Unit 5 Financial Management
Money Matters
By Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
1 While informing freshmen about the hazards of irresponsible alcohol consumption, our educational institutions should also be providing instruction into the mysteries of money. Too many students drink more than they should and do not have a clue about the relationship between working, earning, spending and saving. Not all. It is a socio-economic thing. Those from the middle are most vulnerable.
我们的教育机构在告知大一新生不负责任的酗酒带来的危害时，也应该教授他们关于金钱的奥秘。太多学生饮酒过量，在处理工作、收入、花费和储蓄之间的关系时又无所适从。不是所有学生都这样，这是一个社会经济问 题。来自中产家庭的学生最容易中招。
2 I think it was in the fifth grade at primary school that banking was first introduced to me. A representative of Lincoln Savings, which had a branch only a few blocks from school, visited my class. With the encouragement of our teacher, the banker extolled the virtue of saving, and by explaining compound interest he demonstrated how the pennies put away each week would over time mount up to something meaningful. A few days later many of us returned to class with newly filled out documents, complete with our parents’ endorsement and a handful of coins. With a dime and a nickel, I opened my first account. Once a week, on behalf of the bank, the teacher collected our passbooks and the change we placed into small brown envelopes marked with our names. And little by little, we watched our accounts grow.
大概是在小学五年级的时候我第一次接触到了关于银行业方面的教育。有一位来自林肯储蓄银行分行的代表走进了我的课堂，该分行距离我们学校仅几个街区远。在老师的鼓励下，那位银行工作人员大谈储蓄的好处，并且通过分析复利，向我们展示了怎样使每周省下的几个便士增加为一笔数目可观的资金。几天后，我们中的很多人回到课堂时，都随身带来了新填好有父母签字的文件和一堆硬币。用几枚硬币，我开通了人生的第一个账户。每周老师代表银行收集我们的存折及装有零钱的棕色小信封，信封上写有我们的名字。渐渐地，我们看到存折里的钱多了起来。
3 Those were the days when young people lived in a cash economy; you didn’t have credit cards. By the time I graduated from elementary school, I had developed an understanding of the relationship between work and money. This knowledge was gained partly in school but also because I had begun delivering prescriptions for Hoffman’s drugstore, in good weather or bad, doing business on one of those fat-wheeled bicycles with the big baskets on the front. And, yes, the tips were always better when it was pouring and I quickly learned to pedal between the rain drops!
那时候的年轻人生活在一个现金交易的经济时代，没有信用卡。到我小学毕业的时候，我已经了解了工作和金钱之间的关系。这种了解一部分源于学校，另一个原因是我开始为霍夫曼药房送药方，不论天气好坏，我都骑着前面有大篮子的宽轮自行车工作。当然，在下大雨的日子里小费更多一些。我也很快学会了如何在雨水中骑行。
4 My wife, when I was telling her what I was writing, asked me where I was going with all of this. The answer is that I am troubled that our schools, much less our colleges, don’t teach students enough about how to handle money. Some might say that life and the confrontation of high tuition and the need for jobs to get through college takes care of that, but I’m not sure.
当我告诉妻子我在写什么的时候，她问我意欲何为。答案是，我很困惑为什么学校，特别是大学，没有教授学生足够的理财知识呢。有人可能会说生活会让他们明白，或者面对大学的高额学费，学生们得去工作才能完成学业时，他们也会明白。但是我表示怀疑。
5 The experience of college has many lessons to impart: socialization — getting along with strangers with whom you share confined spaces; time management — organizing for class, study and relaxation; nutrition — eating and drinking thoughtfully; and finance — earning, accumulating and budgeting limited resources.
大学阶段有许多课程需要教授给学生：交际方面——如何与共享有限空间的陌生人相处；时间管理方面—— 如何安排上课、学习和休闲的时间；营养方面——如何合理地安排饮食；金融方面——如何挣钱、存钱，以及对有限的资源进行预算。
6 Over the years, I watched students struggle with the allocation of time — cramming a semester’s work into the last three weeks; I’ve seen them gain excess weight from eating and drinking unwisely; and, I’ve seen students run through a semester’s cash before midterm break.
多年来，我看到学生们苦于不会分配时间，把一个学期的任务挤在最后三个星期突击完成；我看到他们因不合理的饮食而体重超标；我也看到学生们在期中放假前就把一个学期的钱花光了。
7 On many campuses, students have credit accounts filled with funds deposited at the beginning of the academic year, either by the students themselves or by parents, which are then spent throughout the term whenever the plastic card is “swiped” by the student when she wishes to make a purchase. Buy a book — swipe once; eat a few meals — swipe two or three times a day. Swiping is easy — all it takes is a swift movement of the wrist.
