Planning 2

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail


Last week I wrote about making plans. I also said I would write my answers this week. So here they are 🙂

Where do you want to live in the future?

I’m not sure. Rather, there isn’t anywhere I particularly want to live. I think a lot of places would be okay.

I was born in Germany, lived in Wales for a bit, spent nine years in Spain, eight in the UK, one in China, and seventeen in Japan. 

My godfather pointed out last week that as I am familiar with and comfortable here in Sendai, absent any negative developments I may as well consider staying put. I agree.

Although I want to build in longer trips abroad into our yearly schedule. Maybe 1-2 months at a time, a couple of times a year.

What does your ideal day look like?

I’m getting a better idea of this. Obviously I’m not sure as I am not doing it yet, and of course I may change my mind, but right now I think my ideal day looks something like this:

Morning: wake up 7:00 or so, drink coffee, read, write, work on projects until midday
Early afternoon: exercise (walk, cycle, weights)
Late afternoon: see friends or do errands
Evening: teach or family time

Obviously this won’t be possible every day, but I think I would enjoy it as a baseline.

What kind of work would you do if you didn’t have to work?

I would write and teach, although I prefer one-off courses or lectures rather than regular schedules. I enjoy public speaking so would like to do more of that too.

I think I would continue running RetireJapan and perhaps move into working with people one-on-one to help them learn to manage their finances.

What is your current financial situation?

It’s pretty good, mainly thanks to my wife’s hard work running her language school. Basically my job pays the bills and the school provides us with money to save and invest. We are now DINKS after many years of struggling to pay the bills with three (step-)kids.

This year has been really expensive, with multiple trips abroad for funerals, weddings, etc. and renovations to the flat, but we’ve still managed to save over half our income. Having the kids semi-independent makes a huge difference 🙂

We have a decent financial cushion -about 15 years’ worth of living expenses. My goal is to get to the point where we can live comfortably on dividends and interest, but that is going to take a little bit longer.

Do you have a realistic estimate of what your financial situation will be like in the future?

I think so. My best-case scenario has us financially independent in less than five years. I suspect there will be another stock market crash before then though, so I can also imagine a worst-case scenario where we suffer a permanent loss and never reach financial independence.

Because we have good financial habits though, I think we’ll be okay. I can’t imagine us ever spending more than we make, even if our income falls a lot. We have simple wants and in a pinch could probably live on very little.

I think it is fairly likely that we will end up with enough money to do whatever we want, at which point the question then becomes: what do we want? And that is another blog post.

How about you? What are your answers to the questions? Are there any questions we should add to the list?

6 Responses

  1. I like your way of thinking about life Ben. We could all live on very little if we needed to. But wouldn’t it be great not to have to worry – especially about outliving your ‘wealth.’ My question (to myself) is what to do if ‘the big one’ ever hits Tokyo/Yokohama and the whole caboodle unfolds. Then I’ll definitely need a plan B! Keep up the great work. Cheers, J.

    1. Thanks Julian! As we found out in 2011, having some slack (financial or otherwise) makes disasters and emergencies more bearable and easier to recover from.
      The best preparation for ‘the big one’ would be to make sure you have a solid financial foundation…

      1. Always have a plan B. Emergency survival kits, emergency cash and a plan to get you and your loved ones to safety without having to rely on phones, internet or reliable transport being available. 2011 was a wake up call that things can and do get out of hand very quickly and can take a while to recover. I stuck around during the bad times but I tell you, when that nuclear reactor blew up, I pretty much thought the gig was up.

      2. Hey Ben, since you’re in Sendai, I’d love to read about how the 2011 event impacted you financially and otherwise. Surely it must have had a bigger impact than for us who were in Tokyo?
        On a side note: I’m now back in Japan with my family 🙂

      4. However, it might be good to pull all that together into a coherent whole. Thanks for the idea! It might be a new blog post at some point 🙂