Young people saving more thanks to storyline trend

Recently, a trend known as "saving money by pretending to be something" has been gaining popularity on the internet, with many netizens participating and sharing the tales they've created with their fictional characters, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

From assuming the role of a pregnant woman to pretending to be a princess from a fallen kingdom, individuals who take part in the activity immerse themselves in various scenarios.

The storytellers take the "expenses" incurred in the fantasies and deposit the real-life equivalent into their savings.

This unique approach to saving money involves individuals simulating the scenarios — which cover themes such as romance, time travel, history, science fiction and adventure — in creative ways.

The main objective for participants is to have fun while developing good saving habits.

One netizen created a story in which she is a distressed princess from a war-torn country, and her father, the king, sent her abroad to protect her from the conflict. Stranded in a foreign land with no money, the princess was forced to embark on a journey of self-reliance. She wound up taking a part-time job as a KFC employee, and her first paycheck was for 30 yuan ($4.20).

Subsequently, the netizen deposited 30 yuan into her real savings account.

There are also storylines closely connected to real-life situations. One of them was posted by a netizen nicknamed Xiao Ding, who generated savings by creating a pregnant character.

In her story, Xiao's character was experiencing nausea one day and wondered if she was pregnant. To make sure, she had to buy a pregnancy test kit, which cost about 30 yuan. That money went directly into Xiao's real savings account.

The storyline goes on to meticulously lay out the daily expenses of the pregnant character, and all the money spent in the story is converted into savings that Xiao later deposits in real life.

To make her tale seem more authentic, she even read some books on pregnancy to understand what women go through at each stage and incorporated what she learned into her storyline.

Her current story will continue until April, when her character is expected to give birth.

In a recent post, Xiao said the story has generated savings of over 5,000 yuan for her.

Though the trend may seem childish to some, it seems to be having a positive effect on participating youth, who are experiencing subtle but positive changes in their attitudes toward money and life, Beijing Youth Daily said.

Xiao told the newspaper that she was a little concerned the trend wouldn't last long, since making up storylines may get boring and tedious. Eventually, she said she will go back to just making savings deposits directly. However, the process of making up a story has enabled her to develop the habit of saving and a sense of frugality, the report said.