Nothing. Blow it all and enjoy your time in and around Japan. Nobody really teaches English to save money do they?
The answer is “not a lot”
You do not become an ALT to save money. If you are in a situation where need to save money each month (for loans, medical stuff etc) do not come to Japan to teach.
Dispatch companies are shit. Thus, if you work for one, your salary will be shit. You should expect to need to find another job to supplement your main shit job. The bonus is if you find private students, you can make more on the side hustle than you do in your shit job.
Just… don’t do it. If money is a concern, stay away.
Honestly, at this point, I would not be surprised if the average dispatch ALT had negative savings at the end of each month.
This is somewhat a *guess-timate*, it’s been more than a decade since I was a dispatch ALT.
I was able to invest about ¥50k+ a month with my ¥250k salary, I think?
* Â¥50k went to my 40sqm 2DK apartment’s rent (Saitama) * Â¥50k went to groceries, dining out, drinks & snacking * Â¥30k went to bills (gas, water, elec, Internet, phone) * Â¥30k went to taxes, insurance, etc. perhaps * Â¥30k went to my wants and miscellaneous shopping * The rest either I used to pay for he loan on some properties back home, and to go into my Emergency Fund
I’m not an ALT, but one thing I can add to this discussion is the warning that the bloody city tax in Tokyo keeps going up. I had a HUGE chunk out of my check this pay period that I wasn’t expecting.
Whenever you are calculating your take-home pay, remember that coming out of your check is income tax, health insurance, pension, unemployment insurance, and city tax. You can find info on approximately how much that will be by searching the internet and looking at the homepage for your city government.
And don’t forget that health insurance only covers 70%, so when you go to the doctor or dentist or eye doctor, you still have to pay 30%, which eats into your budget.
Then there’s the cost of food, rent, electric … and if you like to hang out with friends, there’s eating out, drinking … and if you like to look nice, there’s clothes, shoes, and haircuts to budget for. And you are in Japan to experience Japan, right? So there is travel and other activities that you’ll want to participate in.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that unless you’re making over 300,000 each month, you’re not going to save much, if anything. And no ALT makes that much.
And to save enough to make a difference, you’ll need to be making over 350,000. And very, very few teachers make that much.
Outside Tokyo and the big cities it will be better, but not by a lot.
The bottom line is, yes – you can save money, but if you are strict about it you’ll be miserable and alone, because you won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything.
No one becomes a teacher to become rich.
As long as you’re willing to NOT live in a Big City, you can actually make a decent amount of savings… assuming you’re not out parting every night.
I’m no longer an ALT and am making even a little more money now, but I was able to save around 100,000 yen a month. But then again, I also usually have frugal spending, and two years of next to no travel (due to corona) means my bank account is very healthy.
… also, unlike 90% of replies in this thread, I am in Japan teaching to make money. I won’t say I make nearly the salary of an engineer (they actually make double my salary), but I can honestly say that teaching English in Japan, I’ve made more than double what I was making in the States.
First came for dispatch company contract far in mountains, subsidized housing, and was a very undesirable position so I got special perks.
Able to save about 8万円 without trying. I still went places, enjoyed the area, and even travelled abroad during my stay. But there are reasons that the average tenure before me was 1 year. It can get lonely (next foreigner 1.5 hours away) but learning and expanding Japanese made it loveable.
Most alts I know have negative savings, take out loans from their traffickers (interac), or break even consuming nothing but combini snacks and strong zeros throughout their stay.
I lived in Hokuriku area and after a year of AEON 270k a month, had a little over 1mil in savings. That was with going out and drinking/partying on the weekends. I was single the whole time though, so take that into consideration. A relationship will eat your paychecks whole.
None. I`m in Fukuoka city, wife and 2 kids. I had to get a Saturday juku job to make some extra money. But get this. Just working Saturdays from 1pm to 6pm have me an extra 70,000 a month – 1/3rd of my ALT monthly salary for 4 days work!!!! ALT salaries are a joke…. Glad I don`t do it anymore….
You will not be able to save money as an ALT. Unless you aren’t paying for rent and utilities, insurance, food, etc.
My lifestyle hasn’t changed much over the past few years living in Tokyo. I basically need ¥250,000 (gross) a month on average to live as I do, which is about the going rate for eikaiwa. That includes occasional major expenses like 1-2 domestic holidays per year, flights back to my home country every 2-3 years and a considered purchase every now and then (eg a new phone). Anything I earn on top of that ¥250,000 I save, but it took me a couple of years to get to a point where I could save anything at all.
About 50k a month. Spent most of it on vacations tho lol
Wow, this is so insightful, I remember wanting to teach English in Japan when I was younger… Somewhat glad I didn’t go through with it now 😅
15 comments
Nothing. Blow it all and enjoy your time in and around Japan. Nobody really teaches English to save money do they?
