The Monday Read: Mantras

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

I was idly thinking about mantras the other day in the shower, and came up with the following that have served me well: Realising that I choose to do most of the things I do makes it easier to do them, knowing what is important to me and what isn’t let’s me use my time […]

The Monday Read: Ball is Rolling

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

My financial incentive habit creating system is working well (see below). I went to jiu-jitsu three times this week, even though I am still slightly injured and very busy with work. There is no way I would have gone without the public commitment and financial penalty. Today I got on my rowing machine for the […]

The Monday Read: March Madness

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

March this year has been really warm and the pollen so far has been dreadful. My younger granddaughter (4) is suffering terribly with congestion and painful eyes. But the weather has been really nice. Walking/cycling to work as been really nice these last couple of weeks. How is your March going? For me it’s one […]

The Monday Read: Getting Things Done

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

We were at a wedding on Saturday in Chiba. Ended up being a nice break going down and staying the night before. Always good to get out of the daily grind. Doing the things you want I was talking to a friend the other day and I realised that I am not getting round to […]

The Monday Read: Life-changing books

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

A life-changing book is not a term to throw around lightly. I feel like I might have read one this week (details below). Other life-changing books include Your Money or Your Life, one of the first personal finance books I read, and one that might have had the largest effect. Another was Minako Takekawa’s iDeCo […]

The Monday Read: Happy Birthday

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

The Monday Read is five years old! RetireJapan TV This month’s edition of RetireJapan TV will be live at 20:00 tonight (Monday 20th). Hope to see you there, and if you haven’t subscribed to the channel yet, what are you waiting for? YouTube Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published […]

The Monday Read: Spring in the Air?

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

After the last couple of weeks of frigid temperatures and record snowfalls, it was nice to have a spring day today (also melted all the snow, heh). All in all, last week was a bit of a write-off in terms of RetireJapan as I was away for three days with the family and then had […]

The Monday Read: Green Shoots

Had a very busy week coming off my encounter with Covid, but we’re off to Appi this week for a couple of days of snow and relaxation so hopefully that will help. Had some questions about when the coaching service will be back online and the answer is soon! Hoping to have an announcement in […]

The Monday Read: The Malady

RetireJapan Monday Read logo and illustrative photo of newspapers and coffee.

Well, it was always bound to happen. Officially caught Covid last week. Fortunately relatively mild cases all round (most of the family got it, starting with the grandkids). For me it was sore throat one day, feeling tired and groggy the next, then fever and chills, then a bad headache. Seems to be getting better […]

The Monday Read: On the Road

Had a very good time running some workshops in Fukuoka and Kitakyushu this weekend! Thanks to the JALT chapters for hosting me and to everyone who came to the workshops. It was actually the first time I have presented live for about three and a half years, so I was very much out of practice. […]