Kakeibo is an old Japanese form of budgeting that has become en vogue thanks to an increased focus on incorporating mindfulness into all aspects of our lives. It offers a simple, no-nonsense way to get your spending under control.The system was developed in 1904 by a female journalist named Hani Motoko.Kakeibo helps to bring mindful awareness to the process of spending (and budgeting) in a similar way that food journaling brings awareness to eating behaviours.

Kakeibo: Managing Your Money Like The Japanese

At the heart of kakeibo is journaling or documenting your income and spending. Since the process predates smartphones and computers, it relies on old-fashioned pen and paper technology.Life goals and financial goals are related, and once we start to connect financial life with overall life, things start to make sense.

How to Use Kakeibo

The first step in kakeibo, much like any mindfulness work, is to become aware of what's actually happening to your finances. This means keeping detailed track of your spending for a set period. Most financial experts, like Liu, recommend tracking expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget.Tracking your spending and income gets at the heart of the kakeibo practice, which centers on four key questions. They are:<ul><li>How much money do I have or earn?</li><li>How much do I want to save?</li><li>How much am I spending?</li><li>Where can I improve?</li></ul>

Track Your Spending for A Month

Once you have tracked your expenditures for a month, you can break spending into categories. The key to kakeibo is tracking it all with a basic pen and paper, rather than using any kind of app. Why?<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annabelacton/2017/11/03/how-to-set-goals-and-why-you-should-do-it/#43fa9f54162d"> Research has repeatedly shown</a> that physically writing things down changes the way we behave. It also creates a little more friction to our spending.Once you have an idea of your spending, you can divide your kakeibo, or budget, into different categories of spending: Essential and non-essential.

Break Your Spending Into Categories and Getting Financially Naked

<ul><li>General: These are your regular household expenditures like housing, food, transportation, medical care, internet, and phone connections, animal care, and childcare.</li><li>Leisure: These are things like Netflix, shopping, online shopping, parties, gifts, etc. Think of these as the things you enjoy, but don't necessarily need.</li><li>Culture: Capture those things that enrich your life here. Maybe it's a subscription to a newspaper or magazine, perhaps it's your regular haircut or nail appointment.</li><li>Unexpected Costs: This is the stuff that comes up unexpectedly that we all need to pay for.</li></ul>

The Four Categories

Once you have an idea of where your money goes over a month, you can set your goals. What do you want to achieve with your money? What's your timeline for achieving your goals? Whatever your goals are, set a number and a timeline for them and write it down. You can then divide that number into smaller chunks so you know how much you might need to save per month or week.Do this for each of the four categories. This will serve as your “budget” or spending limit for each category.

Set Your Goals

At the end of each week, you check your balances against your goals. At the end of the month, you look back at where you ended up in relation to your goals in each category and ask yourself where you can do better.We've become so accustomed to immediate gratification these days. Kakeibo asks us to slow down and consider so that we don't overspend.The real magic of kakeibo is that it uses some basic questions and tricks to get you to become more mindful of your spending and to get you thinking about what you really want and need.

Track Your Spending and Assess

The following questions are designed to invite self-reflection and help you decide if an expense is “worth it.”<ul><li>Do I actually need this? Will it be useful, and does it make me excited?</li><li>Do I have the space for this? Will it have a place in my life or home?</li><li>Based on my current financial situation, can I actually afford this?</li><li>How do I feel about buying this?</li><li>What is my general emotional state today? How do I feel?</li></ul>

Kakeibo: Ask Yourself

Budgeting poses a distinct challenge for almost everyone. It's uncomfortable, forces us to face a lot of our preconceived notions, and tests our learned behaviour as consumers. There are many different kinds of budgeting styles and tools out there, but you don't need new-fangled tools, apps, or expensive memberships to get your spending under control.By using a simple pen and paper and incorporating mindfulness into your budgeting work, you just might be able to break the debt cycle and gain financial freedom through the practice of kakeibo.

