I do not recommend any specific financial management strategies!!! What I'm talking about is financial awareness!!! Planning, managing and increasing the value of your own money.
I began to study finance.
It was because I first felt that I was too poor.
The second reason is because of work.
My family background: My parents lacked the concept of investment. For a considerable period of many years, they were constantly troubled by money issues. The lack of money also led to disharmony within the family.
Since I started working, the whole family of three finally got a chance to breathe a sigh of relief and started to have some extra money.
My parents entrusted the money to trustworthy relatives for management. I just wanted more autonomy, so in the first few years of my job, I was basically working hard to save money. It wasn't until one day that I found my savings had exceeded 100,000 yuan. I even posted a thread on Douban to share my methods of saving money.
Young girls must first save up some of their own money. Once they have this amount of money, they will have a stronger desire for wealth, freedom, and passion. However, I know this money is far from enough, and I don't want to keep working all the time.
Although I really hate going to work and it's very painful during the working hours, the salary I earn from my job still brings me some benefits. For instance, I have some spare money, and also, some things I encounter at work can inspire me.
Once the company decided to participate in a very risky project. However, at the beginning of the project, I failed to recognize that the risks were even greater than I had imagined.
Some of the company's top management did not strictly follow the established procedures, which led to numerous problems and caused a lot of trouble for my work. However, they still persisted.
Later, I heard from my supervisor that although this project carried significant risks, it offered high returns. The returns were 10 percentage points higher than those of our company's typical projects. That's why the company's leadership was willing to take the risk and invest in it.
Usually, I also know that things like stocks have high risks and high returns. If you can't bear the high risks, then you should choose an investment method with lower risks and lower returns.
But this incident inspired and shocked me, as it was something I actually experienced in my own life. There were high-risk and high-return projects. If I could bear the risks, I could still give it a try.
During the initial period of investing and managing finances, I also discovered some of my own advantages. For instance, I have plenty of free time and can often review my situation. I have a relatively positive mindset and believe that I can withstand losses and declines. Due to my profession, I also have good risk control skills. Additionally, I often handle large contracts. I'm not particularly sensitive to numbers, and this lack of sensitivity I think is a good thing in investment, as it enables me to hold on better and also makes me more passionate about learning.
It was probably a few months ago that my relative told me about buying funds. But he actually just gave me a few instructions, saying only three words: "Buy funds". The rest of the work was all done by myself.
A couple of days ago, we got in touch with him and he finally told me the specific recommendations he had made. I said I had already bought them, and then he stopped paying any attention to me.
In this world, the only thing we can rely on is ourselves. And this ability must be something we master ourselves in order to be sustainable. We cannot rely solely on luck.
Many things require guidance from a master, but the actual practice depends on the individual.
My relatives couldn't possibly teach me step-by-step how to buy and sell, what to buy, or how to invest and manage finances. Investing and managing finances is also a risky matter.
With all these insights and opportunities, I took a portion of my original bank savings and started investing in funds. Currently, the returns are quite good. The main reason is that I'm completely not greedy. The freedom to choose coffee or milk tea is completely up to me.
There is a shift in my investment and financial management approach.
When I was in university, I was very poor. At that time, material desires and consumption were relatively high. Basically, I lived on my monthly allowance. The income from my part-time jobs was all spent on buying clothes and food. I had no awareness of financial management. However, I did buy a 200-yuan fund once.
When I was first starting out, I had to save my money in WeChat Bank. Gradually, I achieved financial independence. The money earned from my job became my first income. Because I had more money in hand, I didn't feel the need to spend it on food or clothes as much as before. The clothes I bought were all cheap ones. I have also shared how to make such purchases before.
I began to desire more money, so I bought stable bank wealth management products recommended by my friends. The returns were much higher than those of Weibao. I felt that I had actually lost money before. Now I have discovered that funds are investing and researching seriously.
(Addendum: Before, I had 100,000 yuan in WeChat Bank and got a return of over 100 yuan after one month. I was very happy. But when I switched to the bank's stable investment products, my money increased several times. In recent years, the deposit interest rates have been getting lower and lower. This actually forces me to start investing.)
My conclusion is that people need to keep learning and improving their cognition. For instance, I recently realized that due to continuous inflation, if your salary doesn't increase, you are actually losing money. And if you receive money but don't invest it or use it for financial management to increase your wealth, you are still losing money.
I don't blindly recommend that everyone invest in finance, and I definitely don't suggest that ordinary college students without income do so either. Because occasionally I would check those discussion groups about funds and learn about some of the most popular sectors recently. I found that some people even bought without understanding the T+2 system.
I just want to share my personal experience with other girls, especially my younger sisters who are college students, to offer some inspiration. The earlier one develops the awareness of investment and finance, the more freedom one can obtain. In today's society, the more economic power one has in the family, the more say one has. One won't be bothered by the gossip of relatives.can bring freedom to people.
Now when I think back, I do feel a bit of regret.
If I had saved more money during my university years, perhaps I would have more disposable income now, and would have more freedom in making choices. Also, there would be more leisure time during university, allowing me to better study some technologies.
