Financial Management: Making Money While You Sleep 财务管理：睡觉时赚钱
The best way to make money is lying down.
赚钱的最好方法就是躺着。
In the article “The Earlier, The Better”, I mentioned why people today should pay more attention to financial management? The reason is simple: people’s average life expectancy has increased, and the amount of time people can earn income has also increased, so it doesn’t matter if the starting point is a little later. Now, the more important reason to add is:
在《越早越好》一文中，我提到为什么现在的人更应该关注理财？原因很简单：人们的平均预期寿命增加了，人们可以赚取收入的时间也增加了，所以起点晚一点并不重要。现在，要添加的更重要的原因是：
Generally speaking, the earning ability of ordinary people is increasing faster and faster;
一般来说，普通人的赚钱能力增长得越来越快;
Generally speaking, the proportion of living expenses on necessities for ordinary people is decreasing.
总体来看，老百姓生活费在生活必需品上的比重正在下降。
Although even today, most people still believe that “the only way to make big money is to do bad things”, the world has long changed. Making money is difficult, and making money standing up is even harder, so many people kneel down – this is the phenomenon alluded to by the film director Jiang Wen. Kneeling has two types, one is bowing to the powerful, and the other is surrendering to fate. The former is shameful and even despicable, but what about the latter? It used to be helpless, but in the future, it will be pitiful.
尽管时至今日，大多数人仍然相信“赚大钱的唯一方法就是做坏事”，但世界早已变了。赚钱难，站着赚钱更难，所以很多人跪下——这就是电影导演江 温所暗示的现象。跪拜有两种，一种是向强者鞠躬，另一种是向命运投降。前者是可耻的，甚至是卑鄙的，但后者呢？以前是无助的，但将来会很可怜。
I don’t know if movie lovers have noticed such a phenomenon: gangster movies are declining – it’s the same all over the world. Why? The fundamental reason is that the gangsters themselves are not as glamorous as they used to be. Why? Because in reality, violence is becoming less profitable, and the ability to discount intelligence has long surpassed violence.
不知道影迷们有没有注意到这样的现象：黑帮电影在衰落——全世界都一样。为什么？根本原因是歹徒本身不像以前那么光鲜亮丽了。为什么？因为在现实中，暴力的利润越来越低，打折情报的能力早已超过暴力。
In 2005, Steven D. Levitt, the author of “Freakonomics,” published an article in the Los Angeles Times titled “Why do drug dealers still live with their parents?” which quoted a survey by Sudhir Venkatesh, a graduate of the University of Chicago (the following is an excerpt):
2005年，《怪胎经济学》一书的作者史蒂文·D·莱维特（Steven D. Levitt）在《洛杉矶时报》上发表了一篇题为《为什么毒贩仍然和父母住在一起？》的文章，其中引用了芝加哥大学毕业生苏迪尔·文卡特什（Sudhir Venkatesh）的一项调查（以下为摘录）：
Street drug dealers earn about $3.3 per hour; small bosses earn about $7 per hour. Then, these poor guys have to take the risk of being “taken out” at any time by as much as 25% – not to mention the risk of being caught and jailed at any time. Why do they live with their parents? Can’t afford to rent a house. In fact, the middle and upper levels don’t earn much, but their expenses are not small, because they have to rent luxury cars, wear gold chains, and go in and out of high-end places of consumption… Can’t they be frugal? The answer is no, because recruiting “new soldiers” depends entirely on these seemingly glamorous deceptions.
街头毒贩每小时收入约 3.3 美元;小老板每小时赚大约 7 美元。然后，这些可怜的家伙不得不冒着随时被“带走”的风险，高达25%——更不用说随时被抓进监狱的风险了。他们为什么和父母住在一起？租不起房子。其实中上层挣得不多，但开支却不小，因为他们要租豪车，戴金链子，出入高档消费场所……他们就不能节俭吗？答案是否定的，因为招募“新兵”完全取决于这些看似迷人的骗局。
In Hong Kong movies about gangsters, the box office has almost no one, and the funniest thing is that even in the movies, the gangsters are no longer selling cocaine, but powdered milk. This is quite realistic. You know, it is really difficult for those gangsters with little culture to transform.
