Illustration of a man walking up stairs made of stacks of cash while reading a paper. Another man falls down similar stairs with the paper over his face

Illustration: Satoshi Kambayashi

Nov 12th 2025|4 min read

Like many people, your columnist spends a lot of time looking forward to the Saturday following his payday. How could he not? It is the most exciting one of the whole month: time to update the household accounts. Separate spreadsheets monitor cash accounts, pension pots, portfolio allocations and expected returns. An especially thrilling sheet keeps tabs on a mortgage and all the puzzles it raises, such as when to overpay or refinance. Each monthly update takes an hour or so. But you can have fun with the graphs for far longer.

Signage for Mizuho Bank Ltd., a unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MHFG), at one of the bank's branches in Tokyo, Japan.

In defence of personal finance