Teh Financial Coaching
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Free Resources
  • Contact

My Musings

Budgeting for one week in Japan

4/28/2018

0 Comments

 
Before my bf and I left for our vacation to Japan and planning our trip, the friends I asked about how much to budget for a one week stay were not able to give me any specific answers. They just gave a general cost of $1000 per person so I thought I’ll write a blog about our actual expenses for a week stay in Japan. We weren’t the most frugal nor a spendthrift but hopefully this blog can help with your budgeting when you go to Japan for the first time. 

All the breakdown below are for two people. I am only listing the expenses we have spent as a couple, not including the discretionary items we have bought individually. That would be up to you how much more you are willing to spend for fun stuff. 
So to start, we flew during the off season from April 10 to 19th; when the cherry blossoms are dying and all we caught were the petals falling down (at least in the cities we have visited). Therefore, the flights were cheaper. Round trip flight with JAL (Japan Airlines) from SFO to Japan then to Taiwan and fly back to SFO was $1844. Once we arrived at the airport in Tokyo, we immediately rented a wifi router for one week, it's called NinjaWifi ($65.54). I highly recommend getting one since we would not have been able to go around Japan without Google maps and Google translator. We arrived Tokyo on the 11th and stayed there for 3 nights ($261.50) then stayed at a Ryokan in Kyoto since we wanted to experience what's it like to sleep Japanese style. We stayed there for 5 nights ($786.35). We only charged 4 times for lunch / dinner on our credit card that totaled $127. The rest were all in cash. We withdrew about 80000 yen (about $750), 10k yen each withdrawal - the currency exchange we got through ATM at that time was around 106.61 to 107.18. I recommend opening a debit card that does not charge a foreign transaction fee like Schwab. There is no need to bring USD since you will get a really bad exchange rate. It was a bad idea for us to bring USD, we walked around Japan trying to find the best rate but all we found were between 100 to 106.2 (this last one was very hard to find). Just bring enough cash for when you get back to the US. Trust me 7/11 ATMs are everywhere so you will not have a problem getting cash. ATMs or credit cards that do not charge any foreign transaction fee is your best bet for getting the best currency exchange. We also spent for two tickets to take the one way Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto ($254.54). We flew out from Osaka airport to Taiwan so our ticket for an express train from Kyoto to the airport was $29.86. I will not go through the details as to what we spent our cash on but they were mostly for food and some fun items and souvenirs.
If you add all of the above, we spent about $4100. Probably isn't the most frugal but we were comfortable and enjoyed our stay without consistently worrying about money. You might get away with spending less if you can get better deals with flights, hotels and not spending a lot but I think budgeting at least $2000 each person for a one week stay that includes everything from flight, hotel, food and transportation should be about enough. Also, we are not frequent travelers so we are still learning as we go. If you have any suggestions, please free to make a comment below or email me at Christine@TehFinancialCoaching.com. I'd love to hear from my readers!

As far as Japan; below are some of my observations:
  • They're very clean, you will hardly find a garbage can anywhere. If you eat, eat at the restaurant or it's encouraged to finish your food at the vendor you bought it from so you can use their garbage can. They frown at you for eating on the street.
  • They don't talk while using public transportation, people find that rude. 
  • They have vending machines everywhere (mostly for drinks) so you hardly find boba or  smoothie places. It's not as prevalent as here. 
  • They are 'mostly' courteous and considerate of others. People try to follow the rules (ex: in hallways and stairs, people stick to 1 side. For Japan, it’s mostly keep left. But there are usually signs on wall/floor that provide guidance). They always bow at you and it feels very humbling. They don't have that air of entitlement. They always have a smile on their face when you ask for help.
  • Their toilets are great. I love how one don't have to use a toilet paper if the bowl is equipped with washer and a dryer. Comes with a sound too if you want to muffle the noise of you pooping. 😉
  • They're not wasteful - at restaurants they only give you one napkin but usually it's just one moist towelette. I don't get why some people here take tons of napkins when they're eating. Does one need that much to wipe the mouth? 😜
  • They have food vendors everywhere! So you will for sure not get hungry. 
  • You will walk A LOT!!! Before you go, you might as well practice walking for a long period of time. I usually pass out as soon as I get back to the hotel but it was a great exercise. Probably why I see very few big people there.
  • Use Google Maps to travel around, It's usually pretty reliable for their public transportation.
  • Most Japanese cannot speak English so download the Google Translator. You can get by trying to communicate using short words and translating it. But try to use visuals and body language when possible. Remember, picture speaks a thousand words. 🙂Also, do try to learn some basic phrases in Japanese. People will appreciate your effort. Make sure you know thank you (arigato gozaima) and sorry / excuse me (sumimasen). I used a lot of excuse me while getting off the bus. 😄
  • Lastly, one week was too short to explore even everything we wanted to do in one city. We only visited Tokyo (3 days), Kyoto (2 days), Osaka (1 day) and Nara (1 day). We will certainly be back but there's a lot more other countries we have to visit.

