will be leaving my job at the end of March, and not looking for a new one. But at the same time the huge growth is making me a bit nervous. There is a good Forum discussion about this topic if anyone is interested.

In terms of investing I will continue to:

• max out iDeCo (12,000 yen a month until March, then possibly up to 68,000 yen a month after that)
• I won’t be able to put anything in ordinary NISA, because I am rolling over my 2017 account
• invest 50,000 yen a month into mutual funds (using my new Rakuten credit card to get points)
• pay into the UK state pension on a voluntary basis
• try to max out my grandchildren’s Junior NISA accounts to get the maximum benefit before the system ends in 2023
• buy Japanese and US dividends stocks or save cash

My wife will:

• max out iDeCo (a much healthier 67,000 yen a month)
• pay fuka nenkin (the reason iDeCo isn’t 68,000 yen a month)
• max out the medium-small business savings plan
• pay 33,000 yen a month into tsumitate NISA (she’ll be switching from this year)
• invest in taxable accounts or save cash
• help me with paying into Junior NISA accounts

This first year will be interesting as I won’t have an income from work. I will do some freelance projects like working on the Guides and online course described above, promote my junior high school English textbooks, and help my wife with her school.

We’ll see how that goes this year and then adjust as necessary going forward. At some point we may sell the school in order to get a bit more freedom in terms of being able to take time off or travel (if we ever get to travel again, that is).

I can see us reducing the amount we save and invest in the future, maybe cutting down to just filling our NISA and iDeCo accounts each year. I will keep you posted as we transition into new phases of personal finance 😉

So big changes for me in 2022. How about you? Any changes of direction in store? What are you planning to do?