RetireJapan

Deep Blue wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 2:23 pm It’s a bit like Bitcoin - I don’t like the idea one bit but the obvious trajectory is upwards.

adamu wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 2:12 pm new text is polluted by output from the models themselves (known as slop) so developing them further will be quite challenging. And nobody has been able to solve the problem that the results are inaccurate, as by their nature they work on predictions.

KCLenny wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:19 am

AreTheyTheLemmings? wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 1:55 am I do have one piece of advice I feel might be valuable, but it's predicated on something. So, if I'm not being too impertinent, could I ask you one thing in advance?

Am I correct in thinking that you're quite an introvert?

Yes. I don’t go out socially, or really talk to many people (and I’m fine with that. I’m not trying to get pity or whatever. I’m not one of those people who comes to Japan and then complains why can’t I make any friends?! I never had many friends in the uk either. I’m happy being by myself and with my wife. I’m also diagnosed (in the uk) as autistic.

KCLenny wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:19 am

kuma wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:55 pm Does your wife have (1) a period of 3yrs of continuous UK residency in her past (even in childhood), and (2) a national insurance number (NINO)*? If yes and yes, she would be eligible to make voluntary Class 3 contributions despite no UK work history. Could be something to consider for the future, even if finances are strained now to make the annual Class 3 contributions (approx 200,000 yen per year).

* many people who were resident in the UK when they turned 16 would have automatically been issued with a NINO if their parents/guardians were registered for child benefit (which happens in the majority of cases).

Yes she does. Born and raised in the uk, did somewhat work there but no where near enough nor long enough to pay NI. She has her number. Have looked into enough to know she should class 3 and I’ve suggested several times for her to get on it and potentially ask her parents to consider helping pay it off to get the minimum 10 years.
Will nudge again next month when we both have a little less going on.

AreTheyTheLemmings? wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 4:32 am Thanks for responding. What follows is based on the assumption that you're an introvert, and that intensive social interaction depletes your mental energy. TBH, I'm not sure how it relates to your diagnosis, so please accept/reject/adapt it as you see fit. (Also, on re-reading, it comes across as a bit preachy. Sorry! It's meant in good faith.)

Okay, so! To my eye, the people who seem to be doing well in work and life are those who know stuff and know people. "Know stuff" doesn't necessarily mean that they have high-level degrees and whatnot; just that they're constantly learning more about the stuff they're interested in. In your case, maybe that's gardening, maybe something else. For instance, reading books and magazines about the stuff you're interested in, and watching videos, and joining community classes, etc. It doesn't have to be full-on... just whatever you're comfortable with. You can build up quite a stack of knowledge that way if you keep at it over time.

And "know people" doesn't mean that they're out socializing every night or kissing arses to build connections in the halls of power; just that they have friends and stay in contact with them. To the introvert, however, this might not seem worth the mental discomfort involved, but my experience working through that has taught me that accepting just a little bit of that discomfort can result in life/work improvements. I've found that to build some knowledge and have some friends takes just a low-intensity effort. The intensity of effort isn't that relevant; keeping it up over the long-term is more pertinent.

Just meeting up every once in a while can suffice. The most common form of this is going out for a meal or drinks, but it doesn't have to be that, and even if that's what you end up doing, it doesn't (it mustn't!) mean you throw away what little money you have on beer every Friday night. A few skewers and a nama at a yakitori joint every couple of months is a 1000-yen outlay.

In my experience, if I feel a little uncomfortable or awkward going in to a situation, it often ends up being beneficial and I'm glad I made the effort to push through (or at least accept) that initial mental apprehension. So, if you can lean in to that discomfort a little bit, just as much and as often as you can handle, there are benefits to be had.

The material benefits of knowing stuff and knowing people arrive slowly - frustratingly slowly - but they do arrive. After all, the people who seem to be doing well in work and life are those who know stuff and know people, right? And like any other investment, the benefits of knowing stuff and knowing people compound over time.

