Dinner Table as Training Ground

“While deviating slightly from the topic, when I go out to eat with my family, we often play a "meal cost guessing game". It's a very simple game where each participant has to guess the cost of the meal when visiting a restaurant. Each family member must declare their estimated value with at least a 500 yen difference from other participants, and ultimately, the participant whose estimate is closest to the actual amount wins a prize. When we play this game as a family, including me and the kids, we first look at the menu and try to remember the prices of not only what we order but as much as we can. Then, just before paying for the meal, we decide the order by playing rock-paper-scissors, and each of us declares our estimate of the total cost of the ordered meals. Here, there is a rule that the declared estimated amount must be at least five hundred yen different from the other participants. So, it's not just about declaring what you think the amount will be; you can also impose certain constraints on the estimated amounts of those who declare after you, based on the amount already declared by others and the amount you declare. Therefore, each participant considers how far to set their estimated amount from others to increase the chances that their estimate is closer to the actual amount. I believe it's a good opportunity to make children think about the balance between the cost of things and the quality of food and service, and considering how much I expect and how much others might expect helps lay the foundation for deriving more accurate expectations in the future.”

“My parents gifted me 110,000 yen every year until I entered university, and continued to buy stocks in my name. The reason for the 110,000 yen was that, at that time, gifts up to 100,000 yen were tax-exempt. With 110,000 yen, a 1,000 yen gift tax was required, leaving a tax record. This made it easier to prove it was my property in the future. The total amount of the gifts was about 2 to 3 million yen, but the value of the stocks they bought for me, which included companies like Mitsui Real Estate and Kintetsu, was about 20 million yen, I recall. Copies of these fractional stocks still exist, along with proofs of the tax paid on the annual gifts.”