Last year on December 28th, after Lily was asleep, my wife and I sat at our kitchen table with our 2025 calendar spread out between us. Not the digital one on our phones. The full printed year, all twelve months visible at once.

I started to talk about financial ground rules for the new year. Budget adjustments. Savings targets. NISA contributions. The usual January optimization talk.

She stopped me: "Wait. Before we talk about systems, what do we actually want 2026 to look like?"

The question caught me completely off guard. I'd been thinking about mechanics (how much to save, when to transfer money, which deadlines to hit). She was asking about vision. What experiences do we want? Where do we want to take Lily? How do we want our typical month to feel?

We spent the next hour doing something I'd never done before: designing what we wanted the year to feel like first, then working backwards to figure out what that would cost.

Hokkaido during Golden Week. Two three-day weekend trips somewhere we'd never been. Lily's birthday party at that indoor playground she keeps talking about. Maybe a weekend in Kyoto when the leaves change in November. Monthly date nights that don't feel guilty because they're already budgeted.

By the time we finished, we had a vision. Then we did the math. Then we built the monthly system that would make it real.

That approach, vision first then work backwards, changed everything about how we think about money. And it's why 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by mid-February while our 2025 actually looked like what we designed in December 2024.

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions. They sound inspiring on January 1st and they're abandoned by Valentine's Day. 80% fail by mid-February. Only 9% of people keep them by year's end.

The reason isn't willpower. Resolutions start with constraint. "Save more money" feels like deprivation. "Budget better" feels like punishment.

James Clear nails it: "You do not rise to the levels of your goals. You fall to the levels of your systems."

But you don't build good systems around vague goals. You build them around a clear vision of what you actually want your year to feel like.

The vision-first approach:

Start with desire: "I want three trips with Lily this year. I want monthly date nights that don't feel guilty. I want Hokkaido during Golden Week before she gets too old to think it's magical."

Work backwards to cost: Three trips at roughly ¥100,000 each = ¥300,000. Date nights at ¥8,000 monthly = ¥96,000. Hokkaido during Golden Week = ¥180,000 if we book early.

Calculate monthly base: ¥300,000 for three-day weekends ÷ 12 months = ¥25,000/month to travel fund. ¥8,000/month to date night fund. ¥15,000/month January through April for Golden Week (¥60,000), rest from June bonus.

Set calendar triggers: First Saturday of each month, transfer ¥25,000 to travel fund. Same day, transfer ¥8,000 to date night fund (or better yet, make it automatic). February 28, book Golden Week shinkansen and hotel.

This isn't "save more" or "budget better." It's designing the year you want, calculating what it costs, and working backwards to monthly systems that make it happen automatically.

After that kitchen table conversation, we created a framework that starts with vision and works backwards to monthly automation. It has three parts.

Part 1: Vision Exercise (What Do You Actually Want?)

Before any budgeting, answer these questions:

What trips do you want to take this year? Where and when?

What does your ideal typical month look like? Date nights? Activities with kids?

What experiences do you want for your family? Birthday celebrations? Places you've been meaning to visit?

How much do you want to invest for your future? (NISA goal? iDeCo?)

What big expenses are you preparing for? (Birthdays, school events, family visits?)

We wrote everything down. No filtering for "realistic" yet. Just what would make 2026 feel like a year we designed instead of a year that happened to us.

Part 2: Working Backwards to Monthly Amounts

Once we had the vision, we did the math. This is where Japan's calendar becomes your advantage.

Our 2025 example:

Three three-day weekend trips at ¥100,000 average = ¥300,000 total. That's ¥25,000/month to a travel fund for ten months (February through November).

Hokkaido during Golden Week = ¥180,000 if booked by late February when prices are reasonable. That's ¥15,000/month January through April (¥60,000), plus ¥120,000 from June bonus.

Eight birthday/gift occasions = ¥40,000 total budget. That's ¥3,500/month to gifts fund.

NISA target of ¥1.2M for the year = ¥100,000/month automated.

Monthly date nights = ¥8,000/month (no saving needed, just dedicated from monthly income).

The vision came first. The numbers came second. The monthly system came third. That order matters.

Part 3: Calendar Triggers (Systems Remove Willpower)

This is 仕組み化 (systematization). Once you know the monthly amounts, you set calendar triggers so you don't have to remember or decide.

Our calendar triggers:

First Saturday of every month at 10 AM: Transfer ¥25,000 to travel fund, ¥8,000 to date night fund, ¥3,500 to gifts fund. (Calendar reminder, takes 3 minutes on Rakuten Bank app.)

The 25th of every month (salary day): Automatic ¥100,000 transfer to NISA. Set it once, forget it.

February 28: Book Golden Week shinkansen and hotel. (Calendar reminder with booking links saved.)

November 15: Book New Year travel before December rush. (Calendar reminder.)

June 5 (after summer bonus deposits): Transfer ¥120,000 to Golden Week fund completion, ¥200,000 to miscellaneous annual expenses fund. (Calendar reminder.)

The calendar does the remembering. You just do the action when the reminder fires. No willpower. No decision fatigue. The vision is aspirational. The calendar triggers are the system you fall to.

Next week is shigoto hajime week. First full work week back. Don't waste that new year energy on resolutions. Design the vision first.

Sit down with a notebook. Ask: What do I want 2026 to feel like?

Write down the experiences, trips, activities you want. Don't filter for "affordable" yet. Just vision.

For each item, estimate the cost:

Add it all up. That's your annual vision cost.

Divide vision items by 12 months. That's your monthly base system:

Set calendar triggers for each monthly transfer. First Saturday? Salary day? Pick one day monthly, set recurring reminder, do all transfers at once.

Mark booking deadlines on your 2026 calendar:

📋 This Week's Actions:

Total time: 95 minutes to design your 2026 around what you actually want.

One quick win for today: Open your notes app and write one thing you want 2026 to feel like. One experience. A trip? A celebration? Write it down. Estimate the cost. Divide by 12. That's your first monthly fund. Takes 3 minutes.

Stay Wealthy

Jason

Building wealth for English-speaking permanent residents in Japan, one story at a time.

For personalized financial guidance, please consult with qualified Japanese financial advisors who can assess your individual circumstances.