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 […]

RetireJapan Progress 2017

Pretty good year? I think when we look back in ten years’ time, we will probably say that 2017 was the year when everything changed for RetireJapan. This site started in order to help people living in Japan by providing information and support so that they could learn about personal finance and invest for the […]

Merry Christmas

A time to relax, a time to switch off Hope everyone is enjoying a bit of a rest over the winter. RetireJapan will be back on Wednesday with a look back at 2017. It’s been frankly incredible!

Memento Mori

All things must pass I really like the popular version of memento mori. It claims the saying comes from ancient Rome, where victorious generals would be granted the right for a victory parade, and there, at the very moment of their complete triumph they would employ a slave to stand behind them and whisper ‘memento […]

2017 Roundup: September to December

But that was only last week… Last year we ran Roundup posts: for Jan-Apr 2016, May-Aug 2016, and Sep-Dec 2016. The idea is just to highlight the better or more perennial posts that new readers may have missed and old-timers may want to re-read. This month we ran the first Roundup post for 2017: January to April and the second one for 2017: […]

NISA Progress 2017

More of the same You can see last year’s NISA progress report here, and the Junior NISA one here. From this year I will combine both into one post. This is my fourth year using NISA, which means that the investments I bought in year one will come out of the NISA wrapper at the […]

The Best Products

Best in class We’ve been meaning to write a post like this for a while now, to discuss the best financial products and providers available in Japan. This is just an initial list. I can see this becoming a regular feature, with intense competition for the top spot in the list each year 😉 Just […]

2017 Roundup: May to August

A lack of quality control? Last year we ran Roundup posts: for Jan-Apr 2016, May-Aug 2016, and Sep-Dec 2016. The idea is just to highlight the better or more perennial posts that new readers may have missed and old-timers may want to re-read. Last week we ran the first Roundup post for 2017: January to April. Today we’ll take a look […]

THEO Progress 2017

Another good year and some thoughts I’ve liked THEO from the start. The design, ease of use, and customer service are all best in class. We’ve recommended them on the blog for a couple of years now. ​Last year’s update was fairly positive, but contained a number of inaccuracies and a few things have changed […]

Giving Progress 2017

​Another year sharing the luck Read this post by Mister Money Mustache this week, which reminded me about my own paltry efforts. We’ve written about giving to charity before, first here and then an update here. Basically giving money or time to others is one of the best ways to make yourself happier, as well […]