话题讨论：为什么富人比穷人更节俭？
Why are rich people more frugal than poor ones?
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网友：有钱的时候很容易显得节俭。我属于中上阶层，已经有一段时间了。我也穷过。不是无家可归的穷人，也不是挨饿的人，但我一直在问“我是付水电费还是养孩子？” 穷的......
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Why are rich people more frugal than poor ones?
为什么富人比穷人更节俭？
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It’s easy to appear frugal when you have means.
I’m in the upper middle class, and have been for a while..
I’ve also been poor. Not unhoused poor, not starving, but I have been “Do I pay the utility bill or feed my kid?” poor.
Let me tell you, it’s expensive to be poor.
When I have a toothache, I make a dentist appointment. I’ve got dental insurance and an HSA - a regular filling is like $60 that I’ve already got saved. Easy-peasy.
When you’re poor and you have a toothache, you take some aspirin and hope it goes away. After a few years of that, you can be facing tens of thousands of dollars of dental work - or simply losing your teeth.
有钱的时候很容易显得节俭。
我属于中上阶层，已经有一段时间了。
我也穷过。不是无家可归的穷人，也不是挨饿的人，但我一直在问“我是付水电费还是养孩子？” 穷的。
让我告诉你，贫穷是昂贵的。
当我牙痛时，我会预约牙医。我有牙科保险和 HSA——定期补牙大约需要 60 美元，我已经省下了，十分简单。
当你很穷并且牙痛时，你会服用一些阿司匹林并希望它会消失。几年后，您可能要面临数万美元的牙科治疗——或者只是掉牙。
When you’re poor, you pretend you can’t see the “check engine” light and just pray you make it to payday before your leaky oil pan needs a refill. When it’s finally too late and you have to get another car, you end up at the trashiest dealership where the guys with the wide ties and white shoes tell you it’s 21% with no warranty and you’d better not be a day late with a payment, “sweetie.”
My grandmother always clipped coupons and got amazing savings. She was one of the original “extreme” couponers. She scoured the sales and used every double and triple coupon opportunity. She was one of those people who would bring home a car full of groceries and brag about how it only cost her $10.
They lived on land they bought with cash in a house they built mostly themselves. They almost never ate out, and drove their cars for decades before buying another decent used car to replace them.
我丈夫和我开的车已经快十年了，而且还清了。我们可以做到这一点，因为我们从不吝啬定期维护。我们会进行每次机油更换和调整、校准和轮胎换位，并且我们使用推荐的高质量燃油和机油。当我们准备好买一辆新车时，我们会带着810的信用评级去经销商那里选择融资方式，或者直接用我们的积蓄购买。
当你很穷的时候，你会假装看不到“检查引擎”灯，只是祈祷在漏油的油底壳需要重新加注之前赶到发薪日。当终于为时已晚，你不得不再买一辆车时，你最终去了最垃圾的经销店，那里那些系着宽领带、穿着白鞋的人告诉你这是 21%，没有保修，你最好不要迟到一天付款，“亲爱的。”
我的祖母总是剪下优惠券并节省了惊人的钱。她是最初的“极端”优惠券购买者之一。她仔细检查了销售情况，并利用了每一个双倍和三倍优惠券的机会。她是那些会把装满杂货的汽车带回家并吹嘘它只花了她 10 美元的人之一。
What they never bothered to tell us was that they were able to be so “frugal” because they were millionaires.
My grandfather owned (inherited from his first wife) some of the land that the current Denver Tech Center was built on. He had a frxd copy of the million dollar check he got for the land. He invested conservatively, and he and my grandmother were able to live comfortably on their assets.
My grandmother had all the time in the world to clip coupons because she didn’t have to work. It wasn’t about needing to save money - it was about the game. Time is money, and when I was a full time student, working full time, hearing her say my financial woes were just because I didn’t take time to look out for sales and coupons wasn’t helpful. Time is something poor people don’t have.
Clipping coupons and skipping Starbucks is never going to make you a millionaire. Anyone who tells you the reason you can’t afford a house is because you eat too much avocado toast is an idiot.
