How to connect bank account to NISA (Rakuten)

[7 Potatoes]

There are two* ways to fund your NISA/broker account: send money to it by bank transfer (easy, manual, might incur a fee), or have it taken out automatically to buy funds (easy once it is set up, setting up can be a pain).

*you can also use credit cards, etc.

Do I need to open up a Rakuten Bank Account as well as my Rakuten NISA account or can I send money directly to my NISA account from another bank (Gunma Ginko)?

[zeroshiki]

You can link your bank to Rakuten Shoken easy enough. Not sure about your local bank but it should be possible (note that there may be issues with the names not matching up)

[7 Potatoes]

Thank you, heaps. Yeah, I fixed the name problem many of us foreigners have struggled with since many years ago. What a headache! UGH. I'm guessing I can accumulate money in my NISA account before allocating it to whatever Tsumitate or ETF account I choose? I have time to sit back and study the enormous amounts of options while my money sits comfortably in the NISA account, right?

[RetireJapan]

Thank you, heaps. Yeah, I fixed the name problem many of us foreigners have struggled with since many years ago. What a headache! UGH. I'm guessing I can accumulate money in my NISA account before allocating it to whatever Tsumitate or ETF account I choose? I have time to sit back and study the enormous amounts of options while my money sits comfortably in the NISA account, right?

No, NISA works like this: you buy things and designate them as going in NISA. There is no way to hold cash in NISA (would be kind of pointless).

[sutebayashi]

I have time to sit back and study the enormous amounts of options

As a default I would suggest you start buying some things, and then take time to study while your money is already at work, rather than being deteriorated away by inflation.

If you don’t plan on using the money for more than 10 years, then buying a mutual fund like ｅＭＡＸＩＳ　Ｓｌｉｍ　全世界株式（オール・カントリー） will get you into global stocks.

If you might want the money back sooner or want to start with something a little less volatile, a mutual fund like ｅＭＡＸＩＳ　Ｓｌｉｍ　先進国債券インデックス will have your money in developed market bonds, but this is not going to grow like the global stocks might.

Or you could buy a bit of both.

Or you could buy a bit each month. This is the whole idea of tsumitate.

In the short term, if the yen strengthens relative to other countries these mutual funds may go down in value a bit. But if you hang on to them for the long run - many years - you will be alright, most probably. (And if your assets did go down, that would be a chance to buy more at lower prices, a fine thing.)

Procrastination though would likely see the value of your money whittled away.