Having grown up on Long Island, I didn’t have many opportunities to watch NASCAR on television (or sports in general, I didn’t discover televised sports until I left for college) so I never truly understood the intricacies of the sport. Since college, I’ve come to appreciate the difficulty of NASCAR and the skill required of its drivers.
Well, last weekend I was watching a few laps of the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway and I finally understood why NASCAR fans love the sport. By the way, for all the junk people say about NASCAR not being a sport, I dare you to tell a trucker to get a real job. 500 laps is an unreal amount of time. Can you imagine the concentration and endurance it takes to go 500 laps at nearly two hundred miles an hour, constantly maintaining vigilance, and your life constantly at stake? If you accept golf as a sport, NASCAR certainly is a sport.
That being said, you can learn a lot about personal finance (since that’s always swirling around my head), and life in general, by watching NASCAR because the race (and hence the season) is like a marathon. The story told in the first hundred laps may be, and usually is, totally different than the second hundred and last hundred laps. The reason people watch is because the story is so compelling. (before you scoff at what I just said, watch a few laps and listen in… then recognize those race cars are going very fast)
Here are five lessons you can learn about personal finance from NASCAR:
1. A Lot Can Happen
You can be in the last starting position but you get a shot at taking home first place every single time you fire up the engine. One of the great things about America is that your starting lot in life by no means completely dictates where you will go, that’s the appeal of America. There is no caste system, no House of Lords, it’s based primarily on merit and what you’re able to bring to the table.
Starting last does make it difficult to finish first but it’s not impossible. How many people start off in poverty but through their own ability are able to bring prosperity to themselves and their family? Certainly more than zero, which is the case in many other countries. Just because you’re $30,000 in doubt right now doesn’t mean you can’t pull yourself out of the hole and retire a comfortable millionaire if you’re willing to make some sacrifices.
The reverse is also true, just because you start off wealth doesn’t mean you will stay that way. You could start off first but one little error could cost you the entire race. One bad bump into the wall and your day could be over. Finances are no different, you could be born into the wealthiest family and one mistake (like not filing taxes!) will wipe you out.
2. Take A Few Smart Gambles
Very few personal finance writers will talk about taking some gambles because slow and steady can often win the race. If you contribute to your 401k, get that company match, you have a great chance of having a tidy sum in there when you’re ready to retire. However, to truly take advantage of the opportunities available in America, you have to be willing to take a few chances on things you believe in.
I don’t mean you need to put your life savings on a spin of the roulette wheel, that’s just stupid, but try to test your boundaries little by little to see what happens. If all of your money is in nice safe Treasury bonds and CDs, consider moving into the stock market. If you have a few index funds, consider shifting some into international indices or equity stakes. Don’t go to Vegas, don’t invest your life savings in your cousin’s crazy idea, and don’t believe the same and invest in Forex - that’s for entertainment. (I mean no disrespect to either Vegas, your cousin, or Forex, I’m not experienced enough in any of them to make a recommendation either way)
3. Little Things Matter
In NASCAR, a little front side damage to your fiberglass fender and you lose significant fuel efficiency because of drag. A small problem in the quality of a tire and it can cost you the race. In NASCAR, everyone pretty much has the same types of vehicles (especially with the Car of Tomorrow) and so it’s the little things, and driving skill, that separate the winners from the losers. In personal finances, we talk ad nauseum about little things like Latte Factors and snowflaking. As small as these things may be individually, they can have a tremendous impact on your finances. We all pretty much work, save for retirement, pay for expenses, get married, have kids, repeat (not always, but that’s seen as the main, fairly or unfairly, path). It’s the little things along the way that separate the prosperous and the indebted.
4. Patience, Patience, Patience
500 laps… that’s a long time, even longer if you’re sitting behind the wheel of a race car jockeying for position at nearly 200 miles per hour (you thought that watching it took a long time? Ha!) NASCAR drivers have to be very patient because they know that the race is long, there will be plenty of stories between 0 and 500, and that they have to bide their time. Sometimes opportunities present themselves, sometimes you have to go out there and make them, but either way you have to have the patience to wait for the right conditions to make your move. In personal finance, you have to be patient to wait for your opportunities. The most obvious example is with the stock market - it’s far more prudent to wait for the right opportunity than it is to force action. Many stock investors track hundreds of stocks at any one time. They aren’t looking to making hundreds of investments, they’re looking for the right opportunity to present itself and then they’ll invest in the one.
5. Tactics Are Crucial but Strategy Is Paramount
Tactics govern how a race is raced that day, but strategy is what will get you the Championship at the end of the year. While each driver wants to win every single race, when it gets to the end of the year the priorities start to shift and strategy takes over. The Sprint/Nextel Cup is a points based championship so ultimately whoever is in first place going into the last race will invariably not have to win the race to be season champion. Since being season champ is the goal, that driver will drive more conservatively to ensure total victory versus single race victory.
Your personal finance world is very much like this in that your strategy should drive your tactics. If your strategy is to save the maximum for your Roth IRA and 401(k), then your tactics may be frugality to get more on hand cash to contribute to those funds. Frugality is important by its own right, but it’s more important because you’re working towards the goal of contributing to a Roth IRA. If you just save money and put it in a savings account, ignoring the Roth IRA, you may be spinning your wheels and not getting your full potential. So, review your strategy and how your tactics are working towards your goals.
