Posts Tagged ‘Self Improvement’

I recently decided to quit my job, move to a tropical island, and start my own business. You can read the full story here. While I actually came to this decision quite easily, it required getting rid of the majority of my stuff and relocating my entire life. However, due to my financial situation this was actually quite easy to do and going through this process has really taught me what financial freedom means. There are a lot of books (several of which I have read myself) and sophisticated methods out there to tell you how to get out of debt and become financially free. After successfully creating my own financial freedom, I can honestly say it’s not that difficult. It just takes a good plan and some perseverance.

The Method

The first thing you need to do is honestly evaluate your situation. If you are deep in debt, don’t pretend that things are going well. This won’t help you get out of the situation. Add up your debt and bills and also figure out how much you bring in. You need to figure out how much is going in verse how much is going out.

The goal is to put as much into savings as possible. However, you must first pay off your debt. To pay off your debt, you must first free up some of your funds by reducing your spending. Look at your bills and find what you can go without. It may not always be the large things. Do you drink coffee everyday? That right there can add up to more than $20 a week or more. Also consider things such as cable or satellite TV, reducing your cell phone bill, buying store brands, eating or drinking out less, and of course driving less. These things may seem small, but when added up they can become several hundreds of dollars a month.

The next step is to look at the bigger items that you are purchasing. Whether it is clothes, electronics, DVDs, or anything else you might lay your eyes on. You must learn to realize that you can live without it. It is very difficult at first, but if you can do it for a while it gets much easier. One thing I have found that helps me is think that I have a very limited space and that I will soon be moving. Another is to keep yourself busy with other activities. And of course, don’t tempt yourself by going window shopping.

Now that you have lowered your expenses and freed up some cash, the next step is too put that money to paying off your debt. Start with the highest interest rates and work your way down from there. The quicker you pay it off the more money you save.

Now that you have paid off your debt, you will the original payments you were making each month plus the extra you were paying towards your debt by reducing your bills. This can now all go towards savings. I give my self a spending allowance each month. I take it out at the beginning of each month to make sure that I am not tempted to spend more. At first this amount was my spending allowance only. The food I used for lunch was a separate amount. I then decided that I could cut back my spending to include my lunch in my spending allowance as well. This allowed another $200 a month to go to savings.

The Results

After a year and a half of this program, I was able to save enough money to have a strong amount of savings in one account towards retirement, and also enough money in another account to quite my job and move to a tropical island and start my own business. Figuring the costs of expenses, I will be able to live for more than a year without any income at all without touching the money in the first savings account. I am by no means rich, but it is the first time in my life, where I can really think about what I want to do and not have to worry about paying my next months rent and bills.

I started this blog about 6 months ago to narrow down some of my interests and also to offer helpful information to others who might be in similar situations. A lot has happened changed since then. Putting the knowledge that I learned to use along with the confidence that I gained, I have quit my job in Tokyo and am moving to a tropical island next month to start my own company. This post is about how I came to this decision and the things that I learned along the way.

I guess I should start with how I got to Japan in the first place. My interest in Japan started with my fascination of Karate as a young child. In high school I had a chance to study karate and also began studying Japanese culture. I was particularly impressed by samurai and their sense of honor and respect and tried to incorporate many of their philosophies into my own life.

Upon graduating high school I had no idea what I wanted to do, and so I enrolled at Sierra College (the local community college) to try and find my interests. I had my first chance to study Japanese and absolutely loved it. It was quite difficult, but it was also fun to learn. Realizing how much I enjoyed learning languages and learning about the foreign students I was meeting, I choose international business as a major and minored in Japanese. I had a chance to to travel to Japan with one of my Japanese friends and decided I wanted to go back. After 3 years at Sierra College and 3 associates degrees (yes, it took me a while to choose a direction), I transfered to CSU Sacramento with plans to study abroad in Japan at Waseda University.

I focused all of my energy on making sure that I could get into the program. I continued to take Japanese and even took two classes outside of my major to qualify for the program. Spending a year in Japan was expensive and I was a student attending school on financial aid and part time work. I applied for every scholarship I could find and also applied for loans through financial aid. Luckily, I didn’t need the loans as I received a scholarship that covered the majority of my costs.

After one year in Japan my Japanese skills improved immensely, and I returned to the US to finish my degree. After being in the states for a few months, I realized that I missed Japan and wanted to continue to improve my Japanese to a business level. My girlfriend (the Japanese friend I traveled to Japan with the first time) also wanted to return back to Tokyo and we began making our plans.

