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Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (平装)
by Joe Dominguez , Vicki Robin
| Category:
Frugal living, Way of life, Money & values, Simple living |
| Market price: ¥ 170.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Out of stock. Being replenished |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Challenging the American addition to consumerism, this classic may change your views on money as well as your life. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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Amazon.com (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
There's a big difference between "making a living" and making a life. Do you spend more than you earn? Does making a living feel more like making a dying? Do you dislike your job but can't afford to leave it? Is money fragmenting your time, your relationships with family and friends? If so, Your Money or Your Life is for you.
From this inspiring book, learn how to
- get out of debt and develop savings
- reorder material priorities and live well for less
- resolve inner conflicts between values and lifestyles
- convert problems into opportunities to learn new skills
- attain a wholeness of livelihood and lifestyle
- save the planet while saving money
- and much more
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Publishers Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
Based on their West Coast self-help seminars, Dominguez and Robin here map a route to financial security through a relaxed, prudent and environmentally-friendly way of life. Systemically analyzing one's overspending, as in the case histories cited, and calculating the "life-energy" cost (time, expenses, stress) of a competitive career, the authors maintain, can lead to reduced occupational expectations and to surprisingly large economies effected by pre-pricing food, clothing, transportation, loan rates, heath care and so on. Resulting surpluses, invested in Treasury bonds, will yield compound income eventually covering the reduced expenses. This "crossover point" brings financial independence, according to the authors, and freedom to choose one's work for greater personal satisfaction and the "commonweal." Some readers may be put off by the finicky detail and intense tone of the course, but few will fail to find here new insight and encouragement.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. |
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Library Journal (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
Think environmentally, live frugally, and don't be surprised if your income shoots off the top of the chart that Dominguez, a former Wall Street financial analyst, and Robin ask you to put up on your wall. With this promise, they promote the possibility and goal of having "enough" money in your life. The wall chart of income, expenses, and investments is one of several very detailed records they mandate to support your attitude change. Others are a record of lifetime income and computation of your real working income, translated into "hours of life energy." It would be hard to carry out their nine-step program without frequent recourse to the book for continued inspiration and implementing detail. A marginal purchase for most libraries.
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Ilene Rosoff (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
For most people money is a source of stress and a controlling force in our lives: we spend the majority of our day thinking about money (getting it and spending it) or working for it. Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, now international lecturers, have developed a unique program for changing the way we interact with money. It's based on getting out of debt, living minimally and moving beyond the obsession most of us have with the green stuff at one level or another. By first minutely considering how much of our "life energy" is actually spent in the acquisition of money, where that money is spent (you'll be amazed), and how our consumption affects the entire planet, we can more comfortably re-prioritize our values, save money by living frugally (buying used, bartering services, paying off debt) and eventually achieve financial independence. The end result is that we can learn to live "at the peak of the Fulfillment Curve, always having plenty but never burdened by excess." Sounds like a bargain. |
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Mark Wieczorek (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
I'm always wary of books stating that they have "9 steps to a different life" and didn't buy this book for years after after I learned of it. I picked it up a couple of months ago when a new boss caused me to look at my job in a different light. If I was fired or wanted to quit, how would I survive? If I wanted to get a lower paying job doing something I enjoyed, could my lifestyle afford it?
With these things weighing on my mind, I purchased this book. Most of the steps I understood, and many of them made sense, but it was the 8th step that "hit me on the side of the head." What a revelation! I needed the previous 7 steps to fully appreciate it. I *can* change my life. This isn't some new-age feel good, think positive mumbo jumbo, but a solid plan for achieving financial independance.
I tell my friends about my plan to retire early, and they say "Oh, that's nice" and "You'll never do it" and "I could never cut back my spending enough to do that." The promise, though, of not having to work for a living is keeping me motivated, and I think of it every time I spend money.
Oddly enough, I recognize some of the principals as being similar to what financial guru types like Robert Kiyosaki and Robert G. Allen recommend - spend less, save more, invest what you save - yet this book, unlike those, provides a proven method for getting there.
Some books I read, such as Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously by Gerrold Mundis prepared me for this book, and it agrees with my personal philsophies, even though I tend to spend more money than I should.
The 9th step details how to invest your money, but is now out of date because of changes instituted by the federal government. These issues are dealt with on by Vicki Robbins on a website based on this book.
I've read other 'retire early' books and this is one of the best. It's also unique in that it wasn't written at the end of the 90's. Several others were written by people who were able to retire at the end of the great bull market of the 90's based on their stock investments. This book, however, was written in the mid to late 90's before there was such a thing as Internet millionaires. One of those people even wrote a book explaining why other methods don't work and how to buy his system! I guess he lost a lot of money and is looking to raise some quick cash.
My girlfriend found the tone of the book overly preachy. They talk a lot about being eco and environmentally friendly in a way that some would consider heavy handed. While I felt some parts were preachy - things I would do once I had the resources to do them and wasn't spending all of my time 'making a dying,' - I found the information in this book valuable enough to read through those parts.
