Save One-Tenth of Your Income | The Secret to Saving My Parents Taught Me

My only special skill is "saving money."

In my 20s, I saved 10 million yen for a home purchase on my own without parental assistance, and in my 40s, I paid off a 24 million yen mortgage in 14 years.

And even now, having paid it off last year, I still hold over 10 million yen in financial assets.

I don't want to be misunderstood as having a particularly high salary, so I will supplement our family's specs? below.

✔ Two elementary school children
✔ Husband's annual income at the time of home purchase was 3.5 million yen (he has been at the same company throughout and is now in the 5 million yen range)
✔ Worked as a full-time dual-income couple for 5 years until the wife-named mortgage of 7 million yen was paid off
✔ Wife was a full-time homemaker from childbirth until the children entered kindergarten
✔ Part-time housewife with a monthly income of 50,000 to 60,000 yen after the children entered kindergarten

By the way, the reason it took us 5 years to pay off the 7 million yen despite being a dual-income couple is that I, as an investment beginner, made a huge mistake in stock investment (≧∇≦)

The path to paying off the mortgage is recorded on this blog below♪

If you are interested, please feel free to read it.

Also, my annual income when I was a full-time employee was in the 2 million yen range, but I also succeeded in saving 7 million yen in the 6 years before I got married (half of those 6 years I lived away from my parents' home and supported myself).

I believe I was able to save this much money because of the accurate financial advice I received from my parents.

When I became a working adult, the advice my parents gave me regarding money consisted of the following three points:

✔ Pre-emptive savings
✔ Employee asset formation savings
✔ Stock investment

Once you receive your salary from the company, immediately set aside a portion of it as savings, and live on the remaining money as if that portion never existed in the first place.

The most effective method for pre-emptive savings is "employee asset formation savings" (*information from over 20 years ago), which is deducted from your salary, has slightly preferential interest rates, and is not easy to withdraw.

After you have saved enough "emergency funds" for when the time comes, you should actively manage your money through stock investment.

This was the financial advice I received from my parents.

I have been investing in stocks for a long time, but to be honest, I am not very good at investing.

The main reason I have been able to steadily increase my assets until now is,

✔Saving consistently in advance
✔Living as if the money set aside for savings never existed in the first place
✔Prioritizing my desires and always spending money on the highest priority items

I believe it comes down to this.

One of my favorite books is "Manga: The Richest Man in Babylon."

This book teaches universal financial wisdom that has been read for about 100 years and remains applicable in any era.

It is not just a dream story, but a book that fully covers the basics required to save and grow money, so conversely, it might come across as mere platitudes, with people thinking, 'If it were that easy, no one would struggle!'

≪The 7 Tools for Being Loved by Gold≫
1. Save one-tenth of your income
2. Prioritize your desires
3. Make your saved money work for you
4. Guard your money against danger and natural enemies
5. Live in a better place
6. Prepare for your future life starting today
7. Make yourself your greatest capital

These are the principles for increasing wealth that have been passed down for a long time, and my parents' teachings perfectly cover these first three points.

Set aside one-tenth of your income for savings,
and give up the desires that cannot be fulfilled with the remaining nine-tenths.

Even if you cut off low-priority desires, your standard of living will not change that much.

It teaches that it is important to prioritize your desires and use your money for what you want to do most.

I am not a particularly high earner, nor have I made a fortune in stocks.

Even so, I have achieved the "10 million yen savings" goal that many people aim for twice.

I have acquired the habit of saving in advance as my parents taught me, treating that money as if it never existed from the start, and living on the remaining funds.

I believe that is reflected in my family's current asset balance.

1. Save one-tenth of your income

Regarding this, it is expressed in the manga as follows.

Imagine this: put ten eggs into a basket every morning...

and take nine eggs out of it every evening...
Eventually, the basket will be overflowing with eggs.
(Omitted)

The truth is always simple.

"Save one-tenth of your income"

If you do that, your purse will surely grow.

In my previous article, I wrote about "pretty words" (idealistic notions).

"Yeah, yeah. It would be nice if it were like that. But in reality, isn't it like this and that? In the end, that's just an ideal, right?"

This is my definition of "pretty words."

I believe that in order to obtain your ideal future, it is important to seriously face these "pretty words."

I believe this also applies to "money," and I have actually used this universal principle to increase my wealth.

Save one-tenth of your income

To the boy who asks, "So if I do that, I can become rich?", Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, replies as follows.

That alone is not enough, but
those who do not open the first door
cannot see the next door.

A common characteristic of people who cannot save money is the mindset of, "It's impossible to save money with an annual income of 3 million yen! If I had 4 million, I could save."

It is said that as long as you have this mindset, even if your annual income reaches 4 million yen, your expenses will increase by that amount, and you will never be able to save money.

In this world, there are people who can steadily increase their savings little by little even with an annual income in the 3 million yen range.

Conversely, there are many people who have zero savings even with an annual income of 8 or 10 million yen.

In this era overflowing with attractive products and services, honestly, no matter how much money you have, it's never enough, right?

That is precisely why I believe it is important to prioritize your desires (the things you want and the things you want to do) and spend your money on those with higher priority.

And, it is said that if possible, directing your money toward "non-positional goods" as much as you can leads to happiness.

✔ Positional goods = Things that only gain value through comparative advantage over others
(e.g., income, social status, cars, houses, etc.)
✔ Non-positional goods = Things that have value and provide joy in themselves, regardless of what others possess.
(e.g., vacations, love, health, freedom, autonomy, a sense of belonging to society, a high-quality environment, etc.)

The reason I was able to save 10 million yen twice is not because I am a high earner, nor because I made a fortune through investments.

It is because I prioritized my desires, spent money only on what was truly important, and created a system for myself where a portion of my income is automatically saved as if it never existed in the first place.

And there is one more important thing...

The final lesson of the "Seven Tools for Being Loved by Gold"

7. Make yourself your greatest asset

In this section, it teaches that "everyone is equal in the face of knowledge."

The wall that separates the haves from the have-nots is...

Those who take action and those who do not!

That is what it teaches us.

As it is written in the book...

The truth is always simple

I believe that this "The Richest Man in Babylon," which connects to the lessons from my parents, is completely authentic.

And I hope to pass on these pieces of wisdom I received from my parents to my own children, who are still in elementary school.

However, the "common sense of money" (financial products, systems, etc.) that is more advantageous and suited to the times will change as time goes on.

That is why I want to continue learning about money, and I want to be a parent who can advise my children on the best financial knowledge suited to their era.

Thank you for reading until the end.

(Illustration provided by 💛Satomi san)

Today's illustration was drawn by Satomi, who draws very beautiful pencil sketches!

I wondered if the image of "money" would fit Satomi's overly beautiful pencil sketches? I thought it might be a bit difficult (lol).

When I asked, "Could you express the importance of parents and children talking about money together?", she kindly accepted, and I was able to have this wonderful pencil sketch drawn.

Satomi, thank you so much!

🌼Call for submissions🌼

The theme of my money articles is,

✔ Enjoy facing your finances
✔ Exciting and fun wealth building

is what it's all about♪

I am looking for wonderful illustrations that will make viewers want to enjoy facing their finances.
I hope that by bringing everyone's talents together, we can contribute even a little to the world.
If you are interested in drawing for me, please let me know in the comments section💕
I will be jumping for joy😍

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