Articles about wealth building, investing, and saving
Eight years of index investing got me to ~$260K. Six weeks of FP3 study showed me that real estate and inheritance tax were total blindspots. Also: Japan's inheritance tax scares people who don't actually need to worry.
I was waking up at 4am to play games. My wife noticed and suggested I take a financial certification instead. I started studying for Japan's FP cert that day. Here's why a contrarian view of 'experience vs credentials' kicked in immediately.
I'm 46, living in Japan, and I hold roughly $260K in dollar-denominated funds. The weak yen keeps pushing my portfolio to record highs. Here's why I stopped calling that profit.
A 46-year-old salaryman runs the actual numbers on Barista FIRE in 3.5 years. Asset projection, required income, education costs, pension — all of it
1 in 10 Japanese estates now hit inheritance tax — double the rate from a decade ago. A salaryman from a low-income family explains why he supports paying it, while most loudly oppose
What Barista FIRE looks like from inside Japan's salaryman culture: real numbers, real constraints, and why the math surprised me
Japanese variable-rate mortgages have two 'safety' mechanisms that actually hide rate increases behind a fixed payment facade. How they work, and why 80% of Japanese borrowers don't understand what they signed.
Japan started collecting a new childcare support levy from every worker's paycheck in April 2026. I broke down the costs and benefits for my own household — the math surprised me.
A Japanese salaryman with ¥50M in assets breaks down education costs, school choices, and why he refuses to call it an "investment"
Why this dual-income Tokyo family of three spends ¥170K ($1,130) a month on food — twice the national average — and refuses to cut back. Full line-item breakdown.