《瘋狂英語(yǔ)》精選輯:隔壁家的百萬(wàn)富翁

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The Millionaire next door

Twenty years ago we began studying how people become wealthy. 1)Initially, we did it just as you might imagine: by surveying people in so-called up-scale neighbourhoods across the country. In time, we discovered something odd: Many people who live in expensive homes and drive 2)luxury cars do not actually have much wealth. Then, we discovered something even odder: Many people who have a great deal of wealth do not even live in up-scale neighbourhoods.

What is so 3)profound about these discoveries? Just this: Most people have it all wrong about wealth in America. Wealth is not the same as income. If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you 4)accumulate, not what you spend. How do you become wealthy? Here, too, most people have it wrong. It is seldom luck or 5)inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes. Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and most of all, self-discipline.

Ask the average American to define the term "Wealthy", most would give the same definition found in Webster's. "Wealthy" to them refers to people who have an 6)abundance of material 7)possessions. We define "wealthy" differently. In this program we define the 8)threshold level of being wealthy as having a net worth of a million dollars or more. Based on this definition, only 3.5 million or 3.5% of the 100 million households in America, are considered wealthy. About 95% of millionaires in America have a net worth of between one million and ten million dollars. Much of the discussion in this program centers on this 9)segment of the population. Why focus on this group? Because this level of wealth can be attained in one generation. It can be attained by many Americans.

Another way of defining whether or not a person, household or family is wealthy, is based on one's expected level of net worth. A person's income and age are strong 10)determinants of how much that person should be worth. In other words, the higher one's income, the higher one's net worth is expected to be, assuming one is working and not retired. Similarly, the longer one is 11)generating income, the more likely one will accumulate more and more wealth. So higher-income people who are older should have accumulated more wealth than lower-income producers who are younger. For most people in America with annual realized incomes of $50,000 or more, and for most people 25 to 65 years of age, there is a 12)corresponding expected level of wealth. Those who are significantly above this level can be considered wealthy in relation to others in their income-slash-age 13)cohort.

Whatever your age, whatever your income, how much should you be worth right now? Here's a simple rule of thumb for 14)computing your expected net worth: 15)Multiply your age times your realized 16)pretax annual 17)household income from all sources except inheritances; divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be. For example, if Mr. Anthony O. Duncan is 41 years old, makes $143,000 a year, and has investments that return another $12,000, he would multiply $155,000 by 41. That equals $6,355,000. Dividing by 10, his net worth should be $635,500. Given your age and income, how does your net worth match up?

Where do you stand along the wealth 18)continuum? If you're in the top 19)quartile for wealth accumulation, you are a P.A.W. or 20)Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth. If you are in the bottom quartile, you are a U.A.W. or Under-Accumulator of Wealth. Are you a P.A.W., a U.A.W., or just an A.A.W. - Average Accumulator of Wealth?

隔壁家的百萬(wàn)富翁

20年前，我們開(kāi)始研究人們的致富秘訣。我們最初的做法估計(jì)你也知道，就是調(diào)查全國(guó)各地住在所謂“高級(jí)住宅區(qū)”里的人。時(shí)過(guò)不久，我們就發(fā)現(xiàn)了些怪事：許多住在高級(jí)住宅區(qū)里、開(kāi)著豪華小車(chē)的人實(shí)際上并不富有。隨后，我們又發(fā)現(xiàn)了更奇怪的事∶許多富豪并不住在高級(jí)住宅區(qū)里。

這些發(fā)現(xiàn)到底有什么深遠(yuǎn)意義呢？那就是：許多美國(guó)人對(duì)財(cái)富的理解完全錯(cuò)了。財(cái)富與收入不同。如果你每年的收入很高，卻把它花得精光，那你并沒(méi)有富起來(lái)。你只是過(guò)著高水準(zhǔn)的生活罷了。財(cái)富是指你的累積，花銷(xiāo)掉的不算是財(cái)富。怎么樣才能富起來(lái)呢？這點(diǎn)上，大多數(shù)人又理解錯(cuò)了。讓人積累起財(cái)富的不是靠運(yùn)氣、遺產(chǎn)、高學(xué)歷和智力。財(cái)富更多靠的是勤奮工作、持之以恒和計(jì)劃，其中，最重要的是要自律。

