November - December Expenses

It's a battle every month that rages on!  How much can I fight back the temptations of advertisements, commercials, and the pressures of those around me?  Will I fall into the traps of long term contracts, high interest credit cards, and high cost brands whose only purpose is "to enable [me] to...impress people [I] don't like."

Almost a year ago I paid off all of my debts.  Student loans, credit cards, car loans, it's all done.  Since then I have been trying to save and invest, save and invest, save and invest.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Income:

Paycheck - ¥300,124 ($3705)

Part time job - ¥23,853 ($294)
Total: ¥323,977 ($3999)

Not a bad month on the offensive income side.  This is more in line with most months this year.  I have been working a bit more at my part time job so that has brought in a bit of the extra frosting on the cake.

Expenses:

With no medical bills this month I finally was able to pay my GF back for car troubles we had back in August.  Another reason to not have a car.  I swear I am cursed and that cars are just meant to break down on me and cost me money.  The worst that can happen on a bike is a broken chain.  But I know how to fix that. I was impressed with my ability to keep from going out to restaurants.  Thanksgiving was spent with friends and of course that kept things lower on expenses.  Next month is the end of the year and in Japan that means drinking parties.  I'm expecting a jump in expenses. My savings rate for this month was 51.39%!  Not bad I suppose.  Thing brings me to a yearly rate of %46.  My previous savings rates are: January  58.66% February  65.25% March 50.68% April  -4.40% May  63.14% June  39.87% July 40.08% August  48.32% September  41.74% October 50.44% November 51.39% Let's hope for a rocking December!

How Old Is Your Stuff?

I used to work for a national cell phone company in the US.  I was a customer service agent (then tech support, credit, and eventually financial services) who answered the phone whenever a customer called our 800 number.  I was just out of high school and this job paid better than any other I had had up until that time in my life.  I didn't want to go to college because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life.  I figured if I'm spending thousands and thousands of dollars for school I better have at least a sense of what I wanted to study.  I didn't, so answering phones it was.

While working for this company I learned the ins and outs of cell phones.  It's good to know how the internals of these companies work.  Know thy enemy, or something. 

At that time, I, of course, hadn't ever even heard of MMM, ERE, frugality, saving money, etc.  What I had heard of was that if you put your sim card into a different handset it will work!  I set out getting new phones almost as quickly as they came out.  Because I worked for the company I wasn't on a contract and we also got heavy discounts on phones.  But I didn't stop there I took to the internet going as far as importing phones from Europe (at that time European phones where da shizznit and USA phones pretty much sucked).  I wanted to newest, latest, and greatest.  In the close to three years working there I had thirty different phones.  Yes, thirty.  I had more phones than most people will have in their entire life cell phone usage.

Not exactly my collection but close.

What if I had upgraded maybe one a year?  Or really pushed it and upgraded every two years?  Would it really have killed me to stick with a phone from *gasp* a year ago?

Of course the answer is no.  Recently I've started thinking about the age of my stuff.  How old really is the stuff that I have?  How often am I replacing something and does it really need to be replaced or am I just anxious?

Maybe my suit isn't this old, but it's old.

I think the oldest thing I own is a suit.  If I remember right my grand father bought me this suit when I was fourteen or fifteen.  I'm not thirty one so this thing is pushing almost seventeen years old.  I still use this suit for work to this day.  It's seen me through several interviews, Christmas parties, and now countless English lessons.

After that I think my guitar would be the next oldest thing I own.  It's about 12 years old.  But the difference is is that I don't really play guitar.  It's just kind of followed me around the world.  I've replaced the string on it a few time and it was a present so I've never really sank a ton of money into it.

Looking at the rest of my stuff I think I can pretty confidently say it's all less than 5 years old.  Some things like suits or clothes I didn't really need more than 5 years ago.  Other things like my bike and some videogames are even less than one year old.

Since embarking on this adventure for financial freedom I've really changed the way I shop.  I used to upgrade, add on, and sign up for things without even thinking of it.  Now, like my stocks, I'm buying for the long run.  When I buy something now I really think "Will I use this for 10 years?"  "Is what I'm about to buy really so useful it will pay me back over time?" 

