Scattershot NISA Questions.
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2024 5:20 am
Hello Everyone.
TLDR - I have a tendency to be wordy, feel free to just answer the questions in bold.
Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Retire Japan Youtube channel (I also bought the NISA book) & also this forum. I'm quite late to the game regarding investments, and cringe at the thought of the cash I have left sitting in my Japanese bank account over the past decade. But thanks to you all, I now have a fully set up Rakuten Securities account and a connected Yucho current account to facilitate transfers, and I feel much happier and assured about my financial future in Japan.
I am preparing to transfer those savings into NISA, keeping things simple with the mix of the eMaxis Slim All Country & Developed Countries Bonds that seems like a good place to start out. I just have a few more questions, one more broad strategies based, and a few on the mechanics of the account:
1. For other people primarily using these investements, what is your ballance between the mutual & bonds? I saw some strategies mentioned in either the videos or books, like 'your age in bonds' or 'your age -10 in bonds' etc. I'm tempetd to go with a more aggressive ballance as I still have quite some years ahead of me before retirement. Would it (in your opinion) be foolhardy to say... fill my first 2 years of NISA with purely mutual funds and then bring some ballance to it by adding bonds later?
2. Do Tsumitate transfers have to be re-established each year? I saw a video about setting up the Tsumitate portion of the new NISA. It was saying that the transfers have tobe set up by a certain date in December to apply from January. Is that something that has to be done at the end of each year? Or was that just in the video because of the introduction of the new accounts in 2024?
3. How many times can top up 'bonus' payments into the Tsumitate portion be made? Is it only once per year? Or is it unlimited? Once my savings are transferred (it will fill this year's allowance and about a 3rd of next years), I'm planning on only adding 50k per month via Tsumitate and topping it up occasionally when my cash savings exceed a certain amount. I'll probably just top up using the 'Growth' portion which I will not be filling after those inital transfers, but I'm curious to know.
4. What is Rakuten Cash and is it worth using it/ a Credit card to make investment purchases? I'm assuming its another electronic walet ala PayPay etc? Because the account my sallary gets paid into is a backwater local bank, it is actually something of convoluted process to get money into my NISA. Local Bank -> Cash -> Yucho -> Rakuten Securities -> NISA. Basically I have to move money into my Yucho account manually each month via ATM before I can proceed electronically. I guess replacing Yucho with Rakuten Cash would not make my life any more difficult, and it might get me some extra points which can also be spent on further investments? The same goes for a CC though I am not confident about getting one as Rakuten already turned me down for even a bank account (hence the Yucho account).
5. Finally I have some quetions regarding some U.K. based investments and the sense in moving a portion of them to Japan. But I think that is best left to a separate post.
Thanks so much for your help!
TLDR - I have a tendency to be wordy, feel free to just answer the questions in bold.
Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Retire Japan Youtube channel (I also bought the NISA book) & also this forum. I'm quite late to the game regarding investments, and cringe at the thought of the cash I have left sitting in my Japanese bank account over the past decade. But thanks to you all, I now have a fully set up Rakuten Securities account and a connected Yucho current account to facilitate transfers, and I feel much happier and assured about my financial future in Japan.
I am preparing to transfer those savings into NISA, keeping things simple with the mix of the eMaxis Slim All Country & Developed Countries Bonds that seems like a good place to start out. I just have a few more questions, one more broad strategies based, and a few on the mechanics of the account:
1. For other people primarily using these investements, what is your ballance between the mutual & bonds? I saw some strategies mentioned in either the videos or books, like 'your age in bonds' or 'your age -10 in bonds' etc. I'm tempetd to go with a more aggressive ballance as I still have quite some years ahead of me before retirement. Would it (in your opinion) be foolhardy to say... fill my first 2 years of NISA with purely mutual funds and then bring some ballance to it by adding bonds later?
2. Do Tsumitate transfers have to be re-established each year? I saw a video about setting up the Tsumitate portion of the new NISA. It was saying that the transfers have tobe set up by a certain date in December to apply from January. Is that something that has to be done at the end of each year? Or was that just in the video because of the introduction of the new accounts in 2024?
3. How many times can top up 'bonus' payments into the Tsumitate portion be made? Is it only once per year? Or is it unlimited? Once my savings are transferred (it will fill this year's allowance and about a 3rd of next years), I'm planning on only adding 50k per month via Tsumitate and topping it up occasionally when my cash savings exceed a certain amount. I'll probably just top up using the 'Growth' portion which I will not be filling after those inital transfers, but I'm curious to know.
4. What is Rakuten Cash and is it worth using it/ a Credit card to make investment purchases? I'm assuming its another electronic walet ala PayPay etc? Because the account my sallary gets paid into is a backwater local bank, it is actually something of convoluted process to get money into my NISA. Local Bank -> Cash -> Yucho -> Rakuten Securities -> NISA. Basically I have to move money into my Yucho account manually each month via ATM before I can proceed electronically. I guess replacing Yucho with Rakuten Cash would not make my life any more difficult, and it might get me some extra points which can also be spent on further investments? The same goes for a CC though I am not confident about getting one as Rakuten already turned me down for even a bank account (hence the Yucho account).
5. Finally I have some quetions regarding some U.K. based investments and the sense in moving a portion of them to Japan. But I think that is best left to a separate post.
Thanks so much for your help!