Savings recommendations - shopping around, but reducing fixed costs to make life easier and more prepared.

This article is by Toha, who quit his job and started working as an individual.Saving Moneywill be.

Most people would consider it a reckless act to leave a company without any income yet.

I consider myself rather reckless.

But as I reduced my monthly expenses by shopping well and cutting back on fixed costs, I began to wonder if it might not be that reckless to live off of my personal production activities. I am starting to think that it may not be that reckless to live on personal production activities.

This is a summary of only the savings that Toha has actually tried in various ways and found to be good, so if you are interested, please read on~!

In the article, we also touch a bit on tax returns and tax payments.

 

If you are not interested in saving money but are interested in taxes and insurance premiums There are ways to reduce taxes and insurance premiums. Please just take a look at the "^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^.

 

Homemade games can't be completed quickly, but saving money can be done now.

I wonder if it is possible to make a living by making games as an individual?

When I was thinking vaguely about it.
As he was about to transfer his salary from the company to his regular account, Toha suddenly realized that he had to pay his salary to the company.

Transfer fee, 540 yen?

...Isn't the fee too high?
It's very hard to make a game by yourself and earn 540 yen, isn't it?

 

This led to the "Let's save money before we make games! I decided to save money before making a game.

Even if you can't make $500 immediately by playing your own games, you can save $500 as soon as you do it!

Now let's get to the savings recommendations!

 

 

 

There are three basic things to do when it comes to saving money

Saving money does not mean cutting back on living.
It is a "do what you can, anyway you can" style of saving. Basically, we do the following three things

Let's go in order!

 

Utilize T Points

Toha's savings will make great use of T Points, which are earned through shopping.

I have been saving and using T Points for a long time, but after doing some research on saving money, I realized that I had not fully utilized them.

I want to take full advantage of my T-points! I think this will be helpful for those who want to do so.

 

Make a T Card Prime, etc. and pay with the card as much as possible.

 

To make the most of your T Points, first create a Yahoo!

greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili)I used to use a T-card with a credit card function.
Yahoo! Card earns more T Points than T Card.

T-card is 1 point for 200 yen, but Yahoo! Card earns 1 point for 100 yen, which is double.

Currently, Yahoo! Card is the easiest credit card to earn T Points. Yahoo! Card has no annual fee, so there is no loss if you make and keep it.

So, once you have a Yahoo! Card, you should try to pay for everything you can with your Yahoo! Card and earn as many T Points as possible.

If you try to pay for as much as possible by credit card in this way, you will be able to pay for your various bills.A sole proprietor cannot avoid it.Tax Returns."It is also useful when

MoneyForward and freeeYou can automatically import credit card payment details into your ledger book using cloud accounting software such as

For these two points alone, there are advantages to paying by credit card. Isn't there any particular advantage to paying in cash? I think so these days.

 

Click here to apply for T Card Prime

 

Use Yahoo Shopping (under consideration after 2022)

 

To further utilize your Yahoo! Card and T Points, you canYahoo! Shoppingto be used.

Tohja originally used Amazon for most of her online shopping.
But since I started saving money, I buy everything I can afford on Yahoo!

Shopping at Yahoo Shopping offers these benefits to T-Point users.

 

In addition to this, Yahoo Shopping often does things like give bonus points for store rewards.

If you are a SoftBank user with a Yahoo! Card, you can save a lot of money in terms of points when you use Yahoo! Shopping.

Luckily, Tohya was a SoftBank user, so the benefits of Yahoo Shopping and T Points are huge. There is no way not to take advantage of it. (Sorry for the boring content for non-SoftBank users...)

Incidentally, users of Y!mobile, a SoftBank affiliate, can also benefit from almost the same advantages.

Y!mobile is not aUse a low-cost SIM for your phone.Please see the article in the following page~.

Shopping and earning lots of T Points has an unexpectedly nice effect.

If you are going to make 3DCG or games, you will want tools, books, and many other things. If you don't have the money, you may hesitate to buy them.

