Kakeibo translates as "household financial ledger" and is a simple approach to managing your finances.
For the past 116 years, kakeibo has been effective in helping people make smarter financial decisions.

Kakeibo

The idea behind kakeibo is to help you understand the relationship with money by keeping a ledger with all incoming and outgoing transactions.The difference from other budgeting systems is that kakeibo emphasizes the importance of physically writing things down as a way to observe your spending habits.

Your relationship with money

Before purchasing non-essential items ask yourself: <ul><li>Can I live without this item?</li><li>Based on my financial situation, can I afford it?</li><li>Will I actually use it? Do I have space for it?</li><li>How did I come across it in the first place? (Did I come across it after wandering into a gift shop out of boredom?)</li><li>What is my emotional state in general today? (Calm? Stressed?)</li><li>How do I feel about buying it? (Happy? Excited? Indifferent?)</li><li>How long will this feeling last?</li></ul>

Reduce impulse buying

<ul><li>Leave the item for 24 hours. If you still want it and can afford it, then make the purchase.</li><li>Don’t let “blowout sales” tempt you. Ask yourself if you would buy the item if it were full price.</li><li>Check your bank balance first thing every morning. It will ensure that you are aware of how much money you have to spend.</li><li>Spend in cash. Handing over cash makes you more conscious of what you're spending.</li><li>Put a sticker to your credit card that states "Do you really need this?!"</li><li>Change the environments that cause you to spend.</li></ul>

Spending money mindfully

In 2017, I decided to quit my job working for a London publisher and move to Japan. I enjoyed my work and had a great social life, but was craving something new and different. After living in Tokyo for six months, I became fascinated by how small details, mindfulness, and incremental changes were given more emphasis in Japanese daily life.

Money

I tried 'Kakeibo': The Japanese art of saving money-and it completely changed how I spend my money

This blog is a follow up to the recent event <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/events/2021/jun/global-housing-crisis-and-home-ownership-myth">‘The global housing crisis and the home ownership myth’ </a>. The event is part of IIPP’s <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/who-owns-what-and-why-iipp-public-event-series-2021">‘Who owns what and why’ </a>series. The recording of the event can be watched <a href="https://youtu.be/deIJOO7rW9o">here </a>. A ccording to the IMF, the Covid-19 pandemic triggered the <a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/14/the-great-lockdown-worst-economic-downturn-since-the-great-depression/">deepest global recession </a>since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Millions of people have lost their jobs or been furloughed, while thousands businesses have been pushed to the edge of bankruptcy.

But not all parts of the economy have been suffering. While UK GDP shrank by 10% in 2020, house prices increased by 10% on average — the fastest rate of growth since 2007. Similar trends have been observed in many countries around the world. How can it be that house prices are booming during an unprecedented economic downturn?

But while the pandemic may have accelerated the divergence between house prices and the real economy, it is far from a new phenomenon. Instead, soaring house prices have been a defining feature of many advanced economies for decades. In the latest webinar in IIPP’s <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/who-owns-what-and-why-iipp-public-event-series-2021">‘Who owns what and why’ </a>series, panellists discussed one of the most significant shifts underpinning the global housing crisis: the rise of the home ownership ideology.

Today the idea that increasing home ownership is desirable is almost universally accepted across the political spectrum. But this wasn’t always the case. As Sebastian Kohl, Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, explained in the webinar, the idea that home ownership is a superior form of housing tenure can be traced back to the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars, when political leaders viewed increasing homeownership as essential for maintaining social harmony and staving off the threat of more radical political unrest.

The ‘property owning democracy’

“Conservative thinkers popularised the idea that workers can be convinced not to join the revolution if they own a house with a nice garden”In the decades that followed, successive governments enacted a series of major reforms in order to widen access to the benefits of homeownership. Taxes on land and property were removed, and subsidies for home ownership were introduced.

With the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, the state withdrew from house building, and councils were forced to sell their housing stock through ‘Right to Buy’ and prevented from building more. Rent controls were abolished and the private rental market was deregulated, fuelling a new ‘buy-to-let’ frenzy.Crucially, restrictions on mortgage lending were removed, and banks were incentivised to become active players in the mortgage lending market. This unleashed a flood of new mortgage lending, as the role of banks in the economy shifted from lending to businesses to lending to finance home.

Although the aim of this agenda was to increase homeownership, the primary effect was to transform land and property into a lucrative financial asset. Since 1995 alone, the value of Britain’s housing stock has increased by over £5 trillion ­– accounting for three-quarters of new household <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/time-call-housing-crisis-really-largest-transfer-wealth-living-memory/">wealth </a>. In the early 2000s, house price inflation was <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2017/06/Wealth.pdf">so great </a>that 17% of working-age adults earned more from their house than from their job.For those who own property, this has provided enormous benefits. But for those who don’t, it has come at an immense cost.

