年,6條聰明的理財省錢建議大綱
Most financial-planning advice, like most New Year's resolutions, is too complex or too banal.
大多數財務規劃建議就像大多數新年許願一樣，不是太複雜就是太平庸。Half of it is designed for Type-A drill sergeants who already alphabetize their refrigerators. The other half you've heard before.
一半的建議是專爲具有A型人格的軍事操練教官設計的，這些人已經按字母順序給冰箱裏的食物排好了序。另一半你已經聽說過了。Let's assume you are already paying off your credit cards, contributing to your 401(k) at work and flossing after every meal.
讓我們假設你已經還清了信用卡債務，繳納了養老保險，每次用餐後都用牙線清潔了牙縫。
Here are six unusual, and doable, smart money moves for the new year.
以下是爲來年準備的六條雖不尋常但卻可行的聰明理財建議。1. Work out your biggest savings goal.
1. 弄清你的最大儲蓄目標Many people working today are likely to live for three decades after they become eligible for Social Security, but few of them have a clue what that means financially.
目前還在工作的人在他們有資格領取社會保障金之後還有可能再活30年，但他們中很少有人明白這在經濟上意味着什麼。Just 42% of working-age Americans have even tried to calculate what they will need in retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
華盛頓智庫員工福利研究所(Employee Benefit Research Institute)說，處於工作年齡的美國人僅有42%曾經嘗試過計算退休後需要多少錢。The grim reality: 60% of them have less than $25,000 saved up, excluding the value of their home, and 30% have less than $1,000. Good luck with that.
嚴峻的現實是：其中60%的人儲蓄不到2.5萬美元（不含房屋價值），30%的人儲蓄不到1,000美元。祝你好運。How much will you need? To replace your current income for 30 years, you would need -- assuming an investment return of three percentage points above inflation -- about 20 times one year's income. Social Security aims to replace about 40% of your annual income: By that yardstick you would need to save about 12 times your annual income before you retire.
你需要多少錢養老？按照你目前的收入水平，退休後再活30年，你需要的資金大概是一年收入的20倍（假設投資收益率比通脹率高三個百分點）。社會保障金大致相當於你年收入的40%。按照這一標準衡量，你在退休前的儲蓄量應該約爲你年收入的12倍。For a more precise number, use the Social Security Administration's retirement estimator. Subtract your expected annual benefit from your current yearly pay, and multiply by 20. 想要知道一個更精確的數字，可以使用社會安全局(Social Security Administration)提供的退休評估器。從你目前的年薪中減去你預期能領取的年度福利金，將差值乘以20就是退休後需要的資金。
2. Ramp up your investments.2. 增加投資
Open a Roth individual retirement account, if you don't have one already. You can invest up to $5,000 for 2012 and $5,500 for 2013 and a nonworking spouse can invest the same. If you are older than 50, add $1,000.開設一個羅斯(Roth)個人退休帳戶（如果你還沒有的話）。2012年你最多可投資5,000美元，2013年最多可投5,500美元。沒有工作的配偶也能投資相同數額。如果你年齡大於50歲，再增加1,000美元投資。
Then invest some money in a fund, such as the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Small Cap Dividend exchange-traded fund (DGS), specializing in smaller-company stocks in emerging markets. It shouldn't be the whole of your portfolio, but it should be in there. This is likely to be a volatile growth investment.然後將部分資金投資一隻基金，如專注投資新興市場小型股的交易所買賣基金WisdomTree Emerging Markets Small Cap Dividend ETF。這雖然不該是你投資組合的全部，但應該成爲其中的一個部分。這可能是一項波動性較大的增長投資。
Emerging markets offer the best overall returns of any investment at the moment, according to two groups of experts who successfully predicted the last two financial crises: Research Affiliates, the investment advisory firm founded by Robert Arnott, and GMO, the fund company co-founded by Jeremy Grantham. GMO estimates that emerging markets offer an investment return over seven years of 50% plus inflation, handsomely beating any rival asset class.據兩組成功預測過去兩次金融危機的專家介紹，眼下新興市場所能提供的整體回報是所有投資中最高的。這兩組專家所供職的機構分別是Research Affiliates和GMO。前者是羅伯特•阿諾特(Robert Arnott)成立的一家投資諮詢公司。後者是傑瑞米•格雷森(Jeremy Grantham)與他人共同創立的基金公司。GMO估計，如果算上通脹率，新興市場在七年內提供的投資回報率可以達到50%，輕鬆擊敗任何與之競爭的資產類別。
3. Try homemade month.3. 試着在家做飯一個月
Say goodbye to the soy chai lattes, burritos, pastas primavera and Overflowing Bucket O' Fries (a genuine bar food item spotted in Boston). Pick a month -- any month -- and try not eating out at all, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.向豆奶印度拿鐵、捲餅、蔬菜意大利麪和Overflowing Bucket O的炸薯條（波士頓常見的一種酒吧食品）說再見吧。試着挑一個月（隨便哪個月）完全在家用餐，早午晚三餐均是如此。
It's not easy. But these meals add up.要做到這點並不容易，但省下的餐費可不少。
