May 25, 2021
Investing While in Japan
I wanted to know if any of you are currently investing while in Japan and how you are doing it. I am curious for two reasons: Retirement Short Term investment If you are investing, are you doing it through Japan or through your home country. I plan on staying in Japan, but for lack of understanding, I am thinking if I should start a 401K in America instead. Any advice is appreciated.
Teacher, Traveler, Dancer -
Currently living in Gifu -
I love Japan, dance, cats, food, and fashion!
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on May 26
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on May 27
I've been late to the party with investing, but I'm doing it via a US-based company since we're most likely to return there after our time in Japan. I'm personally not confident enough to invest here in Japan (too much of a language barrier for me!), and also because I'm not staying in Japan forever.
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on May 27
I've been investing the maximum ($6000) into a Roth IRA in the US every year. If it's through an online brokerage account, you can hold it as a long term investment, like a "lifecycle" ETF for low maintenance. That way it will earn more dividends and interest than just cash. For Japanese investments, I've been leaning more towards buying land and building a house to retire in. This is overwhelming but much more interesting to me than stock investing. Plus, it's so cheap here compared with the US right now.
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on Jun 1
I haven't invested, but I plan to do it in my home country because I know the rules there more than Japan. I feel like if ever I invest in Japan and there are some anomalies or problems I will have difficulty dealing with them, ie. language barrier. However, I do have a pension plan in my home country.
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on Dec 21
An update on this, I ended up starting an account through https://www.acorns.com/. It's pretty easy and for anyone with kids you can also set up their "Early Invest" accounts to get them started early. Only works for US Citizens or Permanent Residents (I have PR there, my husband/kids are citizens).
5 Answers