Blog 101

That’s probably 78 too many…


​I just noticed that this is the 101st post on this blog!

A good place for some nostalgia and feedback, methinks.

I wrote my first post on this site in December 2013. It was triggered (as the site was) by a conversation with a friend about his investments and future in retirement and how angry that conversation made me.

Since then, I have written 100 posts, given five lectures on personal finance, and communicated with hundreds of people on this fascinating topic. I’ve learned a lot and hopefully given a few people a push in the right direction.

There are a few more things I would like to do, with your help.

  1. Build the community here and on the site’s Facebook page. You can help by telling people about RetireJapan and liking and sharing the page and posts on Facebook.

  2. Write some short books on personal finance, investing, etc. You can help by telling me what you would like to read about.

  3. Learn more about helping people with their finances. I plan to take the Financial Planner tests here in Japan and reach out to professionals working in the field. You can help by continuing to send me your questions via comments or the contact form.

  4. Organize more public lectures and workshops in Japan. You can help by suggesting a group you are in invite me, by attending events, or by spreading the word about workshops.

  5. Share more ideas from other people. I would love to invite people to write a guest post for the blog or tell us about their own financial situations. You can help by suggesting topics you could write about or getting in touch for an interview.

It’s been a great couple of years so far and I look forward to sharing the journey with you going forward.

6 Responses

  1. I think Japan sorely needs a book on retirement planning for foreigners working here long-term. There is nothing good in English out there. The Millionaire Teacher is good but much is not relevant to Japan as there are such restrictions on investing abroad when you live in Japan. You seem to be building a great amount of knowledge on the subject and with more and more ‘old gaijin’ around I think now is a great time to collate all of that into one book specific to the Japanese ex-pat community. Or set up a side business as an honest and trustworthy financail advisor! They are in short supply, too!

    1. Thanks for the encouragement! Both of those are on the table and seem like fun things to do.
      2016 is shaping up to be an interesting one for RetireJapan 🙂

    2. +1, I couldn’t agree more. I just bought and read Andrew Hallam’s second book (The global expatriate’s guide to investing), and Japan specific information is nowhere to be found in that book.
      Some questions specific to Japan:
      – Andrew Hallam states that if you invest through an American company, your family will be taxed by the US at your death through Estate tax, even if you never set foot in the US (and google/wikipedia/irs.gov confirm it). However Japan has an estate tax agreement with the US, which to my understanding makes the issue void. Some information on that would be super useful as I have an account with a US entity today.
      – Speaking of Schwab, they used to be ok with opening accounts for people in Japan, and now they’re not. It would be interesting to understand what triggered that change around 2014. More generally, what’s going on with so many financial institutions refusing to do business with people in Japan? (cf. Andrew Hallam’s book)
      – Suggestion of good brokers and a good JP specific couch potato portfolio. Andrew Hallam’s book was a bit confusing on where to invest depending on where you’re from. Technically, if you live in Japan, are paid in Yen, and plan to stay in Japan long term, you’re not really a “European expatriate”, you’re more like a “Person from Japan with an international background”, so the right thing to do would probably be to invest through Japanese institutions in a Japan-focused portfolio, but flexibility should be key (“What if I leave Japan in 10 years? Will this financial institution close its doors on me?”)

      1. Hi SB
        Fantastic! Three great post ideas there, hope to get around to writing them before too long.
        Right now I am leaning towards writing the RetireJapan book chapter by chapter and putting them up here as ebooks. Once the whole thing is finished I’ll edit it together and self-publish. No promises on delivery date though!

      3. Yup, I saw you mentioned in the book and I was like “hey, I know this guy!” :). The book also mention the owner of therapeofhonkkong.com, one of the blogs raising awareness on the costs of ILAS.