In 2017 years, I graduated from university and came to Shenzhen from my hometown of Henan to become an ordinary deep drifter.
Because of the low starting point of education and the average major, I didn't find the right job. In the following years, local pushers, sales, and code scanners ...... I've done all kinds of odd jobs, and I've been on the job, and I've felt more and more nihilistic. Every day, I open my eyes to work for others, and most of the money I earn flows into the boss's pocket, but I am tired half to death, what is the plan?
Camus has a novel called "The Outsider", which is about a "freak" who cannot integrate into society and cannot obtain happiness from mainstream life. During that time, I felt like the main character Meursault, many ideas were not understood, and when I saw the orderly people around me, I would only think that the other was ridiculous.
When Xiao Jia is doing the work of pushing the ground
The turning point came in 2022, and I stumbled upon a Douban group called "FIRE Life". The so-called FIRE is the abbreviation of Financial Independence, Retire Early, which emerged from abroad, and is translated as "financial independence, early retirement" in Chinese. There are already some people in China who are exploring how to FIRE, and after learning about it, I feel that I have found an organization.
To put it simply, the commonality of FIRE is that you must first save enough money, and then through effective investment and financial management, your life will no longer depend on earning wages, and only use the interest or other passive income generated by the principal to cover your future basic expenses. To put it bluntly, it is to "lie flat" directly after being fully prepared.
It may sound like a distant achiev, but suddenly I found the meaning of life, realized that I could set a goal for FIRE, and then seize the time to redeem myself from the traditional part-time job model and end the life like a hamster running wheel.
Douban FIRE group
In today's society, many people are yelling to lie flat. What I understand as lying flat is not a state of complaining and resigning to fate, nor can it stay at catharsis of a certain emotion, but through rational thinking, it should be dismantled into practical problems that can be analyzed and solved, and let yourself act.
I first took myself as an example and went through the overall idea.
First of all, there is no doubt that the most important thing to lie flat is the material foundation. A heart-wrenching fact is that ordinary people can't earn much money by working part-time, and the key is to throttle money compared to open source. I made a table to sort out my necessary expenses, such as rent, social security, food, daily necessities, phone bills, medical care, social networking, etc., and kept monthly accounts for three to five years or even longer.
Through each year's spending data, I will gradually build a spending model, which will be constantly revised and updated to determine the real amount of spending I need to lie down for a year. Of course, in order to achieve the goal of saving, it is necessary to reduce material desires as much as possible, learn to identify and avoid all kinds of consumerist pitfalls, cut all unnecessary expenses, and pursue "save what you can" in every link.
Xiao Jia's personal expenditure statistics table
Bringing out each of the expense items in the table is a very complex topic that varies from person to person. For example, I will probably not buy a house because the risk is too high for FIRE, but some people need the security that a house provides. I don't have pets either, but many young people nowadays can't do without the companionship and emotional value that pets bring. When it comes to raising a baby, the spending model is more complex.
However, there are also many general money-saving tricks, such as my monthly mobile phone package fee of 800 yuan in the past, and later changed to a combination of "traffic card + insurance number card", which can save 0 yuan a year. There is also the desire to restrain consumption, and ask yourself before placing an order every time, is it worth it to go to work for several hours after buying this thing?
幾年下來，我判斷自己每年基礎花銷在8萬左右，小家庭共花12萬左右。
FIRE Life has a well-known 25% safe exit rule, which states that dividing a year's worth of expenses by 0% is the amount of FIRE you will eventually need. In other words, you have to save 0 times your living expenses for a year. This formula is only a reference, and in practice everyone's needs are different, and as you learn more about yourself and the world, your understanding of "financial freedom" will change.
The above is just a preliminary systematic understanding of "spending money", and there are many topics worth expanding in detail, such as doing side hustles, making investment plans, and choosing a flat city. In addition, to a certain extent, "derailment" means that various problems such as family, interpersonal relationships, and surrounding vision, how to achieve spiritual independence is also a process that needs to be explored.
A simple version of the self-measuring table designed by Xiao Jia
I posted these thoughts online, and gradually a lot of people came to me to chat. They confided in their troubles and said that they wanted to lie down prepared like this. I find that most people's thoughts are chaotic, or in other words, it is difficult to break free from that quagmire without the help of external forces. So, I started to help them organize their minds and find some practical ways to lie flat.
Gradually, just like psychological counseling for psychological problems and career planning for job development, I found my own position as a "lying flat planner" who specializes in helping people think about how to live a flat life.
