翻译：Ponge

# Preamble 序言

Below you will find a copy of the full collection of the Nomad Letters to Partners, our magnum opus, as it were. These letters were written every six months, from the end of 2001 to early 2014, and sent to Partners in the Nomad Investment Partnership. More recently, they have enjoyed a life of their own in the financial press and internet, quite without our knowledge or, in some cases, approval. Indeed, these bootleg copies were never intended for wide circulation, let alone involuntary publishing, and contain our personal details. We would ask that readers of those hooky letters please respect our privacy and preference to maintain our low profile (think deep-burrowing earthworms). The approved letters that follow have been lightly edited mainly for privacy purposes (and topped and tailed with this preamble and a postamble) but otherwise remain unchanged from the original. We hope that you enjoy the read and would ask only that we are attributed where required and that any web links used in reference are to the approved version found on the IGY Foundation website (not back to the bootleggers), please. Those that do wish to get in touch may do so through the “contact us” function on the IGY Foundation website. 

这份文件是《游牧者基金致合伙人的信》全集的副本，这可以说是我们的代表作了。从 2001 年底到 2014 年初，每六个月我们会写一封信，寄给游牧者投资合伙企业的合伙人。最近，在未告知我们的情况下（在有些时候是未经我们许可），这些信件在财经媒体和互联网上流传。事实上，这些盗版的信件副本并不适合大范围传播，更不适合被第三方印刷出版，而且这些信中包含了我们的个人信息。我们希望阅读到那些盗版信件的读者能够尊重我们的隐私，并能够帮助我们保持低调（想想深埋地下的蚯蚓）。发布在这份文件中的信件已经经由我们许可，并出于隐私的考虑进行了轻度编辑（而且在文章前后加了前言和结语），除此以外，和原信件没有差别。我们希望您能喜欢阅读这些信件，只要求您在引用时注明来源，如果在引用时需要注明原文链接，请使用 IGY 基金会网站上经许可的文件版本（而不是链接到盗版文件），非常感谢。希望与我们取得联系的人可以通过 IGY 基金会网站上的「联系我们」栏目获取相关信息。

The Nomad letters themselves have been reproduced here in chronological order to help the reader who has the stamina to make it through the next hundred and ten thousand words (what did we find to say?), understand our journey from cigar butt investing to near permanent holdings. With just a few months to go to the twentieth anniversary of the inception of Nomad, it is now all but inevitable that our annual performance will be around twenty percent for twenty years; evidence, perhaps, that investors don’t have to go changing their holdings with their underwear and, forgive us if we continue the theme, they really can make their money sitting on their assets! 

在这份文件中，游牧者基金致合伙人的信将按时间顺序排列， 方便有毅力的读者读完接下来的 11 万字（我们怎么写了这么多字？），了解我们是如何从烟蒂股投资（cigar butt investing）转变为近乎永久性持有（near permanent holdings）投资的。再过几个月，游牧者基金成立就要 20 周年了，在未来的 20 年里，我们的年化复合回报将几乎不可避免地保持在 20% 左右。请原谅我们再次说起这个话题，证据表明，投资者也许不用着急忙慌地调整他们的持仓，他们真的可以通过坐在他们的资产上赚到钱！

Our motivation for publishing the letters on Nick’s charitable foundation website, is to raise the “and what then” issue: that is, if you are blessed with some success from investing, what then? Elsewhere on this website we have described our “what then” thinking in a drop down tab entitled “X-amount”. But that is our journey and everyone is different. (As an aside, these may be the only investment letters published on a charity website, which asks the question, why aren’t there more? And, if there were, might it help put the investment activity in more productive psychic space?) 

我们之所以选择在尼克·斯利普（Nick Sleep）慈善基金会的网站上发表这些信件，是为了提出这样一个问题：「然后呢？」也就是说，如果你有幸从投资中获得了一些成功，然后呢？在这个网站的其他位置，我们讨论了自己对「然后呢？」的一些想法，你可以在下拉列表中点击「X-Amount」[^1]查看。当然，这是我们对这个问题的理解，每个人都会有不同的理解。（顺便说一句，在慈善网站上发布投资信件可能仅此一家。这就提出了一个问题，为什么没有更多的人做这样的事？如果其他人也这样做，是否有助于将投资活动置于更有富有成效的心理空间？）

[^1]: X-Amount 指的是划定一个金额，这个金额代表我们毕生需要的金钱总数，包括吃喝、教育、过上幸福生活等等。Nick Sleep 建议，将这个金额以下的钱和这个金额以上的钱区别对待，超过这个金额以上的钱对你来说毫无意义，用于慈善对社会进行再投资，在 Nick 看来，才是真正有意义的。

Investing is a wonderful, thoughtful, adventure but it can also be self-centered, a tendency that can be reinforced by the wealth that can follow. We think it is true that, once past X-amount, real meaning comes with reinvesting in society through charitable giving, which can also be a thoughtful, challenging, wonderful adventure, but with the added bonus that it feels like the world working properly. We hope that you can join us. 

投资是一种奇妙的、深思熟虑的冒险，但它也可能是利己主义的。如果是这样，那么财富越多，利己主义倾向越重。我们认为，超过一定金额（X-amount）以外的财富，其真正的意义在于通过慈善捐赠实现对社会的再投资。慈善捐赠也可以是一种深思熟虑的、富有挑战性的、奇妙的冒险，而且还有一个额外的好处，那就是它让你感觉到世界在正确地运转。我们希望你能加入我们。

Nick Sleep and Qais Zakaria, Spring 2021.

尼克·斯利普（Nick Sleep）和卡伊斯·扎卡里亚（Qais Zakaria），2021 年春