RetireJapan

So wife has some cash in the bank, but she is extremely conservative and does not want to invest in stocks or ETFs.

Is there any option that is very low risk of losing capital where this cash could grow or at least get some interest, but also be available in case she wanted to withdraw all or part of it? Like a mutual fund or money market fund in JPY?

The thing to keep in mind is that there are different types of risk. In the short term, investing the money in the stock market exposes you to volatility (the value of your investment may rise or fall). In the long term, keeping the money in cash exposes you to lose value to inflation.

But to answer your question, I am not aware of any non-volatile, liquid ways to use your money in Japan that also have a return

The best bank account I have found for my three-month emergency fund is Rakuten bank.
They will pay 0.1% interest p.a. on balances up to ￥3m. (0.079% after tax)

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/info/2021/211227.html

Don't spend all that interest at once!

Roger Van Zant wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 12:44 am They will pay 0.1% interest p.a. on balances up to ￥3m. (0.079% after tax)

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/info/2021/211227.html

Don't spend all that interest at once!

gouro wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:14 pm So wife has some cash in the bank, but she is extremely conservative and does not want to invest in stocks or ETFs.

My wife was like that too.

She now, some years later, has most of her net wealth invested.

I think what I did, was convince her to start doing a small amount of tsumitate investing. Over time, her multi million yen term deposits rolled off, and she decided to let me ramp it into more investments, as she could see the investing thing is working out nicely.

Do it gradually if you can… rather than suddenly

If you convert that yen into US$ Shinsei Bank will pay 6%, I believe.
https://www.sbishinseibank.co.jp/englis ... #fx_saving

Madisaka wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 8:26 am If you convert that yen into US$ Shinsei Bank will pay 6%, I believe.
https://www.sbishinseibank.co.jp/englis ... #fx_saving

Is the suggestion to ignore the currency risk with doing that?
This is not a savings plan for a risk-averse person.

Tokyo Star Bank pays 0.25% interest if you have your salary deposited monthly.

I use ShinseiBank パワーダイレクト円定期預金, with monthly, 3-month or possibly 6-month investment. Of course, I do retain some cash at all time.

I usually go with the monthly investment since the 3-month or 6-month period carries the same interest rate, but yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that for 3 months, they will give you 0.4%. But for 6 months, it's back at 0.1%, go figure.

beanhead wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 2:42 pm Is the suggestion to ignore the currency risk with doing that?
This is not a savings plan for a risk-averse person.

Locking away money in a foreign currency term deposit is indeed risky from the perspective of one who sees yen as their anchor.

For the wife in question, she may not see things my way, but personally I think that being solely in yen is actually taking a big /implicit/ currency risk, concentrated in yen.

I guess it’s that home bias thing though.

It’s been interesting for me recently to learn how Argentinians have been saving in dollars, rather than their home peso. Japan fortunately isn’t there (yet?)