译文:
从纳斯卡学到的5 项个人理财经验
从小生活在长岛没有机会在电视上看纳斯卡的比赛（或者说，在我上大学之前没有在电视上看过任何体育比赛），所以，我对体育比赛的复杂性没有丝毫的概念。上了大学以后，我开始了解纳斯卡的难度以及对车手的技能要求。
上周末，我观看了在Martinsville Speedway 举行的Goody's酷橙500的几圈比赛，看过之后才明白为什么纳斯卡迷们会这么热爱这项运动。一些对它认识不深的人说纳斯卡不是体育运动，这样说就像是让卡车司机去找一份真正的工作一样。500圈比赛所耗费的时间是一般人难以承受的。你能想象，以200米每小时的速度跑500圈所花费的精力和耐力吗？运动员要时刻保持警惕，而且随时可能有生命危险。如果说高尔夫是体育运动，那么毫无疑问，纳斯卡也是。
纳斯卡就像是马拉松，通过观看比赛，我们可以学到许多个人理财知识（这一直是令我非常头疼的课题），以及人生哲学。前面的100圈比赛与第二个100圈以及后面的比赛完全不同。人们之所以观看这样的比赛，是因为它扣人心弦，引人入胜。（在嘲笑我的观点之前，请观看几圈比赛，注意倾听，注意那些跑的非常快的车）
以下是可从纳斯卡学到的5项个人理财课程：
1. 许多事情可能发生
在起跑的时候可以落后，但是每一次打开引擎准备回家的时候都要以最快的速度。在美国，起点并不完全意味着未来的道路，这就是美国魅力。这里没有社会等级制度，没有贵族，只凭个人才能和业绩不断发展。
起点落后确实很难第一个到达终点，但这并不是没有可能的。有多少人开始的时候很贫穷，但是他们通过自己的努力最终走上的富裕的道路？其它国家也有很多这样的例子。只要肯努力肯拚搏，就算负债累累，也并不意味着将来不可能变成百万富翁。
反之亦然。开始有钱并不意味着永远有钱。就算在起点时领先，但是只要犯一点小错误，就有可能输掉整个比赛。正所谓，一失足成千古恨。财务方面也是如此，一个出身豪门的人或许只是因为逃税，就有可能散尽家财。
很少有关于个人理财方面的书谈到赌博这个问题，因为通常情况下，慢而稳会赢得比赛。如果参加401K计划，即每个月从工资中拿出一部分预存退休金，那么在退休的时候就会拿到一笔可观的退休金。但是，要充分利用美国提供给我们的机会，就要在自己认为可以获得成功的方面多下功夫。
这里并不是说要把毕生的积蓄花在危险性高的赌博上，那样做非常愚蠢。只是循序渐进的尝试以前没有做过的投资。如果你所有的钱都购买了长期债券或者定存单，那么考虑一下投资股票市场。如果已经购买了指数基金，那么试试国际指数基金或者股权。不要去维加斯，不要把积蓄投资在堂兄弟的疯狂想法上，不要相信甚至去购买外汇-那只是用来消遣，而不是投资的。（我并不是对维加斯，你堂兄弟或者外汇有偏见，而是我没有足够的理由推荐他们）
3. 小事情大作用
在纳斯卡比赛中，车前端一点小小的瑕疵可能弄坏玻璃防护板。因为拖沓，可能造成燃料得不到充分利用。由于车胎一点质量问题可能使你输掉整个比赛。在纳斯卡，每位参赛选手几乎都驾驶同样的车型（特别是“明天的汽车”这种车型），因此，一点小小的差池或者技术上的问题，就会造成胜利和失败之分。在个人理财方面，我们也不屑于谈论一些财务方面的小事情。虽然这些事情可能微乎其微，但是会对个人财务方面产生巨大的影响。我们努力的工作，攒钱退休，支付各种费用，结婚，生子，然后可能不断的重复这些事情。就是这些小事情使人们或者富有或者负债。
4. 耐心，耐心，再耐心
500圈需要很长的时间，甚至比以200米每小时的速度开赛车的时间还要长。（你认为这样看比赛的时间太长？不一定呦！）纳斯卡的车手必须十分有耐心，因为他们知道，赛程很长，而且从第一圈到第五百圈，可能很有多事情发生，所以他们必须有耐心。有时机会会从天而降，有时需要我们去制造机会，但是不管怎么样，必须耐心等待有利时机的出现。在个人理财方面，我们必须耐心等待机会。最明显的就是在股票市场，我们要谨慎等待有利时机而不是轻易出手。许多炒股的人同时研究几百只股票，他们并没有购买那些股票，而是在等待有利时机，只购买其中的一支而已。
策略只能指导当天的比赛，战略却能决定年底能不能拿冠军。车手都想赢得每一场比赛，但是到了年底，那就不是最重要的了，重要的是整体比赛战略。Sprint/Nextel杯是以积分为准的比赛，所以无论谁先到最后一圈，都不能说明就赢得了整个赛季的比赛。各个队的车手们都以赢得赛季冠军为目标，所以在比赛过程中会比较保守以确保最后的成功而不是单场比赛的胜利。
个人理财就像纳斯卡比赛一样，战略决定策略。如果采取的战略是为了使退休金最大化，那么策略就是要节俭，要保证有更多的资金存入退休金账户。节俭本身非常重要，但是更重要的是，要努力达到拿到更多退休金的目标。如果只注意攒钱，忽略了存入退休金，那么就有可能达不到最终的目标。因此，应该回想一下整体战略，看看策略是否有利于实现最终目标。