Suggestions for investments and savings [Newbie]

[goran]

In terms of iDeCo, it is a great scheme, but it is made for people retiring here.
Kosei nenkin - you have no choice here, you have to pay it if your company is a K.K.
Since iDeCo is optional, keeping your money in NISA and taxable accounts will give you much more flexibility.

Remember, though, that if you do leave Japan, you will generally have to close down your securities account, so there is always a small risk that you could be forced to sell your funds in a market downturn. Many people who know they will leave Japan choose to invest in an overseas broker instead of a Japanese one for that reason.

If I had clear information about the procedure of taking the money out to abroad bank accounts through kousei nenkin, I think I would sleep better.
Same for employer sponsored DC and iDeCo too. May be I need to research more.

About overseas brokers, I assume the people who do that, also know which country they will be going to, right? And use the brokers from their destination.

I think most of my issues may resolve, if I can figure out where we want to retire.

[zeroshiki]

Kosei Nenkin pays out internationally (https://www.nenkin.go.jp/service/jukyu/ ... aigai.html). There's a similar thing with DC/IDECO (https://sonasapo.com/seniorlife/3527/) but it of course presumes you can handle all the Japanese language bureaucracy that will entail there. Its a bunch of forms and you need to do it in Japan but its not that hard.

[goran]

Kosei Nenkin pays out internationally (https://www.nenkin.go.jp/service/jukyu/ ... aigai.html). There's a similar thing with DC/IDECO (https://sonasapo.com/seniorlife/3527/) but it of course presumes you can handle all the Japanese language bureaucracy that will entail there. Its a bunch of forms and you need to do it in Japan but its not that hard.

I will die laughing if they ask me to put on hanko and FAX those documents 30 years from now.
Guess they won't have to pay for my retirement then!

Thank you for those links. I hope I don't lose my Japanese if/when I move from here. Hopefully, translation tools are faultless by that time.

[goran]

Just an update, if anyone's interested.
This is how we divided our JPY 200k/month.

No particular reasoning or rationale to it other than picking up the funds with low management fee. (Thanks RetireJapan blog, forum and wiki.)
There are some redundancies in these funds. But let's get the ball rolling with this and we'll see in a few months or a year's time.
Any comments or advice are welcome.

As for the JPY 1 million from point 3 of my original post, we are just going to pick some random ETF's gradually and see how it goes.

I am still ignorant about bonds. So going to study more about them.

[Haystack]

Just an update, if anyone's interested.
This is how we divided our JPY 200k/month.


distribution.png


No particular reasoning or rationale to it other than picking up the funds with low management fee. (Thanks RetireJapan blog, forum and wiki.)
There are some redundancies in these funds. But let's get the ball rolling with this and we'll see in a few months or a year's time.
Any comments or advice are welcome.

As for the JPY 1 million from point 3 of my original post, we are just going to pick some random ETF's gradually and see how it goes.

I am still ignorant about bonds. So going to study more about them.

I don't want to be unduly critical, but there doesn't seem to be much logic to this selection. I think this approach is a mistake.

Adding, all country, then all country ex-Japan, then adding back in Japan takes the cake.

[goran]

I don't want to be unduly critical, but there doesn't seem to be much logic to this selection. I think this approach is a mistake.

Adding, all country, then all country ex-Japan, then adding back in Japan takes the cake.

lol. I think that's being totally "duly" critical. Thank you for the comment.
A noob error or more like trying to see how that would affect everything and learn from it.

Does adding only "All Country" have the same effect as my vain/failed attempt of staying in control of "diversification"?
(honest opinions only, sarcastic comments are also welcome if they are funny!)

[Haystack]

I don't want to be unduly critical, but there doesn't seem to be much logic to this selection. I think this approach is a mistake.

Adding, all country, then all country ex-Japan, then adding back in Japan takes the cake.

lol. I think that's being totally "duly" critical. Thank you for the comment.
A noob error or more like trying to see how that would affect everything and learn from it.

Does adding only "All Country" have the same effect as my vain/failed attempt of staying in control of "diversification"?
(honest opinions only, sarcastic comments are also welcome if they are funny!

All country represents, well,....all countries! Here is the index it tracks. MSCI acwi. https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/indexes/acwi

It is the only equity fund you need.

[Tkydon]

The combination of All Countries (Except Japan) and Japan Domestic is the equivalent of All Countries...

S&P500, Developed Countries, Tokyo Marine Foreign Equity Index and Tawara No Load Developed Countries are all equivalent to both All Countries...

These are not giving you a diversified portfolio

My suggestion would be

eMAXIS Slim All Countries 55% to 70%
A Commodities Fund 10% to 15%
A Japan REIT Fund 10% to 15%
An International REIT Fund

and maybe an All Countries Bond Fund 10%

[zeroshiki]

Early 30's you should just do 100% equities. As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can't realistically get more diversified than all countries and going with the multiple funds from multiple companies buys you the same stocks but, I guess, peace of mind because the management companies are different.

Mixing and matching non-Japan and Japan probably overweighs you to Japan unless you actually buy the funds in the correct ratios, for example. Its just not worth the headache of figuring it out versus just going All Countries.

If you're extremely risk averse, a REIT would be good I guess but I'd personally stay clear of commodities or bonds for different reasons.

[goran]

@zeroshiki, @Tkydon, @Haystack

Took a Golden week trip down to Okinawa, so I didn't check the forum for few days.
I will update my NISA distribution and put almost all of it towards All Country then.

Thank you all!