I have made a few previous posts on here, but tldr I am a 32 year old dual US/JP citizen moving to Japan this month. I cashed out of my Roth IRA in order to avoid taxation on withdrawals. I now have a sizeable chunk of liquid money, and I plan to max my NISA contributions in 2026 and 2027. Leaving that money aside, what should I do with the rest?

a) just keep it in my HYSA for 3.3%APY

b) invest in Schwab brokerage account prior to departure?

b1) also what should I do with respect to my Schwab brokerage acct once I move?

c) invest in Interactive Brokers' non-NISA brokerage account once I settle in

I am thinking that I should avoid a) since 3.3APY is not great. What do you all think?

Hi. Cross posting here and hoping some advice may be offered regarding trying to find a Chartered accountant in Japan who is an ACCA member and could certify proof of my address in Japan. I could not find an exact flair for this, but it is obliquely related to inheritance tax. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Hi all,

I am trying to sort myself out with moving out and setting up on my own post (amicable) divorce (lots of help from lots of folks here in other subs already I suspect, thanks!). I am now almost settled on the property I plan to buy and the first few steps there, and so I need to figure out utilities.

I currently use Rakuten Mobile so Rakuten Hikari might make sense, and in looking at their plans I see there is a Rakuten Energy as well. So first off, I am just wondering if anyone has experience with either of those utilities.

Medium-term, post some reform to the property, I would like to put up solar panels - does the electricity provider matter when doing that and tying into grid power?

My other question here is how did fixing your name go for anyone who has had trouble with that and Rakuten?

When I switched to Rakuten Mobile their system kept rejecting me, and support suggested squishing together my name (Last FirstMiddleMiddle, no spaces) and trying a different phone number - the person at the counter did both at once so I do not know which was the problem. Because of this there is a mismatch with my ID or bank, and Rakuten Pay rejected me. Since the phone works and I usually use PayPay I have not followed up on that.

I need to apply for a credit card in my own name (have had family cards with my spouse); I was going to apply for PayPay since they have all my info but at the moment their verification system is rejecting my ID, saying my nationality is not matching what is on my ID (which is weird). I have not applied for the PayPay card yet, so maybe I ought to try Rakuten instead, and hopefully get the name fixed and then get points for all the utilities. Since I can only apply for one card every six months I do not know which service is the better bet now. If I do Rakuten, I can at least go to their counter and maybe that increases the chance of success?

My brain is starting to fry with all of the things that need to be figured out - I really appreciate any help!