The Monday Read: Eurobliss

La ria de Plentzia. I spent years fishing here as a kid and never caught anything…

I am back where I grew up near Bilbao. I wrote a long Twitter thread about the first part of my trip. You can read it here if you dare 😉

Now I am hanging out with my family, eating tortilla de patatas, and walking around the town where I grew up. A lot has changed, a lot hasn’t. It’s kind of bittersweet.

Taking some time to plan and think as well, and doing my best not to completely sabotage my weight loss plan. So far not too bad (was 85.2 kg this morning).

YouTube

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Metrics

Jiu-jitsu instructionals: one (fail!)
YouTube videos: one (pass)

Consequences: 5,000 yen to Second Harvest Japan.

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 this time, but not the instructionals. Will do better next week.

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (27,435 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

Due to taking a bunch of flights this week, I got a huge amount of reading done. Check it out!

I finished The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Suck it Up or Go Home (this is pretty terrible though, don’t recommend it), Your First 1000 Copies, What Doesn’t Kill Us (about Wim Hof, whose course I will be starting this week), and The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel (I’ve been meaning to read this for a while now). The last one was very good, and very reinforcing. After reading his stuff for decades I am doing pretty much everything he suggests and agree with the points he makes in the book. Still an enjoyable read though.

Also reread Hell Yeah or No, by Derek Sivers, which is full of fantastic thoughts (I took several pages of notes with many exclamation points).

Also read Upgrade, by Blake Crouch, which I enjoyed. It’s a near future genetic SF book, very well paced.

Started Leading, by Alex Ferguson (corporate leadership from a football manager),

This week’s investment

After some discussion on the forum, I changed my iDeCo allocation last week. I have my iDeCo with Rakuten Securities, and had been putting all my contributions into their Vanguard VT wrap (annual fee 0.19%). Decided to change existing funds and future contributions to the Tawara international stock fund (annual fee 0.09%) instead.

It’s not quite the same product, but the lower fees should make a noticeable difference over the next 30 years or so 🙂

iDeCo is great because, unlike NISA, it allows you to change/rebalance your investments easily (usually called スイッチング in Japanese) within the account.

This week’s product

I am traveling this month, and brought our new Aeropress Go with me. It’s my first time using it (I have several of the original model) and so far so good. It all fits together and takes up about half the space the original one does.

Perfect for travel. I also bring beans and a hand mill, but could save that space by grinding at home before I leave I guess. For me the hand grinding is kind of meditative though.

This week’s links

  1. I love this: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks
  2. Don’t love this as much: The inevitability of the immigration law revision
  3. This needs to change too: getting (and paying) outside coaches for club activities might help: Majority of public school teachers in Japan worked beyond overtime limit
  4. Wonder what the Chinese government thinks about this? Alibaba founder Jack Ma turns up in Japan as college professor
  5. I don’t think this is going to be a problem for me: Danielle Steel and the Tragic Appeal of Overwork
  6. Enforcing employment law in general would be great: Mr. Kishida: To Get 30% Female Executives, Enforce the Law
  7. I am finding myself drifting towards a cash and stocks barbell kind of approach: Find the Torture You’re Comfortable With
  8. The legal system here in Japan terrifies me: Beyond reasonable doubt?
  9. I have terrible allergies here in Japan. I wonder if going somewhere else would help? You Have No Idea How Much Better You Can Feel
  10. Really tricky, comes up all the time with coaching clients: How to talk to your partner about money
  11. I find the Japanese car company attitude towards EVs incomprehensible: China On Track To Pass Japan in Auto Exports
  12. Really enjoyed this conversation (YouTube): The Weight Loss Scientist: You’ve Been LIED To About Calories, Dieting & Losing Weight: Giles Yeo
  13. I have always thought high school was the right time to get a smartphone. Many of my wife’s elementary age students already have them though: On Kids and Smartphones
  14. I enjoyed this conversation between Ziv and Tyson, two people I have had the pleasure of collaborating with: Purchasing a Franchise in Japan
  15. This is worth not losing sight of: 3 ways to rethink old age and retirement, MIT expert says

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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8 Responses

  1. I just read (audiobook) this terrific book: The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story, By: Douglas Preston
    It was a really fun and fascinating book.

  2. Yes. “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel is worth reading even if you are experienced and have read a lot of books on investing. Also, Sam Harris (Making Sense podcast) had a nice Conversation with Morgan Housel “Why Wealth Matters” on July 16, 2022. (Might be by subscription only.)

  3. #8 (a) ” Unlike in other countries, prosecutors in Japan are not required to share all their findings with the defense.” Perhaps the authors are comparing Japan with “other countries” that also have an Inquisitorial Justice System, like Spain, rather than Adversarial Justice Systems found in Common Law countries like the UK?
    (b) Given the drop in conviction rates it appears that the introduction of the Saiban-in system in 2009 has changed matters for the better.

  4. Hi Ben,

    “I am finding myself drifting towards a cash and stocks barbell kind of approach.”

    Do you keep your cash in JPY which was fine before but now quite painful with inflation at 4 % or in USD with 1 month T-bill now returning 5.5 % but with the FX risk? (Talking about FX risk because I think you mentioned that you may well be in Japan forever and as a result most of your expenses will be in JPY).

    2. Currently have no plans to move and almost all our investments are in global stock funds, so having yen balances that risk in my opinion. If the yen is weak our stocks are worth more in yen terms, if the yen strengthens we can buy more stocks, etc. As almost all our spending is in yen this makes sense to me.

      I think between my wife and me (and her business) we have 2-3 years’ spending in cash.