在关于黑帮的香港电影中，票房几乎没有人，最有趣的是，即使在电影中，黑帮也不再卖可卡因，而是卖奶粉。这是非常现实的。要知道，那些没什么文化底蕴的黑帮，真的很难变身。
Entering the 21st century, although the profit margin of selling drugs is still very high, compared to developing online games, it is like a huge gap. If drug dealers who are arrested or killed really have the opportunity to see “post-80s” and “post-90s” how they make money by developing games or social software, they might just commit suicide out of shame on the spot.
进入21世纪，虽然卖药的利润率还是很高的，但与开发网络游戏相比，犹如一个巨大的差距。如果被抓或被杀的毒贩真的有机会看到“80后”和“90后”如何通过开发游戏或社交软件赚钱，他们可能会因为羞耻而当场自杀。
As young people of this era, you should firmly understand the two facts mentioned above:
作为这个时代的年轻人，你应该牢牢理解上面提到的两个事实：
Generally speaking, the earning ability of ordinary people is increasing faster and faster;
一般来说，普通人的赚钱能力增长得越来越快;
Generally speaking, the proportion of living expenses on necessities for ordinary people is decreasing.
总体来看，老百姓生活费在生活必需品上的比重正在下降。
Nowadays, “post-90s” and “post-00s”, in most cases, absolutely do not need to take risks. Social progress is improving the overall living conditions of individuals. Believe in the first statement, so you can make every effort to learn how to get stronger earning ability; believe in the second statement, so you don’t have to deliberately or excessively lower your quality of life to exchange for future wealth. Only by believing and practicing both of these can you achieve “don’t make your youth too poor”.
如今，“90后”和“00后”，在大多数情况下，绝对不需要冒险。社会进步正在改善个人的整体生活条件。相信第一句话，这样你就可以尽一切努力学习如何获得更强的赚钱能力;相信第二种说法，这样你就不必刻意或过度降低你的生活质量来换取未来的财富。只有相信并实践这两者，你才能实现“不要让你的青春太穷”。
This is basic knowledge, and there is something more important. Personal finance, that is, managing your cash flow. “Increasing income” is more important than “cutting expenses”, this has been mentioned. So how can you increase income? What most people don’t care about is that income is actually divided into two types:
这是基础知识，还有更重要的东西。个人理财，即管理您的现金流。“增加收入”比“削减开支”更重要，这一点已经提到过。那么如何才能增加收入呢？大多数人不关心的是，收入其实分为两种类型：
Active income 主动收入
Passive income 被动收入
So-called active income is the kind of income that you have to do something to gain; passive income, on the other hand, is the kind that you can get without doing anything. The most common example of passive income is interest. Interest requires capital to obtain, what if you don’t have capital?
所谓主动收入，就是那种你必须做点什么才能获得的收入;另一方面，被动收入是您无需做任何事情即可获得的收入。被动收入最常见的例子是利息。利息需要资本才能获得，如果你没有资本怎么办？
Let me first talk about myself. The first time I had truly passive income was due to writing “TOEFL Core Vocabulary in 21 Days” about 10 years ago in 2005 when I was 33 years old. I’ve lost count of how many copies of the book have been printed, but it still brings in a significant annual post-tax income for me. I jokingly refer to this money as “income while sleeping.” I never touched the royalties from this book after the first six months. The subsequent royalties were deposited into a card that I intentionally discarded and forgot the password for. The publishing company transfers money to that card twice a year and sends me emails, which I never read. The royalty rate for this book is 11%, which means I make about 3 yuan for each book sold at 29 yuan. It has been selling steadily for 10 years and continues to do so.
让我先谈谈我自己。我第一次真正获得被动收入是在大约 10 年前的 2005 年，当时我 33 岁，写了“21 天托福核心词汇”。我已经记不清这本书已经印刷了多少本，但它仍然为我带来了可观的年度税后收入。我开玩笑地把这笔钱称为“睡觉时的收入”。在前六个月之后，我再也没有碰过这本书的版税。随后的版税被存入一张卡中，我故意丢弃了这张卡，忘记了密码。出版公司每年两次向那张卡转账，并给我发电子邮件，我从未读过。这本书的版税是11%，也就是说，我每卖29元的书，就能赚到3元左右。它已经稳定销售了 10 年，并将继续如此。
Later, I created more passive income for myself with two other perennial bestsellers: “TOEFL iBT High Score Essays” (2007) and “The Time Management” (2009). Even now, my daily expenses are mostly covered by the royalties from these two books. Essentially, this “sleeping income” has been the main reason for my “not doing real work” since I was 35 years old. My friends have become accustomed to this.
