Financial planners help ensure that you manage your money efficiently and make the right financial decisions. If you’re living in Tokyo or anywhere else in Japan, it’s important to break through the language barrier by finding someone offering financial planning in Japan who speaks English. And although on the surface it seems like much effort is being made to learn the language, at the end of the day Japan remains a country with one of the lowest rates of English proficiency.
Time is limited, and it’s highly valuable. Spending time making mistakes with your money leads to significant time lost- time lost making the mistakes, and the time that it will take to earn back the money. You have your specialities, and a financial planner has theirs, along with the knowledge and skills to:
- Answer your financial questions
- Review your options
- Access international investments
If you want to make smart financial decisions, you should work with a professional that can help you make the right choices with your money.
English-Speaking Financial Planners Break Down Barriers
Japan is filled with great investing opportunities for international investors and families alike. If you don’t speak Japanese, you may not work well with a non-English speaking planner.
Certain aspects or benefits of the investment may go overlooked or be lost in translation, leading you to not fully understanding what you can expect from the investment.
The barrier that exists can be removed and the questions you may have can all be answered with the help of the right planner.
Access to International Investments
If you only work with a financial planner in your native country, they will not have a pulse on the international markets. The benefit of working with a planner in Japan is that they have the ability to open up international markets to you.
Returns on Japanese investments are unimpressive at best and poor at worst when compared with international alternatives. Cash deposits return a soul-destroying 0.01% p.a and bonds produce similarly low returns. The ability to access a wealth of new investments is more than enough reason to speak to a financial advisor in Tokyo.
Look to diversify into different markets, currencies and asset classes to ensure that your money is well positioned to grow.
Make Sense of Your Finances
People easily lose track of their finances. No matter where you’re located in the world, one small error in your finances can have a drastic impact on your current and future financials. Making sense of these finances becomes even more difficult if you’re living in Tokyo or outside of your home country.
Multiple accounts, spread across a number of institutions, can lead to even greater financial confusion.
Trying a DIY approach to finances is often the go-to route for people until the process becomes far too complicated. Once your finances are out of control, you may be stuck making poor decisions that dramatically impact your financial future.
An advisor can help you:
- Consolidate retirement accounts in a way that makes more sense
- Consolidate all of your brokerage accounts in one place
- Get a form understanding of where and how you’re spending your money
Oftentimes, when a person has money in the bank, they’re not sitting there trying to balance their checkbooks as long as their money “looks good”. An English speaking financial planner in Japan can take the time to help you understand where you have money coming in and where money is coming out.
Even better, you’ll have a financial plan that is actionable for you that will result in you having the lifestyle that you want.
For example, let’s assume that you live off of a retirement account that allows you to reside in Tokyo, Japan. You don’t want to deplete these funds, so you’ll need to spend time understanding how much money you can spend on your lifestyle and any changes that you need to make to cut back on expenses.
Develop a Financial Strategy
Financial strategies are not easy to create on your own. The strategies you develop can lead you to making smart investments or spending more money than you can. A common mistake that people make is to assume that their one-time financial checkup will last a lifetime.
Markets and personal circumstances change, so financial decisions need to change too.
A comprehensive investment strategy will allow you to get closer to financial freedom. Perhaps your portfolio will be comprised of income generating investments that can help you live a comfortable life and remain financially independent.
Ongoing support from an English-speaking financial planner in Japan will allow you to sleep well at night and have peace of mind that your financial situation is stable.
Portability if You Relocate
An advisor should discuss your international plans and portability in the event that you leave Japan. Expats that change course often and decide to pick up and leave a country on a whim should seek out a planner that ensures:
- International portability
- Ease of moving
The goal is to have investments that can easily be accessed and liquidated worldwide. When you have portability on your side, it enables you to relocate with full financial freedom.
Anyone with an international family can benefit greatly from added portability.
Make Big Financial Decisions with Confidence
Every decision you make with your money is either a good or bad decision. There are a lot of decisions people make or avoid making without enough information. Big financial decisions, such as maintaining a part-time or full-time job or buying a property in Tokyo is easier when you have a comprehensive financial plan.
These big financial decisions allow you to:
- Make alternative decisions that you may not have made otherwise
- Run risk simulations to ensure you don’t run out of money
Peace of mind and reduced stress are also possible when a financial planner works with you on your finances. There’s a lot that you can do to reduce your risks and stress when moving abroad. Japan offers a fantastic life for people from all over the world but their financial needs are rarely met by the small and unappealing group of investment products available here.
Financial planning, especially in your own language, ensures that you have the ability to make the best decisions with your money. When it comes to living abroad, working with someone that understands international markets and opportunities available is well worth the cost.
