The Monday Read: March Madness

a minor traffic accident in Japan
A minor traffic accident (was resolved amicably).

March this year has been really warm and the pollen so far has been dreadful. My younger granddaughter (4) is suffering terribly with congestion and painful eyes.

But the weather has been really nice. Walking/cycling to work as been really nice these last couple of weeks.

How is your March going? For me it’s one of the busiest times of the year.

New Q&A Video

I’m planning a new Q&A video for the YouTube channel, and I’d love to answer your questions on there. Please post them in the comments below, or on YouTube under this post.

Derek Wessman Blog

I used to look forward to Derek’s posts on Twitter back in the day. He’s not on there any more, but I have really been enjoying this blog and solo podcast so far. Check it out here 🙂

Kiwi Yamabushi

On a similar note, check out Tim’s substack here. I’ve been following/reading for a while, and he’s getting really good now.

Metrics

First week started strong. I hurt my knee, so just went to class and watched for two of the jiu-jitsu classes. Also managed to finally do a video, even though I wasn’t sure how well it would work (it is #1 for views on my channel at the moment).

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

Consequences: none 🙂

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published a video this week about the eMaxis Slim All-Country fund.

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (26,428 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I’m still reading Daniel Priestley books. About a quarter of the way through Scorecard Marketing. Like his other books, really good conceptual frameworks and practical advice.

I also bought (but haven’t started yet) The Real Price of Everything, an economics textbook curated by Michael Lewis.

This week’s links

  1. Loved this story about the Beatles: How an Old Circus Poster Led to ‘… Mr. Kite!’
  2. The devil is in the details: Honeymoon in the danchi
  3. Ugh, really depressing: Raging against the sunlight
  4. Fascinating look behind the political scenes in Japan: Wax on wax off
  5. Unbelievably light sentences. Pretty disgusting: Why are foreign women continuing to be forced into prostitution in Japan?
  6. My impression is that there is a lot less smoking in Tohoku than in Tokyo or Kansai. And I am happy about that: JAPAN GOES UP IN SMOKE
  7. Nice success story from the UK: FIRE-side chat: domestic geo-arbitrage made it possible
  8. We hit our ‘number’ last year, and I made a new one just for fun, but it is not big deal. It doesn’t really dictate anything in my life: The Bad Goal of $5m by 30
  9. Free book! Looks interesting: “Political Reform Reconsidered”
  10. Disasterwashing: Ten years on, reconstruction tax continues to stir debate
  11. I wonder what these numbers look like for Japan? How Much Do Americans Have Saved For Retirement?
  12. A structural issue? Restoring Japan’s Leadership In Innovation, Part I
  13. I didn’t play the game before reading on… The Art of K- Level Thinking
  14. I like this idea. For the first time in my life, I have hundreds of emails in my inbox, and I don’t like it: Revisiting stamps for email
  15. I know how to do this already, but might be useful if you don’t: Thoughts Are Made to Be Thrown Out
  16. Someone’s experience of doing a DIY will in Japan (Reddit)
  17. This drug looks interesting but kind of dystopian at the same time (podcast): America isn’t ready for the weight loss drug revolution that’s coming
  18. This is great: A lot with a little

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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8 Responses

  1. Here’s a link to an article on the question of how much Japanese people have saved for retirement. In 2020 the Cabinet Office conducted a survey n the subject. 64% of respondents saved enough money to have few worries about retirement. But 36% didn’t.

    1. That in an amazing number if it represents the population as a whole. My personal impression is that nowhere near that proportion of people are ready.

      I don’t think the link posted, if you get a chance could you post it again? Thanks ^-^

  2. 3. The photo at the top of the article is a big reason why I can’t fully get behind solar. I mean I think it would be cool if every house/building/factory that could have them had them but this destroying beautiful nature by building these farms on the side of mountains, forest etc is dangerous and a real eye-sore. There needs to be more regulations and rules made to stop this kind of thing happening and of course more financial support available for home owners who want to put them on their houses.

  3. Maybe a topic for your YouTube video would be some of the advantages and disadvantages of being an investor living in Japan. Things like NISA and iDeCo, currency fluctuation, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, etc.

    It also seems like a big advantage of being an investor here is the low(ish) rate of inflation. Investing in the S&P or international index funds seem to have the advantage of the usual gains plus not having to worry as much inflation.

    1. That’s a good idea. Don’t see many downsides myself, apart from maybe the language barrier? Especially with the New NISA accounts starting next year.

  4. Thanks for your Monday read which is always very interesting.

    I think a big disadvantage is that you have to take FX risk. In the US if you mix T bills for your cash position at 5 %, medium-term US government bond yield at 4 %, and US stocks at 8 % (more like 10 % over the last 20 years), you have a very nice return in your own currency which you use for your expenses.

    Here cash is at 0 %, and the 10-years government bond yield is at 0.5 %, As for stocks the last 10 years return has been good but the long turn is low (I guess around 2 % over the last 40 years).

    As a result, you have to invest in USD assets which means a big uncertainty about your future return in JPY.
    I you invest progressively using DCA it is fine. But if you receive a big lump sum (for ex inheritance or retirement allowance) at a moment when JPY is very low like now it is a big headache. You also face the sequence of return risk if you are at the start of your decumulation phase when you retire.

    During the Lehman shock, the JPY appreciated 60 % (from 125 to 75) in a few months while the US stocks fell 50 %. It was quite frightening to be invested at that time!