I have used an iPhone 4 for two years and it is reaching the end of it's useful life according to everyone that isn't me.  I'm going to shock my younger self by not upgrading this phone for another for another two years and if it's still working then I just might use it for two more. 

What do you think about when you buy stuff?  Hold old is your stuff?

Recent Purchase: T

Hi all!  I'm still around.  It's just finals time at the in the old teachers office so I've been splitting my time between writing and correcting tests.  Things can get a little stressful in a Japanese office anytime a big event is coming up and tests are no different.

But I'll survive.

US stocks still are showing signs of weakness.  Every morning I seem to load up stocks on my iPhone and see a bit of red and a bit of green (indicating up and down respectively).  That's okay with me.  If stocks want to stay cheap I'm alright with that.  If people are trying to dump stuff before taxes go up it's fine with me.  I'm not in it till the end of December 2012.  I'm not even in it till December 2013.  I'm in it for the long haul and in the long haul nobody will remember "the great fiscal cliff of 2012!"  So I'll continue to buy stocks with what capital I have.

In late November a limit order for 33 shares of AT&T triggered at $33.50.  "T," as it's so simply called in stock ticker lingo, is a huge telecommunications company.  It was the first home to the iPhone and a huge juggernaut company in the US.  Their very large dividend certainly attracted me their way, plus this is the first telecommunications company I have added to my portfolio.  I missed the ex dividend date for this one but starting in January T will start to pay me!

You Only Live Once Right?

I hear the expression “You only live once! So live it up!” quite often.  Usually I hear this when somebody blowing a bunch of money on a dinner, a new big time electronic gadget, or a week vacation that costs a small fortune.  People seem to equate spending money with “living.” 

 

“Well you don’t want to die a millionare!”  “You gotta use it or lose it.”

People are indoctrinated with the idea that in order to truly live you must drive a new car,  own a big house, eat at nice restaurants, and in general “live it up.”  After all if you are not living you must be dying right?  This life comes at a price of course.  All of this stuff that we apparently call living requires money.  Most people aren’t born with tons and tons of excess cash so instead they have to work for it.  They run on the work treadmill that continues to spit out packaging and products, as well as stress and small bits of momentary satiation.  

I’m lucky that I learned pretty quickly the meaning our modern day culture puts on the expression “You only live once” is complete bullshit.  Life is more than weekly trips to Best Buy and full cable packages.  It’s more than a nine to five job in a cubicle.  Perhaps Tyler Durdan said it best:  “You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis.”

I like how he really cuts to chase.

 The funny thing is I like the phrase “You only live once.”  It is so true!  You really do only live once (to my knowledge).  So why would you want to waste it working at a job to chase things you don’t need?  Why would you blow $10,000 on a vacation when that could cover monthly costs for several months and could go biking or camping with your family for weeks making truly lasting memories and experiences?  Why would you want to mortgage your life for a mortgage?

If the price of things really reflected the joy or life we got out of them bike rides, friends, barbecues, days at the beach, and photos with loved ones would cost millions of dollar.  On the other hand new cars, excessively big houses, jobs, and bosses would be damn near free.

You only live once.  I am going to spend my life living instead of spending my life spending.

October-November Expenses

I'm a hardworking high school teacher who is seeking financial independence.  It might not be the most glamorous or even high paying job but it's what I do.  I track my expenses down to my last yen every month to keep me on track.  Without tracking my expenses I would have absolutely no idea where I stand financially.  Like a sailor at sea, Excel is my sea chart keeping me heading in the right direction.

I receive payment from my job on the 15th of every month so I track my expenses paycheck to paycheck.  This post is for the period October 15th to November 14th.  Let's get started.

