How Kakebo works, the Japanese art of saving money

KakeboVery popular in Japan, aims to help people to publicize their expenses and revenues in order to prioritize their expenses. Pronounced "kakiboh", which means "book of real estate financing" in Japanese, the technique was adopted in the Asian country due to the marketing, at the beginning of each year, of a book of household accounts.

The savings method was created in 1904 by a woman, the journalist Hani Motoko, considered the first to practice this profession in the country, looking for a new way for wives to effectively manage the income of their family.

"Although Japan is a traditional culture in many ways, kakebo was a liberating tool for women because it allowed them to control their financial decisions."he says Fumiko Chiba, author of Kakebo: Japanese art to save money.

The book asks users to divide their expenses into different categories: essential expenses (housing, transportation, food, home care and medicines); leisure (restaurants, shops, gym, etc.) and the extras (gifts, repairs, trips). At the end of each month, the sum of the income expenses (salary, income, pensions) is subtracted to obtain a general balance.

Given this figure, the book asks to think about four key questions:

1) How much money did you save?
2) How much money would you have liked to save?
3) How much do you actually spend?
4) What would you change next month to improve?

The answers will help the user to better understand his expenses in relation to the money he has. Greater clarity on these issues tends to reduce the amount of available expenditures.

The method can help people save up to 35% of their income, according to Motoko.