Success Stories 成功的故事
When you think 'millionaire,' what image comes to mind? For many of us, it's a flashy Wall Street banker type who flies a private jet, collects cars and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that would make Donald Trump proud.
当你想到“百万富翁”,脑海中会浮现怎样的形象呢?对于我们许多人来说,他的形象就是一个栩栩如生的华尔街银行家,拥有私人飞机,香车云集,过着唐纳德•特朗普都羡慕的奢靡生活。
But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivate them aren’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: "For the rich, it's not about getting more stuff. It's about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want," says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don't like.
但是,许多现代百万富翁和我们一样,住在中产阶级社区,有份全职工作,常常光顾折扣店。他们成功的动力并不是拥有物质财产,而是财富可以带来的选择。《百万富翁的思维秘密》的作者哈弗•艾克说:“对富人来说,这并不意味着占有更多的东西,而是意味着能够拥有做任何决定的自由”。财富意味着你可以把你的孩子送到任何你喜欢的学校深造或者辞去你不喜欢的工作。
According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America's wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before - the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. To make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, a mere billionaire no longer makes the cut. This year you needed a net worth of at least $1.3 billion.
据《Spectrem财富报告》(一份调查美国富人的年度报告)表明,越来越多的人比以往任何时候生活得美好。在过去十年里,百万富翁的人数几乎增加了一倍,且富者愈富。要在福布斯美国最富有400人的名单上榜上有名,仅仅有十亿资产还不够。今年你若想位列其中,至少需要净资产13亿美元。
If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn't you be one of them? Here, five people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.
如果越来越多的人变得比从前更富有,为什么你不能成为其中之一?这里有五位至少拥有100万美元流动资产的富人跟你分享他们成功的秘密。
1.Set your sights on where you're going
高瞻远瞩,设定财富目标
Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. "At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn't afford the Laundromat." Now he's a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.
20年前,杰夫•哈里斯看似致富无门。他大学肄业,在杂货铺做店员,在垃圾场捡一些废铜烂铁,勉强能养活妻子丹安妮和3个孩子。“有时,我们穷得连去洗衣店洗衣服的钱都没有,只能在浴缸里洗衣服。”现年49岁的他是一名投资顾问,也是南卡罗来纳州约克市的一名千万富翁。
There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack: He always knew he'd be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.
杰夫之所以成功有一个重要的原因:他坚信自己会变富有。事实是, 80%拥有至少500万财产的美国人都同杰夫一样,来自中产阶级家庭或者更小的家庭。
Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step. Says Eker, "The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you'll only achieve small things."
渴望成为富人是成为富人是至关重要的第一步。艾克说:“阻碍人们致富的最大障碍是自身的恐惧。人们不敢计划干大事,但是,如果你光考虑小事,你就永远成不了大事。”
It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. "Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire," he says. "I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund." Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. "There were lots of struggles," says Jeff, "but what got me through it was believing with all my heart that I would succeed."
杰夫的财富始于圣诞晚会上与一个股票经纪人的相识。“与他交谈你会感觉发现了新大陆,”杰夫说,“在杂货店打工休息时我开始读一些关于投资的书籍,开始每月花25美元投资共同基金。”随后杰夫在社区学校开办了一个投资班,班上的学生成为他的第一批客户,从此他步入了投资实践。“这期间有很多思想挣扎”,杰夫说,“但是我坚信自己一定会成功,这使我渡过了难关。”
2. Educate yourself
善于自学
When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high-tech job - but he couldn't balance his checkbook."I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip," says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. "I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement."
大学毕业后,史蒂夫•麦克斯韦获得了工程学学位和一份与高科技有关的工作,但他生活仍然入不敷出。“我在学校修过金融课,但为了一次滑雪之旅我放弃了”,麦克斯韦说。现在,45岁的他已经是三个孩子的父亲,住在科罗拉多州的温莎。“实际上我不得不去银行让他们教我如何看懂借贷表。”
One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don't get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. "It bothered me that I didn't understand this stuff," says Steve, "so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz I knew to explain things to me."