Income
Paycheck:  ¥301,911 ($3801)
Transportation Expense:  ¥30,240 ($380)
Part Time Job:  ¥16,294  ($205)
Halloween Party:  ¥10,000  ($125)
English Test Interview:  ¥27,000  ($340)
Total: ¥383,527  ($4829)

Income needs a bit of elaboration this month.  I get my regular paycheck and every six months I get a transportation expense for the train.  However because I am now riding a bike I don't buy a train pass anymore and that money goes into my pocket.  I also work a part time job which brings in a bit of extra cash.  This month I was also asked to help with an English Halloween party for some kids.  It was fun and rather stress free.  Not exactly my favorite way to spend a Sunday but if it get's me closer to my goal I'll sacrifice one Sunday for 40 years of Sundays.  Last but not least there is a national English test given three times a year in Japan.  I am very lucky to be one of the interviewers for the test and we get paid a nice wage for one days work. 

Income for this month was the third highest for the year only falling behind April and July.  Actually April was more of a fluke because my school changed pension systems so my pension wasn't withdrawn that month.  July was the highest as I sold A LOT of stuff that I had just sitting in boxes at my parents place.  I worked pretty hard this last month to get such a high wage.  I don't mind working so hard with the high exchange rate right now but I do look forward to winter vacation where I can take a week or so off.

Expenses for this month were higher than usual.

My expenses totaled ¥171,638 ($2161) according to this chart above.  This is only my Japanese expenses and I also help to pay for a house back in the US.  It's not so much but adding in ¥18,451 ($230) my total expenses were ¥190,089 ($2393) for October to November. 

Obviously the big expense that sticks out here is the medical.  I had to pay for the remaining part of a dentist bill.  I hope this will be that last of these large dental bills.  I have paid about ¥200,000 over the last two years on my teeth.  I've said it before that I don't mind spending this kind of money because I knew it was coming and I didn't take care of my teeth for a long part of my life.  I hope that from here on out, however, this is not more then ¥10,000 a year for regular checkups. 

I bought some fenders for my bike but this a very low month for bike expenditures.  I am looking at pouring a bit more money into this area for a nice rack and I haven't quite decided on panniers or a trailer.  I'm leaning towards a trailer but in the end I will probably end up with both.  I want high quality stuff in this area so that I can always resell it if I find I like one over the other.  A trailer would really help with trips to Costco!

After crunching all the numbers I am left with a *drum roll!!!* 50.44% savings rate for the month.  This brings my average for the year to 45%.  This is well below my target of 65% but I am starting to think that perhaps my target was too ambitious.  I had stated before that I wanted to end the year with at least a 50% savings rate but I'm not sure if I'll hit that either.  Christmas is coming up and as much as I have convinced most of my family we don't need to do much gift giving I still make a nice photo album that costs me about $120-$150 to cover the whole family.  Also, I have a GF who I want to buy some presents for and a few friends who can't seem go give up the tradition. 

In the end I won't know until January 14th just how close I will be to my goal.  I'm either going to need to start playing better offense (ie working more at the PT job or hiring myself out free lance for private English lessons) or better defense.  An even better option would be both. 

Recent Purchase: INTC

Well the presidential election is over.  I'm not sure what it was like in the states but I remember for the Kerry Bush election in 2004 that you couldn't escape the "election storm."  It was the same when the new Star Wars prequels launched.  No matter where you went or how much you tried to avoid it you couldn't go anywhere without seeing Yoda, or Anakin on a cereal box or in a TV ad.  I'm sure it was the same with this election.  It was I'm sure inescapable for many for the last two months.  Everybody was talking, debating, and choosing sides.  I'm all for the democratic process but sometimes it feels just a bit overwhelming and invasive.

I live in Japan and get to jump into and out of the storm when I want.  If I want to debate politics (I don't) I'll find some foreign friends.  If I want to read up about the races I will.  But for the most part I stayed out.  Frankly I think the president has very little control over the immediate economy.  Any changes he makes, or rather tries to make, will take years to have an effect.

But Wall Street reacted and I picked up a stock at a cheap price.  I had mentioned before that I had two limit orders sitting in my brokerage account.  One was for KMI which triggered a few days ago.  Another was for INTC.  I initiated a position with INTC around $25 but since then it has fallen.  People are constantly announcing the death of the PC but I think it's a bit premature.  Sure, one day maybe twenty to thirty years down the road the traditional PC will be out but something will replace it and I don't think it's going to all be iPads.  Intel has been around for a while and they are the best at their game.  I think this is a great stock that will continue to pay me for a long time.

