Personal Finance: The Earlier, the Better. 个人理财：越早越好。
There are very few things that are better to start early, and personal finance is at the top of the list. It is the most important skill in life— there is simply no other, yet the majority of people don’t know how to manage their finances. Many want to learn but fail to understand, and some simply refuse to believe that it’s worth the effort. This is a global phenomenon.
很少有事情最好尽早开始，而个人理财是最重要的。这是生活中最重要的技能——根本没有其他技能，但大多数人不知道如何管理自己的财务。许多人想学习但无法理解，有些人只是拒绝相信这是值得的。这是一个全球现象。
According to statistics from the United States:
据美国统计：
- 56% of people haven’t saved any “emergency money” for themselves.
56%的人避风港 - 46% of people have prepared a “retirement fund” of less than $10,000.
46%的人准备了更少的“退休基金”
This indicates that most people are not financially prepared. According to statistics from China:
这表明大多数人没有做好财务准备。据中国统计：
- 59% of households are currently or have been involved in investment and wealth management.
59%的家庭目前或曾经参与投资和财富管理。 - 18% of households have never invested, but will consider doing so in the next six months. 23% of households refuse to manage their finances.
18%的家庭从未投资过， - Among households with financial management experience, 45% have no clear financial goals and exhibit strong randomness in their financial behavior. 21% of households have relatively clear financial goals, and 15% of households already view financial management as a source of enjoyment.
在有理财经验的住户中，
This shows that the majority of households also lack financial awareness. Many regret that personal finance is not taught in schools, but this is not the fault of the compulsory education system designers. Globally, the number of teachers capable of teaching personal finance is insufficient. It cannot be measured effectively through standardized tests, which may lead to educational inequality because financial practice depends too much on family circumstances. In fact steps have been taken to educate, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, interest, and compound interest. There are still many reasons that are not fully explained. Upon careful consideration, the fact that “most people do not know how to manage their finances” is not due to the fact that it is not taught in schools, since even what is taught in schools hasn’t been fully learned by them.
这表明大多数家庭也缺乏财务意识。许多人对学校没有教授个人理财感到遗憾，但这不是义务教育系统设计者的错。在全球范围内，能够教授个人理财的教师数量不足。它无法通过标准化考试进行有效衡量，这可能导致教育不平等，因为财务实践过于依赖家庭环境。事实上，已经采取了一些步骤来教育，例如加法、减法、乘法、除法、利息和复利。还有很多原因没有得到充分的解释。经过仔细考虑，“大多数人不知道如何管理自己的财务”这一事实并不是因为学校没有教授它，因为即使是学校教授的内容也没有被他们完全学会。
Let’s talk about the famous marshmallow experiment
让我们来谈谈著名的棉花糖实验
Around 1970, a famous psychological experiment called the “marshmallow test” was conducted by Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford University. In each experiment, there was only one pre-school child and one experimenter in the room. The child sat in front of a small table with a plate and a bell on it, with a marshmallow on the plate. The experimenter told the child that he needed to go to the next room to “do some work.” If the child wanted to eat the marshmallow, they could ring the bell, and the experimenter would come back, and the child could eat the marshmallow then. However, if the child could resist eating and wait until the experimenter came back on his own, the child could eat two marshmallows. Most children couldn’t resist the temptation and ate the marshmallow in less than 15 minutes. Only about 30% of the children “fought” and resisted, ultimately eating two marshmallows. These children were only 4 years old and already demonstrated amazing self-control.
1970年左右，斯坦福大学教授沃尔特·米歇尔（Walter Mischel）进行了一项著名的心理学实验，称为“棉花糖测试”。在每个实验中，房间里只有一名学龄前儿童和一名实验者。孩子坐在一张小桌子前，桌子上放着一个盘子和一个铃铛，盘子里放着棉花糖。实验者告诉孩子，他需要去隔壁房间“做一些工作”。如果孩子想吃棉花糖，他们可以按铃，实验者会回来，然后孩子就可以吃棉花糖了。然而，如果孩子能抗拒进食，等到实验者自己回来，孩子就可以吃两个棉花糖。大多数孩子都无法抗拒诱惑，不到 15 分钟就吃掉了棉花糖。只有大约30%的孩子“战斗”和反抗，最终吃掉了两个棉花糖。这些孩子只有4岁，已经表现出惊人的自制力。
The experiment did not end there. Over the next 20 years, in addition to Walter Mischel, many others followed up with the experiment, and the results were somewhat astonishing: Children who were able to resist temptation and exhibited sufficient self-control scored an average of 210 points higher on the SAT as adults. Looking at the overall data, their quality of life was relatively higher.
