Financial Management: Life Goals 财务管理：人生目标

What is a high-quality life? It is not a general question, but for many people, there is no answer and they have not thought carefully about it. For most people, a high-quality life is the life of others at present, occasionally what they hope for, or a life they haven’t experienced when looking back.
什么是高品质生活？这不是一个笼统的问题，但对于许多人来说，没有答案，他们没有仔细考虑过。对于大多数人来说，高质量的生活是别人当下的生活，偶尔是他们所希望的，或者是他们回首往事时没有经历过的生活。

A high-quality life is definitely related to money. Saying or believing “money doesn’t necessarily bring high-quality life” without having enough money, even if it is reasonable, won’t help the situation. Self-deception is not only useless but also harmful, especially for one’s brain – people should cherish their brains.
高质量的生活绝对与金钱有关。在没有足够钱的情况下说或相信“钱不一定能带来高质量的生活”，即使它是合理的，也无济于事。自欺欺人不仅无用，而且有害，尤其是对一个人的大脑——人们应该珍惜自己的大脑。

Pursuing a high-quality life is also an important reason for most people to manage their finances. Only a few people can achieve financial freedom at an early stage. But what is financial freedom? I’ve been pondering this question since around the age of 30, read many books on finance, and found that the answers in these books did not satisfy my logic. I eventually made my own definition: passive income slightly higher than the amount needed to pay for the necessary expenses for a high-quality life.
追求高品质的生活也是大多数人理财的重要原因。只有少数人可以在早期阶段实现财务自由。但什么是财务自由？我从30岁左右开始思考这个问题，读了很多关于金融的书，发现这些书中的答案并不符合我的逻辑。我最终做出了自己的定义：被动收入略高于支付高质量生活所需费用的金额。

In my opinion, for adults, a high-quality life starts by stopping self-deception. For example, “money doesn’t necessarily bring a high-quality life,” and its various versions:
在我看来，对于成年人来说，高质量的生活始于停止自欺欺人。例如，“金钱不一定能带来高质量的生活”，以及它的各种版本：

• Having money doesn’t necessarily bring happiness. (But not having money makes it even less likely to be happy.)
  有钱并不一定能带来幸福。（但是没有钱就更不可能快乐了。
• What’s the use of working hard? I still end up with breast cancer? (Many people who don’t work hard also end up with breast cancer.)
  努力工作有什么用？我最终还是得了乳腺癌？（许多不努力工作的人最终也会患上乳腺癌。
• I’m very poor, but I have integrity! (As if wealthy people don’t have integrity.)
  我很穷，但我正直！（好像有钱人没有诚信。

I mentioned earlier that knowledge makes people resilient, but people often deceive themselves by saying, “Being too smart can lead to problems.” There is also a frequent trend in society of “the uselessness of education,” and its various forms. A recent common variant is “how to defeat the hardworking second generation of the rich?” It’s as if the second generation of the rich is generally not hardworking. A little study of the history of science will reveal that most famous scientists in history came from wealthy families, such as Cardano, Pascal, and Fermat, as well as Darwin. If Darwin’s family wasn’t wealthy, how could he possibly travel the world? If he couldn’t even leave his birthplace, how could he observe the different forms of living beings? His intelligence was important, but his knowledge undoubtedly needed economic support. What can people do if they are not wealthy? They can find a way to be clergy, continue to study after receiving a stipend, such as Pacioli who invented the double-entry accounting system, or Mendel who discovered the principles of heredity.
我之前提到过，知识使人有弹性，但人们经常自欺欺人地说：“太聪明会导致问题。社会上也经常出现“教育无用”的趋势，其形式多种多样。最近一个常见的变体是“如何打败勤劳的第二代富人？就好像第二代富人一般都不勤奋。对科学史的一点研究会发现，历史上大多数著名的科学家都来自富裕的家庭，如卡尔达诺、帕斯卡和费马，以及达尔文。如果达尔文的家庭不富裕，他怎么可能环游世界？如果他连出生地都不能离开，他怎么能观察不同形态的生物呢？他的智慧很重要，但他的知识无疑需要经济支持。如果人们不富裕，他们能做什么？他们可以找到成为神职人员的方法，在获得津贴后继续学习，例如发明复式记账系统的帕乔利，或发现遗传原理的孟德尔。

Even today, the cost of knowledge is still relatively high. The continually rising university fees worldwide are a clear proof – not everyone can afford higher education, can they?
即使在今天，知识的成本仍然相对较高。全球不断上涨的大学学费就是一个明证——不是每个人都能负担得起高等教育，不是吗？

