Money Lifestyle Goals

Don’t underestimate how much fun it is to fill up a money box or piggy bank. Do what motivates you.

You can find many articles and YouTube videos that give top ten lists of side hustles for making extra money and even more lists of ways to save money. I know because I regularly consume this kind of content in my free time. But how many times do you just watch these videos, think it would be cool to try some of the ideas, and then you don’t change your habits? It is passive learning that goes in one ear and out the other. Rather than give you a list of ideas you might try if you really felt inspired by my words, I’m going to make you work to figure out your money for yourself. So put down your fork or pause Netflix and pull out a paper and pencil. Do not try this while you are driving, riding a bike, walking, or operating any large machinery. Let’s get started on organizing your financial life in Japan or wherever you are at!

Before I get started, here’s a bit of my money background that will tell you why nothing I say is supported by any sound sources but my own experience. Even if I cannot give you a good reason to trust my advice, the point I want to make is that it is up to you to figure out what works for you and your priorities. Take responsibility for yourself and your money because you do not want anyone else planning for your future.

We will start at the beginning, where I learned early about dealing with money from my parents and books. My parents used to pay me for doing household chores and working in the garden, and that money was all saved until I bought a laptop computer and started college. Then I regularly had very little money in my account, but I avoided debt entirely because of scholarships, cheap costs of living, working part-time, and luck. I developed a strong money mindset at a young age. When I was was fourteen, my favorite book was Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. It has been many years since I read it, but I know my view of both money and goal-making was shaped by that little book’s contents.

One of the main memorable lessons from that book is to not give up without good reason before you make it. Once you make a goal, stick with it to the end. This does not mean that it needs to be rigid, but that you can refine it as you go along. The point is to keep working on it past apathy, boredom, lack of results, and challenges. If you are not getting the right results, you can adjust the goal or your expectations, but keeping going. With money, this means knowing what you want, then figuring out what you will do to get it. Then you will take action. Motivation is key for this process.

I learned from getting paid for my work, saving at a young age, and reading money-related books that it is important to think of money positively in terms of what it can do for you. If you always think of money as something it would be nice to have but you just do not have it, as something some people just have and others don’t, you will not get very far. You need to change your money mindset, and to do that you make goals and think of money as serving a necessary purpose in your life. So got that pencil and paper ready? Let’s start writing.

Money Goal Process

1. Title

Give your goal an inspiring title. Write something that sounds exciting to you, or something obvious, like I usually do, and just put, “Money Saving Summer” and the date at the top of the paper.

2. Priorities

The second step is figuring out your priorities. Especially if you do not already have a clear goal in mind, you will want to figure out what you need in your goal. Money is both a thing in that it has a shape such as paper bills, coins, and numbers on bank statements, but it is also an idea that contains potential. What is your reason to have money? It only has value if you give it value. A hundred dollars can mean something totally different to each person. Let’s discover what you want to do with money by sorting out those priorities.

Step one: Brainstorm. Just set a timer or listen to a couple favorite songs for ten minutes or so and write down every idea that comes to mind. Pick a topic to focus on and then freely write. This topic can be what you would do this week with a million dollars, all the things you want to buy with money in the future, your feelings if you had a certain amount of money right now, or ways money lines up with other values in your life.

Step two: List priorities. While referring to your brainstorm session, write a list of ten or more priorities of what you need money to accomplish or acquire. It can be for more education, a better quality lifestyle, to support important people in your life, or whatever you think money is necessary for. Now, reorganize this list according to importance by weighing each priority with the next until you find your top priority and order of priorities below it.

Your top priority will be something that inspires you beyond having money. You want that thing enough that you will work very hard for it and trade money for it

3. Make the Goal

Common sense for goal-making is to make it something achievable, specific, and with a deadline. With your top priority in mind, write a goal statement that includes at least these three parts.

To make your goal achievable and specific, you will need to do some calculations and experiments to figure out how much you can practically save to reach your goal. For those who live in Japan and use a bank book, you can start by looking at how much you’ve taken from your account in the past months to predict what you will take in the future. Similarly you can check bank and credit card statements. If you want a better idea of where you money is going, try tracking everything you spend for a month in a notebook or planner you keep with you. This experiment does not only let you know what you already do with your money, but can help you plan ways to cut expenses if necessary. Now that you can compare how much you spend with how much you make, you can calculate how much you are likely able to save within your goal time frame. Make sure to note upcoming expenses, too, that were not in the past month or so like a car inspection, dental visit, or travel. Using these calculations, plan the specific amount you need to reach your goal and write it down.

Now set a deadline that is achievable based on your research and past experience. Form your goal statement that includes all three parts and your reason to have the money. It can be something like, “By September 1st, I will save $3000 from my regular paycheck to increase my education savings.”

4. Take Action to Reach Goal

Your goal statement is not finished yet. You next need to record the action you will take to accomplish it. If you already are sure you will reach your goal with your current earning and spending habits, you just need to make an action statement such as “I will reach this goal by putting $1000 each month in my education savings account.” If you are aiming to save or earn more than you previously have, you will need to make some adjustments to your habits. This step takes extra planning.

On Saving More

I said I wouldn’t give you a list of ways to save or earn money, but here is a list. Since you made it this far, I want to encourage you to examine yourself and your habits critically to come up with what will work for you. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• If you have not started doing it already, start recording your expenses at the end of the week or another day that is convenient. Simply knowing that you will record it can be enough motivation to reconsider whether to buy something or not. It helps you consider your priorities in how you spend money.

