Your First Ten Million Yen
Why our course might be the key to you unlocking tens or hundreds of millions of yen I started RetireJapan in 2013 to help people learn about personal finance. A friend of mine had been telling me about the investments his ‘financial advisor’ had sold him. It was the usual overseas insurance policy offshore pension […]
The Monday Read: Japan is a high trust society

It’s one of the best things about living here Last Saturday I realised I didn’t have my wallet. Looked for it everywhere. Didn’t find it. Was calm at first but the longer I looked the less calm I felt. It had some cash in it (meh). My cashcard (yikes). A credit card (not sure which […]
The Monday Read: Uninvited Guests

Time for a little autumn cleaning perhaps The shift in the weather caught me off guard this week. We went from AC on to “hmmm, might need a light jacket” in what seemed like minutes. Very welcome though, especially if that was the end of the humidity. Found this fine fellow in my office today. […]
The Monday Read: The Paradox of Aging

The better you get, the less time you have left I’m almost 50 (which seems completely unbelievable to me), and I recently started training jiu-jitsu again somewhat regularly. I’m a mediocre blue belt in jiu-jitsu. I foolishly started at the age of forty, and got pretty into it before I knew what I was doing, […]
The Monday Read: Hospitalised

Japanese Health Care is Accessible at Least I’ve had a bit more experience with the health care system in Japan than I would like, mainly due to my taking up jiu-jitsu at the unwise age of 40. It’s not perfect. There seem to be a lot of doctors who aren’t quite as good as you […]
The Monday Read: Momentum

Even better than compound interest? In personal finance, everyone is (understandably) obsessed with compound interest. Eighth wonder of the world, and all that. But I find momentum might be even more important. I’m just starting to get my life back in order after a slightly chaotic and unproductive July and August, and I’m rediscovering the […]
The Monday Read: Jet Lag

Living life at the wrong speed For much of last week I felt kind of dislocated, like I was living life at the wrong speed. It wasn’t pleasant. Almost felt kind of depressed, which is not a state I enjoy. A lot of it was jet lag. Some of it was coming back to work, […]
The Monday Read: The Past

You can go back, but it’s not the same On our last full day in the UK (we’re back in Japan now), I took the grandkids to visit my old college. It’s very ‘Harry Potter’-y and we rented one of the college punts for a couple of hours of fun on the river (messing about […]
The Monday Read: A traveller in a now foreign land

Everything is expensive and nothing works I’m in Europe at the moment. We had a week in London, then a week in northern Spain. My wife and me, and two of our grandkids. It’s been great. I don’t usually enjoy visiting the UK, aside from seeing my friends, but this time was different. I think […]
Investing in a time of volatility

A couple of little price falls, and everyone loses their minds I am on holiday and neglecting RetireJapan, so of course stock markets around the world decide to melt down while I am away. I’m sure everyone knows the basics, but it is good to have frequent reminders hence this short post. Investments can go […]