Long story short I picked up an additional 33 shares of INTC at $21.20 a share.  This will add $28.68 a year to my annual dividend income.

I'm hoping to have a snapshot of my portfolio up before the end of the month for all to see.

The Frugality of Gaming

I've played video games for just about my whole life.  Its actually my brothers fault.  I remember being five and he wanted something called a "Nintendo."  I had no idea who that was or what it could do but he was certainly excited.  When he got it for his birthday he opened it up and hooked it up to, what at that time, a really new monitor.  We had used it with our Commodore 64 which I guess if we want to get really specific was my first gaming machine.

Anyway long story short he fired that beast up and Nintendo made a new fan that day.  Games of course have become more complicated and engrossing.  I went through my phases in high school and college where I didn't play for extended periods of time.  Girls and parties seemed to be more important.   Life has settled down some so I do find time for about 6-8 hours of gaming per week depending on my mood.

One of the things about gaming is, I think, many people find gaming is not in line with frugality.  I don't think that is necessarily true and like any sport or hobby it really depends on your approach.  I'd like to explain my approach broken down by what I have seen are the pitfalls to gaming thrift.

Buying titles on launch day.  Like buying stocks I don't ever want to pay a premium for my purchase. This can also be applied to buying games especially on launch day.  You will never pay a higher price for a videogame than on the day it came out.  There are very limited cases where a game actually goes up in value after it is released.  99.9% of games will decrease in price the longer it sits on the shelf.  Waiting even one month can net you $10 off discounts, free download able content, and more money in your wallet.  I break this rule maybe once a year.  This year it will be for Halo 4.  Last year I bought LA Noire at almost full retail.  I would say I spend about $200 a year on games but actually purchase about 9-10 games or more for that amount of money.  Check dealnews.com for lots of great choices on saving money.

Buying consoles on launch day.  This is obvious and I never do this anymore.  The premiums you pay to be a first adopter is just not worth it to me.  In addition I will never pay more than $200 for a console.  New consoles are the new cars of the videogame world in my view.  In three years they will be worth half as much as they were on launch day.  I did break this rule as well last year when I bought a PSVita but since the launch of the Dreamcast I have not bought a console on launch.

Buying limited/special/premium editions.  This is a trap a fell into a few times but have since steered away.  These sets usually come with some kind of extra.  It might be a statue, it might be a poster, it might be a figurine.  It also isn't free.  It takes up room in your dwelling and creates clutter.  I really see no point to having these little extra collectibles anymore.  I always pass on the more expensive collectors editions.

Get your consoles for free.  I don't know how popular this is in the states anymore but in Japan when you sign up for internet very regularly you can get some kind of console or cash back money for free.  The console is generally valued at more than the cash back so even to get the console and hock it on craigslist will net you some money.  When my GF and I got internet we also got a free PS3.  The internet was a service we need anyway so might as well get the console with it free.  Look for discounts or freebies when signing up for services you are going to purchase anyway.  However never get a service just for the pure freebie nature of the deal.  You will pay more if you try to cancel the service later or you will have to pay for the retail value of the freebie you got.

Explore gaming history at a discount.  Now that you've bypassed buying games brand new and consoles on launch day you might find that there are many games you missed.  Now however you can pick them up for a fraction of what they used to cost.  I never owned a Gamecube but I could easily go pick one up now for about $20 dollars.  There are several Playstation and Playstation 2 games that I wanted to play but either didn't have the money, time, or I purposely held off.  If there is a lull in new releases or you already bought your one new release for the year take a look back at what you might have missed from last year or even 10 years ago.

Play your games.  I'm always amazed how some people can buy a game and not complete it.  Make your games give you value.  I like to think about it as a cost per hour of gaming.  If I can get a game down to about $0.50/hour I think that's a good value.  The less you pay for a game the easier this is.  For example I said I bough Halo 4.  This game is about 60 bucks.  I will have to play Halo 4 for 120 hours to get it down to this value.  If it's a good game (and I think it will be) this won't be very difficult. But imagine if I paid $20 or even $15 for Halo 4 and played it for 120 hours.  Well that's now $0.17/hour!  That's some cheap entertainment!  Movies are the worst for this.  They cost about $10.00/hour.  Play your games people!  Get the value you paid for them!

