You’ve probably heard about the bumper sticker, even if you haven’t seen it. It’s the one on Cadillacs in Florida and Lexuses in Arizona that says “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.”
您可能沒看過，但曾聽過有關汽車保險桿貼紙。它出現在佛羅里達的卡迪拉克和亞利桑那的凌志上，上面寫的是：「我正花用子孫們的遺產。」

We’ve laughed at that for years. But the truth is, retirees have a lot of demands on their savings. Out-of-pocket health care costs, for one, are rising fast. At the same time, many people are not waiting until they die to help their children and grandchildren financially. And some are finding creative ways to draw on money that would otherwise be part of their estate.
我們一直當它是個笑話。事實卻是，退休人士的積蓄需要填補眾多的需求。其中之一是健康保險費用快速增加。同時，很多人在生前即資助兒孫。有些則找出具創意的方法，從不動產上打主意。

For all these reasons and many more (I’ve ticked off eight below), it would be a bad idea to plan on getting any inheritance from your older relatives.
以下的八個理由將說明，打算從長輩那分得遺產將是件蠢事。

Many people have figured this out, though not all. An AARP analysis of the Federal Reserve Board’s 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances noted that 21 percent of people born after 1964 thought they would inherit some money someday. After all, most of them still have living parents or grandparents.
依據2004年的調查，1964年以後出生，仍有21%的人認為有一天他們將會繼承到一些錢。而他們的雙親或祖父母仍然活著。

But with each passing year, the pressures on the nest eggs of those older people will only grow. The truly rich will be fine, as they usually are. But a lot of other people, even retirees with net worths well into the seven figures, could end up spending every dime before they die.
每過一年，這些老人承受的經濟壓力將有增無減。對真正的有錢人，關係不大。對大多數的人，即或淨資產近七位數，到死前可能一文不名。

There is nothing wrong with that, by the way. This is a judgment-free column on that front. There is no moral obligation to leave a cent to the next generation. And there are some people who struggle each day to make ends meet who only wish they could leave an inheritance.
其實，這也沒錯。我們並沒有道德上的義務要留錢給下一代。而有些人刻苦度日，只希望能留下些遺產。

But for those who thought that they would have something to pass on, or that money would be coming to them, here are some of the things that may get in the way.
對那些指望遺產的人，以下的理由也許可以點醒他們。

People who make it to 65 will live a lot longer. As of 2005, according to National Center for Health Statistics data, males aged 65 could expect to live to 82; for females, it was 85. That’s 37 years of living expenses for couples, and it isn’t easy or fun to scale back your standard of living.
活到65歲的人會活的更久。根據統計資料預期，現年65歲男性可活到82，女性是85。夫婦倆還要生活37年，要降低生活水準既不容易也不好玩。

Want to get a sense of how long you or your older relatives may live? Drop the phrase “How long will I live” into a search engine and play with some of the longevity questionnaires that pop up on the results page.
想知道你或是你的長輩能活多久？把「How long will I live」貼到搜尋網站，回答一些問題，就會得到答案。

Social Security and Medicare will probably change. It’s hard to find anyone who thinks those programs will get much more generous. Medicare premiums will rise, and the program may cover fewer procedures or not cover emerging ones. Meanwhile, taxes on Social Security benefits may rise, and everyone may have to wait longer to collect.
社會保險和醫療保險將會改變。沒有人相信這兩種保險會越來越大方。醫療保險費會漲，自付額增加而保障減少。社會保險的稅率會增加，且延後給付。

Fewer people have pensions, so they’re more wedded to the markets. In 2005, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, 63 percent of workers in the private sector worked for employers who offered only 401(k) or similar plans, not traditional pensions.
少數人還有養老金。根據2005的調查，在私部門工作的人只有401（k）或類似的方案，而不是傳統的退休養老金。

As pensions continue to disappear, retirees and those close to the final quitting time will depend more heavily on how their investments perform. And as large numbers bet heavily on stocks to finance 20-plus years of retirement cruises and Cadillacs, some will inevitably lose big.
年金給付不斷縮水，因此退休人士或即將退休者必須依靠投資獲利。大多數人投入股市以支應20餘年的花費，有些人則因為投資不當損失慘重。

Out-of-pocket health care costs for retirees may soon hit seven figures a couple. Sounds crazy, right? Sure, these postretirement costs probably won’t get that high for people who have employer-provided retiree health insurance, though few in the private sector do anymore.
退休夫婦的健保支出將突破七位數。一點都不奇怪，如果雇主提供退休員工的健保，也許會好一些。但是私部門的這類福利越來越少。

For those who don’t have such insurance and are retiring this year at age 65, the mutual fund giant Fidelity figures they will need $225,000 to cover their health care costs in retirement, though that doesn’t include over-the-counter drugs, dentistry or nursing home expenses.
今年65歲退休且沒有那些保險的人，據Fidelity的估算退休後的健康保險費用將需要225,000美元。還不包括拿藥、口腔治療和居家照顧等費用。