I hope you enjoy this blog and got something out of it. 😊

Below are some pictures. First 2 is the ryokan we stayed at in Kyoto. Pic 3 is the Japanese cheesecake in Dotonbori, Osaka (it was the BEST cheesecake I have ever tasted! It's not like the American hard cheesecake but this one almost melts in your mouth, almost like a blend between very moist cake and cheese). The rest of the pictures are some cool sights and food that I have enjoyed throughout Japan. 
0 Comments

How to budget for a new pet dog

6/19/2017

1 Comment

 
Before getting too excited about getting a new addition to the family. In addition to the emotional and time investment, be prepared for the financial responsibility as well. I thought it would be good to write a blog detailing all the expenses you will incur the first 2 months since we've only had our dog for 2 months at this point. In addition to the financial breakdown, I'm listing out some tips for first time dog owners that I've learned from my first experience adopting a dog in this country. It's definitely not the same as owning a dog in Asia!

  1. Before getting a dog, if you have the time and commitment, I highly recommend becoming a volunteer at the local shelter so you can learn a bit more about dogs. I started volunteering at the local humane society back in May 2016. I started as a dog socializer for easy, happy dogs and move up to becoming a dog walker and now just passed being able to handle any dogs. I have also taken a class called "Foundation of Dogs" taught by Trish King which has given me a better understanding of dogs. But of course, no class or books can ever compare to real life experience but at least in theory, you have a better understanding.
  2. Now on to real life experience. Foster dogs if you can! In my opinion, the best way to get to know a dog is to actually foster them. This way, they get a chance to actually live at your home. This is what we did with our dog. We attended an orientation and luckily on that day, our dog was available to be taken home. It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other and a time for you to figure out if it's a good fit. If a good fit, adopt, if not, then you are only committed to taking care of the dog till someone else fosters them. It took us a week to fall in love with our dog. She's very well behaved and have not damaged anything in the house. She gained our trust within a month to be able to free roam the house. Now we try to take her out as much as we can, mostly to dog parks to socialize.
  3. Unless you will be home and have A LOT of time the first few months, do NOT get a puppy. A lot of people get so excited and think getting a puppy is the best since they're so cute but it also comes with A LOT more work, you must be prepared and KNOW what you're getting into before adopting a puppy. They're also more expensive. Adoption fees are more expensive since most people want puppies, they require more training, more shots, etc
  4. Get pet insurance! Ours cost about $400 per year. You never know what will happen, especially if you like to take your dogs to any outdoor activity. We have not had to use this yet but we have it in case of emergency. You never know when those happens, that's why we also have our own health insurance!
  5. For the first year at least, get a wellness plan at a local vet. We got ours through Tama veterinarian. Most veterinarians offer first free visit so you get a chance to decide if you like them or not. Wellness plans run from $400 to $500 yearly. Ours is $400 for one year and includes unlimited vet visits (we as paranoid first time parents already utilized this a lot 😀), shots, blood work, heart worm control, stool test. To me, it was well worth it. We probably have utilize the entire year's cost in two months with all the visits we have done so far. 
  6. Get the BarkBox subscription. I signed up for an entire year so it costs about $20 per month. We receive monthly treats and toys. Your dog is going to need lots of mental stimulation on top of their daily exercise. Depending on your dog and how sturdy the toy is, they will probably go through and rip off the toys pretty quickly. Getting a BarkBox allows you to not think about what toys or fun treats to get next. They do the thinking for you and we have enjoyed all the products we've received from them so far.
  7. Take your dog to a training class! I recommend those that uses positive reinforcement. This means they use treats to teach. Do not sign up for those trainers that use prong or some sort of shock collar. I made a mistake of signing up our dog to a class that is very close by but they use prong collars. What I've learned at the humane society is these collars hurt. I did not like how they tend to pull and punish the dogs a lot if they don't do something correctly. We are moving on to another class at the shelter that only uses positive reinforcement. 
  8. Don't forget their hygiene! We bathe our dog every 2 weeks and I give her dental treats every day before she goes to bed. We tried brushing her teeth but she's not a big fan of being brushed. Also, I clip her nails every couple of weeks when it grows longer and brush her fur daily since her breed sheds a lot. 
  9. Socialize your dogs as much as you can. What does socialization means? It means exposing them to as many new things or experiences as you can, like new people, new environment, new dogs so they can become confident and not easily get scared when encountering new things. 

