The Ten Rules of Index Card Personal Finance
Of course I am going to rewrite them I read this post on the ESI (Earn, Save, Invest) blog on Friday and really enjoyed it. It mentions the index card personal finance rules. They look like this: 1. Strive to save 10 to 20 percent of your income. 2. Pay your credit card balance in […]
Housing Options in Japan
Which is best for you? Broadly speaking in Japan you can choose to rent or buy, and your can choose a house or a manshon (or apato if you are renting). There are also various minor options, like living in a company dormitory, renting one of the new style maisonette apato, etc. We’ll come back […]
Portfolio Questions
Can you answer them? The always readable and thought-provoking Ben Carlson wrote a great post full of questions last month. I’ve been considering them ever since, and thought about answering them here on the blog. Unfortunately once I started doing so I found a lot of them were too technical and my answers weren’t particularly […]
Reader Profile: Parker Dupont
Lessons from the Future Another real treat for you today: the experiences of someone who went through the system in Japan and then successfully retired. Take it away, Parker! Early Retirement: Lessons from an Unsophisticated Investorby Parker Dupont I retired at 61, just shy of the 62nd birthday required to start my pension. I could […]
A Few Milestones
I’m really pleased Some things I used to enjoy This is an anniversary post, in some ways. RetireJapan has been around since December 2013, so it is just over three and a half years old. This is the 333rd blog post! We have over 500 people receiving the weekly emails (thanks, everyone!) and 600 people […]
Tax Residence and Inheritance Tax
Oh, my. The section dealing with inheritance tax reform (linked document also talks about the new NISA and changes to dependents, etc.)Back in April we mentioned the changes to inheritance tax laws in passing. Since then people have brought it up a few times on Facebook and in conversation, so I think it’s worth looking […]
Building a House in Japan 4
Creating a Sense of Urgency The house-building saga goes on, and on, and on. In part one I explained why we are suddenly looking for a company to build a house for us. In part two I shared our initial quote, an eye-watering 46 million yen. In part three I showed our latest plans and quote. Now we are hurtling towards an artificial deadline […]
Reader Profile: MJC
The long-term resident leaving Japan Last week I received an email from MJC, who told me he was planning to leave Japan and had a few questions. I suggested our readership might be able to answer them better than I could, so he kindly agreed to submit a Reader Profile. MJC has quite the incredible […]
Review: Booking.com
So far so good I used to be really into travel hacking. Part of that was getting elite status with big hotel chains like SPG or Hilton in order to get room upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout, etc. Recently I haven’t been travelling as much so I lost my status and don’t think it’s worth […]
The Four ‘L’s of Retirement
The best things in life… Gran Reserva 2009 -980 yen from Lawson. I think we’ll be okay in retirement 😉 I read a really simple yet profound blog post (sadly since deleted) a couple of weeks ago that talked about the four Ls of retirement. They are longevity, lifestyle, legacy, and liquidity, and together they […]