Monthly salary buys a phone, annual salary buys a car, the most suitable consumption concept for ordinary people.

"Monthly salary buys a phone, annual salary buys a car." It is unclear when this saying began to circulate among the public, but what it conveys is a consumer philosophy that is suitable for ordinary people.

If my monthly salary is 3000 yuan, then I would choose a phone within that price range; if my annual salary is 30,000 yuan, I would choose a Wuling Hongguang MINI, rather than spending extra money to buy a BYD Qin Plus just for the sake of appearances.

In people's lives, houses, cars, and mobile phones are known as the "three major items" that accompany us throughout our lives. The price of houses is exorbitant, so let’s not discuss that for now. Cars and mobile phones, to a certain extent, have indeed become symbols of identity, power, and status. For example, during blind dates, there can even be instances of car fraud, where someone might buy a luxury car key-shaped lighter or rent a luxury car to confuse their blind date partner. However, mobile phones cannot be easily disguised. When chatting during a blind date, if the other party pulls out the latest Apple 17 Pro Max in Hermès orange, while you can only shakily take out a 1000 yuan domestic phone to prepare for scanning the code, the other party might quickly retract the QR code and ask, "Can fish in the river and fish in the sea be together?" just like in the show "The Sky of the Wind Hound."

But does using an expensive phone necessarily mean someone is noble? Not really; they might just be putting on a facade. On the other hand, people who use cheaper phones are likely to understand the value of saving. Wealthy individuals have many ways to solve problems in various situations, while ordinary people must choose the most cost-effective solutions.

With a monthly salary of 3000 yuan, after deducting daily expenses, it might take saving for two months to afford a 3000 yuan phone. If you want to buy a 10,000 yuan phone, it would require saving for an even longer time. After all, phones are consumer goods that start to depreciate as soon as they are in hand. Just for the sake of so-called face, or a colleague’s exclamation of "Wow, it's the iPhone 17 Pro Max", to struggle for half a year seems to me a serious imbalance between what you pay and what you get.

Can the fish in the river and the fish in the sea really be together?