投资需谨慎: 五种最愚蠢的投资理财方式

If you can afford to delay taking your Social Security retirement benefit, do.
如果你有能力晚点支取自己的社保养老金，那么就晚点吧。

Someone earning $50, 000 a year who starts claiming Social Security as soon as he or she is able, age 62, will typically collect a monthly check of about $1, 000, according to the Social Security Administration. If they wait until they are 70, that amount would double.
根据美国社会安全局(Social Security Administration)的数据，年薪五万美元的员工若在自己年满62岁这一支取社保金的规定年龄后即开始使用社保，则通常每月可以得到大约1,000美元。如果他们能够等到70岁，那么这个数字将会翻倍。

Taking Social Security too early, or without thinking through the consequences, is one of the biggest financial blunders people can make─roughly on a par with buying tech stocks in 2000 or a Las Vegas condo in 2006. The lure of getting money early can blind people to the big cost down the road.
过早支取社保金，毫不考虑后果，这是美国人可能犯下的最大的理财错误之一──其不明智的程度堪比在2000年买入科技股或是在2006年买下拉斯维加斯的一套公寓。早点拿到钱的诱惑可能会让人们对未来即将付出的巨大代价视而不见。

(Many retirees may not have much of a choice. Hard labor at low pay over a lifetime takes its toll on a person. Also, many companies all but force older workers into early retirements.)
（许多退休者可能没有太多选择。一辈子拿着低薪从事着艰苦的工作，是很折磨人的。而且，许多公司几乎是在强迫高龄员工早点退休。）

In any case, it doesn't take more than just a few years before the total money accrued with the higher, later benefits surpasses the total earned starting at the earlier retirement age.
无论如何，多等上些时候去享受更高的福利，这样积累下来的数额用不了几年就能超过在退休年龄初期即开始提取的全部社保金额。

But that understates the bigger issue. Social Security is insurance. For many retirees, the big risk isn't that they will run out of money before they turn 70, but after 85. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than half of women currently age 65 will live to 85 or longer, and three out of eight men.
不过，这样说会让人们忽视一个更大的问题。社保金是一种保险。对于许多退休者而言，最大的风险不在于他们会在70岁之前没钱了，而是在85岁之后。根据美国疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control)的数据，目前年龄在65岁的女性中，超过半数的人将活到85岁甚至更久，男性中的这个比例为八分之三。

David Blanchett, head of retirement research for financial research firm Morningstar, says it makes sense for women, married couples and those with good health to wait longer for a bigger paycheck.
晨星公司(Morningstar)负责退休问题研究的主管戴维•布兰切特(David Blanchett)说，对于女性、已婚夫妇和那些身体状况良好者而言，应该多等些时间以便得到更高的福利，因为这样做更为合理。

5. Buying long-term bonds
5. 购买长期债券

A surprising number of people still subscribe to the flawed and circular argument that bonds, including long-term government bonds, are 'safe.' In reality, bonds─especially long-term government bonds─are the rare example of a bubble that has been explicitly declared.
令人吃惊的人，仍有很多人接受这样的观点：包括长期政府债券在内的债券是“安全的”。实际上，债券──特别是长期政府债券──是少有的一种已经被明确宣告的泡沫。

The Fed is openly printing money and using it to buy up such bonds, driving up the price and driving down the interest rates, in order to help the economy. There is no dispute about this. It's public policy.
美联储在毫不掩饰地大肆印着钞票，并用这些印出来的钞票买国债，从而抬高这类债券的价格，压低利率，以便能够帮助提振美国经济。这一点毫无争议。这是公开的政策。

A 30-year Treasury bond currently sports an interest rate of just 3.1%. That's barely half a percentage point above long-term inflation forecasts. Based on history, the yield should be at least 4.5%, or two percentage points above inflation.
30年期美国国债目前的收益率仅为3.1%。这比长期通货膨胀预期仅高出半个百分点。如果以过往的标准来衡量，30年期国债的收益率应该至少达到4.5%，比通货膨胀率高出两个百分点。

Thirty-year Treasury inflation-protected securities, known as TIPS, sport a 'real' or inflation-adjusted yield of 0.6% a year. Again, it should be 2%.
30年期通胀挂钩国债的“实际”年收益率，即扣除通货膨胀因素后的收益率，为0.6%。而以过往的标准来衡量，这一收益率应当是2%。

The only reason to buy such bonds in any quantity is to gamble on a 1930s-style depression and world-wide deflation. Such bonds are a gamble, not a safe haven.
购买这类债券的唯一理由只能是押注经济会重现上世纪30年代那样的大萧条，而且会出现全球性的通货紧缩。投资这类债券是在赌博，不是避险。