Name: 為什麼高收入者也過著 "月光族 "的生活？ (Why Even High Earners Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck)
Uploaded: 2025-07-31T00:17:42.000Z
Duration: 12 min 32 s

情態助動詞 A2

For many Americans, work can feel like a hamster wheel.

對許多美國人來說，工作就像一個倉鼠輪。

頻率副詞

No matter how hard they run, it never feels like enough.

無論他們如何努力奔跑，總覺得不夠。

to 不定詞

Americans, on average, say they would need $520,000 a year to feel rich.

美國人平均表示，他們每年需要 52 萬美元才能感到富有。

And the more people earn, the more they say they need to feel comfortable.

人們掙得越多，就越說自己需要舒適。

Americans making under $50,000 felt they needed $157,000 a year to feel comfortable.

收入低於 50,000 美元的美國人認為，他們每年需要 157,000 美元才能感到舒適。

Those making $100,000 or more said they would need $246,000.

收入在 10 萬美元或以上的人表示，他們需要 24.6 萬美元。

When I was in middle school, a song came out called Mo Money Mo Problems.

我上中學的時候，有一首歌叫《沒錢沒問題》（Mo Money Mo Problems）。

You still are dealing with a finite number every month.

你每個月還是要面對一個有限的數字。

Your worries, your anxiety, your budget scales to that.

你的擔憂、焦慮、預算都會影響到這一點。

About 14% of all U.S. households make $200,000 or more every year.

大約 14% 的美國家庭年收入達到或超過 20 萬美元。

But many of them, dubbed Henry's or high earners, not rich yet, still don't feel rich. 62% of people with salaries over $300,000 a year struggle with credit card debt.

但他們中的許多人，被戲稱為 "亨利"（Henry's）或 "高收入者"（high earners），尚未富裕起來，仍然不覺得自己富有。年薪超過 30 萬美元的人中，62% 的人都在為信用卡債務而掙扎。

Earning doesn't actually make you feel rich.

賺錢其實並不會讓你感到富有。

If most people spent 99% of their paycheck, they feel quite rich.

如果大多數人把工資的 99% 花掉了，他們就會覺得自己相當富有。

When we're in accumulation mode, it's very difficult to feel rich.

當我們處於積累模式時，就很難感受到富足。

It can be pretty easy for someone to feel like I'm making really good money, but I don't have a lot of discretionary income.

這很容易讓人覺得我的收入很高，但我可自由支配的收入並不多。

Earning more and feeling like you're still on a hamster wheel is what a lot of Henry's experience.

賺得越多，感覺自己還在倉鼠輪上，這是很多亨利的經歷。

And that's because they're not living within their means.

They may have been living above their means when they weren't nearly making as much money.

當他們賺的錢還沒有那麼多的時候，他們可能已經入不敷出了。

And now they're just continuing to add more and more and more.

現在，他們還在繼續增加，越來越多，越來越多。

I earned $300,000 and I live in New York City.

我收入 30 萬美元，住在紐約市。

I have more money anxiety almost now than I ever did in my 20s.

我現在的金錢焦慮幾乎比我 20 多歲時還要嚴重。

I am on a hamster wheel and there's no question about it.

我在倉鼠輪上，這是毫無疑問的。

Henry's often don't feel rich compared to others.

與其他人相比，亨利常常覺得自己並不富有。

Many Henry's are cash rich and asset poor, so they're typically people under 40.

許多亨利都是現金富裕而資產匱乏的人，所以他們一般都是 40 歲以下的人。

They don't have child care hours available.

They're first time homebuyers in the housing market.

他們是首次進入住房市場的購房者。

They're paying off student loans early, hopefully, and their income usually hasn't hit a career peak.

希望他們能早日還清學生貸款，而且他們的收入通常還沒有達到職業生涯的頂峰。

So they're very much in that not rich yet bucket.

是以，他們在很大程度上還不富裕。

But they very well could be in the future.

哦，我百分百覺得自己是個亨利。

Maureen Contrera was a professional composer, bandleader and pianist who started her virtual assistant business in 2016.

Maureen Contrera 曾是一名專業作曲家、樂隊指揮和鋼琴家，2016 年開始從事虛擬助理業務。

That year, I started to grow slowly and I was suddenly earning more money than I had ever earned in my life.

那一年，我開始慢慢成長，我突然賺到了比我這輩子賺得還多的錢。

And I think the number was something like $35,000 by the end of the year.

我想，到今年年底，這個數字大概是 3.5 萬美元。

She then expanded into a digital marketing consulting agency during the pandemic.

之後，她在大流行病期間將業務擴展到一家數字營銷諮詢公司。

For the calendar year of 2025, we're just on track to make $1.4 million.

