Growth Hackers Congress

Now that all the posts about Kakeibo are done, you are all set to plan your finances. But, just a
quick last thing to do.Let’s think of the year as a whole now.
What special expenditure will occur during the course of the next twelve months?
Think about:
1. Holidays (short breaks or longer trips)
2. Occasions (birthdays, weddings or festivals)
3. Special events: concert, shows
4. Material goods (sofa, phone, laptop)
5. Life Events (moving houses or starting a new business)
These things are all outside your usual daily or monthly outings, but by laying it out in this way
you can see how frequently this ‘ once in a while’ spending becomes.
Think about how much you would need to save each month to meet this total cost. Maybe this
figure alone will be enough to stretch you, or maybe you could set yourself a more ambitious
target. Either way, it’s worth keeping this figure in mind to make sure that you are not caught
short one month.
Now, you are all set for your Kakeibo journey!

How Kakeibo works.

Weekly Spending:

1. Fill in your weekly spending budget.
2. Add your own categories to fit your lifestyle. For example: Takeaway category could
mean lunch, dinner or even a coffee take away. Entertainment would include cinema or
books.
3. Fill in your spending as you go along.
4. Tally up the totals so you can check how much you spent everyday.
5. Keep a track of categories’ totals as a way of analyzing where your money goes.
6. Add any notes to self
7. Check you haven’t exceeded your limit.

Spending Review:

1. Note how much money you had available to spend in the starting of the month.
2. Note the amount you had thought you would spend in the starting of the month.
3. Note the amount you actually spent
4. Subtract the actual spends from the available income you had in the start.
5. Review the amount is point 4, see how close you were to your target.
6. Note down ways you found to reduce your spending. (Eg: preparing lunch at home
rather than buying a sandwich at lunchtime.)
7. By keeping track of the category totals week after week you can identify where your
money goes.
8. Learn from the present month and make plans for the next month.

How Kakeibo works (Spending Plan)
1. How much money do you have coming in?
List of all the sources of income and your take home pay for each (i.e after immediate
deductions such as tax, insurance, pensions, loans etc.)
2. How much money do you have going out?
Jot down your fixed monthly outgoings (i.e not things that vary such as food)
3. How much money do you have available to you?
Subtract the total from point 2 from the total from point 1 (i.e your fixed outings from your
income) to find the total amount available.
4. How much do you want to save?
Set yourself a figure for how much you would like to have saved by the end of the month,
Be realistic - if you usually struggle to save Rs 10,000/- a month, you’re unlikely to
suddenly start saving Rs 50,000/- and might feel deflated if you do not achieve this.
However, as you progress with your kakeibo, you should become more ambitious and
stretch the amount you want to save each month.
5. How much should you spend?
Subtract the amount you want to save from the amount you have available to get the
remaining total. Then divide this by the number of weeks until your next payday to find a
weekly figure.
6. Notes.
Do write down your goal for the month and also some encouragement to achieve the
goal.

The two Tips for Kakeibo.
There is much that can be learnt from how the Japanese approach their personal finances, but
the two top tips are:

1. Saving Money is about spending money well: Often when we think about saving money,
the emphasis is on what we cannot spend on. This makes saving money a chore and
prevents us from making it a long term lifestyle change. The key to savings is to instead
start thinking about it in terms of spending money - but spending it well. This is very
important for changing your focus.

2. Divide your spending into ‘Musts’ and ‘ Wants’: The kakeibo will ask you to note down
your essentials and fixed outgoings at the beginning of each month, but everything else
that you track on a weekly basis is variable. Within this, it’s important to recognise the
difference between ‘ must haves’ and ‘want tos’. You need to eat, but eating at an
expensive restaurant is a ‘want to’, not a ‘must have’- there is a crucial difference!

Keepa check on what proportion of your spending is a ‘must have’ and this is a quick way to
identify areas of waste in your spendings.

Disclaimer that I told myself after reading the book is that it doesn’t speak about living in poverty
consciousness and tell myself that I cannot afford something. Rather, it is simply telling me to be
more aware of decisions and also to raise my income proportionately.

Brief on Kakeibo.

Managing the money is at the root of all business, and we all know, money grows more money.
Japan is quite frequently spoken about when it comes to minimal living and bouncing back withtheir economics. They are known for de-cluttering their personal belongings, seasonal savvycooking and to be able to do with less in all aspects of life.

But, at the heart of all this is the Kakeibo, the budgeting journal used to set saving goals andspend wisely. The premise is simple: at the beginning of each month you sit down with yourkakeibo and think mindfully about how much you would like to save and what would you have to
do to reach your goals. The kakeibo then gives you space to document your weekly spends andreflect on the month that just passed by.

The simple act of completing your kakeibo ensures thatsavings is a part of your everyday life, while also giving you the opportunity to improve every
month.By using the kakeibo, you can get a grip on your spending and start to achieve your goals,finding ways to save for the things that really matter in your life.

As an entrepreneur, it has been quite a beautiful journey and one of the key elements of any business is about managing the Money.

Money taken as an energy or the medium through
which the business can be done, needs to be maintained and invested properly. So, I havecurrently purchased this beautiful book called “ Kakeibo”.

The Kakeibo has been a Japanese tradition stretching back for over a century. It was firstpopularized in 1904 by Hani Motoko, Japan’s first female journalist, as a way for the housewivesto manage budgets.

Although Japan is a traditional culture in many ways, the kakeibo was a
literating tool for women, giving them control over all financial decisions.

Throughout the twentieth century, the Japanese government actively promoted the Kakeibo inorder to compete with the Western economics. Japan relied on it’s households to beself-sufficient and the kakeibo was a crucial tool for enabling personal savings despite lowincomes.

Today, the Kakeibo remains hugely popular across Japan as a tried and tested method of savingmoney. There are many types of Kakeibo, but they all share a means for tracking income and recording expenditure.

Will keep posting about the learnings from the book ❤️