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Communities
Review & Giveaway: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin
The second book I’ve read toward my goal of reading 12 personal finance books in 12 months is Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin. Yes, I’m a little behind in my challenge, but I plan on catching up real soon.
About the Authors:
Joe Dominguez (1938-1997) believed in leaving this planet in better shape than he found it. He believed in simplicity and taking charge of finances to live life according to priorities.
Vicki Robin is President of the New Road Map Foundation. She has appeared on “Oprah” and “Good Morning America” and has been featured in People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and several other publications. She speaks frequently on the topic of “consumption downsizing.”
About the Book:
Your Money or Your Life is a 9 step program for taking charge of your money and living your life according to your priorities. From calculating how much money you’ve already made to walking you through the things you want to do when you are financially independent, this book covers the entire journey to financial independence.
The authors definitely have a bent toward simple living that comes across frequently in the book. They stress that you trade your life energy for money and challenge you to determine how much life energy you are willing to trade for the money you are making.
This book walks you through the beginning stages of taking stock of your current financial situation to finding ways to cut your expenses and increase the difference between what you are bringing in and what you are spending.
The authors show you the importance of investing and talk about the important “crossover point”: that point which the money you are earning from your investments crosses over the amount of money you spend each month.
Once you are at the point of financial independence, the authors encourage you to continue contributing to society in any way you want to, whether that’s volunteering, continuing to work, or something else. The important thing is, once you reach financial independence, it is your choice as to where and for how much you want to work.
My Opinion:
All in all I thought Your Money or Your Life was a good book. It provides a very clear plan to take charge of your finances. The “assignments” were very useful and eye-opening.
This is not a quick read. Initially my plan was to read this book in one month, and it took me almost three. I could have taken longer. I found I needed to stop frequently to think about a point for a day or two.
Though I liked this book, it’s not my favorite personal finance book. After hearing several personal finance bloggers rave about how life changing this book was, I was expecting something a bit more.
I think one of the reasons I was a little bit disappointed is that I have never been really enamored with career or money. Since one of the big points of this book is to teach you to consider your life purpose and live accordingly, and since I already feel I have this concept down, I guess I just wasn’t blown away.
That being said, I do recommend that everyone read this book, especially if you’ve never considered how much energy you are putting toward your job and what kind of return you are getting on your time investment. I can see where Your Money or Your Life would be life changing if you had never considered that before.
Overall, I’m going to give this book 4 out of 5 piggy banks. I can definitely understand why Your Money or Your Life is a classic among personal finance books.
The Giveaway:
I am giving away my once read copy of Your Money or Your Life. To win, just leave a comment on this post. One comment only, please. Multiple comments will be deleted. I will close comments at 12 noon on Friday, March 21, 2008 and draw a winner using random.org.
Due to the high cost of shipping, this contest is only open to residents of the United States.
Please remember to enter a valid email address in the comment form, as that’s how I will be contacting the winner.
I think I’ve covered everything, so happy commenting, and best of luck!
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