Does my budget make sense?

15 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Does my budget make sense?**

   I have been offered a 12M JPY salary and according to ‘japantaxcalculator’ that breaks down to 700k per month.

   **Things about me:**

   – I’m a single 30 year old male.
   – My only interests are gym and I probably see myself cooking once per day to hit 130g of protein per day.
   – I will probably take Japanese lessons 2-3 days per week.
   – Transport is paid for by the company.
   – I want to live within 30 minutes door-to-door to Shibuya (my company’s office).
   – I don’t want to live in a shoebox.

   **My breakdown:**

   – Rent – 200k
   – Food & Entertainment – 100k
   – Bills & Misc – 100k
   – Savings 300k

   Does this sound like a reasonable budget breakdown? How would you spend it?

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2. That’s quite reasonable.

3. You could spend a lot less on rent, but make sure you have some savings together so you can handle the upfront costs which will be 3-4 months rent depending on various factors, most of which you won’t get back.

4. [deleted]

5. The budget is reasonable still with the points below, but you might want to consider them still

   – 12m jpy yearly will most likely include bonuses paid 2 times a year. So that will decrease your monthly take home momentarily, but overall the math will checkout.
   – I think your 700k don’t account for residents tax which you will pay basically 1 year delayed, i.e., the system is setup in a way that you are always paying the tax for your previous year. So for example if you stay for 3 years you will pay residents tax in-country on your 2nd and 3rd year, but after you leave you will still have to pay the last year’s amount via proxy.

   Edit: I rechecked the calculator you might have already factored residents tax in so disregard if you did.

6. You could easily cut that rent down to ¥150,000 a month and still get a nice location and place for a single person

7. >My only interests are gym

   Your budget breakdown forgot to include ¥50,000 ^*or ^*much* ^*more* for central Tokyo’s high priced gym fees. Gym fees are NOT a “misc.” cost if you are looking for the best/serious equipment and a *less* crowded environment.

   > live within 30 minutes door-to-door to Shibuya

   If you are savvy about the greater Shibuya area, you can find places within 30 minutes cycling of your Shibuya office. {It sounds crazy from a North American’s perspective but there are a bunch of extremely punctual bus routes that are under 20 minutes from Shibuya.}

8. Congratulations! It’s great to hear someone getting a decent offer. IMHO – you could lower your rent budget quite a bit. 100k is probably more common for a single your age and then you factor in size, proximity to station, location, etc and you can go up a bit from there. But 200k is more of a luxury.

   Food & Ent – this is fine, but if you like going out and if you date a lot this can quickly go higher. Bills & Misc is more than enough. Probably too high.

   Trying to remember but when I was your age and single I made 10M to 12.5M depending on the year and lived in Nakano, 3 mins from the station. I think my budget was something like –

   * Rent – 125,000
   * Food & Ent – 150,000 to 200,000
   * Bills/Misc – 50,000?

   Keeping my rent low just gave me so much wiggle room and I saved a ton of money even while going out.

9. The main thing is food and entertainment. That can range from anywhere to 0 to a lot very quickly. Kyabakuras, hostess clubs. I even went to some new dinner place behind Ginza 6 other day, 3 people, 80k.

   If you stay home and stick to Starbucks can keep it at 0

10. Is that 12M including bonuses? If yes then you’ll have to lower your expected monthly

11. You are making 12M and they don’t include Japanese lessons as part of your package?

12. Just out of curiosity, what job are you going to do to earn 12M per year?

13. 700k per month in insane 😳 when I worked full time I was on 200k… currently I live in Tokyo and pay 35k rent, 30k for bills and food, and 30k for fun… no savings. I’m so jealous.

14. Mind asking what job is it?

15. Well done! Did you need any business level Japanese for the role?

    I’m looking to get a job in Japan in Cyber Security (currently work for a big company as a Cyber Security Analyst) – I would be extremely thankful if you have any leads regarding any companies which would consider a foreign candidate with limited (but learning) Japanese ability.

    If you can help me out with this feel free to PM me or reply to my post here 🙂 I will also offer you a $$$$ cash gift as payment if I manage to land something due to your kind help!

    Wish you success in your journey.