The resort, with rooms starting at $369 a night, features an infinity pool, a spa, eight restaurants, a private boardwalk and beach area, and a 4,600-meter “water house” – an indoor pool and sauna using natural hot spring water.

“We spent the whole day at the resort, swimming, eating and drinking,” said Gina Kim, 32, a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom.

Gina Kim and her friends weren’t worried about the cost of the trip because they had spent more than a decade saving money in gyemoim – financial planning groups where people form to save for future expenses.

Forming a group can help friends or family members split the cost of the trip evenly so that everyone can attend without having to consider their personal budgets.

“Honestly, if we didn’t form a club, it would be too difficult for us to arrange a trip like this,” Gina King said. “It costs too much, and we don’t want other members to feel stressed out by it.”

Collective financial management has a long history in many parts of the world.

“This practice is not actually unique to South Korea,” said Shin Eun-chul, an associate professor of economics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology business school in Seoul. “It initially developed because there were no financial markets at the time, and if you wanted to borrow money, you had to do some of the financing yourself.”

Shin Eun-cheol gave an example of a village 200 years ago that needed to buy seeds to grow rice. At that time, in many places, financial institutions for lending did not exist, so the villagers pooled their money, bought supplies, and then divided the harvest.

Over time, the practice evolved into a way for people to maintain friendships and community solidarity.

Each member pays what is effectively a “club dues” — usually between $10 and $50 a month, depending on the group. As the balance grows, members discuss how to spend it together.

Gina King and two friends first formed their group in 2014 after they met at a social club. The three were attending different universities and thought the group would allow them to see each other regularly.

Initially, they agreed to contribute 15,000 won (about 13 U.S. dollars) per month. Over the next decade, they saved more than 3 million won (about 2,200 U.S. dollars) and decided to use the money to travel to the resort town of Ananti. By that time, the three friends were busy with their own careers and families, but they remained close, partly because of the reunion.

“It allows us to stay connected and enjoy time together without having to worry about the cost,” Gina King said.

Lee Young-hoon, 35, said his mother was the council leader of her apartment building.

Lee Young-hoon, a teaching assistant at an English language college, joined a group of two women and four men who each paid 50,000 won, or about $36, a month.

“We became good friends in high school and have remained good friends as adults,” he said. “Initially, we just got together for fun, but as everyone started working, we started thinking more about the future. So, not only was it important to maintain our friendship, we also decided to support each other through major life events like weddings or funerals.”

Lee’s group uses the shared funds to reunite several times a year, usually for a meal of Korean barbecue or fried chicken and beer.

In late April, Gina Kim also went to Vietnam with another group. The trip cost much less than her trip to Ananti, but she said it was also a three-woman trip, and they still stayed in a nice hotel and had a great time together.

Because of the nature of Korean social interaction and trust culture, meetings can work in Korea.

In Korea, for example, you can walk into a coffee shop in Seoul and leave your bag, laptop, and wallet full of credit cards and cash on the seat while you go to the restroom, and no one will be watching, without worrying about your belongings being taken when you return. (Although, to be sure, scams and fraud occur from time to time, as they do everywhere.)

“Let’s say you and I are friends,” Shin said. “We grew up together in a small town and have known each other for a long time. We know each other inside and out. If I borrow money and don’t pay it back, you’ll say, ‘Hey, guys, Eun-chul borrowed some money from me and never paid it back.'” Shin said that because of the collective nature of his social group, he would be ostracized by community members.

Group savings is so common in South Korea that one bank is adapting to the custom. Kakao Bank, a subsidiary of Kakao Talk, the country’s most popular messaging app, now offers a group account product where friends can share a bank account managed by a designated account holder.

Lee and Jina Kim’s group started before Kakao Bank existed, by entrusting funds to one member of the savings group. Some groups, like Lee’s, still prefer this “old-fashioned” way of fundraising. Lee said one of his groups decided who to entrust the money to by majority vote.

Both of Jina Kim’s groups now use Kakao Bank’s tool because it allows all members to view the flow of funds in their accounts and earn up to 2% interest. The account manager is the only one who controls how the funds are used, but everyone pays in. Users can set reminders to have monthly dues sent to the account and can communicate through the app’s chat function.

Such a group will not last forever. Circumstances may change, friends may fall out, someone may no longer want to participate, or new people may want to join. When this happens, it is up to the group to decide how to deal with it.

“There are no specific rules for how a group operates, although some groups make their own rules,” Gina Kim said. “But my group never really had rules.”

Another friend of Jin’s had also attended the rally in Busan, but she decided to drop out a few years ago for financial reasons.

“We asked her what she wanted to do with her portion of the money. She decided to get her portion back rather than spend it,” she said.

While the breakups in Gina Kim’s group were amicable, it’s not unheard of for them to fall out. Kim said one friend’s group broke up when members couldn’t agree on travel plans. She also said that for a group to be successful, members need to have common interests and values.

No American bank canProvide products like what Kakao Bank will provide.To ensure transparency for all members of the team, the closest option is to open a joint checking or savings account that all members have equal access to.

This may be difficult.It depends on the size of the team and how close they are to each other. Banks without traditional physical branches are most likely to offer the best options. For example,AllyA representative from the bank said the bank allows up to four co-owners to use oneConsumption Account.

If you both have an account at a bank that charges a fee, you should include that fee in each person’s share.

There are also disadvantages to opening a joint account, such as problems if one friend wants to leave the group. Depending on the bank, it may be difficult or even impossible to remove someone from a joint account without closing the account.

Additionally, unlike an individual account, a joint account gives each person equal legal ownership of the funds in it, regardless of whether that person contributed all of the money. Despite the shared ownership, no one person can be forced to pay dues to the account.

Still, if you want to form a collective, you can do it the old-fashioned way, choosing a trusted person to manage the collective funds in individual savings accounts.

The cultural traditions that make collective fundraising work in Korean society are less common in Western culture, so if you don’t know your members well, collective fundraising can be a bit risky.

Lee Young-hoon advises that when forming a group, include at least “one or two trustworthy people.” He also advises groups to be open to taking on new members, as situations can change unexpectedly and new friends can breathe life into a group that has become stale.

Lee also suggests forming groups around a specific goal, such as regular gatherings for a hobby. It might be easy for a group like Jina Kim and her friends, who have known each other for a long time, to save money without a specific purpose. But if everyone has a common interest, new friends or acquaintances will develop quickly.

“As a Korean who values ​​a sense of community, I think community culture is good, and I hope more people can pursue a culture where everyone gets along well,” Lee Young-hoon said.