RetireJapan

Hi everyone - spent the past few hours looking through most of these NISA topics but have my own question.

I'm 27, and have not yet opened a NISA account but have been looking into it a lot over the past couple of months. I'm ready to bite the bullet, but have seen that I must put in the max contrib. of 400k by end of December or lose that amount in contribution. I worry that if I were to open an account now, there's a possibility it might take too long to be approved (end of December, early Jan, etc). I worry that it wouldn't give me enough time to link my bank account and make the payment, especially with usual banking problems around the end of the year, etc. Would you suggest waiting until the new year to open the account? I am going with Rakuten, if this makes any difference.

Thank you!

If you are planning to open an account anyway, there is no harm in doing so sooner rather than later. Worst case scenario, the account isn't ready until next year

The best time to open the NISA and iDeCo accounts is as soon as possible. You are ahead of the game by starting in your late 20's - well done!

have seen that I must put in the max contrib. of 400k by end of December or lose that amount in contribution

You "lose" that opportunity to invest in NISA if you don't have an account to use it anyway.

Don't feel obliged to put in more money than you want to - it's just a cap on the amount of tax-free investments you can make, so if you are able to maximize it that's great, but it's perfectly fine to invest less than the cap if that's what suits you. If you are just starting, then that's probably what you ought to do.

The most important thing is to get started, even if you only put in 1,000 yen a month to begin with.

Do it as soon as possible. It can take months so you're going to kick yourself if you wait more. But yes, buying funds/stocks themselves you could wait on.

Thanks everyone, put in the application for just the tsumitate NISA, and deselected all the other options. It did say after "we've received your application and it will take 2-3 business days to check over" that I should continue and open a rakuten bank account. I closed it at this point as I don't want any more bank accounts... but is there any need for this? Or is it actually required?

If it was required I'm pretty sure they would make you do it at the start of the process, rather than trying to convert you at the end.

It's not required. They would like you to open and use an account. It can be convenient, the money bridge thing where you can just transfer money instantly from Rakuten Bank to Rakuten Securities is pretty cool. My wife has Rakuten Bank, I don't. We both use Rakuten Securities.

If you set up Money Bridge you also get 0.1% interest on any deposits in your bank account.

Thanks everyone. I put in my application and got approved last week, or so I think. So many emails, and I now have access to a general 楽天証券 account page, with iDeCo, NISA, among many other tabs. There's so much information overload I'm not too sure where to start. If anyone has any good links for guides (preferably in English) please do let me know!

Viralriver wrote: ↑Mon Nov 16, 2020 4:47 am Thanks everyone. I put in my application and got approved last week, or so I think. So many emails, and I now have access to a general 楽天証券 account page, with iDeCo, NISA, among many other tabs. There's so much information overload I'm not too sure where to start. If anyone has any good links for guides (preferably in English) please do let me know!

It all depends on what your personal investment strategy is. This would all be relative to your
(1) age
(2) current assets
(3) goals
(4) income
(5) retirement plans
etc etc.

Most people can look at two basic questions.


(1) What percentage of bonds/stocks do you want.

(2) For stocks how much do you want to invest in (a) America, (B) Developed Countries or (C) Emerging markets

........

Emaxis Slim all country is the choice for the overwhelmed. It covers (a) (b) and (c). It has low fees, a high trust rating, and lots of capital

https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fund/ ... 90C000H1T1

Exmaxis Slim advanced country bonds is a good choice if you are looking for a bond fund for similar reasons.
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fun ... 90C000H1T1

These two funds represent the best Japanese approximation of the Boglehead "2 fund" portfolio"

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Two-fund_portfolio

........

Remember to get your NISA order in before the end of this month!