Recently I've been trying to find out what the default option is, and coming from Japan this is actually much easier.

The default in New Zealand is clearly buying a house, by whatever means necessary. The default in Japan is getting a job, just any job really but the better the better, and sticking with it.

To be honest, New Zealand's option is better because there is a higher chance of long-term comfort in my opinion. Short-term, maybe not, because houses are really ridiculously overpriced, and having an income that a job provides gives you a sense of relief, unless it pays shitty of course.

Alas, being able to see the default options in both countries puts us at an advantage because we have a more objective outlook of the world, and we can decide what we want off that.

We've also come to see about what we need in terms of living, and really I am ok with the simple stuff. I've found that I can forgo an SUV, the soon-to-be default option in New Zealand, because they are too big to be practical in NZ just yet, both in terms of size and fuel consumption (if it were completely electric and the parking spaces and garages in NZ were a fraction bigger, then yes please).

Also the other luxury that we have often, coffee, I have found a very cheap (well, comparatively cheap) option in Mizudashi, or cold brew. I just have to buy the beans now that I have all the equipment, probably at around $5-10 per 100g, I probably won't go much higher than that, for cafe-quality brew, or I can go for paper or Nel (cotton filter) drip now that I have enough experience with it.

The only other real big thing is housing though, will need to find a solution for that if we're to live in NZ.