为自由而量入为出Live Below Your Means for Freedom
Nivi： 除了出租自己的时间之外，还有哪些大事是你应该避免的？
Naval： 有，我发过两条相关的推文。第一条讲的是，比如说你的生活方式该升级了，但升级不应该太快。那条推文的大意是：生活水平远低于自己收入水平的人，享有那些忙于升级生活方式的人根本无法理解的自由。
我觉得这一点非常重要——不要一直升级自己的生活方式。要保持你的自由。它给你的是行动的自由。基本上，一旦你赚了一点钱，你仍然要像以前的自己那样生活，这样忧虑就会消失。所以，别急着去升级房子、生活方式和那些东西。
最危险的东西是海洛因和月薪
假设你每小时能赚 1000 美元。问题是，当你进入那种工作生活方式时，你不会突然从每小时赚 20 美元变成每小时赚 1000 美元。那是漫长职业生涯中一步步进阶的结果。
而在这个过程中，一个微妙的问题是：你赚的钱越多，就越会同步升级自己的生活方式。而这种生活方式的升级会抬高你心目中"财富"的门槛，于是你就一直困在"工资奴隶"的陷阱里。
这句话我不记得是谁说的了，也许是纳西姆·塔勒布。他说："最危险的东西是海洛因和月薪。"对，因为它们都极易上瘾。你想要致富，反而要过得清贫，然后工作、工作、再工作。
理想情况下，你应该以零散的大笔收入来赚钱
科技行业就是这么运作的：你十年不赚钱，然后到第十一年，突然迎来一笔巨额进账。
顺便说一句，这也是那些针对所谓"富人"的超高边际税率有缺陷的原因之一——那些风险最高、最有创造力的职业，你在人生中要实实在在地亏上十年钱，同时承担巨大的风险，不停地流血、流血、再流血。
然后到了第十一年或第十五年，你可能会迎来唯一一次大笔收入。但这时山姆大叔（美国政府）出现了，基本上会说："嘿，你知道吗，你今年赚了很多钱。所以你是富人。所以你是邪恶的，你得把钱全部交给我们。"于是，这类有创造力的风险型职业就被摧毁了。
但理想情况下，你希望以零散的大笔收入来赚钱，中间隔着很长的时间，这样你的生活方式就没有机会快速适应，然后你基本上可以说："好了，我干完了。我退休了。我自由了。我仍然会工作，因为你总得给人生找点事做，但我只会在我想做的时候，做我想做的事。"这样一来，你会有更多的创造性表达，而关于钱的顾虑会少得多。
Nivi: Any other big things you should avoid, other than renting out your time?
Naval: Yeah, there are two tweets that I put out that are related. The first one I was talking about where someone, like, how your lifestyle has to upgrade, shouldn’t get upgraded too fast. And that one basically said, people who are living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles just can’t fathom.
And I think that’s very important, just to not upgrade your lifestyle all the time. To maintain your freedom. And it just gives you freedom of operation. You basically, once you make a little bit of money, you still want to be living like your old self, so that just the worry goes away. So, don’t run out to upgrade that house, and lifestyle, and all that stuff.
The most dangerous things are heroin and a monthly salary
Let’s say you’re getting paid $1,000 an hour. The problem is, is that when you go into a work lifestyle like that, you don’t just suddenly go from making $20 an hour to making $1,000 an hour. That’s a progression over a long career.
And as that happens, one subtle problem is that you upgrade your lifestyle as you make more, and more money. And that upgrading of the lifestyle kind of ups what you consider to be wealth, and you stay in this wage slave trap.
So, I forget who said it, maybe it was Nassim Taleb. But he said, “The most dangerous things are heroin, and a monthly salary.” Right, because they are highly addictive. The way you want to get wealthy is you want to be poor, and working, and working, and working.
Ideally, you’ll make your money in discrete lumps
And this is for example how the tech industry works. Where you don’t make any money for ten years, and then suddenly at year eleven, you might have a giant payday.
Which is by the way one reason why these very high marginal tax rates for the so-called wealthy are flawed because the highest risk-taking, most creative professions you literally lose money for a decade over your life, while you take massive risk, and you bleed, and bleed, and bleed.
And then suddenly in year eleven, or year fifteen, you might have one single big payday. But then of course Uncle Sam show up, and basically say, “Hey, you know what, you just made a lot money this year. Therefore, you’re rich. Therefore, you’re evil and you’ve got to hand it all over to us.” So, it just destroys those kinds of creative risk taking professions.
But ideally you want to make your money in discrete lumps, separated over long periods of time, so that your own lifestyle does not have a chance to adapt quickly, and then you basically say, “Okay, now I’m done. Now I’m retired. Now I’m free. I’m still gonna work because you got to do something with your life, but I’m gonna work on only the things that I want, when I want.” And so you have much more creative expression, and much less about money.