I hope it works out for you.

kuma wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 12:40 am That's great. Time is on her side here. The state pension age for her is currently set to 68. The full state pension is due with 35 qualifying years. So she could achieve this if starting voluntary contributions at 32 or 33ish. Class 3 is approx GBP1,000 / JPY200,000 per year. (Which, by coincidence, is about the same as the standard kokumin nenkin contributions. So if you got a job with shakai hoken and she became your dependent, she'd get the Japanese pension contributions for free and you could divert the JPY200,000 to her UK state pension...). The facility to backpay UK NI contributions (ordinarily up to 6yrs; extraordinarily up to 18yrs, expiring soon) means that you can wait until things are affordable. The UK pension, under current rules, would massively boost a JP (kokumin nenkin) pension. UK pension is soon to be approx GBP12k per year. I don't have a forex crystal ball but have recently been using 200 as the back-of-the-envelope GBP:JPY conversion rate, and this equates to JPY2.4m... which is 3 times the basic JP pension of JPY800,000 (although she may get a little less if not achieving the full 40yrs of contributions; though she is also wisely contributing to fuka nenkin, which is a phenomenally good move).

As a couple, if you're both looking at full UK state pensions + full(ish) JP state pensions, that's a very good base under current rules. (JPY6m+ as a couple under current rules; though expect 'but it's frozen' and 'but it will change' comments!!!). If you can navigate a path towards both contributing the JPY5,000 (minimum) to iDeCo, you'd build up an amazing tax-free allowance. That's because the tax-free allowance is based upon length of time contributing, so you could achieve a much larger allowance than some of the more advanced-in-years members of the forum if you can at some point get contributions up and running. (Again, no urgency.) Should earnings increase or inheritance be received or NISA investments rocket or other routes to financial rosiness, your future self might thank your 30-something-self for getting in the system while you did. And once in, you'd have the power of compounding too; time really is on your side.

With due apologies for replying on this peripheral point when your main situation is what you really want answers on.

Yossarian wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 1:06 pm

Tsumitate Wrestler wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:59 am
Bit of a digression, but don't you feel under threat from A.I as a freelance copywriter with no formal qualifications?

I do website copywriting which AI is pretty bad at currently. I also do a lot of customer research and strategy, too. If I was doing only content marketing or social media copywriting, I'd be very worried.

AI has definitely made life more difficult for many freelance writers though. It's interesting seeing how companies react. Some people are all aboard with gen AI. Others are very strict (at a contract level) about having no AI generated work.

No doubt AI will be able to do most writing very well in the future. And for companies who are going for quantity over quality, it's plenty good enough now.

My safety net is customer research. Until AI can do customer interviews, I'm safe.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 2:32 am

kuma wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:55 pm How are the private lessons going? Are you teaching 1-to-1? If so, there's potential to scale this up to group lessons, maximising the profitability. Also, are you claiming all expenses if doing tax returns? If not, there might be scope to maximise profitability in this case through a bit of bookwork. Private lessons could be a growth area whilst taking the positives of the current job (5yr history there implies you know the systems inside out, and the steady paycheque) and mitigating the negatives (mismanagement, etc). Over time, could change the ratio of employed / self-employed teaching (if you're employer accepted you going down from 5 days to 4, for example). Some people parlay this type of thing into full-time or semi-full-time self-employment. Still doesn't get shakai hoken, but avoids bad bosses, and can maximise profitability. Can sound scary to some, but you've already taken the first step of teaching privately and already have a track record of teaching group lessons (presumably?) at your eikaiwa; no intrinsic reason from your post why the private lessons can't be scaled up.

This is a great option. Owner/operators can make a decent living running a small eikaiwa. It is very possible to make 500,000 to a million a month or more if you have a full teaching schedule.

We charge 7,000-16,000 yen a month per student, and have classes of 8-14 students.