The Bottom Line

Get your spending in line with this innovative way to save money. 

Stashed ideas

The Art of Kakeibo: This Japanese Budgeting System Could Change Your Financial Life

Getting involved in crypto mining means you’ll be able to generate coins on your own with no need to purchase them from someone else. You’re going to need a powerful rig, and even then, there’s no guarantee to make money from this endeavor. Most cryptocurrency mining computers rely on very powerful GPUs, costing hundreds to thousands of dollars.You’ll need to spend money on the electricity that powers your computer. Depending on which coin you want to buy and the competition you have  ( + other variables), you could end up spending more money to operate your rig than you make with the mining.

Building a Crypto Mining Rig

Most people buy and sell coins through a marketplace. With the right market, you’ll have even hundreds of cryptocurrencies to choose from, and you can buy in tiny increments, sometimes securing a transaction for less than $100.Most cryptocurrency brokers charge money for this service, so you’ll pay a bit more than the total purchase price of your transaction (it's a negligible cost).If you’re interested in trading coins frequently and taking advantage of the small spikes and valleys that occur throughout the day, you’ll need a significant amount of capital, and you’ll need to be prepared to ma<warningtag>ke substantial transactions.</warningtag>

Purchasing Currency

If you have a powerful computer, you can set up a rig to mine cryptocurrency on your behalf, to generate the resources yourself. There are just a few problems with this idea.<ul><li> GPUs and other necessary computer components tend to be very expensive for starters, compromising your potential profitability. </li><li>Crypto mining is also highly competitive and energy-intensive. This means you may end up spending more on electricity than you make generating cryptocurrency.</li><li> Unless you know what you’re doing, you’re probably better off buying and selling crypto on the market.</li></ul>

The Rig Problem

You can purchase $20 of Bitcoin right now, but if you don’t have $20 to spare, that’s not going to do you much good.Small scale transactions like the one above shouldn’t be a problem for anybody. But, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck or if money is inordinately tight, you might struggle to save up enough to build momentum.There are several ways to handle this. For example, you could pick up a second job or a side gig to make some extra money. You could move to a cheaper location or cut expenses that are no longer relevant to you.

The Free Capital Problem

Just because you can invest in cryptocurrency doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Cryptocurrency is an uncertain investment wrought with volatility and regulatory complications. There’s never a guarantee that any cryptocurrency will increase in value or even hold its value. And, many new cryptocurrencies entering the scene end up being flagged as scams.If you’re interested in protecting your investment and maximizing your long-term gains, you shouldn’t invest all your money in cryptocurrency, especially if you don’t have much money to spare.

The Portfolio Balance Problem

Many people who delve into cryptocurrency are excited about the notion of turning a $1,000 investment into millions of dollars in wealth.While this is possible, it’s unlikely, and to the extent possible, it will take a long time to unfold. For example, even if you saw an average return of 10% per year, it would take 73 years to turn $1,000 into $1,000,000.

The Time Problem

Even if you spend months reading about cryptocurrency, studying historical trends, and doing your due diligence for each of several different currencies currently being traded and speculated on, you still might make some bad decisions.You could end up losing your initial investment, plummeting the principal back to zero. Or, you could make a handful of bad trades that completely negate whatever gains you made from your first trades. You could even end up holding onto a cryptocurrency with no realistic future. Even with a lot of money, becoming a competent cryptocurrency investor takes time.

The Learning Curve

It&#8217;s easy to write off cryptocurrency investing as a rich person&#8217;s hobby or an activity with a ridiculously high barrier to entry. However, the mechanics to invest in crypto are...

How Much Money Do You Need to Invest in Crypto?

Despite all the benefits that come from working as a freelancer, there may be months in the year where you may desire a steady income to feel you can pay the bills. Establishing an emergency saving fund can help you overcome the fear of a dry month.

