My husband and I have a combined total gross of 580,000 yen a month (both just eikaiwa teachers) and we try to save around 100,000-150,000 a month. How about you? Do you try to save? And if so, how much and how do you do it?
My biggest expense used to be traveling but since I don’t travel as much anymore and since we have a baby, I try to save more than before. So right now I save a little over a third of my paycheck. I don’t know if that’s a lot or a little. My husband is definitely the spender. I usually keep to my budget and I have a fun allowance which I don’t always use up and it just gets added to my savings.
[deleted]
Gross Salary: 〜320,000円 per month (Direct Hire ALT)
Before anything else, the first thing I do is transfer 10万円 to a savings account. So about 30% right from the get-go after taxes. After that, anything leftover by the end of the month is thrown in too. Depends on the month because I play a lot of golf in the summer and also ski in the winter. Both of which are not wallet-friendly at a high level.
Wife makes around 380,000円 per month but is working so hard she never puts it to use. It is all straight to the bank and barely moves. I take care of the duties at home to make sure when she gets home, she’s got nothing to worry about.
Neither of us have debt.
Freelance translator here. Income is around 1,000,000 yen a month.
That works out to 750,000 yen a month after taxes, pension and health insurance.
68,000 of that goes into iDeCo.
General expenses such as mortgage, utilities, groceries, childcare, etc. average out to 320,000 yen a month.
Spend around 700,000 yen on a family trip each year.
So end up saving around 300,000 yen a month + iDeco contributions. Hope to retire in my late 50s once the kids finish school.
I save half of my salary. It could be 75% of my salary if I cook everyday. But I have no energy to do that and I like trying new food and basically eat out every day for every meal.
We put our 500 yen coins in a Pikachu piggy bank when we get home.
That’s about the extent of it.
[deleted]
Don’t try to save at all. I’m a big proponent of the “just live below your means” philosophy, and focus my energy on increasing my income instead. Right now our combined income is around 16m and we’re living the exact same way as when we made 8m combined (nearly same rent, same shopping and eating habits, same hobbies).
Mileage will vary depending on investments/liabilities like mortgage/family, but as an average salaryman with no commitments, net 250k a month, save 100k.
40% of my salary goes to my savings account
More or less same gross income in our house. Approx. 40% goes to saving accounts.
I guess that in addition to salary, the amount you can save will vary as well depending on where you live. It’s not the same Tokyo than living in the middle of nowehere (= inaka).
I heard from a japanese friend to try to save a 1/10 of your salary each month. I make 200,000 and usually in the red each month…
How much do you net from a 580,000 yen combined salary?
I save about 200,000-250,000 a month.
> how much and how do you do it?
So much of this depends on how much you earn. You can be frugal but that can only take you so far; at some point there’s a minimum needed to live comfortably. So the simplest advice is to try as best you can to earn more, and to avoid lifestyle inflation when that happens (e.g. allow yourself to only spend 20% of raises and the rest is saved/invested automatically so you never have a chance to spend it).
My wife and I save ~2/3rds of our take-home income. This has stayed constant over the past several years even though our take-home has more than doubled in that time.
60% on monthly expense. 20% saving, 20% investment account.
I transfer 1/3 of my net salary to a savings/investment account and generally don’t use all of what’s left. Could probably do better if I budgeted better, but it’s nice to eat out a bit and have hobbies, etc.
No comment 😸
Live in Osaka earn 275k Gf earns 270k.
Rent, bills etc is 50k each for a 3LDk.
Weekly spend is like 15k at max and thats if I spend it all.
I save about 100-120k a month, she saves about the same.
Family of four, wife doesn’t work and hasn’t for the last decade, have a house, and kids are in lots of extracurricular activities…. I’m sad to report that I have very poor savings. If anyone has any advice to improve my savings situation I’m completely open to it.
100,000 non negotiable
Also depends on your future plans and age. I don’t think you have kids..? Do you plan to buy a house here? Then maybe getting a place that’s small and save on that is good. There is a time for getting more comfortable over time.
Literally 0 even if I wanted to save half of my salary it would not be possible…I give a lot back home. Also since the whole war thing started the exchange has been pathetic. If I loose my job, I would have literally nothing to fall back on other than the pension savings. But I live alone so who cares.
My yearly saving is around 1.5M, spread between NISA accounts, IDECO, and non-tax-advantage index funds. So that averages around 125K a month. With giant increase of income starting this year, I maybe able to save up to 2.5M a year.