他们居住在用现金购买的土地上，房子主要是他们自己建造的。他们几乎从不外出就餐，并且在购买另一辆像样的二手车来代替之前开了几十年的车。
他们将长期的成功归功于这种节俭。
他们从不告诉我们的是，他们之所以能够如此“节俭”，是因为他们是百万富翁。
我的祖父拥有（从他的第一任妻子那里继承的）一些土地，现在的丹佛科技中心就建在这块土地上。他有一张他为买这块地而得到的百万美元支票的复印件。他投资保守，他和我的祖母能够依靠他们的资产过上舒适的生活。
我祖母有很多时间剪优惠券，因为她不用工作。这不是关于需要省钱 - 这是关于比赛的。时间就是金钱，当我还是一名全日制学生、全职工作时，她说我没有花时间去寻找促销和优惠券，这对我没有帮助。时间是穷人没有的东西。
剪下优惠券和跳过星巴克永远不会让你成为百万富翁。任何告诉你买不起房子的原因是因为你吃了太多牛油果吐司的人都是白痴。
I question the premise. Where the premise likely has merit is in what you’d call “the working rich”. People who work and who’ve had the good fortune to make it probably have considerable overlap with frugality. How much? I can’t say. But I know a lot of working rich and anecdotally speaking, they tend to be quite frugal.
A lot of people, like my husband & me (and we’re not rich rich), know what it’s like to not have money. My husband and I save over a third of our income & we’ve never touched any of our retirement savings or my accumulated equity.** We abstain from credit card debt. We could drive expensive cars or have a much bigger house. We just basically paid cash for two, $20k, fuel efficient compact cars. We don’t go out to eat and when we do, it’s probably a burger joint.
I know what it’s like to be poor. I know what it’s like to be homeless. We allow ourselves one luxury: travel. Everything else is scrutinized and kept in line. “Middle class rich” is the most dangerous kind of wealth to have. You can’t take your eyes off your finances for a second because temptation is everywhere. Most of our social group doubles or triples our income, which whispers a lot of unhealthy ideas into our heads.
Which if you count 401k, equity and savings, then it approaches half. The reason for this aggressive savings is also on account of awful American healthcare and retirement care.
我质疑前提，这个前提可能有价值的地方是你所谓的“工作富人”。工作的人和有幸工作的人可能与节俭有相当大的重叠。多少？我不能说。但我知道很多工作富有的人，而且据传闻，他们往往非常节俭。
很多人，比如我的丈夫和我（我们并不富有），都知道没有钱是什么感觉。我和我丈夫将超过三分之一的收入存起来，而且我们从未动过任何退休储蓄或我积累的资产。**我们放弃了信用卡债务。我们可以开昂贵的汽车或拥有更大的房子。我们基本上只是用现金支付了两辆价值 2 万美元的省油紧凑型汽车。我们不出去吃饭，当我们出去的时候，可能是一家汉堡店。
我知道贫穷的滋味。我知道无家可归的感觉。我们允许自己享受一种奢侈：旅行。其他一切都经过仔细检查并保持一致。“中产阶级富人”是最危险的财富。你一刻也不能把目光从财务上移开，因为诱惑无处不在。我们的大多数社会群体的收入都是我们的两倍或三倍，这在我们的脑海中窃窃私语了很多不健康的想法。
如果你算上 401k、股权和储蓄，那么就接近一半了。这种积极储蓄的原因还在于糟糕的美国医疗保健和退休护理。
Like most, I don’t think rich people are more frugal than poor ones.
But rich people can certainly appear chic frugal.
I’m not rich. But I live fairly comfortably and I don’t live in a complete shack.
Here are “frugal” things I get to do:
Have the time to peruse blogs and Pinterest posts for ideas on frugal living.
Have the money upfront plus the time to hunt for cloth diapers.
Have a washing machine to wash those diapers.
Buy beans and rice in bulk.
Have enough of a steady income to make plans on where my money will go.
Have a car where I can combine errands to save gas.
Have enough space to garden for my own fresh vegetables and herbs.
Those who are far poorer than I probably don’t get to do a lot of these things.
