RetireJapan Remastered
A few years ago I published a master plan for RetireJapan. Then in 2021 I published Part Deux. After all the crazy developments in the last couple of years, I think it’s time for another update 🙂
The original plan was as follows:
Step 1: share information on the site/blog
Step 2: run a forum so people can ask questions and share information
Step 3: create in-depth Guides on specific topics
Step 4: provide personal coaching
Step 5: provide assistance with opening accounts, etc.
Step 6: provide financial services
When I wrote it we were doing 1-3, and 4-6 were just pipe dreams.
Now we are doing steps 1-5 from the plan, and after learning more about what is actually involved, I have decided not to pursue step 6.
2022 and 2023
Finishing work (not completely voluntarily, but happily) in March 2022 meant that I had a lot more time to devote to RetireJapan. Looking back, it’s actually been pretty wild how much we got done over the last year and a half.
Here are some things that happened:
1: Went all in on YouTube. I took Ali Abdaal’s Part-Time YouTuber Academy around this time last year, and have been publishing videos pretty regularly since then. We just hit 3,000 subscribers, which I am very happy with. We also launched a membership program on there if anyone wants to support the channel.
2: Launched Your First Ten Million Yen, our live cohort course. We ran the first cohort in late 2022 and the second one in spring 2023. The next cohort will go on sale in December (you can sign up to get advance notice here if you are interested) and will run in February-March 2024.
3: Finally started our livestream/podcast RetireJapan TV. We finished the first season in August, and we’ll be back with Season Two later this month. This surprised me because it was way more fun than I was expecting it to be.
4: Creating on-demand video courses. We’ve almost finished the first one (The Basics of Personal Finance in Japan), and I have plans for at least one or two more after that. This has been a huge amount of work, but I am pretty excited as I think it will help a lot of people who might not want/be able to do our live course or take coaching.
What is next for RetireJapan?
Well, I would like to continue to grow our reach. I love the community here, and I think we have helped a lot of people, but there are many others in Japan who don’t know about RetireJapan who would definitely benefit from the information and support we can provide.
Our mission is still to help as many people as possible learn more about personal finance and investing in order to improve and get more control over their lives.
Getting my financial house in order has transformed my life for the better, and there is no reason that pretty much anyone couldn’t do the same. They just need to know it is possible, practical advice on how to do it, and support while they learn about it.
A new plan
Partly I think we need to do more of the same: more blog posts, more content, more forum users, more coaching.
But there are also some new projects I think might be fun and helpful.
In no particular order, here are some of the things I am thinking about:
- Improve the website so we rank better on Google etc. Make it easier to find good blog posts from the past. Organise things better so that people can find information on the site quicker. Maybe do another redesign.
- Do more outreach. If you know any podcasts/websites/publications that would be interested in an interview or guest post do let me know. The purpose is to reach more people who could use our help.
- Organise some live events. We’ve done a handful of live events in the past, and they’ve always been really fun and memorable. Going online with Zoom and similar has been great for seminars and coaching, but nothing beats actually getting everyone together in a room. We might be doing one of these in Tsukuba sometime next year, and I’m open to trying to do more if possible.
- Write a RetireJapan book. Like, an actual book that will be available in print and digital versions. This is more of a medium to long term project, but it’s something I would love to do and I think it might be a good complement to what we do with the site.
- Publish textbooks for high school and university students teaching the principles of personal finance in English. This seems to me to be an obvious way to reach and help even more people. I used to teach a personal finance course at my university, and even now I do the odd guest lecture at other universities and high schools, but creating textbooks would make it easier for other teachers to introduce personal finance into their classes.
Phew! That actually seems like quite a lot when you type it out. I wonder what the next master plan post will look like (in 2024 or 2025).
What do you think? Any suggestions or requests?
I’ve been listening to JL Collins’ new book “Pathfinders” on Audible and was pleasantly surprised this morning to hear your story feature (read in an American accent!) Helpful. Important to think about the way out as well as the way in. Did he give you quite an edit? I thought your piece could have been longer. Anyway, well done on that “outreach”! I expect the book will reach a large audience.
Thanks Richard! Impressively quick there (the book only came out a few days ago).
I think they published it as written but there was a word count for the submission 🙂