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how much money do you need to save to live on interest? how do you start living on interest? many people have already provided solutions through their own practice. no matter how the problems of the times are raised, "increasing income and reducing expenditure" is still an excellent answer to cope with the changes of the times and solve personal difficulties.

author | jian mo

is it possible to live on interest?

a netizen posted a video and did some calculations: based on the 3% interest rate of a local bank, a deposit of 500,000 yuan can generate interest of 1,250 yuan per month, or about 41 yuan per day on average; if the deposit is one million yuan, the monthly interest will be 2,500 yuan, or about 82 yuan per day; if the deposit reaches 3 million yuan, the monthly interest will be as high as 7,500 yuan, which can cover basic household expenses and is an ideal retirement savings amount.

a netizen commented under the video, saying that he and a friend had calculated whether they could live off the interest on a 3 million yuan deposit, and found out: "it's impossible to live off the interest, you have to be very economical and frugal, and the key is not to get seriously ill."

(photo: "okja, the unmotivated one")

when asked by others, "can't i spend the principal?", the netizen said, "if i spend it, won't i just eat up all the money?"

this is not an option that can be easily achieved by having money. living on interest is closely related to strict calculation. living on interest is like using a ladle to draw water. in addition to strictly controlling the amount of water taken at a time, you must also try to introduce other water sources. only by solving the above two points can this new lifestyle be truly opened.

save more money, or make money from money

every day when he opens his phone, shulang can see a fixed income of about 60 yuan. this is the daily interest on the 1.5 million yuan in savings he has saved over the past ten years of work, and it was once his main source of income.

shu lang is 32 years old and lives in jinan. he was a real estate practitioner before he lost his job. after nearly 10 years in the industry, shu lang has witnessed the glory of the real estate industry, when many people benefited from the rapid development of the industry. many of shu lang's colleagues have jointly purchased houses and paid off loans, and some have bought houses by swiping credit cards, trying every means to increase the value of their properties.

after living on rent, shulang has plenty of time to ride his bike and daydream. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

at that time, shulang owned two properties and had to pay a loan of about 15,000 yuan a month, which accounted for 2/3 of his total income. the rest of his income was almost all used for car maintenance, gas and daily expenses. although there was not much left every month, everyone believed that as income increased, they would always have more and more money on hand.

later, as mortgage interest rates continued to decline, shu lang did some calculations: he sold a house worth 4 million yuan and exchanged it for a property worth 5 million yuan. the monthly mortgage repayments for the two houses were almost the same, but he "bought a larger house with the same money."

shulang quickly sold a property under his name, and then encountered a downturn in the industry, and then lost his job. he began a long job search, but all ended in failure.

after losing his job, shulang often went to the park in winter to prevent his parents from finding out about his unemployment. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

the only thing to be thankful for is that the house has been sold, and he has some savings. he used the proceeds from the sale to pay off the mortgage and car payments, and the remaining 1.5 million yuan was all used for investment. a friend suggested that he buy pension insurance and listed in detail the benefits that pension insurance can achieve: investing 100,000 yuan per year for three consecutive years can earn 3.5% compound interest, and by the age of 60, the cash value of the account can reach more than 600,000 yuan.

the seemingly high returns did not impress shu lang, and his experience of unemployment made him timid. thinking of the burden of supporting his parents in the future, shu lang rejected his friend's advice. he put 500,000 yuan in a large fixed deposit and deposited the remaining 1 million yuan in alipay, and began to try to live on the 60 yuan interest per day.

a park near shulang's home, where he often spends time. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

unlike shulang's relatively conservative investment approach, when xueqiu chose to live on interest, he first calculated how long the funds on hand could sustain his life without working, and how to grow the capital pool as much as possible.

xueqiu, 35, is also a beneficiary of the real estate dividend period. she bought a property for 1.4 million yuan in 2019 and then sold it for 2.2 million yuan in 2021, making a net profit of 800,000 yuan. together with her previous savings, her savings have reached about 1.5 million yuan.

after reading the financial plans of many retired bloggers, xueqiu found that many people, like shulan, mainly purchased stable financial products, but she wanted to take a more radical approach, so she invested 65% of her funds in the stock market and used the remaining 35% for stable investment to get regular returns.