Money is merely a means, a way and a means to achieve something. It cannot directly grant us the freedom we desire.
I don't particularly recommend that college students directly engage in investment and financial management for another reason.
Because after I started working, I had a positive mindset. One major reason for this was that when I bought the funds, I made sure that I was prepared to lose all the money - I was ready for it to be completely depleted.
Because it was all earned by myself and I can bear the risk myself. But if your family situation is not particularly good and your parents are not the kind who fully support and are very open-minded towards you, there is a high possibility that you will be blamed.
I share these mainly in the hope of inspiring everyone's awareness of investment and finance as soon as possible. Because investing and finance may result in losses, there is no way to share it with friends around me. Moreover, this matter is such that even if you share it, it might be in vain because they may not listen to your words. Investing must be the result of many factors combined and gradually guiding oneself to explore.
I've been using Douban for many years. I don't know if it's an information bubble or something else. I rarely come across such content. Even when I've been using Xiaohongshu for several years, the content recommended to me by Xiaohongshu has mostly been about various aspects of life, such as food, drinks, entertainment, clothes, makeup, etc. But they don't recommend any financial-related content. Later, after I started paying attention to it myself, the recommendations gradually changed.
After having a certain amount of savings, it's better to make an earlier plan for yourself. Don't think that studying about funds and stocks is something only men do, considering it too complicated and not bothering to learn. This can easily lead to female poverty. I think girls are very suitable for investing because they can be patient and hold on. These actually all contribute to your investment and financial management. Moreover, girls are actually in a long-term oppressed position in this society. Therefore, they will be more calm about market sentiments. They won't gamble and won't become gamblers. From this perspective, our investments are safer.
Newton lost money in the stock market. My male relative who graduated from high school and my male classmate who graduated from college and worked at a construction site were both able to make money through investment. The latter showed me his fund return rate, which even reached 50%. I agree with Buffett's philosophy: When you recognize your own limitations and know your own stupidity, you will actually become smarter at that moment. Financial investment doesn't require extremely high intelligence.
During the process of managing finances, I have another thought - I feel that girls have poor financial skills and they have never been taught how to do it. Because in the past, many people assumed that you were going to get married and have children, and they didn't expect girls to achieve very high accomplishments in their careers. The so-called managing family finances is actually a burden; it's just about managing rather than controlling, and it can only be used for family expenses.
However, many men engage in stock trading and investing. Some have family support, while others do so because society assumes that men need to earn more money to start a family. (XHS, a full-time stock trading expert, shared on his blog that when he graduated, his family gave him 500,000 yuan for him to focus on stock trading full-time. But my girlfriend, who has a wealthy family, has a 985 degree and is about to pursue a doctoral degree, asked her mother about financial management. Her mother said, "You don't have 1 million to manage anyway. It's a stark contrast.") I think all these have exacerbated the poverty of women because when I talked to my friends about financial management, they were obviously not very interested. They said that the men in the office all trade stocks and invest in funds, but she doesn't. And my male colleagues would start investing a portion of their salary in US stocks to make money early on.
I was also surprised to find that some of my friends, despite having good educational backgrounds and financial situations, have no concept of financial management. They only keep their money in fixed deposits at the bank. And some other friends have a decent income of several hundred thousand yuan a year, but they only put their money in WeChat Bank. As I mentioned above, in fact, they are losing money. This is also due to family reasons and limitations in their cognition.
I do not recommend any specific financial management strategies, but I hope the above points can provide some inspiration for you. Having a mindset for financial management is a sign of cognitive improvement, and learning about finance can further enhance one's cognition.
PS: This post has been viewed by quite a few people. I'll make some additional revisions and updates.
The person who believes in the most is oneself. One must firmly hold onto the money in one's own hands and never trust anyone else.
Let me give you an example. My parents are relatives who are quite dependent on me. They are very close to us and are extremely kind to me. However, their mindset is rather traditional. For instance, if I deposit 100,000 yuan with them, I believe they will definitely handle the money responsibly for me and generate very good returns because they have a lot of experience and have been doing this for decades. I don't have to worry about anything myself. But if I want to get the 100,000 yuan back and say I want to quit my job, lay off, or go on an overseas trip, they might not immediately support me. They might even dissuade me because their expectations for me are just to find a good husband and marry him. They might even try to stop me together with my parents. (The worst-case scenario) At this point, I would be in a very passive position and it would be very difficult to get the money back. Even if I do get it back, it would have passed its due date and would require a lot of effort. My parents belong to the "laid-back" type and just hand over the money to them to manage because they don't have high educational qualifications and lack the necessary understanding. This is actually a relatively correct way of managing finances. Because obviously, my relatives have a higher level of cognition in all aspects than them. It's also very difficult to find such a reliable and good relative. And I believe that I am young, intelligent, and have a strong learning ability. There are still several decades left in my future. I must master the financial management skills in my own hands.
The money is in my possession. Even if it's lost to half of its original amount, as long as it's still in my hands, I still have the initiative. I can do whatever I want.