后来，我又出版了另外两本常年畅销书：《TOEFL iBT High Score Essays》（2007 年）和《The Time Management》（2009 年）。即使是现在，我的日常开支大部分都由这两本书的版税支付。从本质上讲，这种“睡眠收入”一直是我从35岁开始“不做真正的工作”的主要原因。我的朋友已经习惯了这一点。
When I started “The Time Management” in 2007, I didn’t care much about generating more income, so the content of this book was 100% open on the internet from the beginning. Surprisingly, it sold even better that way, with significant passive sales. Many readers bought multiple copies to give to friends, and even companies like Symantec and Shengda Innovation Institute bought in bulk, prompting the publisher to print additional copies.
2007年我开始写《时间管理》的时候，我不太在乎能多赚点钱，所以这本书的内容从一开始就100%在互联网上开放。令人惊讶的是，它以这种方式卖得更好，有大量的被动销售。许多读者购买了多本送给朋友，甚至像赛门铁克和盛大创新研究院这样的公司也大量购买，促使出版商印刷更多的副本。
My personal experience may not be very typical, but mentioning it here is simply to illustrate how important passive income is for personal financial freedom. I want to remind readers in this article that not only do many people lack “sleeping income,” but they also have significant “sleeping expenses” due to installment spending burdens.
我的个人经历可能不是很典型，但在这里提到它只是为了说明被动收入对个人财务自由的重要性。我想在这篇文章中提醒读者，很多人不仅缺乏“睡眠收入”，而且由于分期付款的支出负担，他们也有大量的“睡眠支出”。
This is a very serious and important piece of advice. No matter what your age, start deliberately seeking activities that can provide long-term income despite requiring an upfront investment. This isn’t as difficult as it seems and is even becoming more straightforward. For instance, in the past, only formally published books could generate royalties, but now many individuals can receive “tips” from readers by writing articles for WeChat public accounts, with the income potentially even higher than from writing books. This is the trend.
这是一个非常严肃和重要的建议。无论您的年龄多大，尽管需要前期投资，但要开始有意识地寻找可以提供长期收入的活动。这并不像看起来那么困难，甚至变得更加简单。例如，过去只有正式出版的书籍才能产生版税，但现在许多人可以通过为微信公众号撰写文章来获得读者的“提示”，收入甚至可能高于写书。这就是趋势。
As time goes by, you will find the power of being “deliberate” to be quite remarkable. In the end, seemingly nonsensical phrases like “if you never forget, there will always be a response” are actually true phenomena.
随着时间的流逝，你会发现“深思熟虑”的力量是相当了不起的。最后，像“如果你永远不会忘记，总会有回应”这样看似荒谬的短语，实际上是真实的现象。
If you’re still a student and find inspiration after reading this article, you should strive to hone your creative skills. It can be in any field, but it must be a creative endeavor that can generate income. Allow me a sigh: the so-called creativity, from a certain perspective, is truly “creating something from nothing” — an activity with long-term costs approaching zero and long-term income approaching infinity.
如果你还是一名学生，并在阅读本文后找到灵感，你应该努力磨练你的创作技能。它可以在任何领域，但它必须是一项可以产生收入的创造性努力。请允许我叹息一下：从某种角度来看，所谓的创造力是真正的“从无到有”——一种长期成本接近于零、长期收入接近无限的活动。
A couple of years ago, I met the child of an old friend in my hometown. They told me they were determined to become a tattoo artist. I was confused: spending a lifetime serving clients one by one, earning a bit with each tattoo, how long can they keep doing that? And even if they become famous, they still only have 24 hours in a day. How many tattoos can they do at most? I made a strong effort to convince them, but failed. I couldn’t persuade them to pursue what I believe would have a more promising future. Why is that? This involves another issue that requires a lengthy discussion, and it’s also a key factor in whether most people can achieve financial success — do we really have a choice?
几年前，我在家乡遇到了一位老朋友的孩子。他们告诉我，他们决心成为一名纹身师。我很困惑：花一辈子的时间一个接一个地服务客户，每个纹身都能赚一点钱，他们还能坚持多久？即使他们成名了，他们一天仍然只有24小时。他们最多可以做多少个纹身？我竭尽全力说服他们，但失败了。我无法说服他们去追求我认为会有更光明的未来。为什么？这涉及到另一个需要长时间讨论的问题，也是大多数人能否取得财务成功的关键因素——我们真的有选择吗？
Originally posted 2024-04-06 10:22:18.