Pensions are not Investments
They are instead a form of insurance I was getting ready to talk to a client yesterday when I had a thought: state or defined benefit pensions are a kind of insurance, not an investment like many people assume. A defined benefit pension promises you a specific amount of money, unlike a defined contribution pension […]
Japan Pension Update 2017
Very informative for the first time My pension update (年金定期便) arrived this week. It’s sent out once a year, around your birthday. This is the first update I have received since the law was changed to allow us to vest in ten years instead of twenty-five. Accordingly, it now shows how much pension I would […]
How to be rich
It might be both harder and easier than you think I think Derek Sivers nails it in this post. It’s not how much you have. It’s the difference between what you have and what you spend. If you have more than you spend, you’re rich. If you spend more than you have, you’re not. If you live […]
2024 Planning
Happy New Year! I hope the year of the dragon treats you well. I also hope our readers in Hokuriku are safe and doing okay and can get back to normal as quickly as possible. I know from personal experience how draining recovering from an earthquake can be. Take the time you need to adjust […]
The Monday Read: Ball is Rolling
My financial incentive habit creating system is working well (see below). I went to jiu-jitsu three times this week, even though I am still slightly injured and very busy with work. There is no way I would have gone without the public commitment and financial penalty. Today I got on my rowing machine for the […]
2023 Planning
Goals for this year Every year we start things off here on the blog with a look ahead, both for the site and me personally. Here is last year’s post for comparison. 2022 was a year of changes. In 2023 I am going to build on those changes and try to have more by doing […]
How to get to Financial Independence
Saving and Investing your Way to Financial Freedom Financial independence is all the rage these days: articles, blog posts, and videos on the topic abound. It’s an age-old dream, but one that seems increasingly in reach as more and more people commit to trying to get there. In last month’s progress report, I mentioned that […]
2022 Planning
Goals for this year Every year we start things off here on the blog with a look ahead, both for the site and me personally. Here is last year’s post for comparison. Last year I gave myself a pass. We were still in peak pandemic, I was tired and run down, and I had a […]
2021 Planning
Goals for this year? Not even sure if I have goals for this year. Be kind to myself and others, maybe. 2020 was such a grind that I’m just hoping this year is less like that. Over the break I had two wonderful conversations, one with a colleague and one with my wife, about the […]
2020 Planning
New Year, New Decade, New Goals? Not really. More like new year, new decade, same goals. Every year we start things off here on the blog with a look ahead, both for the site and me personally. Here is last year’s post for comparison. So what is in store for RetireJapan in 2020? More of […]