原文: Are You an Ant or a Grasshopper?

By Jason White

This classic fable illustrates the fundamental difference in savers and spenders. Spenders live for the moment, frittering away their earnings on things like technology gadgets, eating out, and bills they've created for nice cars, expensive homes, etc. Savers prefer to get by on less and save their additional money for a rainy day (or a sunny day ). For those who don't remember the details of this little story, here's a version I found via Google:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant walked by, grunting as he carried a plump kernel of corn.

"Where are you off to with that heavy thing?" asked the Grasshopper.

Without stopping, the Ant replied, "To our ant hill. This is the third kernel I've delivered today."

"Why not come and sing with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of working so hard?"

"I am helping to store food for the winter," said the Ant, "and think you should do the same."
"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "we have plenty of food right now."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its work.

The weather soon turned cold. All the food lying in the field was covered with a thick white blanket of snow that even the grasshopper could not dig through. Soon the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger.

He staggered to the ants' hill and saw them handing out corn from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

 

 

 

 

 

The Grasshopper

At some point in most of our lives we've lived the life of a grasshopper. When I was young I spent most of my earnings and justified it by telling myself I would start saving "when I got older." Well, before I knew it I was older, and I still didn't have a fully-funded emergency fund in place, and my retirement savings were anemic, at best. I should have been storing my own kernels away while the getting was good.

The Ant

It comes as no surprise that the ants are used to describe the hardest working of the two characters. The work ethic of ants is well documented. Unlike the grasshopper, the ant in this story works through the good times to prepare for the bad times. He knows that when winter comes his source of food disappears and he must survive on what he was able to stow away in the warmer months. The story ends without telling us the fate of the grasshopper, but I suspect the ant would share some of his reserves with the grasshopper, assuming he has learned his lesson.

The Moral of the Story

When we are young, and times are good, it is hard to imagine needing to live off cash reserves or saving for a retirement a few decades away. However, bad things happen when we least expect them and it makes sense to prepare for their inevitable arrival. This idea is at the very core of living a frugal lifestyle, because by living frugal you should be able to maximize resources without spending more money. With the realized savings start stockpiling for the winter season of your life - it will turn cold before you know it.

Which character best represents you? Are you an ant, or a grasshopper?

译文: 你是蚂蚁还是蚱蜢？

  这则经典的寓言故事说明了省钱者与花钱者之间根本的区别。花钱者活在当下，将赚来的钱花在科技产品、美食或是因靓车、豪宅而生的费用之上。而省钱者则更愿意在这些方面消费少一些，省下钱来以防遇上“下雨天”（或者遇上个“大晴天”）。这儿提供一则我从谷歌上找到的版本，供记不清这则小故事的人参考。

蚂蚁和蚱蜢

      田间的一个夏日，一只蚱蜢跳来跳去，随心所欲地唱着歌儿。一只蚂蚁从他身边路过，呼哧呼哧地搬运一粒圆鼓鼓的玉米。

      蚱蜢问道：“你背着这么重的东西去哪儿啊？”

      蚂蚁并未停下来，只答道：“去我们的蚁山。这是我今天运送的第三颗玉米了。”

     “你何不过来同我一起唱歌？”蚱蜢问他，“这么辛劳是何苦呢？”

     “我在帮着为冬天储备粮食。”蚂蚁回答，“而且我觉得你也该做同样的事了。”

     “干嘛为冬天而烦恼呢？”蚱蜢说，“我们现在可是食物充足啊。”

      但是蚂蚁依旧赶路，继续着他的工作。

      不久，天气转凉了。田里所有的粮食都盖上了一层厚厚的雪被子，即使是蚱蜢也挖不到粮食了。蚱蜢很快就发现自己正在面临饿死的威胁。

      他晃晃悠悠地爬到蚁山，只见蚂蚁们正在分发他们夏天里贮藏起来的玉米。

      蚱蜢这时候才明白：只有未雨绸缪，才能防患于未然啊。

蚱蜢

从某个方面来看，我们大多时候生活的像蚱蜢。年轻的时候，我总是花去了大部分赚来的钱，自我辩护说“等几年”我就会开始省钱。结果，在我意识到几年已过之前，我仍然没有获得全额保障的紧急基金，而我的退休储蓄充其量是处于“贫血”状态。我真应该在收入不错的时候就开始储存自己的“玉米”啊。

蚂蚁

      毫不奇怪，蚂蚁象征着两种性格中最勤劳的那个。蚂蚁有着很好的工作品质。与蚱蜢相反，故事中的蚂蚁在春风得意之时仍然工作，未雨绸缪。他明白，当冬天来临，他就会失去食物来源，必须依靠这几个暖月中储备的粮食活下来。这则故事的结尾并没有告诉我们蚱蜢的命运，但我猜假如蚱蜢吸取了教训，蚂蚁或许会分给蚱蜢一些自己储备的粮食。

故事的寓意

      当我们年轻，春风得意的时候，很难想象几十年以后我们需要依靠储蓄或退休的积蓄生活。然而，困境总是在我们最忽略它的时候到来，所以我们早做准备，百利而无一害。这正是节俭生活的核心所在，因为如果你生活节俭，就可以不多花钱而使资源利用最大化。意识到这一点，就请开始为你的冬季储备吧。在你发觉之前，天气就会转凉的！

你属于哪种性格，蚂蚁还是蚱蜢？