The case for the ‘property owning democracy’ was always predicated on the assumption that the benefits of homeownership could be expanded to ever growing numbers of people. But as Brett Christophers, Professor in the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Uppsala University, highlighted in the webinar, it’s clear the project is now failing on its own terms.

A zero sum game

“Conservative thinkers popularised the idea that workers can be convinced not to join the revolution if they own a house with a nice garden”, Kohl explained.In the UK, the Conservative Party began to <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2019/06/the-unmaking-of-the-british-working-class">embrace the vision of a ‘property owning democracy’ </a>in 1946, after the Labour Party won power on a promise to undertake a vast program of public home-building. The term ‘property owning democracy’ was borrowed from Noel Skelton, a Scottish lawyer who coined the term in 1923 in a series of articles for the Spectator magazine.

At the same time, the housing boom has been accompanied by soaring homelessness in almost every advanced economy. As Leilani Farha, Global Director of The Shift and the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, explained in the webinar, the rise in homelessness should not be viewed as separate from the rise of housing as a financial asset, but as an inevitable counterpart to it. “The increasing value of housing as an asset and increasing homelessness are not disconnected phenomena. They are symbiotic”.

This is because the wealth that is accumulated through the housing market is gained at the expense current and future generations who don’t own housing, who pay the price in the form of higher rents and higher rates of homelessness. Rising prices eventually choke off demand from first-time buyers, and although this can be temporary alleviated via looser credit constraints and more government subsidies, the effect of this is simply to push up prices further — creating a severe affordability crisis and a range of other harmful side effects.

Perhaps the key lesson of the home ownership experiment of the past half-century is that it is a zero sum game. While expanding home ownership can improve peoples’ lives by giving them security and access to a capital asset, beyond a certain point it creates the conditions for its own demise.

If the ‘property owning democracy’ is failing, why are politicians still so committed to it? Part of the reason may stem from a widespread belief that high levels of homeownership are somehow related to economic success. However, examples such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria, which all have homeownership levels below 50%, demonstrate that high levels of homeownership are not a prerequisite for a prosperous society. Meanwhile, many of the poorest countries in Europe (e.g. Romania, Lithuania and Bulgaria) have among the highest levels of homeownership.

The political economy of housing

In reality, the stubborn commitment to home ownership likely has more to do with politics than economics. In countries where the majority of the electorate are homeowners whose wealth is tied to house prices, there is a strong political incentive to keep stoking house price inflation. In addition, the interdependencies between the banking sector and the property market mean that any downwards pressure on house prices would pose a threat to financial stability.

As Kohl put it during the event: “The repayment of mortgages is now essential for macroeconomic stability. But if house prices collapse, there is a risk that many mortgages won’t get paid back.”This has placed politicians in somewhat of a bind. Any policies aimed at tackling the affordability crisis risks generating an electoral backlash from the majority who don’t want to see their wealth eroded, and destabilising the banking sector and triggering a possible recession. Faced with such incentives, it is perhaps unsurprising that few politicians have openly challenged the home ownership agenda.

Among the panellists participating in the webinar there was a strong consensus over the broad measures that need to be introduced to tackle the housing affordability crisis: tax land and property more effectively; regulate the private rented sector; restrict the flow of speculative funds into the property market; and scale up social and cooperative housing.But deciding what needs to be done is the easy bit. Establishing how to do this while commanding the support of the electorate and avoiding a financial crisis is perhaps one of the greatest political challenges of our time.

This blog is a follow up to the recent event ‘The global housing crisis and the home ownership myth’. The event is part of IIPP’s ‘Who owns what and why’ series. The recording of the event can be…

Is it time to end our obsession with home ownership?

Create a start date that’s three to nine months in the future with clearly <a href="https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/goal-setting-the-why-behind-the-what.html">defined goals</a> and actions for every month.Ask yourself:<ul><li>How much money will you need to bring in every month to cover your existing bills?</li><li>How many customers would that equate to?</li><li>Are you going to be content to match your current salary or can you take a decrease in salary to get you going?</li><li>Do you need a level of savings in place to take the pressure off?</li><li>Do you thrive on pressure, or does it make you shut down?</li></ul>

How (And When) to Quit Your Job And Start a Business

Ask the following:<ul><li>How will you pick up the phone and ask for the contract/business/feedback/reviews?</li><li>How will you have faith that people will come to you instead of the competition?</li><li>How will you have the guts to put yourself out there to win awards? Get in the media? Or attend networking events?</li><li>How will you stop hiding and go live on social media so you can create an interested audience ready to buy your product?</li></ul>Don’t scrimp on this action. You need to understand and monitor your confidence

Get Your Confidence in Check

Just because your Mum/Brother/Best mate said it’s a great idea, it doesn’t make it a business. Find out what’s available. Do your research now to help you determine your products and services, price points, customers, opportunities and threats, and even your brand and marketing.

