An elderly man from Japan has gone viral for his extremely frugal ways.
Hiroto Kiritani, 75, a former pro shogi (Japanese chess) player has earned himself the nickname of ‘God of Freebies’. The reason: He lives almost entirely on coupons.
Here’s the thing: Kiritani is more than capable of having a lavish lifestyle.
He invests in the stock market and owns stocks in over 1000 companies. According to reports, he has amassed an estimated net worth of over 100mil yen (S$871K).
He began dabbling in stocks when he was invited four decades ago to teach shogi to the employees of investment company Tokyo Securities Kyowakai. He quickly developed an interest, and evidently a knack, for investing.
As with all investments, Kiritani’s were not without risk. He reportedly lost 100 million yen when the Nikkei Stock Average crashed in 1989. He also suffered losses in subsequent stock market crashes as well.
It was through those losses that he learnt about investor benefits. An alternative to dividends, the benefits include coupons and vouchers provided to shareholders of companies that profit above a certain mark.
According to Kiritani, almost 50 per cent of Japanese corporations offer investor benefits. And after going through the lows, he completely mastered the art of tapping on these perks.
Since he owns stocks in different companies, including those in the clothing, F&B, and entertainment business, he has collected a variety of coupons.
He travels by a bicycle, which he bought with coupons, and dines at restaurants where he also foots the bill using, you guessed it, coupons.
Kiritani even has coupons which grant him free entry into the cinema 300 times a year. He also uses coupons to redeem groceries, gym memberships, karaoke sessions, and other recreational activities such as bungee jumping and roller coaster rides.
Kiritani says he only uses cash when paying his rent or when he needs to make up the costs of things that aren’t fully covered by his coupons.