在很多大学，学生们自己或者他们的父母会在学年初往他们的信用账户存钱，这些钱供他们在整个学期里使用，当学生想购物时，随时可以刷卡。买本书，刷一次；吃几顿饭，一天刷两三次。刷卡很简单，只需动一动手腕。
8 But there is often inadequate comprehension of the finite nature of the size of the account, of the bottom line. In September, a student estimates how much money he needs for each upcoming week, and multiplies that number by a 14-week semester, getting the dollar amount to be deposited into the account. And then he forgets and too often the reverse doesn’t take place. The student doesn’t take the total amount in the account and divide by 14 to figure out how much money is available to spend weekly. Likewise, borrowing funds for tuition at a single digit interest rate doesn’t seem too overwhelming to the student until he looks at the total amount owed at the end of four years. Sums grow when you borrow as well as when you save!
但是学生们通常对这笔钱是有限的这个本质，以及对自己的底线缺乏足够的认识。 9月，一名学生会估计在接下来的每周他大约需要多少钱，将这个数字乘以一学期的14周，得到需要存入账户的总额。而后，他就忘了这笔钱是怎么算出来的。通常，他花钱时不会进行相反操作。他不会把账户里的金额总数除以14从而计算出每周可供花 费多少钱。同样，以低于10点的利率借来的学费在他看来并不算多，直到四年后看到总数时，他才会觉得数额巨大。 不论你是借钱还是存钱，日积月累，数目都会变大。
9 Frankly, too much credit in the form of magic cards is accessible to undergraduates. In fact, I think banks and credit card companies often take advantage of students’ ignorance of financial risk by offering multiple cards and giving them an opportunity to spend without thinking about how the bill is ultimately to be satisfied. Many young people are not adequately educated about credit cards and debt. They may know that they have to pay the money back, but they may not be prepared to understand the effect of high interest rates, minimum payments, and the devastating effect that late payments can cause. And when most young people have relatively low-paying jobs, it can become difficult to keep up with credit card payments if they get out of control.
坦白地说，大学生们很容易得到各种有魔力的信用卡，而且给他们的信用额度太高。事实上，我认为银行和信用卡公司通常利用学生对财务风险的无知，给他们提供各式各样的信用卡，并给他们提供机会，使他们在消费时无须考虑账单最后怎样偿还。很多年轻人并没有接受过关于信用卡和债务足够多的教育。他们可能知道必须还钱，但是他们还不了解高利率的影响、最低还款额以及逾期还款所带来的毁灭性后果。因此，在大多数年轻人收入还偏低的时候，如果刷卡过度就很难还清信用卡欠款。
10 Students who start out this way are behind the eight ball even before commencement; they enter the next stage of life with a negative dowry. They are denied the opportunity to build good financial habits and some are obliged to take jobs that they might not otherwise, jobs that pay a little more but offer less satisfaction and ego nourishment, and no long-term opportunity. Some students never catch up, or find the dollars needed to buy a home almost impossible to save; and they always “owe” the company store. It is a sad and debilitating state of affairs. Ask students how much a ticket costs to an upcoming rock concert and they’ll quickly tell you. Ask about the price of a keg of beer and they will surely know the answer. Ask how much of their gross monthly salary will net out for rent and utilities and they will be stumped. Ask how much they have to save in order to go on vacation, buy a car, put a down payment on a mortgage, send their kids to college or — the big one — retire, and their eyes will glaze over.
以这种方式走出学校的学生，甚至在毕业前就已经陷入困境了；他们带着负债进入人生的下一阶段。他们没有机会养成一个良好的财务习惯，一些人不得不接受他们原本不会接受的工作，这些工作报酬相对高一点，但无法给予同样的满足感和个人提升空间，也没有长远的发展机会。有的学生永远跟不上，他们发现几乎不可能存下买房所需的钱，而且总是欠公司商店的钱。这是一种令人痛心又无能为力的状态。问学生下一场摇滚音乐会的门票价格，他们会马上告诉你，问他们一桶啤酒的价格，他们也肯定知道。但是问他们的月薪除去房租和水电费后的余额，他们会被难倒。若问他们为了度假、买车、按揭首付，以及送他们的孩子上大学，或者更远的目标——退休，需要存多 少钱，他们肯定会目光呆滞。
11 Too many of our young people live here and now. Teachers, elders, parents and bankers need to stimulate them to think about the future in an even more informed way.
我们周围有太多年轻人只活在当下。老师们、长辈们、家长们以及银行从业人员都要激励他们，给他们更多的信息，使他们能更清楚地思考未来。
