我要做個守財奴：新年6大省錢計劃

1. Divvy up any unexpected income
分配好福利收入

When you have a windfall — a bonus, gift, or extra cash for extra work — use the rule of thirds to determine how to use it:
當你得到一筆意外之財時--獎金、禮物，或是賺到的外快--使用三分之一法則來決定如何使用它：

One third for the past. Use one third to pay down debt you owe.
三分之一用在過去。把三分之一的錢用來支付你欠下的債務。

One third for the future. Put a second third immediately into some sort of savings or investment.
三分之一用在未來。把第二個三分之一立刻進行儲蓄或是投資。

One third for the present. Use the final third to make a home or personal improvement or purchase you want.
三分之一用在當前。把最後的三分之一用於家庭或個人改善，又或者是買你想要的東西。

If you follow this rule, you'll see your debt shrink and your savings grow, and you won't feel deprived.
如果你遵循了這個法則，你將看到你的債務在減少，而你的儲蓄在增加。你也不會再覺得拮据了！

2. Keep a slush fund handy
手頭要有一筆備用金

Something — be it a car repair, an emergency root canal, or a job layoff — always comes up to throw you off your monthly budget. To keep these incidents from running you into debt, you need to have an emergency stash in an easily accessible account, preferably a money market account (they earn a little more interest than regular savings accounts).
總有些事會給你一個措手不及，打亂你的每月預算，比如修車、牙根治療或是下崗之類的事。爲了避免因爲這些事而讓自己揹負債務，你需要準備一個隨時可用的緊急賬戶，比較好的是貨幣理財賬戶（比起一般的儲蓄賬戶，它們賺到的利息會更多一點）。

How much is enough? Easy. Track all of your spending for a month (including everything from your mortgage payment to lunch at the deli), and multiply that monthly total by three. That three-month operating budget is a scary number, eh? Well, this is the minimum you should have on hand in case the roof caves in (literally or figuratively) and you need some dough to get you through the rough spots. And don't worry if this money isn't accruing the big interest; it's there for emergencies.
多少錢才足夠？很簡單。記錄下你一個月的總花銷（所有林林總總的賬目，從按揭支付到去熟食店吃午飯的開銷），然後把月消費總額再乘以三。這份三月收支預算看着有些嚇人，是吧？這個數字其實是你手頭應該有的最低費用，用來防止意外的發生，不管是房子倒塌了還是出現其它意外。你需要一些錢幫你度過這些難關。如果這些錢不能產生很多利息，也不必擔心，因爲預留這些錢是爲緊急狀況準備的。

3. Ditch the ATM card
丟掉銀行卡

We're always making impulse purchases, from a pack of gum at the supermarket checkout line to that new Van Halen-meets-bluegrass CD. How can you stop your bank account from hemorrhaging? Take a page from the old-timers and shRed your ATM card. Figure out how much cash you'll need each week for your regular, cash-based purchases (things like lunch at the cafeteria and your daily cup of coffee), head on over to the bank teller's window, and get your walking-around money for the week. With a finite amount of cash, you'll start to think twice before those spur-of-the-moment spending sprees.
我們不可避免地會衝動購物，比如在超市排隊結賬時會買一盒口香糖，或是在唱片店買一張範·海倫樂隊新出的CD。你怎麼做才能守住你銀行裏的錢而不是鋪張消費呢？跟老前輩學一學，丟掉銀行卡。你要算出每個月滿足正常生活需要所花的現金數目（像在自助餐廳吃的午飯，你每天要喝的咖啡），接着徑直走到銀行櫃檯，取出你這一星期所需要的零花錢。因爲金額有限，在你想衝動購物時，你就會開始再三考慮了