赚钱最大的障碍之一就是不理解:成千上万的人不选择投资就是因为不了解投资。但是,为了赚钱,你必须懂得财务知识。“我真不明白这类东西,这使我很困扰”,史蒂夫说:“所以我阅读金融管理投资的书籍和杂志,咨询每一个我认识的金融高手,让他们解释给我听。”
He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars, cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they could afford a more expensive one. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.
他和妻子开始学以致用:他们主张生活俭朴。他们从来不冲动购买,总是商量购买性价比更好的产品(比如汽车、有线电视费和家具),即使他们能够买得起更加昂贵的房子,他们还在老房子里待了很长一段时间。他们用年收入的20%进行投资。
Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. "Someone would say, 'I need to refinance my house - what should I do?' A lot of times, I wouldn't know the answer, but I'd go find it and learn something in the process," he says.
不到十年,他们成为百万富翁,于是人们开始纷纷向史蒂夫咨询。“有人会问:‘我需要更好的住房,应该做些什么?’很多时候,我都不知道答案,但我会去找寻答案并且在这个过程中学到更多”,他说。
In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it's paid off: He now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.
2003年,史蒂夫辞去工作,成为某公司的合伙人。他的公司为一些大公司雇员开设私人理财班,如沃尔玛。他还开始转向房地产投资,并得到了回报:他目前拥有价值3000万美元的物业投资,包括公寓、购物商场和一个露天矿场。
"I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self-education," says Steve. "You can do anything once you understand the basics."
“作为一名工程师,这样的生活对我来说曾经就像天方夜谭一样,但是这需要的只是一点自我培训”,史蒂夫说,“一旦理解了基本知识你就能成为投资高手。”
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3. Passion pays off 激情回报
In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband were barely making ends meet. Like so many of us, Jill was eager to discover her purpose, so she splurged on a session with a life coach. "When I told her my goal was to make $30,000 a year, she said I was setting the bar too low. I needed to focus on my passion, not on the paycheck."
1995年,吉尔•布拉沙克•斯特拉罕和她的丈夫经常收不抵支,像我们中的许多人一样,吉尔渴望发财,所以花了一大笔钱跟着生活教练上培训课。“当我告诉她我的目标就是每年挣3万美元,她说我把标准定得太低了,我需要的是专注于自己爱好,而不是紧盯薪水。”
Jill, who lives with her son in Alexandria, Minnesota, owned a gift basket company and earned just $15,000 a year. She noticed when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. Jill thought. Why not sell the food directly to customers in a fun setting?
吉尔和她的儿子生活在明尼苏达州亚历山德里亚市,她有一家礼品花篮公司,每年挣1.5万美元。她发现当她让潜在的顾客品尝可口茶点后,产品就被疯狂抢购。吉尔想,为什么不以一种更加有趣的方式把食品直接卖给顾客呢?
With $6,000 in savings, a bank loan and a friend's investment, Jill started packaging gourmet foods in a backyard shed and selling them at taste-testing parties. It wasn't easy. "I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn't pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work."
吉尔用她6000美元的积蓄,银行贷款以及朋友的投资,开始在自家后院包装美食,出售给美食鉴赏派对。这并不是一件易事。“记得有一天我在屋外坐着,想到三个月没付的房租,未支付两个员工的工资,我想我应该去找一份实在的工作。但我转念一想,不,这是我的梦想,收拾收拾,继续工作吧。”
She stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later. "I live by the law of abundance, meaning that even when there are challenges in life, I look for the win-win," she says.
即使她的丈夫三年后去世了,她还继续坚持着。“我奉行物美量多的经销原则来谋生,虽然这意味着生活中会有许多挑战,但我会争取双赢”。
The positive attitude worked: Jill's backyard company, Tastefully Simple, is now a direct-sales business, with $120 million in sales last year. And Jill was named one of the top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine.
积极态度产生效用了:吉尔的后院公司Tastefully Simple,现在成了一个直销型企业,去年销售额达1.2亿美元。吉尔因此被北美的《快速公司》杂志评为25位最优秀的女性企业家之一。
According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn't something they cared about.