In such a case, if you have T-points, you can use them.
You can buy 'em with T-points!"orI can accumulate a lot of T Points, so OK, OK.
I feel like I'm in a good mood.

After 2022, all bonus T Points will be awarded as PayPay!...T_T.

Stores where PayPay can be used (official)

 

Wellesia Pharmacy for wellness activities.

The closing of the great use of T Points is the use of T Points at Wellesia Pharmacy, also known asWell-activated.Here it is.

If you are a T Point user and have a Wellesia Pharmacy nearby, we would like you to know this trick.

 

Wellesia Pharmacy is a T-Point affiliated store, so you can earn and use T-Points. Although it is called a pharmacy, the larger stores also carry a variety of groceries, such as bread, snacks, and seasonings.

Wellesia has a Customer Appreciation Day on the 20th of every month.
If you use your T points at the store that day...1 point = 1.5 yenYou can use it as a This is great.

I'm sure you can't tell how amazing it is, but here's what I mean.

	normal day	20th of every month (Appreciation Day)
Shopping at a Wellesia Pharmacy store	Purchase 3,000 yen	Purchase 3,000 yen
Full payment in cash	Payment 3,000 yen	Payment 3,000 yen
Pay in full with T Points	Payment 3,000 points (1 point = 1 yen)	Payment 2,000 points (1 point = 1.5 yen)
	-	Actual discount of 1,000 yen

 

For example, if you spend 3,000 yen worth of purchases at a Wellesia store...
On the 20th, which is Customer Appreciation Day, you can buy it for 2,000 points, which means you can buy it for 1,000 yen less.

In percentage terms, the discount is roughly 30%.
Since it is a percentage, the more you buy, the more discount you get.

In other words, you can save a lot of money by buying daily necessities in bulk at Wellesia on the 20th of every month and paying for it all with T points.

Since learning about this, Toha has been living well every month, and we realize that the benefits are huge.
Please note, however, that Wellesia does not give T-points for the amount paid with T-points.

Wellesia's Customer Appreciation Day is a great time to save T-Points. Try it out!

Wellucia Pharmacy and T Points (official)

 

 

Bank with no fees.

Now, let's look at the bank fees that started the whole thing.

When my paycheck was deposited every month, I never cared about bank fees.

It's only a few hundred yen. I will try to save it.

 

First, we will reduce the fee to zero.

I found that there are quite a few banks that offer zero yen transfer fees. The most famous ones are Rakuten Bank, Japan Post Bank, Sony Bank, etc.

There is also an ATM fee separate from the transfer fee, but some banks offer zero yen for both.

However, each bank has its own conditions for zero fees.

In essence, it is positioned as a kind of service for customers who use the bank frequently. There are many conditions, such as how much or more the deposit is, how many transactions per month or more, and so on.

If you can meet the requirements, then you can reduce the bank's various fees to zero.

 

Of all the companies Toha has researched, the only one that can charge zero fees for various types of fees with almost no conditions isSBJ Bank.only.

I guess it depends on whether or not you use this bank since it is a Korean capital bank, but this is what SBJ Bank is like.

SBJ Bank Fees and Charges (PDF)
● Notice of Revision of Affiliated ATM Fees 2019.11.1 (PDF) ●

After Toha researched banks in relation to saving money, he opened several new accounts, and he also opened an account at SBJ Bank.

Not just because of the fees, but because the interest rates on time deposits were so good!

Yes.Interest Rates.

This is another one I have never paid attention to before, but I will anyway.

 

If it's just a deposit to be put aside, I'll pay attention to the interest rate.

Since I have almost no interest in investments or asset management, I had only a small amount of time deposit in a local bank that I have been using for a long time.

So, I looked up the interest rate on the time deposit I had at this local bank and saw0.03% (0.03%)It was.

By simple calculation, you deposit 1,000,000 yen of money for 1 year and the interest is 300 yen. (*Actually, 240 yen after taxes are deducted)

.........

So, if we look at SBJ Bank, which has a reputation for high interest rates on time deposits, the interest rate at that time was0.3%It was.

Tenfold.

