How will Japan’s new Prime Minister affect your life?
I was fairly happy to see Mr Ishiba be elected leader of the LDP and thus Prime Minister of Japan, especially considering the alternatives.
As we head into the election there has been a lot written about what kind of policies he might try to enact, some of which definitely come under our remit: raising the minimum wage or changing how capital gains tax works.
But untimately it is unlikely that Mr Ishiba’s rise or subsequent fall would make much difference to your life. Distasteful as I find her, the same would be true of Ms Takaichi.
The older I get the more I try to focus on things that are under my control.
Government policies, interest rates, tax law, the state of the economy, the strength (or weakness!) of the yen, the price of goods are all things that I have no control whatsoever over.
Worrying about these things causes stress and wastes my time.
I used to get stressed about things, complain about them, wish reality was different. To be honest I still do from time to time, but most of the time I manage to acknowledge things, make sure I understand them properly, then move on.
Save your time and mental energy for things that you can change.
I read Man’s Search for Meaning for the first time this year (not sure what took me so long) and it was incredibly helpful and inspiring. If you haven’t read it yet I really recommend giving it a few hours (but be warned, it is not cheerful reading despite the positive message).
Financially things you can control would be what you spend money on, what you do with extra money (money you don’t need for basic life expenses), what you do with your savings, what kind of fees you pay if you invest, whether or not you pay tax when you invest (you can usually avoid paying tax legally by using tax-exempt accounts like NISA or iDeCo, at least provided you are not a US citizen).
Focusing just a little time on these things will give you much better results than complaining about things you can’t change.
If you are not quite sure where to begin, we’re launching our online hybrid course Your First Ten Million Yen this Friday. Sign up here to get more information and priority access. The course is aimed at beginners or people who have been meaning to get their finances in order but just haven’t gotten round to it yet. We’ll give you both the information and the support you need to get started.