Before increasing your investment contributions, it's important to understand how your investments fit into your overall well-being.

在增加投資貢獻之前，了解你的投資如何適應你的整體福祉非常重要。

Here are my 5 key steps based on the acronym CRUSH to re-evaluate your investing strategy.

以下是我根據縮寫詞「CRUSH」重新評估投資策略的 5 個關鍵步驟。

These helped me become a debt-free millionaire in my 30s.

這些幫助我在 30 多歲時成為了一名無債百萬富翁。

The letter C in CRUSH stands for Curate Your Accounts.

CRUSH 中的字母 C 代表「策劃你的帳戶」。

A study by Chase found that 55% of Americans with recurring payments don't know exactly how much is automatically taken out of their account each month.

大通銀行的一項研究發現，55% 有定期付款習慣的美國人不清楚每月自動從賬戶中扣除的金額。

Here are some scenarios that I see most often with my financial education students that can help you curate your accounts.

以下是我在金融教育學生中最常見的一些情況，可以幫助你管理好自己的賬戶。

You can consolidate investment accounts such as old 401ks into one individual retirement account.

你可以將舊的 401k 等投資帳戶合併為一個個人退休帳戶。

You can roll over your old 401k into your current 401k for simplicity.

你可以將以前的 401k 轉入現在的 401k，以簡化手續。

You can also review the expense ratios and fees of your investment accounts.

你還可以查看投資帳戶的支出比率和費用。

You can close brokerage accounts if you're not fully maximizing tax advantage accounts to their IRS limits.

如果你沒有將稅收優惠帳戶最大限度地利用到國稅局規定的限額內，你可以關閉經紀帳戶。

And we can look for forgotten investment accounts.

我們還可以尋找被遺忘的投資帳戶。

I also commonly see students using brokerage accounts to invest in the same things they could do within an account like a Roth IRA and save more on taxes.

我還經常看到學生使用經紀帳戶投資於他們可以在羅斯個人退休帳戶等帳戶中進行的投資，從而節省更多稅費。

So by curating accounts down to the ones you can increase your focus on, it becomes less overwhelming to grow the amount of money to invest.

所以通過對帳戶進行篩選，將重點放在可以增加投資的帳戶上，就能減少投資金額增長的壓力。

Now the R in CRUSH is to Reverse Into Your Financial Independence Number.

CRUSH 中的 R 就是「反向進入你的財務獨立數字」。

The FIRE movement can help you clarify how much you need to invest and provide tangible steps to move forward, even if it's a little at a time.

FIRE 運動可以幫助你明確需要投資多少錢，並提供向前邁進的具體步驟，哪怕每次只投資一點點。

Your FIRE number is calculated based on two retirement strategies used by traditional financial planners, the 25X rule and the 4% rule.

你的 FIRE 數字是根據傳統財務規劃師使用的兩種退休策略計算出來的，即 25X 規則和 4% 規則。

When my students first calculate this number, they can get overwhelmed because it's likely in the millions if you are living even a modest lifestyle in the United States.

當我的學生第一次計算這個數字時，他們可能會不知所措，因為如果你在美國過著普通的生活，這個數字很可能是數百萬。

The goal of FIRE is to have 25 times your annual expenses in investments, where you only withdraw 4% of the total each year.

FIRE 的目標是擁有 25 倍於年支出的投資，每年只提取總額的 4%。

While you take out your living expenses, the investments are also replenishing that money through compound interest or growing in value with your dividends.

在你支出生活費用的同時，投資也在通過複利或紅利增值來補充資金。

The point of the number is not to discourage you.

數字的意義並不是讓你氣餒。

It is to help give you a general direction of how aggressive you want to be with your approach and to identify the gap you need to fill between where you are now and where you want to aim.

這將有助於為你提供一個大方向，讓你知道自己的方法要有多激進，並確定你需要彌補的差距，即你現在的目標與你希望達到的目標之間的差距。

The U in CRUSH is to Understand Your Net Worth.

CRUSH 中的 U 是指「了解自己的淨值」。

I taught thousands of students in starting my financial education company in 2020 and the vast majority could not answer this question.

我在 2020 年創辦自己的金融教育公司時，教過數千名學生，但絕大多數人都無法回答這個問題。

What is your net worth?

你的淨資產是多少？

Your net worth is calculated by taking the monetary value of everything that you own and subtracting out the monetary value of everything you own.

你的淨資產是通過你所擁有的一切的貨幣價值減去你所擁有的一切的貨幣價值計算出來的。

That includes credit card debt, car loans, mortgages, student loans, and other forms of debt.

這包括信用卡債務、汽車貸款、抵押貸款、學生貸款以及其他形式的債務。

I teach all of my students to track all of their finances in one system to reduce the busy work of updating manual spreadsheets.

我教我所有的學生在一個系統中追蹤他們所有的財務狀況，以減少更新手工電子表格的繁忙工作。

In very simplistic terms, your new investment plan starts by closing the gap between your FIRE number and what your current net worth is.

簡單來說，你的新投資計劃首先要縮小你的 FIRE 數字以及你目前的淨資產是多少。

For example, if your FIRE number is $1.2 million and your current net worth is $200,000, the idea is that you will need to move toward building investments of $1 million.

