RetireJapan

A Random Walk Down Wall Street
One Up on Wall Street
I Will Teach You To Be Rich
The Snowball

Any of Jack Bogle’s books on mutual fund investing is well worth reading and Bernstein’s 4 pillars is excellent:

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Inv ... B0041842TW

I read the Millionaire Teacher a while back, and found I agreed with most of the advice, though it was not a perfect fit for the Japan context.

My uncle had a very good handle on investing, and in the early 90s recommended Vanguard and 20th Century (now American Century) for their low-cost index funds. I remember calling late at night to make Vanguard trades, and mailing Japan Post money orders (limit $700 each).

Etrade showed up and it seemed ideal in that there were no ATM fees, so I jumped on that for banking and individual stock trades. We even set up an Etrade Japan account for my wife, which eventually morphed into SBI.

Since then competitors have brought their fees to match Vanguard and Etrade, so I don't see huge differences.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:31 am A Random Walk Down Wall Street
One Up on Wall Street
I Will Teach You To Be Rich
The Snowball

Thanks. I'll be adding these to my "to read" list. Some I've heard of; some are new to me.

TokyoWart wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:38 am Any of Jack Bogle’s books on mutual fund investing is well worth reading and Bernstein’s 4 pillars is excellent:

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Inv ... B0041842TW

I quite like Bernstein's "If you can" also. And Bogle, well is just Bogle.....the king.

TJKansai wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:29 am I read the Millionaire Teacher a while back, and found I agreed with most of the advice, though it was not a perfect fit for the Japan context.

My uncle had a very good handle on investing, and in the early 90s recommended Vanguard and 20th Century (now American Century) for their low-cost index funds. I remember calling late at night to make Vanguard trades, and mailing Japan Post money orders (limit $700 each).

Etrade showed up and it seemed ideal in that there were no ATM fees, so I jumped on that for banking and individual stock trades. We even set up an Etrade Japan account for my wife, which eventually morphed into SBI.

Since then competitors have brought their fees to match Vanguard and Etrade, so I don't see huge differences.

What did you not agree with? What was not a good fit for Japan? Just curious.

One of the founders of the Bogleheads forum, Taylor Larimore, keeps an excellent page called "Taylor's Gems", where he puts up his favourite quotes from all the great investing books. It's a great way to get the gist of the best ideas from these books without needing to read them in their entirety.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taylor_ ... tment_Gems

mighty58 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:31 pm One of the founders of the Bogleheads forum, Taylor Larimore, keeps an excellent page called "Taylor's Gems", where he puts up his favourite quotes from all the great investing books. It's a great way to get the gist of the best ideas from these books without needing to read them in their entirety.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taylor_ ... tment_Gems

Wow! This is great information. Thanks for sharing.

To add some comments to these points:

1. Spend like a millionaire or less if you want to become rich.

(yes, not like someone trying to convince others he's a millionaire - Read The Millionaire Next Door - Live below your means, in a neighborhood where you are the richest person, so you don't have to live up to the Tanakas...)

2. Start investing as early as possible (after paying off CC debt and high interest loans).
3. Invest in low cost index funds instead of actively managed funds.

(Yes, but an important first step is Insurance - 1. term life, 2. medical, and 3. long-term disability - to protect you and your family from the vicissitudes that threaten people today - 1. funeral costs and the life style of your family after the loss of their primary wage earner, 2. medical bills and treatments that may not be covered by the standard Kokumin Kenkou Hoken (or other) cover, and 3. your income if you were rendered disabled and could never work again... In Japan, the system only covers you for about three years at a low fraction of your income)

4. Understand stock market history and psychology (don't fall victim to craziness).
5. Learn to build a complete balanced portfolio with stock & bond index funds that will beat the pros.
6. Create indexed accounts no matter where you live.

(Automate the process - Set it and forget it to take advantage of dollar cost averaging... Rebalance occasionally. If you want to dabble, do so after and outside of this...) This will go some way to protect you against 7. and 8..

7. Learn to fight an advisor's sales rhetoric.
8. Avoid investment schemes and scams that tickle your greed button.
9. If you must buy common stocks, do it with a small percentage of your portfolio and pick a mentor (ex. Warren Buffet).

(Dividend paying stocks, that have a good history of paying a regular and growing dividend with a good yield, and then automatically reinvesting the dividend for more stock for more dividends, are a very good long-term choice. In time, those dividends can be your free cash flow to pay your living expenses without having to sell the stock)

runmanTX wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:20 pm

TJKansai wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:29 am I read the Millionaire Teacher a while back, and found I agreed with most of the advice, though it was not a perfect fit for the Japan context.

What did you not agree with? What was not a good fit for Japan? Just curious.

I went back and discovered I actually read a book by him with a similar sounding title: "The Global Expats Guide to Investing from Millionaire Teacher to Millionaire Expat"

A lot of sound advice, but based on a wide range of scenarios, very few Japan-specific. He talks about financial services fees, but doesn't include Japan on the list. He suggests having significant exposure to your home country's stock market, but I don't think Japan would be a great bet.

I am to the point where I know or at least understand most of what is in the book, and I am more concerned about Japan-based scenarios like NISA/iDECO, taxes and inheritance rules.