Using the same calculation as before, you would deposit 1,000,000 yen for 1 year and the interest would be 3,000 yen. (*Actually, 2,398 yen after tax)

Well, it's not that big of an amount, after all.

But a time deposit?
Money that is just sitting there without doing anything.So, I think it would be better if there were more of them anyway.

SBJ Bank also has a time deposit called "Nanokachan" that matures in one week, so you can make a time deposit in a casual way.

Click here to open an account with SBJ Bank

 

By the way, time deposits, in most cases, seem to offer a higher interest rate than savings accounts, even though they cannot be withdrawn at any time.

But there were banks out there that offered interest rates as high as those of time deposits, even though they were savings accounts!

That is, in fact.Rakuten Bank, Ltd.Here it is.

With a little bit of certain services, you can get the interest rate of Rakuten Bank's savings account.0.1% (0.1%)The following is an example of a product that can be used in the following way.

0.1% is the same interest rate as SBJ Bank's "Nanoka-chan" time deposit.

...The time deposit at the local bank that Toha was doing had a lower interest rate than a savings account...

 

However, regular Rakuten Bank savings accounts have an interest rate of 0.02%.
moneybridgeThe interest rate changes from 0.02% to 0.1% by using the service called

Money Bridge is a service that links your Rakuten Bank account with your Rakuten Securities account.

You can money bridge your Rakuten Securities account just by having it, even if you don't use it.

Rakuten Bank is also recommended from a savings perspective, as it is a bank that offers zero yen for various fees depending on conditions.

Rakuten Bank Happy Program details (official)

 

Since TOHA had to create an account at Rakuten Bank, I decided to create an account at Rakuten Securities as well to make a money bridge, if I was going to create one anyway.

Rakuten Bank's smartphone app is also easy to use, so I rather like using it.

Click here to open an account with Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Securities

 

If you would like to know more about Money Bridge, please refer to this article.
(Reference external article:)Moneybridge is the way to go, no downsides, 100x the interest rate, 0.11 TP2T!)

 

Some banks accumulate T points.

Since I love T-points, I looked for a bank where I could earn T-points and found one.

Shinsei BankThe bank is called

Shinsei Bank has a Shinsei Point Program, and if you enter this program every month, you can earn a few T Points for Shinsei Bank usage.

Previously, the only points that could be accumulated were T points, but now you can choose either d points or nanaco points.

Shinsei Point Program (official)

 

Shinsei Bank is another bank that offers zero yen for both bank transfer fees and ATM fees by meeting certain conditions.

There are various conditions that allow Shinsei Bank to charge zero yen ATM fees, but there are three conditions that are easy to meet. (If the conditions are not met, the ATM fee is about 100 yen per transaction.)

New Generation Step Up Program (official) ●●

 

Other features include a "2-week time deposit" that matures in 2 weeks and a physical store in town despite being an online bank.

It's a great bank for T-points lovers like me!

Click here to open a Shinsei Bank account

 

 

Reduce fixed costs

The next section discusses fixed costs.
A fixed cost is a payment that is fixed and the same every month.

These are things like rent, mortgage, utilities, phone bills, insurance premiums, etc.

Fixed costs are incurred every month, so reducing these costs will make a huge difference in the monthly payment.

 

Review fixed costs that have been neglected.

If you live in a rental property, rent is a major fixed cost.

Returning to one's parents' home or living abroad where the cost of living is lower can save on rent and utilities.

Well, I'll leave that as a last resort and review other fixed costs for now.

In the case of TOHA, I looked at my credit card statements to see if there were any fixed costs that I could reduce. When I looked at my credit card statement, I thought to myself, "I'm spending too much money....

We could have reduced some of the minor fixed costs, like monthly dues.What caught my eye.cellphone chargesHere it is.

Softbank's phone bill, toha was costing about 8,000-10,000 yen per month.

I thought I could reduce this phone charge by using a low-cost SIM. I will implement the plan to migrate to a low-cost SIM.

 

Use a low-cost SIM for your smartphone.

