10 years old! How has RetireJapan helped you?

[robster]

I came across this forum via Google searching at the end of 2017, after having had a consultation with a predatory financial advisor operating in Ebisu targeting gaijin, and feeling skeptical about what I felt were unreasonably high buy-in and management fees, and searching for a better way of getting my money invested. And I thank my lucky stars that thanks to the generosity of spirit, selfless sharing of wisdom and experience and patient welcoming and mentoring of newcomers from members of this forum, a culture initiated, fostered and maintained by Ben, that I now have 6 years of sensible wealth growth under my belt and am financially pointed in the right direction for the future. Enormous thanks to Ben and the many other wise contributors who follow his lead and steer the ship with prudence, kindness and wit.

[concerned]

Been in Japan for a while now and have made all the mistakes, used 2-3 different financial advisors in Tokyo , invested in off-shore funds, and did a Yen loan for a UK property.... All to my financial detriment....

I did a private coaching session with Ben about 6 years ago, he set me up with IDECO and Nisa investing in low cost funds, this was the best money I have ever spent and have not looked back. Thanks!! Ben much appreciated!!

I think this short story would be incredibly informative to others, and it would make a nice long-form article. If you write yourself, you should throw it up on Medium or the like!

The schadenfreude will enthrall others, and some may come away informed!

Sure, or maybe we should have a new category, what not to do based on peoples experiences . Of course no company names mentioned to keep it safe

[concerned]

Been in Japan for a while now and have made all the mistakes, used 2-3 different financial advisors in Tokyo , invested in off-shore funds, and did a Yen loan for a UK property.... All to my financial detriment....

I did a private coaching session with Ben about 6 years ago, he set me up with IDECO and Nisa investing in low cost funds, this was the best money I have ever spent and have not looked back. Thanks!! Ben much appreciated!!

If you don't mind me asking, how were you able to do a Yen loan for a UK property? it wasn't through the now defunct Lloyds expat loan service. I have always gone through UK building societies with pound sterling loans. The only experience with different currency mortgages was with my Polish sister-in-law who took out a Swiss Franc mortgage for a flat in Poland- it didn't end well, fortunately it wasn't for a such a large sum.

The Yen loan was introduced to me by a Financial advisor in Tokyo, who has links to a bank in Singapore, this was mid 2000's. The UK property at the time had about 20 units, so there were 20 of us who do this... And yep it did not end well for many...

[Adamakin86]

Those Ebooks for 2000yen were a complete steal! I started my NISA last year (I know! Far too slow in getting it sorted) and I’m already feeling much more secure about my future.

Getting my UK pension voluntary payments sorted too. It only took HMRC 5 months to reply. Haha

All thanks to Ben and this community!

[mikele3]

After many many years wondering, inquiring, searching the web about how one would go about saving for retirement, I randomly found the RetireJapan blog and learned about NISA and iDeco, which led me to learn about Rakuten Securities, meanwhile I learned what index funds were and eventually, with the help of Ben's coaching session first and the forum later... I managed to start investing in NISA... better late than never I guess.

... just the other day, thanks to Ben's video on youtube, I managed to setup the tsumitate portion of 2024 NISA for both me and my wife.

a big THANK YOU! to Ben and to everybody that contributes to this forum.