打造富裕
世上沒有100分的人生，所以我們終究得學會在不同的人生目標中抉擇，要多少快樂？求多高成就？有多大影響力？遺留什麼典範？愚者企圖全拿，智者懂得享受八分滿的幸福。
| 成功是多方面的 |
一般公認的成功定義是非常狹隘且老套的，大家多半認為：只要錢賺得愈多或是愈出名，就會愈快樂。
這個定義只有一個問題，那就是許多事業成功的人並未真的「擁有一切」。再說到那一大票原本意氣風發的投機人士，後來卻被指控詐欺吃上官司，顯示這些人根本就不值得我們羨慕和仿傚。所以，成功的概念絕非如此狹隘，必須能夠更真實反映出每個人特有的價值、需求及理想。
排除了名與利，成功真正涵蓋的核心意義包含以下4個項目：
1快樂──你對人生感到愉悅滿足。當你快樂時，會覺得事事順心、怡然自得。
2成就──你覺得自己的表現，與同儕以及跟你有相同價值觀的人相比毫不遜色。當你覺得自己在努力完成某項了不起的任務時，你會覺得自己像個贏家。
3影響力──是指你能夠對最親近的人以及最重視的人，發揮正面的影響。當你的人生和事業，對其他人來說占有舉足輕重的地位時，你會覺得自己的所作所為是有意義的，而且對別人是很重要的。
4樹立典範──你建立個人價值及成就的方式，足以作為啟發後繼者的楷模，而這種為人典範的本質，能夠讓你把成就延續到未來。
以上這4個項目形成了成功的基本架構，如果少了其中一項，人們就不會覺得自己成功。而獲得快樂及滿足感的關鍵，就在於維持這4個成功要項間的平衡。
| 有系統地花錢 |
傳統的理財建議是「盡量多存錢」，較新的觀念則是強調有系統地花錢──也就是根據特定消費能否增進生活中的其他關連領域，來做出持續的消費決策。
因為系統性花錢，你不只評估消費能否提升你原本在它上面的經驗，還會評估特定支出是否也會影響其他方面的經驗。當你這麼做時，你就開始變成個人生活的系統工程師，你開始更有策略地思考。換句話說，系統性地花錢將日常消費轉變成投資。
大多數人都會將收入減去生活支出，以為他們只能用剩餘的自由支配資金來從事投資。如果你這樣想，你可能會認為自己沒有太多錢可以投資。系統性花費提供一個更好的視角，也就是將你的全部收入視為可以投資的資金。例如，當你付房租時，你是投資在你的公寓住宿一個月。
當你如此看待你的所有花費時，你會恍然大悟，原來你彈匣裡的子彈比你知道的還要多很多。你投資的不是只有可以自由支配的收入，你其實年復一年地在投資你的所有稅後所得。系統性花費是將投資思維注入你的所有個人支出，而非只有你以為的財產。這是一種不同的思考與規畫方式。
| 財務獨立比展現社會地位更加重要 |
大多數人專注創造高收入，現實世界的百萬富翁也是如此，但是他們隨後會透過調節生活支出和投資盈餘來放大收入的價值。他們以財富為導向，而不是以消費為導向。
拿足球打個比方：現實世界的財富累積需要良好的進攻和良好的防禦。良好進攻意味最大限度地創造收入，良好防禦意味在個人支出和生活方式上要節儉。一般人主要關注進攻，而現實世界的百萬富翁則將良好的進攻與穩固的防守相結合，以增加淨資產。
在德州，他們形容某些人像是擁有「有大帽子沒有牛」的哲學──即有些人擁有所有有錢人的身分地位象徵，但仔細觀察，你會發現那一切全都建立在借來的資本上，都是沒有實質內容的虛浮表象。
這種「有大帽子沒有牛」的哲學與大多數白手起家百萬富翁的消費習慣截然相反。大部分實現財務獨立的人，在個人支出上都採取了「少幾頂帽子但有很多牛」的路線──亦即消費習慣溫和不顯眼，工作勤奮而且有紮實的事業。他們有不一樣的優先順序，覺得沒有必要表現奢華的生活方式。
| The Multidimensional Nature of Success |
The generally accepted definition of success is very one dimensional and predictable: the more money you have or the greater your degree of celebrity, the happier you will be.
The only problem with this definition of success is that many high achievers don't actually "have it all" The long list of corporate high fliers who have been charged with fraud shows that these people are not to be envied and emulated after all. Instead, the concept of what it takes to be a success must be more multidimensional and must reflect your own unique values, needs and ideals far better.
These four categories form the basic structure for what people are trying to establish when they talk about their pursuit of success. If any one of these four elements is missing, people won't feel successful. The key to happiness and feelings of personal satisfaction is to hit just the right balance between all four categories of success.
| Spend Systematically |
A traditional approach to personal finance is: "Save as much money as possible." A more modern view emphasizes systemic spending — where you make ongoing purchase decisions based on whether or not that purchase will enhance other interconnected areas of your life.
With systemic spending, you evaluate how your purchases will not only improve your experience in its original context but also how a particular piece of spending impacts on every other context as well. When you do this, you start becoming a systems engineer for your own life and you start thinking more strategically. Put differently, systemic spending turns everyday consumption into investing.
Most people will take their income, deduct their living expenses and assume they can only invest what is their discretionary money left over. If you do that, you may assume you don't have much to invest at all. Systemic spending suggests a better way to look at this is to see your entire income as money that can be invested. For example, when you pay rent, you are investing in a month's stay in your apartment.
When you view all your spending this way, you will suddenly realize you have a lot more gas in the tank than you realize. Instead of investing just your discretionary income, you're actually investing your entire post-tax income year after year. Systemic spending injects investment thinking into all your personal expenditure, not just what you put into financial assets. It's a different way to think and plan.
| Financial Independence Over Social Status |
Most people focus on generating high incomes. Real-world millionaires do that as well, but they then leverage the value of their income stream by moderating their life-style expenditure and investing the balance. They become wealth-oriented rather than consumption-oriented.
To use a football analogy, the accumulation of real-world wealth requires a good offense combined with a good defense. A good offense means maximizing opportunities to generate income. A good defense means being frugal in personal expenditure and life-style expenditure. The average person focuses mainly on offense, while real-world millionaires combine a good offense with a solid defense to generate increasing net worth.
In Texas, they talk about some people as having a "big-hat-no cattle" philosophy - that is, people who have all the status symbols of high net worth individuals, but when you look more closely, you find everything is built on borrowed capital. It's an illusion without real substance.
This big-hat-no-cattle philosophy is the exact opposite of the consumption habits of most self-made millionaires. Most people who have achieved financial independence employ a little-hate-many-cattle approach to personal expenditure - that is, they have moderate and unremarkable consumption habits, working in tandem with hard work and solid careers. Their priorities are different, and they feel no need to exhibit a high consumption lifestyle.
推薦書單
NO.87 八分滿的幸福
Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life
by 蘿拉．納舒（Laura Nash）、霍華德．史帝文生（Howard Stevenson）
NO.711 認真消費就是投資
The Last SAFE Investment: Spending Now To Increase Your True Wealth Forever
by 布萊恩．法蘭克林（Bryan Franklin）
NO.851 隔壁百萬富翁
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
by 湯瑪斯．J．史丹利（Thomas J. Stanley）、威廉．D．丹柯（William D. Danko）
中文版：《原來有錢人都這麼做》（久石文化，2017）
