Shingles edition
Well, I came down with shingles last week (at least that’s what my unreliable* doctor thinks). So far it is not much fun π
We still have some places for the Tsukuba Seminar on October 26th. If you are interested, you can find more info and register here. Thanks again to Doorkeeper for helping with the admin. Doorkeeper is a fantastic website for organizing events, developed here in Japan by a member of the RetireJapan community. If you need a simple way to organize a community and run events definitely check it out.
*this is the doctor that misdiagnosed me last year when I had these huge weeping sores on my face, then when I went back a week later no better, said “Oh, I made a mistake! Ha ha ha ha”. Hilarious.
This week’s links
- This is a step in the right direction, but I wouldn’t call iDeCo and NISA ‘private pensions’: Fear of Retirement Poverty Drives Japanese to Private Pensions
- Luxuries don’t have to be expensive: Uncommon luxuries
- This is really excellent: Personal Finance Advice That Changed My Life
- Also very good: 28 Ways to Find the Stillness You Need to Thrive
- I never really thought about problems like this before: There are no secrets
- Buy the world, get on with your life: THE CASE FOR GLOBAL DIVERSIFICATION IS AS STRONG AS EVER
- This is grim, and wanders a lot in the middle, but I can’t find much wrong with the central premise: Facing Extinction
- A timely reminder: Yes, the Stock Market is Going to Crash
This week’s discussions
- Selecting Funds for an SBI Select iDeCO
- Interactive Brokers changes
- Early tax rise
- Tax return necessary if side job already has tax withheld?
- Paying missed pension payments – uh oh
- Has anyone bought a δΈε€ γγ³γ·γ§γ³ built in the 90s?
- Long term residents, do you do your monetary investments here or through accounts tied to your home country?
This week’s books
- All the Devils, by Barry Eisler. This is the third book in the Livia Lone series, by the author of the John Rain books. It’s good, but not as good as the first one, which I really enjoyed. I would get that first.
- The Institute, by Stephen King. Just started reading this, and it is brutal. Really enjoying it so far.
- The Boys, by Garth Ennis. Extremly violent graphic novel by the author of the Preacher series. The Amazon Prime series is good too.
- Conspiracy, by Ryan Holiday. Just finished this write up of Peter Thiel’s vendetta against the Gawker websites. Really interesting look behind the scenes.
If the sores are round and about a one yen coin size or smaller, and have a white dot in the middle, and very very painful it should be shingles. Just as herpes mouth sores or herpes in other places, they select one side following down nerve centers. They live dormant in most of us. If you have ever had chicken pox and most of us have it is the same enemy.
Until I retired, I kept getting it in one of my eyes. Every other month. My brain turned off the pain. I immediately know if it is on the surface, on the inside of the eye or both. Still on a regiment of four drugs. Puts a damper on my surfing.
If you scratch a scab and pick up the virus under your nails, you can transfer it anywhere…be vigilant and careful. Wash your hands. Do not touch your eyes or private areas unless you really are clean. Believe me. I have had it all. Damn flu vaccination and got the flu twice in three weeks after the vaccine. I am pro vaccine…but I just got a raw deal on it seven years back.
Herpes zoster: I had it breaking out on my head about 18 years ago. I was away from home and went to a clinic where it was diagnosed. I had thought I had been poisoned by kemushi as I was pruning trees. When I got home I went to a hospital and they put me on an IV drip for a few hours. It can be dangerous if the virus moves down the optic nerve. The nerve behind my right eyebrow still gets numb or tingles if I get tired. I would suggest going to an experienced expert medic.
The drip was some kind of powerful steroid which I was told would kill off the virus completely.
Sounds great! Mine was on my neck, so I guess less of an emergency.
Agree with your comment on the “Facing Extinction” article. Although I understand the point, the middle of the article feels a bit like a “kitchen sink” of all bad things happening nowadays and claims all of them are either a cause or a consequence of global warming. Still, a powerful read. I might not sleep tonight.
Yeah, she really needed a good editor there.
About number 3., SBI allows you to open up to 10 “virtual” accounts, that you can name as you please, on which you can save money.
I use them for tax, holiday, annual gym payment etc. as described in this piece of article.
That sounds really promising. I will have to check it out π
Just FYI, did you advertise the Tsukuba seminar on the Taira mailing list (it used to be widely used by the foreign community there) https://eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp/index.htm or contacted some member of the association of foreign wives of Japanese (I know they used to invite financial planners or advisers to give talk at their weekly meetings)? I am no longer in contact with any person in Tsukuba, so I can’t help unfortunately.
Thanks for the suggestions!
We’re almost sold out on the seminar, so might not need the extra push this time. Appreciate the thought though π
I think the fact that you do this personal finance blog is great. Encouraging and supporting people in eliminating financial stress from the future is laudable.
If you also post articles about how the end of humanity is about a decade away, and you truly believe that they are accurate, it would make better sense to advise people to spend it all asap. If you believe that there are plausible ways to avoid this extinction, perhaps it would make more sense to post links to places where those possible solutions are detailed.
Thanks Oliver! Heh, spending it all ASAP would in anything speed up the end, and leave nothing for Plan B. I’m all about the plan B. What if? What if the world doesn’t end? What if we find some technological solution? What if governments actually start taking action?
I am very worried about environmental damage, and I think the only thing people can really do is put political pressure on politicians and governments to take large scale action. This seems to have been stimied for the last few decades by lobbying by fossil fuel interests.
I don’t know what is going to happen, but I suspect if we continue as we are now it will not be pretty.
The ten years thing is apparently the window for effective action, but the effects will be felt over decades. Whatever happens, having economic stability and financial reserves can only be a good thing.
The central premise of the article, which you stated you found it hard to disagree with, is that extinction is highly probable within a time-frame which is considerably shorter than 100 years and may be as little as a decade. My point is not whether the article is correct or not, but that if you post it stating that you think the central premise is very strong, then financial advice is meaningless in so extreme a scenario. Money would not even function in the kind of near future she envisages….
At the very least, it is poor marketing in your part. A big turn-off.
Just for the record, the thing I agree with is that a) in the 50+ years we have known about climate change not a single major government has done anything about it (in fact we’ve accelerated fossil fuel use due to fracking, new coal plants, etc.), b) it seems likely that at some point we’re going to start some kind of feedback loop (methane from permafrost, etc.) that takes the whole thing out of our control, and c) most measures seem to be getting worse faster than predicted. Which all seems to point to society disrupting effects not 100 years in the future, but soon.
Now, this may not happen. Governments may take extreme action in the near future. We may come up with a technological solution. Previously unknown factors may come into play.
So, while I believe it seems likely, I don’t know what is going to happen in the future. Just as with investing, I hedge my bets. I carry on setting up a strong financial foundation for my life while enjoying the present and thinking about contingency plans for what to do if various things happen. Just as though I like living in Japan I can imagine scenarios where that is no longer the case: because of this I have made plans and preparations as to what I would do if I had to leave at short notice.
As for marketing, thankfully this website and the accompanying activity is something I do because I enjoy it and because I believe it is helping people. It’s not a commercial venture. That’s the reason we don’t have any ads or sponsored posts, and the reason why I can write what I like and share it with my readers (many of whom I consider friends and valued collaborators) without worrying about how it might be taken π