《百万富翁的心路历程》一书的作者托马斯•J•斯坦利的通过研究发现:百分之八十以上的百万富翁承认——如果他们不把职业放在心上,他们就永远不会成功。
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4. Grow your money
投资生利
Most of us know the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.. "The fastest way to get out of that pattern is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself,"says Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker. In other words, earmark some money for the sole purpose of investing it in a place where it will grow dramatically—like a business or real estate.
我们大多数人生活在薪水复薪水的无尽循环中。“摆脱这一模式最快的方式是把额外的钱专门用于投资”,《百万富翁制造商》一书的作者劳拉•兰格米尔说。换句话说,预留一些钱投资在特定领域,例如商业或房地产投资,你的资金会快速增长。
There are endless ways to make extra money for investing - you just have to be willing to do the work." Everyone has a marketable skill," says Langemeier. "When I started out, I had a tutoring business, seeing clients in the morning before work and on my lunch break."
投资赚取额外报酬的方式无穷无尽——只要你愿意。“每个人都有销售技巧”,劳拉说:“刚开始的时候,我自己办了个辅导班,所以我得在早上上班之前和午餐休息时辅导学生。”
A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. "I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour," he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick's 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he's worth over $40 million.
零星资金都有可能积累成百万财富。二十五年前,里克•西尔斯基梦想拥有私人培训业务,“我出租了一间小工作室,每小时收取15美元”,他说。赚到钱后,他没有挥霍,而是储存起来用于投资。里克400平方英尺的工作室现在叫做Fitness Together,特许经营总部设在科罗拉多州的高地牧场,在全世界拥有360个健身中心,他的身价超过四千万美元。
When extra money rolls in, it's easy to think, Now I can buy that new TV. But if you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that's in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.
当财富滚滚而来,人们很容易就会有这样的想法:“现在我可以买新的电视机啦!”但是如果你想更加富有,你必须首先自己支付自己,应当让钱为来为你工作——比如投资退休基金、商业或者类似房地产等的投资上面。
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5. No guts, no glory
胆大才能赚大钱
Last summer, Dave Lindahl footed the bill for 18 relatives at a fancy mansion in the Adirondacks. One night, his dad looked out at the scenery and joked, "I can't believe we used to call you the black sheep!"
去年夏天,戴夫•林达纽约阿第伦达克豪华大厦里为18个亲戚买单。一天晚上,他的父亲看着外面的风景,开玩笑说:“真不敢相信我们曾经叫你败家子!”
At 29, Dave was broke, living in a small apartment near Boston and wondering what to do after ten years in a local rock band. "I looked around and thought, if I don't do something, I'll be stuck here forever."
戴夫在29岁时破产,住在波斯顿附近的一个狭小公寓里。他不知道离开他待了10年的当地摇滚乐队后该何去何从。“我环顾四周,心想,如果我不做出点成就出来,我就会永远被困在这里”。
He started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. When business literally froze over that winter, a banker friend asked if he'd like to renovate a foreclosed home. "I'm a terrible carpenter, but I needed the money, so I went to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured it out as I went," he says.
他贷款添置设备,创办了一家景观设计公司。那年冬天生意冷冷清清,他的一个银行朋友问他是否打算装修一所被取消赎回权的房子。“我是一个蹩脚的木匠,但我需要钱,因此我就去Home Depot等免费的研讨会学习,而后去翻修那个房子”,他说。
After a few more renovations, it occurred to him: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. Using the proceeds, he bought another, and another. Twelve years later, he owns apartment buildings, worth $143 million, in eight states.
翻修一段时间后,他突发奇想:为什么不买下这些房子来出售并赚取差价呢?他冒险买了他的第一处房产。依靠着那些收益,他买了一座又一座的房子。十二年后,他在美国八个州拥有公寓楼,价值1.43亿美元。
The Biggest Secret? Stop Spending
最大的秘诀是?不乱花钱
Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he's worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can't fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because "a house with double the cost wouldn't give me double the enjoyment."