例如，如果你的 FIRE 數字是 120 萬美元，而你目前的淨資產是 20 萬美元，那麼你需要朝著 100 萬美元的投資目標邁進。

Having this general idea of where I was financially helped me to take steps forward to increase my overall net worth.

對自己的財務狀況有了大致的瞭解，有助於我採取措施，增加自己的總體淨資產。

So for example, I started paying off my car, I refinanced my mortgage to a lower term from 30 years to 15 years.

例如，我開始還清我的汽車貸款，將我的按揭貸款期限從 30 年降至 15 年。

I closed any savings accounts that weren't a high-yield savings account, and I paid off credit card balances under $1,000 and limited myself to just two credit cards.

我關閉了所有非高收益儲蓄賬戶，還清了低於 1,000 美元的信用卡餘額，並將自己的信用卡限制在兩張以內。

Understanding your net worth may also help you identify areas where you can save money now to lower the amount you need to invest in the long term.

瞭解你的淨資產還可以幫助你找出現在可以省錢的地方，從而降低長期投資所需的金額。

That brings us to S, and that is to spend intentionally.

這就引出了 S，即「有意識地花錢」。

If you want to catch up on your investments, decide ahead of time how much you will invest each month and put it at the top of your budget versus putting it last on your priority list.

如過你想趕上投資，請提前決定每月的投資額，並將其放在預算的首位，而不是放在優先列表的最後一位。

So many people think they don't need a budget because they don't have extra money.

很多人認為他們不需要預算，因為他們沒有多餘的錢。

Until I learned how to do a zero-based budget, I thought leftover money was a good thing.

在我學會做零基礎預算之前，我一直認為剩下的錢是件好事。

But people often plan for the expenses they have, thinking they'll send any additional funds to their investments.

但是，人們通常會為自己的開支制定計劃，認為他們會把額外的資金用於投資。

The intention is great, but when you take that approach, you usually get to the end of the month without any funds left over.

出發點是好的，但如果採用這種方法，到月底時通常會沒有剩餘資金。

Getting on a consistent budget every month helped me and my husband free up more cash flow to maximize our contributions annually.

每個月保持預算一致，有助於我和丈夫騰出更多現金流，最大限度地提高我們每年的繳款額度。

We now contribute more than $50,000 a year to our retirement when we were contributing closer to $6,000 before budgeting.

現在，我們每年的退休費超過 50,000 美元，而在編制預算之前，我們的退休費接近 6,000 美元。

So rather than waiting for possible leftovers, allocate all of the money you have coming in, including the amount you want to invest before the month even begins.

與其等待可能的剩餘資金，不如在本月開始之前就分配好所有的資金，包括你想投資的金額。

If you're doing your budget correctly, you should have no leftover money in your plan with every dollar being allocated to an intentional line item.

如果你的預算做得正確，那麼你的計劃中就不應該有剩餘的錢，每一元錢都應該分配給一個有意的細列項目。

The last letter, H, is to heal your money wounds.

最後一個字母 H 是「治癒你的金錢創傷」。

As a financial coach, I learned most people don't invest not for lack of knowledge, but because of the fear of losing money.

作為一名理財教練，我瞭解到大多數人不投資不是因為缺乏知識，而是因為害怕賠錢。

And that fear is not irrational.

這種恐懼並非毫無道理。

It's often based on past traumatic experiences with finances, like losing money in past investments, getting fired or laid off, going through a tough divorce, having a medical emergency that caused financial stress,

這通常是基於過去在財務方面的創傷性經歷，如過去投資虧損、被解僱或失業、經歷艱難的離婚、醫療緊急情況導致財務壓力，

or growing up in a family with financial challenges.

或成長於一個面臨財務挑戰的家庭。

I grew up in a household where money was always a cause of argument and truthfully, my family never taught me how to invest.

在我成長的家庭中，錢總是引起爭吵的原因，而且說實話，我的家人從未教過我如何投資。

The emphasis was always on having a high salary and a good job title.

人們總是強調要有高薪和好職稱。

I was also worried to invest more because, at first, when I started my career during the financial crisis in 2008, I was a human resource professional in the banking industry in New York.

我還擔心要加大投資，因為在 2008 年金融危機期間，我剛開始職業生涯時，是紐約銀行業的人力資源專業人員。

So I saw firsthand how people lost their sense of financial security.

我親眼目睹了人們是如何失去經濟安全感的。

I started going to therapy consistently each month at the same time I started my financial journey.

在開始我的理財之旅的同時，我開始堅持每月接受心理治療。

And I would argue it's been the best investment I've made to my financial future.

我認為，這是我對自己的財務未來做出的最好投資。

Investing has inherent risks, and I only started investing more aggressively when I felt emotionally and mentally prepared for any potential losses.

投資有其固有的風險，只有當我在情感和心理上做好了應對任何潛在損失的準備時，我才開始更積極地投資。

By talking to a licensed professional about the past experiences that formed the fears I had around money, it helped me to move past them and take more risk in investing over time.

通過與有執照的專業人士交談，瞭解形成恐懼的過往經歷我身邊的錢，它幫助我克服了這些困難，並在長期投資中承擔了更大的風險。