As an experiment I'm trying to see if I can spend no money during the month of November and one of my friends who's deeply in debt is doing it with me. Just necessities and the occasional cab fare or movie. The purpose of the experiment is to see how much money I need to live on and how much I can save.
I know it doesn't go much into investing and where to put your money, which is very popular now that everyone's got money in the stock market, but I consider this the single most important investment book I've ever read.
I also recommend The Average Family's Guide to Financial Independence by Toohey, Nickel and Dimed by Ehrenreich, and of course, Getting a Life by Blix and Miller.
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Michael Mendenhall (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
The first thing I did when I finished reading this book was to set aside time to read it again. This is a truly outstanding book.
First some pros and cons, and yes, there are some drawbacks. You guessed it: this is not a "get rich" type book. It's not about making money and all that. Some people might classify it as "psychobabble" because it talks about your relationship with money and how it fits into your life. The primary focus of the book is to show just how much of our waking hours are dominated by working for a living and to show you how to get past that. After following some of the advice in the book, I found myself facing the realization that most of my waking hours are devoted to money. I didn't believe it at first, but after doing the exercises, I was pretty surprised.
To give you a taste, here is perhaps my favorite quote from the book:
"And they call this making a living? Think about it. How many people have you seen who are more alive at the end of the work day than they were at the beginning? Do we come home from our 'making a living' activity with more life? Do we bound through the door, refreshed and energized, ready for a great evening with the family? Where's all the life we supposedly made at work? For many of us, isn't the truth of it closer to 'making a dying'? Aren't we killing ourselves - our health, our relationships, our sense of joy and wonder - for our jobs? We are sacrificing our lives for money - but it's happening so slowly that we barely notice....After all, if we didn't work, what would we do with our time?"
I can't think of anyone who could not benefit at least somewhat from reading this book and really pondering the message. Other than "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, I can't remember a book I have recommended to so many people.
I'm giving this book 5 stars because I can't give it more than that. If you work for a living, find yourself in debt, don't have time for your kids or just feel burned out, could it possibly be money related in some way? Since the vast majority of people work for a living, I suspect it's job related. I would rate this book as one of the most influential I have ever read. Consider this. We spend over half our waking hours either: (1) working (2) going to work (3) coming home from work (4) eating out because we're too tired from working all day (5) looking forward to the weekend because we hate our work (6) recovering from work (7) dumping your kids in day care because you have to work. You get the point. This is a really good book. Email me with your thoughts and stories how this book has changed your life. I have many thoughts and stories to share.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-02 00:00>
This slim paperback changed my life as no other book has, financially. The most important things I learned from this book are (1) Avoid consumerism and (b) Cut your expenses, easily. I agree with readers earning $30,000 a year that it is difficult to become financially independent on that kind of salary - I also know it's difficult to live on $200k/year in NYC. (I mean it!)
I spent about $13 on the book. At the time I was technically bankrupt - unemployed, and living off a rapidly diminishing overfdraft. A month later, I got my wits together and - in one day- cancelled Call Waiting and 3-Way-Conferencing and a bunch of other options on my home phone; zapped the cell phone; cancelled my order for cable TV; joined the local library; un-subscribed to every mail-order catalog I was on; fired the maid and cleaned the place myself (quite satisfying; I mean, the latter); and lost all interest in Prada, Gucci, and keeping up with the neighbors. Immediate savings: $200 a month or more, before you get into the Prada stuff. That's the best return on investment I've ever had. And I felt nothing but satisfaction - there was no sense of loss. It was as though I had been told by someone, you must have these things, these Palm Pilots, these gadgets in the catalogs; and I learned: Wrong! Didn't need them at all. In fact, I felt quite smug about not having them.
This is not a bible for everyone. It did enable me to retire at 40. Thank you, Joe and Vicki. But whether you want to retire or just feel less owned by your job, you cannot read this book without yearning for FI and taking a cold, hard look at the ridiculous ways you are spending money today. There is so much pressure from ads to buy things you don't need. Read this and wise up. Stop driving the Beemer to the gym. Buy a pair of sneakers and walk for an hour. Do your own gardening. Stop thinking "I am what I spend". Start thinking, what would it feel like to be free?
A: Wonderful.
I am adding to this 5 years into freedom. I'm not rich. I'm not insecure, which is the best gift this book has given me. My car is worth abt $5,000 - in my dreams- and I live in a place full of Bentleys and Mercs. My car gets me around, which is what a car is supposed to do. If someone totals it, I can live with that. I do the occasional splurge - but I do it because I can. I don't track expenses. If something is expensive, I genuinely don't want it.
This book is brilliant. It has some shortcomings, but they are so few in relation to the knock on the head I got from reading it. You don't need half the stuff you have in your life. You probably don't need three-quarters of it. And, in response to the liberal-bashers on this site, you don't have to hug a tree to give the finger to the materialistic society that we live in.
Excuse the cliche but no one ever died wishing they had spent more time at the office. This little book has given me five years off to just enjoy the things I want to do. I was blessed to encounter it.
And, no, you don't have to follow a 9-step program. Heck, I think I only followed one - I was wasting money wholesale w/o even thinking abt it, and I was a slave to consumerism. Read this book.
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1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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