A week ago, Ant Financial's "the world's largest IPO" plan came to an abrupt end, which triggered some discussions about the phenomenon of young people's borrowing and consumption. However, the "record" of the Double Eleven proves that these discussions have not really aroused the vigilance of consumer groups.
During the shopping season, we interviewed three young people in their twenties, who worked in first-tier cities and had been or were carrying loans. Their debt history and amount may not be as shocking as the members of Douban Group "Debtor Alliance" who boarded Weibo Hot Search yesterday, but they may be more representative.
The fact is that this is an era that needs special attention to avoid debt. At a time when consumption and borrowing are more convenient than ever, people who don't use credit cards and various consumer credit products are even more weird. As long as you can get rid of the gift, you won't reveal the clues in a panic moment. For young people in this era, borrowing is more like a small problem most of the time.
one
"Bai Hua's repayment date began on the 9th, and later I moved it to the 20th. Borrowing repayment date is 6th, installment 19, 8th ... "Qing Zi couldn't tell how much money she owed, but she could keep the repayment date of each lending platform in mind. At the first calculation, her total debt was 50 thousand pounds, and at the second calculation, the figure seemed closer to 70 thousand pounds.
But this is not enough to become a crisis in the life of green children. In the years when P2P mine explosions have occurred frequently, there are many anecdotes of violent collection and family destruction in life. And Qing Zi's debts are borrowed from "regular" platforms. Even if she never keeps accounts, she knows that her daily expenses are nothing more than eating and taking a taxi, not to mention paying for serious problems such as gambling and drug abuse, not to mention going to any moment that can appear in social news pages.
In addition, Lu Zi has a "passable" fixed income in Beijing. Compared with the situation that many strange netizens have voiced their debts on Douban Zhihu, and they have a monthly income of 5,000 but a debt of several hundred thousand, whether it is 50,000 or 70,000, the current income makes Lv Zijiao feel that he is in debt endlessly. The most important thing is, "owing money is not an embarrassing thing. Credit cards are too common, and many friends owe hundreds of thousands to be glamorous. "
Therefore, even though he knew that his debt exceeded 50,000, Qing Zi was in no hurry. At least you don't have to make a list of income and expenditure plans every month and pay attention to expenses. "I make a plan? Plans can't keep up with changes. As long as people are alive, don't they have to pay back the money on time? I have such a consciousness in my heart. "
Stills of the movie Francis Ha
Abby, who has worked in Beijing for nearly 7 years and has a debt of up to 80 thousand yuan, has similar feelings. None of her close friends have any savings, and the most debt stage is also the day when her monthly income is the highest. She went through the stage of supporting loans with loans. When robbing Peter to pay Paul failed to reverse the situation, she borrowed some from her friends. Friends are very understanding, and her friend who often helps each other, "she earns more than me and owes more than me."
Zhang San owed nearly 70 thousand yuan just after working in Beijing for half a year. She doesn't know the exact number. She only felt that the initial loan was an emergency that cost three or four thousand yuan temporarily. When the debt accumulated to about 20,000 due to unexpected events, she also panicked, but the installment repayment was only a few hundred yuan, which was still affordable with the income at that time.
Looking back now, Zhang San feels that the loan at her fingertips makes her "not feel that she has no money, nor that she is spending other people's money". After the flower garden quota was used up, she opened an online merchant loan, and the temporary predicament suddenly became clear. "I still feel very relieved when I see the amount of 60,000 online merchant loans, and I will feel fine. I still have money to spend. " .
In 20 19, Nielsen Market Research Company released a report on the current situation of consumer credit, mainly targeting the post-90s or post-90s young people. According to this report, among the young people in China, the overall penetration rate of credit products is 86.6%, and about 44.5% of the young people still have substantial debts after deducting about half of the payment function (only using consumer credit, paying off in the current month without generating interest).
two
On the day of Double Eleven, Douban Debtor Alliance team boarded Weibo Hot Search. This group was founded in June, 5438+February last year, and now its members exceed 17000. Many people who post for help have debts of more than 200,000 yuan, and some have exceeded one million yuan. There are various reasons for debt, from indulging in luxury goods such as brand-name bags and watches to being mired in fraud, gambling or entrepreneurial failure. Most people are on the verge of collapse and unsustainable life. Netizens have expressed shock.