实验并没有就此结束。在接下来的20年里，除了沃尔特·米歇尔（Walter Mischel）之外，还有许多其他人跟进了这个实验，结果有些令人惊讶：能够抵制诱惑并表现出足够自制力的孩子在成年后的SAT考试中平均得分高出210分。从整体数据来看，他们的生活质量相对较高。
您回来后能谈谈财务管理吗？
For most people, the difficulty and contradiction of financial management come from a dilemma: it’s difficult to start early, and when you start, it’s already too late.
对于大多数人来说，理财的难点和矛盾来自于一个两难境地：早点开始很难，而当你开始的时候，已经太晚了。
The so-called financial management, theoretically, should not be narrowly understood as buying financial products in the bank. Saving money, budgeting, controlling expenses, earning more interest, earning interest spreads, using credit cards correctly, purchasing real estate, and investing in some risky assets – all of these are financial management activities. So, the definition of financial management is more reasonable and accurate:
所谓理财，从理论上讲，不应狭隘地理解为在银行购买金融产品。省钱、预算、控制开支、赚取更多利息、赚取利差、正确使用信用卡、购买房地产和投资一些风险资产——所有这些都是财务管理活动。所以，财务管理的定义更合理、更准确：
How to effectively manage cash flow – this is actually not related to the amount of money.
如何有效地管理现金流——这其实和钱的多少没有关系。
Before starting work, most people do not have a source of income. For many people, saving money does not make sense at this time, because that money actually “exists with the parents,” that is to say, financial management is actually “taken care of” by parents – but in reality, most parents do not manage finances.
在开始工作之前，大多数人没有收入来源。对于很多人来说，这个时候存钱是没有意义的，因为那笔钱其实是“和父母同在”的，也就是说，理财其实是父母“打理”的——但实际上，大多数父母并不理财。
In the follow-up to the “marshmallow experiment,” researchers found that poverty and lack of self-discipline are highly correlated. This is easy to explain: poverty means more, larger, and more obvious temptations. In other words, even in cases where self-discipline is similar, poor individuals perform worse compared to wealthy individuals.
在“棉花糖实验”的后续研究中，研究人员发现，贫困和缺乏自律是高度相关的。這很容易解釋：貧窮意味著更多、更大、更明顯的誘惑。换句话说，即使在自律相似的情况下，穷人的表现也比富人差。
Young people are relatively poor, so they need more self-discipline to resist temptation. An important factor is that people in different age groups have different perceptions of time. For a 5-year-old child, waiting 1 year is equivalent to waiting for “20% of their entire life”; for a 50-year-old, waiting 1 year is equivalent to waiting for “2% of their entire life” – the considerable difference in difficulty can be imagined. As mentioned by Joachim de Posada in a TED talk: telling a 4-year-old to wait 15 minutes to enjoy something he likes is akin to telling adults, “We’ll bring you coffee in 2 hours.” Based on these common reasons, most people do not start financial management at a young age:
年轻人比较贫穷，所以他们需要更多的自律来抵制诱惑。一个重要因素是不同年龄段的人对时间有不同的感知。对于一个5岁的孩子来说，等1年，就相当于等了“一生的20%”;对于一个50岁的人来说，等待1年相当于等待“一生的2%”——难度的巨大差异可想而知。正如约阿希姆·德·波萨达（Joachim de Posada）在TED演讲中提到的：告诉一个4岁的孩子等待15分钟来享受他喜欢的东西，就像告诉成年人，“我们会在2小时内给你带来咖啡。基于这些常见的原因，大多数人不会在年轻时开始理财：
Parents themselves may not have enough financial knowledge and activities.
