理财 (lǐ cái) — to manage finances, to do financial planning | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

理财 means to manage and plan one's personal finances — investing, saving, and budgeting. It's broader than just 'saving money': it implies active planning for growth or returns.

verb

to manage financesto do financial planning

Examples

。
Tā měi gè yuè dōu huì lǐ yí cì cái.
He manages his finances once a month.
理财。
Xué xí lǐ cái duì nián qīng rén lái shuō hěn zhòng yào.
Learning to manage finances is very important for young people.
理财。
Nǐ lǐ cái de fāng shì kě yǐ gèng hé lǐ yì xiē.
Your way of managing finances could be more reasonable.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

理lǐmanage

'理' (manage) and '财' (wealth) combine to mean manage finances.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

玉玉yùjade

Sound part声符shēngfú

里

里lǐ理lǐ

Same sound today

理 pairs 玉 (jade) with 里, which shows how to say it; the jade part points to the old sense of polishing jade.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 財; 财 is its simplified writing.

貝才財

Meaning part形符xíngfú

貝貝bèishell

Sound part声符shēngfú

才

才cái財cái

Same sound today

The traditional form 財 has 貝 (shell) next to 才, which gives the sound; the simplified 财 is a later shorthand.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Finance & Banking

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