The Monday Read

Tallinn edition

Walking into the Old Town

Well, I am in Tallinn this week. First time here, quite liking it so far.

Here are this week’s links:

  1. Customer service in Japan is pretty good until you go off-script: The Dark Side of Japan’s Customer Service
  2. Pretty inspiring: Two Years Of FIRE: Sometimes, You Just Have To Leap
  3. 48% of men??? Solo activities grow in popularity among women seeking independence
  4. University education in the US: Starry Eyes and Starry Skies
  5. The Japan Times wrote up the site: Stressing over finances? The community at RetireJapan is here to help
  6. From the same series, about retirement: Retirement in Japan doesn’t have to be scary
  7. I’m not rich, but it is definitely a mind/expectations game: I’m rich because
  8. My ‘putting up with annoying stuff’ skill is atrophying… Useful and Overlooked Skills
  9. Not sure about the overall tone of this, but a lot of the details are fairly concerning: Japan Has a New Emperor and a New Era, but a Dark Future
  10. I’m looking forward to the next global sale on stocks: Andrew Hallam Speaks At Raha International School, Abu Dhabi
  11. She doesn’t actually save anything! How I Save: The 24-year-old marketing professional in Glasgow who earns £30k a year and has £1,288 saved
  12. Facebook of the dead: Dead Facebook users could outnumber the living by 2069
  13. Don’t know anything about basketball or wine, but enjoyed this: Michelin restaurants and fabulous wines: Inside the secret team dinners that have built the Spurs’ dynasty
  14. I like the conclusion to this article: How Much Money It Takes to Be Rich
  15. Fine-tune your portfolio: 4 Overlooked Investment Decisions
  16. A checklist for entrepreneurs: When your project isn’t making money
  17. What are your advantages? Investing Lessons from the Reigning Jeopardy Champ

Anything good in there? I liked #5, #9, and #13.

6 Responses

  1. Ben, about that Andrew Hallam article, do you think it’s better to save up the money and keep it in the investment account until the markets tank and stocks fall in price, or do you think it’s a better idea to just buy every month or every few months regardless of the prices of stocks?

    1. In an ideal world where you had iron discipline, perfect information, and spent a lot of time following the markets, saving up for big dips might work.

      Unfortunately any one of those would be a stretch for most of us, let alone all three. There is also the problem of what to do if there is no crash (like our current environment). You could sit there with a large pile of unproductive cash for years (or decades), only to buy at a higher price during the crash than the average you could have had all along.

      Investing the same amount every month regardless of what the markets do is the easier and more likely to be successful option. You can set it up and ignore it, getting on with your life. And it has a much much higher chance of success 🙂

  2. Wow, Tallinn! By chance I’m making my first visit there next week for a working group meeting under the WHO. Any Tallinn tips would be greatly appreciated.

    Congratulations on the Japan Times write-up. Very happy to see your “10 steps” advice reach a wider audience through that article.

    I couldn’t get all the way through #9. That just isn’t what I see in the country. For the people I see immediately around me at work and where I live, life here is good and generally getting better.

    On #12, after having a (young) sister-in-law die late last year I’m appreciating having a memorial site for her on Facebook. I think it will also help her young son connect with memories of his mother and how she is loved by her friends.

    #11 reminds me of the Refinery29 Money Diaries, which also seem to favor young women with lifestyles I cannot begin to understand who spend all of their money either using some kind of App or on booze and therapists. Makes me grateful for me wife.

    1. My first time here, just arrived, and will be spending most of my time sleeping or hugging sweaty men so not sure how many useful tips I will end up with 😉

      I don’t agree with the tone of #9 but some of the details concern me. In particular, the government statistics scandal and the bit about promoting civil servants that cover up Abe scandals. I still don’t understand how he managed not to resign over that Moritomo thing, but it shows how little accountability there is for certain people here.

    1. Heh. “Big”.

      Screw you guys, I’m off to live on a yacht in the Caribbean now 😉