The Monday Read: Full-time work and RetireJapan

There are only so many hours in the day

Had my first week of full-time employment, and I drastically underestimated how exhausting and time-consuming that would be.

Despite my best intentions, I was not able to publish a new blog post, nor upload a new YouTube video.

Now, some of that was due to the first week of classes being particularly tough for schools. Usually things settle down after Golden Week. I hope that will also be the case this year.

For now, please accept my apologies and let’s hope we’ll be back with our normal service from May.

RetireJapan TV

The next episode of RJTV will be on April 15th from 20:00. We’ll be talking to Andy Boon about working at Japanese universities, the current job market, academic publishing, the value of a PhD, and publishing textbooks. Join us live on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter to ask questions and join the discussion.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We were not able to publish a new video this week.

Life… got in the way. Please watch some of our older videos instead!

Do you think we will manage to publish a new video this week?

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (34,555 posts so far). Excitingly, we now have over 2,000 registered members (2,138 currently). The forum rules are here. In essense, they are:

1. Be nice
2. Ask any question you like
3. Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience

Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

Don Winslow’s new book City in Ruins just came out. I preordered it months ago and of course started reading it today. It is book three in a trilogy. I enjoyed the first two books but didn’t find it as good as his Power of the Dog or even The Force. Would start there if you are new to his work.

This week’s links

1. No. If The US Election Causes The Dollar To Crash, Should You Hedge Your ETFs To The Euro or The Pound?
2. We are legion. Record 3.4 million foreign residents in Japan as work visas rise
3. This system is harmful in my opinion. Why should the circumstance of their birth follow children around forever? Japan’s family register system is a bureaucratic nightmare, and denies children their rights
4. And more stupidity: Japan enforces law tackling outdated rules on paternity after divorce
5. This… kind of makes sense? NSFW You are not your job | Self-help Singh
6. Very interesting. Wish I had read this two years ago! Lessons from Five Years of FIRE
7. Love these videos (don’t love Donki): Don Quijote: Japan’s Retail Juggernaut
8. I don’t generally recommend gold (own a little): Shining Moment
9. After a week back at work, I can recognise some of these: Back to Work
10. This is kind of depressing. Not sure I agree with it personally: The Most Important Concept in Finance
11. Interesting. Is US outperformance likely going forward? Everything is Obvious
12. Personally I am planning to use a flat % withdrawal rate: Why Guyton-Klinger Guardrails Are Too Risky For Most Retirees (And How Risk-Based Guardrails Can Help)
13. Nice. Do I Regret Selling My Berkshire Hathaway Shares? They Would Be Worth Almost $2 Million Today
14. Sketchy. Make mine maglev (5)

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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