There are many different types of low-cost SIMs, so it's hard to start considering them, but for Toha, we chose Y!mobile.

 

The reason why Toha decided to go with Y-Mobile was solely for the T-Points.

When you shop at Yahoo! Shopping, you could get the same bonuses with Y-Mobile as with SoftBank.

First, Y-mobile users can also become members of Yahoo! Premium for free.

In addition, theEnjoy PackIf you subscribe to Y-Mobile's service, called "Y-Mobile", you can get the same point bonus on Yahoo Shopping as you do with SoftBank.

It costs 500 yen per month to subscribe to Enjoy Pack, but you get a 500 yen coupon every month that you can use in the Yahoo Shop, so I guess it's okay.

Y-mobile Enjoy Pack (official)

 

I hear that cheap SIMs have slow communication, but I don't mind it. However, for those who often use their phones in places where there is no Wi-Fi, the monthly data allowance may be low.

If you are often in a Wi-Fi environment, you can save a lot of money by switching to a low-cost SIM, even if it is a bit of a hassle.

Click here for Y-Mobile's low-cost SIMs.

 

By the way, Toha changed only the SIM card to Y-mobile without changing the phone device. If you want to change to a low-cost SIM using the same method, there are some things you should be aware of.

This is the most surprising thing about switching to a low-cost SIM.

Maybe Toha was just ignorant, but even though the phone device is the same, if you change the SIM card, it's like a completely different device - right?

All the saved data and paid stones of the game apps that I had not set up for transfer were lost.

Games that were tied to outside accounts, such as a Nintendo account or Bandai Namco ID, were safe, but everything else was wiped out.

Therefore, when you change your SIM card, you should properly check the data transfer.Once you replace the SIM card, you will not be able to change it back.

This incident taught me that when I make games, I have to be careful with save data.

 

. there are ways to reduce taxes and insurance premiums.

Finally, there are no taxes or insurance premiums.

I never cared that much about this when I was a company employee.

I had thought that a lot of money was being deducted from my paycheck, but if I leave the company, I will have to pay for these things myself.

Since Tohya had been a company employee all his life, he honestly had no idea what to do with this kind of money once he was no longer a company employee.

I thought this was a bad idea, so I researched it and found a book that looked good and read it.

 

That's a long title!
But look at this title.This is me.If you think this is a good book to read, it is a good book to read.

This book is almost entirely in manga. Even small and difficult contents are easy to read in manga. Moreover, there are a lot of things in the book that I didn't know about and I learned a lot from it.

Here is a rough introduction with excerpts from a small portion of the contents.

I think it is all useful information for those who are cartoonists, illustrators, designers, etc.

The book is trustworthy because it is properly answered by a tax attorney.

I have no idea about taxes or insurance premiums!
If you are like Toha who says, "I'm not sure how to do this," I recommend that you read this one book first and then take action.

 

In addition, the insurance premiums are covered by the Bunmi National Insurance andKyoto Artists' National Health InsuranceSo, simply changing from municipal national health insurance to these can lighten the monthly burden a little.

 

Taxes and insurance premiums are important and expensive for individual creators.

I want to study properly and make the best use of the available systems to make ends meet.

 

Summary: Reducing monthly expenses lowers the hurdles to living on personal production.

That's all the recommendations for saving money by TOHA - these are the three that I felt good about doing.

I started doing this saving thing I am writing about in the article about six months before I left the company.

If you can save money in this way and keep your expenses low, it may not be impossible to make a living as a private producer. It is not impossible to make a living as an independent producer.

Of course, circumstances and environments differ from person to person.

However, I wrote this because it may be helpful for those who want to work privately in the future.

Whether or not Tohas can make a living from their personal activities remains to be seen, though.

 

If you have read this far in the article, there is one last thing I would like to share with you.

That's all!

(Too much stinginess makes the heart grow thin.)

 

...I think it is best not to be stingy with the equipment and tools that you use over the course of your production activities. This is especially true if they are related to your health, such as monitors and chairs.

For more information on how to choose a good monitor for health-conscious production activities, see this article~.