• Cut living situation costs. Examine your situation. Especially if you are living in an apartment, could you save on rent with a roommate or moving somewhere cheaper? For utilities, notice what changes from month to month by looking at previous bills. For me, my water and sewage bill stays the same, so I cannot change that unless I tried switching to a different company. My gas also varies only a little from month to month. However, my electricity bill changes. In the winter, it reached about $40 each month, but summer only $20 because of lower heating costs. It was down to just $15 in July last year because I was gone on vacation for ten days. Make cutting expenses a game. Have fun with it. Test out how much your bill changes by unplugging things, turning off lights, and restricting usage of certain appliances, such as hang-drying your clothes rather than use the clothes dryer, which is better for your clothes anyway. Also, save on car gas by driving less or carpooling with other people. Consider places you can get to by bicycle or walking, and complete all your errands while you are out rather than driving back and forth multiple times a day.

• Always make a shopping list and plan how you will spend money. Growing up, my family rarely went shopping, so I was not often tempted to spend money. When we did go, my mom always made a list. In college, I did not have much money to spend or many expenses, either, so I did not have practice spending wisely. Then I came to Japan with a steady paycheck and BOOM! My spending skyrocketed compared to before. I have had to get back into the practice of making a list and sticking with it to cut down impulse buys. Take your list to another level by estimating the costs of things you plan to buy. If the things end up being on sale or costing less than expected, you have extra money to put towards savings or on buying something fun that is not on your list.

• Use what you have and try DIY before spending more money. This is especially important with food since it is a recurring expense that will not go away. But you can lessen the cost by eating the food you already have. If you do not like cooking, all I can say is you are missing out on good health and savings. If you do like it, or at least bear with it, keep up the good work. But either way, check through your pantry, fridge, or cupboards for food that needs to be used before it expires and try making a system to buy only the food you need and use everything before they expire. Of course, keep up an emergency food stash, but make a list or reminder of when certain items will go bad so you can switch them out before it is too late. Try making recipes using the ingredients you already have on hand. This same principle goes for other things you own. For clothes, take an inventory of what you already have, organize it, and donate or sell what you do not wear. Now you can see the things you do like wearing in your closet and have an easier time choosing what to wear with fewer unsatisfactory options. If you like collecting cute notepads and craft supply stuff like me, organize that too and make plans to use what you have before buying more.

• Give to your future self first. Since you made a goal of how much to save, why not save it as soon as possible? As soon as you get your paycheck or whatever money you earn in other ways, put the amount you intend to save into a separate savings account right away. Make it harder to reach and spend by convincing yourself it is unavailable. If you can take the risk, make it even less available by putting it in a certificate of deposit or other account that gives a penalty for withdrawing early.

• Plan “no-spend-days” into your week, especially if you bring your own lunch to work and use a commuter pass or car for travel. Yes, you are technically still using money every day with living costs, but have days that you focus on not physically handing over cash or a card, or putting your account or card information into an online shopping cart. Mark gold stars on your calendar for days that are successfully no-spend-days.

Once you have decided how much you will save by changing a current habit, use this knowledge to calculate how it will help you reach your goal. Try to pick out specific amounts you can save and then put it towards your savings goal before it ends up being spent on other things.

On Earning More

I cannot say too much on this topic because I have not tried many different ways to earn more money outside a regular job, especially since coming to Japan. The most I have done is sell books I finished using for classes during college on Amazon, on ebay, and to other students. I enjoyed it and actually did make more money off selling some of the books than I paid for them in the first place. So if you do want to declutter a bit, try making some extra cash from it by selling your stuff.

If you have decided saving money will not help you reach your goal, brainstorm ways that you can make more money with your current work or by starting a side hustle. The internet is already full of advice on how to do this. Good luck sorting through it to find what works for you. Try doing the priorities exercise and listing what you will do then picking the best option.

On Making an Action Plan

Now that you have decided what you will do to earn or save more money, put it into clear words. Be specific in what you will do such as making a certain amount of money by saving on specific living expenses. Write and revise your goal statement until it sounds right for you.

5. Keep up Motivation

Now your goal statement should read something like this: “By September 1st, I will save $3000 from my regular paycheck to increase my education savings. I will reach this goal by putting $1000 each month into my education savings account. To save this money, I will put it into my dedicated savings account on the 21st of each month when I get paid. I will track my expenses and always write a shopping list and budget so that I can spend my leftover money wisely.” Make your goal statement work for you by revising it as necessary if you discover a better way to save or earn more money along the path of accomplishing this goal. Remember that motivation is easier if you keep up some good habits and be flexible. Mistakes do not mean you start completely over or give up. They mean you revise and continue moving forward.

Start a habit by putting your money statement by your bed and read it at least once a day. Imagine yourself achieving your goal and the feeling you will have when you have made it. Next, make a habit of picking on a thing to work on each day towards your goal, whether making that day a no-spend-day, a day to earn more money, or a day to transfer your earnings to a savings account and record your success.

My last advice is have fun with it. Do not consider goal-making and money-saving as something you should do, but as something that you want to try because it is exciting to watch yourself improve your life and habits. Just like money is a tool to get other things in life such as a nice living situation or more education, goal-making is a tool to challenge yourself and show discipline along with achieving more wealth, knowledge or skills. See how far you can go when you decide to do something for your own growth and improvement.