貪婪 即喜歡金錢 不利於積累財富

Avarice, the love of money, is one of the seven deadly sins.

貪婪，即喜歡金錢，是7宗罪之一。

Throughout world cultures, the belief is deep that avarice is an evil, to be avoided.

在世界各地的文化中，人們堅定地認爲，貪婪是一種惡行，應避而遠之。

But there is also a noble intellectual tradition that holds that it is good for the economy.

但傳統上也有貴族知識分子認爲，貪婪對經濟有利。

For the Scottish enlightenment thinker David Hume, it was the spur of industry — which helped to drive the invisible hand of the market as discovered by his fellow countryman Adam Smith.

蘇格蘭啓蒙思想家大衛•休謨(David Hume)認爲，貪婪是工業的興奮劑，它有助於推動其同胞亞當•斯密(Adam Smith)發現的、市場那隻看不見的手。

More recently, and bluntly, Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street, declared that greed is good.

更近一些時候，邁克爾•道格拉斯(Michael Douglas)在電影《華爾街》(Wall Street)中飾演的戈登•蓋科(Gordon Gekko)明確宣稱，貪婪是好事。

The opposing views of the priests, and of the founding fathers of free-market capitalism, are clear enough.

神父和自由市場資本主義創始者的觀點顯然彼此對立。

God and Mammon have often been in conflict.

上帝和財神往往不和。

But now, armed with the tools of behavioural finance, which applies behavioural psychology to finance, it is possible to choose between the two.

但是現在，憑藉着將行爲心理學運用於金融的行爲金融學工具，人們有可能在兩者之間做出選擇。

And fresh international research, produced under the auspices of State Street’s centre for applied research, suggests that greed is not good after all.

在道富銀行(State Street)應用研究中心幫助下進行的最新國際研究表明，貪婪歸根結底是不好的。

In fact, avarice can be seriously bad for our wealth.

實際上，貪婪可能非常不利於我們積累財富。

Psychologists now have a clear definition for love of money.

心理學家現在對喜歡金錢有一個明確的定義。

It is not about any instrumental need for money to fulfil our other goals, which all of us have, but rather about a love or need of money for its own sake.

它與用錢實現我們其它目標的工具性需求無關——我們全都有其他目標——而是本身就喜歡或者需要金錢。

Using the Money Ethic Scale developed by Thomas Li-Ping Tang in 1992, State Street developed an Investor Love of Money Scale (ILOMS).

模仿湯立平(Thomas Li-Ping Tang)在1992年開發的金錢心理量表(Money Ethic Scale)，道富銀行設計了投資者喜歡金錢量表(ILOMS)。

Researchers asked interviewees in 20 countries a series of questions designed to find out how important money was to their self-esteem.

研究人員向20個國家的受訪者詢問了一系列問題，旨在發現金錢對個人自尊有多重要。

They also tested how they would respond in a series of financial situations.

他們也測試了受訪者在一系列財務狀況下會如何迴應。

For example, they would ask if money was a symbol of success, if they talked about it a lot, or if they wanted to be rich.

例如，受訪者被問到，金錢是否是成功的象徵，他們是否經常談論金錢，或者是否想要變得有錢。

The results were clear.

結果非常清晰。

The more someone had an emotional attachment to money, the more likely they were to make mistakes with money.

人們在情感上對金錢看得越重，他們就越有可能在金錢上犯錯。

A series of behavioural biases that lead investors into predictable mistakes have been diagnosed over the years.

多年來人們已經診斷出一系列行爲偏好(behavioural bias)會導致投資者犯下可預測的錯誤。

Avarice exacerbates all those biases.

而貪婪會加重所有這些偏好。

The avaricious were more likely to buy at the top and sell at the bottom — which for investors is the cardinal sin, worse than all others.

貪婪的人更可能高買低賣——對投資者來說，這是大忌。

They also had shorter time horizons and were more inclined to hyperactive investing behaviour.

此外，他們持有投資的時間更短，更傾向於頻繁交易。

Trade frequently and you are guaranteed to pay more in trading fees, but you are highly unlikely to produce any extra returns.

頻繁交易肯定會支付更多交易費，但不太可能給你帶來額外的回報。

Money lovers were also more likely to believe that they could wait until later in life to save — a belief which has grown even more wrong-headed as lower bond yields make it harder to buy a retirement income.

喜歡金錢的人也更可能相信，他們可以等到生命中更晚些時候再儲蓄——隨着債券收益下降讓獲得養老收入更加困難，這些人變得更加執迷不悟。

And in consequence they were less likely to contribute to any retirement plan and less likely to contribute even as much as 6 per cent of their income if they had one.