Whether you want to lie flat for a long time, or just want to rest and adjust for a short time, there is an unavoidable problem, that is, the city you live in. I always felt that no matter how much information there was on the Internet, it would not be as intuitive as it was to look at it truthfully, so I had a plan for the next city visit.
為了找到“最適合躺平的城市”，去年，我買了輛五手車，花6個多月的時間，自駕走完了南方、北方的三十多個城市，今年也陸續去了一些大家呼聲比較高的地方。
要考察的因素很多，我專門列了一張執行表，涵蓋房價、租房價格、自然景觀、醫療、交通、氣候、工資水準、城市基建等十多個方面。因為躺平的核心需求是生活成本低，其中房價又佔大頭，出發前，我搜集了網傳能幾萬元買房的城市，制定了一條考察路線。
I've found that if you're a tenant or want to buy a house somewhere, it's best to change your perspective and search for "rent" and "sell" on your property search app, so that the price information you get will be more realistic.
Lying flat city table of small family statistics (partial)
So far, I've traveled to most of the cities in the South where housing prices are low. Starting from Shenzhen, Guangdong, I went to Huizhou, Yangjiang, Dongguan, etc. in the province, and then went to Sanya and Wanning in Hainan, Guilin, Beihai, Fangchenggang in Guangxi, Zhangzhou and Fuzhou in Fujian, Hengyang and Zhangjiajie in Hunan, Wuhan, Xiangyang, Shiyan in Hubei, Panzhihua in Chengdu, Changshou in Chongqing, etc.
接著北上，去浙江的寧波、杭州，江蘇的蘇州、南通，河南信陽、鄭州、鶴壁等地方考察了一圈，最北到了山東的煙台和威海。算下來，總共走了14個省市的79個城市，2萬多公里，未來打算去更北甚至國外看看。
The so-called low-housing price lying flat city is most likely not to have low housing prices in the whole city, but to concentrate in a certain area. For the sake of convenience, I have divided them into categories according to my own understanding. The first is the tourist resorts, which usually have great natural landscapes and are built for vacations, and the transportation and supporting facilities are not too bad.
The seaside of Yangjiang, Guangdong
For example, I have been to Ocean Flower Island in Danzhou, Hainan Province before, which was an artificial island built by Evergrande at a cost of hundreds of billions. Advertisements for selling houses on the island are pervasive, and many intermediary stores on the streets, ferries, three jumpers, and elderly electric vehicles are also posted with rental advertisements.
Although the development of the whole island is close to stagnation, the houses are cheap, there are few people, and the scenery is beautiful, which just makes a "lying flat holy land".
Advertisement for sale on an electric car on the street
和度假區有點相似的是山裡、海邊的各種風景區。這些地方的旅遊業近年來受衝擊嚴重，趕上淡季時，房價低得超出想像。去年5月底，我去廣東陽江的海陵島逛了一圈，居然在大角灣附近訂到一間日租26.68元的海景房，長租的話，每月才600元，還能在樓下免費停車。
However, there are also common problems in scenic areas, and it may not be so convenient to purchase materials if you live here for a long time. In Hailing Island, you have to go to a small town 2 kilometers away to buy groceries, and restaurants, takeaways, and supermarkets are also concentrated in the town.
If you don't have a high demand for natural scenery, you can go to a more town-like place to lie down. I'm also broadly divided into several categories. One is a small health care town, which is usually built on the outskirts of the city by the mountains and rivers, with good air quality, connected communities and commercial areas, and relatively complete supporting facilities, which is very suitable for the elderly to live or young people to recuperate for a short time.
比如廣東肇慶最大的爛尾樓，世紀夢幻城，巔峰時曾被萬人哄搶，現在人去樓空，10萬內能買到一套高層一居。
Guangdong Zhaoqing Century Dream City
Where there are very few people and no other obvious characteristics, I would call it an "empty city". The most intuitive feeling of this kind of city is that it is "empty", not popular, and even gloomy at night. There are many reasons for this situation, typical of which are resource-exhausted cities such as Hegang in Heilongjiang and Fuxin in Liaoning, where the local population has already left a large area.
There is also the old city, which is in the old city of the city, such as the Shancheng District of Hebi and the Jianghan Oilfield Information Port in Qianjiang, Hubei. These houses are relatively dilapidated, the buildings are very old, and almost all of them are inhabited by local elderly people, but the basic facilities are very comprehensive, the life atmosphere is sufficient, and the convenience is very high.
