访谈录 Interview 2007-07-11&07-13, 我要嫁个有钱人

This morning, on Today's Money, love and dollars, a lot(s) of dollars. In this July issue Money Magazine takes a look at people who are on the hunt for billionaires. But what are the pitfalls¹ when you hunt for a partner with money? Money Magazine's Jean Chatzky is today's financial editor, Jean, good morning to you.

Good morning.

I wanted to say it, at the beginning, that's it. It just has a kind of sleazy, superficial feel toward people looking for billionaires to marry. But that's what this article is about, isn't it?

Well, it has the same feel to me too. But this article is largely commenting on the fact that this is happening, this is out there. I mean I have been here for ten years, Money Magazine for ten years, we have never written about anything like this before. And that's because it's never existed until now in a big way.

Because there are so many billionaires, you mean at this point.

Right, there are 946 billionaires right now in the world. For the first time, the whole Forbes 400 was billionaires in the United States. If you go one tier down, there are about 85,000 people in this country with wealth of 30 million dollars or more, and it's easier to find them if this is something that you are out looking for, because there are dating services, dating websites that focus on helping² people find other people with money.

That are directly related to that, you're saying, (Yeah, that, that's...) that you go to just for that.

That are n(ame), they have names like millionairematch. com.

Are these women looking for men, are they men looking for women, is it a little bit of both or?

It's definitely a little bit of both. There are more billionaires who happen to be men of the 946. Only about 40 are women. So if you are dead set on a billionaire, you are gonna have a tough time finding one who is a woman. However, I think when we talk about this whole phenomenon of older women, younger men; we are actually talking about richer women, poorer men. We are just not saying it.

The whole cougar³ thing, another…

Exactly, the cougar thing, age of love and all of that.

So a man or a woman who wants to find themselves a billionaire, besides the websites they can go to, what else is out there?

Well, you have to figure out where the billionaires are to begin with. And that means looking in the different industries where they exist. About half of all billionaires that Money looked at, and they took a very scientific approach to this study, found that their mates at work. So if this is something that you are up for, and you may want to go out there, get yourself an MBA or get a job in finance or in the investment world which is where most billionaires these days happen to work.

The point is, what a cynical⁴ thing you are saying, get yourself an MBA so you can find yourself a billionaire.

Look, this is not how I want my daughter, or my son, for that matter out there dating. I want my kids to have their own money, as I am sure you do. Because when you have the money in the relationship, you have the power in the relationship, that's just the way it works. And so you need to know what you want in another person, but you know, there are people out there who say I want this, I want to be wealthy, and this is one way to get there.

Okay, so besides getting the MBA, whatever it is, will get you closer to the person who is wealthy, what else can you do?

Well, you can look for common interests. I mean if you look at the things that billionaires or very very wealthy people do, they tend to spend a lot of money on luxury items, so focusing your interest on real estate or art galleries, or collecting, you might get involved in charities where they are likely to be. If you don't have enough money to buy a ticket to their great ball of the year,well, then volunteer. But gets, get yourself in there in a way that you are interested in the subject also. I think that it's not easy to fake these things, and, and the good news is that many many billionaires these days seem to be marrying for smarts as well as for money, they are not looking for people who can't carry on a conversation.

Yeah, I was just gonna say what's into for the billionaire?

I think in a lot of cases, you have to ask that question, because if you are dating somebody who has all the money in the relationship, you need to know upfront what you are giving, otherwise you are gonna be in trouble on the back end.

But this whole premise⁵ of marrying somebody for money where that is the goal, isn't that like buying a house whose foundation is sand essentially⁶.

I think in a large number of cases, it can be. And that's why if you go into that kind of a marriage, you'd better have a prenup, and it'd better be tight, you'd better have your own lawyer negotiating it for you.

Alright, Jean Chatzky, thanks so much,(Sure) ,nice to see you.

You too.

1 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 cougar   

n.美洲狮；美洲豹

参考例句：

• I saw a cougar slinking toward its prey.我看到一只美洲狮正在潜随猎物。
• I have never seen a cougar.我从未见过美洲豹。

4 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

5 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。