The Monday Read: From the R to the J to the G
Do we need to sit down and talk about a midlife crisis which is starting? I’ve been playing with AI a bit recently (Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT 3.5) and even though the hype seems to be dying down in the media, these things are getting better and better. I watched Daniel Priestley talk about it in […]
The Monday Read: Where are we going?
You need to know where you are and where you want to go I’m sick at the moment. Either I have a bad cold, or hayfever season just started, and it is way worse than usual. I’m not thrilled about either of those options, to be honest. But it doesn’t seem to have really affected […]
The Monday Read: More learning ahead
RetireJapan is full steam There is so much going on now at RetireJapan. Our flagship annual live course started this week. If you’re interested in the next cohort, you can sign up for the waiting list here. YouTube and the blog are going really well this year. Thanks for watching and reading! Please tell other […]
The Monday Read: Crossing that Bridge
Why do we do things? I was looking at my spreadsheets this week. It looks like our net worth went up by 16% in 2023. And then went up another 10% in January. In 2021 our spreadsheet reached my arbitrary ‘we are financially independent’ number. It’s now 34% above that. And yet on Friday I […]
The Monday Read: Blue Skies
Living a deliberate life I went snowboarding today for the first time this season. We had great weather for it and the resort was playing upbeat jazz music instead of the usual ’80s pop tunes. A big improvement. At first I wasn’t thrilled about going, but my wife wanted to so I duly got up […]
The Monday Read: Death to Distractions
Last year was kind of mixed for me. I got a lot done, was able to travel more, enjoyed not having a fixed schedule, and had very little stress. But at the same time my health deteriorated and I found myself very distracted online. In particular, my smartphone use became problematic. I started playing a […]
Just the basics?
Not sure you need much more RetireJapan is good for the basics, but doesn’t do anything else -random Redditor I read that comment on Reddit the other day (I really should stay off that site!) and it got me thinking. At first I was a bit annoyed. After all, I put a huge amount of […]
The Monday Read: A Fork in the Road
I’ve really struggled with my health since the pandemic. Not sure if it is long Covid or just a more sedentary lifestyle, but I feel much less healthy than I did before 2020. So far I haven’t been able to turn this around by myself. In fact, turning it around is starting to feel like […]
The Monday Read: A Time of Dragons
Well, 2024 started off on the wrong foot! Not only was there a large and serious earthquake, it seems the government bungled the response somewhat by not taking it seriously enough at first. I hope everyone affected can get the help they need soon to get back on their feet. The main thing on my […]
The Monday Read: 2024 Awaits
The end of the year, the start of the new one. They are just normal days like any other but we imbue them with meaning. In Japan the whole country shuts down from December 29th to January 3rd. People go home, spend time with family, do big cleans, and think about the future. I don’t […]