Hi, I’m Ben Tanaka…
I believe everyone should have control of their financial life. Money should support your lifestyle and goals. It should not be a source of worry and stress.
Are you a resident of Japan? Are you thinking about saving and investing for retirement? Then this site is for you.
It’s hard enough to learn about personal finance in English, let alone in Japanese. That’s why so many people give up or allow financial ‘advisors’ to take advantage of them.
Here you will find information about tax-advantaged accounts like NISA and iDeCo, advice on saving and investing, and thoughts on how to live a richer life while preparing for the future. Sign up for weekly updates using the form below, check out the RetireJapan blog or get the blog RSS feed, or ask a question in the forum.
If you have a bit more time visit the Further Reading page to find a curated list of blogs and books.
Please feel free to get in touch via the contact form if you have any questions. We’re here to help.
Here’s what you should do first
Start with this wonderful free PDF by William Bernstein (thanks, Andy T.). At only 16 pages long, it’s one of the shortest guides to investing, but gives you almost everything you need to know.
After that, you should get these three books, which will get you up to speed on investing — especially for expats.
Millionaire Teacher
by Andrew Hallam
Millionaire Teacher is a simple but highly practical book. It is written by an expat teacher working in Singapore and provides the basics of investing in a readable and highly effective format. This is enough for many people and could be the only book you need to read on the subject.
Read this before you do anything else, then give it to a friend.
Your Money or Your Life
by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
This book is extremely good at one thing: making you realize how much control you could have over your finances. It was probably the first book that made me think about saving and investing, and opened my eyes to the possibility of financial independence.
Unfortunately the investing advice is no longer up to date, but 80% of the book is still gold. Highly recommended.
The Simple Path to Wealth
by JL Collins
Very clearly written and researched, focused on the US. Highly recommended for Americans, non-US citizens/residents will still learn from the mental models but a lot of the detail will not apply.
His website is also well worth your time.