Borrow your games.  Many gamers have friends who are gamers.  If you know and trust your friends not to break or steal your games then borrow and trade with your friends.  Your Xbox 360 or PS3 doesn't care who the owner is.  Plus going off of the last point this puts your cost/hour at infinity!  I borrow about 3 or 4 games per year and play them to completion.

Keep your life balanced.  Even if you follow all of the advice I have given here this might be the most important.  Like somebody who get's really into their car and spends all their time modifying, driving, and "pimping out" their ride you need to keep a balance.  I ride my bike to work everyday.  I still go out with my friends for drinks.  I have a GF (who also likes games) who I spend time with.  I study Japanese on the weekends and record a podcast.  I think it's very important to put the controller down sometimes and be social (heck having a gaming night where you have friends OVER to your house and not playing online).  I also have a second side job that generates a few hundred dollars a month.  I would never neglect this job (ie call in sick) to play a game.

Maybe this advice will work for some and perhaps others just have to have six titles a year on launch day.  In the end financial independence is something that is very important to me and I think gaming can be done right along side of it.  Heck one of the reasons that I want to reach FI is to free up some more hours to play some vids!  But this hobby will never jeopardize my journey towards freedom.

Recent Purchase: KMI

I've had some capital sitting around in my brokerage account for some limit orders that I had set out a few weeks ago.  I put one limit order on KMI at $34.  I thought maybe I was being greedy at that price as the stock was about $35 a share for most of October I think.  I almost just pulled the trigger and bought around $34.50 or 34.30 but I was stubborn and just let the order sit.

Yesterday the stock just touched $34 dollars and my order triggered for 29 shares.  KMI ended the day down at $34.11 but still up from when I bought it.  Unfortunately I missed the ex-dividend date so I won't see any money out of KMI until 2013 but I think that's a fare trade off for the price I paid.

This adds the first oil/energy company that I have in my portfolio.

My Bike Is My Highest Paying Dividend

I've been reading the "The Millionaire Next Door" (thanks to my local Japanese library) and one of the ways they explain millionaires become millionaires is that they play both good offense and good defense.  Offense meaning they make big salaries and defense in that they are frugal with their pay checks and not squandering them away on big ticket boats, jet ski's, or expensive brands.

So far nothing has increased my offense and defense like a bike.

Let's start with the big impact a bike makes.  Riding a bike every day means not driving a car.  Cars cost money.  They cost a lot of money.  Of course there is the initial price of the car.  Even if you buy a car used it is usually a very significant chunk of change.  Then there are the ongoing upkeep.  Gas, insurance, parking, parking tickets, speeding tickets (oops now more insurance too!), and not to mention the lost productivity sitting in traffic.  Some people say a car sets you free.  I think a car is more like that torture machine in the James Bond movie Goldfinger with the laser.  It moves slow and cuts deep.

So the big baddy, the car, is out of the way.  How else does my bike save/make me money?

-No gym membership.  A fellow teacher pays for a gym membership.  Space is precious in Japan and therefore memberships to places that take up a lot of space are therefor also expensive.  He pays about ￥8,000 a month (about $100) to swim only.  He can also only go on the weekdays from the time the gym opens, 7:00am, until 10:00am.  It works for him as he gets up early and swims before school.  But about ten months of that gym membership would pay for my bike.  I bike about 25km a day which I think is pretty good workout.  No gyms needed here.  Plus I get access to my bike 24/7/365 and it can take me more places.

-I pace myself more.  If I go out with friends for a drink and I am on my bike that is plenty of reason to pace myself and not drink so much.  Drinking in Japan a la carte is expensive.  If I have to choose between a dangerous zig zaggy ride home or my life I'll call for the check after just one or two (I'll also keep more money in my wallet).  My friends are also less likely to egg me on as well knowing that it would endanger my life.

