The Monday Read

Let it snow? edition

Apparently it snowed this morning briefly, but I didn’t notice because I was asleep… oh, well.

We wrote up the (existing) forum rules again this week:

And the forum has been very active this week:

This week’s links

  1. This is pretty insane: https://marginalrevolution.com/…/new-crispr-based-covid…
  2. This explains a lot 🙂https://www.theatlantic.com/…/wear-your-mask…/615796/
  3. I enjoyed reading this ‘advice’ about NISA accounts for foreign residents in Japan 😅TLDR: it is far too difficult for you, so give us your money to invest instead.https://www.tytoncapital.com/…/nisa-account-for…/
  4. Portuguese-language YouTube channel about money in Japan: my Portuguese is pretty much nonexistent, but the NISA video seemed good 😅https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCezdxpK20SwDyWQ4jnBEuFA
  5. 360 million degrees? This seems very 2020… https://www.popularmechanics.com/…/china-turns-on…/
  6. Wonderful essay about walking, Japan, and mental health: https://www.tokyoweekender.com/…/2020-began-walking…/
  7. This would be a bit of a black swan to the FIRE community: https://www.theguardian.com/…/economic-cost-of-covid…
  8. This is great: https://www.marketwatch.com/…/so-much-of-retirement…
  9. The Japanese Art of… 😉https://www.nytimes.com/…/busi…/japan-old-companies.html
  10. More money for those buying a house: https://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idINKBN28J1S8
  11. More Sean!https://seanbreslin.net/2020/12/11/new-newsletter/
  12. This article is kind of stupid, in that only a tiny fraction of people are ever going to do this, and even for them it might turn out that they end up grateful they did.Meanwhile the vast majority are not saving anywhere near enough, or even aware of how much they probably should be saving…https://www.businessinsider.com/retirement-oversaving…
  13. I also found this fairly easy to do: https://awealthofcommonsense.com/…/how-to-publish-your…/
  14. The game is afoot? Wonder how they will prioritise these?https://japantoday.com/…/japan-to-begin-covid-19…?
  15. I hope they actually do this: https://japantoday.com/…/japan-to-discuss-carbon…?
  16. How deep do the tendrils go? https://asiatimes.com/…/yakuza-alive-well-and-still…/
  17. I like Gackt. The other guy, not so much. But found this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeJ_b0iG9lM

Whew, more links than I expected this week. Anything good in there? I particularly enjoyed #6 and #9.

This week’s books

No new books this week, but I really enjoyed Ben Carlson’s Everything you need to know about Saving for Retirement. It’s very clear, concept based, and an easy read. It will definitely be going on my recommendation list going forward.

3 Responses

  1. The “advice” in No. 3 seems uncannily similar to what a recent forum poster has been recently told by a financial advisor. They seem to be profiting from people who find the language barrier and investing in general a bit daunting. There’s definitely a need for truly independent advisors, rather than salespeople, who can provide help in English.

  2. I suspect the Portuguese-language YouTube channel mentioned is for affiliate revenue. Notice the only company she mentions is SBI and not even Rakuten is mentioned – because it is the only one with an affiliate system.

    1. That makes a lot of sense. If they all had affiliates I would be happy to use the links here too, but I wouldn’t want to have my judgement coloured by getting paid to recommend SBI over the others (plus I prefer Rakuten/Monex personally).