Paycheck-to-Paycheck Generation (月光族)

Unfortunately due to the March coronavirus shutdowns, April is going to be a month of financial pain for many people, as many industries have been completely put on pause, companies are furlough-ing their employees if not laying them off entirely, millions of new Americans are filing for unemployment, and it's going to stay this way with no end in sight for the time being. Which is devastating for the 月光族, or a Chinese term literally meaning "spend it all by the end of the month" or have nothing left by the end of the month, or in English means living paycheck to paycheck. 

An astounding amount of the US workforce lives paycheck to paycheck. One CNBC article estimated it at around 78%, and that was last year, 2019, during a pretty booming economy. Now we have an economy that has been put into an artificially-induced coma, so most people are not making money. At all. I've thankfully always lived under secure financial conditions, so I can't really sympathize with those who do this, but I think the pressure and stress would be overwhelming. I don't live paycheck to paycheck now but it already stresses me out, and it makes me cringe just thinking about the prospect if one day our family will have to do so.

This brings up some key points:

1.) always set aside cash in an emergency fund that would last you up to 6 months. Easier said than done, as the people who live paycheck to paycheck wouldn't be able to save any money any of those months, but maybe put the minimal amount of savings in as soon as you get the paycheck, then use it on other things?

2.) Shouldn't invest every single dime in the stock market, in case it goes down and you're forced to sell at an unattractive rate. That's actually happening to some people during this downturn, as they lost their jobs, so the only money they can use are those tied up in the stock market, but since the stock market is down too can't hold on through the bad times like you're supposed to, or at least forced to make a trade based on financial hardship, which shouldn't be the case.

3.) Don't put your IRA funds for the year in until you have to. Every year, I contribute the maximum to my IRA retirement fund ($6,000) and now also for MJ ($6,000) each, but I put in my contribution in January, way before the coronavirus crash, so that money was just stuck in the account for a few months while I could have suffered serious financial damage, and I hadn't even submitted my taxes yet so I didn't get the time value of money of getting my tax return early.


Some other cool Chinese expressions (well, I think they're cool):

注孤生- destined to be alone forever. I think what most people have been feeling for a month, even on what is usually a festive day on Easter. 

家里有矿- family has a gold mine, meaning family is rich. One of the ways to avoid living paycheck to paycheck or becoming 月光族.

喪文化- the pessimistic view of millenials. Unfortunately there's some validity to this pessimistic view, especially with current conditions but also the disappearance of the middle class, you either have to be rich or poor and live paycheck to paycheck, the dumbing down of society due to social media, the planet deteriorating (a view MJ definitely has which makes her doubt whether bringing a child into this world is for the best). 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan