Going back to the cinema edition
My wife got her second vaccine almost two weeks ago, so I am planning to go back to jiu-jitsu next week. Worryingly I don’t feel the same hunger for it I had before, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to build a different relationship with it, more sustainable and less obsessive. We’ll see how that turns out.
Also hoping to get to the cinema for the first time in (months? years? -not sure).
The new 007 film comes out on the 8th (my wife insists on seeing them in the cinema the day they come out), and of course Dune will finally be released on the 15th. I really really hope this one is good. I didn’t hate the Lynch one, or the TV series, but seeing Dune done right on the big screen would be very welcome.
Seems like much of the world is opening up for vaccinated people. I could go to Spain or Germany right now and not need to quarantine. Seems the UK will do the same from next month. The stumbling block is Japan, which still has a mandatory quarantine regardless of vaccination status (although it seems it will be coming down to 10 days from the current 14).
I’m hoping to see family in Europe next June, but we’ll see how things develop between now and then.
The Forum
The Forum is doing well (15,633 posts to date). Here are the latest active threads:
RetireJapan Online Conference (save the date)
The inaugural RetireJapan online conference will be held on Labor Thanksgiving Day (November 23rd). It will be free and held through Zoom. More details nearer the time. Recordings will be made available for people that can’t make it on the day (where possible) but do come and join us if you can.
This week’s books
Joe Abercrombie has a new book out (the third in his Age of Madness trilogy): The Wisdom of Crowds. I really enjoyed this one and flew through it in just a couple of days despite being busy. If you’re new to his work, he writes gritty fanstasy. Read his books in order, the first trilogy is probably the best.
I’m also reading Indistractable, by Nir Eyal, but keep getting distracted, heh. It seems like a decent framework to navigate habits and the online/offline balance.
This week’s links
- I would like to be more spontaneous: A day or two in Dresden
- Pretty exciting to consider: Fossil fuels are dead
- I do like the idea of dividends, even if they are less tax efficient: Dividend income August 2021 (Tawcan)
- Bucket portfolios for retirement: Containing the issue
- I think I might have this too: ‘Is this my life now?’: Clemson defensive end Justin Foster’s — and my — struggle with long-haul COVID
- How to adapt? The Exponential Age will transform economics forever
- Good job I never went to business school! Six Things I Learned in Business School That Were Absolutely Wrong
- Terrifying: The Most Alarming Problem about Long COVID
- I love risk, as long as it is a +EV bet: Appropriate risk
- I kind of like ebooks, at least for novels and ‘readable’ nonfiction: Ebooks Are an Abomination
- A nice story. Be good to see more of this in the news: What drove a Ukrainian woman to become a taxi driver in north Japan
- Rings true. I relax by working on RetireJapan: The joy of work
- This short film was really well done: This Is A Film About What It’s Like Living While Black, In Japan
What do you think? Anything good in there?
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Hi Ben. Could you expand on dividends being less tax efficient please? I was under the impression that they were taxed at a flat rate in Japan, meaning for high income levels it’s quite a good strategy (assuming they’re from Japanese companies/ETFs).
Sure! For long term investing compare the two situations below:
1. invest in ETF -> dividends are paid out -> pay tax on dividends -> buy more ETFs with the post tax dividends
2. invest in mutual fund -> dividends are reinvested internally -> mutual fund grows by the untaxed dividends
Of course if you want income then dividends are taxed at the same flat rate as capital gains (20.315%) so no real difference there. It depends on your situation and goal.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
#4 – I’ve found the bucket ‘system’ to be a good way to think about retirement allocations, tho as I’ve noted in some forum posts I use an adjusted version of it (no bonds, heavy on cash). I’ve recently backed off equities and into a little more cash–not because of an allocation or rebalancing “rule”, just being a little cautious since the market is high now, and if there is a significant dip I’d be looking to add some or all of that back in.
Under the section “What are the disadvantages?” the author overplays ‘maintenance’ (which is easy), and the other criticisms (seems like he’s imagining a programmatic robot investor rather than a human). Eg, I bought last year when the market fell (and on thru autumn), and just recently took some money out of equities. And would do something similar given another opportunity.
Appreciated #13, thanks!