有一天睡前，我突然对娃儿说：
“我现在的退休目标是存一千万。”
最近一直在想，一个人到底需要多少钱才够花。
如果每天花一千块，
够不够生活？
如果按二十年来算，
好像就需要七百多万，
退休后才稍微有点安全感。
结果娃儿听完后，
非常看不上我说的话。
直接来一句：
“我要存一个亿！十个亿！百个亿！千个亿！”
说完还一脸嫌弃地嘲笑我：
“你那个一千万目标太小了。”
我当场差点笑出声。
心想：
我那个去……
也是。
存千个亿，
可能是他那一代的事情了。
至少，
他这一代，
还有我们托举着。
而我们这一代，
很多人真的是从“资产负数”开始打拼。
没有背景，
没有托底，
甚至连“什么是资产”都没人教过。
能一步一步走到今天这样，
其实已经很不容易了。
想到这里，
我突然觉得：
嗯。
还是应该给现在的自己点个赞。
—
还有一天放学后，
我接到娃儿。
路上他突然问我一句：
“妈妈，除了空气不用钱外，还有什么不用花钱？”
我一边开车，
一边认真想：
除了空气，
还有什么是免费的？
结果我还没回答，
他已经自己抢答：
“树不用钱，大自然不用钱。”
我愣了一下。
心想，
也是。
这时候突然想起来了西藏。于是我顺口来一句：
“有些地方，空气也是要钱的。”
娃儿立马问：
“哪里？”
我说：
“地势海拔特别高的地方啊，比如中国的西藏。那里氧气比较少，我们去的话，有时候需要买氧气。特别是妈妈这样的人。”
结果娃儿立马非常现实地来一句：
“那我们不去就行了！”
我笑着说：
“可是那里很美，所以人们还是想去。”
这次，
他居然没有反驳我。
对话就这样安静地结束了。
婷妈的亲子日常 创作于 2026.05.16
原创发布： tingtingma.com
写给孩子，也写给正在成长的大人。
未经授权，请勿转载。
Tingma’s Parenting Diary| 255. Ten Million vs. One Hundred Billion
One night before bed, I suddenly said to my son:
“My retirement goal right now is to save ten million.”
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much money a person actually needs to feel secure.
If you spend a thousand dollars a day,
would that even be enough to live comfortably?
And if you calculate it over twenty years,
it feels like you’d need over seven million dollars
just to have a basic sense of security after retirement.
After hearing me say that,
my son looked completely unimpressed.
Without hesitation, he declared:
“I want to save one hundred million! Ten billion! One hundred billion! One thousand billion!”
Then he looked at me with total disdain and laughed:
“Your ten million goal is way too small.”
I almost burst out laughing.
In my head, I thought:
Oh my goodness…
Well…
He’s not entirely wrong.
Saving one thousand billion dollars
might belong to his generation.
At least his generation
has parents helping to support them.
But our generation?
A lot of us truly started from “negative assets.”
No background.
No safety net.
No one even taught us what assets really were.
So honestly,
being able to make it this far step by step
already feels like no small accomplishment.
Thinking about that,
I suddenly felt:
Yeah.
Maybe I should give myself a little credit.
—
Another day after school,
I picked him up.
While we were driving, he suddenly asked me:
“Mom, besides air, what else doesn’t cost money?”
As I drove, I seriously started thinking:
Besides air,
what else in this world is free?
Before I could answer,
he excitedly answered his own question:
“Trees are free. Nature is free.”
I paused for a second.
And thought:
He’s right.
Then for some reason, Tibet suddenly came to mind, so I casually said:
“In some places, even air costs money.”
He immediately asked:
“Where?”
I said:
“In places with very high elevation, like Tibet in China. The oxygen there is thinner, so sometimes people have to buy oxygen to breathe properly. Especially people like Mommy.”
He immediately replied in the most practical tone:
“Then we just shouldn’t go!”
I laughed and said:
“But it’s very beautiful there. That’s why people still want to go.”
This time,
he surprisingly didn’t argue back.
And just like that,
our conversation quietly came to an end.
Tingma’s Parenting Diary
Written on May 16, 2026
Originally published at: tingtingma.com
Written for my child, and for the adults who are still growing.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Originally written in Chinese by the author.
This English version was translated with the assistance of ChatGPT.