shulang basks in the sun in the park. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

the yield of the stable investment is about 2.5%, and the annual interest is 12,500 yuan; the stock dividend is about 40,000 yuan per year. the annual income generated by the two investments exceeds 50,000 yuan, which is used for daily expenses.

for a single person, an annual interest of around 50,000 yuan does not seem to be a small amount. on average, it is about 4,166 yuan per month, which can cover the normal consumption of an average adult. but this is still a bit tight for xueqiu: she has a school-age child at home, and the monthly water, electricity, gas, food expenses, plus the child's tuition, clothes, etc., require at least 5,000 yuan.

in order to cover the excess amount and to make the funds more and more, xueqiu also opened an online store selling second-hand mobile phones. there is no need to stock up, just one-click delivery, and the monthly income is more than 3,000 yuan. if the income is not spent in the month, xueqiu will deposit the remaining money into yu'ebao as a reserve fund for emergencies.

(photo: "okja, the unmotivated one")

at first, xueqiu only deposited about 50,000 yuan in yu'ebao, which he could withdraw at any time and generate interest every day. later, due to the continuous inflow of income from the online store, the amount of money in it increased instead of decreased, and now it is nearly 80,000 yuan.

as for the stock option principal, xueqiu has never touched it. she has set a profit line for the stock options. when the profit reaches the expected target, she will sell the products she holds and buy some products at a lower price. through careful buying low and selling high, she can keep the assets growing.

the life saved

the funds on hand are slowly growing, but the consumption of snowballs is declining, because of a simple truth - if you sit back and eat, you will run out of money. and given the great uncertainty at the moment, people who live on interest must not only increase their means of earning money, but also understand how to save more.

xueqiu began to notice money-saving tips that he had rarely paid attention to before. for example, when checking out a shopping cart, scanning the qr code to receive a payment red envelope can save a few cents each time; the bank will issue movie coupons to high-quality customers every month, and a single movie coupon can save dozens of yuan. in order to understand the monthly spending,

xueqiu started to look at detailed monthly income and expenditure reports on a single app to understand his monthly spending on food, digital products, transportation, etc. to ensure that his expenses would not exceed too much.

xueqiu calculated that the largest monthly expense is food, about 2,000 yuan, of which about 800 yuan is spent on online groceries and about 1,200 yuan is spent on offline dining.

xueqiu has saved 468.82 yuan on the online shopping platform. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

for xueqiu, this expense has been greatly reduced compared to when she was working. before, she often went out to eat with her colleagues, and each time she would spend hundreds of yuan. after living on interest, she buys food online four times a month, spending a total of about 800 yuan, which can meet the needs of her family.

in order to reduce her food expenses as much as possible, she bought a membership on an online grocery shopping platform. as long as she patiently screens, she can always find discounts on the platform, such as discounts for single purchases and coupons for monthly purchases. vegetables that originally cost 2.99 yuan can be purchased for only 2.6 yuan. "on average, it is most cost-effective to spend 88 yuan to buy a membership, which is cheaper than going to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. there are many organic vegetables online, which are high in nutritional value and fresh."

when thriftiness becomes a habit, it is difficult to stop the concept of consumerism. products that were once indispensable can be used again. she used to change her mobile phone every year, but now she saves thousands of yuan. the internet package at home has also been changed from 150 yuan/month to 99 yuan/month. "not only is it 50 yuan less, but the 99 yuan package also comes with a tv membership."

xueqiu sells many unused books on second-hand platforms, which not only saves space but also earns some income. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

she also sold clothes, electronic products, cosmetics, etc. that had been stored at home, and the total amount of sales was about 7,000 yuan. in the process of sorting out the items, she found that too many things were unnecessary, and many were impulse purchases that were forced to gather dust, such as coffee machines and beauty devices. when she bought them, she imagined that she would make coffee at home every day and enjoy life, but during the days when she was at work, she was often the only one being ground instead of coffee beans: "the coffee machine that cost thousands of yuan was finally sold for a few hundred yuan, and the beauty device that i bought for more than 10,000 yuan was not wanted on the second-hand platform, so i had to throw it away with great pain."

