Gen X Mama

Someone shared these thoughts on insurance:

The thread has covered several issues already. The main point to emphasize is they key for liability insurance is to guarantee that the insurance amount is sufficiently high that the insurance company will settle for at or below that limit or fight it. An umbrella policy will generally get you to that point. That aligns the insurance company's interests with your own.

Umbrella policies, as mentioned, require having car and property insurance. You generally need 500K to 1M for those policies. Umbrella covers over that. It's pretty cheap to get an umbrella for up to 5M. I've never heard more than that recommended. (Anything more than that requires the insurance company obtain reinsurance to cover them.)

For life insurance, you're replacing the income you would generate in the event you die. If you have no dependents, you don't need it. If you have dependents (spouse/children), determine what amount they need in the event you die. If you have that amount, you don't need it. If you don't, you probably do. For someone young with no
health risks, term life is relatively inexpensive. Since the issue
goes away as you get older (assuming you amass a retirement nest egg and your kids leave the nest), term life is generally the way you want to go.

Another insurance issue is disability insurance. We have some through work, but it's another form of coverage that you want to be sure you're covered for if your financial situation requires it.

For any insurance, you want to review your policy each year. Many people have adequate insurance when they buy it but inadequate coverage years later when the use it. This can especially be the case for home insurance.

As mentioned, it's generally best to have the same firm underwrite all three policies; you generally get a discount for doing this, as well. If you live in a condo, it may be helpful to have the firm that underwrites the insurance for the complex to be your insurance carrier for the condo.

As for deductibles, as Val mentioned, have the coverage, but set high deductibles. The bulk of the cost for the insurance disappears and you're covered for the major headaches. (This is why umbrella insurance is so cheap -- it has an effective deductible of 500K to 1M due to the car/property insurance policies. They rarely get paid out, so the policy cost is comparatively low.)

I haven't been to Peru, but when I was doing research, here are some tips people gave me...

Definately plan a
lot of time in the Sacred Valley - Machu Picchu is
definately not the only thing to see there. There is
this 10 site pass you can get and it really makes
sense to try to do them all.

I have to say that Huaraz was also amazing - the
others didn't get a chance to visit but I did take a
few days in the beginning and went up for some Glacier
hikes in the Cordillera Blanca. Absolutely
BREATHTAKING. But no ruins. More natural spendor
than ancient history...

If you don't speak Japanese, it's going to be hard to find a job in Japan unless you want to work teaching english, recruiting, writing or are ultra senior in your field. That being said, here are some resources that I used:

Metropolis - good English mag that you should pick up every week http://metropolis.japantoday.com/default.asp

http://www.careercross.com/english/showemployersearchresult.php?Employer
ID=16620 http://www.careercross.com/en/

Daijob
www.daijob.com

Japan Inc.
www.japaninc.net

East-West consulting
http://www.ewc.co.jp/en/

Oak Associates
http://oakassociates.jp/

Japan Partnerships
http://www.asiapartners.net/

Asia Net
http://www.asia-net.com/

Publications:
- Japan Times - every Mondy look through the want ads
- Asahi International; Herald Tribune

Other suggestions that I've received:

- Attend American Chamber of Commerce (ACCJ) events
- Attend International Computer Association events - they have monthly dinners
- Attend Foreign Correspondent club - dinners every 3rd Thursday of every month
- Mingle with Kaisha Society - foreign correspondents; youngish people
- Mingle with Forum of Foreign Communicators - media oriented; advertising
- Mingle with Foreign Executive Women (FEW)
- Translate your resume into Japanese

Companies such as Princeton Review also hire a lot of expats.

look in business directories for recuiters and search firms

Make sure to translate your resume to Japanese. Even if you don't read or speak Japanese, the recruiter might see something in your background that they didn't understand in English.

I always get confused about this.
1 kilobyte (KB) = 1024 bytes
1 megabyte (MB) = 1024 KB
1 gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB

so 1 gigabyte - 1,048,576 KB