-I pocket my transportation expense.  In Japan many companies will pay for your train pass or fuel expense to get to work.  My school will pay me this if I am riding my bike or taking the train.  This is a major source of how my bike will make me money.  How much?  Currently my transportation expense is about ￥60,000 a year (about $800 or so).  Next year when my school moves to a new area it will be about ￥160,000 a year (about $2000)!  Not bad.  That's real money in my pocket.

-Gympact pays me for what I would do anyway, ride my bike.  Gympact is a website and iPhone app were you promise to workout a certain amount a week.  You can track it with Runkeeper, or the Gympact app itself if you are going to a gym (but we covered that already).  Meet your pact and you get paid money.  If you don't meet it you get charged money.  I have so far made about $10.00 over five weeks and I have never been charged for missing a pact.  That might not sound like a whole lot but when you figure most of my dividend paying stocks pay out about that once a quarter Gympact doesn't suddenly look too bad.  Plus I would be riding anyway so might as well get paid for it.

-I am more stress free.  I'm not going to make it sound like teachers have the most difficult jobs in the world.  We don't have to lift heavy things, and in general if we mess up a lesson nobody dies.  But there is stress involved.  I stress out about my lessons and if they are going to go well.  Will it be fun and also educational?  The last thing I need is a class full of 39 Japanese school girls staring at me and then giving up and going to sleep.  It is probably more psychological than actual but I do feel the pinch.  Japanese parents can be very demanding of their private school teachers and I have to deal with that.  Riding to and from school each day is a great release for me.  I get exercise and I focus my mind on something else even if just for thirty minutes.

Why don't we get concrete.  The following is the breakdown of what my bike has cost me.

Bike $1000.00
Lock $360.00 (this was for two locks, one for me and one for the GF)
Pump $37.50
Handlebar basket $126.73
Fenders $60.64
Lights $40.00
Breaks $62.50
Transportation $10.50
(Transportation is train fare I paid which normally would have been covered by a train pass).

Total $1697.86

Wow!  You might think that's quite expensive.  But I received my second half of the year transportation reimbursement which was ￥30200 or $377.50.  So far my bike has actually cost me:

$1320.36

I'm going to continue to track my bike related income and expenses.  There are still a few items I need to purchase so this number could go up in the following months.  But within a year I'm pretty sure it will become negative meaning my bike is another part of my life making me money.

Image credits:
http://www.thebicyclestory.com

September-October Expenses

Thanks to the very kind and friendly JLCollins of the blog of the same name I experienced a slight bump in traffic recently.  I hope some interested eyes have perused my ramblings thus far.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question or just want to introduce yourself.  I'll start really quickly:  My names "The Kechi One."  It's a nickname I gave myself.  "Kechi" in Japanese means "cheap" but I'm taking it back and calling it for what it really is frugality.  I have lived in Japan for about five and half years and really enjoy it.  I work at a private high school where I teach English.  I also have a few side jobs.  Last December I paid off all of my debts including student loans, credit card, and car loans.  After, I made the decision to start investing.  This blog it about my journey towards building a portfolio that will allow me to retire by the time I'm forty. 

I like to blog about Japan and why it's a great place to work while going towards FI, biking, my investments and expenses, or anything else that just happens to catch my interest.  I hope you enjoy your stay.

Back to business: 

I get paid on the fifteenth of every months so I track my expenses from the fifteenth of one month to the fourteenth of the next.  In this case we are looking at September fifteenth to October fourteenth.  This was the first month back to basics in that I'm not trying to split expenses between yen and dollars.  In August I was back in the states and it was much more difficult to track.  Here we go!

Income:  ¥317,813

This is for my regular job and my part time job.  This was my second lowest income month for the year.  A big part of that is that I am now paying my city taxes which knocks about ¥20,000 off each paycheck.

Expenses:

 

Total Expenses:   ¥185,167

And as always expenses by day:

 

 Transportation jumped up this month as I was paying off my bullet train pass from the previous month on my credit card.  My bike expenses also were up this month as I purchased a really nice handlebar bag, a good pump with a built-in pressure gauge, and also a set of fenders.  I'm going to do a whole blog post soon on how much my bike has cost me and also how much it has made me.

