In my yesterday's entry, I wrote that my friend asked me how I saved money in my late 20s. Actually, I started thinking about saving money seriously was in my early 20s.
When I started working in Japan in my early 20s, I lived in a company dorm, which was very inexpensive. I didn't have to spend money for apartment rental fee, and I didn't own my car back then, so my expense was pretty low. It was super easy for me to save money. Five months later, I started going to a driving school to get a driver's license. In Japan, in order to get driver's license, you must go to driving school and pass all exam. It takes about one to two months if you take classes everyday, and it costs about two to three thousand dollars. After getting driver's license, I bought a brand new car by cash because I was told by grandfather that loan was evil. However, after purchasing a car, I realized that owning car cost a lot of money such as insurance, motor vehicle tax, maintenance fee, gas fee, tall road fee and etc. Yet, I could still save money every month because I didn't have to pay apartment fee.
One day, I decided to have a second job to improve my professional skill. At the work place, one of my coworkers who was about 60 years old woman told me about money. She told me, "You are very young. It's important to start saving money in your early age. You will should have saved up 10,000,000 yen (about $100,000) until you get married, so you can pay for your wedding reception fee and down payment for your future home." Before that, I had thought saving money was pretty easy, but I had never thought I should save such an extreme amount of money. I thought it's impossible!
In my main job, my other coworker who was also about 60-year woman told me, "Most young people often eat out and become gourmet, but they end up spending too much money. It's very important to save money in your young age in order to get financial freedom in the future." She also told me, "If you want to save money, eating at home is the most important. For instance, if you eat out, it's easy to spend 1,000 to 2,000 yen (about $10 to $20) at one time, but if you cook, it cost only 100 yen to 500 yen (about $1 to $5) for several meals. If you cook every day for a month, you could save a lot of money than others. More you cook, more you can save. Cooking is not easy at first, but you will get used to it soon."
I thought it's true what experienced older women told me about. I took seriously what they advised me. Since then, I've started calculating how much I could save in years. If truth be told I was not able to save up such a huge money until we got married, but it was always my first goal. Actually, it was our goal, and we both had same idea about it. Because I had the extreme goal at age 22, I needed to think about saving money seriously.
Indeed, it was not easy at all. I moved out from my company dorm after three years and worked different places to improve my career. My income was pretty lower for a year than my previous job, and our expense went up because of apartment fee. It was not easy for me to save money with low income and high expense, but I kept trying to save money every month at least a little. When my income increased, I didn't significantly change my life style. I always lived frugally, but we kept spending money for traveling and our education, which were our part of investment I thought.
When my friend who I mentioned in my yesterday's entry and I were late 20s, she had no saving and had financial trouble, but I didn't. It's because I really knew how to spend money wisely. My husband and I were able to save money every month for our unknown future. Before we moved out from Japan, we enjoyed traveling around Europe and Hokkaido, where we really wanted to travel for many years.
Next time, I will write about how to start saving money.
These are my entries you might like.
1. Why Couldn't You Save Money?
2. Start Saving Money In Your Early 20s
3. 3 Steps : How to Start Saving Money
4. Cost of Eating Out vs Eating at Home
5. 9 Ways to Save Money on Food - Grocery Shopping
6. 8 Tips to Save Money on Foods - Cooking
My entries related to money can be seen here.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/money
My entries related to cooking can be seen here.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/cooking
This is my entries related to my favorite recipes.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/recipes
My entries related to Japan can be seen here.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/Japan
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