A Short Story from a Group Chat
A member of a group chat recently paid in full for a ¥17 million apartment, with ¥2 million in taxes.
She shared her story:
Right after graduating, she lost most of the ¥100,000 her family gave her for stock trading, leaving just ¥10,000. Adding the ¥10,000 she earned in her first year out of school, she scraped together ¥20,000. Relatives encouraged her to buy property and took her house hunting every holiday. Eventually, she borrowed money, bit the bullet, and bought a place, then sold it to cash out. From graduating in 2008, to boldly buying two apartments in Shenzhen in 2018, to now purchasing a ¥17 million home outright, it all feels surreal.
1. Timing was on her side. Whether it was 2010 or 2018, she caught the property market at its bottom. Back then, there were no purchase restrictions, and with Guangzhou and Shenzhen growing rapidly, high-paying tech jobs were booming—meaning plenty of buyers to take over.
2. Her relatives had a long-term vision. They saw the opportunity, guided her, and were willing to lend her money. In short, her family backed her so she could finance properties through relatives. (She also struggled to pay the mortgage, sleeping only 3–4 hours a night for two or three years straight while working multiple jobs to cover it.)
3. Another factor: earlier family losses from stock trading taught them a lesson. They realized they needed to put their money into more stable industries. The only asset that could absorb millions with relatively steady appreciation was real estate. (Why do more and more people prefer real estate, and why is it thriving?)
This is what family means—relatives who’ve been through it, who can see the right direction, support each other, and are willing to bet on it.
The saying “an elder in the family is a treasure” truly means that elders’ experiences can become the foundation for making sound decisions. It also brings to mind an old passage: (Most people don’t end well; most endeavors fail; and most lives leave behind nothing but lessons.)
It’s a great story.
Related reading: Are experience and experience really useless?