除了以上這些，也有一些我覺得很特別、難以歸類的地方。印象最深的是貴陽的花果園社區，確實是“亞洲第一魔幻樓盤”，兩百多棟樓，能住50多萬人。住在這裡往窗外看，基本就是“樓景”了。但這裡距市中心非常近，能在20萬內買房，貴陽的四季氣候也比較舒服，還是有不少優勢的。
Guiyang Flower Orchard / Visual China
Every city is complex, and the living experience is a combination of subjective and objective factors. I often advise people who come to consult that if they plan to live in a certain place for a long time, it is best to go to see it in person first, which may bring a completely different feeling from "cloud viewing".
In recent years, lying flat has become a mood of the times, and many Internet celebrity cities have appeared. I never advise people to follow the trend of going to these places, because lying flat is not a vacation, it is a real life.
For those who want to lie down but don't know where to lie down, I have made a demand screening table before, which has 29 questions, including psychological and practical levels, which can be analyzed and prioritized by yourself.
Everyone's needs are different, and may even be the opposite. Some people are very sensitive to natural conditions such as scenery, climate, and air quality, while others have requirements for market life, "popularity", and social integration. Some young people have impaired health and want to find a place to recuperate, or want to take the elderly at home, so it is best to have a tertiary hospital near Lie Ping.
There are also young people who want to do self-media, or love to share in the circle of friends, they may choose a city with a high degree of Internet topic, such as Hegang. In short, only you know if the shoes will fit or not.
Xiao Jia designed a demand analysis table for lying flat locations
After looking at so many cities, I have a rough ranking in my mind. For those who prefer southern cities, I would like to promote East Huizhou. The advantage of Huizhou is first of all its location, relying on the three big cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, you can work when you enter and lie down when you retreat. There are also some large factories in the local area, such as several industrial parks of BYD, where you can earn some money when you don't have money.
Just like Yanjiao is to Beijing, many migrant workers go to Shenzhen to work during the day and return to their "sleeping bags" at night. The trend of housing prices in Huizhou and Yanjiao is also very similar, from the take-off to the end, it is probably a sad thing for many people.
Huiyang District, Huizhou, Guangdong
There are also a wide range of rental options in Huizhou, from the city to the seaside, from self-built houses to seaview community houses, from three or four hundred to thousands of yuan, at various prices. Outside every two communities, there will be comprehensive supermarkets, and business districts such as Wanda and Wuyue are also close. Not to mention buying digital products, next to Shenzhen, they are basically delivered the next day.
I have a friend named Sansan, who has been lying here for more than two years with the millions of savings he has saved from high school to the present. He rented a three-bedroom hardcover room in Daya Bay with a monthly rent of 1000 yuan, and sublet one of the second bedrooms. The sofas, tables and chairs, TV cabinets and other furniture at home were all purchased by him from the second-hand market for two or three hundred yuan.
Sansan's rental house in Huizhou
靠理財的利息和自媒體，他每月進賬三千多元，月支出也這個數，基本相抵。每天，他的生活節奏就是睡到自然醒，起床打打遊戲，剪剪視頻，做個飯。離家不遠處有個自助食堂，不想做飯就去那吃，15-20元管飽。
Sansan told me that there are nearly 20 lying friends in the community near his home who have been living here for a long time. They will get together every now and then, and when they find a supermarket with a discount, they will inform them in the group, and they usually don't disturb each other. I like their way of life very much, and I am a little envious when I hear it.
If you don't want to go to the south, I recommend Shandong Rushan the most. The silver beach in Rushan is very popular on the Internet, and it is the most well-known one among the silver beaches in Huizhou, Beihai, Yangjiang and other cities I have been to. Its exact location is on Changjiang Road, where there is a dense and almost endless sea view building.
Shandong Milk Mountain
Small high-rise single rooms with a first-line sea view and simple configuration in the house are more representative of the house here. The price I asked about was 800 yuan per month, and you can bargain for long-term rentals. I was living near the Tidal Lake Wetland Park, not far from Silver Beach, with a view of the sea in front and a wetland in the back.
銀灘離市區有十幾公里，外賣、網約車、娛樂活動、夜生活這些得捨棄大半。不過部分社區外面有商業街，滿足基本生活需求沒問題。吃飯價格適中，菜系也豐富，對外地人很友好。能否接受這個程度的商業配套，就因人而異了。
At 9 o'clock in the evening, there was almost no one on the street
A lot of people saw my sharing online and decided to go to their alternative cities. I've traveled so much and I've learned a lot of tips and tricks to share with them.
