Money and business / Chapter 5
This section counts only money: how much can be saved, how much the yearly gain differs, and how much a sum returns when it is averaged over a long stretch. These are not converted into years of life or into time. Items that involve investing only explain how to do the arithmetic. They use only historical figures that have been checked. None of them is investment advice.
The items are grouped by subject below. Item numbers are in parentheses.
Everyday spending: turn off automatic renewals (item 1), recalculate the mobile and broadband plans (item 4), refuse extended warranties on electronics (item 11), choose drugs selected in pooled procurement (item 12), drink boiled tap water (item 14), pay for the gym by the visit (item 21), set a cooling-off period on a large purchase (item 23), do not stock up because of a crossed-out price (item 24).
Impulse spending and children's money: do not buy lottery tickets (item 5), do not tip livestreamers (item 8), a child's top-ups and tips can be claimed back (item 9), anyone who has a child read out a verification code is a scammer (item 10), count bracelets and trendy toys as money already spent (item 33), for jewellery and jade accept only a CMA report (item 34), blind boxes, card draws, and other sales by chance (item 35).
Online shopping and getting the money back: a written contract for money paid in advance (item 22), online shopping follows the platform's rules (item 29), something bought in a livestream goes wrong (item 30), unsafe food is ten times the price (item 31), check sampling tests and certification before a large purchase (item 32), if you want to read the ingredient list, buy pre-packaged food (item 36).
Tax, the housing fund, and medical insurance: the individual-income-tax settlement (item 2), the housing fund can also be withdrawn for rent and for renovation (item 3), bind family sharing of the medical-insurance account (item 13), the personal pension account (item 20), if you pay employee pension insurance yourself, pay at the lowest band (item 46).
Saving, borrowing, and investing: walk away the moment you see a high return (item 6), turn borrowing into an annual rate first (item 7), do not trade stocks often (item 15), do not borrow to invest (item 16), a broad index fund as the base holding (item 17), pick a fund with a low fee (item 18), do not put the money in one place (item 19), save an emergency fund first (item 27), compare before paying a mortgage off early (item 28), sell a stock that has lost money by the rule (item 37), buy U.S. stocks through QDII or Stock Connect (item 38), do not buy virtual currency (item 45).
Insurance: prefer insurance you pay for and do not get back (item 25), buy enough third-party liability cover (item 26), insure only losses you cannot carry (item 39), buy term life first for the person who earns (item 40), surrender inside the cooling-off period (item 41), at a bank counter, tell a deposit from insurance (item 42), do not hire an agent to surrender a policy (item 43), name a specific person as beneficiary (item 44).
Buying a car: inspect the car when you collect it (item 47), write on a used car that it is not an accident car (item 48), do not pay a financial-service fee at a 4S store (item 49).
What you’ll save is exactly the money spent on subscriptions you no longer use but are still being charged for each month. …
The following groups of people typically receive a tax refund after completing this process: those who only worked for a few months throughout the year, those who changed jobs mid-year, or anyone who failed to claim deductions for child education, mortgage payments, rent, or elderly dependents. …
The housing provident fund isn’t limited to home purchases. The new regulations list nine eligible scenarios for withdrawals, including renting, renovating a personal residence, and paying property taxes. …
Older plans you’re currently on often cost dozens of yuan more per month than newer plans now on sale. Those extra monthly fees add up to hundreds of yuan wasted each year. …
According to regulations, at least 50% of sales revenue from lottery games must be paid out as prizes; for the Double Color Ball game, this figure is 51%. …
Regulatory authorities themselves state that any product offering a return rate above 6% should raise red flags, those above 8% are highly risky, and anything above 10% means you should expect to lose all your principal. …
The minimum payment is a loan that charges interest by the day, about 18% over a year, and using it cancels the interest-free period. An installment that says "0.6% fee per month" is about 13.8% a year, not 7.2%. …
On average, each gamer in China spends roughly 480 yuan per year on games, and that money is almost impossible to get back. …
Money spent by children over eight years old can be legally invalidated and refunded if the amount far exceeds what one would reasonably expect for their age and level of maturity, and if parents neither approved nor acknowledged the transaction. …
Each of these six scams works differently, but they all end the same way: the scammer gets the child to use a parent’s phone to transfer money or read out verification codes. …
Extended warranties typically cost 10% to 50% of the item’s original price. …
The second batch of centrally procured drugs saw an average price drop of 53%, with some drugs becoming 93% cheaper. As of April 2026, 11 procurement rounds have been completed, covering 490 different drugs. …
After completing this setup, any money in your individual yibao account can be used to cover medical expenses and medication costs for your spouse, parents, and children. …
In Beijing, tap water works out to 0.005 yuan per liter. Water-cooler barrel water at 20 yuan a barrel comes to about 1 yuan per liter, more than 200 times as much. …
Among investors who trade most frequently, the average annual return is only 11.4%, while the overall market average for the same period is 17.9%. …
When you use borrowed money to buy stocks, any drop below a set threshold leaves you unable to add more funds, so your positions get automatically sold off. …