Doing all of the math then that puts me at a 42% savings rate for the period of September to October.  This is below my annual goal of 65% and puts my average savings rate for the year at 46%.  My savings rates so far for the year have been:

January  58.66%
February  65.25%
March 50.68%
April  -4.40%
May  63.14%
June  39.87%
July 40.08%
August  48.32%
September  41.74%

Not to completely ditch my goal of 65% but I figure if I can pull this number up above 50% for the year I'd be very happy.  That would mean I saved/invested half of every single yen I made even while taking a very unmustachian vacation, buying a new $1000 cycolocross bike and accessories, and still enjoying quite a bit of going out.  I know I can do better however.

Thanks for tuning in!  How are you doing for the year?

3rd Quarter Dividend Update

My portfolio is not much when compared to a lot of the other bloggers I read.  Sometimes I get depressed thinking about how in the same amount of time people have made much greater strides than I have.  But my stache is my stache and I'm going to keep building it up.  If it takes me twice as long as the next guy so be it.  I'll still be ahead of 99% of people.

Almost all of my holdings pay out at the end of the quarter so rather than doing monthly updates (of nothing) I've been doing quarterly updates.  Here is how I finished the 3rd quarter.

AAPL:  $5.30
INTC:  $8.55
JNJ:  $9.32
MCD:  $16.18
PEP:  $8.23
KO:  $7.67
VNQ:  $7.41
VFINX:  $15.77
VBINX:  $14.76
VGSIX:  $22.01

Total:  $115.20

And my dividends for the 1st and 2nd quarter:

1st Quarter:  $44.17
2nd Quarter:  $71.90

1st-3rd Quarter Total:  $231.27

What I can brag about is the percentage increase in quarter over quarter growth!  My 2nd quarter dividends where 63% higher than my 1st quarter, and 3rd quarter was 60% higher than my 2nd quarter (thanks for checking my math fifighter).  That's quite a jump!  Sure this kind of growth won't be sustainable forever (oh if only!) but it keeps me motivated.

It's All Down Hill From Here

When I first came to Japan I was pretty heavily in debt.  I don't think I was any worse off than any of the other teachers around me were, but I I was the only person I know who treated my debt like an emergency.  I was probably about $40,000ish in debt and making about $2,500 a month.  The exchange rate wasn't so kind back then as the yen was trading about 117 yen to the dollar.  Not nice.

I did my best however saving up about 1/3 or each paycheck to send back when the exchange rate seemed to move my way.  It was tough but slowly the stars came into alignment.  2008 hit the US economy hard and the exchange rate opened up like a flood gate.  I continued to send back money and use it to pay off my debts.  I wasn't fully dedicated to the mustachian lifestyle yet so I was also spending on vacations, and gadgets.

One day in late December however I made my last payment on my student loans and that cleared all of my debt.  If felt really good.  The journey of climbing out of a pit of debt was not fun.

So what then?  Well actually the really fun part started.  Instead of using my money to pay interest and loans I now get to use my money to make me more money!

"But you still don't have that money!  It's locked away in some company!  It's just like when you were paying down your debts!"  Say the spenders.

I don't agree with that.  Sure the money that I put into investments every month is somewhat locked away but psychologically it is so much easier for me to put $2,000 a month into in investment that pays me dividends and will possibly go up 10%, 20%, or even 1000%.  I'd come to the top of the mountain and the ride is all down hill from here.  

My goal for this year is to invest $24,000.  I'm at about $17,000 so far and should be able to hit my goal by December.

The other part about investing is that it seems so much easier than paying down debt.  Although the processes are somewhat similar:  make some capital, transfer it to another entity.  But with my investments I really WANT to put my money in.  Of course with debt you HAVE to put your money in (or you don't pay it and well...)

I'm surprised it took me 4 years to pay off $40,000 when in less than a year I have built up almost half of that.  It's all about motivation and it's much easier to have on the down hill part of the journey.

