I’m close to the end of my Europe trip, and it’s been great. Not only did I see all the people I needed to see, but I also got to do a lot of thinking.
(was not able to do… any of the work I was planning to, but this should not be a surprise by now)
Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I’ve been thinking about:
- the time value of money (money now is more valuable than money later)
- geographical arbitrage (living/working somewhere cheap to stretch your budget)
- the importance of relationships as you get older
- living in the present vs living in the future
- how your spending habits can lock you in a cage
- how beautiful the Atlantic Ocean can be
- eating is mostly habit and emotions
- outside vs inside
- how to spend time
- domestic travel vs international travel vs staying home
- how income has almost no correlation with financial situation
I’ve also decided that there is not much chance of the UK rejoining the European Common Market anytime soon, so I will not be getting freedom of movement back. This opens the door to me naturalizing in Japan. Stay tuned for more on this.
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Metrics
Jiu-jitsu instructionals: three (pass)
YouTube videos: one (pass)
Consequences: None.
I’m in Europe, so instead of going to jiu-jitsu three times a week, my goal is to watch three instructionals and stretch every day. I have managed the stretching and the instructionals this time. Mission accomplished.
The Forum
The Forum is doing well (27,686 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:
This week’s books
This week I am rereading the collected editions of the Batman: Knightfall comics. I read them decades ago, but they came up on the latest Kindle challenge so I am happily back in that world.
This week’s links
- Japan for the win: The Biggest Asset Bubble in History
- Hmmm. Japan’s inflation quickens again, putting pressure on BOJ view
- This is similar to Alex Hormozi’s directionally accurate thing: Roughly Right or Precisely Wrong
- This looks really promising for zoom. Wonder how long before the tech becomes widespread? (YouTube): I Tried a Secret Google Project
- I can only see this accelerating in the future: More and more foreigners settle in Japan
- Interesting context on AI: Just Calm Down About GPT-4 Already
- Really enjoyed this quick look at elite judo training: Mental Strength in Judo, Mental Strength in Life
- This video is a good illustration of how few people understand personal finance (YouTube): How to become rich in Japan ? 🤑 Asking rich Japanese people in Ginza 😅 and it went left …
- Good news? We’re all bullish Japan now
- Level 14 for me I think: The Spectrum of Financial Dependence and Independence
What do you think? Anything interesting in there?
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As for #6, WaPo has (what I think is) a relevant article: https://wapo.st/3IsqbLO (gift link)
A quote from there, “It is dangerous to distract ourselves with a fantasized AI-enabled utopia or apocalypse, … Instead, we should focus on the very real and very present exploitative practices of the companies claiming to build them, who are rapidly centralizing power and increasing social inequities.”
And then in one highly rated post-article comment, “The main risk from AI is what bad human beings will use it for.”
That is the problem, isn’t it? There are likely hundreds or thousands of AIs being developed now by national and commercial entities. No way to control or even oversee them.
Will we be expecting extended post on the time value of money and geographic arbitrage in the near future?
Would that be useful? Personally speaking, the time value of money is more relevant as we’re not really considering leaving Sendai (it’s cheap-ish, convenient, and we have family here).
When and how to spend, on the other hand, is vital, especially for people who are on track to retire early or become financially independent.
Ben — First, that’s a big dog! I was glad to see that you have been thinking about “geographic arbitrage,” as that is exactly what my wife and I have been doing for the past 4 years since becoming semi-retired and relocating from the middle of Tokyo to a small village in Kyushu (https://japaninsider.com/retiring-japanese-countryside/). While I understand that it is not possible for everyone to work remotely, I have a number of neighbors that do this. Thus, there must be opportunities out there, if you seek them out. In any case, we are very happy with our decision to live in Kyushu and benefit from “geographic arbitrage” all the time. Every trip to the local supermarket or, even more acutely, just by harvesting our home-grown vegetables hammers home this point all the more!
I can imagine how much difference a move from Tokyo to rural Kyushu would make ^-^
For us with our situation in Sendai (very cheap housing) I’m not sure there are many domestic options (I want to live in a reasonably-sized city) that would reduce our expenses.
Internationally too, at least with the current exchange rate, our choices for geographic arbitrage are much reduced! Even Thailand seems reasonably priced now instead of cheap…
So this topic was more idle speculation than anything practical, at least personally.
I’ve thought about naturalising, too. Also a Brit, been in Japan over 16 years, wife and kids here. I always wonder how that would affect my UK pension etc.
That is the 10,000 pound a year question ^-^
It shouldn’t change anything, but I don’t trust HMRC at all now. I guess you would have to let them know if you change your name, etc.