The answer is “not a lot”
You do not become an ALT to save money. If you are in a situation where need to save money each month (for loans, medical stuff etc) do not come to Japan to teach.
Dispatch companies are shit. Thus, if you work for one, your salary will be shit. You should expect to need to find another job to supplement your main shit job. The bonus is if you find private students, you can make more on the side hustle than you do in your shit job.
Just… don’t do it. If money is a concern, stay away.
Honestly, at this point, I would not be surprised if the average dispatch ALT had negative savings at the end of each month.
This is somewhat a *guess-timate*, it’s been more than a decade since I was a dispatch ALT.
I was able to invest about ¥50k+ a month with my ¥250k salary, I think?
* Â¥50k went to my 40sqm 2DK apartment’s rent (Saitama)
* ¥50k went to groceries, dining out, drinks & snacking
* ¥30k went to bills (gas, water, elec, Internet, phone)
* ¥30k went to taxes, insurance, etc. perhaps
* ¥30k went to my wants and miscellaneous shopping
* The rest either I used to pay for he loan on some properties back home, and to go into my Emergency Fund
I’m not an ALT, but one thing I can add to this discussion is the warning that the bloody city tax in Tokyo keeps going up. I had a HUGE chunk out of my check this pay period that I wasn’t expecting.
Whenever you are calculating your take-home pay, remember that coming out of your check is income tax, health insurance, pension, unemployment insurance, and city tax. You can find info on approximately how much that will be by searching the internet and looking at the homepage for your city government.
And don’t forget that health insurance only covers 70%, so when you go to the doctor or dentist or eye doctor, you still have to pay 30%, which eats into your budget.
Then there’s the cost of food, rent, electric … and if you like to hang out with friends, there’s eating out, drinking … and if you like to look nice, there’s clothes, shoes, and haircuts to budget for. And you are in Japan to experience Japan, right? So there is travel and other activities that you’ll want to participate in.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that unless you’re making over 300,000 each month, you’re not going to save much, if anything. And no ALT makes that much.
And to save enough to make a difference, you’ll need to be making over 350,000. And very, very few teachers make that much.
Outside Tokyo and the big cities it will be better, but not by a lot.
The bottom line is, yes – you can save money, but if you are strict about it you’ll be miserable and alone, because you won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything.
No one becomes a teacher to become rich.
As long as you’re willing to NOT live in a Big City, you can actually make a decent amount of savings… assuming you’re not out parting every night.
I’m no longer an ALT and am making even a little more money now, but I was able to save around 100,000 yen a month. But then again, I also usually have frugal spending, and two years of next to no travel (due to corona) means my bank account is very healthy.
… also, unlike 90% of replies in this thread, I am in Japan teaching to make money. I won’t say I make nearly the salary of an engineer (they actually make double my salary), but I can honestly say that teaching English in Japan, I’ve made more than double what I was making in the States.
First came for dispatch company contract far in mountains, subsidized housing, and was a very undesirable position so I got special perks.
Able to save about 8万円 without trying. I still went places, enjoyed the area, and even travelled abroad during my stay. But there are reasons that the average tenure before me was 1 year. It can get lonely (next foreigner 1.5 hours away) but learning and expanding Japanese made it loveable.
Most alts I know have negative savings, take out loans from their traffickers (interac), or break even consuming nothing but combini snacks and strong zeros throughout their stay.
I lived in Hokuriku area and after a year of AEON 270k a month, had a little over 1mil in savings. That was with going out and drinking/partying on the weekends. I was single the whole time though, so take that into consideration. A relationship will eat your paychecks whole.
None. I`m in Fukuoka city, wife and 2 kids. I had to get a Saturday juku job to make some extra money. But get this. Just working Saturdays from 1pm to 6pm have me an extra 70,000 a month – 1/3rd of my ALT monthly salary for 4 days work!!!! ALT salaries are a joke…. Glad I don`t do it anymore….
You will not be able to save money as an ALT. Unless you aren’t paying for rent and utilities, insurance, food, etc.
My lifestyle hasn’t changed much over the past few years living in Tokyo. I basically need ¥250,000 (gross) a month on average to live as I do, which is about the going rate for eikaiwa. That includes occasional major expenses like 1-2 domestic holidays per year, flights back to my home country every 2-3 years and a considered purchase every now and then (eg a new phone). Anything I earn on top of that ¥250,000 I save, but it took me a couple of years to get to a point where I could save anything at all.
About 50k a month. Spent most of it on vacations tho lol
Wow, this is so insightful, I remember wanting to teach English in Japan when I was younger… Somewhat glad I didn’t go through with it now 😅