7 Money Mistakes Even Good Savers Don’t Know They’re Making

理财能手都不知道的理财7大误区

Saving money can be tough, even if you’re not known to be a spender. It seems that there is always someone, somewhere who is trying to keep us and our money far apart. Sometimes, it’s even the bank we’re keeping our money in that’s actually keeping us from saving more.

即使你不是一个挥金如土的人，但攒起钱来也十分困难。这就好像是有人在某个角落正拉远我们和金钱的距离。有时，甚至是我们选择储蓄的银行也会阻碍着我们攒钱。

Obviously, having a little money saved can be helpful for the proverbial rainy day. Having a lot of money saved is even better — particularly if you lose your job or have an unexpected emergency expense. Whether you have a lot of money saved or just a little, you might be surprised at some common mistakes even the best budgeters make.

显然，有笔小小的储蓄可以帮助你应付不测风云。如果失业或是遭遇意想不到紧急开支的时候，若你已存下很多钱，那岂不是更棒。不管你存了多少钱，这些连预算员都会犯的常见错误可能会吓到你。

Here are seven of the most commonly made money-saving mistakes and what you can do about them:

以下是七种最常见的理财误区以及应对措施：

1.Saving what’s leftover存花剩下的钱

It’s Friday and you just got paid. You head to the grocery store and maybe pay a few bills. Perhaps you had your eye on a new pair of shoes or the kids need to have karate classes paid for. After spending what you need to, you save the rest. Believe it or not, saving what’s leftover is actually a big mistake. It can lull you into a false feeling of security and make you think you have more to spend than you do.

周五，刚刚领完薪水的你就前往杂货店买东西。你目不转睛地盯着那双你爱的新鞋，还有孩子们报空手道班的费用也需要你出。花完该花的钱后，你才把剩下的钱存起来。信不信由你，仅存剩下的钱可是大错特错的。这不仅给你制造一种错误的安全感，还误导自己可以花费更多的钱。

Instead, pay yourself first. It’s important to budget out each of your paychecks and determine a percentage or amount that can go into savings first. Taking that money right off the top means you can spend what’s left.

恰恰相反，首先你得“支付自己”。请预算出你的薪水，确定有多少钱你可以先拿来定存。先把这部分钱从总金额里扣除，剩下的钱就是你可以消费的了。

2. Linking your checking to your savings account把你的支票账户绑定到储蓄账户

This may seem like such a smart idea because you can easily transfer money from your checking to your savings account. But what happens if you accidently overdraw your checking account and your bank dips into your savings for you — making you think you have more money than you have? Or how often is it just easier to grab the cash out of savings to keep the checking account up to date. It happens more often than many of us would like.

将支票账户和储蓄账户绑定听起来是个不错的主意，因为你能轻松把支票账户的金额转到储蓄账户里。但是如果你不小心透支了支票账户，银行就会动用你的储蓄—这可能会让你产生“我还有很多钱”的错觉。这时候会发生什么事呢？多久从储蓄账户里提取现金能使支票账户里的金额保持更新呢？这些问题发生次数比我们想象中的要多。

Instead, keep your savings account completely separate from your checking out. If you’re serious about saving, don’t even get an ATM card for that account. Make it more difficult to access that money. So, if you need it, you’ll have to go into the bank and fill out a withdrawl form — giving you the time to consider just how important withdrawing that money is.

相反，请让你的储蓄账户彻底远离支付这件事。如果你真的想存钱，请不要在那个账户下办ATM卡。请让你不太容易取到账户里的钱。所以，如果你真需要的话，你就会亲自去银行，填写取款单—填单期间就给了你足够时间去思考取这笔钱到底重不重要！

3. Putting your savings in one pot把所有钱存在一个账户里

It’s fun to watch your savings grow as you put into one account. But is it really doing you the most good in one pot? Probably not. In fact, putting all of your savings in one account can be deceiving because you might think you have more money available to you for extra purchases than you really do.

看着账户里的余额慢慢增长是件非常愉快的事情。但是把所有的钱都存在一个账户真的很好吗？当然不会。实际上，把你所有的钱存在一个账户下有“自欺欺人”的成分在里面。因为你可能会认为自己有更多的钱可以买额外的东西。

Instead, go over the different things you are saving for. Make separate accounts for your emergency fund, down payment for your new house or car, vacation savings and new appliance saving. This way, you can prioritize where your money goes and watch each account grow separately. That doesn’t mean you should make up 40 different accounts for different things. Be specific, but not too specific and make a miscellaneous account if that helps with you with those smaller, extra purchases.

