Hey everyone,
Recently upgraded to the shortlist in Akita, but a little worried about finances back home. I only really have one bill, a car payment of about 516, which I'm trying to refinance to bring it lower while I'm gone, but I'm worried with the value of the yen it will be difficult to make payments and still make it in Japan. Does anyone have any experience with payments back home?
by HeWhoIsVeryGullible
15 comments
making payments to anything while you’re here is going to be a bit hard. basically, when you first get here, you’re making about 1800 a month. then you gotta pay bills here, which can be cheap or expensive, but still takes a chunk out.
So you’ll be paying about one third of your salary in Japan for the car payment in the US? How are you going to make ends meet here in Japan?
That’s like a 1/3 of your annual take home pay for a car you can’t even drive. You’re better off getting rid of it before you leave.
If you’re single and cook your meals, you can do it. Is a year or two of that worth it to keep that car? Your choice.
I know this might not be helpful but I had to turn down an upgrade opportunity because I was in the same situation. I wish you the best of luck.
Something to consider, Akita is a fairly rural prefecture, if you are outside of a city, you will need a car which will further eat into your monthly pay. I’d say it is doable but limiting.
I too will have a loan i am paying off back home in Aus. Not us much as yours, but i have been able to work out a budget based off what info my BOE has given me. Will be tight, but will do my best to get by
2019-2021, I kept about $1000 on my credit card because it was helping build my credit score. Had enough yen to reset the credit debt just in case I needed to. Made moderate payments on it and I was living comfortably.
Then 2022 happened.
Got about $2000 on the card now and I pay just enough to outpace the interest and lower the principal but it hurts seeing how much I have to send back in Yen as opposed to a few years ago. I ‘could’ pay off the debt today, but I am going back to the States in a few months so I am waiting till I’m making USD again to pay it off.
My student loan payments resume this December (got a Masters recently) and I’m glad I’ll be making USD again soon.
I would try to lower the payments on your car. I would also avoid using a credit card as much as possible while the yen is so low.
Definitely sell the car for as much as you can get. The yen is shit against the dollar and what happens if the yen weakens even further? You probably wont be able to save or travel if car payment makes up almost half of your take home pay.
I pay back student loans, credit card debt and can still pay my rent but with little to no savings working in Japan and my salary is less then JET, and I can still buy goods here and there but its not an easy life all things considered.
It was my dream to work and live in Japan been here for about 2 years and it’s getting to point for me where I’m gonna have to go back home ether this year or early next year. I’m glad I did work here because I would’ve regretted it the rest of my life if I didn’t, but you have to think if it’s something you really want to do. I been to japan several times before and studied Japanese for 12 years so I knew something’s to expect while living here, but even with that it’s not easy living here and getting anything important done here takes time and can be very annoying.
If you really want to be here you’ll find a way to make it work if you have other options think very carefully what you want to do in the future.
My best advice I can give.
I have a lot of debt back home. The JET salary after bills is just enough to send money home. The yen is so weak some months are more difficult than others. I usually end the month with about 4000 yen or less in my account.
I think you could do it as long as you have a rural placement. You probably won’t have savings until you’re able to pay it off but if you really want to come, I don’t think you should let it stop you!
You’re not gonna have fun spending $516 a month with this terrible exchange rate. It will be tight but we don’t know what your situation will be yet but having 80,000 less per month is pretty significant.
We got paid today and in USD it’s $1,500. I send about $500 from my JET salary for credit card bills in the states & then the rest is for bills here and living in Japan. There are months where I’m struggling a bit especially if I plan a trip, but for the past 4 months I haven’t been able to save any money at all :/
Thank you for this post! Glad to hear there are Jets sending money back home to pay off debt and making it work. Most Jets here made me feel guilty for having some debt at home while they are “debt-free”. Great, want a cookie?
Anyways, what saved me is that I live in an Inaka area and paid off most of my debt before I came. I’m also on the IDP plan, paying $0 a month lol. This is my last month where I’m going to make one last credit card payment, then I can save more and will be free from those credit cards (whoo hoo!)