The collection of stocks held by actively managed funds already closely mirrors the overall market. Yet the extra management fees they charge are deducted straight from your actual returns. …
For every 1 percentage point increase in a fund’s annual fee, the amount you end up with after 20 years drops by roughly 18%, and after 30 years by about 26%. …
As long as multiple assets don’t all rise or fall in perfect unison, spreading your money across them keeps your average expected returns the same, while reducing the ups and downs of your account balance. …
For every yuan you contribute, the tax you save equals your marginal tax rate minus 3%. …
According to three years of data from U.S. gyms, members who signed contracts with monthly fees exceeding $70 attended the gym just 4.3 times per month on average, which works out to over $17 per visit. …
Any business that accepts a prepayment from you must sign a written contract with you that clearly outlines how refunds will be handled. If a business runs into serious operational problems, it must stop collecting prepayments. …
What you save is exactly the money spent on items you no longer want the very next day. For online purchases, you can return them for any reason within seven days of delivery. …
When judging whether something is cheap or expensive, people rely on the first price they see; later adjustments rarely make up for that initial impression. …
The insurance company makes no promises about any dividends or refunds you might receive. Policy documents must explicitly state in bold text that “future policy dividends are non‑guaranteed benefits.” …
When you’re at fault, the mandatory insurance pays out only up to three specific limits: 180,000 yuan for death or disability, 18,000 yuan for medical expenses, and 2,000 yuan for property damage. …
Keep 3 to 6 months’ worth of living expenses in an account you can withdraw from at any time. …
Paying the mortgage off early is the same as steadily earning your mortgage rate. So ask only one thing: is the after-tax return you can get steadily over the long run higher than the mortgage rate? …
If a seller cheats you, they must pay three times the amount you paid — with a minimum compensation of 500 yuan. Platforms that know sellers are breaking the law but do nothing must share in the liability. …
When problems arise after buying items through a livestream, the biggest hurdle is often figuring out exactly who to hold responsible. …
If you buy expired or spoiled food, the food itself, its packaging, and the receipt serve as evidence — so don’t toss them out. …
In 2024, national inspections covered 25,250 batches of products, with 14.3% found to be non-compliant. The situation is worse on e-commerce platforms: out of 7,297 inspected batches, 23. …
A portion of the purchase price for such items is already consumption tax: watches priced at 10,000 yuan or more incur a 20% tax; gold, platinum, and diamond jewelry faces a 5% tax; other precious stones and jade incur a 10% tax, plus standard VAT. …
Certificates can be forged, so what truly matters is confirming the agency that issued it. Any testing organization allowed to issue reports must hold proper credentials, and its reports must display the CMA mark. …
Sellers must display the draw rules, probabilities, and quantities of limited‑edition items in a highly visible manner. They are prohibited from manipulating results behind the scenes or offering empty boxes. …
The law only mandates ingredient lists for pre-packaged foods; loose goods have no such requirement. For loose products, retailers only need to display the product name, production date, shelf life, and manufacturer details. …
Human nature drives us to sell winners and hold losers. In seven years of data from 10,000 U.S. accounts, stocks that rose were sold about 50% more often than those that fell. …
Starting May 2026, foreign brokers such as Tiger Brokers, Futu, and LongBridge are no longer allowed to accept new accounts from mainland investors. …
The premiums you pay won’t all be returned to you; a portion goes toward the insurer’s operating costs and profit. …
Term life insurance covers you only for a set number of years. If you pass away during that period, your family receives a payout. …
All personal insurance policies with a term longer than one year include a cooling-off period. …
Banks may sell insurance on behalf of insurers, but they must not present it as a deposit. …
Online ads promising “full policy refunds with no fees if unsuccessful” usually come from illegal cancellation agents. They typically take 30–50% of any refund amount and demand your ID, bank details, and verification codes. …
If no beneficiary is listed, or if the named beneficiary passes away first, the payout is treated as part of the deceased’s estate and must first cover any debts owed by the deceased. …
China does not recognize virtual currencies as legal tender. Individual purchases of such coins can be ruled invalid by courts, meaning any losses fall on the buyer. …
People without an employer can best save for retirement by paying the minimum contribution and fulfilling the minimum contribution period. …
In the first 7 days of a new car, if a major part such as the engine or the transmission fails and has to be replaced, you can directly demand a replacement car or a refund. …
If you buy a used car from a dealer, and the dealer deliberately hides the real condition, such as an accident or flood damage, you can return the car and also demand compensation of three times the price. …
If the store says that taking a loan means paying a separate "financial service fee," the rules do not allow a dealer to charge that. …
This part comes from the parveen0029/The-Evidence-Based-Life edition.
Organizing low-cost tour groups to trap travelers into shopping, or taking travelers to commercial shopping stores not agreed upon in advance, violates tourism laws. …
This part comes from the parveen0029/The-Evidence-Based-Life edition.
When bank employees secretly pitch products that are neither issued nor formally authorized for distribution by the bank, this practice is known as a "flying order" (飞单 / unauthorized private placement). …
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