Reading '40 Million Yen in Assets: Escaping Corporate Slavery and Coast FIRE Living'

Authors:
Komutaro (Author), Nobuhiro Terasawa (Author)

Title:
40 Million Yen in Assets: Escaping Corporate Slavery and Coast FIRE Living

I am writing a book review.

Book Overview

This is an account of how the author, Komutaro, a man in his 30s with a wife and children, graduated from corporate life (escaped corporate slavery) with 40 million yen in assets. It feels like a record of his journey to gaining a proactive life by choosing Coast FIRE rather than full FIRE.

The author, Komutaro, says the following:

I felt that the author's candidly expressed changes in state of mind were very helpful. Since everyone feels anxious about the future when they resign, I think getting information from books in advance is a great way to help alleviate that anxiety.

Edison's Words

The inventor Thomas Edison said the following:

Komutaro writes about these words from Edison:

'I felt these words were somewhat like a platitude and could not accept them as my own realization. However, during this period, I understood their meaning for the first time. I was able to quietly accept that it is only through accumulating failures that one understands the true meaning of these words.'

I really empathized with this!

Since I started providing life counseling to many people, I have realized that, surprisingly, people do not take action. It is not that they do not know how to do it, but that they are afraid of failure and do not challenge themselves.

People who do not take action do not succeed or fail. Such people try to succeed by only imitating the know-how of successful people. They try to succeed on the first attempt.

However, many successes are built upon failure. That is why it is common not to succeed on the first try just by following the know-how of successful people.

As Edison said, there is no such thing as failure. Everything serves as a foundation for success. It is because we take action and challenge ourselves, even when things don't go well, that we can be led to success.

Here is an episode from a recent trip.

The stone monument inscribed with 'Because this life will not happen twice' was located on a road that did not appear on the rental car's navigation system.

Since I didn't know it wasn't on the navigation system, I searched for the location relying only on my memory. I eventually found it, but it took a long time of getting lost (failure) before I found it (success).

As I was guiding my friends, I felt a sense of social embarrassment, and it took me 30 minutes to reach a place that should have taken 5 minutes. And that was under the scorching sun.

I think this is one example of how the success you find is meaningful precisely because you experienced the failure of getting lost. It was a moving experience that I will never forget.

Life is all about your mindset

This book candidly describes the wavering feelings of the author, Komutaro. It writes about his struggles and changes in mindset.

There are few textbook-style FIRE arguments that would be the same no matter who wrote them; it is strongly based on n=1. I felt that Komutaro's personal emotions were textualized and expressed at the forefront.

Since he is a YouTuber, I have listened to him many times. Because I am familiar with his voice, I felt as if I were watching a video and he was speaking right into my ear, making it a very comfortable read.

This book does not talk about assets or life in general terms or averages, but faithfully introduces Komutaro's own example.

When I receive consultations, people sometimes tell me, 'Mako-san, your asset level and mindset level are too high to be a reference.' Since there are many FIRE books published in the world, I think you should try to emulate those that you encounter that seem to fit your stage and feel reproducible.

In this case, Komutaro's asset level at the time of his retirement was 40 million yen. I think reading this book is very helpful for understanding the process of reaching that mindset level up to that point.

There are always anti-commenters in the world; they often leave completely misguided comments like '40 million yen is too little to FIRE' or '40 million yen is too much to be a reference at all,' but let's ignore those.

I think this book should simply be read by those for whom Komutaro's level is a useful reference. I don't think it's a book written seeking empathy, so those who are seriously thinking about their own lives should surely be able to find many reference points.

I really empathized with the part where he speaks in a conversational tone, saying, 'In the end, life is all about your mindset.'

You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited. Please click the link below.

Komutaro also appears in the book mentioned in the article below.

Authors:
Komutaro (Author), Nobuhiro Terasawa (Author)

Title:
40 Million Yen in Assets: Escaping Corporate Slavery and Coast FIRE Life

Subtitle:
How Will You Live After FIRE? Side Story: The Komutaro Edition: A 30-something with a wife and child, who impulsively quit his job to escape the misery of being a corporate employee and gained a life of his own. It's okay to live more freely. Resigning broadened my horizons. Living life on my own terms. FIRE Series

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