为自由而量入为出

除了出租你的时间之外，还有哪些重要的事情你应该避免？

Any other big things you should avoid other than renting out your time?

是的。

Yeah.

我发了两条相关的推文。

There are two tweets that I put out that are related.

第一条是说，我们的生活方式需要升级，但不能升级得太快。

So the first one was talking about, we are somewhere, like, how your lifestyle, you know, has to upgrade shouldn't get upgraded too fast.

这条推文基本上说的是，那些生活远低于自己收入水平的人，享受着那些忙于提升生活方式的人根本无法想象的自由。

And that one basically said, people who are living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles just can't fathom.

我认为这一点非常重要，就是不要总是提升你的生活方式，以保持你的自由。

And I think that's very important, like, just to not upgrade your lifestyle all the time to maintain your freedom.

它能给你带来行动上的自由。

And it just gives you a freedom of operation.

你一旦赚到一点钱，仍然想保持原来的生活状态，这样忧虑就会消失。

You basically once you make a little bit of money, you still wanna be living like your old self so that just the worry goes away.

所以别急着去升级房子和生活方式之类的东西。

So don't run out to upgrade that house and lifestyle and all that stuff.

假设你每小时要支付一千美元。

Let's say you're gonna pay the thousand dollars an hour.

问题是，当你进入这种工作生活方式时，你不可能突然从每小时赚20美元变成每小时赚一千美元。

The problem is that when you go into a work lifestyle like that, you don't just suddenly go from making $20 an hour to making a thousand dollars an hour.

这是一个长期职业生涯中的逐步过程。

That's a progression over a long career.

随着这种情况发生，一个微妙的问题是，你随着赚的钱越来越多而不断提升自己的生活方式。

And as that happens, one subtle problem is that you upgrade your lifestyle as you make more and more money.

而这种生活方式的提升会改变你对财富的定义，让你陷入工资奴隶的陷阱。

And that upgrading of the lifestyle kind of ups what you consider to be wealth, and you stay in this wage slave trap.

所以我忘了是谁说的。

So I forget who said it.

也许是纳西姆·塔勒布，他说，最危险的东西是海洛因和月薪。

Maybe it was Nasim Taleb, but he said, you know, the most dangerous things are heroin and a monthly salary.

对吧？

Right?

因为它们极具成瘾性。

Because they're highly addictive.

你想变得富裕的方式是，保持贫穷，不断工作、工作、再工作。

The way you wanna get wealthy is you wanna be poor and working and working and working.

比如，科技行业就是这样运作的：你十年内赚不到任何钱，然后在第十一年，你可能会获得一笔巨额收入。而这正是为什么对所谓富人征收如此高的边际税率是 flawed 的原因——那些最具风险承担精神、最具创造力的职业，你实际上会在长达十年的时间里不断亏钱，承受巨大的风险，持续付出、付出、再付出。

And this is, for example, how the tech industry works where you don't make any money for ten years, and then suddenly in year eleven, you might have a giant payday, which is what by the way, one reason why these very high marginal tax rates for the so called wealthy are flawed because the highest risk taking, most creative professions, you literally lose money for a decade of your life while you take massive risk and you bleed and bleed and bleed.

然后在第十一年或第十五年，你可能会迎来一次巨额收入。

And then suddenly in year eleven or year fifteen, you might have one single big payday.

但紧接着， Uncle Sam 就会出现，说：嘿。

But then, of course, uncle Sam show up and basically say, hey.

你知道吗？

You know what?

你今年赚了不少钱。

You just made a lot of money this year.

因此，你变富了。

Therefore, you're rich.

因此，你很邪恶，必须把所有钱交给我们。

Therefore, you're evil, and you gotta hand it all over to us.

这摧毁了这类富有创造力的风险职业。

So it just destroys those kinds of creative risk taking professions.

但理想情况下，你希望把钱分批赚取，且间隔时间要长，这样你的生活方式才没有机会迅速适应。

But, ideally, you wanna make your money in discrete lumps separated over long periods of time so that your own lifestyle does not have a chance to adapt quickly.

然后你就可以说，好吧。

And then you can basically say, okay.

现在我做完了。

Now I'm done.

现在我退休了。

Now I'm retired.

现在我自由了。

Now I'm free.

我仍然会工作，因为你得为自己的人生做点什么，但我只会在我想做的时候做我想做的事，这将更多是创意的表达，而不是为了钱。

I'm still gonna work because you gotta do something with your life, but I'm gonna work on only the things that I want when I want, and it's gonna be much more creative expression and much less about money.