The Monday Read: Mantras

I was idly thinking about mantras the other day in the shower, and came up with the following that have served me well:

Realising that I choose to do most of the things I do makes it easier to do them, knowing what is important to me and what isn’t let’s me use my time and money effectively, setting up automatic investments makes it easy to build a solid financial foundation, and not worrying about being excellent right away makes it easier to learn new things.

How about you? What would your list look like?

RetireJapan TV podcast

The YouTube link is below, but if you are a podcast person the RetireJapan TV one is here.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We had our monthly RetireJapan TV livestream last week, with special guests Alan and Katie Donegan. Alan is doing a Toastmasters workshop in Tokyo on March 30th (open to the public).

Metrics

Third week.

Jiu-jitsu training sessions: 3 (pass)
YouTube videos: 1 (pass)

Consequences: none 🙂

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (26,603 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I finished Unreasonable Hospitality. Great book, I will be buying it for our teachers and rereading it myself.

Also started The Son by Philipp Meyer. Brutal and horrible in parts but really compelling historical novel about a family in Texas over several generations.

This week’s links

  1. Really enjoying Dr Jason Fung’s take on weight loss (YouTube): The COMPLETE GUIDE to Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss & PREVENTING Cancer
  2. Another nice life hackette from Derek Sivers: Thinking something nice about someone? Tell them.
  3. Slightly inflammatory intro, but a terrible issue (YouTube): The bizarre Japanese law that makes kidnapping legal
  4. This could be positive as long as they avoid conflicts of interest. I’d rather see independent financial planners doing this, but better than nothing maybe? Japanese brokerage and schools work to improve kids’ financial literacy
  5. Tim’s weekly email newsletter just keeps getting better and better: YouTube, Yokai, and Yamabushi
  6. This is me today: Creating When You Feel Resistance
  7. This is reasonable accurate. Nice resource: Can Americans in Japan use NISA accounts?
  8. This feels like (along with climate change) one of the most important things happening today (YouTube): Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #367
  9. A reasonable explanation: Can Americans in Japan use NISA accounts?
  10. Some interesting data on salaries in Japan: Japan, Inc: It’s Time for a Raise!
  11. Nice to read an optimistic take on Japan: Are start-ups and VC a good investment in Japan?
  12. I thought this was pretty perfect: Should Young People Save Less & Spend More?
  13. Gary Larson (the Far Side) is drawing again: New Stuff
  14. I’d like to see more politicians like this (used to think I might try it, but I am not cut out to be nice to everyone): Life Lessons from a Naturalized Japanese Politician
  15. Nice Akiya story with a sad twist: A couple found an abandoned, 96-year-old home in the Japanese countryside and turned it into an Airbnb
  16. This sounds like our own coaching service: Money coaches: the mentors who focus on financial health, not wealth
  17. A great disturbance in the force (Reddit): たわらノーロード/ Tawara No Road – Now the Cheapest in the industry. Dethroning Emaxis Slim

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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