The Monday Read

‘Good’ edition

Jocko Willink is pretty much a stereotype of himself, much like Chuck Norris.

But I’ve been getting a lot of value out of his ‘good’ technique. Essentially it consists of trying to see the positive in any situation, no matter how bad it seems at first. It’s basically ‘every cloud has a silver lining’, but with more of a gravelly voiceover.

And I have had quite a few chances to practice! Going to lose my job in just over a year’s time: good, get to try something new. Need an operation: good, won’t be in pain any more. Have to deal with a disgruntled employee: good, get to practice my management skills.

It actually works really well, by removing self-pity and giving you agency in a situation.

Latest from the forum

On the subject of agency, the forum hit 10,000 posts this week, and is flying past that milestone (currently on 10,207). I’m amazed at how knowledgeable and helpful our members are. Here are the latest topics:

Supporter memberships

We’ve had another couple of people sign up for supporter memberships. If you enjoy RetireJapan and get value from it, please do consider signing up for one of these. For the price of a combini coffee ($2) a month, you can support the site and make it more resilient going forwards. And it is extremely simple to cancel at any time.

Much more important

Another kind of subscription you might consider is a regular donation to charity. I can’t think of anything more important than clean drinking water, so I have been donating to charity: water for years. I don’t notice the donations now, but much like investments, these small monthly amounts can build up over the years:

If you can afford to, consider joining us in funding clean water projects around the world.

This week’s links

1. This video is incredible. Fortunately I haven’t come across anyone like this on the street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoUSO_Mj1TQ&pbjreload=101
2. This doesn’t seem like it will end well, but I don’t have any actionable information either.Oh well, just keep swimming (stick to the long-term plan and don’t get distracted): https://www.epsilontheory.com/off-wall-street-and-off…/
3. A great interview with a RetireJapan member out of Shiga. Great info for any Americans in Japan looking to (or forced to) invest in the US. You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript. This is more about his financial journey, so don’t be put off too much by the title if you’re not that interested in real estate: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/biggerpockets-money-podcast-165-daniel-j-mills
4. All the stonks news stories are very interesting, but I guess I am too old to get involved! https://awealthofcommonsense.com/…/for-better-of-for…/
5. Ignore the shiny thing, ignore the shiny thing: https://monevator.com/stonking-gains-hedge-fund-pains/
6. We need this in Japan! 50 pushups for not wearing a mask, 15 for not wearing it properly: https://www.google.com/…/bali-imposes-50-push-up…/
7. Lots of lessons in here: https://www.profgalloway.com/innovation-recasting-your-life

Phew! Short and sweet this week. No books either, as I am trying to spend less money this year (it was confirmed last week that my employer has no intention of renewing our contracts in 2022 so it is time to batten down the hatches a bit) and I have hundreds of unread books in my Kindle pile anyway.

I am still really enjoying The Big Picture, about Hollywood through the lens of Sony Pictures. Can you believe they had the chance to buy the rights to all the Marvel characters for $25m dollars, and turned it down? Oy vey.