The Monday Read: Take a moment

Incredibly, we’re almost at the end of 2023. Five weeks to go!

This has been a big year. Lots of changes, not all of them good. A lot of learning.

One thing I have learned is the importance of scheduling leisure. When you leave formal work for self-employment, working time and personal time cease to exist. If you’re not careful, you end up working all the time.

The only way I have found to avoid that is to schedule leisure. Family things, exercise, meeting friends. It all goes in the calendar.

A lot of the time now I block out my leisure first, then allow work to fill in the gaps. How about you? Do you schedule your downtime?

RetireJapan TV returns… today!

We are back for Season 2 from 20:00 this evening (Monday November 27th). Join us live on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook to ask questions or join the conversation.

Look forward to seeing you there!

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published a new video this week: our first vlog. Sadly I screwed it up and ended up with me blurry and the background razor sharp…

… and for some reason it is our best performing video for ages. So spending hours writing, scripting, shooting, and editing videos does less well than just picking up the camera and walking around for five minutes!

Please watch, like, subscribe, and share with other people!

New video course

I’ve been wanting to do a basic video course for years now, but never made time to do so. This year I found a great person to work with and the The Basics of Personal Finance in Japan is finally ready 🙂

We’re testing it this month and will release it on Friday to people who have bought one of our Guides before. If you have previously bought the Guide to NISA or Guide to iDeCo look out for an email on Dec 1st!

The course will then be released to the general public in January.

I’m so proud of this one. It’s been an enormous amount of work over the last couple of months, but I think it turned out quite well and will help a lot of people.

Bluesky

I am likely to leave Twitter soon, so have set up an account for RetireJapan on Bluesky. Do come and follow us there. I have a handful of invite codes: if anyone needs one, get in touch.

Japan Real Estate Summit Videos

I wasn’t able to attend the recent Real Estate Summit (organised by several friends of RetireJapan) but the videos are now available on this page. If you’re interested in buying a home here, doing AirBnB or similar minpaku, investing in Japanese real estate, or acquiring an Akiya, you can find more information here.

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (31,143 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I enjoy John Scalzi’s books (mostly SF, often humorous), and this is a killer deal. You can get 21 of his ebooks for $18, and give to charity at the same time! Check it out here.

This week’s links

1. Plus ca change: Japan’s Yo-Yo GDP
2. Kill one person, you’re a murderer. Kill millions through your selfish life choices and… no one cares: Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says
3. This is one of my fears about growing old in Japan, although it could very well happen anywhere: I am so lonely and so isolated, I feel I’m living like a zombie
4. This is an interesting documentary (YouTube): What The Longest-Running Study on Happiness Reveals
5. This feels about right: The day I became a millionaire
6. This is ridiculous (but seems about right): The failure behind Japan’s bar exam pass rate
7. But who would replace him? Unpopular Kishida Could Be On Way Out Soon
8. Really interesting post, even if it is ten years old: A Lifetime of Riches – Is it as Simple as a Few Habits?
9. The Buffett boom continues? Berkshire Sells Yen Debt Amid Talk It’s Eying More Japan Stocks
10. More Derek W. so soon? After the festival
11. This is a reasonably accurate overview, although I am not sure about the value of franchises in this market: Starting a School in Japan – Introduction
12. This resonated: The Line
13. Hotel fees up 42%? Time to buy a tent methinks: Japan’s inflation in October rose for first time in 4 months
14. I am a bit surprised this is taking this long, but have high hopes we’ll get driverless taxis at some point: Japan to start discussions on driverless transportation next month
15. I’ve been following Ben for a long time, interesting to see his outsider’s impression: Impressions From Our Trip To Kyoto, Japan
16. Beyond my pay grade, but interesting: Bank of Japan dithering is weighing down the economy
17. In what way though? Japan’s stock market is forecast to have a transformational year in 2024
18. Ban them, tax them, restrict them: Motor emissions could have fallen by over 30% without SUV trend, report says
19. I like this idea. ‘I knew I was going to die … why not get together beforehand and have a beautiful party?’
20. This was very interesting (only 30 subscribers on this channel!): Costco’s Japan Juggernaut – How it works and overview and FamilyMart – Overview
21. Interesting scenario. Are you ready for this (just as a mental exercise, I am not saying it is going to happen)? 2024 Cash Crash Will Be Worse Than 2008 – Take Action!

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

The Monday Read, going out to more than 2,868 subscribers each week. Please share this post/email with friends/colleagues who may be interested in it.

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