Create an emergency fund

An emergency savings fund buffer is vital for freelancers. It will help you to keep your head above water when your income fluctuates. A zero-sum budget means living off last month's income alone. This can be done in the following way:<ul><li>Start building a budget by assigning every dollar to a particular monthly expense.</li><li>Write down your bills, including rent and insurance.</li><li>Make a list of any debt payments and savings goals, and assign dollar amounts to each. As your income fluctuates, so will the dollars assigned to savings and debt repayment.</li></ul>

The "zero-sum budget"

Assigning 45 percent of your income to savings is essential if you're serious about building savings and have the ability to pay quarterly estimated taxes. <ul><li>Allocate 30 per cent of your income towards taxes</li><li>5 per cent for reinvesting in your business</li><li>10 percent to build your emergency savings fund</li><li>The remainder can be used for living expenses or investing in your business.</li></ul>

Save 45 percent of every paycheck

An emergency buffer consists of a specific metric you're trying to reach based on what you reasonably will need during a dry month. Some have a checking account with two month's worth of bills saved. It covers rent, utilities, insurance and cell-hone bills. In addition, they have at least three months of living expenses built up in a savings account.

Set specific and realistic goals for an emergency fund

3 tips for building your emergency savings fund

Matters of money is a struggle for many people and can even become a phobia. To deal with the phobia, many people are turning to financial therapists for help.
Financial therapy is a form of therapy that untangles the relationships with money by treating the emotional root of money stress instead of the behaviour itself.

Financial therapy

Money decisions are related to emotions. According to a 2019 UK survey, money is the number one cause of stress. Tips to help overcome this phobia. <ul><li>Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a practical approach that focuses on making changes by looking at underlying problems.</li><li>To get a better emotional return on your spending, people should spend on what they value most and save on what they value the least.</li><li>Identifying emotional triggers can help to self-manage.</li></ul>

Money phobia

Financial therapy is still a new field and confined to the US. There is still much to learn about the benefits and limitations of the therapy. Nevertheless, the potential benefits seem promising.
A concern is that financial phobias are often intertwined with other psychological issues that need to be addressed first. The idea of a few sessions and you're cured won't necessarily work.

Financial therapy is not a cure

Money is a struggle for so many, and even manifests as a phobia in some. Is talking about it a way to crack the code?

Can financial therapy untangle our relationship with money?

The game of chess helps build strategic thinking, a must-have skill in business. 
It is a game of kings that goes back 4500 years under various names and rules, reflecting and teaching important business skills that have remained timeless.

Chess And Strategic Thinking

The chess board, made up of 64 squares, has a middle area that if a chess player dominates using forward thinking and strategic skills, he can restrict the opponents moves, and control the maximum pieces in the game.Similarly business leaders can limit the options of their competition by asserting leverage or control over certain resources, prices or land. Several big players of the oil industry have deployed this chess strategy to gain unfair advantages.

Seizing The Middle

Many business leaders think in terms of first principles, where they control their own means of production, eliminating dependence on external suppliers.Managers need to anticipate the future and think a few moves ahead, just like in the game of chess. This includes investing in Research and Development, being able to forecast what the future may hold.

The First Principles

Much like Chess, seizing the middle in any business requires taking control of as much as possible, so that every change is anticipated and winning action can be taken easily. Apart from Oil barons, this strategy was heavily deployed by Hollywood studios.The Golden Age Of Hollywood, the 1920s to the 1960s, had many movie studios owning and controlling every aspect of movies, from production to distribution and screening. They had strict long-term contracts with Hollywood stars and owned the movie halls that showed the flicks.

Seizing The Middle In Hollywood

To control the game, one tries to control as much of the board as possible. At the outset, using your pieces to seize the middle of the playing field is a great strategy, because it gives you the widest possible vantage point from which to control the movement of the other pieces. Both Rockefeller and the studio system in Hollywood employed this strategy successfully, allowing them to anticipate change and maneuver effectively for decades.