Precisely because of their wealth, it is easier for them to achieve their goals through diligence. Or conversely, when their hard work doesn’t have a direct or fast return, they are less likely to be impatient, and appear to be more patient – over time, patience is truly acquired.
正是因为他们的财富，他们更容易通过勤奋来实现自己的目标。或者相反，当他们的辛勤工作没有直接或快速的回报时，他们就不太可能不耐烦，并且看起来更有耐心——随着时间的推移，耐心是真正获得的。

In fact, people who fail to become wealthy are more likely to give up being diligent. And those who continuously work hard eventually must not be too poor. People who despite working very hard are still very poor, have made an incorrect choice, and should not blame diligence itself. “I am too poor because I am too diligent” doesn’t hold water anywhere, does it? As for making mistakes in choices, self-deception would be expressed as, “Well, we are just too genuine.” Maybe for them, saying it this way is the only way to feel comfortable and composed.
事实上，未能致富的人更有可能放弃勤奋。而那些不断努力的人，最终一定不会太穷。那些尽管非常努力的人仍然很穷，做出了错误的选择，不应该责怪勤奋本身。“我太穷了，因为我太勤奋了”在任何地方都站不住脚，不是吗？至于在选择上犯错误，自欺欺人会表现为，“好吧，我们太真诚了。也许对他们来说，这样说是感到舒适和沉着的唯一方法。

After stopping self-deception, we can face the fundamental issue – whether the capability to possess a high-quality life is closely linked to a person’s aesthetic ability. Aesthetics does not just involve selecting the most beautiful girl in a beauty pageant, it is actually the foundation of all life choices.
在停止自欺欺人之后，我们可以面对一个根本问题——拥有高品质生活的能力是否与一个人的审美能力密切相关。美学不仅涉及在选美比赛中选择最美丽的女孩，它实际上是所有人生选择的基础。

What is beauty? The lack of widespread aesthetic education, and even when it exists, is often due to the important misconception that people believe beauty and ugliness are subjective judgments. In fact, beauty is an objective existence.
什么是美？缺乏广泛的审美教育，即使存在，也往往是由于人们认为美和丑是主观判断的重要误解。事实上，美是一种客观的存在。

The so-called “subjective” actually refers to how accurately one perceives beauty. After meeting Pacioli, Leonardo da Vinci was taught enough mathematics to illustrate the book “De Divina Proportione” specifically for Pacioli. Before this, Da Vinci had been creating beauty based on intuition, but after being educated, his creation of beauty had a theoretical basis and guidance, which is the application of the Golden Ratio.
所谓“主观”，其实是指一个人对美的感知有多准确。在遇到帕乔利之后，列奥纳多·达·芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）学到了足够的数学知识，专门为帕乔利（Pacioli）的《De Divina Proportione》一书绘制了插图。在此之前，达芬奇一直以直觉为基础创造美，但经过教育后，他对美的创造有了理论基础和指导，这就是黄金比例的应用。

The perception of beauty can be cultivated. The basic perception of beauty comes from the “five senses,” namely vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Even children have some innate aesthetic consciousness: some people’s looks are beautiful, some sceneries are beautiful, some music is beautiful, some food is beautiful, some materials are beautiful. Please take a moment to reflect on whether in daily life, like most people who have not been deliberately trained, you mostly overlook tactile aesthetics?
对美的感知是可以培养的。对美的基本感知来自“五感”，即视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉和触觉。就连孩子也有一些与生俱来的审美意识：有的人长相美，有的风景美，有的音乐美，有的食物美，有的材料美。请花点时间反思一下，在日常生活中，你是否像大多数没有受过刻意训练的人一样，大多忽略了触觉美学？

There is a post on Zhihu, “How to arrange a small living space for a comfortable life,” with about 70,000 followers and over 250 responses. The most popular answers have received nearly 40,000 “likes” to date. The highly applauded respondents have a common feature: aesthetic awareness, aesthetic abilities, and the willingness and ability to create beauty for themselves — these are the results of long-term cultivation.
知乎上有一篇帖子，“如何安排一个舒适的小生活空间”，拥有约7万名粉丝和250多条回复。迄今为止，最受欢迎的答案已收到近 40,000 个“赞”。受到高度赞扬的受访者有一个共同的特点：审美意识、审美能力以及为自己创造美的意愿和能力——这些都是长期培养的结果。

