Marketing executive Nancy Li has a plan. It is a plan that will ensure her 'a happy-ever-after' regardless of whether her prince comes along or not. It is a plan which, in the short term, will allow her to soon return to education to study law, then, in a few years, buy an investment property, and, in the long term, allow her to retire comfortably.
Li is one of a growing number of single women who have woken up to the fact that 'a man is not a financial plan', as a financial planning company puts it. This is especially true in Hong Kong, where the fact that single women outnumber men means that many are destined to a life of singlehood.
Mr Right or not, Li, like a true-blue new-age woman, has devised a plan with the aim of ensuring whatever the future brings, she will be financially secure. Every month, she puts 30 per cent of her salary into savings, investments and charitable donations.
Ten per cent goes into MPF contributions while the remaining 60 per cent is split evenly: 30 per cent to help look after her elderly parents and 30 per cent on daily expenses, entertainment, essentials and luxuries.
It is a plan that has amassed her HK$300,000 in a mixture of stocks, global funds and currencies over the past five years. She also factored in the unexpected, taking out a life insurance policy, and critical illness and medical insurance policy, each worth HK$1 million. It is a wise move for a 30-year-old woman in a city were the chances of Mr Right taking care of her for the rest of her life is becoming less of a certainty.
Census and Statistics Department figures show that last year, there were only 896 men for every 1,000 women in Hong Kong - a major change from 1981 when men outnumbered women by 1,087 to 1,000.