The Safest Investment 最安全的投资

The Safest Investment

最安全的投资

in Observations

The Sky is (Supposedly) Falling!

天塌了（假定）！

Banks are closing. Wall Street is panicking. Governments are inflating. 401Ks are in free-fall. People are freaking out. Chances are good that your anxiety level is higher than normal.

银行关门了，大街上一片恐慌，政府正在施压，401K计划成了空谈，人们爆发了，一个好的机会那便是——你的焦虑水平比平时高。

What should you do in these troubled times?

这种局面下你应该怎么做？

 

Three Simple Steps to Peace of Mind

抚平思绪的三个简单步骤

n         Turn off the news. It’s all too easy to get sucked into the 24-hour news cycle of reporters breathlessly expounding on the latest non-event. Turn it off – the media is rewarded for sensationalizing events to increase viewership, not for providing actionable information. Select a few low-volume trusted sources to stay informed about what’s happening, and ignore the rest of the noise and hand-wringing.

n         关掉新闻。最容易令自己沉浸于24小时不间断的充斥着令人窒息的新闻事件。关掉新闻——媒体是通过增加收益率来获利的，而不是提供可付诸行动的信息。选择低音量、可信的信息源来获取信息，忽略噪杂。

n         Determine what you can and can not control. You can control your own actions. You can’t control the next bank failure. Take what actions you can (like telling your Representatives in Congress which way you’d like them to vote on proposed legislation, if you’re an informed US Citizen), then consciously let go of the rest. The quickest path to constant anxiety is to focus on what you can’t control.

n         决定你所能控制的以及不能控制的。你可以控制自己的行为，而不能控制银行下次的失败。做力所能及的事情（诸如，假设你是合法美国公民，告知国会代表你所期望的立法提议），让我们将其它的都放下。最容易形成焦虑的原因是——聚焦于你做不能控制的事情。

n         Allay your fears with scenario planning. If you’re worried about your prospects in this market, a bit of strategic thinking is the best way to decide what to do next. Do a “mind dump” of everything you’re worried about, then construct your worst-case scenario: what will happen if everything goes wrong? Chances are, it’s not nearly as bad as you fear, and there are a few simple things you can do to improve upon the worst case. (I recommend Learning from the Future if you’re interested in learning more about scenario planning.)

n         通过情景规划来环节忧虑。如果你担心在市场中的前景，一点战略性思想是决定你下一步应如何走的最佳方法。将你所担心的所有事情“从大脑中倒出”，然后构建一个最坏的场景：如果一切都错了，会发生什么事情？机会是，几乎不会像你担心的那样，仍然可以做一些事情来改善这种不好的局面。（如果你对情景规划比较感兴趣，我建议从未来学习）

 

Invest in Intangibles: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

投资于无形资产：知识、技能、能力

The safest investment you can make right now is an investment in your own knowledge, skills, and abilities. Knowing how to build and improve any type of business is one of the best general-purpose skill sets you can have: there have always been opportunities for people who understand how to create value for others, even in the midst of the Great Depression. (Which, for the record, I don’t think we’re even remotely close to repeating.)

目前最安全的投资便是你自己的知识、技能、能力。知道如何利用你所掌握的众多技能中去构建并提升任何类型的业务：通常有机会给那些知道如何为别人创造价值的人，即使在大萧条时。（为正式记录在案目的，我不认为我们在远远地靠近重复）

The wonderful thing about investing in yourself is that your investment’s worth doesn’t fluctuate with the fickle market. If you focus on making yourself more valuable, you’ll be well prepared to improve your situation in even the worst of markets.

自我投资的一个最好的好处便是你的投资价值不受着市场的波动的影响。如果你令自己更加具有价值，即使在市场最为低迷的时候，你仍然可以保持良好的局势。

 

Src: http://personalmba.com/safest-investment/