The savings rate has hit a new high in recent years, and young people prefer to "save money without pain"
"Frugal" is also over the limit?
Frugality is a virtue, but some people are worrying about it.
According to data released by the People's Bank of China, RMB deposits will increase by 26.26 trillion yuan in 2022, an increase of 6.59 trillion yuan year-on-year.
Among them, the deposits of depositors increased by 17.84 trillion yuan, which was an increase of 7.94 trillion yuan compared with the level in 2021.
Yataro Matsuura, author of the best-selling book "Get Rich Slowly: The Money and Work Rules That Make Your Life Richer," believes that "money flows."
But in China, the status quo is that more and more people choose to deposit their money in banks.
What is more concerning is the choice of young people.
In 2021, a survey involving more than 20,000 respondents showed that pension reserves are increasingly valued by China's younger generation (18-34 years old), and the savings rate hit a new high since 2018.
Among them, 76% of the younger generation said that the reason for increasing savings is to "increase emergency reserves".
As Matsuura Yataro said, "Saving money is easier than spending it. After all, there are many ways to spend money, but there is only one way to save money, and that is to 'spend less money'." These young people also created The method of "saving money without pain" is characterized by a small amount of money saved each time, a short cycle, and a small goal. Unknowingly, the money saving plan with extremely low pain is realized.
"Advanced consumption cannot resist unknown risks"
The 30-year-old Mo Xing is a young man in the savings army.
If "0" is used to mark the starting point of most people's deposits, then Mo Xing's position is "minus 60,000 yuan".
It took her nearly 2 years to pay off all her debts last year, during which she changed 3 jobs.
"You never know what will happen in the future. Saving money is really important." On May 10, 2022, when Mo Xing paid off her debts, she posted a commemorative post on social media.
This debt originally occurred before Moxing graduated from college.
At that time, Mo Xing, who was busy recruiting for internships in the autumn, was embarrassed to borrow money from his parents, and used student loans and money borrowed from "Jiabei" to rent a house, shop, etc.
In November 2019, Mo Xing, who did not find a satisfactory job, chose to buy a 25,000 yuan "offer guarantee plan" course, "I have to try it anyway", and this money became the bulk of the debt.
Later, Mo Xing joined the credit department of a bank in Shanghai. Most of the income from this job was linked to the performance commission. She felt that she was "new to society and unfamiliar with the place of life", and it might be difficult to complete the task. The monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan The basic salary made her feel that paying off the debt was far away.
At this time, her loan principal plus interest has accumulated to 60,000 yuan.
In June 2021, Mo Xing switched to a real estate agency company, guaranteeing a monthly income of at least 10,000 yuan.
However, the changes in the market caught her by surprise.
In October, the company began to lay off staff, and she hadn't escaped after she hadn't become a regular.
"Thinking about it now, if I hadn't been bothered by the 60,000 yuan at the time, I wouldn't have only cared about the income and ignored the long-term benefits of the bank job." Mo Xing realized the importance of job stability and welfare protection.
She reorganized all the things into a list, and never bought anything that was not necessary. In order to prevent herself from being tempted, she also uninstalled the shopping app, "If you don't have it, you won't swipe it.
After paying off the arrears, Mo Xing also canceled her credit card and "Huabei", and she decided to "not spend ahead of schedule, and only live with the balance".
Zhang Xiaoyu, who works in a real estate company, also began to learn to live on a budget.
At the beginning of 2020, she and her husband bought a house in Hangzhou, and she became a mother that year.
With the "two big mountains" of loans and raising a baby, she feels that any risk is unbearable.
Zhang Xiaoyu's husband works in an Internet company, and most of the family's income comes from her husband's work.
In the past few years, some companies in the industry have been laying off employees, which made her feel even more insecure and wanted to have more savings.
"Worried about waking up the next day when my husband receives a layoff notice, and then repeatedly checks the figures on the deposit to figure out how long the buffer period can last for a few months of expenses."
Behind these behaviors is the behavioral logic of residents in recent years—risk aversion.
In the field of economics, some scholars even use "excess savings" to describe the phenomenon of high savings in China today.
Chen Yanbin, executive deputy dean of the Graduate School of Renmin University of China, believes that the phenomenon of residents' "excess savings" in 2022 is mainly due to the passive increase in savings caused by the decline in residents' willingness to consume.
He mentioned three reasons to reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily, including that under the impact of the epidemic, the offline consumption scene has been greatly restricted; due to factors such as the decline in the real estate market and the decline in the income of bank wealth management products, The household sector has reduced investment expenditures such as house purchases and financial management, thereby further increasing the scale of savings.