在 2025 年，我們的收入將達到 140 萬美元。

We're hoping to get to $1.5 or possibly even $1.6.

我們希望能達到 1.5 美元，甚至可能達到 1.6 美元。

I'm anticipating my owner's draw to be anywhere between $300,000 and $400,000.

我預計我的業主抽成在 30 萬到 40 萬美元之間。

I had a pretty successful career as a musician through most of my 20s.

在我 20 多歲的大部分時間裡，我的音樂生涯相當成功。

The thing they don't tell you about having a career as a musician in music school is that you can be playing Carnegie Hall, which I was.

在音樂學校，他們沒有告訴你的是，你可以在卡內基音樂廳（Carnegie Hall）演奏，而我就是這樣。

And I didn't realize how much freedom money affords you.

我沒想到錢能給你帶來這麼多自由。

Now that I see the kind of freedom that somebody who earns what I do or even more has, that's my goal.

現在，我看到了與我收入相當甚至更高的人所擁有的自由，這就是我的目標。

That is absolutely what gets me out of bed in the morning.

A lot of the high earners not rich yet, they're first generation wealth.

很多高收入者還不富裕，他們是第一代財富。

So they still take their wealth into perspective against their family members or others in their community.

是以，他們仍然會將自己的財富與家人或社區中的其他人相比較。

是以，他們不會認為這是理所當然的。

But I think what makes them feel not rich is we were told, once you make six figures, all your problems will go away.

但我認為，讓他們覺得自己並不富有的原因是，我們被告知，一旦你賺到六位數，所有的問題都會消失。

And I think we know that narrative is not true anymore.

我想我們都知道，這種說法已經不再正確了。

I would have thought back then that the amount of money that I have in the bank right now, I would be rich.

我當時會想，我現在銀行裡有多少錢，我就會有多少財富。

I would have just thought, oh, yeah, she's made it.

我會想，哦，是的，她成功了。

I know that I am on a hamster wheel with my business.

我知道，我的事業正處於倉鼠輪上。

I actually really love the hamster wheel.

事實上，我真的很喜歡倉鼠轉輪。

So Henry's often don't feel rich compared to others.

是以，與其他人相比，亨利常常覺得自己並不富有。

They work very hard for their money, but they also spend a lot more than the average person.

他們努力工作賺錢，但也比普通人花得多。

In a lot of ways, Henry's may be victims of their zip code. $100,000 in L.A. is definitely very different than $100,000 in Iowa.

在很多方面，亨利家族可能是其郵政編碼的受害者。洛杉磯的 10 萬美元和愛荷華州的 10 萬美元肯定大不相同。

They're going to probably take home $140-ish rent for a one-bedroom.

一房間的房租大概在 140 美元左右。

Car insurance is going to be maybe $200 a month.

If you were to annualize that, that's $50,000 right there.

如果按年計算，就是 5 萬美元。

The remainder is for all the other things.

We haven't paid for subscriptions to Amazon and Netflix.

我們還沒有支付亞馬遜和 Netflix 的訂閱費用。

It can whittle away your discretionary income if you're living in an area that has a high cost of living.

如果您居住的地區生活成本較高，這可能會減少您的可支配收入。

When my business started to grow, one of the first things that I started spending more money on right away was food, because I don't have time to cook.

當我的業務開始增長時，我首先開始在食物上花更多錢，因為我沒有時間做飯。

I had more money than time, and so I started eating Grubhub three meals a day most days.

我的錢比時間還多，於是我開始吃 Grubhub 的一日三餐。

After that, it became rent, because I hit a million dollars a year in revenue, and I said, that's it, I'm moving to Manhattan.

之後，就變成了租金，因為我的年收入達到了一百萬美元，我說，就這樣吧，我要搬到曼哈頓去。

And so my rent doubled, and I suddenly was paying $4,000 in rent.

於是我的房租翻了一番，一下子就要付 4000 美元的房租。

What is very worth it to me is to live where I want to live.

對我來說，最值得的是生活在我想生活的地方。

我為自己能生活在這裡而感到自豪。

For about a year, I would walk outside my apartment and just like look around and just be like, oh my gosh, here I am.

大約有一年的時間，我走在公寓外面，環顧四周，就會想，天哪，我在這裡。

對我來說，這就是生活方式的改變。

Lifestyle creep is the common phenomenon of spending a little more money as you earn more.

生活方式攀升是一種常見的現象，即收入越多，花的錢就越多。

這可能發生在任何收入的人身上。

Lifestyle creep can really sneak up on you.

生活方式的攀比真的會讓你猝不及防。

You start earning more, and then you decide, well, I can buy more things.

你開始賺更多的錢，然後你決定，好吧，我可以買更多的東西。

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為什麼高收入者也過著 "月光族 "的生活？ (Why Even High Earners Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck)

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