in terms of travel, xueqiu replaced the gasoline car he had driven for 10 years with a domestic electric car at a cost of nearly 80,000 yuan. the original monthly fuel cost of 500 yuan now only needs 50 yuan for electricity, saving 5,400 yuan in fuel money each year. after buying the electric car, the fuel cost for travel has also been reduced a lot. xueqiu often takes his children to visit museums, or go hiking and sightseeing in nature, spending less than 1,000 yuan each time, and most of it is concentrated on food and accommodation.

after living on rent, xueqiu often washes his car by himself to save money. (photo/provided by the interviewee)

the biggest way to save money is with children. the child had been attending a private kindergarten before, which cost 25,000 yuan a year, which is almost equivalent to the annual income of local people. although the money is paid by xueqiu's father, she still considers transferring the child to a public kindergarten, where the annual tuition is only more than 8,000 yuan. the child only needs to pay for some textbooks in a public school, which can save about 17,000 yuan a year.

the end of living on interest is to reconcile with yourself

when she resigned at the age of 46, luna had been working for 24 years and had accumulated more than 1 million yuan in savings.

previously, she was the human resources director of a manufacturing company with an annual salary of 600,000 yuan. before resigning, she spent about 250,000 yuan a year, including 50,000 yuan for clothes, 20,000 yuan for beauty treatments, and about 30,000 yuan for her parents and children. the rest was mainly used to repay loans and other expenses.

when she just quit her job, luna didn't live the ideal life of lying down. in the past, she always felt at ease on paydays because she had food in her hands and was not worried. after she quit her job, she lost her stable income and fell into anxiety. she always felt that 1 million yuan was not enough for her to retire completely. if something unexpected happened at home, she would fall back into poverty overnight.

"but after lying down for a long time, you will find that you will never have enough money to spend, and the more you lie down, the freer you will be," said luna.

(photo: "okja, the unmotivated one")

freedom is multifaceted. in the past, luna bought a lot of clothes to avoid wearing the same clothes to work continuously. now she doesn't have to worry about these unnecessary workplace rules. she no longer sends money to her parents every month, stops giving pocket money to her sister and children, and cuts down on beauty expenses. when she first started traveling, she spent more than 50 yuan on meals outside; later, she filled her thermos with hot water and went to the supermarket to buy three buckets of instant noodles for 10 yuan. when the hot water ran out, she borrowed hot water from the convenience store. this way, she can save nearly 40 yuan on meals each time.

luna had never imagined such a life. she used to solve problems with money and use it to influence the relationships around her. when she broke up with her ex-boyfriend, she still spent 6,000 yuan on a birthday gift for him. she also spent tens of thousands of yuan on group dinners every year. because she bought a lot of clothes, luna had tens of thousands of points in her shopping mall account all year round.

after living on interest, luna realized how important points are. the numbers that she once thought were useless now are real income: "one point is one yuan, which i saved up bit by bit. how can i waste it?" luna said that in order to reduce expenses, she deliberately bought food and daily necessities in the supermarket inside the mall. for example, she spent 10 yuan to buy two discounted loaves of bread, and used the points to deduct 10 yuan in cash when checking out, making full use of the rules to save money.

recently, luna is trying to do self-media, earning more than 3,000 yuan. not only that, by doing publicity for others, she received a lot of samples, such as laundry detergent, milk, yoga clothes and other daily necessities, with a total value of more than 10,000 yuan. luna plans to update content on more platforms, and while living on interest, she will try to make money through more channels.

(photo: "song of mortals")

shulang also felt anxious when he first lost his job. in order not to disappoint his parents, he concealed his unemployment and pretended to work in front of his parents. a few months ago, a university teacher noticed shulang's photography works, and shulang got the opportunity to teach part-time at the university, which relaxed his tense nerves.

on days when he has classes, shulang takes the shuttle bus to school. he is paid 100 yuan for each class and can earn about 6,000 yuan in part-time wages per month.

relying on the monthly interest and income from part-time jobs, shu lang can earn over 10,000 yuan a month. unlike before, now he has something to do and money to earn, so he can live a "two days on, five days off" life and is no longer so panicked.

the calculation is not difficult, and there are ready-made lifestyles for reference. the income gap can be controlled within the expected range. the biggest difference is probably the determination and courage to start a new life.