So as some of J-Gaf might or might not know, most places here require you to pay into the Japanese pension (nenkin) system.
The big thing is that you can get a partial refund back of the money you paid in once you leave Japan. It's a lump sum of around $10,000 or so from what I hear.
Two things make me hesitant to do this.
1) I've been paying into the pension system for about 6 years, and the refund only goes up to the amount you paid in for 3 years, meaning that I would lose about half of it.
2) I am an American, and apparently the US has a special deal where you can transfer the amount of time you've paid into the Japanese pension system to the US social security system, meaning should I choose to go back and work in the US until I retire, I will have those 6 years as paid.
So I essentially have two options at this point. Cash out, or transfer my money into the US social security program.
This might seem like an obvious choice, but I'm very much considering cashing out because I'm really not sure if I'm going to continue living/working in either of those countries.
Plus it seems like both the US social security and Japanese pension system are both going to be worthless by the time I can take benefits. That said I don't have any other retirement savings at this point.
So what do you think I should do GAF?
The big thing is that you can get a partial refund back of the money you paid in once you leave Japan. It's a lump sum of around $10,000 or so from what I hear.
Two things make me hesitant to do this.
1) I've been paying into the pension system for about 6 years, and the refund only goes up to the amount you paid in for 3 years, meaning that I would lose about half of it.
2) I am an American, and apparently the US has a special deal where you can transfer the amount of time you've paid into the Japanese pension system to the US social security system, meaning should I choose to go back and work in the US until I retire, I will have those 6 years as paid.
So I essentially have two options at this point. Cash out, or transfer my money into the US social security program.
This might seem like an obvious choice, but I'm very much considering cashing out because I'm really not sure if I'm going to continue living/working in either of those countries.
Plus it seems like both the US social security and Japanese pension system are both going to be worthless by the time I can take benefits. That said I don't have any other retirement savings at this point.
So what do you think I should do GAF?