和大多数人一样，我不认为富人比穷人更节俭。
但富人当然可以显得潇洒节俭。
我并不富有。但我住得相当舒适，而且我不住在一个完整的棚屋里。
以下是我要做的“节俭”事情：
花时间仔细阅读博客和 Pinterest 帖子，了解关于节俭生活的想法。
先有钱再花时间去买尿布。
有一台洗衣机来洗那些尿布。
大量购买豆类和大米。
有足够的稳定收入来计划我怎么花钱。
有一辆汽车，我可以把工作结合起来以节省汽油。
有足够的空间来种植我自己的新鲜蔬菜和香草。
那些比我穷得多的人可能做不到很多这样的事情。
I’m only rich in that my bills are paid and I have enough in the sock to buy any follies my taste runs to.
I am not more frugal than I was when I was ramen-poor.
I track every penny, same as always, and yeah, I want value for my money, but I don’t have to prioritize between getting a filling and hoping that I don’t an infection and that I’ll have to have the tooth pulled. Sure, sure, getting that tooth filled would be cheaper in the long run, but rent was due in two days, and if I didn’t pay it, I’d be out on my ass.
I highly recommend you check out the Vimes’ Boots Theory of Economic Unfairness.
Rich people have the resources to spend less money OVER TIME. They can buy the coat that will last twenty years, or the car that will last 200,000 miles.
My line item for the household car expenditures is much lower and a smaller proportion of my budget because I can afford to buy a good car and maintain it meticulously. That was impossible before I was close to thirty.
我的富有只是因为我的账单付清了，而且我的口袋里有足够的钱来购买我喜欢的任何东西。
我并不比穷的时候更节俭。
我一如既往地检查我每一分钱的去向，是的，我希望我的钱物有所值，但我不需要在补牙和希望自己不会感染以及不得不拔牙之间做出优先选择。当然，从长远来看，补牙会更便宜，但房租两天后到期，如果我不付钱，我就会搬出去。
我强烈建议您查看 Vimes 的经济不公平之靴子理论。
富人有资源随着时间的推移花更少的钱。他们可以买到能穿二十年的外套，或者能跑二十万英里的汽车。
我的家用汽车支出项目要低得多，占我预算的比例也较小，因为我有能力买一辆好车并精心保养。在我将近三十岁之前，这是不可能的。
They’re not. It is true that they tend to spend a smaller fraction of their income on living expenses than poor people do (“tend to”, I know someone is going to know an exception). But they also spend more than poor people do. A lot more. If your income is up by a factor of 10 and your spending is up by a factor of 5, that still leaves you a larger percentage of a larger total for saving and investment.
Rich people pay the same amount as poor people do for a gallon of gas, a bag of apples, an oil change, a cell phone, or the lunch special at a Chinese buffet. They might buy a fancier, more expensive pair of pants, but they can only wear one pair of pants at a time. The higher-income person has an easier time with the million dollar mortgage than the working-class stiff does with the $200,000 mortgage, and houses don’t go much lower than that these days. Finances are just plain easier when you’re rich, that’s one reason people want to become rich.
They can also get higher investment returns. Zero-cost transactions on the mutual fund when their principle hits a million, higher-interest CDs, high-interest savings accounts with a minimum balance, investment firms that cater to “high-income individuals”. My bank would literally give me free money if I transferred $100,000 of “new money” to my account — I would get free money just because I have money.
And the standards are different. When the rich person gets the lunch special at the Chinese buffet, they’ll say he’s frugal because he doesn’t go to the fancy restaurant. When the working-class person gets the lunch special at the Chinese buffet, they’ll tell him he should bring a bag lunch to work, no wonder you’re poor.
