Latent risks in flashy lifestyles funded by debt

Beyond many people's expectations, some young white-collar employees in first-and second-tier cities across the country are being plagued by debt problems.

According to a report released by zhaopin.com, a leading job-seeking information provider, more than 20 percent of white-collar workers were in debt in 2018. Such a survey result is not that surprising, given that more and more young people now choose to be yueguang (literally spend up salary) or even overspend their salary, making themselves debtors. The yueguang lifestyle in which a person lives through borrowing brews potentially great debt risks.

For many years, stories have been widely circulated that some live a luxury way of life and even successfully build up their fortunes and become wealthy by borrowing, to encourage people to spend in a timely manner or preuse their paychecks. In recent years, the internet-based finance business targeting the young generation, even unemployed university students, has been booming rapidly, and various kinds of tempting advertisements have been created to imprint on young people the message that they should live a better life through spending and that borrowing can help them do this.