The English School Owners
I’m really happy to be able to bring you another Reader Profile today. Dave and Amy run a number of English-teaching related businesses and are active in the teaching community. I finally met Amy last year at the Tokyo RetireJapan seminar and she’s been an enthusiastic member of our gang ever since.
Take it away, Amy!
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself
I’m American. Dave’s English. We met in Japan in 1996. We have 2 boys, born and raised in Japan. We own 4 English schools. We also make texts, games and flashcards for the EFL market and our own students.
2. How did you get started with personal finance?
I’ve always worked. In elementary school, I would paint houses in the summer, sell the cakes I made and clean houses on a Saturday (honestly can’t believe I did all of that). In high school, I babysat and waitressed. In university, I waitressed and did work study. I wanted to work and earn, but hadn’t thought about the saving side yet.
I had massive loans from my University (despite scholarships and work study) when I came to Japan. I paid them off in 2 years. At the time, I didn’t think of that as personal finance, I just didn’t want to be in debt.
And then I got suckered by financial advisers. One of my first jobs in Japan was with ECC. They set up a conference with Banner. Wanting to do the right thing and save for retirement, I got roped into various ‘plans’. Most of these were terrible and I quickly lost any money invested. I pulled out of all except 1 ‘plan’ which is difficult to pull out of because I am roped in until 2030. It was / is a big mistake.
When we thought about retirement, we thought our schools would be our pension. The thinking was we would continue to run the schools, providing us with an income.
In 2016 – 17, I started reading the Retire Japan site. Then I went to Ben’s seminar in Tokyo in 2017. That changed our lives.
I started reading MORE books, re-read ALL previous posts on the retire Japan site and took action.
Now I want to save and invest money so that we don’t have to rely on our schools.
3. What are you doing at the moment?
Everything Ben recommended!
We joined the pension service (backpaying 3 years). This enabled both of us to join iDeCo and small business, cutting our tax bill significantly.
My husband contributes to his NISA (the maximum amount) and THEO. I contribute to Interactive Brokers.
We have set up Junior NISA for both kids and contribute the maximum amount.
We also talk to our kids regularly about finances. Each month, we show them how much money is coming in and how much is going out and on what.
We ask their opinions on how we can increase our income and reduce our expenses.
We encourage them to earn their own money, save and invest (they’ve been hosting special classes for students). We show them the compound interest calculator and how saving from an early age can ‘magically’ grow their money.
We don’t want our kids to make the same mistakes we’ve made. We want them to have a goal for financial independence. Not so they don’t have to work—so that they can decide themselves what they want to do.
4. What books/websites/companies do you recommend?
The Retire Japan site of course. Millionaire Teacher/Your Money or Your Life/The Millionaire Next Door.
5. What’s your plan going forward?
My husband will join the UK pension, back paying to get the full benefit.
We will get rid of 1 smart phone (at least) when the contract comes up in 2019 and further lower our monthly fees further by getting rid of SoftBank.
I’m looking into setting up Vanguard accounts for my kids (already tried for myself but couldn’t do it).
Downsize our house to pay less rent.
Keep growing our schools. Make more games and flashcards to go with our textbooks (a win win). Text books with materials are much easier to use in the classroom.
6. Any other thoughts?
Start now. Live by simple rules:
1. Earn as much as you can.
2. Save and invest as much as you can.
3. Be frugal: think—do I REALLY need this? or can I do without. Dave stopped his daily can of coffee, saving his health and around 400 US$ a year.
4. Diversify: try to have as many income streams as you can.
5. Keep your health— if you don’t have your health….
6. Track your spending. It’s hard to reduce spending if you don’t know what you’re spending money on.
Educate yourself, your kids and your employees (if you have them).
Start now (already said, but worth repeating).
Our financial situation has changed COMPLETELY since I went to Ben’s seminar in March 2017. It’s only been a year.
Do it yourself: stay away from financial advisors.
Wow, thank you so much Amy! Completely agree with your rules and advice 🙂
It’s so encouraging to hear back from people who took something they learned from the site and actually implemented it. That is why RetireJapan exists and the best thing people can do is to pay it forward by telling other people about personal finance. We can really change lives and communities for the better just by sharing a few basic concepts.
I’d also love to work with anyone with a Reader Profile or Guest Post to share. Get in touch via the site or by email.
How about you? Have you made any changes to your finances recently?
Sounded more like an infomercial than a readers profile.
Heh. I can assure you we had nothing to do with the content of this piece…
Happy to run your Reader Profile too if you’d like to write one 🙂
Ha, Ben, the more popular you get, the more you’ll meet on the one hand people who genuinely want to thank you for what you’ve brought them, and on the other hand people who doubt that the feedback is not made up.
I believe that’s the cost of success. Loved reading from Amy and Dave.
I read the piece about small business owners pension. For the dumb folks among us, would you mind posting a translation of the requirements (your article has a screenshot of the requirements in Japanese)? (I’m wondering what it would ultimately take for me to join this, assuming my side gig qualifies)
Thanks, SB!
The conditions for the small-medium business scheme are basically self-employed or small business owner or board with fewer than 5-20 employees (depends on the type of business).
It’s fairly easy to qualify. My wife is a sole proprietor and was able to get an account easily. I’d probably run it past an accountant as to whether it makes sense for you though.
When someone changes your life/ your finances—it’s easy to get excited. Ben did that. Of course, I’d read stuff—but it was going to the seminar and feeling compelled to act—that did it for us. We’re excited about what the next 5 – 10 years can bring. A
I just want to say thanks for doing this profile–interesting reading!
If I can ask, how did you start off in Japan (back in the 90s)? Were you both teaching somewhere? When did you make the leap to start your own school, and how did it blossom into four?
Anyway, congrats on the entrepreneurialism involved. I’m jealous!
Hi Ya
Thank you. We both came to Japan in 1996. We started the first school out of necessity in 2004. I lost my job because I was pregnant and needed income—so decided to open the first school. The schools just grew naturally—- when 1 school became full with 130 – 140 kids (no more space for new classes), we’d open up a new school not too far away so that new students could join the new school if they couldn’t squeeze into the 1st school. That’s how we got onto the 3rd and the 4th…. When the 4th becomes like that, we might open up a 5th. If you read the blogs on the dave and amy games homepage—we talk a lot about our past life and how we started—they might be good/ encouraging for you are just beginning (read the start small blog—it details how we began) . How about you? What’s the dream?
How were you running a business and not paying into the Japanese pension system? As far as I know, paying into pension is required for everyone, and businesses in particular must pay pension for any full time employees.
it is required—but we — like many people, didn’t pay for years. and we’re sole proprietor—that doesn’t have extra obligations for pension. anyway—DO suggest getting on the pension system if you are not…
Sadly Japanese state pension, while required, is still very poorly enforced. Sole proprietors are supposed to pay kokumin nenkin, companies with more than 5(?) full-time employees are supposed to enrol them in shakai hoken. This often does not happen, with seemingly few consequences.
I think it is a good idea for most people to obey the law and make provision for their retirement by paying into a state pension. It’s basically a very cheap annuity!
I wasn’t on it while I was a student here but I got an angry letter about it once I got a full time job and they started to pay into 社会保険 for me. That’s how I learned that I was supposed to be paying in even when I didn’t have an income! Luckily I’m a US citizen so the years I paid into it there counts towards it here. ALMOST makes up for IDECO and NISA being a pain.
As an update on the UK pension, I just checked mine and was surprised to see that I will be able to receive 104 pounds / week upon retirement. I hope to backpay and pay in until retirement to raise that amount.