The Monday Read: little everyday joys

Welcome to The Monday Read, RetireJapan’s weekly collection of content, musings, and links related to personal finance and life in Japan.

Photos cannot do justice to the sky we had on Saturday. It was breathtakingly spectacular. And gone in a few minutes.

Noticing it, and taking a moment to appreciate it, was a tiny everyday joy.

I am trying to create more of these, either by noticing things that were happening anyway or by scheduling or planning things that might be fun or different.

Next week I need to drive to the next prefecture, but I don’t have a car and my wife is using hers. There is a Toyota Rentacar just down the street so I decided to rent a car for the trip.

Normally I would just get the cheapest car and use that, but this time I decided to rent something nicer (a Crown) and take it for a spin with my wife the evening before. It was more expensive, of course, but for a one off experience I think it was worth it, and my wife is looking forward to driving it for a bit. It’s an excuse to spend some time together and do something different.

I have spent many years prioritising work and saving money over doing fun things and spending money, so this year has been a long experiment in trying to reverse that a bit.

RetireJapan TV

Last Monday we talked to Dean Yoshimoto, US CPA based in Japan, about Americans and taxes. You can see the episode on YouTube here, and listen on your favourite podcast platform.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published five videos last week!

  1. Financial stability comes first in Japan (and everywhere)
  2. New NISA Planning in Japan
  3. Learning Japanese after 23 years in Japan
  4. Monex Securities website basic walkthrough
  5. Saving money for children in Japan

If you watched them, which did you like and why? For me #1 and #3 are my favourites I think…

Please watch, share, like, and subscribe. It would really help at the moment!

Metrics

I think I have managed to establish habits for my two metrics, so will not be including them in future Monday Reads. Thanks for your help in the tricky habit creation process!

retirewiki.jp

The retirewiki.jp is a wonderful resource set up by Adam a few years ago. You can see him talking about it in this video.

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (28,230 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

Nice short article about one of my favourite authors, taken too soon: Where to start with: Iain Banks

No new books this week, too busy making videos 😉

This week’s links

  1. This seems like common sense, but sucks for all the people who got sold it as a tax dodge: High-rise homes in Japan to face higher tax under new rule
  2. Short history of Toshiba: From Beloved Tech Titan to Japan’s Largest Corporate Fraud
  3. Glad to see this: Japan to Finally Make Morning-After Pill Available Without Prescription
  4. Ramit keeping it real -love his message: Self-made millionaire drives an 18-year-old Honda Accord he bought in 2005—how it’s part of his ‘rich life’
  5. Vitaliy’s on YouTube, and only just has more subscribers than RetireJapan… can we flip that (YouTube)? How You Can Be a Great Investor
  6. I always enjoy Patrick (Our Man in Abiko)’s monthly newsletter
  7. Japan is not even in the lowest ten: How will lower birth rates affect pensions, stocks and property?
  8. I don’t own commodities and am not planning to, but this was an interesting read: Commodities diversification: is it worthwhile?
  9. I never want to be in this situation: ‘It’s exhausting but I think I’m going to have to keep working’: the over-65s who can’t afford to retire

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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9 Responses

  2. #6 — no quibble with the content, but I didn’t care for reading it in that typewriter/courier-esque font. Readability is a thing:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/best-font-you-test-types-styles/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

    Back at work, I always used Times New Roman when I was responsible for entrance exams.

    (sorry about the link, there was apparently no ‘gift’ link for this)

  3. On (1) this reminds me of my bitter experience with the overseas wood frame rental depreciation tax dodge. They killed that loophole immediately and there was no grandfathering of existing properties, i.e.: properties that were purchased prior to the rule change. Western countries will generally take a softer approach: closing the entrance to the loophole but leaving the exit open for those who relied on the rule when they made the purchase.

    I now know that the JTA does not take this approach and will have no consideration for existing beneficiaries of any existing tax rules. I will always be very careful with any reliance on an existing tax rules or benefits here knowing they may change the rules at anytime.

    1. Yeah, that was pretty harsh. I was just starting to get interested in it and then BAM it was gone.

      Guess the best thing is to make sure anything you do is worth doing anyway, even if the tax break goes away.

  4. That’s interesting you mentioned habits.
    Have you read the book atomic habits? Excellent read and easy to apply to our financial goals. And how 1% improvement in our habit has a compound interest effect.

    1. Thanks! Yes, I read it when I came out. I’ve been reading James Clear’s blog for years now ^-^

      1. Yes, his approach also reminds me of the book NUDGE. Another excellent read.