What does 텅장 (teongjang) mean? Korean slang for the bank account payday barely touches

Payday, 9:00 a.m.: a deposit alert pops up on our editor's phone. 9:03, the card bill goes out. 9:05, rent. 9:07, the savings transfer. At 9:10 the editor opens the banking app to find a few lonely digits. Seven minutes from 통장 (bank account) to 텅장 (empty bank account).

Still, our editor may be one of the lucky ones. When the Korean job portal Saramin asked 1,176 office workers in 2020, the average time it took to spend a month's salary was 12 days. What do we live on for the other 18? Today, a look at the word Koreans gave that question: 텅장.

The construction is pleasingly simple: swap one syllable of 통장 (bank account), 통, for 텅, as in 텅텅 (“totally empty”). It sounds almost the same and means the opposite. It bends into several forms: 텅장 됐다 (it's gone empty), 텅장 인증 (posting proof of your empty account), and the companion saying 월급은 통장을 스칠 뿐 (“my salary just brushes past my account”). Marie Claire Korea defined it in 2016 as “an account emptied by splurging,” adding that it's especially likely when the seasons change and new products flood in.

• 월급 들어온 지 사흘 만에 텅장 됐어Three days after payday and my account's already 텅장.The Wednesday after payday
• 블프 세일 한 번 돌았더니 바로 텅장 인증One lap of the Black Friday sales and here's my 텅장 proof.A common end to sale season
• 통장이 왜 텅장이 됐냐고? 술값이 통장을 그냥 통과하더라Why's my account 텅장? The bar tab just passes straight through it.The same situation as Etoday's 2017 example
• 이번 달은 텅장이라 약속은 다음 월급날 이후로 미룰게I'm 텅장 this month, so let's push our plans to after next payday.Friends' group chat
• 플렉스의 끝은 언제나 텅장이다Every flex ends in 텅장.A comment under a luxury unboxing video

텅장 joins 텅, from 텅텅 비다 (“to be totally empty”), with 통장 (“bank account”). Because it's just a one-syllable pun, tracking down who said it first is hard. The written record starts in the mid-2010s: Marie Claire Korea put it in a 2016 “beauty slang dictionary,” and Etoday's senior-focused Bravo My Life listed it in June 2017 as “a bank account in an empty state.” When a beauty magazine and a seniors' outlet cover the same word at the same time, it's safe to say it had already crossed generations.

One: you can say it with a smile. “I have no money” is heavy; “I'm 텅장” is light. Self-mockery saves you from explaining. It's handy for postponing plans or suggesting you split the bill.

Two: fixed costs leave first. In Saramin's 2020 survey, the top reason pay ran out early was “my salary is low” (64.7%), followed by fixed costs such as insurance, rent and utilities (34.3%), and loan interest (27.5%). Even if you skip the shopping, the account still empties. 텅장 is as much about living costs as about splurging.

Three: it has plenty of companions. An angry impulse buy leads to 스불재 (“a disaster I brought on myself”); watching others' assets soar leads to 벼락거지 (“suddenly poor”); the moment you check your balance brings on 현타 (a reality-check slump). On the map of Korean money slang, 텅장 is the intersection almost every road runs through.

Over several years, Saramin asked office workers how many days it took them to spend a month's salary. In 2016 (1,224 respondents) the average was 17 days, and 75% said they'd run out before the next payday at least once — up sharply from 51.7% a year earlier. In 2020 (1,176 respondents) it was 12 days, four days shorter than the 16 days in the 2019 survey.

In 2020, 61.1% said the drawn-out COVID-19 pandemic had shortened that window. After their pay ran out they spent about 420,000 won more on average, mostly on credit cards (68.1%) — so next month's salary goes to the card bill first. 텅장 breeds 텅장. We couldn't find a comparable survey after 2021, so today's figure is unconfirmed.

So: 텅장 is a one-syllable pun with a 12-day salary behind it. This month our editor split their money into four accounts. So far, all four are 텅장. If you have a sharper definition, add it to the 텅장 entry in the dictionary.