父母本身可能没有足够的财务知识和活动。
When the base is small, interest and such things seem uninteresting – even if compound interest calculations were learned in school.
当基数很小时，利息之类的事情似乎无趣——即使在学校里学会了复利计算。
It takes a long time to experience the results, making the waiting time seem longer for young people.
体验结果需要很长时间，这使得年轻人的等待时间似乎更长。
Temptation is right in front and seems bigger.
诱惑就在眼前，而且似乎更大。
In many cases, most young people misunderstand the definition of financial management, thinking it involves queuing at the bank, rather than “how to effectively manage cash flow,” rendering something that should start early as something inconsequential.
在许多情况下，大多数年轻人误解了财务管理的定义，认为它涉及在银行排队，而不是“如何有效地管理现金流”，使应该尽早开始的事情变得无关紧要。
There is also a particularly interesting phenomenon: people have a special approach to things they are not good at – ultimately resorting to self-protection through packaging. “Isn’t talking about money vulgar?” or “I don’t want to be the person who calculates every day!” This actually inflicts “permanent damage” on the brain – which is hard to recover from.
还有一个特别有趣的现象：人们对他们不擅长的事情有一种特殊的方法——最终通过包装进行自我保护。“谈钱不是很庸俗吗？”或者“我不想成为那个天天算计的人！”这实际上对大脑造成了“永久性损伤”——很难从中恢复过来。
Why should people today pay more attention to financial management? The reason is quite simple, and the most important is:
为什么现在的人们应该更加关注理财？原因很简单，最重要的是：
People’s average lifespan has increased.
人们的平均寿命增加了。
What is the average increase in lifespan? It varies by region globally, but overall, it’s the span of two generations, with an average increase of 15 to 30 years.
寿命的平均增加是多少？它因全球地区而异，但总体而言，它是两代人的跨度，平均增加 15 到 30 年。
Another related factor is that people are able to work and earn income for a longer time. In a global context, the financial environment has become more “realistic,” with more money to manage and more time to manage it, and importantly, it doesn’t matter starting with a slightly lower base.
另一个相关因素是人们能够工作和赚取更长时间的收入。在全球范围内，金融环境变得更加“现实”，有更多的资金需要管理，更多的时间来管理它，重要的是，从略低的基数开始并不重要。
If you haven’t started yet, start now. There’s still time. The success of financial investment, fundamentally, has minimal correlation with intelligence, as financial knowledge is relatively simple, involving basic arithmetic and simple comparative research.
如果您还没有开始，请立即开始。还有时间。从根本上说，金融投资的成功与智力的相关性最小，因为金融知识相对简单，涉及基本算术和简单的比较研究。
The most challenging aspects of financial management are:
财务管理中最具挑战性的方面是：
- Self-control 克己
- Risk management 风险管理
Both can be learned and are irreversible skills once acquired. Crucially, both require repeated practice to master.
两者都是可以学习的，一旦获得，就是不可逆的技能。至关重要的是，两者都需要反复练习才能掌握。
In his book, Walter Mischel mentions how he instantly improved self-control in 4-year-old children through training: “Imagine this table is a big picture frame, and this plate and this marshmallow are things in the picture, but you can’t really eat them.” In comparison, the children who did not receive this reminder displayed much weaker self-control. Originally, less than 1/3 of the children could resist, but now more than 2/3 could.
沃尔特·米歇尔（Walter Mischel）在他的书中提到他如何通过训练立即提高4岁儿童的自控能力：“想象一下，这张桌子是一个大相框，这个盘子和这个棉花糖是图片中的东西，但你不能真的吃掉它们。相比之下，没有收到这个提醒的孩子表现出较弱的自制力。最初，只有不到1/3的孩子可以抵抗，但现在超过2/3的孩子可以抵抗。
Observation reveals that children who can resist without reminders most commonly “redirect their attention” by walking around, or humming under the table. Conversely, those who cannot resist often share a common characteristic of staring continuously at the marshmallow, leading to an increasing temptation.