3rd year salaryman here. Gross 700k and about 500k net a month. I save about 100~150k a month. 120k a month for food 100k for rent And rest goes to utilities, travel, shopping, etc.
I save ¥33,333 in my tsumitate-NISA, ¥12,000 in my iDeCo, and ¥10,000 in my company’s DB scheme. That is it. Earn 359,000 gross, about 275,000 after taxes and health insurance. I’m an engineer. Salaries in Japan suck.
I’m a grad student in Tokyo who live off monthly stipends only and I save 25%-35% a month. I don’t really allocate it, I just don’t spend a lot since I don’t go out much (to my detriment tbh).
Can Not Ever. I pay child support and this month… my water was cut so I started using the community garden water… the hose is long and it just reaches my bath tub. Lucky I live on the ground floor I suppose. I was off work with Corona for a month and the Eikawa doesn’t cover sick pay etc. Needless to say bills still need to be paid. Water and gas were cut. Lucky the hose pipe reached my bathtub!
My husband doesn’t save shit, so I’m trying to work to save money to buy a house. Unfortunately all my work is on the weekend and evenings when my son isn’t it school!! I’m going crazy. I need to make money. I want my own space. We live in a shoe box
My salary is about 1M per month before taxes, ~750k after, my wife is on maternal leave and is getting maybe 150-200k right now(I’m not 100% sure on her salary). We spend around 250k per month, with some months being more if traveling etc.
So saving on average ~550-650k per month probably.
I live pay cheque to pay cheque because I have to spend a third of my income on health expenses. Being chronically ill is great.
I *try* to save whatever I can. Unfortunately as a lowly dispatch ALT I barely make anything at all and so whatever I save usually gets annihilated by whatever minor expenses pop up. Currently I think I have about ¥30000 in my bank account.
Also, was just talking with my younger sister about how much money she makes. Fuck it was depressing as all hell. I’m slaving away for this fucking pittance, meanwhile she’s been a work from home insurance claims adjuster this whole time making over $40k, which still isn’t even *good* pay, it’s just drastically better.
I make 280,000yen a month (Dispatch ALT) and my wife makes 320,000yen (HS teacher), saving 40,000yen each month on both kids. Can’t seem to save much money tbh. Living paycheck to paycheck even with combined 600,000yen salary.
33 comments
My biggest expense used to be traveling but since I don’t travel as much anymore and since we have a baby, I try to save more than before. So right now I save a little over a third of my paycheck. I don’t know if that’s a lot or a little. My husband is definitely the spender. I usually keep to my budget and I have a fun allowance which I don’t always use up and it just gets added to my savings.
[deleted]
Gross Salary: 〜320,000円 per month (Direct Hire ALT)
Before anything else, the first thing I do is transfer 10万円 to a savings account. So about 30% right from the get-go after taxes. After that, anything leftover by the end of the month is thrown in too. Depends on the month because I play a lot of golf in the summer and also ski in the winter. Both of which are not wallet-friendly at a high level.
Wife makes around 380,000円 per month but is working so hard she never puts it to use. It is all straight to the bank and barely moves. I take care of the duties at home to make sure when she gets home, she’s got nothing to worry about.
Neither of us have debt.
Freelance translator here. Income is around 1,000,000 yen a month.
That works out to 750,000 yen a month after taxes, pension and health insurance.
68,000 of that goes into iDeCo.
General expenses such as mortgage, utilities, groceries, childcare, etc. average out to 320,000 yen a month.
Spend around 700,000 yen on a family trip each year.
So end up saving around 300,000 yen a month + iDeco contributions. Hope to retire in my late 50s once the kids finish school.
I save half of my salary. It could be 75% of my salary if I cook everyday. But I have no energy to do that and I like trying new food and basically eat out every day for every meal.
We put our 500 yen coins in a Pikachu piggy bank when we get home.
That’s about the extent of it.
[deleted]
Don’t try to save at all. I’m a big proponent of the “just live below your means” philosophy, and focus my energy on increasing my income instead. Right now our combined income is around 16m and we’re living the exact same way as when we made 8m combined (nearly same rent, same shopping and eating habits, same hobbies).
Mileage will vary depending on investments/liabilities like mortgage/family, but as an average salaryman with no commitments, net 250k a month, save 100k.
40% of my salary goes to my savings account
More or less same gross income in our house. Approx. 40% goes to saving accounts.