Do Research Before Deciding on Your Products

How you will make yourself available to build a business? Because that ensures its sustainability, too. On average, you want about 25% of your time available to start your own business. However you manage your time, you must communicate your decision and ensure those around you adhere to those boundaries. It’s one of the biggest sources of stress in business owners—not making enough time to create the business they want.

Dedicate Enough Time

People won’t tell you that, at times, you’ll work ridiculously hard and have nothing to show for it. That can be soul-destroying.To combat this, know why you want to quit your job and go it alone. It’s not enough to say it’s because you want to make money and work when you want. You have to understand what motivates you.Ideally, create a thorough list of things that will make you motivated no matter what the task—on a dreary Monday when you’ve got a stinky cold and just want to crawl back into bed. This list is crucial.

Understand What Motivates You

What values matter to you most? Often, business owners who aren’t satisfied despite making fairly good profits and enjoying most aspects of business because they aren’t running a business aligned to their values.

Identify Your Values

If you had the perfect business, what would it look like?When answering this, if you don’t want to work Thursdays because you want to go to an art class, then write it. The big picture needs to address all areas of your life.There are too many business owners who have cracked excelling at business but failed to grasp how to win at life, too, so they still aren’t happy!

Look at the Big Picture

Before you go out looking for your first sale if you were at capacity, would your prices give you the profit you want?Don’t start with low prices and think you can put them up later. You risk having to find a whole new set of customers if you do this, so get the pricing right at the start. Can you see why confidence is so important?

Mind Your Pricing

Goals – What will your business look like in one, five, and ten years?Action – What actions have you planned to achieve your goals?“Now” goals – These refer to the short-term things you need and long-term achievements you want.Strategy – What is the strategy to achieve these goals?Vision – What’s the vision that your business will fulfill? What you want it to do for you and what you want it to do for your customers. Timing – When will you be able to quit that job? How many customers/sales will give you the profit margin you need?

Business Plan: Aspects To Check

Of all the things to keep an eye on, few know their numbers as well as they should: What are your basic profit requirements (i.e., what can you survive on?), good level of profit (business is sustainably profitable), and exceptional profit (money is available for investment in the business, rainy days—they do happen—or tax bills)?

The Profit You Plan To Make

It’s a well-trusted strategy to consider your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats(SWOT).  In addition, you must review and reflect regularly. It’s the first question I ask clients when we meet in the next session: What have you noticed? What has changed?

Have A SWOT Analysis

Did you know anyone can set up a business that says it can help you grow your business?They need no qualifications, they can just read some books, google some info, and set up programs and training for business.Things like Canva and Lumen 5 can make you look sleek and professional online (for free), but it also means you’ve easily duped into believing a pretty sales page or social media account.To avoid this, ask to speak to customers, not look at reviews. Anyone can write those, and the unscrupulous write them for themselves!

Shiny Does Not Make Brilliant

Communication is one of the defining issues for your new business.<ul><li>How will you communicate when you are unavailable so you can get on with working on your business?</li><li>What boundaries will you set? If you were with a customer, you wouldn’t answer the phone. People will easily drain your time if you let them, so set boundaries and communicate their existence.  </li></ul>

Find the Best Way to Communicate

You need a strong powerful marketing message. Once you know what you are selling, to whom, at what price, and with what desired outcome, then you need to hone your understanding of your perfect customers.Running a business you want to get to know, like, and trust people can make it awkward to have difficult conversations where you need to tell someone they aren’t delivering as promised or you need to increase your prices. Learning how to be comfortable with difficult conversations will help.

Your Message

Ensure you’re not reliant on your mates to spread the word. Define your market—your customers.  The more you define your customer, the more you know them.Then, ask what language they use and ensure that features in your marketing strategy. This is essential for the next key strategy.

