Last one for a while, I promise


A bit of a mixed post today.

1. Newsletter timing survey
2. RetireJapan Guides survey
3. JALT2016

1. Newsletter Timing

A few weeks ago I ran a poll after a reader wrote to me asking me to change the timing of the email weekly newsletter (sign up at the bottom of any page on the site).

There are almost 300 people receiving the weekly newsletter. Twenty people answered the poll (thank you!) and the results were as follows:

How do you read the blog?

Get the newsletter 10
Visit the site every so often 6
Visit the site every day 1
Facebook 1

When would you like to receive the email newsletter?

Monday 8
Tuesday 1
Wednesday 1
Friday 3

What time of day?

Early morning 7
Lunchtime 3
Don’t care 6

From these results I conclude that 1) most people are happy, or they would have answered the poll too, and 2) there isn’t much point in changing the email newsletter settings right now. It’s going to continue to go out at lunchtime on Monday.

By the way, if you read on Facebook, make sure you change the settings for the page to ‘see first’ so that you get all our posts, otherwise Facebook will probably only show you one in ten or so…

2. RetireJapan Guides

I also asked you about whether you’d be interested in paying for extra content from RetireJapan in the form of PDF Guides. 41 of you kindly took the time to reply. The results:

1. Would you pay for more detailed information from RetireJapan?

Definitely  10
Depends on the price 18
No, I just want free information 13

2. How much would you be prepared to pay?

Less than 1000 yen 27
1000-2000 yen 10
More than 2000 yen 4

3. Which guide are you most interested in?

1. Basic principles of personal finance 4
2. iDeCo (J401k) Account 15
3. Investing in Japan 15
4. NISA Account 2
5. Rakuten Securities Account 4
6. SBI Securities Account 1

The information was really interesting, particularly question 3 (although I am kicking myself for not including an ‘other’ field). It looks like most people are prepared to pay a little for more detailed information, and the iDeCo or Investing in Japan guides would be most useful right now.

Guess I’ll stop working on the Basic Principles of Personal Finance Guide then 😉

3. JALT2016

Many of you are probably sick of hearing about JALT, particularly if you aren’t planning to attend, so I’m just going to tag this on the end rather than write a separate post about it.

I’ll be attending the JALT2016 Conference in Nagoya next weekend as a featured speaker. Thanks to that, I’ll be giving two presentations on personal finance.

On Saturday evening, from 18:15 in room 901 I’ll be conducting a Q&A session on personal finance. Basically come along and ask questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Hopefully some people will come.

On Sunday lunchtime, from 12:30 in room 901 I’ll give a lecture on Personal Finance 101.

You can probably tell that I intended the Q&A to come after the lecture, but that’s not how the schedule turned out this time!

Room 901 has 171 seats in it, and I’m hoping to fill as many of them as possible. So, if you know anyone who is going to JALT2016, please tell them about RetireJapan and encourage them to attend one of the sessions.

If you make it to JALT2016, please tell people at the conference about RetireJapan and encourage them to attend one of the sessions. This is probably going to be the only chance I get to speak at JALT, so I want to make it count.

Thanks for any help you can give!