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The story
A thread heated up over how much people are contributing to Japan’s new NISA tax-free investment program. Someone taking home over ¥1 million a month complained that putting ¥300,000 into NISA every month was straining their finances, while others taking home only around ¥200,000 a month called even small monthly contributions “NISA poor” — prompting the observation that the same phrase carries a totally different weight depending on income. The discussion gradually drifted into practical territory: how to split contributions between the “growth” and “tsumitate” (regular installment) allowances, and whether brokerages let you front-load your annual contribution in one lump sum at the start of the year. One SBI Securities user reported that this “doesn’t seem possible” with their broker.
What people said
Then again, if your body can't move, that's exactly when money can solve problems.
Exactly BECAUSE your body can't move is why you need money, duh.
It's not tragic once you're dead though
you're already dead at that point.
Take-home ¥200k: "NISA poor lmaooo"
Well, that's just how it is.
Putting ¥300k/month into NISA — does that mean ¥100k in the tsumitate (installment) allowance and ¥200k in individual stocks under the growth allowance?
Pretty sure it's just splitting ¥300k total between the tsumitate allowance and the growth allowance.
Ever think you could do that AND keep investing at the same time?
You can study English without spending money, you know.
So you're going abroad?
Isn't the tsumitate allowance capped at ¥100k a month?
Nah? Japan's easier to live in.
Re: #42
Just put the rest into the growth allowance.
The ¥200k portion doesn't have to be individual stocks either — an all-country index fund like eMAXIS Slim All Country works fine too.
The income's different though.
Rent's different too, so your standard of living ends up about the same either way. If you're gonna do something about it, working for a foreign company would be better.
If both income and spending double, your savings double too.
For the growth allowance, why not just buy the full ¥2.4M in one shot?
That depends on your assets and investment strategy.
Instead of the hassle of doing ¥300k every single month, I think it'd be way less of a pain to just do ¥2.4M in the growth allowance and ¥100k/month in the tsumitate allowance.
People who do that already have the money sitting in a taxable account. If your income drops to zero or you're done putting more into investments, moving it all from the taxable account into NISA in one lump sum at the start of the year makes sense. But otherwise you'd just end up contributing to the taxable account anyway, so it's pointless or barely makes a difference.
Also, technically, you don't have to contribute to the tsumitate allowance every month either — depending on your settings, you can front-load it all at the start of the year too.
I was told ¥100k/month was the cap — is that wrong?
Wait, seriously? You can front-load the whole tsumitate allowance at the start of the year?
Then I want to do a lump sum right now.
The Nikkei's cheap right now, and it'll probably break 100,000 before long.
The lifetime cap is ¥18 million, right?
Past that you're just relying on regular investment returns like anyone else — NISA doesn't even factor in anymore.
What are you even talking about?
Makes zero sense.
Having around ¥18 million invested is pretty normal
I don't get why everyone's making such a fuss
I mean, it's called NISA because you're counting on the tax-free treatment in the first place.
Honestly, I still can't tell what point you're trying to make.
Well, maybe it's fine to have fun once you've filled up your ¥18M NISA cap.
Re: #62
Depends on the broker, but if you set a "bonus contribution" of something like ¥2.6M in January, you can basically do it as a lump sum.
Technically the rules leave ¥100 worth remaining each month, but it's effectively a one-time lump sum.
Looked into it, but seems like it's not possible with SBI, which is what I use.
Might just go for a lump-sum contribution. Though I'm torn on whether to wait for a crash first.
Historically speaking, the earlier you get your money into the market the better, so lump-sum is considered the statistically "correct" answer. But for peace of mind, I personally think it's better to lump-sum the growth allowance and dollar-cost average the tsumitate allowance.
Put it this way — if your 100 becomes 500 and then drops to 300, are you gonna go "crash incoming!" and buy the dip?
Cute 😄 ("kawachii" — a cutesy, deliberately mispronounced spelling of kawaii)
Background and Key Points
Japan’s new NISA program, launched in 2024, is structured around a “tsumitate” (regular installment) investment allowance of ¥1.2 million a year, a “growth” investment allowance of ¥2.4 million a year, and a combined lifetime tax-free holding limit of ¥18 million. What split the thread was the difference in financial “stamina” needed to fill that allowance. Contributing ¥300,000 a month feels completely different to someone taking home over ¥1 million a month than a small monthly contribution does to someone taking home around ¥200,000 a month — yet both situations got lumped together under the same phrase, “NISA poor.” On the practical side, there’s a persistent misconception that the tsumitate allowance is capped at ¥100,000 a month, but depending on the brokerage, features like a “bonus contribution” setting can let you front-load the full ¥1.2 million at the start of the year — though one SBI Securities user reported that doing so isn’t straightforward through the usual method. Overall, the thread showed just how much investors’ understanding of the system varies from person to person.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch “Nandemo Jikkyō G” (Live Galileo) board thread “NISA Poor lmaoooooooooooooooo.”
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