Money

Seizing The Middle: Chess Strategy in Business

<ul>
<li>Fast food consumption can be used as an index to measure consumer behaviour and market changes.</li>
<li>The Pizza Principle, first noticed in New York City in the 80s, revealed that the cost of a subway ride and a slice of pizza remained the same for two decades.</li>
<li>How much a Big Mac from Mcdonalds (or a similar offering from KFC) costs around the world can measure how the same product costs in different countries. If the product price is the same, the countries have a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).</li>
</ul>

The Pizza Principle: Linking Fast Food With The Economy

Financial experts and economists use popular food items like the Mars chocolate bars, popcorn, and baked beans as an index to measure the cost of living and to determine the health of the economy.
The Odeon Popcorn index(2009), for instance, showed that higher sales of popcorn, a cheap snack consumed by families, correlated with the economic recovery in the United Kingdom after the financial crisis of 2008.

Chocolates, Popcorn And Economics

Sales of french fries and the export of main raw materials (potatoes and oil) is an economic indicator of the trade between the US and Asia.
The length of the menu at various cheap snack joints like Waffle House are an indicator of the condition of food supplies, electricity and other variables that provide key information on the country’s economic health.

Consumption Of French Fries And Global Economy

From the Pizza Principle to the Waffle House Index, fast food can reveal surprising things about our behaviour and hidden changes in the market.

How fast food reveals secrets of the economy

Money is one of the tangible symbols of a nation's identity and history. Banknotes and coins evolve over time just as a nation evolves, and currency notes feature portraits of people who have made an impact on generations.
Each banknote has a story behind its creation and is a window to its past struggles and accomplishments.

The Face On The Banknote

In April 1866, the U.S. Congress passed a law prohibiting currency notes to have a portrait or likeness of any living person, due to some members not agreeing with the five-cent note having the portrait of Spencer Clark.
Till now, U.S. law prohibits any portrait of likeness on its notes of people who are still alive, with even commemorative coins honoring past presidents being issued only after two years of the president's death.

Currency History: United States

The banknotes of Bosnia and Herzegovina have images of famous writers, in a bid to avoid controversy by putting a polarizing person’s face.
The notes are issued in two different versions to reflect the different cultural identities of both its states after the civil war: The Serb Republic and Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The country never got to decide on which political leader to put on its banknote, due to new disagreements and debates, eventually opting for putting the portrait of writers, like novelist Meša Selimović and the Nobel Prize-winning writer Ivo Andric.

Currency History: Bosnia and Herzegovina

The currency notes of New Zealand reflect its roots, with the first notes having both British and local motifs, highlighting the British dominion. The Queen featured prominently in all its notes, until the late 20th century when right after gaining full legal independence from Britain, the country replaced the Queen with portraits of New Zealanders.
Prominent likenesses featured on the banknotes include Mt Everest Climber Edmund Hillary and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Currency History: New Zealand

The colonial history of South Africa is highlighted in its banknotes, which even after its independence from Britain had a portrait of Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeeck who once founded the modern Cape Town.
In the 90s, the banknotes replaced colonial figures with that of animals, which were ironically more acceptable to South Africans.
In 2012, the late anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela debuted in the newly minted banknotes and continues to be the face of its currency till now.

Currency History: South Africa

Genghis Khan, the 13th-century conqueror and ruler of Mongolia, is the face of its currency, apart from Damdin Sükhbaatarm, a revolutionary hero who fought Chinese occupiers to victory in 1921.
The portrait of Sükhbaatar debuted on Mongolian currency in 1939, and occupies smaller denominations, with Genghis Khan having a stranglehold over the higher denominations.