Compared with the slightly extreme case of debtor alliance, the total debts of Zhang San, Abby and Lvzi will not be so exaggerated. At the same time, they do not pursue luxury goods, nor do they have bad hobbies such as gambling and drug abuse. Total liabilities have quietly increased in some seemingly normal consumption behaviors. This silence is subtle. On the one hand, it will not be out of control and unsustainable. On the other hand, this laborious balance and the slow and continuous fundamental change of personal consumption habits make its "exit cost" higher and higher.
This may also be the normal state of borrowing that is happening to most young people: the story of debt usually does not start with an accidental, low-probability event or a serious bad habit. Things will first change from poor turnover. The chain of raising loans by loans is often interrupted by quota restrictions, and the number of times to borrow money from friends begins to increase. Wages and other income will always be returned to credit cards or other lending platforms when they are almost available. There is almost no money in the savings card, and the daily expenses are also maintained by "borrowing".
Stills of the movie "Love of Hundred Dollars"
Abby recalled that she applied for a credit card for the first time because she graduated and traveled abroad. At that time, she didn't go out for other reasons, but the credit card was kept like this. At first, the limit was only 8 thousand, but last year, the limit of this credit card exceeded 80 thousand
I took the initiative to apply for a second credit card around 20 15. Because I was interested in micro-integration, I did several projects and spent about 10000. Abby paid the money with a credit card, but she didn't think it was something she couldn't pay. She thought it was only two months' salary, and it would be paid off in a few months.
It was Abby's second year of work, and the economic situation was in the ascendant in the fairy tale of the Internet. When she just graduated, her monthly salary was less than 5000, and then it gradually increased. After 20 17, her monthly salary tripled. After 20 15 micro-consumption, she changed to a bigger house, enrolled in a foreign language class and arranged a gym. She also keeps a cat and plans a trip for herself once a year.
At that time, she was confident in her repayment ability. However, with the passage of time, this confidence is gradually worn away by the fatigue of "disappearing" as soon as the income is available. At the most exhausting stage, she knew that she owed four credit cards, but she was not sure about the total amount. "About 80000, certainly more than 80000. I dare not add anything here, for fear of scaring myself to death. "
Stills of the movie "Over Spring"
Zhang San set the starting point for the rapid expansion of her loan line in June 20 19. At that time, she wanted to apply for a study abroad program and needed someone to do paperwork. Because she didn't want to ask her parents for money, she chose an online merchant loan. In order to use it more, she took another thousand dollars from the original price of the document. Later, the travel and rental expenses were also paid from it one after another, and her pet was accidentally passed on by the cat during this period. By the end of 2065438+2009, during the six months of great changes in her life or life stage, she made a rough calculation and found that she owed about 70,000 yuan.
Similarly, 70,000 is not a definite figure. The reason why we have to work out a rough total is because her "planned" lending platform suddenly lost its quota, so the loan was opened and she couldn't find the platform seal for the time being.
From that night on, Zhang San began to calculate how much money he owed and how long it would take to pay it back. "I realized that I didn't want to support the loan anymore, but I didn't figure it out for a long time. How long will it take me to pay back the money? "
three
In public topics and discussion groups in Zhihu, Weibo and Douban, netizens with debt problems are actively disclosing their debt amount, debt platform and income level. Their ultimate goal is to "go ashore" (pay off all debts), but they are often overwhelmed by more and more debt collection calls and rising interest rates.
In addition to encouragement, other netizens will give practical guidance according to their own lending experience. For example, how to complain about violent collection, how to negotiate with the platform to reduce interest or only pay the principal. According to the specific personal income and lending platform, different negotiation and repayment methods will be different.
However, the first step mentioned by most netizens is to admit the debt to parents and family.
