Personal finance advice too often consists of prescriptions¹. Do this, not that and save the difference for a better financial future. That’s a diet, not a plan. And like diets, this kind of financial advice works great in the beginning but fails when reality sets in. Simply put, it’s no fun.

个人理财类文章通常会开出一些“处方”式建议：做这个，不要做那个，把省下的钱存起来将来会有更好的经济保障。它给你的好比“减肥菜单”，而不是真正的计划。就像节食减肥一样，这类理财建议往往开头效果喜人，但最终很难坚持下去。换言之，这么做很无趣。

I propose a better way to think about financial decisions, using a bright line test – in this case, a thin green line. That line, which looks like stock index returns over the past 50 years, divides the wealthy, who are financially secure, from the rich, poor and everyone else. It has less to do with people’s income and a far more to do with the decisions they make and the behaviors they exhibit when it comes to money.

我建议用一种更好的方式来考虑各种财务决策，比如划条分界线，即本文所称的“浅绿线”，看看你在线的哪一头。它看起来就像是过去50年的股指收益，可以把人们分成四类：处于财务安全状态的富人、普通有钱人、穷人、其他人。区分标准跟一个人的收入关系不大，更主要的是人们在涉及金钱时所做的决定和行为。

Here are five differences that I found in the research for my book, The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy, that distinguish those who are financially secure.

在《淡绿色线：超级富人的金钱秘密》一书中，我通过研究发现，处于财务安全状态的富人有如下5个特点。

Always buy the Audi over the BMW.Paul Posluszny, an offensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars², has received two NFL contracts that will pay him between $20 million and $47 million, depending on how he performs. He is certainly rich, but the decision he made a few years ago around buying a car shows that he is thinking like a wealthy person. He told me he had always wanted a BMW BMW , but then he ran the numbers on the top-of-the-line sedan. “An $80,000 car was too much,” he told me. “So I downsized.” Far from squeezing his hulking frame into a KIA, he went with the comparable Audi, saving himself about $10,000. This might seem absurd – he had the money for both – but it is little decisions like that and a sense of what is enough that should insure he is financially secure long after his playing days.

宁买便宜一点的奥迪，不买更贵的宝马。保罗o波斯卢什尼是美洲虎队的进攻内锋，他得到了两份全美橄榄球联盟的合同，根据表现，他可获得2000万-4700万美元的报酬。他现在肯定算有钱人，但早在几年前，他的购车决定就已证明，他很早开始就一直在像富人那样考虑问题。他告诉我，一直想买辆宝马，但后来他权衡了一下宝马车的价钱。他认为：“8万美元一辆车对我来说太奢侈了。所以我降了一些。”他并没有选择屈就起亚这样的廉价车，而是选择了档次不相上下、但便宜1万美元的奥迪。这可能看起来挺好笑，毕竟他两辆车都买得起，但是，像他这样会以“够用就好”做决定的人不多，而这可以保证他在退役之后数十年里的财务安全。

Drink Starbucks coffee whenever you want.If ordering a $4 latte is something that makes your day better, do it. There are plenty of people who have said you could save that $4, watch it compound, and have a larger nest egg in retirement⁴. Absolutely true, but no fun and totally unreasonable⁵. Budgets, like diets, fail because they tell you what not to do. Financial plans, which people on the right side of the thin green line embrace, allow you to make choices and to spend on what matters to you, knowing that you will have to save in other areas to maintain the security of true wealth.

想喝星巴克的时候就去喝。如果点一杯4美元的拿铁可以让你的心情更好，那就别犹豫。有人可能会对你说要省下这4美元，看着它越变越多，让自己有更多退休储备金。他说的没错，但这种做法既无趣又不切实际。做预算就像节食，失败就失败在它只告诉你别去做什么。在“浅绿色线”那头，聪明的富人用“财务计划”来选择把钱花在对自己来说重要的事情上，与此同时，你知道自己必须要在其他地方省，以保证财务安全。

Don’t ever check where the Dow Jones (or any index) closes.For the person with a day-job outside of finance, trying to divine truth from the daily machinations of the stock market is at best a waste of time. At worst, it increases the odds⁶ you will be trapped by all the behavioral biases⁷ that cause people to make the wrong investing decisions – and become the dumb money of Wall Street. A far better plan is to focus on what you can control: decisions based on socking money away in a broadly diversified⁸, low-cost portfolio⁹ and behaviors that allow you not to dip into that money.

不要时刻关注股市走向。对于不从事金融业的普通上班族来说，要从股票市场每天波诡云谲的变化中找到真理，绝对是浪费时间。最糟糕的是，你很有可能因为行差踏错，做出错误投资决定而被套牢。更合理的规划是专注于自己能够控制的事情：你应该将钱投到多样化、低成本、不会让你深陷其中的投资产品。

(Two other investing caveats¹⁰. People who adjust their strategy based on a conflict of interest being disclosed do not adjust it enough – and therefore make a mistake. And seeing a stock talked about on television increases the likelihood that you will buy or sell it by three to nearly nine times – an impulse decision based on nothing more than someone you don’t know talking about it.)

（另外两条投资警告。根据被披露的利益冲突调整投资策略的人往往无法调整到位——因此会犯下错误。看到电视上有人谈论一支股票，会让你买进或卖出这只股票的概率增加3-9倍。做出这种冲动决定的根据，不过是一个陌生人的高谈阔论而已。）

If you’re going to spend a lot of money on your children’s education, spend it when they’re 3 to 8.James Heckman, the Nobel prize-winning economist¹¹, has done research that shows spending money to put children into high-quality early childhood education offers the greatest bang for the buck³ in their adult years. The reason is from three to eight children develop traits like conscientiousness¹², perseverance¹³, sociability¹⁴, and curiosity. And these qualities matter more to ultimate success than SAT prep courses in high school or what college your children go to.

如果不惜为子女教育投入重金，把钱花在他们3-8岁这个阶段。诺贝尔经济学奖得主詹姆斯o赫克曼进行的研究发现，花钱让孩子接受高质量的早期儿童教育，可以让他们成年后获得最大的好处。原因是3至8岁正是儿童发展责任心、毅力、社交能力和好奇心的阶段。这些品质对于孩子最终的成功至关重要，远远超过高中的SAT预科课程和读哪所的大学。

Eat out less.From research I did with Brad Klontz, a clinical psychologist with an academic appointment at Kansas State University, the difference between the 1% and the 5% was straightforward¹⁵: the 1% spent 30% less of their money eating out and saved 30% more of it for retirement. And that, more than the cost of a Starbuck’s latte, is what, over time, separates the wealthy from everyone else on the wrong side of the thin green line.

少出去下馆子。我与堪萨斯州立大学心理学家布拉德o克朗兹进行的研究发现，1%与5%之间的区别是显而易见的：1%的人花在外出就餐上的开支少30%，意味着他们为退休增加了30%的储蓄。这笔钱可不止一杯星巴克拿铁的价格，随着时间推移，这种行为将让人脱颖而出，成为“财务安全的富人”。