观察表明，能够在没有提醒的情况下反抗的孩子通常会通过四处走动或在桌子底下哼唱来“转移注意力”。相反，那些无法抗拒的人往往有一个共同的特征，那就是不断盯着棉花糖，导致诱惑越来越大。
Redirecting attention is a commonly effective method to resist temptation, which is also frequently used by successful financiers. They try to deceive themselves, treating their regular deposits or stock investments as “already lost,” avoiding thinking about them. This is unrelated to intelligence. Sometimes, deceiving oneself is quite beneficial, isn’t it?
转移注意力是抵制诱惑的一种常用有效方法，成功的金融家也经常使用这种方法。他们试图欺骗自己，将他们的定期存款或股票投资视为“已经损失”，避免考虑它们。这与智力无关。有时候，欺骗自己是很有益的，不是吗？
A related experiment not mentioned in Walter Mischel’s book was conducted in 2012 by researchers in Rochester. Two groups of children went through different experiences before a marshmallow test. The first group experienced a promise that was not fulfilled, while the second group experienced a promise that was fulfilled. The results? The second group showed three times higher self-control than the first. Because, for the first group, life taught them “eating it immediately” was the best strategy, as the promise of the second marshmallow essentially didn’t exist! Careless promises and frequent disappointments from parents leave your next generation ruined so easily, and you have no idea — what should we say about you?
沃尔特·米歇尔（Walter Mischel）的书中没有提到的相关实验是由罗切斯特的研究人员于2012年进行的。两组孩子在棉花糖测试之前经历了不同的经历。第一组经历了一个没有实现的承诺，而第二组经历了一个已经实现的承诺。结果如何？第二组的自我控制能力是第一组的三倍。因为，对于第一组人来说，生活告诉他们“立即吃掉它”是最好的策略，因为第二组棉花糖的承诺基本上不存在！父母粗心的承诺和频繁的失望让你的下一代如此容易地毁掉，而你不知道——我们应该对你说些什么？
Regarding risk management, it has no connection with intelligence or genetics. As mentioned earlier, research shows that infants are scared of snakes upon their first encounter, but indifferent to guns. Why? The fear of snakes is rooted in genes, while the fear of guns is a few thousand years away from “being inherited.” Thus, risk awareness in finance has no relation to genetics and minimal relation to intelligence. It can only be acquired through personal practice, failures, lessons, and reflections, disregarding reading or hearing about it.
关于风险管理，它与智力或遗传学无关。如前所述，研究表明，婴儿在第一次接触蛇时会害怕蛇，但对枪支却无动于衷。为什么？对蛇的恐惧植根于基因，而对枪支的恐惧距离“遗传”还有几千年的时间。因此，金融中的风险意识与遗传学无关，与智力的关系也很小。它只能通过个人实践、失败、教训和反思来获得，而忽略了阅读或听到它。
Therefore, the earlier you start financial planning, the better. Although financial planning is challenging when young, even if risks occur, the losses won’t be significant, as there was not much to begin with. It’s much worse to start learning once there is a substantial wealth to manage, as losses at that point are significantly more severe. In this scenario, what’s especially terrifying is — there isn’t much time left!
因此，越早开始财务规划越好。虽然年轻时的财务规划具有挑战性，但即使发生风险，损失也不会很大，因为一开始没有太多。一旦有大量财富需要管理，就开始学习就更糟糕了，因为那时的损失要严重得多。在这种情况下，特别可怕的是——剩下的时间不多了！
In 2014, Walter Mischel said in an interview with CBS, “What I’m most interested in now is how the few kids who failed the marshmallow test ultimately learned self-control and became very successful as adults. How did they do it?”
2014年，沃尔特·米歇尔（Walter Mischel）在接受哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）采访时说：“我现在最感兴趣的是，少数几个棉花糖测试失败的孩子最终如何学会了自我控制，并在成年后变得非常成功。他们是怎么做到的？
Regardless, this can only prove that self-control and self-discipline can be learned, and once learned, it will not be lost, which is the key. And conversely, starting to learn about finance may also be a way to improve self-discipline and self-control, isn’t it?
不管怎么说，这只能证明自制力和自律是可以学习的，而且一旦学会了，就不会丢掉，这才是关键。相反，开始学习金融也可能是提高自律和自我控制的一种方式，不是吗？
Originally posted 2024-04-06 10:15:44.