FEATURES
Every Jiao Counts
What do you do with your extra income? By Anastasia Levina
M
any expats come to Beijing to make money and save. But we wondered what does everyone do with what they earn? We talked to four disparate Beijing families, who shared with us a usually private part of their lives: finance and disposable income management.
The Balinas Family Around 25-39,000
22% rent groceries
20% 15%
15%
11%
savings entartainments
12%
5%
insurance other expenses tithe
46
beijingkids 2016 September
photo: Courtesy of the balinas
Pediatrician Rocyl Joy and stay at home dad Timothy John Balinas and their 18-month-old son Elijah John are from the Philippines and have been in China for three years. Despite a higher salary, the Beijing lifestyle also requires greater expenses: for example, the rent here for a year is comparable to the cost of purchasing a house in the Philippines. Still, Rocyl and Timothy manage to save around 10 to 20 percent of their
income, planning to keep it for their son’s education. They also help relatives in emergencies, and, when asked about her opinion on family loans, Rocyl says she prefers to keep it gratuitous. A large part of their family lifestyle is the Christian faith. On Sundays, they fellowship with one another, their friends, and their church, and give a ten percent tithe to express thankfulness and faithfulness. Rocyl rates her finance literacy at 8 out of 10 points. She admits that her family’s lifestyle is pretty simple. “I would like to have my money ‘working’, but I don’t know how to do that, so I prefer to just keep it in a bank account,” she says. They almost never spend on extravagant purchases, but neither do they skimp on important expenditures. Their future plans are still uncertain: international schools in Beijing, even with company discounts, are expensive, which may become a problem when Elijah gets older. “We came from a developing country, and here in China it is an opportunity for us to earn much more than in the Philippines,” adds Rocyl. Philippine families usually live with many generations under one roof, with the children staying with their parents until marriage. In Chinese culture, a child work-