I guess that in addition to salary, the amount you can save will vary as well depending on where you live. It’s not the same Tokyo than living in the middle of nowehere (= inaka).
I heard from a japanese friend to try to save a 1/10 of your salary each month. I make 200,000 and usually in the red each month…
How much do you net from a 580,000 yen combined salary?
I save about 200,000-250,000 a month.
> how much and how do you do it?
So much of this depends on how much you earn. You can be frugal but that can only take you so far; at some point there’s a minimum needed to live comfortably. So the simplest advice is to try as best you can to earn more, and to avoid lifestyle inflation when that happens (e.g. allow yourself to only spend 20% of raises and the rest is saved/invested automatically so you never have a chance to spend it).
My wife and I save ~2/3rds of our take-home income. This has stayed constant over the past several years even though our take-home has more than doubled in that time.
60% on monthly expense. 20% saving, 20% investment account.
I transfer 1/3 of my net salary to a savings/investment account and generally don’t use all of what’s left. Could probably do better if I budgeted better, but it’s nice to eat out a bit and have hobbies, etc.
No comment 😸
Live in Osaka earn 275k Gf earns 270k.
Rent, bills etc is 50k each for a 3LDk.
Weekly spend is like 15k at max and thats if I spend it all.
I save about 100-120k a month, she saves about the same.
Family of four, wife doesn’t work and hasn’t for the last decade, have a house, and kids are in lots of extracurricular activities…. I’m sad to report that I have very poor savings. If anyone has any advice to improve my savings situation I’m completely open to it.
100,000 non negotiable
Also depends on your future plans and age. I don’t think you have kids..? Do you plan to buy a house here? Then maybe getting a place that’s small and save on that is good. There is a time for getting more comfortable over time.
Literally 0 even if I wanted to save half of my salary it would not be possible…I give a lot back home. Also since the whole war thing started the exchange has been pathetic. If I loose my job, I would have literally nothing to fall back on other than the pension savings. But I live alone so who cares.
My yearly saving is around 1.5M, spread between NISA accounts, IDECO, and non-tax-advantage index funds. So that averages around 125K a month. With giant increase of income starting this year, I maybe able to save up to 2.5M a year.
3rd year salaryman here.
Gross 700k and about 500k net a month.
I save about 100~150k a month.
120k a month for food
100k for rent
And rest goes to utilities, travel, shopping, etc.
I save ¥33,333 in my tsumitate-NISA, ¥12,000 in my iDeCo, and ¥10,000 in my company’s DB scheme. That is it. Earn 359,000 gross, about 275,000 after taxes and health insurance. I’m an engineer. Salaries in Japan suck.
I’m a grad student in Tokyo who live off monthly stipends only and I save 25%-35% a month. I don’t really allocate it, I just don’t spend a lot since I don’t go out much (to my detriment tbh).
Can Not Ever. I pay child support and this month… my water was cut so I started using the community garden water… the hose is long and it just reaches my bath tub. Lucky I live on the ground floor I suppose. I was off work with Corona for a month and the Eikawa doesn’t cover sick pay etc. Needless to say bills still need to be paid. Water and gas were cut. Lucky the hose pipe reached my bathtub!
My husband doesn’t save shit, so I’m trying to work to save money to buy a house. Unfortunately all my work is on the weekend and evenings when my son isn’t it school!! I’m going crazy. I need to make money. I want my own space. We live in a shoe box
My salary is about 1M per month before taxes, ~750k after, my wife is on maternal leave and is getting maybe 150-200k right now(I’m not 100% sure on her salary). We spend around 250k per month, with some months being more if traveling etc.
So saving on average ~550-650k per month probably.
I live pay cheque to pay cheque because I have to spend a third of my income on health expenses. Being chronically ill is great.
I *try* to save whatever I can. Unfortunately as a lowly dispatch ALT I barely make anything at all and so whatever I save usually gets annihilated by whatever minor expenses pop up. Currently I think I have about ¥30000 in my bank account.
Also, was just talking with my younger sister about how much money she makes. Fuck it was depressing as all hell. I’m slaving away for this fucking pittance, meanwhile she’s been a work from home insurance claims adjuster this whole time making over $40k, which still isn’t even *good* pay, it’s just drastically better.
I make 280,000yen a month (Dispatch ALT) and my wife makes 320,000yen (HS teacher), saving 40,000yen each month on both kids. Can’t seem to save much money tbh. Living paycheck to paycheck even with combined 600,000yen salary.