The unfair stigma surrounding millennials and their money
新一代年轻人的退休养老理财观
Millennials often get a bad rap when it comes to responsibility. Apparently, they change jobs too frequently. They put off marriage. They are busy spending all their money on avocado toast instead of deposits for housing or long term savings.
谈到责任心，"千禧一代"的口碑往往很差。很显然，他们换工作的频率太高了。他们离婚率很高，而且忙着把钱花在吃喝玩乐上面，却不会存钱买房，也不准备长期储蓄。
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A recent survey of 1,037 Americans found less than a third of millennials are contributing to a retirement fund, while another study by Merrill Edge revealed that they are saving – they’re just not saving for retirement. So are millennials really less skilled at managing their money than previous generations?
最近对1,037名美国人进行的调查发现，只有不到三分之一的千禧一代缴纳退休金。但Merrill Edge的另外一项研究表明，他们的确在存钱——只不过，他们不是存钱养老。那么，千禧一代在理财方面的能力真的不如前几代人吗？ Maybe not. Decade after decade, young people have dodged the idea of planning for their old age. This reluctance is nothing new. A study from 1998, for example, found that younger baby boomers were saving less for retirement than older baby boomers.
或许并非如此。时过境迁，年轻人都在回避为退休生活做规划的想法。这种观念并非新生事物。例如，1998年的一项研究发现，比较年轻的"婴儿潮一代"为退休生活存下的钱少于年龄较大的"婴儿潮一代"。
Douglas Hershey, director of the Retirement Planning Research Lab at Oklahoma State University says it has more to do with young people in general than millennials.
奥克拉荷马州立大学退休规划研究室主任道格拉斯·赫尔希（Douglas Hershey）表示，这不只是千禧一代的问题，而是年轻人的共性。
“I don’t think there’s much difference in how important millennials think retirement is, or their attitudes, from say Boomers when they were in their 20s.”
"我不认为千禧一代对退休的重视程度或态度，与20多岁时的婴儿潮一代有太大区别。"
More important, he says, are certain psychological characteristics that affect how we save, no matter the age. One factor he points to is future time perspective. “Some people think about the future five, 10, 20 years out, whereas other people are more present-oriented. It’s a pretty stable personality trait. They tend to carry it throughout their lives.” He adds that being conscientious and detail-oriented are other good predictors of whether people plan and save for retirement.
他表示，更重要的是某些能够影响你储蓄方式的心理特征，这与年龄无关。他指出，未来时间洞察力便是因素之一。"有人会思考未来5年、10年、20年的事情，还有的人更看重当下。这是一种非常稳定的个性特征，往往会伴随人的一生。"他补充道，想要预测一个人是否会为退休生活做规划和储蓄，小心谨慎和看重细节是比较好的参考因素。
Even so, he points to more immediate financial concerns for the current generation, like rising house prices and educational costs.
即便如此，他也指出，现在这代人面临着一些紧迫的财务担忧，例如房价和教育费用的上涨。
Sophia Bera is a 33-year-old financial planner based in Austin, Texas and founder of Gen Y Planning who works predominantly with people under 36-years-old. She finds that millennials are more concerned about aggressively paying off student loan debt than saving for retirement.
33岁的索菲亚·贝拉（Sophia Bera）是一名财务规划师，来自德克萨斯州奥斯汀 ，她也是Gen Y Planning的创始人，主要为不到36岁的客户服务。她发现，千禧一代更关心积极偿还学生贷款，而不是存钱养老。
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“If they just went to law school or medical school, they say they know they should save for retirement but they really want to get a handle on their student loans first. For millennials, being debt-free is almost like the new American dream, more so than home ownership, because it causes more stress.” She says that clients will often decide to pay off debt before other priorities, even when it makes more financial sense to put it off.
"如果他们读了法学院或医学院，他们就会说，虽然明知道应该存钱养老，但还是希望先偿还学生贷款。对千禧一代来说，没有债务就像新的'美国梦'，甚至比拥有自己的房子还重要，因为这会产生更多压力。"她表示，尽管从财务角度来看，应该推迟偿还贷款，但客户往往还是会选择优先偿还贷款。
Facing different challenges
面临不同挑战
Recent reports that millennials aren’t saving enough for retirement can also be explained by the way in which millennials have to approach it these days.
要理解最近的报告中关于千禧一代不存养老钱的原因，还可以思考他们如今的养老方式。
Making broad statements can be problematic because different countries have different national retirement schemes. Some, like Australia and Switzerland, have compulsory pension schemes where workers are obliged to pay into a retirement account. Others, like the US, have public pay-as-you-go schemes like Social Security that aim to keep retired people out of poverty, bolstered by individual retirement accounts with employer contributions. But it is also true that pension systems of decades’ past, and other safety nets like social security, are under more pressure than ever.
很难泛泛来谈，因为不同国家有不同的退休制度。澳大利亚和瑞士等国有强制性养老金制度，劳动者有义务向退休账号存钱。美国等国家则设有公共现收现付制度，例如Social Security，其目的是避免退休人员陷入贫困，利用雇主的贡献来支撑个人退休账户。但需要认清一个现实：过去几十年的养老金制度和Social Security这样的社会安全网，都在面临超出以往的压力。
One big shift in the past few decades has moved responsibility for retirement saving away from the company and back towards the individual, says Philip Davis, a professor of banking and finance at Brunel University in London and fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
伦敦布鲁内尔大学银行存款和金融学教授、国家经济与社会研究所研究员菲利普·戴维斯（Philip Davis）表示，过去几十年发生的一大转变是将退休储蓄责任从公司转回给个人。
“The big shifts for funded schemes are from defined benefit to defined contribution,” he says. “Meaning that we are moving from the type of fund that would guarantee a certain income from retirement until you die to something that you pay into, where the payout is driven by the market.”
"养老机制的一大转变是从固定福利转向固定缴款。"他说，"也就是说，我们原先可以确保在死前获得一定数额的退休金，但现在逐渐变成缴纳养老金之后的福利需要取决于市场的变动。"
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“It is relatively new that people are called upon to plan their own futures in a complex financial planning domain, rather than letting the company take care of things on their behalf,” says Hershey, “The worker is now in the driver seat, and they need to be making important decisions.”
"现在的人们需要通过复杂的理财计划为自己规划未来，而不再让公司代表自己。这是一种相对较新的现象。"赫尔希说，"劳动者现在占据主导，他们需要制定重要决策。"
Diversifying
多样化
With the onus back on the worker to educate themselves, it is not hard to see why some younger people prefer to stick their heads in the sand.
由于劳动者必须承担自我教育的义务，就不难理解某些年轻人为什么必须选择一头扎进沙子里。
Not everyone though. Angel Fernandez Amores is a 30-year-old former consultant from Madrid. He says that most people he knows are planning to rely on the public pension system in Spain. “Having said that, Spain is not in the best situation. The demography is changing quite a lot and whether this pension fund will be sustainable in the long run remains to be seen.”
但并非所有人都是如此。安格尔·费尔南德兹·阿莫瑞斯（Angel Fernandez Amores）来自马德里，曾经是一名顾问。他表示，西班牙的多数人都知道根据公共养老金系统制定计划。"尽管如此，西班牙并非处于最佳状态。人口结构正在发生深刻变化，而这些养老金是否具备长期的可持续性仍然有待观察。"
The decade-long economic crisis prompted him to learn how to save towards his retirement, and he ultimately decided to buy an investment property in Madrid a couple years ago, when prices were at historic lows.
长达10年的经济危机促使他学习如何存钱养老，而他最终在几年前决定购买马德里的一处投资性房产，当时的价格还处于历史低位。
“I don’t see myself ever living there with my family. But it’s a great investment for a younger person, or in the future, the income could help fund retirement,” he says.
"我自己不会跟家人住到那里。但对于年轻人来说，那是一笔很好的投资，未来的收入有助于提供退休金。"他说。
Perhaps millennials, many of whom lived through the global financial crisis, and have been staying away from investing in shares have more confidence in bricks and mortar as a source of retirement income.
千禧一代中有很多人都经历过全球金融危机，而且也都远离股市。对于把房产作为退休收入来源，他们或许更有信心。
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Bera says more of her clients are asking about investment properties, especially those that live in cities with skyrocketing housing costs. “Instead of buying their own home, they opt to save for investment in a home elsewhere and take the rental income.”
贝拉表示，她有越来越多的客户询问关于投资房产的问题，尤其是面临居住成本高涨的城市人。"他们不会给自己买房子，反而是选择攒钱投资其他地方的住房，赚取租金。"
Nicole Wong, a 28-year-old veterinarian from Hong Kong, intends to use rental income during retirement. She is currently living in Brisbane, Australia. She says she has calculated how much money she will need to retire, depending on how long she lives, and that her priority is to buy a house. “I also intend to have at least one property investment and a share portfolio that will support my retirement.” She says many of her friends in Hong Kong plan to move somewhere with a lower cost of living when they retire.
28岁的香港兽医尼克尔·王（Nicole Wong）计划在退休期间使用租金收入。她目前住在奥地利布里斯班。她曾经计算过自己退休后所需的资金，这取决于她能活多久，而她优先选择购买房产。"我还希望拥有至少一处房产投资和一个股票投资组合，通过这种方式来支持我的退休生活。"她表示，她在香港的很多朋友都希望退休后搬到生活成本更低的地方居住。
And still others think they may never need to retire. At least one survey indicated 30% of younger respondents (aged 18-24) don’t plan to retire at all. So, who knows, maybe the millennials who have already disrupted countless industries may end up reinventing retirement too.
不过，还有人认为，他们可能永远不需要退休。至少有一项调查发现，30%的年轻受访者（18至24岁）根本不准备退休。所以，谁知道呢。这些已经颠覆无数行业的千禧一代，最终或许也能彻底改变退休生活。
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