RetireJapan

Stay far far away from whole-life insurance. Whole-life insurance is when I pay premiums from now until age 60, but the life insurance is then available until I die, right? Why do you not recommend it? Maybe the premiums are so high that I would be better off just investing the money? I'm trying to...

Hello there Retire Japan. I'm looking for advice and opinions regarding life insurance, disability insurance, 3 Big Sicknesses insurance and Cancer Insurance. Basically, as you can tell from my other post, I've already started researching life insurance and I thought I was nearly ready to go get a p...

Sorry for my late response. Thanks very much for these tips!

Hello mighty58 and beanhead. My apologies for the late response- I just wanted to say thank you very much for taking the time to give these thoughtful replies. beanhead- well noted. Yeah, I think I need to stick in-country. Just seems... Smarter. Less chance for things to go wrong. As long as I unde...

Hello Retire Japan. I am just beginning my adventure for purchasing Life Insurance. I have skimmed some Retire Japan forum posts as well as r/japanlife posts, but it's pretty confusing as I don't even understand the basics. I'd like to ask some questions. If anyone can respond to any of these, I wou...

Thanks very much for the tips! My checks and debit card should be in the mail.

Final summary: I asked Schwab if it was OK to just submit an official IRS W-9, and they said sure. I did so and did not claim any exemptions. Problem solved.

More details here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1129&p=10864#p10864

Just wanted to give a final update on this. I have successfully converted my Charles Schwab Investor Checking account to a Charles Schwab International Investors account. Here is a basic summary: - Called Schwab to explain the situation. They replied with a scary email that said due to living abroad...

Thank you very much for your thorough reply. You were thinking the exact thing I was thinking, which I also asked the customer service rep on the phone, "So does this mean if I ever need to file FATCA (go above $200,000 in foreign investments), I also need to call and close this account? Does t...

Small update: So actually it seems like the reporting threshold is: https://www.ustaxhelp.com/needs-report-foreign-assets-fatca/ "filing a non-joint return for assets with an aggregate value: Exceeding $200,000 on the final day of the year to be reported. Exceeding $300,000 at any point during ...