Investing Practice
Trump Tariffs Wiped $50K From My Portfolio. I Did Nothing.
A Japanese index fund investor lost $50K in the 2025 tariff shock. Eight years of buy-and-hold experience explained why doing nothing was the right call.
Read more
Blog
Articles about wealth building, investing, and saving
Tax & Systems
Children's NISA Japan 2027: ¥600K Limit, Eligibility & Should You Open One Before Your Own?
Japan's Children's NISA (Kodomo NISA) launches January 2027 — ¥600K annual / ¥6M lifetime tax-free for kids 0-17. The math says splitting your contribution between adult and child NISA gives identical returns, so fill your own first. But there's one reason to open one anyway — and otoshidama is how you fund it.
Read more
Tax & Systems
Tax Season Is Here. As an Index Investor With $130K in Unrealized Gains, I Had Almost Nothing to Do
8 years of index investing, $130K in unrealized gains, zero investment tax work. Here's exactly how e-Tax works and why I still file every year.
Read more
Investing Practice
I Haven't Sold a Single Index Fund Since 2018. My Unrealized Gains Hit $130K
Eight years of dollar-cost averaging into US index funds with zero sells. From $2K unrealized losses to $130K in gains — the full timeline.
Read more
The Journey
I Check My Portfolio at 4 AM. If It's Up, I Stare. If It's Down, I Close the App
I check the S&P 500 at 4 AM every morning. If it's up, I stare for 5 minutes. If it's down, I close the app. My 8-year index investing routine.
Read more
Family & Money
We Invest 62% of Our Take-Home Pay — Here's Our Entire Dual-Income Budget
Real budget of a Japanese dual-income couple: $4K take-home, $2,500/mo into index funds, $1,300 on food. Every yen exposed.
Read more
Investing Practice
Index Investing Barely Grows for the First 3 Years. Year 5 Changed Everything
The first 3 years of index fund investing felt like nothing happened. $1,000/month, barely any growth. Then compound interest kicked in at year 5.
Read more
Mindset
Salary Comparison in Your 40s: How Index Fund Investing Cured My Promotion Envy
My peer got promoted to director — 40+ extra hours a month. I stayed put and invested instead. How building a ¥30M portfolio through index funds made promotion envy disappear, and why work-life balance won.
Read more
Family & Money
You Don't Need to Agree on Money to Build Wealth as a Couple
A frugal husband and a comfort-first wife. How opposite money mindsets helped us build ¥50 million in 8 years.
Read more
Investing Practice
The Day I Hit Sell on a $14,000 Loss — My Hands Were Shaking
Lost ¥2 million ($14K) on a single telecom stock. The panic, the shaking hands, and how that failure led me to index funds.
Read more