Quick Bike and Blog update

I've been busy with work lately, but we all got Monday off in lieu of having to work on Saturday and Sunday for the school festival.  I had a great time and can't wait till next year when we move to a brand new school.

Okay, let's take care of some business.  Of the 21 days that I worked last month I biked 17 of them.  The other days I took my GF's train pass, which is paid for by her company, so I could take some rest days.  I put over 400km on my bike already and I feel great.  As I stated before I feel tired at night and get good sleep.  When I wake up biking is not exactly the first thing I want to do, but when I get to school I feel awake and ready to attack the day.  The weather is also starting to cool down which is nice.

As for the blog I was informed by a very nice reader (Mr. Collins of http://jlcollinsnh.wordpress.com/ fame) that when he tried to leave a comment on my blog he had to deal with some Japanese.  The Japanese language is a puzzle to me that I am constantly trying to untangle and the best way I have found is to surround myself with the pieces of that puzzle.  So my iPhone, computer, video games, TV, etc. are all set to Japanese language.  I did the same with this blog as well.  I see now that it might be creating some difficulty for my readers who might not be trying to put together the same puzzle as I am.  For that reason I changed the language of this blog to English.  It makes sense to me that if I were writing in Japanese I should have the blog in Japanese, and if I'm writing it in English it should be in English.  Don't know why I never thought of that.

All for now.

Bike Update

Great friend!

School started back up on September 3rd, and it’s now the 14^th.  That means I’ve been riding my bike for two weeks now.  According to my Runkeeper activity I’ve put down over 210KM already!  That’s not too bad and it actually doesn’t include today’s activity which would put it over 230KM.

Not too bad for only two weeks.

My body is getting used to the ride now.  My general climb is about 144 meters but about 24 of those meters come in the form of a huge hill at the end.  My legs burn after the climb but so far I have never had to get off the bike and walk up.  Thank goodness for lots of gears!

I few things that I need to do something about.  My hands really hurt at first but it turns out that I was gripping the handlebar really tightly so I have loosened up on that.  Some of it I think was just a break in period for my body.  However to shift my front derailleur is quite difficult and has been straining my left hand.  This might also be a break in period for my body but I’ve noticed my fingers will ache if I have to shift a lot.  I need to look into this and adjust my front derailleur.

Perhaps the most important thing is how much is this bike saving me?  After all the whole point of importing this thing was of course health, but also to free up extra capital.  Well so far I’m in the red.  The bike was about $1,000 US and I probably spent another $400 between lock, pedals, tools, lights, mini bike pump, bike stand, and new breaks (I killed the Avid 6 breaks in a crash).  I’m also budgeting about ¥10,000 (about $130 ) a month for bike necessities as they come up.  I still need to get a proper pump that will measure PSI, a light bag for the front to hold all of my tools, flight tire repair kit, proper eye protection (sunglasses at night aren’t working), and further down the line racks and panniers.  I’m guessing when all is said and done I’ll probably be in hole about $1,800~$2,000.

Where I am at so far

 But my first windfall should be coming next month.  October will mark the half way point in the school year and be the next payout of my transportation expense.  It generally runs about ¥30,000 which at today’s exchange rate is about $350 US.  That’s about a 20% return on my investment so far!  It will get better next April when I move schools and my transportation expense will go up to about ¥80,000 or about $1,000.  That should not only pay for the bike and accessories but any money after that will be mine all mine!

Yes it is!

So in short a good year or so of biking should net me a free Kona Jake the Snake plus all of the goodies I need to keep it in repair.  It has also given me health, and a new energy that I didn’t know I still had.  I am tired at night and actually sleep.  I don’t worry so much about what I eat anymore as I am burning an extra 700 calories a day so those two beers at night are guilt free.  If I skip the beers I get the pleasure of knowing I am leading a better life than 95% of people (well 95% of people in the states anyway.  Maybe only 80% of people in Japan).  I’ve seen more of Yokohama in the last two weeks than I did in the last year.  If another earthquake occurs and I am at school I know how to get home (the trains will stop in an earthquake).  The benefits of my bike truly knows no bounds.