For those who have savings at home, in the early stage when the amount of debt is not large, the family may be able to pay off the debt in one lump sum to reduce interest and prevent the snowball of debt from getting bigger and bigger. For families with no repayment ability, confession to parents and family also means a kind of spiritual "redemption". By facing the disappointment of their loved ones, they can release the pressure of their loans and stop escaping from the real situation-to some extent, this is the real "adult ceremony" for many debtors today.
No matter whether the family is rich or poor, "confessing to parents" is almost the first commandment for debtors to go ashore. However, the difficulty, or paradox, lies in the fact that the fundamental reason why many debtors borrow money is the relatively tense family relationship.
Stills of the movie "Lady Bird"
After Zhang San decided not to borrow money from online loans, he only kept 500 yuan's living expenses for himself every month, and the rest of his income was used for repayment. In this way, by the end of the year, she still has nearly 50 thousand debts to pay. She roughly calculated the interest of the online merchant loan, and the loan of about 1 10,000 has to pay more than 1500 interest every year. She decided to find a way to repay the principal first. She told her mother that she had 20,000 debts to pay, and hoped that she would "support" 1 10,000. But Zhang San's mother said that she had no money either, and told her not to tell her father.
In fact, telling his father about his debt is not Zhang San's choice. She knew that once she spoke, her father would definitely take money out to help her pay her debts. "But then he would be more dissatisfied with me." After Zhang San graduated, he had a great disagreement with his family because of the problem of employment choice. Her father wants her to work in a state-owned enterprise in a southern city, but she has other things to explore and try.
Zhang San didn't hate that southern city much, but once he followed his father's arrangement, it seemed that he would live under his father's control from how to socialize with leading colleagues to how to marry people. Before that, her father had asked her to go to a designated unit for an interview on the grounds of breaking off the relationship, but he always disagreed with her existing personal life plan.
In addition, considering that a financial management project at home in the same period was difficult, she didn't ask her parents for money because of her instability in rent, travel and study expenses during graduation. "My parents asked me several times, and I saidno.. They think I may really have money, because I have an internship and a job, so I didn't pay it back. " Once the established impression of "financial independence" is broken, there will be a big gap between parents' cognition of life planning.
Stills of the movie Deeper than the Sea
Qing Zi and Zhang San have different family situations, but she also expounded her consumption view from the perspective of growing environment. Qing Zi's parents divorced when she was very young. She grew up with her grandparents and became alienated from her parents. Even when she went out to college, the living expenses given by her parents were intermittent and unstable. Since college, she has been supported by her friends when she has no living expenses.
Gradually, this has developed into a philosophy of life, "I can't borrow it, but I can still do it when necessary." Qing Zi thinks that if you have to borrow money, it is easier to borrow it from a "machine" than from a friend, and the online loan platform is so convenient that you don't have to go to the bank to go through all kinds of formalities.
Abby contacted the credit card in advance because she went to work earlier. She calculated the interest rate of borrowing and consumption, and found that it was obviously much higher than the credit card she used, so she decided not to use it easily. She barely got a loan at that stage and didn't consider letting her family bear it. But everyone in the family knows that she hasn't saved any money after working for so many years and has been paying back her credit card. "I always feel that I have a problem."
The contradiction between Abby and her parents mainly focuses on lifestyle, but the contradiction between them will eventually fall on money. My mother, who has been working in a state-owned enterprise, often accuses Abby because she doesn't follow the normal track, so she will "lift her head" in front of other acquaintances. The quarrel between the two often begins with why they don't get married and have children. They never save money, but Abby doesn't know how to repay her parents for so much.
In Abby's impression, this statement hasn't changed much since adolescence, except that her mother accused her of losing face because she didn't study hard during adolescence. Abby thinks that mother wants to control and interfere in her life in this way. When she was angry, Abby even thought that if she could pay off all the money she raised, she could break up the relationship.
Abby feels that the biggest difference between herself and the previous generation is that the previous generation only gave, but she didn't. She often tells her mother that she wants to have her own life, hoping that she can find a new hobby such as traveling or dancing to fill her life after retirement, instead of always thinking about what life her daughter will rely on to make a face. But every time she talks about it, her mother asks Abby, "Do you want me to be alone?"
four
Since 1978 implemented the family planning policy, the post-80s and post-90s generation began to live as the only child under the background of singing modernization. In their childhood, this generation will be called "Little Emperor" or "Little Sun" to symbolize too much concern and love.
