10 Tips on Saving for a Home from iQiyi’s "Monthly Magazine Home"

iQiyi’s Korean rom com “Monthly Magazine Home” gives you the easy…and extreme lessons on owning a home. The iQiyi Original and exclusive series follows the lives of a team of editors working in Monthly Magazine Home owned by a real estate developer named Yoo Ja-sung (played by Kim Ji Suk), who used to be an orphan and whose meticulous attitude towards time and money eventually made him a billionaire.

One of Monthly Magazine Home’s editor Na Young-won (Jung So-min) who recently lost her job, faces a new hurdle as the owner of the house she’s renting plans on transforming the whole place into a new development, forcing all tenants to vacate the place. With the help of a longtime friend, Young-won was able to land a new job under Monthly Magazine Home. To her surprise, she again meets the landowner who evicted her from her apartment as she learns that he is her current employer.

Meanwhile, Ja-sung soon realizes where he has met Young-won and things soon become unpredictably funny and confusing between the two of them and with the rest of the magazine team. Working for 10 years and still renting, Young-won has long dreamed of owning a home but can barely get through the years. Armed with a new job and reinvigorated with determination to own a home, Young-won soon finds herself subscribing to Ja-sung’s informative online channel on real estate. Despite Ja-sung’s extreme tips on saving to own a home, Young-won decided to change her spending habits to achieve her dream. 

Here are some of Young-won’s baby steps on saving for a home that’s worth looking into if you’re living on a limited budget (or even if not):

1. Skip buying that expensive morning coffee. Young-won’s daily morning coffee costs KRW 4,000. In her mind, Ja-sung nags her that in a week, it’s KRW 28,000 and KRW 1.46mil in a year, she eventually turns around and heads outside the café. 
2. Use your primary bank’s ATM to withdraw money. Ja-sung appears on the ATM’s monitor reminding Young-won that the machine charges a fee of KRW 1,200. Soon enough, Young-won is convinced and walks even further to her primary bank’s ATM. 
3. Dismiss the 50% off notifications from online shopping apps no matter how tempting it is. 
4. Skip on buying a new curtain even if the design is a little outdated. Young-won stopped herself from purchasing a new one in order to add to her savings. 
5. Join a community on home ownership, Ja-sung says it’s better to have like-minded companions on your journey on saving up for a home. 
6. Take that free kimchi that the host is offering for you to take home. 
7. Don’t be a pushover, learn to say no when colleagues are cheering on you to treat them for snacks or coffee. Ja-sung keeps appearing on Young-won’s phone screen to toughen her up. 
8. It helps to have a convenient-store buddy to split the cost on those 1+1 deals. 
9. Don’t easily throw that old hair tie and use creams or lotions sparingly. 
10. Create a KRW 10,000 per day spend calendar. This is one of the super frugal methods that Ja-sung suggested on spending only KRW 10,000 per day.

With Ja-sung’s saving tips, Young-won is constantly reminded on not wanting to be poor again and is motivated with the aspiration “Don’t be indebted to tomorrow’s me”.

Now streaming on iQiyi, “Monthly Magazine Home” also stars our favorite K-drama actors Jung Gun-joo, Choi Go, Chae Jung-An and Nam Sang-soon who give life to the series’ eclectic and vibrant characters.

Download the iQiyi app or log in to www.iQ.com for more amazing Asian shows.