But most importantly, "Affected by factors such as the epidemic, residents' income uncertainty has increased, and expectations for future economic trends have weakened, which has led to an increase in precautionary savings and triggered 'excess savings'." The scholar said.
Can "Excess Savings" Be Converted into Consumption?
If we look at the long-term view, there may be deeper reasons for the "excess savings" situation.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of my country Merchants Union Finance, said that Chinese residents have long had a relatively strong saving habit. People love to save money, and the savings rate has always been relatively high. The proportion of residents' deposits in RMB deposits reached the highest 60.4% in the third quarter of 1995.
However, with the rapid development of the national economy, the enhancement of residents' awareness of investment and financial management, and the abundant supply of financial products, residents' willingness to save has declined. At the end of 2017, the proportion of residents' deposits in RMB deposits dropped to 39.2%.
2018 became a turning point. Since then, the savings rate of Chinese people has started to rise again, reaching 45.4% by the first quarter of 2022.
Dong Ximiao believes that this shows that the rapid growth of resident deposits and the increase in the proportion have initially shown a long-term trend.
Chen Yanbin said that the increase in the willingness of residents to save in recent years is the result of the combination of periodic reasons such as the impact of the epidemic and deep-seated reasons such as the imbalance of income distribution structure. The income distribution system should be improved to reverse the situation of income distribution imbalance and effectively improve the income of low- and middle-income groups. Income levels matter.
In response to the phenomenon of "excess savings", many scholars suggest that "excess savings" should be effectively converted into consumption.
Teng Tai, an economist and president of the Wanbo New Economic Research Institute, said that "China's consumption is sluggish, and we can't just worry about the people's money."
He listed a set of data: In 2022, China's gross domestic product (GDP) is 121.02 trillion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of national residents is 36,883 yuan, so the total disposable income of national residents is about 52 trillion yuan. , accounting for 43% of GDP.
"This ratio is more than 80% in the United States, and more than 70% in developing countries such as India and Vietnam. Even in many high-welfare countries in Europe, it is about 65%. The core reason for China's sluggish consumption is that the growth rate of residents' income is slowing down. , the ratio of residents' income to GDP is too low."
"The key to promoting consumption is to work on the income side to increase the disposable income of residents so that everyone has money to spend." Teng Tai said.
In fact, the consumption outlook of many young people also proves this point.
If people of the older generation save money to plan for the future, then many post-90s and post-00s save money largely for the purpose of better spending in the future.
They named the different ways of "saving money without pain" "Princess Saving Method", "365-day Saving Method", "Wooden Fish Saving Method"... After saving a certain amount, go to consumption.
"Saving money requires a sense of ritual." Bai Wenxin, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, plans to deposit 50,000 yuan this year. She made a "Savings Plan (2023)" electronic form, with 36 single savings plans and 52 weeks. deposit.
After the monthly salary arrives in the account, Bai Wenxin first takes out 3,000 yuan and deposits 1,000 yuan in the bank for one-year, two-year, and three-year periods respectively. The regular 36,000 yuan, and the remaining 14,000 yuan, use the "52-week deposit method". The method is very simple: 52 weeks a year, deposit 10 yuan per week.
Save 10 yuan in the first week, 20 yuan in the 2nd week...and 520 yuan in the 52nd week.
Persisting for one year, she can save 13,780 yuan.
The number on the deposit means growth for Bai Wenxin.
"I'm living a life now, not a child." In her view, a planned life is living a life, and saving money is an economic plan.
In order to better manage her own life, Zhang Xiaoyu is also thinking about how to live a "good and economical" life.
She hardly goes to physical stores to buy clothes, and most of her household supplies are also purchased online. For some items that are not urgently needed, she will wait until the store has a promotion to buy them together.
Before the "Double 11" last year, she started to choose products more than a month in advance, compared prices in many ways, calculated the stacking of coupons, and even considered the discounts on payment methods clearly.
Before the Spring Festival this year, Mo Xing achieved his first deposit goal of 50,000 yuan.
During the Chinese New Year, she used the money to arrange wedding photo shoots and physical examinations for her parents. After a holiday, her balance returned to four figures.
But she doesn't feel distressed at all to make her parents happy. "It's all worth spending, and being able to use the money I saved is actually quite fulfilling."
(To protect the privacy of the interviewees, Mo Xing, Zhang Xiaoyu, and Bai Wenxin are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Junbin trainee reporter Yuan Jie Source: China Youth Daily