The First Rule of Finance is to live within your means by spending no more t

游客2024-05-17  12

问题     The First Rule of Finance is to live within your means by spending no more than 80% of your take-home pay. If you take home $100 per week, spend no more than $80.
    From this simple rule, all else falls into place. If you don’t spend more than 80% of your income, you won’t get into trouble. You won’t allow house payments, car payments, insurance payments, and shopping charges to exceed your 80% threshold. You may not be Einstein, but you can manage this concept, right?
    But ever look at what people spend their money on? I have relatives and friends chronically in debt, spending $12 for every $10 they earn instead of the $8 you know they should be spending. When I see them, they’re proud of their new whatever. "What do you think of my new truck?" asked one from the driver’s seat. "Do you like my new shoes?" asked another on stiletto heels. "Check out my new big screen," said a third while holding the remote in his living room. We’ve all heard people fishing for compliments on their new toys.
    Every one of them was proud of what they’d financed. They seem to have bought it for the purpose of being proud, of showing off, of keeping up with the Joneses. "Look at my new..." is everybody’s favorite phrase, even when the object in question isn’t theirs at all and won’t be new when they’ve finally paid for it, if they ever do.
    They’re proud of being stupid. They think it’s cool to drive the financed car, wear the financed shoes, and watch the financed TV, but to smart people, whose opinions are the only ones we should respect, these people look dumb as rocks.
    The Joneses, nine times out of 10, are financially stupid. That’s why they have all that stuff, on borrowed money. Why try to copy them? Worse, why try to impress them? Copy and impress smart people, the ones who own their stuff. If you want to impress smart people, debt is the last way to go about it. Trying to impress a money-smart person by going into debt is like trying to impress Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps by drowning in a pool, or golf pro Tiger Woods by driving your ball through the windshield of a parked car. Michael Phelps is impressed by good swimming, Tiger Woods by good golfing, and a money-smart person by good money management. [br] According to the author, the new truck, shoes and big screen mentioned in the third paragraph are______.

选项 A、indicators of wealth
B、necessities to the buyers
C、just a waste of money
D、examples of showing off

答案 D

解析 根据第三段末句提到的people fishing for compliments on their new toys(人们寻找(别人)对他们新玩具的赞美)以及第四段第二句They seem to have bought it for the purpose…of showing off…可知,作者提到新卡车等是为了举例说明人们买新东西的目的是为了炫耀,故答案为[D]。
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