他们不是。的确，与穷人相比，他们倾向于将收入的一小部分用于生活开支（“倾向于”，我知道有人会例外）。但他们也比穷人花费更多，多很多。如果你的收入增加了 10 倍，你的支出增加了 5 倍，那么你仍然可以在更大的储蓄和投资总额中占据更大的比例。
富人为一加仑汽油、一袋苹果、一次机油更换、一部手机或中式自助餐的特色午餐支付的费用与穷人相同。他们可能会买一条更漂亮、更贵的裤子，但他们一次只能穿一条裤子。与工薪阶层的 200,000 美元抵押贷款相比，收入较高的人更容易获得 100 万美元的抵押贷款，而且现在的房价也不会比这低多少。当你富有时，理财就变得容易多了，这就是人们想要变得富有的原因之一。
他们也可以获得更高的投资回报。当共同基金的本金达到100万时，就可以进行零成本交易，还有高利率的大额存单，有最低余额的高利率储蓄账户，以及迎合“高收入个人”的投资公司。如果我将 100,000 美元的“新钱”转入我的账户，我的银行真的会给我免费的钱——我会得到免费的钱，因为我有钱。
而且标准不一样。当有钱人在中式自助餐厅享用特价午餐时，他们会说他很节俭，因为他不去高档餐厅。当工薪阶层在中式自助餐厅吃到特价午餐时，他们会告诉他应该带袋午餐去上班，难怪你很穷。
In part because there’s a limit to how frugal you can be when you are poor.
A rich person can buy well-made products that last and can be repaired if they fail. Poor people often have to buy cheaply made products that don’t last very long. Shoes are an example. When I was poor, I’d spend $20 on shoes, and they would wear out in a few months. Now I spend more, and I have shoes that hold up for several years.
Poor people can’t buy in bulk when it makes sense to. They can’t easily react to a sudden sale on something they need. They can’t get a cash back credit card that rebates them for a percent of their purchases. A rich person’s bank account gets fees waived. A poor person pays full fees or uses a check cashing service that charges high rates.
部分原因是当你很穷时，你节俭的程度是有限度的。
有钱人可以买到做工精良、经久耐用的产品，如果出现故障可以修理。穷人常常不得不购买廉价的产品，这些产品不会持续很长时间。鞋子就是一个例子。当我很穷的时候，我会花 20 美元买鞋子，几个月后它们就会穿坏。现在我花得更多了，而且我的鞋子可以穿好几年。
穷人不能在有意义的时候大量购买。他们不能轻易地对他们需要的东西的突然销售做出反应。他们无法获得现金返还信用卡，该信用卡可以为他们购买的商品提供一定比例的折扣。富人的银行账户可以免除费用。穷人支付全额费用或使用收取高额费用的支票兑现服务。
I don't think this premise holds up too well on either side. It's not too hard to find high earners who run through every dollar they bring in, and then some. Many more earn a lot, save whatever they decide is enough for their future goals, and therefore don't worry about spending the rest, whether on a nicer car, a restaurant meal, or a splurge purchase like a designer watch or handbag, as long as it's well within their means. At the same time, many lower income people are cautious, efficient spenders by necessity.
To the extent it's true, it's in part because most rich people got that way by earning a lot and then not spending all of it. (People who are rich because of an inheritance or winning the lottery are the exception rather than the rule.)
It's also easier to be frugal when you're rich. It’s easy to pay zero credit card interest and avoid late fees and overdrafts when you have plenty of money. Instead, you're probably using a credit card to get miles or cash back, plus purchase protection and other perks. It’s more likely that you have a good credit score, so you get a good deal on loans and insurance, and you have your choice of apartments.
我认为这个前提在任何一方都站不住脚。要找到挣到的每一块钱都花光的高收入者并不难。更多人赚了很多钱，买下他们认为足以实现未来目标的任何东西，因此不用担心能否花掉剩下的钱，无论是买一辆更好的汽车、在餐厅用餐，还是购买名牌手表或手提包等大手笔的东西，因为只要在他们力所能及的范围内他们都会买。与此同时，许多低收入人群必然是谨慎、高效的消费者。
从某种程度上说，这是正确的，部分原因是大多数富人之所以成为富人，是因为他们赚了很多钱，但没有把这些钱都花出去。(因为继承遗产或中彩票而富有的人是例外，而不是普遍现象。)
当你富有时，节俭也更容易。当您有足够的钱时，很容易支付零信用卡利息并避免滞纳金和透支。相反，您可能正在使用信用卡来获得里程或现金返还，以及购买保护和其他福利。您更有可能拥有良好的信用评分，因此您可以在贷款和保险方面获得优惠，并且您可以选择公寓。
Having money makes it likelier that you’ll have suitable insurance for disasters you can’t afford, and that you can easily self-insure for less costly eventualities, such as occasionally needing to call a tow truck or replace a computer or major appliance. It makes it likelier that you can maintain and repair stuff, too, so you’re less likely ever to need to call a tow truck. It makes it easier to choose reliable, longer lasting products in the first place and then maintain them so they don’t need more extensive repairs or frequent replacement.