It costs you $10 to get a sandwich at work for lunch. It would cost you $2 in ingredients, and five minutes of time, to make that sandwich at home. Do you earn $96 an hour, after tax? If so, you can ignore the rest of this article. If not, try making the sandwich.工作日買一個三明治當午餐要花10美元。然而在家做一個三明治的話，購買食材只需要兩美元，製作三明治僅需五分鐘。你的工資能達到每小時96美元嗎，而且還是稅後？如果能，這部分你就不用看了。如果不能，嘗試自己做三明治吧。
Financial planners say that when new clients audit their household spending for the first time, the biggest shock is usually how much they spend in restaurants -- 70% of which goes to paying the restaurant's rent and labor costs.理財顧問們常說，新客戶在第一次審計自己的家庭支出時，最讓他們感到震驚的通常是在餐館的花費。這些花費中有70%都替餐館支付了店面租金和員工工資。
Why do we go out to restaurants that promise 'homemade' food?我們爲什麼要到餐館吃家常菜？
4. Stop the bleeding.4. 止血
If you're like a lot of families, you spend $200 or even $300 a month on cellphones, cable or satellite TV and Internet.如果你和許多家庭一樣，那麼你每個月得花200美元甚至300美元支付手機、有線電視或衛星電視以及互聯網費用。
Take a scalpel -- or an axe -- to that budget and see what you can cut. Call your cellular provider and your TV company -- cable or satellite -- and haggle. Chances are, they will cut you a deal.分析一下這部分預算，看看哪些可以避免。打電話給你的手機服務商和你的有線電視和衛星電視服務商，和他們砍價。你很有可能因此減少很大一部分支出。
Try dumping pay TV altogether and watching movies and TV instead using an online service like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu Plus (partly owned by News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal), for less than $10 a month.嘗試放棄付費電視，用Netflix、亞馬遜(Amazon)或是Hulu Plus等在線服務看電影或電視節目，這些服務每個月的花費還不到10美元。Hulu Plus部分屬於新聞集團(News Corp.)所有。
If your family spends $200 a month on cellphones and pay TV, that's $2,400 a year. Over the course of 20 years, if you invested that money instead at 4%, you'd have an extra $70,000.如果你家每月爲手機和付費電視支付200美元，一年就要花掉2,400美元。如果你把這筆錢以4%的利息投資20年，可以淨賺70,000美元。
Haggle. Cut.砍價，消減不必要支出。
5. Hold a two-week auction.5. 進行一場爲期兩週的拍賣
Turn your house into Sotheby's for two weeks. Go on and and auction off everything you don't need.把自己的房子變成蘇富比拍賣公司(Sotheby's)，爲期兩週。上和網站，拍賣掉一切你不需要的東西。
The spare cellphone(s) in the kitchen drawer. The second, unused lawn mower. The designer vase you never use.廚房抽屜裏多餘的手機。沒有用過的備用割草機。你從來不用的設計師花瓶。
Everything.一切東西。
Set yourself a target. Double it. Then see how close you get. Get the entire family involved.給自己設定一個目標。然後將目標翻一倍。然後看看你最終能實現多少。動員全家人蔘與進來。
Removing clutter is a great stress-buster, as psychologists since Ralph Waldo Emerson have noticed.正如愛默生(Ralph Waldo Emerson)以來的心理學家所指出的那樣，去繁存簡是一個很棒的減壓方法。
This project will raise some free money. A process like this also has a remarkable way of focusing everyone in the family on the true value of a dollar.這個計劃會籌到一些錢。像這樣一個過程是使所有家庭成員關注錢的真正價值的絕妙方法。
6. Imagine you're dead.6. 想像自己已經死了
Cheerful, isn't it?你是高興呢，還是不高興？
This is why so few people think about dying. Yet from a financial perspective, they need to. Chances are you haven't prepared in case it happens.正因爲如此，很少有人想象自己馬上就要死了。然而從理財角度說，人們需要設想一下這種可能。有很大的可能是死亡來臨時，你還沒有準備好。
This is not just about the elderly. About one in eight people currently aged 40 will die before they reach 65, according to government statistics.並不是只有老年人應該這樣做。據政府的統計數據顯示，目前年齡在40歲的人中有八分之一都將在65歲前去世。
This means two things.這意味着兩件事。
First: Get life insurance, and disability insurance, if you have dependents.首先，這意味着如果有人需要你供養的話，你要去投保人壽保險和傷殘保險。
Most people have some kind of coverage through work. It is usually desperately inadequate. Both one- and two-income households probably need more. It costs about $250,000 to raise a child for 18 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Four years of private college is another $160,000, according to the College Board. Could your surviving spouse cope on his or her own?大部分人都通過工作多多少少地有些保險。但通常極度不夠。單職工和雙職工家庭都可能需要更多的保險。據美國農業部的數據顯示，將一個孩子養到18歲需要約25萬美元。美國大學理事會(College Board)的數據顯示，四年私立大學又需要16萬美元。如果你去世了，你的配偶一個人能應付得來嗎？
Second: It means make a will. If you already have one, make sure it is up to date.其次，這意味着你要立份遺囑。如果你已經立過遺囑，要確保遺囑是最新的。
Dying intestate -- without a will -- can be catastrophic for the family left behind. And few disasters can be so easily and cheaply prevented.對於一個家庭來說，未留遺囑就去世可能帶來災難性的後果。幾乎沒有哪種災難能夠立一份遺囑就可以輕鬆便宜地防止。