When you first arrive in a strange city, it is very effective to chat with the locals. I may choose to stay in a hostel, which has people from all over the world, like a distribution center for news from all over the world. When looking at the community, hand out a cigarette to the doorman and security guard, ask "where is the toilet nearby", or ask the aunt and uncle who is strolling around, "where is the nearest vegetable market", and you can talk to them. This trick is used to explore community gossip, and it is a tried-and-true tool.
If you go inside the mall when it first opens in the morning, you can see the real popularity of the mall. Go to the community at night and judge the real occupancy rate of the neighborhood and the surrounding area by the number of households that are lit up.
An old broken small in Hebi, Henan with a total price of 8000 yuan
From a microscopic point of view, it can also be observed in many details. One of my tips is to see if there are dry cleaners and tailors around the neighborhood that mend clothes. Dry cleaning is a high-level consumption item in small cities, which means that there are many local "rich people" living in this community, and they have already helped you sift through the comfort of life.
And repairing clothes represents the living needs of the previous generation. If there is a stable tailor shop, it is likely that there are many elderly people living around, so it will not be too far from the vegetable market and hospital.
There are many more such tricks, which can be said for a few days and nights.
Every time I go out, it is not only to "investigate", but also out of my selfish desire to live everywhere.
I've always wanted to look elsewhere. Just like when I quit my job last year and continued to live outside for more than half a year, I have new experiences and feelings every day, how many times do I have such opportunities in my life? There is a saying that what a teenager can't do will eventually be trapped for his life. If you want to do something, do it right away.
This process is very interesting, people will first be healed by the natural scenery, their hearts will become open-minded, and their mood will involuntarily get better. Sometimes when I am alone in a strange town, looking out the window at the quiet undulating sea, the moonrise and sunset, I think that it would be good to spend the rest of my life like this.
Xiaojia lives in Yangjiang for 68.0 yuan a night in a sea view room
On the way, I met people who had been driving for long periods of time like me, and I also met a lot of people who drove their RVs and slept in their cars at night. In Anji, Huzhou, Zhejiang, I also came across a digital nomad commune, and I was very impressed. A digital nomad is a person who lives in a place they like while making money by doing online work remotely.
Most of them have worked in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and they are unwilling to be cattle and horses in the lattice all the time, so they choose to "escape" in this way.
As long as I set out, these people and things will appear from time to time that break my original cognition, and I will gradually realize that the world is really very big, and when you feel that a problem is unsolvable, it may just be that the circle of life is too small. There is always a way to make money, you can live with less money and more money, and the most important thing is whether you live this life in the way you like.
Sometimes when I think about this, I suddenly come back to my senses and find that I have come to a conclusion that everyone knows. But it's so strange, I don't have enough experience, I haven't taken the detours that should be taken, and I just can't really understand.
"Romantic Physique"
和很多來找我諮詢的人聊天時，我也能感受到這種矛盾。他們中不乏月薪過萬的高收入者，一路走來都非常體面，有讓人豔羨的工作和存款，還有看起來美滿的小家庭。
But the flip side of the truth is that they can't find someone to talk to in their lives, and at the same time, they are subconsciously very anxious about what they have at the moment, and they have a great fear of uncertainty. When I express my perspective on their predicament, I find that they are too aware of what they need to do now, or what they can't do for the time being, and they just need to be spoken directly and explicitly by another person.
There are also some very young people, in their teens and twenties, who have encountered some troubles in school, failed to do well in exams, quarreled with their families and so on, and said that they would lie flat. I understand that for their age, these worries can be a big deal, as if a single exam can decide the fate of a lifetime.
Or maybe no matter what age we are, the troubles in our hearts are trapped in this way. If you go further, you will know that when you put it down, the sky will not fall.
"Good Stuff"
At the end of the day, "lying flat" is a very vague concept that everyone understands differently. And I've found that when a lot of people say lie flat, they just mean that they have to stop and rest for a while. But in this way, the people around often do not understand that the social clock does not set aside time for "rest", so it can only use a more thorough word, with a certain sense of determination.
I have always believed that the human state is not set forever. From the time I started trying not to go to work a few years ago, to gradually figuring out a "lie flat plan", to deciding to quit last year, I feel that I have little by little enthusiasm and motivation to do things.
I also saw some lying friends, who seemed to be off track, but found inner self-consistency and peace. It's an invisible change, but it's significant, like a new birth.
Anyway, lie down for a while, it's not a big deal. Finding a comfortable position for you to lie down in is the right thing to do.