Having money means an occasional splurge like a restaurant meal or a plane ticket can be well within one’s means, and it doesn’t change much about one’s savings or wealth.
And while it doesn’t work this way for everybody, being well off can mean that you don’t need to show off how much you can afford. There’s the true self-assurance of actually having the means.
有钱可以很容易地利用很多东西，无论是囤积卫生纸，装袋“未经加工的钻石”投资房产，或者用现金买一辆二手车，没有人愿意贷款，因为它太旧或贷款太少。
有了钱，您就更有可能为您负担不起的灾难购买合适的保险，并且您可以轻松地为成本较低的意外事件进行自我保险，例如偶尔需要叫拖车或更换电脑或大型电器。它也使您更有可能维护和修理东西，因此您不太可能需要叫拖车。它让您更容易首先选择可靠、更耐用的产品，然后进行维护，这样它们就不需要更广泛的维修或频繁更换。
有钱意味着偶尔的挥霍，如一顿饭或一张机票，可以在一个人的能力范围内，而且它不会改变一个人的储蓄或财富。
虽然这并不适用于每个人，但富裕意味着你不需要炫耀你有多有钱。这是一种真正的自信，因为你真的有这么多钱。
They aren’t, but there are reasons it might appear that way. In their seminal book Scarcity, the leading behavioral economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explain how scarcity leads people into a kind of tunnel vision, where we focus on the desperately needed scarce thing and block out decision-making about everything else, kind of operating on auto pilot. That can lead to stupid decisions on things that can be very consequential.
Imagine this scenario: a poor person has an interview for a job that could mean everything to them. Rather than risk the bus running late, they take an uber to the interview. They can’t afford the uber ride and their credit card is declined. They make it to the interview and do well, but the company checks their credit rating, sees that they have bad credit, and they don’t get the job.
People without enough money make stupid decisions because they have tunnel vision. People without enough time (often in this case rich people) do the same thing; they make stupid decisions because of the same sort of tunnel vision.
事实并非如此，但这是有原因的。在他们开创性的著作《稀缺性》中，领先的行为经济学家 Sendhil Mullainathan 和 Eldar Shafir 解释了稀缺性如何导致人们进入一种狭隘的视野，在这种情况下，我们专注于迫切需要的稀缺事物并阻止对其他一切的决策，有点像操作自动驾驶仪。这可能会导致对非常重要的事情做出愚蠢的决定。
想象一下这样的场景：一个穷人接受了一份工作的面试，这对他们来说可能意味着一切。他们宁愿坐优步去面试，也不愿冒公车晚点的风险。他们付不起打车费用，信用卡也被拒了。他们参加了面试并且表现不错，但是公司检查了他们的信用等级，发现他们信用不佳，因此他们没有得到这份工作。
没有足够钱的人会做出愚蠢的决定，因为他们目光短浅。没有足够时间的人(通常是有钱人)做同样的事情;他们之所以做出愚蠢的决定，都是因为同样的狭隘视野。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Rich people tend to appear more frugal because they have more money around them.
If you’re poor and only have $100,000 in your bank and brokerage accounts, then spending $40,000 to buy a basic car to commute to work seems quite normal but is actually lavish compared to the total savings.
If you’ve got $10,000,000 in your bank account, then you’re hard pressed to be as wasteful since there are very few $4M cars around, even if you wanted all the hassles of owning one. Most times, you’d go pick up a nice $100,000 car that’s easy to drive and maintain.
