托福阅读材料之年轻时会犯的5个错误

Being young is great. Most of the parts of your body still work great, you have a full head of hair, you’re energetic, and you have a world of opportunity in front of you. However, there’s going to come a time when you start to get older. And as you get older, you’ll have new responsibilities, complete independence, and perhaps most importantly, less time to recover from mistakes.

年轻真好。身体大部分零件运转灵活，头发浓密，精力旺盛，机会唾手可得。然而，总有，老之将至。随着年龄的增长，肩上的担子重了，生活完全靠自己打拼，可能较重要的是，有更少的时间去弥补错误。

You see, we all make mistakes in life. Maybe you spent more money than you should have on a car, you passed up on a great job opportunity, or you didn’t try as hard as you could have in school. It’s a part of life and we learn from it. But there are certain mistakes that are much better made while you’re still young and have plenty of time to recover.

你看，在生活中，我们都犯错误。或许，你在汽车上花的钱超出了预算；或许，你错过了大好的工作机会；或许，上学时你不勤奋好学。这是生活的一部分，我们从中获得经验。但是，某些错误犯在年轻时，你将有足够的时间去弥补。

I’m definitely not telling you that you should purposely go out and make these mistakes (because they’re a pain to recover from). But these are all mistakes that are much better made when you’re younger so that you can learn from them and not have them ruin your entire life.

我当然不是说，你应该有目的出去犯这些错误（因为从错误中恢复很痛苦）。但是，这些错误，都是越年轻时犯就越有利，以便你能从中吸取教训，而避免让它们毁掉你的整个生活。

1. Starting The Wrong Career

入错行

Wouldn’t you hate to be 45 years old and discover that you absolutely hate what you do for a living? It’s a reality that a lot of people face and it can be difficult to fix. You see, when you’re 23 and find out you don’t like the career path you’ve chosen, you can easily explore new career options.

45岁的时候，你发现，你讨厌维系你生活的谋生手段，此时你不会感到遗憾吗？这是摆在很多人面前的现实，而且很难补救。要知道，23岁时，你发现不喜欢自己选择的职业道路，开拓新天地易于反掌。

We no longer live in an age when people are expected to stay with one company until they retire. You can bounce around a little bit and find out what you want to do. When you get older, just switching careers whenever you want isn’t as simple.

在一家公司一直工作到退休的时代已经成为过去。你可以跳跳槽，看看哪行适合你。年轻不再时，随心所欲地换工作可不是易事。

You have to consider your family, retirement, the difficulties you might run into with starting from the bottom in a new industry, and plenty of other issues that someone in their early 20’s just doesn’t have to deal with.

你*要考虑家庭、退休以及在新行业中从头来可能遇到的困难，还有很多20多岁的年轻人无需应对的其他事情。

2. Dating the wrong person

嫁（娶）错郎（娘）

The divorce rate in the U.S is extremely high. Other parts of the world aren’t doing too much better either. While everyone gets divorced for their own reasons, I think we can all agree that it’s better to find out that the person you’re with is wrong for you sooner rather than later.

美国的离婚率极高，世界上其它地区也好不到哪里。每个人离婚都有各自的理由，我觉得大家都会同意这种观点，发现你的配偶不适合你宜早不宜迟。

Hopefully you find out whether or not the person you’re with is right for you before you tie the knot, because around ** of first marriages end in divorce.

但愿在结为连理之前，确定那个人是否合适，因为次婚姻中的**以离婚告终。

3. Messing up your credit

信誉扫地

Ruining your credit is never a good idea. Even if you ruin it while you’re young, it could affect you in the future. The upside of having bad credit while you’re young instead of older is that you have time to build it back up.

毁掉信誉从来不是好想法。即使你年轻，毁掉信誉也可能会对你的将来产生影响。年轻时比年老时失去信誉的好处在于，你有时间再次赢得信誉。

It can take 7-10 years to rebuild your credit if you have a history of late payments, loan defaults, foreclosures, or bankruptcy. During those 7-10 years, you’ll have a hard time financing anything unless you have a cosigner or put down a substantial down payment.

如果你有拖欠付款、贷款违约、取消抵押品收回权或破产历史，重建信誉可能需要7-10年的时间。在这7-10年里，你很难筹措资金，除非有共同签署人或预付一大笔定金。

Most people tend to make most of the bigger purchases in life when they get older such as a house or their dream car. If you have bad credit, you can kiss all of that goodbye.

生活中，大多数人年龄越大越倾向于购买大件商品，例如房子、香车。如果你信誉扫地，那就只有缘而没有份了。

4. Making bad investments

投资不谨慎

If you’re investing money for your retirement, making bad decisions can mean you’ll be working your entire life. Whether you choose to pay someone to do the investing for you or handle it all yourself, it’s a lot better to take risks when you’re younger.

如果你为养老做投资，不明智的投资可能意味着你将辛劳一生。不论花钱雇人还是自己做投资理财，承担风险，越年轻承受力越强。

If you invest in stock or even real estate while you’re young and the market takes a hit, you’re not ruined. Investing is a long-term venture, so the younger you start, the more fluctuation you can withstand and still come out with a positive return.

如果年轻时投资股票或房地产，市场震荡，你不会一蹶不振。投资是长期冒险，投资越早，就越经得起涨落，而较终获得正收益。

5. Blowing your money

烧钱

What would you do if you went broke at 60 years old? You would be working your behind off when you really should be relaxing and getting ready to retire soon.

60岁的你成了穷光蛋怎么办？你该真正放松，准备享受退休生活的时候，却不得不甩开膀子接着干。

But if you’re 25 and broke, you still have plenty of time to earn more money. Also, nobody will judge you because it’s not unusual for people in their 20’s to not have money these days. You might have blown your money on a nice car or have an obsession with all the newest gadgets.

但是，如果25岁的你破产了，你还有足够的时间赚更多钱。还有，没有人因此对你说三道四，因为，现在20多岁的年轻人没有钱很正常。你可能买了辆好车，挥霍了一笔，或者曾痴迷于新潮小设备。

When you get older, you’ll be able to look back and realize how dumb you were for spending $20,000 on a brand new car when you were only 20 years old. But when you’re older and waste your money, you’ll REALLY have nothing to show for it.

当你变老时，回顾过去，你开始懂得，花2万美元买辆新车，那时只有20岁的你多么让人无语。但是，当你已不再年轻，而且还乱花钱，你就真得什么也没有了。