Aesthetic perception and ability are often unrelated to money, because a more important aesthetic system requires not just the perception of a single organ but the ability for systematic thinking. For example, apart from food, scenery, and people, there are many other things that are beautiful.
审美感知和能力往往与金钱无关，因为更重要的审美体系不仅需要对单个器官的感知，还需要系统思考的能力。例如，除了食物、风景和人，还有很多其他美丽的东西。

Some languages are beautiful.
有些语言很美。
Some scientific proofs are beautiful.
一些科学证据很漂亮。
Then there are even more abstract beauties.
然后还有更多抽象的美。

Simplicity is beautiful. 简单就是美丽。
Efficiency is beautiful. 效率是美丽的。
Innovation is beautiful. 创新是美丽的。

For example, let me give you a real, quick way to experience how novelty can bring feelings. Why not make yourself a unique fried rice using the following steps:
例如，让我给你一个真实、快速的方式来体验新奇如何带来感觉。为什么不按照以下步骤给自己做一个独特的炒饭呢？
(1) Beat two eggs; （1）打两个鸡蛋;
(2) Add some chopped green onions;
（2）加入一些切碎的葱;
(3) Sprinkle some salt; （3）撒少许盐;
(4) Mix the leftover rice;
（4）将剩下的米饭拌匀;
(5) Put some oil in a pan;
（5）在锅中放一些油;
(6) Heat it up; （6）加热;
(7) Pour the mixture of rice and eggs into the pan after the oil heats up;
（7）油热后，将米饭和鸡蛋的混合物倒入锅中;
(8) Cook on low heat, similar to frying green onion cakes, until the rice and egg mixture turns golden brown;
（8）用小火煮，类似于煎葱饼，直到米饭和鸡蛋混合物变成金黄色;
(9) Put it on a plate, cut it into long strips with a knife;
（9）放在盘子里，用刀切成长条;
(10) Eat by hand. （10）用手吃饭。

Every time you share this with friends, after trying it, they will surely express a deep and genuine sense of satisfaction from the novelty, even if it is such a minor innovation. Of course, next time you can continue innovating, for example, adding your favorite ingredients besides green onions. It really isn’t all that difficult to enhance the quality of life.
每次你和朋友分享这个，试过之后，他们一定会从新奇中表达出一种深刻而真实的满足感，即使是这么小的创新。当然，下次你可以继续创新，例如，除了大葱之外，还可以添加你最喜欢的食材。提高生活质量真的不是那么困难。

Looking at it from a different angle, the significance of education is to equip us with advanced, more perceptive organs. Scientific education can “open our eyes” to see a different yet more real world; music training allows us to distinguish and create more beautiful melodies… Therefore, long-term education and self-education will lead to significant differences in aesthetic abilities among individuals. In the end, aesthetic awareness will touch and influence every aspect of an individual’s values.
换个角度看，教育的意义在于为我们配备更先进、更敏锐的器官。科学教育可以“睁开我们的眼睛”，看到一个不同但更真实的世界;音乐训练让我们能够辨别和创造更多优美的旋律……因此，长期的教育和自我教育将导致个体之间审美能力的显着差异。最后，审美意识将触及和影响个人价值观的方方面面。

All choices of values ultimately boil down to judgment and choices about “good” and “bad,” “beautiful” and “ugly.” How huge are these differences? Some people might think the process and manner of Darwin’s proof are “amazing” and “breathtaking,” while others cannot see the beauty in that, and directly feel “you are the one that looks like a monkey!” in anger and humiliation.
所有价值观的选择最终都归结为对“好”和“坏”、“美丽”和“丑陋”的判断和选择。这些差异有多大？有些人可能认为达尔文证明的过程和方式是“惊人的”和“令人叹为观止的”，而另一些人则看不到其中的美，直接在愤怒和羞辱中感到“你是那个看起来像猴子的人！

Very few people realize, or at least it seems that there is hardly anyone discussing the fact that the cultivation of aesthetic consciousness and the accumulation of aesthetic ability impact people’s financial processes throughout. Some people think external beauty is more important, while others believe utility beauty is more crucial. This might not seem like a serious difference, but just imagine what kind of differences in consumer behavior would be caused by the different aesthetic consciousness. These differences exist at all times, causing different choices and ultimately affecting the financial process at all times.
很少有人意识到，或者至少似乎几乎没有人讨论这样一个事实，即审美意识的培养和审美能力的积累贯穿始终影响着人们的财务过程。有些人认为外在美更重要，而另一些人则认为实用美更重要。这似乎不是一个严重的差异，但试想一下，不同的审美意识会引起消费者行为的差异。这些差异始终存在，导致不同的选择，并最终始终影响财务流程。