The Monday Read: It’s okay to take time off too

Sometimes the best thing we can do is recover

I have been much more active recently. That is largely a good thing, but today I hit a wall. I went to jiu-jitsu practice on Friday and Saturday, then went snowboarding today on Sunday.

It was too much. I felt exhausted, with no energy.

I pushed a bit too far.

Going to take it easy tomorrow.

Sometimes the best thing to do if you want to make progress is take a bit of time off.

How are you doing?

RetireJapan TV

Next week we’ll be talking to Philip Brasor, a Japan-based journalist and write who you might know from his blog Cat Foreheads and Rabbit Hutches, his articles on Japanese social issues and politics, or his film reviews.

I’ve been a huge fan for years now, so really looking forward to this! Join us live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn from 20:00 on Monday, March 18th.

Tsumitate NISA Credit Card Payments

It seems the government is now allowing credit card payments up to 100,000 yen a month for tsumitate NISA. Rakuten is live now, Monex and SBI presumably coming soon.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We are growing quite strongly this year, and it is largely down to your help and support. We are currently at 4,217 subscribers, which is pretty incredible.

This week we published a video about tracking spending and setting budgets.

Do you track your spending? Have you tried it in the past?

A message from Ziv (real estate in Japan)

“We’re excited to announce that the next Japan Real Estate Summit will take place next month, on Saturday, 6 April 2024, in Tokyo – we’re a few days away from the venue being decided on and tickets going officially on sale, so have decided to give you all the chance to register your interest and secure a discount on both the in-person attendance and streaming tickets!

Check out the highlights reel and testimonials from the first and second summit, feel free to view or download speaker presentations from the past event – and then hop right over to the early-bird registration page, and put down your name and email address for your exclusive discounted ticket option – see you all in April, in the flesh or in the streaming zoom room.”

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (33,822 posts so far). Excitingly, we now have over 2,000 registered members (2,111 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

I read No B.S. Wealth Attraction In The New Economy, by Dan Kennedy this week. While I don’t really agree with his politics I found the book very interesting indeed. I’ll probably come back to it soon.

Lots of practical advice on starting and running a business.

This week’s links

1. Finally! Japan to revise official romanization rules for first time in 70 years
2. This is terrible, but at least they realised after an hour: Tokyo police mistakenly arrest Filipino man for allegedly overstaying
3. Owning a manshon might be more expensive than you realise: Condo, heal thyself
4. This seems like a sensible change: Everyone’s Buying Japan Shares. I Only Want to Buy One
5. I can see this working for the right person: More young Japanese choosing flexibility over full-time jobs
6. I love these breakdowns (YouTube): AEON: Japan’s #1 Supermarket Chain
7. Back to jikosekinin I guess: Japan’s government to stop subsidizing COVID-19 treatment after March
8. Larger scale immigration is coming: Japan eyes training foreign workers amid labor shortages
9. Twisted indeed: ‘Poverty businesses’ are exploiting Japan’s most vulnerable for profit
10. Seems pretty solid: What could you learn from a rich retiree who lives on $14,000 a year?
11. To the moon: February was warmest on record globally, say scientists
12. There are several of these in our area: Marie Kondo Appalled! Extreme Hoarding and Trash-filled Homes in Japan
13. Ugh, I was not expecting this: Debito.org Reader XY on “Rakuten Card is asking for sensitive Koseki Family Registry documents for Naturalized Japanese clients as a prerequisite for continued service”, even though nobody is clearly requiring them to.

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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Check out the RetireJapan website for more information, the Forum for discussions about personal finance and investing in Japan, and our coaching page if you need more help.