Articles about mindset
Final installment of my FP cert series. I failed the FP2 written exam once (passed the practical), then passed on retake. Bigger story: every major financial judgment I'd made over 8 years — keeping a mortgage, holding unhedged USD funds — was written into the FP2 textbook as the correct answer.
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.
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.
Reached $350K in index fund assets after 8 years. The anxiety didn't disappear — it just changed shape. Here's how I cope.
Lost $10K in the dot-com crash at 25, avoided markets for years. The one investing lesson I'd send back in time to my 20-year-old self.