????個人理財類文章通常會開出一些“處方”式建議：做這個，不要做那個，把省下的錢存起來將來會有更好的經濟保障。它給你的好比“減肥菜單”，而不是真正的計劃。就像節食減肥一樣，這類理財建議往往開頭效果喜人，但最終很難堅持下去。換言之，這么做很無趣。

????我建議用一種更好的方式來考慮各種財務決策，比如劃條分界線，即本文所稱的“淺綠線”，看看你在線的哪一頭。它看起來就像是過去50年的股指收益，可以把人們分成四類：處于財務安全狀態的富人、普通有錢人、窮人、其他人。區分標準跟一個人的收入關系不大，更主要的是人們在涉及金錢時所做的決定和行為。

????在《淡綠色線：超級富人的金錢秘密》一書中，我通過研究發現，處于財務安全狀態的富人有如下5個特點。

????寧買便宜一點的奧迪，不買更貴的寶馬。保羅?波斯盧什尼是美洲虎隊的進攻內鋒，他得到了兩份全美橄欖球聯盟的合同，根據表現，他可獲得2000萬-4700萬美元的報酬。他現在肯定算有錢人，但早在幾年前，他的購車決定就已證明，他很早開始就一直在像富人那樣考慮問題。他告訴我，一直想買輛寶馬，但后來他權衡了一下寶馬車的價錢。他認為：“8萬美元一輛車對我來說太奢侈了。所以我降了一些。”他并沒有選擇屈就起亞這樣的廉價車，而是選擇了檔次不相上下、但便宜1萬美元的奧迪。這可能看起來挺好笑，畢竟他兩輛車都買得起，但是，像他這樣會以“夠用就好”做決定的人不多，而這可以保證他在退役之后數十年里的財務安全。

????想喝星巴克的時候就去喝。如果點一杯4美元的拿鐵可以讓你的心情更好，那就別猶豫。有人可能會對你說要省下這4美元，看著它越變越多，讓自己有更多退休儲備金。他說的沒錯，但這種做法既無趣又不切實際。做預算就像節食，失敗就失敗在它只告訴你別去做什么。在“淺綠色線”那頭，聰明的富人用“財務計劃”來選擇把錢花在對自己來說重要的事情上，與此同時，你知道自己必須要在其他地方省，以保證財務安全。

????不要時刻關注股市走向。對于不從事金融業的普通上班族來說，要從股票市場每天波詭云譎的變化中找到真理，絕對是浪費時間。最糟糕的是，你很有可能因為行差踏錯，做出錯誤投資決定而被套牢。更合理的規劃是專注于自己能夠控制的事情：你應該將錢投到多樣化、低成本、不會讓你深陷其中的投資產品。

????（另外兩條投資警告。根據被披露的利益沖突調整投資策略的人往往無法調整到位——因此會犯下錯誤。看到電視上有人談論一支股票，會讓你買進或賣出這只股票的概率增加3-9倍。做出這種沖動決定的根據，不過是一個陌生人的高談闊論而已。）

????如果不惜為子女教育投入重金，把錢花在他們3-8歲這個階段。諾貝爾經濟學獎得主詹姆斯?赫克曼進行的研究發現，花錢讓孩子接受高質量的早期兒童教育，可以讓他們成年后獲得最大的好處。原因是3至8歲正是兒童發展責任心、毅力、社交能力和好奇心的階段。這些品質對于孩子最終的成功至關重要，遠遠超過高中的SAT預科課程和讀哪所的大學。

????少出去下館子。我與堪薩斯州立大學心理學家布拉德?克朗茲進行的研究發現，1%與5%之間的區別是顯而易見的：1%的人花在外出就餐上的開支少30%，意味著他們為退休增加了30%的儲蓄。這筆錢可不止一杯星巴克拿鐵的價格，隨著時間推移，這種行為將讓人脫穎而出，成為“財務安全的富人”。（財富中文網）

????本文作者保羅?沙利文為《紐約時報》財富至上專欄的作者，并著有《淡綠色線：超級富人的金錢秘密》一書。

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????審校：任文科

????Personal finance advice too often consists of prescriptions. Do this, not that and save the difference for a better financial future. That’s a diet, not a plan. And like diets, this kind of financial advice works great in the beginning but fails when reality sets in. Simply put, it’s no fun.

????I propose a better way to think about financial decisions, using a bright line test – in this case, a thin green line. That line, which looks like stock index returns over the past 50 years, divides the wealthy, who are financially secure, from the rich, poor and everyone else. It has less to do with people’s income and a far more to do with the decisions they make and the behaviors they exhibit when it comes to money.

????Here are five differences that I found in the research for my book, The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy, that distinguish those who are financially secure.

????Always buy the Audi over the BMW. Paul Posluszny, an offensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars, has received two NFL contracts that will pay him between $20 million and $47 million, depending on how he performs. He is certainly rich, but the decision he made a few years ago around buying a car shows that he is thinking like a wealthy person. He told me he had always wanted a BMW BMW , but then he ran the numbers on the top-of-the-line sedan. “An $80,000 car was too much,” he told me. “So I downsized.” Far from squeezing his hulking frame into a KIA, he went with the comparable Audi, saving himself about $10,000. This might seem absurd – he had the money for both – but it is little decisions like that and a sense of what is enough that should insure he is financially secure long after his playing days.

????Drink Starbucks coffee whenever you want. If ordering a $4 latte is something that makes your day better, do it. There are plenty of people who have said you could save that $4, watch it compound, and have a larger nest egg in retirement. Absolutely true, but no fun and totally unreasonable. Budgets, like diets, fail because they tell you what not to do. Financial plans, which people on the right side of the thin green line embrace, allow you to make choices and to spend on what matters to you, knowing that you will have to save in other areas to maintain the security of true wealth.

????Don’t ever check where the Dow Jones (or any index) closes.For the person with a day-job outside of finance, trying to divine truth from the daily machinations of the stock market is at best a waste of time. At worst, it increases the odds you will be trapped by all the behavioral biases that cause people to make the wrong investing decisions – and become the dumb money of Wall Street. A far better plan is to focus on what you can control: decisions based on socking money away in a broadly diversified, low-cost portfolio and behaviors that allow you not to dip into that money.

????(Two other investing caveats. People who adjust their strategy based on a conflict of interest being disclosed do not adjust it enough – and therefore make a mistake. And seeing a stock talked about on television increases the likelihood that you will buy or sell it by three to nearly nine times – an impulse decision based on nothing more than someone you don’t know talking about it.)

????If you’re going to spend a lot of money on your children’s education, spend it when they’re 3 to 8. James Heckman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, has done research that shows spending money to put children into high-quality early childhood education offers the greatest bang for the buck in their adult years. The reason is from three to eight children develop traits like conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity. And these qualities matter more to ultimate success than SAT prep courses in high school or what college your children go to.

????Eat out less. From research I did with Brad Klontz, a clinical psychologist with an academic appointment at Kansas State University, the difference between the 1% and the 5% was straightforward: the 1% spent 30% less of their money eating out and saved 30% more of it for retirement. And that, more than the cost of a Starbuck’s latte, is what, over time, separates the wealthy from everyone else on the wrong side of the thin green line.

????Paul Sullivan, who writes the Wealth Matters column for the New York Times, is the author of The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy (Simon & Schuster).