Currency History: Mongolia

Dictator Rafael Trujillo ruled over the Dominican Republic in the 1930s and used to kill, torture and murder anyone who resisted his brutal regime or spoke against him. Three rebellious sisters, known as the Mirabal sisters, were murdered by him for starting a resistance movement in the 50s.
In 2007, the Mirabal sisters graced the 200-peso note. The UN has designated the date of their assassination, 25th November, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Currency History: Dominican Republic

As a tangible symbol of a nation’s identity, banknotes are a window into history—from South Africa’s reckoning with apartheid to the challenges of building a unified country after Bosnia’s civil war.

What can the faces on its currency tell us about a country?

The idea of property protection has been around since the early 500 BCE in Greece. Their chefs were granted year-long exclusive rights for creating specific cuisines. 
Now, the goal of intellectual property protection has stayed the same, which is to prevent the unlawful copying of ideas and encourage creation of new products which will benefit the public and strive for more free-market competition.

Protecting Intellectual Property

<ul>
<li>Copyrights cover the protection of new artistic and literary works such as books, plays, movies, and even the photo you took for your social media profile;</li>
<li>Copyrights are automatically created the moment you produce something, however it is recommended to formally register for a copyright because during the possibility of an infringement case, you are allowed to collect statutory damages;</li>
<li>It usually lasts for the lifetime of an author plus 70 years.</li>
</ul>

Copyrights

<ul>
<li>Patents focus on protecting scientific items such as drugs, inventions, and technologies;</li>
<li>Patents go through a rigorous application and filing process where they need to submit a precise description of the item and be examined by an expert patent examiner that will determine whether the item meets their standards;</li>
<li>Patents last for 20 years from the date they're filed.</li>
</ul>

Patents

<ul>
<li>Trademarks do not protect artistic or technological works but instead the companies that create them such as Coca-Cola, Play-Doh, and NBC;</li>
<li>Trademarks are born out of use in commerce and can range from logos, brand names, smells, designs, and even sounds;</li>
<li>They can last indefinitely as long as they are in active use. Registering for a trademark grants you exclusive nationwide usage and it helps you sort through the different product offerings in a competitive market.</li>
</ul>

Trademarks

When you have a great idea, do you copyright, trademark, or patent it? Well, it all depends on what kind of idea it is.

What's the Difference Between Copyright, Trademark, and Patents?

Many people get identified with their work to such an extent that retirement feels like a big question mark on what will happen to them once they are ‘released’ from what they did their whole life.
One has to see if working beyond the retirement age is an option, as many do keep working well into their 70s, comforted by the psychological security, social acceptance and financial independence that work provides.

Terrified Of Retirement

One can start to adjust to retirement and the psychological/emotional aspects of it by planning for this.
Make two lists:
<ol>
<li>There are many aspects of a job that we would miss after we retire. One has to make a list of those aspects which are meaningful to us, or from which we derive maximum fulfilment.</li>
<li>Secondly, one can make a list of the minor roles that one liked doing, and would like to expand upon, like gardening, or mentoring juniors.</li>
</ol>

Emotional Aspects of Retirement

Big life changes always come with uncertainty, but one has to understand that change is a part of life, which is always in a state of flux.
One can ease the transition to retirement by visualizing a day when one is free from the job and has the time to do the enjoyable stuff one cannot do right now.

Visualise an Ideal Day Of Retirement

Psychologist Guy Winch takes us through 4 steps to help find fulfillment and meaning in our non-working years.

“At some point, I will retire — and that terrifies me”

The idea of people as consumers took shape before WWI, but it became more common in America in the 1920s.
People have always consumed the basics of life - food, clothing, shelter. They had to work to get them, but there was little economic motive for increased consumption among the masses. Attempts to promote new fashions and boost sales slowly increased as the pursuit of wealth extended beyond the very rich.

The slow increase of consumerism

In the late 19th-Century Britain, a variety of food became accessible to people who previously lived on bread and potatoes.
The improvement in food variety did not extend durable items to the people. The stores mainly served the urban middle-class, but the display of tempting products was greatly expanded.

