Until I, a housewife with nothing who kept searching for something, encountered investing

Moving to where my husband was transferred, spending days in an unfamiliar land with just my baby who couldn't even speak yet.

I didn't know what I should be doing, and I just felt like I was being left behind by the times, all alone.

The only way I had to relieve stress was online shopping.

Whether it was going out to eat or going to the hospital, I had to drive for over an hour to get to a big city.

While living as a full-time housewife,

"I want to work," "I want to interact with people," "Isn't there a way to earn money for the things I like?"

I thought about these things over and over.

But, raising a child alone in a rural area. My husband was too busy to rely on, and my parents' home was 200 kilometers away.

I often told my husband this:

> "You can talk to your colleagues at work, but I'm alone with the baby, and my day ends without talking to anyone, you know?"

……Well, there's nothing that can be done about it, though ꉂ🤣𐤔

In the midst of that, I tried things like going to a gas station in the middle of the night to do a mystery shopper (secret investigation).

I tried things like being a product tester for cosmetics.

Looking back now, it wasn't so much that I wanted money, but perhaps...

I wanted to reclaim a version of myself that wasn't just a "baby's mother"...

or a version of myself that wasn't just an accessory to my husband.

Then, a turning point arrived.

My husband's next transfer location was, surprisingly, near my hometown.

By this time, I had become a mother of three boys.

It just so happened that at the kindergarten bus stop, a mom friend mentioned, "We're going to build a house," and...

that led to my husband and me saying,
"Should we go take a look at a housing exhibition too?"

We went half-jokingly, but... before we knew it, we were building a house in my hometown too!

Even though we were living paycheck to paycheck (lol).

We built the house with the concept of a "house with low running costs."

And strangely enough, with a household budget that should have been stretched thin, for some reason, we started being able to save a little bit of money.

Well, we did take out a loan, so it's not like we have plenty of extra money, though 🤔

But I thought, "This must be temporary."

So, the year my youngest turned three—2018.

I decided, "Alright, I'll put them in kindergarten and start working!"💪✨

Since it's my hometown, both my parents and my husband's parents live nearby,

and I finallyhad a "place to turn to for support".

However, I've never been good at relying on others😅

So I decided, "I'll try my best not to rely on them as much as possible!" and started working.

It was also around this time that, by starting to work, I began to think about money a little more freely.

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After we built our house,

I created a "home account" on Instagram to start gathering information, and that's when I encountered

"Tsumitate NISA".

Honestly, at the time, I only had the image that "stocks equal scary" and "everyone lost money when the bubble burst."

"Why would anyone invest when there's a risk of losing money?"

Perhaps the first feeling many in our generation have is that "stocks are somehow scary."

Even now, when I recommend it to friends, they often say it seems "difficult" or "maybe scary."

I think in everyone's minds, "stocks" have become mixed up with "gambling like pachinko or horse racing."

The world of stocks is one where you watch price movements all day, shouting "It went up!" or "It went down!" as large sums of money move—

I feel like many people have that kind of image.

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🌱 Reasons why I decided to try Tsumitate NISA

1. It is a system recommended by the government, so it feels secure.

2. While there is a risk that the principal may decrease, there is no risk of ending up in debt.

3. It is a chance to make the 20% tax on profits "tax-free."

4. I was terrified by my future pension amount...

...I would like to write about this in more detail later.

...I wonder if my generation and the younger ones know the pension amount they will receive at age 65 (as Category 3 housewives)...

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💭 So, if you're going to do it, which one will you choose?

1. US stocks mainly, if possible ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) index type

2. Be conscious of diversified investment as much as possible

I'm so indecisive (lol)

For now, although I'm timid, I also have a bold side, so I decided to buy a few index funds and one active fund.

Thinking back now, why did I challenge myself to buy an active fund? lol

But, I heard it on TV a lot back then...
"Hifumi Plus"

I'm glad I bought this one!

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Being simple-minded, I started there, thinking, "If it's a system promoted by the government, it shouldn't be a bad thing🤔".

I didn't know it at the time, but when you make a profit from stocks and cash it out, about 20% of the profit is deducted as tax in a regular brokerage account.

But with Tsumitate NISA, it's tax-free!

For example, if you make a profit of 30,000 yen—

In a regular account, about 6,000 yen is deducted as tax.

What if the profit becomes 1 million yen?

Surprisingly, 200,000 yen would go to taxes.

Many people might think, "No way, there's no way I'd make a profit of 1 million yen..."

But in reality, among those who have been doing it for a long time, there are people whose investments have grown that much.

Actually, at this moment, my NISA has a profit of about 3.5 million yen.

If this weren't a Tsumitate NISA, about 700,000 yen of that would have disappeared as taxes.

The first thing I heard, that I could invest up to 400,000 yen per year,

felt to me, as someone who wanted to earn about 1 million yen a year working part-time at the time,

like an amount that was 'a little... no, actually quite reachable if I worked hard'.

Thinking that, in November 2018,

I took the plunge and invested 400,000 yen all at once in just two months!

I had also vaguely heard the advice that 'dollar-cost averaging is good,' so

from the following year, I decided to steadily accumulate investments every month.

Although I cannot fill the entire tax-free quota of the current new NISA,

I strangely felt convinced that 'if it's 33,333 yen a month, totaling 400,000 yen a year, I can somehow manage it'.

For some reason, at that time, I didn't feel like I would lose.

It happens sometimes, doesn't it?

That strange feeling that everything you do will go well. I started to think, 'Investing might not just be scary, but something that can become an ally if you understand how it works'.

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Thank you for reading until the end.

If anything resonated with you, I would be happy if you could connect with me by clicking 'Like' or 'Follow'. I look forward to seeing you in the next article.

Miki Ima