Pondering my future

[Rvl]

I have paid into the nenkin at ¥16800 for 10 years
I am 59 with no investments but own my house and 360man in the bank
Which is better stocks , Nisa , ideco or ?
I guess I will have to work until I die

[RetireJapan]

Welcome to the forum!

10 years of kokumin nenkin will give you a pension (you have to pay in for 120 months minimum), but it will be only 1/4 of the full pension. You will get around 16,000 yen a month. If you can wait until you are 70 (or 75) to claim you will receive more but it will still be a small amount.

You will not be able to use iDeCo, as you can only pay in until you are 60 at the moment.

NISA is a good way to invest tax-free and flexibly, but if you invest in the stock market you run the risk of seeing your investments go down in the short run, so it will depend on when you are going to need that money.

Right now your priority should probably be to make as much money as possible for as long as possible while spending as little as possible.

[Rvl]

Thank you

[Kanto]

Welcome to the forum!

10 years of kokumin nenkin will give you a pension (you have to pay in for 120 months minimum), but it will be only 1/4 of the full pension. You will get around 16,000 yen a month. If you can wait until you are 70 (or 75) to claim you will receive more but it will still be a small amount.

You will not be able to use iDeCo, as you can only pay in until you are 60 at the moment.

NISA is a good way to invest tax-free and flexibly, but if you invest in the stock market you run the risk of seeing your investments go down in the short run, so it will depend on when you are going to need that money.

Right now your priority should probably be to make as much money as possible for as long as possible while spending as little as possible.

Can you not continue to contribute until you are 65 now?

https://www.finasee.jp/column/1388/

OP, with that amount of savings you need to keep earning and reduce expenses. Are you working off a budget?

[RetireJapan]

Can you not continue to contribute until you are 65 now?

Seems a bit fuzzy: 「一方、2022～2023年の施行に向けて現在検討が進んでいるiDeCoに関する法改正の内容は、加入や受け取りの仕方について選択肢を広げるものとなっています」

[Beaglehound]

No easy answer I fear. It may be worth continuing to pay nenkin until you are 65, despite it only being compulsory until 60. In your situation you are reasonably close to the age where you could start drawing it, and it would provide more longevity insurance. However, it’s not a fabulous annuity and comes with the risk of governmental policy change too.

Not saying this as a recommendation at all but interested to know what others think of the suggestion.

[RetireJapan]

No easy answer I fear. It may be worth continuing to pay nenkin until you are 65, despite it only being compulsory until 60. In your situation you are reasonably close to the age where you could start drawing it, and it would provide more longevity insurance. However, it’s not a fabulous annuity and comes with the risk of governmental policy change too.

Not saying this as a recommendation at all but interested to know what others think of the suggestion.

That makes a lot of sense to me. Nenkin is a regular, government-backed income in retirement, and paying it is probable worth more than saving and investing the same amount.

It's also tax-deductible.

[adamu]

Keeping the pension going sounds good to me, too. Some more ideas:

1. Track all your spending for a month. Extrapolate that to a year, and add in any annual large expenses to get your usual annual spending. Now you know roughly how much you need to live on.
2. Depending on your income / how long you think you can keep your income: Work out if you can lower your expenses, and if/what there's anything left to save.
3. Split your income into 3 groups: necessary expenses (including leisure, eating out, holidays, etc.) / savings / gamble money. Anything that is not an "expense" gets split between savings and gamble money.

The idea is to build up the savings so that it covers multiple years of living expenses as insurance for if you lose your income or need/want to stop working. Because you can't risk the money, it should only be in a bank account in cash, or other low-risk investments like term deposits, or maybe government bonds (I'm not experienced in fixed-income assets to give good recommendations).

However, cash savings don't grow, so if there's any slack, you could put a % of savings into "gamble money", where you invest in risky assets suck as stock market funds (NOT the pachinko parlour...). This has to be with the acknowledgement that it might lose value, so you won't necessarily get the money back. But it might also grow quicker than the cash savings. So you could check the balance annually and maybe skim some of the profits, if there are any, to boost your savings a bit more.

[Kanto]

Many people here have mentioned reducing expenses, however, what you really need to do is increase your income. . This is harsh, I know but it still remains the best advice for someone in your situation. You do not have the timeframe to take advantage of compounding interest.

1. What is your industry? Are you on a fixed salary?

2. Can you pick up a side-job?

3. Did you have any other income streams in the past that you get back into?

4. Do you have any other rooms in your house you can rent out? AirBnb?

5. Any major luxury assets you can liquidate?

[adamu]

Another thought: do you have any entitlement to other countries' pension / retirement benfits / social security?