There will always be new things to learn from being pet parents but the above are the most important in my opinion or at least should get you started on the right foot. So to date, I have spent $1800 in 2 months for my dog and they went mostly to what I've listed above. 

I'm very happy to say despite the expenses and time, she's a great joy to be around. She's always so excited to see us when we get home, she's very playful and loyal to us and provides a lot of laughter due to the little cute stuff she does.... Below are some photos of her. She is turning 3 years old in August and currently weigh 36 lbs. She is of a Jindo (South Korean breed) and we also named her Jindo. Who names their dogs the breed, probably no one so we are unique 😄
​

Picture
what can I say, she's content 😇
Picture
Picture
waiting calmly while we eat our lunch at a restaurant
1 Comment

Why and how I became a finance coach

4/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture

This is going to be a long blog but I thought I'll share my journey as to how I decided and ended up being one. 

I sometimes get asked by people and my clients how I got started, if I had any training etc on becoming a finance coach. To tell you the truth, I didn't get any formal training in financial coaching, managing money and handling my financial house. All of it came naturally for me and I was just really good at it. I started my own budgeting system in 2006. Over time, my system have improved to a much simpler process, which is what I currently teach my clients. What I didn't know and had to study more about was on investing. I actually didn't start actively investing till 2013. Sure I started Roth IRA when I was 20 and bought stocks each year I deposited new qualifying contribution to the account but I had no idea how it worked and I wasn't paying attention to how my account was doing. Luckily most of the stocks I picked (thanks to my aunt) actually did very well (three of the most successful ones which I still have are Home Depot, Chevron and Costco). I don't have a lot of stocks with them but they were the ones with the most gain in my account. I have always wanted to learn more about investing and was hoping there would be some sort of financial professional who would teach me about this on top of other personal finance topics. One day I bump into a friend who's a financial advisor, I told him I wanted to learn about investing as part of the services I expect from a personal financial professional in addition to looking at my finances holistically and see what else I can improve. Our meeting turned out mostly to be him trying to convince me to buy whole life insurance and no questions about how the rest of my finances are doing. I did my own analysis on "investing" (I use quotes since you can't really look at using insurance as investing) with whole life vs using that premium and investing them in the market instead. I got much MUCH more returns by investing in the market so no thank you, I'm not signing up for some stupid whole life insurance after I repeatedly said we might not have kids so who's going to be the freaking beneficiaries?!?! I tried asking about investments but I got blurry answers and it seems the interest lies more with me either buying whole life insurance so they can get that commission (in case you don't know, they can get up to 80% of your premiums the first year and they get ongoing commissions from your premiums afterwards) and moving my money so they can manage it for me with paying a 1% fee. I didn't quite understand how him managing my money is going to benefit me much. I want to learn plus I want to save the fee. It's not rocket science to figure out that adds up to my portfolio "losing" money every year from the fees. I want to learn how to manage my own portfolio and know what I'm doing damn it. 

On I move forward and I met another advisor, who happens to be my boyfriend's advisor. After getting some information from my bf and the services he received, which consist mostly of being sold products that was not taught well to him and spending a lot of money on upfront fees and being told it doesn't cost him anything moving forward (which is a bunch of bull crap btw, there's no such thing as free ongoing services, you pay for it in back end expensive fees somehow). On top of that, a lot of these advisors don't care a damn if you don't have any investable assets for them to manage. Who helps those people who can't get their financial house in order, who may or may not be making good income and education but needs help? I tell you no one. If you look at yelp and search for financial coach here in the South Bay, I would be the only one you will find. 

What does this tell you? These people who needs the most help, who are living paycheck to paycheck are probably suffering in silence. I so want to help them, I don't want to JUST help people with hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions in investable assets. There are already plenty of advisors hunting them down plus if they have millions, they probably don't need as much help. They can probably survive just fine.

Ever since I found my passion in personal finance and wanting to get into the field, I bump into the credentials CFP (certified financial planning), I then researched more into how to get it and that's how I got into the program at the local UCSC extension. This, however, has nothing to do with financial coaching. They don't teach you much about managing your money and positive cash flows, which is the foundation for financial independence. It has more to do with planning, meaning the future, how do you plan for retirement, income tax planning, kids education, estate planning, healthcare, etc. They are helpful in their own merit, which is what I am planning to add to my services later on since I want to be a one stop shop for most personal financial services: from people who are struggling with positive cash flow (financial coaching) to people who already got their finances in order but want to plan for the future (financial planning) and also tax preparation and tax planning as well. 

I hope this blog gives you a better sense as to what I do and where my passion lies. My goal is for my client to become informed and take charge of their finances so they can handle their financial house themselves. There is always hope no matter if you have a lot of debt, what matters is your motivation and follow through. I am here to help. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me. 


