40 Questions
Probably about 30 too many… Last year I taught a personal finance class in English at my university. It was an elective ‘high-level’ class, and I had five wonderful students join. We had an amazing time talking about money, happiness, and life, and how they interact. This year I am trying to repeat the experience, […]
Teaching Personal Finance
A triple whammy the chalkboard after my personal finance class on investing This post is probably more of interest to teachers, or those with children. Last year I taught an optional English class for advanced students at my university. I used a discussion format (the PDR method) and we talked about personal finance topics like […]
Success of the Master Plan
Might not matter? I’m definitely a planner. I love making plans and tracking progress. You wouldn’t believe the spreadsheets in my ‘planning’ file 😉 I tend to have several plans on the go at one time -plan A, plan B, plan C, etc. A couple of key events took this natural tendency of mine and […]
Portfolio: Accounts
What goes where Where should you put your savings and investments? Let’s look at some options. This is our sixth portfolio post. You can see the previous ones here: geography, risk, asset allocation, taxes, and time. Hopefully everyone is down with the basics of personal finance: spend less than you earn, save and invest the difference, do this for […]
Taking the Financial Planner Test 2
Somehow I managed to fail this easy test Long-time readers may remember that I took the Financial Planner test (3-kyuu) in January. I wrote about the test here and my experience taking it here. ​My results arrived a couple of days ago. As I discovered by scoring my own paper after the test, I barely passed […]
Portfolio: Taxes
Maybe not so certain after all? This is our fourth portfolio post. You can see the previous ones here: geography, risk, and asset allocation. I believe in focusing on things you can control. How much money you save, what you invest in, how you react to financial news. Taxes are one of the biggest costs […]
Portfolio: Asset Allocation
It’s basically the master plan The third installment in our Portfolio series (you can see the first post on Geography here and the second on Risk here). Today we are going to talk about Asset Allocation. Totally coincidentally, Ben Carson published a great post on this just a couple of days ago. Check it out, […]
Guest Post: Hoken Shavings into Savings
A sadly all-too-common story in Japan A great guest post for you today. I have paid far too much in insurance premiums during my time in Japan, as insurance is very much part of the culture here and to be honest, I just didn’t know any better. ​Read on for an in-depth look at one […]
Review: UK Robo-Advisor Nutmeg
Non-residents welcome for a change Here’s another one for Brits, especially ones who are planning to move back to the UK at some point or just want to diversify their holdings a bit across currencies, countries, and companies. Nutmeg is a UK robo-advisor that is fairly unique in that they are willing to do business […]
Portfolio: Geography
Where are you going to rest your hat? We’re starting a new series today, looking at various aspects to consider when making an investment plan. I’ve received a lot of questions recently about how to start investing, and it can seem pretty overwhelming at first, so over the next few weeks we’ll go through various […]