Understand Your Perfect Customers

Social media can be a marketing strategy, but for the person looking to quit their full-time job, it rarely sits alone. Ideally, you will have eight to ten routes to market:<ul><li>Hold events.</li><li>Encourage online connection through social media, email campaigns, newsletters, and blogs.</li><li>Networking – definitely network!</li><li>Get in the local newspaper—for free, not paid!</li><li>Get on the local radio or a relevant podcast.</li><li>Google My business – ask every customer to post a review to GMB because it’s great for logistical businesses.</li><li>Publish your articles on relevant sites like Medium or industry-relevant sites</li></ul>

Social Media Is Not a Marketing Strategy

Question your thoughts, actions, and beliefs at all times. It’s often where you may find missed opportunities with clients.<ul><li>Are you following up as effectively as you could?</li><li>Are you assuming it’s too early to enter an award? It’s not!</li><li>Are you assuming that person has your best intentions at heart?</li><li>Are you assuming yes is the right answer? Go back to these key strategies and your business plan—does it really fit?</li></ul>

Always Make Assumptions

Reading these strategies to quitting your job, it can be all too easy to shut down to the idea—please don’t.Get the right support around you (not friends and family), get the right business model and marketing strategy, and ask for help.It’s scary to say “I don’t know the answer to this.” That’s why business (even self-employment) is better together—there are over 400 million small businesses globally, so please do join us.

The Bottom Line

Are you fed up with working long hours but not earning more no matter how hard you work? Here's how to quit your job to start a business.

Stashed ideas

How to Quit Your Job to Start a Business: 13 Untold Tips

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Intelligence is often thought of in terms of logic, thinking, and information processing. </li><li class="ql-align-justify"> Intelligence is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. It can help you get a career in almost any field and make it your specialty.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Intelligence, in essence, is your ability to think logically, understand abstract concepts, and learn quickly.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It’s also the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn when necessary. Highly intelligent people can learn quickly and retain information for a long time.</li></ul>

Defining Intelligence

<ul><li> The ability to learn and retain new information is the ultimate sign of high intelligence.</li><li>Peak intelligence occurs when a person’s mental abilities are at their highest, and they can produce the best results possible.</li><li>High intelligence is a skill, but it’s rare.</li><li>High intelligence makes you a better person because you will be able to see things from different perspectives and come up with more creative solutions to problems.</li></ul>

High Intelligence

Jeff Bezos says improve your ability to change your mind when you find better knowledge. Elon Musk says, “It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree.”According to Steve Jobs, A lot of [what it means to be smart] is the ability to zoom out, like you’re in a city and you could look at the whole thing from the 80th floor down at the city. And while other people are trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B reading these stupid little maps, you could just see it in front of you. You can see the whole thing.

Intelligence Defined By Great Business Leaders

The 80th-floor intelligence is like improving your “bird’s eye view” skills. First, you have to learn how to learn deeper and broader to accumulate experience and better knowledge.You can only make better connections if you already have the right knowledge. So to improve your intelligence, gather more insight from great sources, choose your knowledge sources wisely, learn from people more intelligent than you, and read books you are willing to reread repeatedly.

The Macro View

<ul><li>Improving your intelligence is about stacking experience and applying lessons from good sources. You can only zoom out if you know what you are looking at. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.</li><li>Openness to wide and deep experiences outside your comfort zone will change your life. It will also improve your thinking lens.</li><li>Intellectual curiosity is key to peak intelligence. It’s also one of the best predictors of success. Curiosity is at the core of scientific discoveries.</li></ul>

The Thinking Lens

To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else

Your ability to spot better life and career patterns, make more brilliant connections and predict good outcomes depend on your ability to pause, zoom out and visualize the bigger picture.

Spotting The Patterns

Intelligence is often thought of in terms of logic, thinking, and information processing. It’s this logical and rational side of ourselves. However, intelligence isn’t just about having a logical…

The 80th-floor Genius: Steve Jobs’ Definition of High Intelligence

Bad bosses can be a factor for employees who decide to leave. However, if you’re considering leaving your job because of your manager, it could be that your boss is a diamond in the rough: someone who just needs some input on how to do a better job.

What if your boss can be fixed?

Consider the purpose of giving your boss feedback. Is it feedback on their performance or a project? If the feedback is about them, you have to be very cautious in how you're sharing your thoughts.

Understand your goal

Instead of speaking off the cuff, jot down some ideas you want to chat about. Ensure the conversation is happening face to face in some way. Body language and facial expressions add context that can't be conveyed over the phone. You'll be able to see visual cues and steer the direction of the conversation in an appropriate way.

Prepare for the conversation

Ask permission to share your thoughts. “I know you have a lot on your plate. I’ve noticed [this issue]. Can I share some thoughts on that?” Then state data and what you've seen happening. Start with something small to see if they're open to receiving feedback or if they shut it down.

Ease into your feedback

Approach the conversation honestly and respectfully. Be as direct as you can and ensure a professional tone. For example, "I've been having this issue. What do you think about approaching it from this direction?" Communicate how the change could positively impact your workflow. "I think I could be more efficient if X, Y, and Z happened."

Remove emotion

Once you provide your feedback, ask for theirs to ensure that it doesn't seem like you're attacking them. End the conversation by asking how you can help. Feedback can feel awkward when you're giving it to your boss. But, if you don't take the risk, your situation will remain the same or could worsen.

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