Consumerism in 19th-century Britain

Through the 1890s, existing shops were extended, mail-order shopping increased, and massive department stores covered acres of selling space.
Retail was already moving from small shopkeepers to corporate giants. The objective of making products for the self-evident usefulness shifted to the goal of profit and enticement as a means of achieving happiness.

Consumerism grows in the US

In 1920, US production was more than 12 times greater than in 1860, while the population increased by a factor of three. The additional wealth provided basic security to the great majority of the people.
In these circumstances, it was feasible to reduce work hours and release workers for the spiritual and pleasurable activities of free time with families and communities, and creative or education pursuits. Shorter hours appealed to workers, suggesting that they still found life in their communities more attractive than consumer goods.

Reduced working hours

In 1927 Victor Cutter, president of the United Fruit Company wrote that the greatest economic problem of the day was the lack of consuming power in relation to the powers of production.
But a consumer solution was emerging. Business learned the importance of the ultimate consumer. The consumer had to be persuaded to buy and buy lavishly. But business could not wait for the public to ask for its product. The demand for the product had to be maintained through advertising and propaganda.

Mass production

Economist Edwar Cowdrick advised corporations about the new economic gospel of consumption, where workers could be educated in the new "skills of consumption."
New needs would be created, with advertising to advance the process. People would be encouraged to value goods over free time and cause people to envy those just above oneself in the social order to incite consumption and promote economic growth.

Consumerism encouraged

In a 1929 article called "Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied," the general director of General Motors Research Laboratories stated that there is no place anyone can sit and rest in the road of progress. "It is a question of change, change all the time."
Progress was about the endless replacement of old needs with new. The idea of meeting everyone's needs with an adequate level of production was not encouraged.

Keeping the consumer dissatisfied

Electrification was vital for the consumption of the new types of durable items—US households with electricity connected nearly doubled between 1921 and 1929. Radios, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators followed. Motor car registration increased to more than 28 million by 1929. Payment arrangements facilitated the extension of buying further.
Banks engaged in reckless lending, with debt over 200% of the GDP of that time, causing the first wave of consumerism to collapse suddenly.

Electrification fuelled consumption

After WWII, the consumer culture took off again throughout the developed world.
In 1921, the radio was seen as a vital tool in debt-financed consumption. But with the advent of television, advertisers exploited image and symbol and magnified their potential impact. Many of the products advertised have, in the past, been the luxuries of the upper classes. The game was to make them the necessities of all classes.

The effect of media on consumerism

In 1955, retail analyst Victor Lebow remarked, "We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."
A huge effort was devoted to persuading people to buy things they did not really need. Similarly, manufacturers began to design inferior items, known as "planned obsolescence", to "become obsolete in the mind of the consumer, ever sooner that the components used to make them will fail."

Fuelling a growing consumer appetite

The commodification of reality and the creation of demand have profound implications. Philosopher Herbert Marcuse state, "people recognise themselves in their commodities".
The capitalist system is dependent on a neverending growth. It would not do if people were content because they felt they had enough. Capitalism preserves its momentum by shaping the ordinary person into a consumer with a neverending thirst for its delightful stuff.

Implications of commodification

Over the course of the 20th Century, capitalism moulded the ordinary person into a consumer. Kerryn Higgs traces the historical roots of the world's unquenchable thirst for more stuff.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Trinity
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The Art of Kakeibo: This Japanese Budgeting System Could Change Your Financial Life

How Much Money Do You Need to Invest in Crypto?

3 tips for building your emergency savings fund

Can financial therapy untangle our relationship with money?

Seizing The Middle: Chess Strategy in Business

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Trinity @trinity_

The Art of Kakeibo: This Japanese Budgeting System Could Change Your Financial Life

How Much Money Do You Need to Invest in Crypto?

3 tips for building your emergency savings fund

Can financial therapy untangle our relationship with money?

Seizing The Middle: Chess Strategy in Business

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Trinity
@trinity_