9 Things to Give Away Before You Turn 65 — Japanese Elders Do It, Even If It Hurts

If your kids already said no to the house: https://twohousesbook.com My mother's gift ledger, the seal she put in my hand at twelve, and eight one-week assignments that move one object at a time. 543 pages, 96 chapters, every claim sourced. $47 early-bird, 30-day refund. I grew up in a Japanese house. I've now lived in America longer than I lived in Japan. Everyone says grown children turn down the china because their generation has no feeling for things. That's not it. They were offered a full house, all at once, with nobody standing beside it to say what anything was. In the house I grew up in, things leave early, by hand, one at a time, each to a named person at a known age, with a sentence attached. This one walks through nine handovers: who receives each one in Japan, how old everyone is when it moves, and what your version looks like in an American house. The last part is about a ten-dollar piece of wood my mother gave me when I was twelve, and the three lines folded inside the case. I'll give America this one: your daughter can say no thanks to your face, and a Japanese daughter-in-law really can't. That no stings, and it is also the most useful thing anyone will tell you this year. If you make it to the end, leave one word in the comments: done. And tell me which of the nine would be hardest for you to hand over. The tax paragraph is general information, not tax or legal advice. Ask whoever does your taxes before giving away anything that has grown in value. Sources named in the video: Elizabeth Stewart's top-ten list of objects adult children refuse (Forbes / Next Avenue, 2018); Japan's Civil Code, Article 897, and the pre-1947 household retirement provisions; Japan's National Tax Agency gift-tax rules; the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Chapters 0:00 your children said no to the whole house 0:33 a photograph with somebody else in it 1:20 the good dishes, and the holiday that goes with them 2:30 what the people who empty houses say nobody wants 4:15 the dress in the sealed box 5:57 the tools, and the writing on the lid 7:31 the recipe nobody has asked you for 9:28 try this without getting up 11:09 the big dark piece, and the honest no 13:00 the one thing only an American house still has 14:25 the ninth one you can't pick up and carry 15:42 why sixty, and what was folded inside the case 19:01 one envelope, tonight #JapaneseCulture #Downsizing #Declutter #LivingInJapan #JapanVsAmerica