投资需谨慎: 五种最愚蠢的投资理财方式

You know the smartest things to do with your money. But what are the worst moves? What should you avoid?
自己的钱该怎么打理才最明智，对此你一定心知肚明。但是你知道最糟糕的做法是什么吗？哪些是你应该避免的呢？

Weirdly enough, they are things that a surprising number of people are still doing─even though they probably know, in their heart of hearts, how foolish they really are.
奇怪的是，那些应该避免的事情却有很多人仍然在做，而且人数之多让人瞠目──尽管这些人在内心深处可能很清楚自己的做法实际上有多愚蠢。

Any list is going to be incomplete. But here are five to avoid.
想把这些蠢事一个不落地全列出来恐怕不可能。不过我们可以试着列出其中的五件。

1. Reaching for yield
1. 追求高收益率

What this country needs is a good 5% certificate of deposit. Instead the collapse in interest rates, and the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping them down for as long as possible, is driving people crazy─especially people who need to generate income from their investments.
美国这个国家需要的是收益率能够达到5%的定期存单。然而，这里有的只是利率的一降再降，以及联邦储备委员会(Federal Reserve)尽量将利率维持在低位的政策，这样的现状逼得人们愈加疯狂──对于那些需要从投资中获取收益的人而言尤其如此。

In these circumstances, people start to do really foolish things in the desperate hunt for higher interest rates. That includes taking on crazy amounts of risk, or investing in complex products they don't understand, in the hope of higher yields. The Fed is producing a bull market in scams, Ponzi schemes and associated rackets.
在此环境下，人们在绝望地寻找着更高的收益率，并为此开始犯下着实愚蠢的错误。这其中包括为争取获得更高的收益率而不惜承担极高的风险、或是投资那些他们毫不了解的复杂产品。美联储正在打造着一个各类阴谋、旁氏骗局和欺诈手段层出不穷的牛市。

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently warned about an epidemic of bogus high-yield 'corporate promissory notes' being marketed to investors by scam artists.
美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)最近提醒投资者小心，目前市场中有一种由骗子发行的虚假高收益“企业本票”在大量传播。

The Wall Street Journal's Jason Zweig highlighted the woes of those sold complex 'reverse convertibles, ' a legal but complicated product with embedded risks. Eric Lewis, chief investment officer of Bedrock Capital Management in Los Altos, Calif., suggests that if you can't explain an investment to a friend, including what might go wrong, you should think twice.
《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)的杰森•茨威格(Jason Zweig)指出了那些卖出“反向可转债”这一复杂产品的投资者所面临的困境，“反向可转债”是一种合法的金融产品，不过此类产品结构复杂，其本身存在着潜在的风险。加利福尼亚州洛斯阿尔托斯(Los Altos)的资产管理公司Bedrock Capital Management的首席投资长埃里克•刘易斯(Eric Lewis)建议，如果你无法向自己的朋友解释清楚一项投资，包括这项投资可能会面临什么风险，那么你最好三思而行。

A high-yield bond fund such as the iShares High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund (HYG), which lends money to risky companies, sports a yield of about 5%. That's the maximum yield you can earn without taking on much more risk.
诸如安硕高收益率企业债交易所交易基金(iShares High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund)这样的高收益率债券基金为风险较高的企业提供贷款，这类基金的收益率约为5%。这是你在不承担过高风险的情况下能够挣到的最高收益率。

2. Going into the poor house to send Junior to a country-club college
2. 倾家荡产送孩子去私立大学读书

Over the past 40 years, the cost of tuition and fees at a private university has tripled─after accounting for inflation. The cost of a public university has quadrupled.
过去40年来，美国私立大学的学费以及各种开销增长了两倍──扣除了通货膨胀因素之后。公立大学的就读成本则是40年前的四倍。

The cost of getting a bachelor's degree has become a scandal in this country. Students spend $160, 000 on a four-year degree and the results are too often questionable.
在美国攻读一个本科学位所需开销数字之大，简直成了这个国家的耻辱。学生完成为期四年的学位攻读需要花费16万美元，而学习的效果往往还很成问题。

Financial planners strongly advise parents against plundering their own retirement savings, which they are likely to need, to pay for this.
理财专家们强烈建议学生家长们不要将自己的养老积蓄用来为孩子付学费，这笔钱他们自己可能还用得着。

Admittedly, a degree has become a protection racket─you can't get a job without one, but there are fewer jobs for those with them. But the smart move for the budget-constrained is to get a bachelor's degree at a public university. The tuition and fees average less than $9, 000 a year instead of $30, 000 at a private college.
诚然，学位已经成为一种护身符──没有它，你可能找不到工作，不过即便有了学位，职场中能够提供的就业机会也少了。而对于预算开支不那么富裕的家庭而言，明智的选择是去公立大学读一个本科学位。读一所美国公立大学每年所需的学费和各种杂费平均不到9,000美元，而私立大学则需要三万美元。

3. Owning stock in your employer
3. 持有自己所工作企业的股票

This is one of the silliest and riskiest moves any investor can make. If the company hits trouble, you get whacked twice. You can lose your job and your savings─all in one fell swoop. Ask anyone who worked for Enron…or Lehman Brothers.
这大概是投资者能够做出的最愚蠢、最冒险的举动之一了。如果这家公司遇上麻烦，你将遭受双重打击。你可能会在丢了饭碗的同时，丢掉自己的积蓄──一杆子打翻一篮子的蛋。不信你去问问那些曾为安然(Enron)、或是雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)工作过的人。

The law, amazingly, actually encourages this crazy move. While employers' 401(k) plans are subject to punitive regulations, lest they allow you to take on too much 'risk, ' employers are allowed to offer their own stock among the investment options. Many do.
令人惊讶的是，美国的法律实际上在鼓励这种疯狂的举动。虽然企业的401(k)计划受到监管部门监管，若企业让员工承担过高“风险”，则会受到惩罚，但是监管规定允许企业向员工提供企业自己的股票作为投资选择之一。而实际上许多企业也在这么做。

The Employee Benefit Research Institute says that the percentage of 401(k) assets held in employers' stock has been halved since 2000, but the numbers are still alarming. Furthermore, it's the youngest workers─those best able to take a gamble─who are shunning their employers' company stock.
员工福利研究所(Employee Benefit Research Institute)表示，自2000年以来，401(k)资产中雇主股票的占比已经减少了一半，不过目前的数字依然很惊人。而且，如今不愿意持有自己公司股票的员工是那些最年轻的人，而这些人其实是承担风险能力最高的人。

At companies where the 401(k) plan offers the option, workers aged 40 or over typically hold about 20% of their entire 401(k) account in the company's stock, according to EBRI data. Crazy.
根据员工福利研究所的数据，在那些于401(k)计划中提供了持有本公司股票这一投资选择的公司中，年龄在40岁或者以上的员工通常会将自己的401(k)账户中大约20%的资产用于投资本公司股票。这简直是疯了。