Being efficient with your money is a sure fire way to reach and exceed your financial goals.
– A minimal amount of accounts that provide great benefits to your money will provide your financial life with structure and ease.
– Automating your savings and investing will take the emotional aspect out of money, and allow your net worth to grow exponentially.
–Taking a month to track your spending to create a budget will help you weed out and improve on the areas of your life where overspending occurs.
When it comes to money, efficiency leads to success.
Japan is known for being one of the most efficient countries in the world. It’s the size of California, but has a population of 127 million. California has just 37 million people. 70% of Japan is also covered by mountains so they know how to pack people in and succeed without an abundant amount of space or resources.
Having experienced Japan’s efficiency for over a month, I’ve seen money tips embedded in Japanese culture.
See how you can relate these examples to aspects in your financial life.
Japanese Toilets There toilets aren’t that different, but they do have a nifty feature left off most Western toilets. To conserve water, they offer two different flushes – one has a more intense flush, while the other is very subtle. I’ll let you figure it out on your own.
Money Tip: Just because something is one way, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way
Who would have thought that the toilet of all things could be remodeled? Transfer this thinking to your money. Do you have to continue spending extravagantly on things you never use? Do you have to keep avoiding your credit card debt? Do you have to continue avoiding saving for a house or family? Remodel the aspects of your financial life and the savings will follow.
Air Condition/Heating Japan’s public schools set up a nationwide initiative to save on energy by cutting down on heating and air conditioning costs. Teachers are allowed to wear “cool biz” – no tie – in the summer, and they bundle up in the winter with an extra layer or a sweater.
This change has allowed the country to save huge amounts of money, helped the environment, and created discipline in students. A little discomfort, yes, but their lives will be better because of it.
Money Tip: Small sacrifices lead to big changes
Yes, Japan’s schools could be a little more comfortable, but they are doing their country a favor by cutting back on something that is not a necessity.
How does this mirror your spending habits? Perhaps, you could downgrade your cable package and just watch TV on Hulu. Maybe, you could bring a lunch twice a week to work, and put your lunch allowance into your savings account.
These small sacrifices will help make a serious dent in your debt, accelerate your savings, and allow you to become financially stable. Isn’t this worth an extra layer in the winter?
Garbage/ Recyling Japan is crazy about separating their garbage. There are three different colored garbage bags, ridiculously complicated garbage charts, and rules for disposing of large items. I’ve been here a month and I’m still not sure when my “non-burnables” are supposed to go out.
Regardless, there is something to learn from their meticulous actions. When you don’t have room for garbage dumps, you make do. America will eventually run into this problem, but Japan has figured out a way to deal with it.
Money Tip: Reduce, reuse, recycle
Look around you. There are probably five items you could pick out that you didn’t need to buy. As Americans, we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. The problem is, too much of this stuff is unnecessary and just plain wasteful.
By reducing the amount of items in our lives we not only save money, but create a peaceful atmosphere for work and life. By reusing water bottles for weeks instead of picking up a new one every day on the way to school, we save large amounts of money that can be used for other financial goals. We also help the Earth and Al Gore would approve of this.
Children/Teachers clean the schools: There is no janitorial crew at my school. Everyday the teachers and students report to their cleaning area to dust, mop, and organize for fifteen minutes. It’s fifteen minutes out of their lives that teaches them to take care of their stuff and to appreciate what they have. I even saw my vice-principal with a weed wacker the other day. These actions may put some janitors out of business, but it saves huge amounts of money by getting rid of unnecessary workers. The students learn a valuable lesson and litter is never a problem.
Money Tip: Taking good care of your stuff leads to savings
I’ve had the same laptop for over four years. My mp3 player is the original iPod shuffle I received as a high school graduation present. Both of these are categories people spend extravagantly on, but by taking good care of my stuff, I’ve saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Learn from the Japanese students and save by cleaning. Take your car to a mechanic for check-ups, brush your teeth to ward off expensive dentist visits, get enough sleep so you don’t get sick. These are simple and efficient actions that will allow your stuff to age gracefully, so you don’t have to spend large amounts of money and time replacing them.
Savings tips come from the least likely sources sometimes. But these observations about Japanese life show that efficiency in life transfers over to our finances. How can you clean up yours to make them run better?
Photo: Conbon33
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Good comparison. Efficiency and streamlining always help!
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