RetireJapan

My overall situation sounds similar to yours Rezz. I just worked it out and I am currently paying about 25% of my pre-tax income in rent. I'd sure like to pay less, but I think the impact on our daily life of living somewhere smaller would be pretty significant. I lived in a smaller place in the pa...

Our current place is less than 50m2, whereas the new place is closer to 80m2. I haven't quite worked out how we'll use all the extra room yet! Quality of life is certainly an issue currently, but that's partly due to the layout rather than the size of our place I think (sliding doors don't do much t...

I'm moving into a bigger apartment next week, which unfortunately also means a bump in my monthly fixed costs of almost 40,000. It's got me doing all kind of calculations to justify it to myself, but ultimately it'll be a fairly large increase. Our current place is a 2DK apartment 7 minutes from the...

I'm moving to a more expensive city this month and my rent is more than doubling, so I'll be looking to cut back elsewhere. I'm moving next week, and my rent is increasing by 50% or so :( As for frugal shopping, I do the same as fools_gold; for breakfast I now just buy 4.7kg of quaker porridge oats...

Great idea for a post. It's nice to see how others are progressing. I started around April and my choices were as follows: - ＭＡＸＩＳトピックスＥＴＦ 1348 (Japanese stocks) +15.24% - イオン 8267 (Japanese supermarket) +15.47% - ＭＡＸＩＳ海外株式 1550 - (Foreign stocks) +9.37% - たわらノーロード 新興国株式 - (Emerging markets) +15.28%...

I'm late to the party on this one. Since investing in March, I've been mainly ignoring the newsletters from Rakuten (oops). Is anyone else invested in the MAXIS 1550 ETF considering this Vanguard fund for the new NISA allowance of American stocks? I was planning to just top up my 1550 balance in lin...

Great comments guys. I know a friend who managed to wangle a rental car contract for 20,000 a month through a dealer she knew, but she was still responsible for petrol and insurance. Guts looks very cheap. Nice find! https://plus.timescar.jp/fare/longpack/ Times have a “long pack” which seemed reaso...

Hi all, A Times car share parking area is opening right next to my place in two weeks, and it got me thinking about signing up. I have a full british driving license which I need to convert into a Japanese one (I heard the process is quite simple), but haven’t driven in about 7 years. Saying that, I...

Doh! Now I remember seeing this when I signed up. I guess the long wait between applying, setting up and depositing money in made the initial charges totally slip my mind. Thanks!

Hi all, I've had my ideco up and running for about 4 months now. Unfortunately, my employer wouldn't allow the amount to be taken directly from my salary because there isn't yet a system in place for it. Therefore, I've been having the maximum amount I'm allowed (12,000 per month) withdrawn from my ...