Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence
Author: Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0140286780
Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) (September, 1999)
Sales Rank: 3,788
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 3 out of 5
good but flawed
As I began the book, I found myself nodding and agreeing with many of the observations. But by the end I was disappointed. The recommended obsessive tracking of money (including coins found in the sofa!); the way the authors summarily dismiss the more expense pleasures in life (e.g. referring to travel as "vacating"); and their rejection of the idea of right livelihood all seemed to belie their overall message that your time is more important than your money. Also, they recommended a low-return investment as a one-size-fits all approach, dismissing very lucrative options like retirement plans, mutual funds, and stocks. You'd have missed out on a lot of easy money if you had all your money in treasury bonds in the recent market.
I suppose very materialistic people could really benefit from this book, but of course they're not going to be the ones reading it.
Rating: 3 out of 5
good advice for lifestyle, bad advice for finance
Cutting back on expenditure and living well within our means is good advice. But don`t give the book to too many friends because if everyone starts doing this a consumer driven society such as that found in the USA will head rapidly into recession ! But the financial advice is somewhat dubious. I live in Zimbabwe where inflation is 35% and rising. It may be 100% by next year. So anyone holding their life savings in bonds would be reduced to poverty within a few years. And just because you lucky folk living in the USA have had low inflation for many years don`t think it will last forever.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Your Money or Your Life
I worked with this book in several groups of 10-15 people to discuss "Voluntary Simplicity". The book is easy to read and inspires people to simplify their lives. It is perfect for a Sunday Morning Discussion with people of different ages. They learn from each other,with the book offering a framework for the discussion. The "above 65 folks" already understand this book in spades,and it is quite a revelation for the younger people in the class that have big house and car payments, and haven't thought about "how much is enough". The authors suggest that you write down all your expenditures to document that much of your life is spent making a "dying" and not a "living". If you're not an obsessive type you can easily skip the "recording your expenditures" section and go to the "meat" of getting some balance in the American pursuit of materialism. Others will enjoy seeing how they spend their money by writing down each expenditure. People are shocked by the hours they spend working for the newest "toy".
If you are reading this review, you are probably interested in getting more balance in your life. This book is definitely a "buy" in my opinion. It is the kind of book you will want to share with a friend or group. It is a wonderful book to read with your spouse and talk about over dinner. You may even find time for dinner after reading this gem:-)
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