4. Put yourself on your payroll
給自己支付工資

There comes a time every month when the bills start piling up and you force yourself to sit down and write out all the checks. Well, there's one more check you should be writing — one to yourself. Jay Fine, a longtime financial planner based in Monroe, New Jersey, offers this easy way to put your retirement planning into high gear. "Put yourself on the payroll," he says. "Every month — or even better, every paycheck — make sure you set an amount aside for investment. A good number would be about 6 percent. Anything more would be great. If you have to, you can even write yourself a check to deposit or send to another account. But just as you pay your mortgage and your electric bill without fail, now you'll be making sure to pay yourself as well."
當賬單開始堆積起來時，你就要逼着自己坐下來填寫支付每一筆賬單所需的支票。這樣的事情每月都會有一次。但是還有一張支票你應該寫，那就是一張寫給你自己的支票。來自新澤西州門羅鎮的長期理財規劃師Jay Fine，給出了一個建議幫助你。他說：“每月爲自己支付工資，確保拿出了一筆錢做投資。理想的比例是6%。如果更多，就棒極了。如果需要可以用自己的名義進行存款或是存在另一個賬戶裏。就像你支付按揭和電費從沒中斷過一樣，現在你要確保能一直爲自己付工資。”

5. Make, and stick to, a budget
制定預算並堅持執行

Budgets are the first steps to gaining some financial order in your home. Stanley Kershman, an author, lawyer, and creator of the website , has a six-step plan to accomplishing just that:
預算是保證家庭財務有序進行的第一步。身兼作家、律師和理財網站（）創辦人三職的斯坦利·科什曼，提供了一個六步走計劃：

(1) Don't attempt to do your entire budget in one sitting. Take a few days, breaking the work down into manageable pieces.
不要試圖一次就想搞定你全部的預算計劃。花幾天時間，把這個工作分成可以控制的幾個部分。

(2) Gather up all of your income information, including salaries, interest, and gifts.
彙總你的所有收入，包括工資，利息和禮物贈品。

(3) Next, gather up all of your expense information. Do this thoroughly, even if it takes three days, a week, or a month. Make sure you're not missing anything.
下一步，彙總你的所有開銷。做這一步，要全面徹底，即使它要花費你三天、一個星期或是一個月時間。確保你沒有任何遺漏。

(4) Using a budget worksheet add up all of the totals for the income and outflow.
使用預算表，在表裏填上所有收入和支出的項目。

(5) Figure out where you can do some fine-tuning, either to pay down your debt or increase your savings goals. However, above all, make sure you're making as much money as you're spending. Stay out of the red.
想一想你在哪些方面可以做細微的調整，比如在可以支付你的債務或是能提高你的儲蓄金額方面。但首當其衝的是，確信你賺到的至少要比你花費的多。遠離赤字。

(6) Redo the budget with the new totals, and post it around your house, lest you forget you are now living within the cozy confines of a household budget.
根據新的總額重做一份預算，張貼在家裏，提醒自己，現在過的是有家庭預算控制的舒坦生活。

6. Follow these financial rules of thumb
遵循財務黃金法則

Concerned about how much you're spending, how much you should be saving, and how much house you can afford? Use these easy equations to determine how financially healthy you are:
在擔心要花多少錢，存多少錢，以及你能負擔的起多大平米的房子了嗎？用這些簡單的等式來看看你的財務健康狀況如何吧：

The price of your home should not be more than 2.5 times your annual gross household income.
房子價格不應超過你每年家庭純收入的2.5倍。

Your total monthly debt payments (including mortgage, student loans, car, and credit card payments) should not be more than 35 percent of your monthly gross income. Some mortgage brokers will stretch this ratio up to 40 percent, but that leaves you very little budgetary wiggle room.
你每月要支付的債務總額（包括按揭付款、助學貸款、汽車貸款和信用卡支付）不應超過你每月純收入的35%。一些房貸經紀人會把比率提升到40%，不過這樣的話你的預算空間將非常受限。

To retire comfortably, your nest egg should be about 20 times what you want your annual income to be. If you anticipate needing about $75,000 a year to live on when you retire, you'll need to save a nest egg of about $1.5 million. Of course, this will vary if you retire early or continue to work longer than usual.
爲了舒服地退休，你的儲備金應該說是你年收入的20倍！如果你退休以後，你需要一年75,000美元來維持生活，那你就得攢夠一百五十萬美元的儲備金。當然，如果你要早點退休或是繼續工作，這筆金額會有所調整。