Offshore vs Onshore Investment

[ChrisFukuoka]

Hi

Thanks for such a resourceful website and forum. I would love to hear opinions and advice on my situation.

I am a 40 year old UK citizen who has lived in Japan for 17 years. I didn't pay kokumin nenkin at all in those 17 years and, since joining a company in 2017, have been contributing to kousei nenkin, so only 3 years of contributions so far. I realize now that it is well beyond the time to be taking retirement planning more seriously. As it stands, my retirement looks bleak.

So I contacted a couple of non-Japanese "financial advisors" in Japan. Both of these are recommending offshore investments. Alarm bells are ringing and I am slightly concerned by their advice.

Are offshore investments a legitimate alternative to iDeCo/NISA offerings in Japan?

I am a complete beginner and am very wary of being duped into making ill-advised financial decisions.

Would it be the advice of members on this forum to start with an iDeCo and NISA investments through a Japanese broker?

I did have a NISA account with Fidelity when they were first introduced but cashed it out after a year. I do have a lot of questions regarding NISAs which may be better suited to the actual NISA forum.

Thanks in advance for any insights people may be willing to provide.

[RetireJapan]

I am so glad you found us in time! This is precisely why I started RetireJapan

Have you read the latest blog post? https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/psa-th ... al-advice/

As a UK citizen, making voluntary contributions to the UK pension (if you are eligible) is probably the best investment I know of: https://www.retirejapan.com/?s=uk+state+pension

After that iDeCo and NISA have significant tax advantages. Even a regular taxable account would be better than an offshore one, if only because it will make your tax paperwork simpler.

Please ask as many questions as you need

[adamu]

Are offshore investments a legitimate alternative to iDeCo/NISA offerings in Japan?

In your case (and in most people's), almost certainly not.

Would it be the advice of members on this forum to start with an iDeCo and NISA investments through a Japanese broker?

Yes!

I think you've probably saved yourself a life changing amount by being sceptical and asking here. Are you planning to retire in Japan?

[ChrisFukuoka]

@RetireJapan

I haven't read it yet but it is now at the top of my lunch time reading list.

I will also look into making contributions to the UK pension.

I will also head over to the NISA forum to ask my questions there.

Thanks for the welcome.

@adamu

There was something that just wasn't feeling right with those advisors so I felt it prudent to ask. The language barrier is so immense here that I just was hoping there was a native english speaker to even get me on the right track.

Yes, I am planning on retiring in Japan.

[adamu]

I think there's a meetup in Kitakyushu soon. Might be a good chance for you to meet some other people in similar situations?

[ChrisFukuoka]

Where would I find info about that adamu?

[RetireJapan]

https://hosted.jalt.org/chapters/kq/sch ... 0/march/21

Also trying to find a venue for a workshop in Fukuoka but having trouble finding something:
1. big enough
2. affordable
3. that will let us charge a fee to attendees

[ChrisFukuoka]

How big is big enough? What would the size of the audience likely be?

[RetireJapan]

Previous workshops have been 20-80 or so, but somewhere that could seat 30-40 would be great

[StockBeard]

Out of curiosity would you mind sharing the names of the companies that have approached you with these offshore proposals (and what plans they were suggesting to sell you?). There's really a handful of these offshore things (usually life insurances linked to some sort of investment) circulating worldwide so just based on the name it is typically easy to find out what the plan would be and why it is (generally) a bad idea to go with them.