What is your understanding of consumption upgrading?

Consumption upgrading generally refers to the upgrading of consumption structure, which is the structural upgrading and level improvement of various consumption expenditures in the total consumption expenditure, and it directly reflects the consumption level and development trend. There are many topics about consumption upgrading now. We are not talking about the consumption upgrade of the whole social and economic level, but about the consumption upgrade of individuals or families.

Many people will regard the so-called consumption upgrade as buying expensive and high-quality goods and services. For example, go to Japan to buy toilet seats, rice cookers, Haitao foreign goods, go shopping abroad and so on. With the improvement of people's living standards and the rise of the middle class in China, the consumption power is getting stronger and stronger, and the pursuit of higher-quality goods can also be regarded as a consumption upgrade. But I think consumption upgrading should include more aspects.

If we only change products with the same function from domestic products to foreign products, or change low-priced brands to high-priced brands, it is only the improvement of consumption power brought about by simple income growth, which can only be regarded as a primary consumption upgrade. Whether a person or a family has achieved consumption upgrading is not simply based on the absolute value of consumption expenditure, but on the content.

Let's take a look at what is the real consumption upgrade in the most common areas of consumption, such as food, clothing, housing and transportation.

If you used to buy clothes mainly in Taobao, JD.COM and other online stores, then you may belong to the pursuit of cost performance and style, in order to save time. At this time, the primary consumption upgrade is to start paying attention to the brand and quality, rather than simply looking at the price, and may go to a special flagship store to buy. If you are promoted to a higher level, you should pay attention to your image, not just looking at the brand, but starting to take a customized route, including letting professional stylists match it for you as a whole. Reaching this level is not necessarily more expensive than going to a brand store, but it is obviously a higher level of consumption upgrade.

There will be different levels of food consumption upgrades. The first level is "eating", but the highest level is not eating Michelin restaurants every day. Occasionally going to high-end restaurants for consumption cannot be regarded as an upgrade of food consumption, and the upgrade of food consumption is not simply based on price expenditure. If you pay more attention to the raw materials, nutrition and health of food, and start to pay attention to the law of diet and daily food collocation, this can be understood as consumption upgrading. If you pay more attention to the food culture and characteristics, rather than just looking at the restaurant grade, then this is the consumption upgrade at the food level.

Housing is a relatively sensitive topic. Whether renting a house or buying a house, there are actually consumption upgrades of living conditions. If renting a house is from fancy rent to surrounding environment, lighting and ventilation, decoration and convenient transportation, it can be understood as consumption upgrade. Buying a house can also be understood as a consumption upgrade from simply looking at the total price of the real estate to the living comfort, community atmosphere and supporting facilities. In both cases, consumption upgrading actually means more capital investment, but with the same capital investment, we can pursue better living conditions as much as possible.

The consumption upgrade of travel is not simply from bus to high-speed rail, or from train to plane. In addition to transportation, travel mainly includes tourism. The consumption upgrade of transportation can be regarded as spending money to buy time, and the consumption upgrade of travel can be regarded as spending money to buy experience. Therefore, the upgrading of experience is the key to the upgrading of tourism consumption. The upgrade of experience is not a domestic tour to a foreign tour. If you still focus on popular attractions and think about shopping consumption, you can't talk about consumption upgrading. If you start to pay attention to unpopular routes, take a small adventure (such as Antarctica, Gobi Desert and Bermuda Triangle), or go to some distinctive areas to experience local customs for a long time, this is a more advanced travel consumption upgrade.

In addition to food, clothing, housing and transportation, many other aspects involve consumption upgrading. For example, changing news and Weibo into English articles or courses, playing mobile phones into exercising, watching soap operas into focusing on a healthy hobby, giving time wasted on WeChat groups to family members, and changing popular songs on mobile phones into classic symphonies are all consumption upgrades in my opinion. Therefore, consumption upgrading is not the pursuit of more expensive things, but the pursuit of better self.

Manage your finances while you are young-I hope you can live the life you want. WeChat official account: Mucheng Free Life (ID: mucheng-life)