Now I can’t say that our my first experiences working in Japan were great, in fact they were horrible. The horrible positions I put myself into were my own fault. I was very excited to work in Japan and this unfortunately made me very naive. I originally came to Japan with plans to join a small Japanese auto company I had been introduced to by a friend. A chance to work in the automotive industry (I am a car enthusiast), use Japanese, and work with international customers. It all seemed to good to be true and it was. I got here and realized that I most everything I had been told was a lie. I was so excited to join this company I didn’t even bother to look at others. I was then left extremely disappointed and searching for a job.

I wanted to work in a position where I could use and improve my Japanese, but even began interviewing for recruiting and English teaching jobs since I was running out of time. Money and time were running out and I was fighting an inner struggle. I was looking for jobs I had no interest in just to stay in Japan. It was defeating my whole purpose of being here. After three months of not being able to find something I felt I could be happy with, I returned to the states.

It was great to see my friends and family again and be away from the problems I had created in Japan. Feeling I had still not accomplished my goal of working in Japan, I returned to continue looking for a job. After being offered a few positions at English teaching schools and recruiting offices, I decided that I would rather return home than do something I had no interest in at all.

Eventually, I found a small American University (who’s name I will not mention) and started working there as a program coordinator. I wasn’t particularly interested in the company, but the job position seemed interesting and fun. I soon found out that I had made mistake. I needed a working visa to stay in the Japan made my decision without learning more about the company. Once I started I found the school was not only financial broke, but that the manager was verbally abusive and they were breaking major labor laws. But the worst was that they wanted me to do a completely different job than I was hired for.

There were some positives though. Even though I didn’t like the job I was asked to do, I was able to do it very well. This gave me back some of the confidence I had lost. The second was that I was introduced to the manager of Admissions Counseling at Temple University, Japan and was hired as an admissions counselor. I was in a position that was a little over my head and decided that I needed to build on my work skills to get better at my job.

I began reading everything I could find on time management, business, management, sales, communication and writing, marketing, finance and investing, and self improvement. I purchased an Ipod Nano and began buying audio books to listen while I commuted. Having a two and a half hours round commute I was able to listen to a several books a week. I would listen to many of them twice. I also began to join various clubs and seminars to learn more.

My work performance increased dramatically and my job got easier and easier. I was able do more work and take on more responsibilities and finish it all in much less time. This motivated me to work even harder. I was also enjoying the work. I was helping students come to Japan as I had once tried so hard to do.

However, the entire time there seemed to be a struggle going on inside me. I felt that I had achieved my goal of working in Tokyo, and now starting considering if this was the lifestyle I really wanted. I realized that I could successfully work my way up the ladder, but to what end. Would it really make me happy? Did I really want to put in more hours just to make more money? How much money did I want? Would it ever be enough? Would it make me happy?

Help to some of my answers came in the form of a book. I started reading The 4 Hour Work Week and found I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. There was someone else. And more, he seemed to have an amazing life doing what he wanted. In his book he had basically outlined the entire process how he did it. I started looking at other options for work and lifestyles and eventually applied for other jobs. I left Tokyo for a trip to Miyakojima (an island of Okinawa), where I got a chance to get away from everything. I spent four days enjoying the weather and trying to decide what I wanted to do. I felt I could get a better job which was more secure, but may not make me very happy. Or I could try and start something myself, but what if I failed?

After I went back and forth with all the positives and negatives, I came to one simple fact. I would rather fail doing my own thing living on a tropical island, than succeed on my current path. Upon returning to Tokyo I decided to interview at a large Japanese company and was offered a position with a much higher salary than I was previously making. My fiancee (I proposed to my girlfriend in Miyakojima) discussed our options and both decided that the potential benefits were far greater than the negatives.

We have both quit our jobs, are selling almost all of our stuff, and move to Miyakojima in mid October to start our own business. If all goes well we plan to do a world tour in a year. If not, then we have had a year vacation and can find new jobs at anytime.

There are two very important parts that have made this possible and relatively low risk for us. One is that we have been very good about saving and investing money. Over the last 18 months we have been able to save a considerable amount of money and we also have no liabilities. No car payments,credit card payments, or loans of any kind. The second is that we will be moving to an area with a lower cost of living. Living in Tokyo is very expensive and we will be moving to an area with much lower costs allowing our money to go much further.

For the first time in a while I feel absolutely happy and positive. What would have seemed too risky to me a year ago now seems like the only right choice. You can find pictures of the island here.

Also, I would love to hear any feedback or comments you may have or your own similar experiences.