Welcome to The Monday Read, RetireJapan’s weekly collection of content, musings, and links related to personal finance and life in Japan.
What an underrated pleasure it is to sleep with the windows open at night. We were finally able to turn the AC off this week (but I still have a fan on low at night).
Going to enjoy this for as long as I can. I’m guessing we’ll have until mid-October or so until it gets too cold for this to be comfortable.
Summer really has gone from something pleasant that I looked forward to (in the UK 30 years ago) to something I dread (Japan now). These last three months have been miserable.
Apparently where we live in Sendai is one of the most humid places in eastern Japan. D’oh!
Might have to look into relocating to northern Hokkaido for future summers…
YouTube
Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published a new video this week, a look at bank ID checks for existing customers. I hope you enjoy it!
Japanese bank customer ID checks
Please watch, share, like, and subscribe 🙂
The Forum
The Forum is doing well. We passed 30,000 posts this week! Next target is 50,000 I guess 🙂
Here are the latest active threads:
This week’s books
I bought the new Musk biography, but haven’t started it yet.
This week’s links
- Thankfully this long Twitter thread about UK trains is fairly inconceivable here in Japan. I was only in the UK for five days earlier in the year and I had something similar with a train strike and coaches being cancelled…
- I hope the government provides more support for parents in need: 40% of Japan single parent families feeding kids just twice a day during summer: survey
- Yeah, don’t do this in Japan unless it is a violent crime and you have witnesses: Are Japan ‘citizen’s arrest’ videos legal? Expert says they may cross the line
- Nope. Is The Simple Path to Wealth outdated??!!
- Less money, better working conditions all day long for me: The 3 Types of Jobs
- Not for normal residents, sadly (YouTube): The Best Tax Free Country Nobody Knows About – Japan?! Say What?
- This is shameful: Charges dropped again over death of detained Sri Lankan woman
- Working seems to be a net positive even if you don’t need the money: At 90, oldest female McDonald’s Japan staffer shares longevity secrets
- Picking the right thing to work on: On Tire Pressure and Productivity
- Nice thread for US citizens (Reddit): Investment advice for American living in Japan
- One way to make a living in Japan (very similar to how my wife’s school grew): Teaching English in Japan – my origin story
- Great stuff from Craig Mod as usual: The Last Summer Walk
- Nice list from Morgan Housel: A Few Things I’m Pretty Sure About
- I think this is a great idea and should be inplemented everywhere: Iceland will soon be implementing a tourist tax
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.
If you were forwarded the email you can sign up to our weekly or monthly list here.
Or you can subscribe through WordPress below:
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.
Yes to the tourist tax, and make it sting. And / or a recent passing score on the JLPT N5.
I have to tip my hat to Tamiko Honda the 90 year old McDonald’s employee. I’ve noticed that there are a few very elderly employees at my local McDonald’s (I eat there to use up my shareholder gift certificates) and that they are all women, extremely thin and fragile in appearance but Genki as can be. I have no idea of whether they are working as a healthy diversion or out of economic necessity but seeing them brightens my day because they seem so energetic.
For one of the rugged young entrepreneurs out there: Design an eye-catching T-shirt with “We survived another brutal Japanese summer, so let’s prepare for the next one! 今年も過酷な日本の夏を乗り切った。次の夏に備えよう！” on it. You could sell a great many shirts. I would order 100 for my friends and colleagues.