讓尋常的美國(guó)人來(lái)給“財(cái)富”下定義，大部分人會(huì)給出《韋氏詞典》里的解釋?zhuān)?ldquo;財(cái)富”對(duì)于他們來(lái)說(shuō)，是指擁有大量的物質(zhì)財(cái)產(chǎn)。我們對(duì)“財(cái)富”則另有定論。在調(diào)查中，我們將“財(cái)富”的門(mén)檻定為擁有100萬(wàn)美元以上的凈財(cái)產(chǎn)。在美國(guó)，合乎這個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的只有350萬(wàn)戶，也就是說(shuō)在一億戶人家里只有3.5%的比率可算得上是“富有”的。美國(guó)的百萬(wàn)富翁中大約有95%的人擁有的凈財(cái)產(chǎn)介于100萬(wàn)到1000萬(wàn)美元之間。我們的調(diào)查主要針對(duì)這一人群進(jìn)行調(diào)查。為什么要以這一人群為重點(diǎn)呢？因?yàn)檫@個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的財(cái)富可由一代人來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)。許多美國(guó)人都能做得到。

鑒定一個(gè)人、一戶人家、一個(gè)家庭是否富有的另一種辦法，是看他們有望掙多少凈財(cái)產(chǎn)。一個(gè)人的收入與年齡是決定一個(gè)人身家?guī)缀蔚闹匾蛩?。換句話，假設(shè)某人一直工作而不退休，那么他的收入越高的話，他的凈財(cái)產(chǎn)就會(huì)越高。同樣地，一個(gè)人創(chuàng)造收入的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，他就有可能積攢下更多財(cái)富。因此，高收入年齡較長(zhǎng)的人應(yīng)比低收入年紀(jì)較輕的人富有。對(duì)于許多實(shí)際年收入在5萬(wàn)美元以上、年齡在25歲到65歲之間的美國(guó)人，可望擁有與此水平相當(dāng)?shù)呢?cái)富。那些財(cái)富收入遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高出這個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的人相對(duì)于他們那一個(gè)年齡收入層來(lái)說(shuō)，就可視為“富有”。

如果不算年齡，不算收入，怎么判斷你目前的身家是多少呢？用一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的公式，一下就能算出你能大概掙到多少財(cái)產(chǎn)：用你的年齡乘以全家一年各種渠道所得的稅前收入，不包括遺產(chǎn)，然后除以10。不包括繼承來(lái)的任何財(cái)產(chǎn)在內(nèi)，就得出你應(yīng)有的凈財(cái)產(chǎn)值。舉個(gè)例子：安東尼·都肯先生，41歲，年收入是143000美元，另有投資收益12000美元，那么他要用155000乘以41得出6355000美元，用6355000除以10，他的凈資產(chǎn)值應(yīng)為635500美元。按你的年齡及收入，你的凈財(cái)產(chǎn)應(yīng)該等于多少呢？

在財(cái)富各類(lèi)集合中，你究竟處于哪個(gè)位置？如果在財(cái)富累積的四分位數(shù)中，你位于頂端，那你就是巨富（PAW）；如是位于底部，你就是財(cái)富欠積累（UAW）。你是巨富呢還是欠積累，或者是中等積累（AAW）？

注釋:

1) initially adv. 最早

2) luxury a. 奢華的

3) profound a. 深刻的

4) accumulate v. 積聚

5) inheritance n. 遺產(chǎn)，遺傳

6) abundance n. 豐富

7) possessions n. 財(cái)產(chǎn)

8) threshold n. 門(mén)檻，界限

9) segment n. 段，節(jié)

10) determinant n. 決定因素

11) generate v. 產(chǎn)生

12) corresponding a. 相應(yīng)的

13) cohort n. 一群

14) compute v. 計(jì)算，處理

15) multiply v. 乘

16) pretax a. 扣除稅前的

17) household n. 家庭

18) continuum n. 閉聯(lián)集

19) quartile n. 統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)的四分位數(shù)

20) prodigious a. 巨大的