Monday 11 November 2013

Piggy Bank (豬仔錢罌)


很多人說節儉是美德(Frugality is the mother of all virtues),但能堅持儲蓄(to pinch pennies)習慣的人不多。香港人每天都生活在金錢壓力下,買樓要付的首期(down payment)已是一大重擔,加上其他雜費開支(miscellaneous expenses ),每月不得不透支銀行戶口 (to overdraw your bank account),月底時會感到手頭拮据(to feel the pinch),最後只好攤長使用身上僅餘的積蓄(to stretch their savings)。以下十種方法可以為你提供儲蓄建議︰

方法一: Kill your debt first so that the money can easily be (1) re-purposed to savings
(1) To purpose: 企圖用作打算用作有意做 (have as one’s intention or objective) {Oxford Online}
God has allowed suffering, even purposed it {Oxford Online}

方法二: (2) Kick-start (3) a rainy day fund as a financial buffer
(2) To kick-start: 使重新啟動 (provide an impetus to start or resume)
The President has chosen to kick-start the economy by slashing interest rates. {iciba}
總統選擇通過大幅降低利率來重新拉動經濟增長。
The housing market needs a kick-start. {iciba}
房地產市場需要刺激。

(3) A rainy day: 艱難時刻不備之時 (used in reference to a possible time in the future when money will be needed) {Oxford Online}
Putting money by for a rainy day. {Oxford Online}

方法三: Establish an attainable time-frame to (4) knock your finances (finance s解作財政狀況) into shape.
(4) To knock ( = get/ lick/ whip) someone/ thing into shape (act forcefully to bring someone or something into a fitter, more efficient, or better-organized state) {Oxford Online}
It took him just two weeks to whip the new recruits into shape. {Oxford Ame.}
It shouldn't take long to get the company back into shape. {Oxford Ame.}

方法四: Do not wait till the end of the month to (5) stash your (6) take-home pay.
(5) To stash: 存放,儲藏,藏匿 (store safely in a secret place)
Their wealth had been stashed away in Swiss banks {Oxford}
(6) take-home pay: (扣除稅款等之後的)實發工資 (the amount of your wages or salary that is left after income tax and other payments have been subtracted) {Iciba}
He was earning £215 a week before tax: take-home pay, £170.
他稅前的週薪是215英鎊,實發170英鎊。{iciba}

方法五: (7) Get into the habit of recording every expense and saving the receipts. (Opening a financial ledger or journal is not (8) rocket science!)
(7) Habit 可跟動詞acquire/ develop/ fall into/ form/ get into/ make一起用 {Ozdic}

(8) rocket science: 高深的事難做的事考驗智力的事 (something very difficult to understand) {Oxford Online}
We want you to get out and vote—it’s not exactly rocket science. {Oxford Online}

方法六: (9) Trim your expenses in order to free up (騰出) some funds for (10) big-ticket items
(9) To trim: to reduce the size, amount, number, or cost of {Oxford}
American companies looked at ways they could trim these costs... {Iciba}
美國公司研究了能夠削減這些成本的方法。

(10) big-ticket: 高價的;昂貴的(constituting a major expense) {Oxford online}
Supercomputers are big-ticket items. {iciba}
超級電腦價格昂貴。

方法七: (11) Bundle up the predetermined amount of cash (12) allocated for each expense with separate jars or piggy banks (豬仔錢罌).
(11) To bundle up:紮成一捆處理(to make or tie something into a bundle) (Oxford Ame.)
He bundled up the dirty clothes and stuffed them into the bag.
(12) To allocate: 分配/分派 (to give something officially to someone or something for a particular purpose) {Oxford Ame.}
The 1985 federal budget allocated $7.3 billion for development programmes... {ICIBA}
1985年的聯邦預算將73億美元撥給了開發項目。
They intend to allocate more places for older students this year.

方法八: (13) Sock your (14) hard-earned cash in an interest-bearing savings account 
(13) To sock (away): 儲蓄 (to save money)
She already has $5,000 socked away for college.

(14) Hard-earned: 辛苦得到的來之不易的 (having taken a great deal of effort to earn or acquire)
Her hard-earned money
她辛苦掙來的錢

方法九: (15) Clip high-value coupons from advertising circular (flyer/ 傳單) for store purchases.
(15) To clip: 剪下 (to cut something out of a newspaper or magazine.) {ICIBA}
Kids in his neighborhood clipped his picture from the newspaper and carried it around. {ICIBA}
附近的孩子們從報紙上剪下他的照片,到哪兒都帶著。

方法十: Start investing to (16) ramp up enough savings to (17) weather a financial crisis
(16) To ramp up: 加強加大/  斜坡上升(to make something increase in amount) {Oxford Ame.}
The factory doesn't have that capacity to ramp up production. {ICIBA}
這家工廠沒有能力加速生產。

(17) to weather: 平安渡過挨過  (to come safely through a difficult period or experience) {Oxford Ame.}
The company has weathered the recession...  {Iciba}
這家公司從經濟蕭條中挺了過來。

 參考:

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