For 55-year-old couples, the numbers could go much higher, according to projections by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Once these people hit 65, if they pay all Medicare costs, purchase Medigap coverage beyond that and have prescription costs higher than 90 percent of their peers, they’ll need $1,064,000 in savings to finance these costs over the rest of their lives.
據推算，現年55歲的夫妻，保險支出將會更多。當他們滿65歲時，除了自付老年醫療照護計劃（Medicare）的保費，還得自購差額醫療險（Medigap），加上全額自付的處方費，要比同儕高出90%。他們將要準備1,064,000美元才夠。

Divorced individuals may pass on less money. Splitting up can be expensive in itself, and maintaining two households for decades afterward will often cost more than sharing a dwelling.
離婚者剩得更少。數十年間分別過日子的花費，通常比共同生活多得多。

Even if the parents have money left over, the ones who didn’t have custody of the children may be less inclined to pass an inheritance on to them. “The ties that parents have with kids and their interest in supporting them could well be weakened by the fact that they haven’t spent much time with them,” said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University and the co-author of “Spend ’Til the End,” which gives readers a new way to think about financial planning.
波士頓大學的經濟學教授與「Spend ’Til the End」一書的共同作者Laurence J. Kotlikoff說：「親子間的連繫常因未長期相處而淡薄。」即或父母還剩下些錢，沒有子女監護權的一方，通常沒有意願將遺產留給他們。

It’s getting easier to drain a home’s equity. Homeowners who are 62 or older (though there are some exceptions) can take out a reverse mortgage, which is roughly akin to a home equity loan that you don’t have to pay back until you (or your heirs) sell the house. So homeowners can tap the equity in their homes without having to make monthly payments to repay the debt.
更容易從房子著手理財。現年62歲或更長一些的屋主，得以另一種方式抵押借款。他們不必按期還本付息，直到屋主或其或繼承人出售房子之時。因此，屋主可以從不動產取得資金，而不必按月償債。

So far, borrowers have taken out roughly 450,000 of these loans since 1990, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. But the pace is picking up. Lenders, including mainstream operations like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, wrote more than 100,000 of them for the first time in the year ended Sept. 30, 2007.
據National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association統計，自1990起已達45萬借款戶，且成長中。美國銀行與富國銀行在2007年9月底，簽下的這類貸款戶超過10萬筆。

Meanwhile, the association says, retirees are increasingly using mortgages as a financial tool — and not simply as a last resort to pay for health care emergencies and the like.
同時協會也指出，愈來愈多的退休者以抵押借款作為理則工具，而不是只為了休閒、醫療、急用…等。

Indeed, there is nothing to stop people from using the loan proceeds for vacations or cars or whatever they want. Millions just may do that someday, which makes reverse mortgages a real wild card. Their growth certainly raises the likelihood that large portions of family homesteads in America will end up belonging to banks, not heirs.
的確，沒有任何方法阻止人們以借支來渡假、買新車或滿足其他需求。成千上萬的人會這麼幹，這種借貨方式就像外卡。它們的增長終將使家園落入銀行，而非繼承人。

Life insurance may not offer much help. It’s now possible for people to sell their life insurance policies to investors in many circumstances. For a $1 million policy, an investor would pay some fraction of that immediately to the original policy holder, then hang on to the policy to collect the full amount when the seller dies. The more people who do this, the less money for any heirs.
別指望壽險。某些狀況下，人們可以把他的保單出售。投資者折價買下一張百萬保單，然後等待被保險人死亡。愈多的人這樣做，繼承人得到的愈少。

Meanwhile, the popularity of term life insurance, where policy holders are covered for 10 or 20 years or so but then get nothing afterward if they don’t get a new policy, could also have an impact. Many people stop buying term life insurance after their children become adults or once a spouse dies. Their heirs will get nothing in the way of a payout.
同時，定期壽險有一定保障年限，十年或二十年期滿，此後除非有新的保險將沒有理賠。很多人在子女成年或配偶過世後中止保險。他們的繼承人得不到保險金。

The transfer of wealth will increasingly happen while the older generations are still alive. People in the latter halves of their lives now find themselves financing college tuition for grandchildren, chipping in when children or grandchildren graduate with five and six figures in student loan debt, supplying down payments in a tightening mortgage market and bailing the younger generations out of a host of other financial calamities.
當老一輩還在世時財富已經轉移。人生已過半時，人們發現他們還需資助子孫輩高達5、6位數字的學貸，幫助房貸頭期款或解決其他財務狀況。

Sometimes, this is part of a concerted effort to reduce an estate that could be subject to taxes. Other times, it’s pure necessity.
有時，是為了節稅，其他則是不得不然。

But it may well be everything you’ll ever get. If you put it to good use now, perhaps you won’t have to choose later between selling your life insurance and draining your home equity.
但這並不表示你將一無所有。如果能妥善理財，也許有朝一日你不必在賣掉人壽保險和抵押房產間作選擇。

原文參照
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/business/yourmoney/21money.html