Seo Hyun-mi has shelved her year-end trip to Tokyo after suffering heavy losses on her stock investments. The 40-year-old office worker, who bought SK hynix shares months ago at around 2.5 million won ($1,881) per share, is now sitting on a loss of roughly 50 percent. "Everyone seemed to be encouraging people to buy stocks. Brokerage reports were overwhelmingly positive, government officials were urging people to invest in the stock market and media coverage of memory chips was upbeat as well," Seo said, explaining what prompted her to invest. With the stock market unlikely to recover quickly, Seo plans to cut spending for the foreseeable future. "You need cash on hand to weather this kind of market, whether it's to cover losses from selling stocks or to buy more shares at lower prices," she said. The belt-tightening mood has spread to social media. An image titled "Things stock investors should start doing today" has been circulating online with tongue-in-cheek money-saving tips, from deleting food delivery apps and washing clothes by hand to looking for loose change on the street. Househ