New Year’s Resolution: Fix Your Finances
The closest thing I have to a superpower I’ve written before that becoming competent at personal finance is a little like gaining a superpower. It can completely change your life. Personal finance is a multiplier. It allows you to spend more time with your family, to do better work, to be less stressed, to be more […]
The Three Elements: Investing
Much simpler than they want you to think Great film. Click on the photo to see the trailer. This is the last post in our Three Elements series. You can read about saving/spending here and earning here.To recap, you need to get a handle on saving/spending first. If you don’t, it’s like making your way […]
Talking to Kids about Money
The best gift money can’t buy? This came up on Facebook last week: how can we teach children about money and personal finance? My family was not really money-savvy growing up. We didn’t talk about money much. It was an age of adequate work pensions and investing was something rich people did. Even though I […]
2018 NISA
Tsumitate NISA launch We talked briefly on the blog about the new tsumitate NISA accounts that will become available next year. I got an email from Rakuten Securities last week telling me my new (2018-2023) NISA account application had successfully completed. The way the NISA system was set up was two five-year periods, so we […]
Free Bank Withdrawals from THEO
Interesting option if you can get it to work You can find the bank withdrawal settings under ‘入金’ in the menu on the top right You might know that I am a big fan of THEO. You can see my latest update on them here. I love the simplicity of their product, the user-friendly interface, […]
Relativity in Personal Finance
Mind-bending Stuff Personal finance seems annoyingly slow a lot of the time: save 20,000 yen a month and invest it in the stock market, and thirty years later it might be worth 8 million yen pay your mortgage every month, and in 35 years time you’ll ‘own’ your house max out your NISA account every […]
Investing in Health: Exercise
The other half of the equation Last week we wrote about diet and food. Many readers rightly pointed out that exercise is also important, maybe even more important for health. Even if you eat right, if you don’t move your body you’ll find your energy levels falling, joints weakening, and strength and bone density shrinking. […]
Review: The Strategic Review
Unbelievable value I’m a huge fan of Sebastian Marshall. Who? I’m not completely sure, to be honest 🙂 I think I first came across him through Tynan, who is another person whose writing I find really inspiring. And I found Tynan through Neill Strauss’ The Game (probably his most famous book, although I enjoyed Emergency […]
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 […]
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 […]