After graduating, I went back to Japan and worked at a call center in Akita city.
My father said this to me when I started working,
"Shohey, listen. Your generation's salary is lower than mine and not increase even though you work hard, but you have a lot of taxes and pensions deductions, and by the time you retire, you might not be getting much of a pension due to lack of younger population to pay, so you must think about how to feed your family and build your retirement fund without relying on your company."
Let me explain background of his and my generation and what he tried to say.
When my father was working in 1970s, Japan had a demographic dividend and a period of rapid economic expansion.
Following this, Japan descended into a "bubble economy", with asset prices such as real estate and equities rising as sky rocket. Salary increases every year, and the "lifetime employment system," in which companies hired people until they retired, was common at the time.
On the other hand when I started working in Japan 2008, though it was a very different situation from when my father was.
Following the collapse of the bubble economy, Japan has entered the "population onus period," in which more people are supported than working adults.
The 1990s era of difficult employment, recession, and the employment ice age was finally gone, and after 2006, which was considered to be the largest economic expansion since World War II, a slow economic rebound was forecast for 2007. Nonetheless, the global financial crisis began in September of that year, with the fall of Lehman Brothers.
I noticed that orders and customers were declining day by day as a result of the recession while attending college class and working as part-time at a Chinese restaurant at the time, so I predicted that finding a job in the United States would be difficult, so I decided to go back to Japan, but it was not completely free of the effects of the financial crisis when I was there.
When my father worked, full-time permanent jobs with large salaries were widespread, but I was a contract employee and my income was the minimum wage, so I took my father's advise. I started reading books and studying about investment which included recommending a book, Robert Kiyosato's "Rich Dad Poor Dad."
Since then, I've been investing in assets.
Initially, I made profits by trading foreign exchange during the Great East Japan Earthquake. Following that, I sought to diversify my holdings by investing in the Japanese stock market. Despite the fact that it was difficult to do so due to the high cost of living, tax, and pension deductions from my monthly salary, I put money aside to invest.
When I was in my 28, I wondered, "How can I make more money?" I talked to a few individuals and was told, "You should do business" and "You should be promoted positions with a better wage," but there was no way to advance at my current employment because I assumed I had no choice when I inquired about my boss's salary.
Following various recommendations, I read various books to reflect on my skills, personality, special skills, and other aspects of my life, and to wonder if there is a better way to live. Meanwhile, I discovered that an increasing number of individuals are relocating outside of Japan due to rising Japanese costs, the Japanese economy, institutional issues, and concerns about old age.
I had the option of "migrating abroad" from there.
Isn't it possible to live a richer life working for a Japanese company and taking passive income from assets in a country where prices are low?
I was the one who came up with the concept.
Furthermore, in light of the current economic scenario, I've studied a number of books on investing, emigration, and retirement planning.
To summarize, what I thought was
(1) Create a method that allows me to invest your earnings in order to continue gaining money.
(2) Receiving salary + passive income in a low-cost country
This is the ideas that how I live now.
Next, I will start journey to find right place to move it.