相反，把你需要储蓄的金钱进行分类。为紧急基金、新房新车首付，度假储蓄和购买新设备的储蓄分别开设独立账户。只有这样，你才能考虑钱往哪里花，还要分别观察每个账户的余额走势哦。这并不意味你需要为不同消费去向开设40个不同账户。需要具体开设几个账户，但也不能分得太细。开一个杂项账户，它能帮助你管理那些小的额外支付。

4. Saving the windfalls储存外快

If you only save big chunks of money, then you might have no problem at all borrowing it all back. It’s important to save some of a large windfall, but it’s also important to save day to day cash too.

如果你仅存大笔金钱，以后你会毫不费力将它们借贷回来。将大量外快储存起来也十分重要，但是存储日常现金也同样重要。

When you get a large amount of money, budget it in just as you would your paycheck. Save a percentage of all of your income and use the rest to pay down debts, bills or other expenses.

如果你有一大笔钱，那就预算下自己的薪水吧。储存一部分工资，用剩下的部分偿还债务，付款或者其他开支。

5. Save as much cash as possible存储尽可能多的现金

Do you feel like it’s important to have as much cash on hand as you can? You’re not alone. But remember, if you only save the cash, you won’t be able to take advantage of compounding interest in the form of CDs, bonds, savings accounts or whatever other form you prefer.

你是否认为手头上的现金越多越好？这么想的并不止你一个人。但是请记住，如果只存现金，你就不能利用存单、债券、储蓄账户等所产生的复息了。

Instead, keep some cash on hand, safely, but diversify and get your savings working for you.

相反，手持一部分现金，的确很安全，但是储蓄多样化能够让你的储蓄金为你“工作”。

6. Not keeping track of money leaks从不记录花销

Once you get comfortable with how much cash you have on hand and have coming in, we often feel better about spending a little here and there — giving our kid $20 for a movie, buying a few drinks at the convenience store on our way out of town, donating to this fundraiser or than charity event. These are good things. But not if that means you suddenly have no idea where the money is going.

一旦对手头上的这点现金感到舒坦。到处去花点钱会使我们感觉更棒—给孩子20美元的电影费，在镇外路上的便利店买些饮料，捐钱给筹款活动或慈善活动。你做的这一切无可厚非，但是你可能突然就不知道钱花在了哪里。

Start keeping a little notebook in your pocket or in your car. If you have a smartphone, create a note and use that. Start writing down everything you spend money on — including the library book fines and the change for the newspaper at the gas station. Keeping track of where your money goes will illustrate to you what’s important and what you should be budgeting for.

学会把小笔记本放在口袋或车上。如果你的手机能建立一个笔记，当然也可以。开始将你的每项花费记录下来—包括借书超期罚款和在加油站买报纸的钱。跟踪你钱的去向能为你表明什么是重要的，哪些花销是你应该有预算的。

7. Not checking credit reports不检查信用报告

You have a perfect credit. You know it. You have a perfect score and are never denied anything. Or so you hope. On the flipside, maybe your credit is so bad that you don’t even care anymore because you never apply for any credit anyway. It doesn’t matter. Either way, not checking your credit on a regular basis is a mistake. In this day and age of smart phone purchases and identity theft, it’s imperative to check your credit report and the score at least once a month. Make a note of anything you don’t recognize or don’t understand and make the calls necessary to understand or fix it. Even small things can become big when it’s time to apply for a home loan or sometimes even get a job.

你有良好的信用记录，这你也知道。你的信用度很高，无论你做什么都不会被拒绝。这都是你所希望的。但也有一种情况，也许你的信用是如此的糟糕，但是你也并不介意，因为你从来不申请任何贷款。无论哪种情况，定期检查你的信用都是正确的选择。在当今这个智能手机泛滥和身份盗窃的时代，你需要至少一月检查一次信用报告和信用分数。记下任何你不明白的地方，若不明白，可以打电话咨询，直到把问题解决为止。当你要贷款买房或是找工作的时候，这些很小的事情或许会对你影响很大。