About me (English)

After having worked in IT industry in Tokyo as a marketing analyst/strategist, I left my job to move to a beautiful town called Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2000.  It was a move due to my husband’s accepting a job offer, and my life has changed 180 degrees ; from a busy working mom to a stay-at-home mom taking care of a 2 year old.

My husband and I had been dual income partners equally contributing to the family economy and sharing household tasks before the move.  Now he was the bread winner and I was suddenly in charge of anything other than winning the bread… and there was so much to do!

Once in a while (well, maybe a little more than that, I admit…) I was in a complaining mode and was sort of envious of my husband building up his “glorious” career.  After a while, however, I decided that my job was to use what he brought home in a responsible way, put it in work for our future, and build a safety net to protect our family.

I realized that managing personal financial matters require a variety of related information, planning skills and decision making, and found a similarity between what I used to be doing in my job and what I now had to do as a CFO of the household.

As you might already know, the life is full of financial decision making; buying home, picking a mortgage, securing an equity line, maintaining credit history, maintaining the house, remodeling the house, tax planning, filing tax, retirement planning, college planning, insuring the family, taking the full advantage of insurance, being in a mediation with a contractor, moving the family across the continent, preparing a will…it goes on.  Each time, I avidly collected information, analyzed the situation, compared alternatives and presented the findings to my husband, so that we were able to brainstorm and find the best course of action.  We made a few mistakes but we know we did our best.

I learned that it is imperative to know our rights as employee, consumer and citizen, and maintain a proactive attitude towards our own personal financial choices.  I started Smart &Responsible in October, 2011, with a hope that it be a place for information sharing and mutual learning about personal finance.  My role here is not one as a specialist, but rather one as a fellow CFO of household.

Junko Iwasaki CPA/PFS MS, Smart & Responsible

 

Short personal history

Born in Aichi prefecture, Japan.  BA in German Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.  MS in Management, Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.  Worked in NTT, Allied Telesis, and Gartner Japan.  Moved to Charlottesville, Virginia in 2000, and then to Torrance, California in 2009.  Illinois CPA certificate #92837. CPA/PFS#33450. California Investment Adviser#6222963. AICPA Member. A happy member of Rolling Hills Covenant Church.

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