0 Comments

Student Loans

3/11/2017

0 Comments

 
Apologize I have not posted any blog since October. Life have been hectic and stressful for my partner and I with our new house. We finally close in on our brand new home in February, woohoo. It's definitely a dream come true to finally live in a place we can call our home with no fear of increasing rents. Mortgage are consistent or can only go down while rents go up (assuming you maintain your minimum or pay more to principal and you're not on variable rate). I might post a blog on house budgeting sometime later since there's a lot to talk about there as well but for today, I want to focus on student loans.

I never had to deal with student loans since I hate being in debt. The only debt I ever carried was a home mortgage and a car loan that I paid off as fast as I could. As I get more and more new clients, I see almost all of them have student loans (on top of other debts). It makes me sad that after getting a good education, most of them will almost always have a 6 figure student loan debt and their net worth will be negative for awhile till the debts are paid off. I also realize a lot of them don't understand their debts. The companies loaning them money do not really care about helping them get out of debt. They sometimes make things very complicated so you will stay in debt. Below are some things I've learned and advices I'd like to give to people who have student loans.

First, even if they say there's no minimum or it's deferred, you usually will have a minimum, please find out how much interest you accrue per month and at least pay that at a minimum otherwise your principal will keep growing with the added interest. Your student loan is just going to keep growing and growing and you might not be able to afford the monthly payment later. If it's deferred but interest is still accruing, you have to pay the interest at a minimum if your goal is to get out of debt.

Second, the only way to be able to pay down debt is to get to a positive cash flow per month. There is no way we can move on to your other financial goal if you don't get a handle on your day to day spending. Yes, I get it, we want to live a certain lifestyle but if you will stay in debt forever due to negative cash flow per month. How and when will you attain financial freedom? 

Lastly, I found two links that talks about student loans that I find interesting
     https://www.ted.com/talks/sajay_samuel_how_college_loans_exploit_students_for_profit
     http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/9-lies-college-student-loans

Remember, you don't have to be alone to tackle student debts or any other debts yourself. Please reach out to me (http://www.tehfinancialcoaching.com/contact.html) to set up a complimentary session and we can chat more about your financial situation and how I can help you. I am passionate about helping people navigate through their finances so they can live financially stress free. 

Christine


0 Comments

My top 3 favorite tools

10/27/2016

0 Comments

 
Below are my top three tools I have used for more than a decade since I started budgeting. I have used them for different purposes to stay on top of my finances. 

First and foremost, my favorite tool is Excel. I guess you can call me old fashioned but I like to be able to see the numbers in front of my eyes and to actually keep track of them manually versus everything automated. Manually typing in all my expenses has helped keep me accountable with my day to day expenses. I also use this to keep track of all my finance goals as well as my annual ROI on all my different accounts or investments. This has remained my number 1 favorite tool since I like to see actual break downs of my numbers. 

For keeping track of my net worth, yes, you do want to know what your net worth is at any point in time. Net worth would be all your assets (savings, checking, investments, real estate, car or anything you own) minus your liabilities (debt, loans or anything that still needs to be paid off). I use the website www.PersonalCapital.com. It is a free tool just like mint.com but they're more geared towards investments versus on budgeting like mint. I personally like Personal Capital because it gives information investors can find useful like how much allocation I have in certain investment type, what was the highest gainer for the day for ALL your accounts. A warning before you transfer all your money there is that they might call you and offer to open an account and manage your money for you since they are also an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor). Just be assertive and say you are not interested unless you really want someone else to manage your money. I personally don't think you need an investment manager to manage anything for you. Investments is all about asset allocation and managing risk so just make sure you have your investments allocated or in other words, don't have all your eggs in one basket. 

​The third tool I use is www.CreditKarma.com.  This is another free tool that allows you to check your credit score. It pulls from two credit bureaus TransUnion and Equifax. This is just a good way to get an idea on where you are at credit wise but it does tend to give a higher score than what financial  institutions actually get. I like this tool since it gives a breakdown on why your score is the way it is and it also give a free credit report. 

That's it for now. Holidays are coming and it's a tempting time to spend money. Try not to forget your long term financial goals and have a budget for how much you are willing to spend for the holidays while still maintaining your financial health. Happy Holidays!!


Christine Teh   Finance Coach, Teh Financial Coaching
Mobile: (510)367-0789
Email: Christine@TehFinancialCoaching.com
Website: www.TehFinancialCoaching.com

   


0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    April 2018
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    Subscribe Now
    Share this!

    RSS Feed



© 2016 Christine Teh Disclaimer


Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Free Resources
  • Contact