結果是，他們不太可能交錢參與任何養老計劃，即便他們有養老計劃，也不太可能佔到收入的6%。

Hence, they ironically appear to be on course for becoming a burden on their more prudent peers.

因此，具有諷刺意味的是，他們似乎正在成爲更謹慎的投資者的負擔。

Those who cared less about money were more likely to adopt a far better strategy and pay regular amounts into diversified retirement plans with constant allocations.

那些不那麼看重金錢的人更可能採取更好的策略，將收入中一定比例的款項定期繳納給多元化的退休計劃。

Such plans effectively require taking some profits at the top and buying when securities are cheap.

此類計劃實際上需要逢高賣出和逢低買進。

To use other psychological terms, they showed greater self-control or emotional intelligence.

用其他心理學術語來說，他們展現出更強的自我控制能力或情商。

If there is any clear message from the research, it is that governments need to prod everyone ever more clearly in that direction; giving people the choice not to save, or to trade too heavily, is a recipe for disaster.

如果該研究得出什麼明確教訓的話，那就是各國政府需要更明確地敦促所有人向這個方向努力；讓人們可以選擇不儲蓄、或者可以選擇頻繁交易都是後患無窮的。

Avarice is universal, but it plainly differs according to economic development.

貪婪無處不在，但各國經濟發展狀況不同，對金錢的態度也千差萬別。

Prosperous nations, where people have less need to worry about money, are also the least covetous of it.

在繁榮國家，人們不太需要擔心金錢，同時也是最不垂涎金錢的。

Switzerland and the Netherlands had the lowest ILOM scores, with the British — unsurprisingly given national embarrassment at talking about money — not far behind.

瑞士和荷蘭在ILOMS上的得分最低，英國與它們相差不大——鑑於英國人羞於談論金錢，這並不令人意外。

The top of the list is dominated by the growing economies of the emerging world — China, India and Brazil.

排在前幾名的以蓬勃發展的新興世界經濟體爲主，包括中國、印度和巴西。

There is, however, one big outlier.

然而，這裏有一個明顯異常的國家。

Despite its wealth, and despite its deep religiousness, the US is near the top of the avarice league.

儘管美國擁有龐大的財富，而且宗教信仰濃厚，但它排名靠前。

This result is striking but not surprising.

這種結果引人注目，但並不令人意外。

Money matters to people far more in the US.

在美國，金錢對人們來說要重要得多。

Look no further than the presidential campaign.

只需看看總統大選就知道了。

One of the few things that unites two deeply disliked candidates is an Achilles heel when it comes to money.

兩位極不受歡迎的候選人只有少數幾個共同之處，其中之一是，金錢都是他們的軟肋。

Donald Trump is plainly desperate for everyone to believe that he is rich; and Hillary Clinton often makes obvious and baffling political mistakes — such as taking a fat speaking fee from Goldman Sachs as she prepared her candidacy — because she seems to want and desire money.

唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)顯然渴望讓所有人相信他非常有錢；而希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)經常在政治上犯一些明顯而令人困惑的錯誤——比如在準備競選期間向高盛(Goldman Sachs)收取高額演講費——因爲她似乎渴望金錢。

Nevertheless, America built the most successful capitalist economy.

然而，美國創建了最爲成功的資本主義經濟。

So maybe David Hume was right all along.

因此大衛•休謨或許自始至終都是正確的。

But look at the success of Wall Street.

但我們來看一下華爾街是怎麼成功的。

State Street’s survey suggests that to profit from people’s avarice, you should give them ample opportunity to trade too heavily and convince them they can make an easy buck.

道富銀行的研究表明，要從人們的貪婪中獲利，你應該讓他們有大量的機會頻繁交易，並讓他們相信可以一夜暴富。

Wall Street has been built on doing just that.

華爾街就建立在這麼做的基礎之上。

Those who paint the world’s biggest financial centre as profiting from greed have a point.

那些將全球最大金融中心描述爲從貪婪中盈利的人有一定道理。

Avarice, indeed, is the vital ingredient for any financial industry.

實際上，貪婪是任何金融行業的關鍵元素。

The market often behaves as though it is efficient.

市場往往表現得似乎是有效的。

It is through irrational behaviour, indulged in by many, that the possibility of making money is created.

正是通過許多人沉溺其中的非理性行爲，纔有了賺錢的可能性。

Those who love money not wisely but too well have created the opportunity for great investors, in control of their own emotions and less in love with money, to build their fortunes.

那些不理智但過於喜歡金錢的人，爲那些能夠控制自己情緒、不那麼看重金錢的偉大投資者創造了積累財富的機遇。