与我们交谈的百万富翁有一个共同特点:绝不在不必要的事情上花钱。房地产投资商戴夫•林达驾驶一辆福特,据说,他的中产阶级的邻居如果在得知他的身价后都会大吃一惊;健身大师享里克•斯基不明白人们为什么会买桶装水;理财大师史蒂夫•麦克斯韦,看中了一处150万美元的房子,但他最终买了一套价格只有这一半的房子,因为“用双倍价钱买来的房子肯定不会给我双倍的快乐”。
It's not a fluke: According to the 2007 Annual Survey of Affluence & Wealth in America, some of the richest people 'spend their money with a middle-class mind-set.' They clip coupons, wait for sales and buy luxury items at a discount.
这并不是偶然的。2007年美国财富年度调查显示,一些最富有的人“用中产阶级的心态来消费的”。他们剪下优惠券,等待商家打折才购买奢侈品。
No kidding! Talk show host Tyra Banks calls herself the Queen of Cheap and keeps perfume samples from magazine ads in her purse for quick touch-ups.
这不是开玩笑,脱口秀主持人泰拉•班克斯自称廉价女王,常常在钱包中存放从杂志广告页上取下的香水样品,留到快速补妆中用。
Sara Blakely, founder of the $100 million shapewear company Spanx, gets her hair trimmed at Supercuts.
法瑞儿服饰公司创始人萨拉•布莱克利身价千万美元,却在廉价美发店做头发。
And Warren Buffett, the third richest person in the world, according to Forbes, lives in the same Omaha, Nebraska, home he bought four decades ago for $31,500.
福布斯富翁榜上世界排名第三的沃恩•巴菲特,居住在内布拉斯州奥马哈的老房子里,而这所房子是他四十年前花3.15万美元所购买的。
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Notes:
1、make the cut
美国俚语,有两种意思:
1) To meet or come up to a required standard. “达到标准”。
例句:He could hardly make the cut to be on the list of a millionaire.
他远远达不到百万富翁的标准。
2)在美国口语里是“打折”的意思。
例句:Clothes of this Brand never makes the cut .
这个牌子的衣服从来不打折。
2、ahead of the pack
意思是 “ahead of the competitors”前几位;前头。
例句:Out of the contestants on this year's talent show, Akika is definitely ahead of the pack.
在今年的业余歌手演唱会参赛者之中,Akika绝对排在前几位。
3、think big
意思是“野心勃勃;好高骛远 ”。
例句:The secret to success is to start young, think big and stick to it
成功的秘诀是,趁年轻,有野心,坚持。
4、feel like discovering fire
意为“feel like discovering something fantastic”。感觉像发现了极好的东西。
例句:His creative idea let me feel like discovering fire.
他的创意让我感觉到了灵感的火花。
5、financial whiz
意思是“金融高手;金融怪杰”。
例句:He is really a financial whiz that he knows almost everything about the financial crisis.
他真是一位金融高手,他几乎知道有关金融危机的一切。
6、Make ends meet
意思是“使收支相抵”。
例句:I can hardly make ends meet myself.
我几乎入不敷出。
7、squirrel away
意思是“贮存;储存”。
例句:They have squirreled away surplus grain.
