Be careful, be aware, be firm To my great shame, I fell for a telephone scam the other day. Normally I am very careful. At home, I use my phone sales technique. At work, I tell people we don't accept cold

A surprisingly good deal? This post is for UK nationals only, I'm afraid :) Recently I've been reading about the UK social security system, particularly the New State Pension. This is thanks to Gareth

Big talk for such a small book This book, written by Andrew Tobias, makes a bold claim: this is the only book you need to read about personal finance. That assumes you are not interested in the subject

It's only money I had a minor traffic accident the other day. Well, I didn't, but someone else did and it might have been my fault. It ended up more expensive than we were thinking so we will probably

Someone's been a very bad boy I often say the tax office is one of the best public offices to deal with in Japan. Staff are polite, helpful, and supportive. They don't seem to see their job as getting

The new edition of the best guide I'm a big fan of Minako Takekawa, a financial journalist, author, and speaker. Hope to make it to an event and meet her one of these days. In the meantime I will have

A "conversation" with Desmond P. A new type of blog post for you today. This is a slightly edited version of an email exchange I had with Desmond P. a couple of months ago about the pension system

Good film, not much personal finance I watched Money Monster on a plane headed for Europe (along with four other films -seems like I only ever watch films on planes now). It's a good film. Engaging story

Here's how we stop them... for good I've always hated telephone cold calls. Maybe there is someone out there that is just waiting for yet another company to call them with a great deal if they switch their

Short daily newsletter about financial topics A friend told me about Finimize in August, and I've been subscribing to it ever since. Basically they send you a short (3 minutes or less to read) email every

You get to have your cake and eat it I learned something new (and important) last week, so I want to share it with you today. So last Monday I was involved in a minor traffic accident (thankfully not much

Houston, we have a serious problem... Today's post is about a serious and common situation: when your partner or spouse is not on the same page as you regarding money. I promised to write about my experience

RetireJapan is now firmly on the map A couple of months ago I saw a comment about the Personal Finance Bloggers Map, and got in touch to ask them to add RetireJapan. Well, it seems we have arrived :) There

I wouldn't take it literally The Next Big Investment Boom is for people who are really into investing and enjoy reading about it. This is not a book for beginners. If you are starting out check out the

The 'Vanguard Robo-Advisor' in Japan I wanted to like MSV Life, I really did. After all, it's a collaboration between Vanguard and some Japanese firms (Monex and Saison), it has low minimum investments

Something for US citizens for a change I feel bad. Many of the products and services we talk about here on RetireJapan are not available to US citizens and it's very frustrating sometimes to try and give

Bait and Switch A couple of months ago I read something about rental properties in Japan, which made me start thinking about loans, which made me take a look at some loan comparison sites, which led me

It pays to do your research In personal finance it pays to focus on the big wins. For most people, the biggest expenses are accommodation, transport, insurance. In Japan for a lot of people mobile phones

If you have been paying into it, that is... Ever since 1986 it has been compulsory for people living in Japan to pay into the national pension scheme. Compulsory but not enforced. That seems to be changing,

Saving for Two? RetireJapan: I'm really pleased to have another reader profile for you today. John very kindly shares his story with us below, and seems to be making an excellent start on saving and investing