From the age of 25 to 35, it is the most critical decade for a woman. Within these ten years, you may experience love, heartbreak, marriage, and childbirth. Your lifelong happiness or misfortune will be concentratedly manifested during this time. Therefore, we have extracted a snippet of these ten years to demonstrate how you can effectively manage your personal expenses within this period, spend money wisely, maintain your quality of life, and secure basic fallback options for yourself.
Our protagonist, Li Jiajia, is a typical white-collar beauty. She graduated with a degree in International Trade from a prestigious university and works at an IT company. She looks delicate and cute. Let's take a look at how she manages her finances over these ten years.
Before the age of 25: Saving is the most important
OL Stage: Early career (single, no boyfriend, general staff)
After graduating from undergraduate studies, Li Jiajia moved from her hometown to Beijing to work at a certain IT company. She currently has a relatively stable monthly salary of about 3000 yuan and enjoys various insurances provided by her workplace. Her average monthly expenditure is at least 1600 yuan (including 600 yuan for utilities and rent, 100 yuan for food, 200 yuan for phone bills, and 700 yuan for shopping and social activities). Due to her short working period, she doesn't have much savings yet, essentially living paycheck to paycheck. Both of her parents are still working in their hometowns, so she doesn't have any family burdens. Being young, Li Jiajia doesn't need to consider marriage or buying a house or car, and her understanding of financial investment is only somewhat rational without detailed plans.
Financial Status Analysis:
Since Li Jiajia is just starting her career, she naturally has some characteristics common among new entrants to the workforce, such as lower income, few savings, uncertain personal direction and career choices, and lack of knowledge and practical experience in investment and financial management. Therefore, the focus of financial planning at this stage should primarily be: first, to enhance "saving" and increase savings; second, to strengthen the learning of investment and financial management knowledge and quickly position one's career path. Through learning and practice, gradually cultivate investment awareness and exercise financial management skills, preparing for future investments.
Financial Advice:
Although the returns on savings are relatively low, it is the most commonly used method for preserving and increasing the value of money. It requires little technical skill, is risk-free, and serves as the foundation for other investment activities. Therefore, it is necessary for Li Jiajia, who has just entered the workforce, to have a clear understanding of various aspects of savings. Specifically, the following points can be considered:
1. The main principle for considering a deposit portfolio is balancing returns with meeting daily living needs. Fixed-term deposits offer higher interest rates and better returns, while current accounts provide easy access to funds. Therefore, generally speaking, fixed-term deposits should be the primary choice, supplemented by notice deposits, with minimal use of current accounts and flexible fixed-term deposits. Li Jiajia used to spend extravagantly and found it difficult to control her spending habits, but through fixed-term deposit savings, her consumption behavior was unconsciously constrained. Thus, considering fixed-term savings at the beginning of one's career has special significance.
2. Key skills for fixed-term deposits: For large sums of money where the deposit term is hard to determine, choose notice deposits to balance returns with flexibility; for larger deposits, it's advisable to open multiple deposit certificates. For example, a 10,000 yuan deposit could be divided into several smaller certificates of 1000 yuan and 2000 yuan each, minimizing losses from early withdrawals; use automatic rollover upon maturity to avoid capital loss and save the trouble of running to the bank for transfers; for large amounts of long-term idle funds, consider large-denomination fixed-term certificates and transferable fixed-term certificates.
3. Since Li Jiajia tends to be careless with money and often finds herself with loose change that seems to disappear without trace, she should also pay more attention to the method of saving small amounts regularly to accumulate larger sums over time. This semi-compulsory method can help her build up some funds gradually. For flexible fixed-term and current savings, it is advisable to keep them in small amounts since daily expenses don't vary much from month to month and can generally be estimated. In summary, through savings, one can correct unnecessary spending habits and lay a solid foundation for scientific financial management in the future.
At age 26: Purchase government bonds and money market funds with higher investment returns
OL Stage: Mid-career (single, with a boyfriend, experienced employee)
Li Jiajia has been working in Beijing for two or three years and has adapted to the pace of life there. She has a boyfriend, and her career has grown, giving her a certain economic foundation with about 50,000 yuan in savings. Her current monthly income is around 4000 yuan, and her monthly expenses remain relatively stable at about 1600 yuan. Through the accumulation of the past two years, Li Jiajia not only has some income accumulated but also has gained a certain level of understanding of investment and financial management. As a result, she wishes to take a step further in her investments, as the return on savings is too low. However, due to professional needs, she also hopes to continue upgrading her skills, which may require using part of her funds.