Doing Things/Not Doing Things
Do. Or do not. There is no try. This seems to be a truism in life. If you want to do something, do it. If not, don’t. But don’t fool yourself by talking about how you want to do something all the time and never get round to doing it. It is particularly common with […]
Goodbye THEO
It was good while it lasted I was planning to keep my THEO account for at least the rest of this year, but decided to close it last week instead. It didn’t seem to make much sense to keep putting money into it once I had decided it wasn’t a good fit any more. We […]
Investment Accounts in Japan
Now witness the power of this fully operational online broker account The three big online brokers in Japan For most people (US citizens see the note at the end of this post), the best option for opening investment accounts is going to be online. Banks and full service broker offices tend to have higher fees, […]
Changes at Shinsei Bank
Cutting back on freebies Shinsei is breaking its product to save moneyI’ve been a big fan of Shinsei Bank for a long time now (for banking, not investing or mortgages). They have an English language website, fairly decent online interface and service, foreign currency deposit accounts, free cash withdrawals from ATMs in Japan and abroad, […]
The Monday Read
Back to work I really enjoyed Golden Week this year. Managed to get out and do some stuff with the family. Sadly the next decent holiday is in August… Here are some links to take the sting out of being back at work 😉 Kind of grim: Akita town presented as a microcosm for future […]
Property Tax in Japan 2
All becomes clear Not where I live, unfortunatelyWe wrote about property taxes last year, but that post was somewhat hindered by the fact that I had misplaced or not received the breakdown of how the taxes were calculated. All is well now though, as the breakdown for this year has arrived. Feast your eyes on […]
The Monday Read
So I guess summer is here now? Mid-April, and it is getting hot and humid here in Sendai (29 degrees today!). Insects are having a field day. Here are this week’s links. Can’t see this happening in Japan anytime soon:Â Asian companies ‘planning big shift to automation’.Automation accelerates! The verdict is in: AI outperforms human lawyers […]
Closing a THEO Account
It’s mainly you, not me Seems THEO are running a campaign to encourage people to sign up for regular investments -my wife and I did that too soon it seems 😉 To be honest, I liked THEO from the start. They provide a very simple product, their interface is one of the best I have […]
Book Review: How to Think About Money
My new favourite personal finance book How to Think About Money is a really slim book. It’s only 146 pages long and I was actually a bit disappointed when it arrived last week. However, after racing through it and finishing it in a couple of hours I don’t think it needs to be any longer. […]
Kaigo Hoken (Nursing Care Insurance)
What exactly is it? I got this in the mail the other day I got an email from HR the other day telling me about changes in the rate of kaigo hoken (nursing care insurance) and kosei nenkin (employee pension) from this year. Now, I’m not sure what the current rates are, but I assume […]