他们已把余粮贮存起来。
8. quick touch-ups
意思是“快速补妆”。
Links:
Donald Trump唐纳德•特朗普
毕业于宾夕法尼亚沃顿商学院,主修财务,并跟着他父亲开始自己的职业生涯。2006年8月,他被《商业周刊》评为了“全世界最具竞争力的商人”。“他是个传奇人物,一生起伏跌宕”,脱口秀主持人拉里•金在最近一次对特朗普的采访中以这句话作了开场白。
在纽约,特朗普的名字是与这座城市最繁华的地段联系在一起的,包括第五大道的特朗普摩天大楼,被Conde Nast Traveler(《康泰旅行者》)选为全美最好的特朗普国际旅馆,座落于华尔街40号的特朗普世界大楼以及特朗普公园大厦。除了在地产领域的成就外,特朗普还和NBC电视网合作,有着世界三大选美赛事的直播权:世界小姐,美国小姐和Miss Teen USA Pageants。 他也是目前热播电视剧《学徒》的制片人,这部片子在全国范围,甚至是全世界范围内都引起了广泛关注。2004年夏天,他在Clear Channel的广播节目初次开播,成绩不俗。
特朗普先生著有7本畅销书。2004年,特朗普杂志发行,2005年特朗普在线大学上线,唐纳德•特朗普特许经营项目开放。在2006年,发布在线旅游网站GoTrump.com。
Mutual fund共同基金
共同基金mutual fund的mutual意为joint(联合),而fund有holding(控制)之意,即把许多人的钱集中起来进行专业化投资的运作。又称为单位信托基金,在美国又称为投资公司(Investment Company),在香港和台湾一般翻译为互助基金。在中国大陆,一般的投资者并不使用共同基金这个词汇,而是以投资基金,证券投资基金等词汇取代之,但是以上词汇的内涵和共同基金是有很大差别的。
共同基金是由基金经理管理的,向社会投资者公开募集资金以投资于证券市场的营利性的公司型证券投资基金。共同基金购买股票、债券、商业票据、商品或金融衍生工具,以获得利息、股息或资本利得。
由于共同基金吸纳的是公众的资金,各国政府都对其实施比较严厉的管制,其组建、信息披露、交易、资金结构变化和解散都受到法律法规限制,美国的管制尤其严格。
共同基金的种类,按证券投资基金组织形式可分为:契约型(Contract Type)和公司型(Company Type)。共同基金按交易方式可分为开放式基金、封闭式基金及股票交易所交易基金。按操作方式一般可分为主动型基金及指数基金。依照资产类别,共同基金大致可分为股票型基金;债券型基金;货币型基金;平衡型基金;地产基金;原物料基金;避险基金。除持有一般资产之外,经理人可运用更多的金融工具或手法,如期货、选择放空股票等手法来操作基金。
Fast Company 《快速杂志》
1995年11月由两位前《哈佛商业评论》编辑艾伦•韦伯和比尔•泰勒创刊,秉承“世界的变革正在改变商业,商业正在改变世界”的理念,为欲创造财富和变革商业的人士提供指南。被标榜为“革命手册”的《Fast Company》杂志提供有关规模管理、主导议题和技术的最新思想,如团队、参与性管理、信息技术的影响等。
该杂志由Mansueto Ventures LLC公司出版,充满理念和策略,分析和评估的商业杂志伴随着商业而发展着,告诉读者如何在全球商务领域中竞争,它是美国最富盛名和最具影响力的商业杂志之一,与《财富》、《商业周刊》、《华尔街日报》等媒体成为美国乃至世界商业(经济)领域的主流媒体。该杂志每年会在全球范围内寻找具有创造性商业理念、增长速度快、具备一定社会公益性的企业(或个人),通过资深的专业记者的投票评选出50名年度企业或个人,称为“Fast 50”。
Home Depot
The Home Depot公司成立于1978年,由Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill 和Pat Farrah组建。它是全球最大的家具建材零售商,是仅次于沃尔玛的美国第二大零售商,2005年财政年度销售额达815亿美金。The Home Depot销售各类建筑材料、家居用品和草坪花园产品,而且提供各类相关服务。The Home Depot标准店平均室内占地接近9,758平方米,另外还有2,138平方米的户外花园产品区域。除了The Home Depot标准店之外,还有主要为家庭装修和改建项目提供产品和服务的EXPO Design Center,面对专业客户服务的 Home Depot Supply和 The Home Depot Landscape Supply。截止至2005年财政年度末,The Home Depot共有1,984家标准店遍布于美国、加拿大和墨西哥,34家EXPO Design Center,3家Home Depot Supply和 11家 The Home Depot Landscape Supply。另外还有两家地板专营店在德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州主要经营地板类产品。