How many wallets do you have?

你有几个钱包？

Technically¹ speaking, everyone of us has 3 wallets.

其实我们每个人都有3个钱包。

And they are the consumer’s wallet, the speculator’s wallet and the investor’s wallet.

它们分别是：“消费钱包”、“投机钱包”和“投资钱包”。

The consumer’s wallet is the wallet from which you spend to pay for all your desires, be it food, clothes or flowers.

消费钱包，指的是你为了满足个人欲望而花的那些钱，各种美食、衣服、鲜花都包含在其内。

You can’t eliminate this wallet, because you need it to cover your basic expenditure². But generally speaking you have ways to restrain it.

这一部分是不可能被剔除的，因为你需要靠它来维持你自己的基本生存；不过，总体来说，它是可以被缩减的。

The speculator’s wallet is the wallet from which you spend to play with your luck.

投机钱包，指的是那些你为了撞大运而花的钱，比如买彩票。

It’s the most unstable³ wallet and can be eliminated.

这是所有钱包中最不稳定的一个，也是一个可以完全剔除的钱包。

And the investor’s wallet is the wallet from which you spend to purchase the future. It’s the wallet which few people have realized and the most difficult one to master.

而投资钱包，指的是那些你用来“购买未来”所花的钱，这是许多人都没有看到的一个钱包，也是最难掌握的一个钱包。

The word investing here does not only mean putting your money into the financial market to earn the interest. It also means to buy yourself your freedom in the future and the chances to develop in the future.

这里说的投资，不光是说把钱投到金融市场来赚利息，它还包括花钱去购买未来的自由、未来的发展空间。

This wallet is what make the affluent⁴ class affluent.

而这个钱包，正是富裕阶层真正的法宝。

Among these 3 wallets, if the one you use the most is the consumer’s wallet, then of course the more money you spend the less money you have.

在这3个钱包中，如果你用得最多的就是消费钱包，那你的钱必定是越花越少的。

And this is just too easy to happen, for this is the wallet that has direct connection with our desires.

而这实在太容易发生了，毕竟这个钱包是直接和我们的各种欲望挂钩的。

You cannot cut this wallet completely out of your life. But you can try to make the money you spend from wallet worthy⁵.

你没有办法斩断与这个钱包的联系，但是你可以尽量去把里面的钱“花到值得”。

Only buy the cheapest or the best. Anything else is a trap.

只买最便宜的或者最好的，其他一切都是陷阱。

And for the money that you saved from this wallet, go use them all in the investor’s wallet.

至于那些从这个钱包中剩下来的钱，都去用到投资钱包里吧。

Buy yourself a better education. Use them to learn some new skills. Find an investment channel that you feel confident about and put them there.

去购买更好的教育吧，去学习新的技能吧，去投入自己能够控制的投资渠道。

Anyway, use this money to buy yourself a better future.

总之，用这些钱，为自己购买一个更好的未来。

And if there is a day when you find that the revenue you get from your investor’s wallet can cover the expenditure of your consumer’s wallet, then you’ve already acquired a really rare treasure. And it’s called financial freedom.

而当你有一天发现，你投资钱包里的收益已经足够覆盖你的消费钱包时，你就获得了一个罕见的宝藏，它就是“财务自由”。