《瘋狂英語》精選輯:隔壁家的百萬富翁
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?
隔壁家的百萬富翁
20年前，我們開始研究人們的致富秘訣。我們最初的做法估計你也知道，就是調查全國各地住在所謂“高級住宅區(qū)”里的人。時過不久，我們就發(fā)現了些怪事：許多住在高級住宅區(qū)里、開著豪華小車的人實際上并不富有。隨后，我們又發(fā)現了更奇怪的事∶許多富豪并不住在高級住宅區(qū)里。
這些發(fā)現到底有什么深遠意義呢？那就是：許多美國人對財富的理解完全錯了。財富與收入不同。如果你每年的收入很高，卻把它花得精光，那你并沒有富起來。你只是過著高水準的生活罷了。財富是指你的累積，花銷掉的不算是財富。怎么樣才能富起來呢？這點上，大多數人又理解錯了。讓人積累起財富的不是靠運氣、遺產、高學歷和智力。財富更多靠的是勤奮工作、持之以恒和計劃，其中，最重要的是要自律。
讓尋常的美國人來給“財富”下定義，大部分人會給出《韋氏詞典》里的解釋，“財富”對于他們來說，是指擁有大量的物質財產。我們對“財富”則另有定論。在調查中，我們將“財富”的門檻定為擁有100萬美元以上的凈財產。在美國，合乎這個標準的只有350萬戶，也就是說在一億戶人家里只有3.5%的比率可算得上是“富有”的。美國的百萬富翁中大約有95%的人擁有的凈財產介于100萬到1000萬美元之間。我們的調查主要針對這一人群進行調查。為什么要以這一人群為重點呢？因為這個標準的財富可由一代人來實現。許多美國人都能做得到。
鑒定一個人、一戶人家、一個家庭是否富有的另一種辦法，是看他們有望掙多少凈財產。一個人的收入與年齡是決定一個人身家?guī)缀蔚闹匾蛩亍Q句話，假設某人一直工作而不退休，那么他的收入越高的話，他的凈財產就會越高。同樣地，一個人創(chuàng)造收入的時間越長，他就有可能積攢下更多財富。因此，高收入年齡較長的人應比低收入年紀較輕的人富有。對于許多實際年收入在5萬美元以上、年齡在25歲到65歲之間的美國人，可望擁有與此水平相當的財富。那些財富收入遠遠高出這個標準的人相對于他們那一個年齡收入層來說，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？用一個簡單的公式，一下就能算出你能大概掙到多少財產：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，然后除以10。不包括繼承來的任何財產在內，就得出你應有的凈財產值。舉個例子：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，他的凈資產值應為635500美元。按你的年齡及收入，你的凈財產應該等于多少呢？
在財富各類集合中，你究竟處于哪個位置？如果在財富累積的四分位數中，你位于頂端，那你就是巨富（PAW）；如是位于底部，你就是財富欠積累（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，遺傳
6) abundance n. 豐富
7) possessions n. 財產
8) threshold n. 門檻，界限
9) segment n. 段，節(jié)
10) determinant n. 決定因素
11) generate v. 產生
12) corresponding a. 相應的
13) cohort n. 一群
14) compute v. 計算，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)計學的四分位數
20) prodigious a. 巨大的
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