RetireJapan

Dear investment gurus !, I applied a little while back to join the ideco scheme, and am currently awaiting the all clear to start investing. I am therefore thinking a little about what might be the best strategy for Ideco investing, since it seems to have some special characteristics that distinguis...

Many thanks for the sensible advice above. Also, 7.3% sounds like junk bond level returns, not all bonds are safe stores of value, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" Re: this bond your adage is probably correct! I have had a little look into the details, and while I haven't...

I am not aware that you can easily buy individual bonds via a broker in Japan. Do you have a link to a broker page allowing purchase? As for the bond funds falling last year, well, they're becoming cheaper! If anything that's a buy signal to me. ;) Hi Noobster, If you go to the monex homepage and t...

Dear All, Has anyone considered the relative merits of buying bonds directly versus buying bond funds, especially with respect to current market conditions ? I am currently investigating bond investments for a NISA, particularly considering foreign bonds, and it couldn't escape my attention that the...

Many thanks for the interesting and valuable advice. I can see that the stocks being down at the end of the 5 year term can be a problem, but perhaps one remedy would be to then rollover the whole holdings into a new NISA ? That way, if they do then go rapidly up again in the 6th year the capital ga...

Dear All, Does anyone have any particular recommended strategies for allocating their investment portfolio between NISA (tax-free) and general trading (taxable) accounts. Suppose you have 300 man yen to invest in a given year, and plan to invest 60% =180 man yen in stocks, and 40% = 120 man yen in b...

Hi Yabbie, This may not be relevant at all, but I will just throw it out there in case it is of help. The problem may just be an issue with your name. I have had couple of problems with credit card applications here in Japan that turned out to be simply a problem with how my name is rendered into Ja...

Personally since I'm long-term holding I prefer domestic funds over ETFs, especially inside a tax-free account because they can expand that tax-free bracket, but it's not a massive difference. Hi Jcc, Apologies if this is a stupid question, but can you elaborate a bit on this - how do funds 'expand...

Regarding your second question, my understanding is that you can't contribute further to your ideco if you leave Japan, but you may be able to manage the existing funds. The following sentence appears in the RetireJapan guide to idecos: What happens is that you will no longer be able to pay into the...

Hi all,
Just to clarify, is the 国基連手数料 fee a one-off when you start the account, or some kind of yearly fee ?