华尔街的赚钱经(MP3+中英字幕) 第39期:改善经济状况 从这些做起(4)

 　　Trouble is, I don't need all that. All I want is a way to track my money easily, with no other bells and whistles, and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that is through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has the date of each transaction, the title and amount, a little field for memos¹, and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple.

　　但问题是，那么多的功能我根本用不着，我所想要的不过是找到一种易操作的方法，来记录我资金的流向，不需要花里胡哨，只要能兼具联网功能就可以了，因为这样我就能随时随地监控了。通过实践，我发现谷歌文档和电子表格有我想要的功能。以往需要微软理财通才能实现的账户追踪，如今仅需要建立一个电子表格就可以了。它能记录每笔交易的日期、内容和数额，还可以添加备注，以及显示收支状态。一切我想要的功能它都有，我还在奢求什么？保持简单最好。

　　Pay savings² and debt first

　　存钱还款是第一位的

　　When you sit down to pay your bills (I do them all online), make the first bills you pay your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not, if you pay them last you'll often end up shortchanging them. But if you pay them first, you'll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and gas...so you'll just cut back on other spending.

　　当你开始支付账单时（我通常在线完成），请务必确保你把储蓄转存和债务还款排在首位。如果你不这么做，而拖到最后才转存和还款……那么，你会发现你没法完成你的预定存款额或还清欠款。但如果你做的第一步就是转存和还款，那么你会精打细算以确保留有足够的钱来支付房租或抵押贷款、水电费、 杂货和燃气费用……从而自然而然地削减其他不必要的开支。

1 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

2 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。