So, while the poor person blew 40% of his savings on a modest car, the rich person only spent 1% of his savings on a luxury car.
Otherwise, rich people tend to spend just as freely on far more expensive things than poor people. They just do so behind closed doors that the poor in the bottom 90% aren’t privy to or can’t enter.
All those “luxury” handbags being peddled by Hermes or Chanel at their shiny stores are for the poor people. The rich get theirs at private events where high 5, 6 or even 7 figure handbags are sold.
Yet, a rich person dropping $50K on a handbag is still spending far less on a relative basis than a poor person buying a $500 Coach bag.
Truly frugal people are frugal by any definition whether they’re rich or poor.
富人往往显得更节俭，因为他们身边有更多的钱。
如果你很穷，银行和经纪账户上只有 100,000 美元，那么花 40,000 美元买一辆普通车上下班似乎很正常，但与总储蓄相比实际上是奢侈的。
如果您的银行账户中有 10,000,000 美元，那么您很难像这样浪费，因为周围很少有 400 万美元的汽车，即使您想拥有这辆车带来的所有麻烦。大多数时候，您会花 100,000 美元买一辆易于驾驶和维护的好车。
因此，穷人将 40% 的积蓄花在了一辆普通的汽车上，而富人只花了 1% 的积蓄购买了一辆豪华汽车。
富人往往会比穷人更自由地购买昂贵得多的东西。他们只是关起门来，让最底层的 90% 的穷人不知道或无法进入。
爱马仕或香奈儿在其光鲜亮丽的商店里兜售的所有那些“奢侈”手提包都是为穷人准备的。富人在私人活动中得到他们的手袋，那里出售 5、6 甚至 7 位数的高手袋。
然而，与穷人购买 500 美元的 Coach 包相比，相对而言，富人花 5 万美元购买手提包的花费仍然要少得多。
真正节俭的人无论贫富，无论以何种定义，都是节俭的。
Many people become rich and stay rich, by spending money on creating assets. They know that if money is spent on creating assets, their wealth shall increase.
The poor on the other hand cannot create assets even after being frugal. Their incomes are so little that it seems next to impossible to accumulate money for buying assets.
For example let's take simple example of jewelry. A rich person will never buy cheap artificial pieces of jewelry. They will wait and buy only gold or similar precious jewelry which will have resale value.
On the other hand a poor person can never afford gold or precious jewelry so he/she will end up purchasing something cheap having nil resale value.
Similarly, a rich person will save to buy a bigger house. Again as and when the house is resold it will fetch good money.
Whereas a poor person will be forced to pay rent and that rent will forever remain just an expense.
So we shall not judge the poor person buying another piece of cloth or one more pair of shoes. For them such small purchases are what provide some satisfaction and change.
Meanwhile, there is no similar satisfaction for rich in buying another pair of shoes. They will get satisfaction only in their next big purchase of something that be valuable enough for a good future resale. So they will appear frugal to others around as even when they can buy a new pair of shoes daily, they won't.
许多人通过花钱创造资产而致富并保持富裕。他们知道，如果把钱花在创造资产上，他们的财富就会增加。
另一方面，穷人即使节俭也无法创造资产。他们的收入微乎其微，几乎不可能积累资金购买资产。
例如，让我们以珠宝为例。富人永远不会购买廉价的人造珠宝。他们会等待并只购买具有转售价值的黄金或类似的贵重珠宝。
另一方面，穷人永远买不起黄金或贵重珠宝，因此他/她最终会购买一些没有转售价值的便宜货。
同样，有钱人会存钱买更大的房子。当房子被再次转卖时，它会赚到很多钱。
而一个穷人将被迫支付租金，而租金将永远只是一种支出。
所以我们不应该评判穷人再买一块布或多买一双鞋。对他们来说，这种小额购买可以带来一些满足感和改变。
同时，对于富人来说，再买一双鞋也没有类似的满足感。他们只有在下次购买足够有价值的东西时才会感到满足。所以他们会在周围的人看来很节俭，即使他们可以每天买一双新鞋，他们也不会这样做。