Wen Feng, an American anthropologist, once explained the parent-child relationship of the only child in The Only Hope-Being an Adult under the One-Child Policy in China. Different from the situation that children in families with many children have to compete with each other to win their parents' preference, the only child does not have to face the competition of family resources from birth, and "as the only focus of all parents' love, investment and hope, the only child has great power. Sometimes, parents even have to compete for the love of their only child. "
When the only-child generation grows up, they will look back at when they were loved. Those who have condensed the "only" care, love and investment and enjoyed the resources of such a big family often suffer more pressure, relationship control and expectation of return, but the reality is not always positive, but more and more cruel.
Nowadays, searching for the title of "young people destroyed by online loans" can lead to dozens of articles describing the harm of online loans with roughly the same content. These articles attack young people's money worship, consumerism and inflated vanity, as if the source that hurts young people the most is young people themselves.
According to Baudrillard's theory of symbolic consumption, that is, in the contemporary society characterized by affluence and consumption, the meaning of "things" is not limited to the past, but mainly manifested in meeting people's basic needs of life and having more general characteristics of symbols. When people consume goods, they are essentially in the sense of consumption symbols, and at the same time define themselves and identify with groups.
Compared with condemning young people, what is more intriguing is that this generation of young people will not hesitate to risk being "destroyed" but also rely on borrowing to spend. What is the symbolic meaning? What does the world pointed by consumerism and vanity mean?
To some extent, this may be exactly what our generation of young people have been promised since childhood. Growing up in an era of high growth, we were promised all the prosperity and beauty. Someone told us that as long as we climb the ladder symbolizing upward, we will eventually have a bright future, where we always get the best things within our ability as easily as possible.
The reward of hard work seems so clear that it is even necessary to make sacrifices for the whole family. After several years, the scene has changed, and the pressure has spread from society to industry, to families and then to individuals, which has formed some potential tension in the parent-child relationship, laying the groundwork for the story of every young person's consumption and loan in advance.
Before the arrival of the Double Eleven this year, Zhang San had paid off all the online loans. Although a small part of it is temporarily borrowed from friends, she no longer needs to bear the rising interest and will not have new loans. Even the garden is completely closed. She originally planned to buy nearly 2,000 skin care products during the Double Eleven period, but after careful calculation, she found that the real discount was not strong, so she gave up.
Now she has a financial plan and saves money regularly. Her goal is to save 65,438+10,000 first. This year, after having a friend naked resignation, she doesn't seem to be anxious at all. She thinks the main reason is that that friend has a deposit of 654.38 million yuan. 65438+ million is not much, and it can't do anything important, but it is a reflection of a sense of security. It seems that after 65438+ 10,000 yuan, you can bid farewell to the work and life you don't like.
Abby said that during the epidemic, she was "every dark cloud has a silver lining". During the epidemic, she was unable to travel abroad as before, and many daily expenses were saved. It was also during the epidemic in the first half of this year that she finally returned all her credit cards. On the day of Double Eleven, she only prepared to store some cat food and made a low-cost medical beauty project, mainly to please herself. The premise of all this is that she has saved money, and there is still a balance in these savings cards after consumption.
She hasn't given much thought to the specific financial situation in the future, and she doesn't consider buying a house or other things, because it also means settling down. But as far as she is concerned, she is not even sure whether she will continue to work in Beijing in the future. Abby smiled and said, "What if I marry a foreigner in the future?" I really don't know what the future will be like. It's not too late to wait until the eight characters have a glimpse. "
Green child's debt situation has not improved, and she has no other plans for the time being except to find a way to pay it back every month. At the beginning of the interview 1 1, she was not sure what she would buy for the Double Eleven, and she might buy a hat. She doesn't have any financial plans yet, but she also said that she actually wanted to buy a house. "Who doesn't want a house, but do you know where I like it?" Qing Zi pointed to the direction of Beijing CBD and said the name of a high-grade building she had been to before, where the average price of second-hand houses is now1.2000 square meters.