Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez + Vicki Robin

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Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez + Vicki Robin

BOOK REVIEW: Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez + Vicki Robin

One-Sentence Summary

There's a big difference between making a living and making a life -- this book details a nine step program to make changes to learn lifelong habits to achieve personal fulfillment and financial independence.

The nine steps can be described as follows --

Step 1: Make peace with your past.
Measure what you have to show for your life so far by creating a personal balance sheet.
Step 2: Be in the present.
Tracking your life energy by calculating what it takes to maintain your job and your real wages.
Step 3: Where does it go?
Tracking all your income and expenses monthly.
Step 4: Question to transform your life..
Do you receive fulfillment, satisfaction, and value in proportion to the life energy spent?
Are expenses of life energy in alignment with your goals?
How would expenses change if you did not have to work for a living?
Step 5:Make life energy visible.
Basically, a large wall chart to track month expenses and income -- in your face... visible every day...
Step 6: Value your life energy -- minimize spending.
Step 7: Value your life energy -- maximize income.
Step 8: Capital and the cross-over point
Accumulate capital and turn it into monthly investment income.
The cross-over point is where your investment income exceeds your monthly expenses and you become for the first time financially independent.
Step 9: Manage your finances.
Know the options.
The three pillars for your freedom are capital to create income, cushion of saving to cover extraordinary expenses, and cache the excess income for new purposes.

Summary

This book provides excellent advice in building new lifelong habits to achieve financial freedom and personal fulfillment,

This book was written in 1992 and the principles are still sound today. Be aware that the examples are somewhat dated by the ravages of inflation and some of the investment suggestions in the final step are no longer valid or available options.

Addendum - January 2009

When I read and reviewed this book, it had been in print without significant revision for more than a decade.

One of the authors, Joe Dominguez, passed away in 1997, and in order to maintain his vision, the book simply stayed in print without significant change for many years.

Recently, Vicki Robin, the other author of Your Money or Your Life, has created an updated version of the book which now brings the examples and advice forward to current to be relevant to today.

Product Details

* Paperback: 400 pages
* Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 1, 1999)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0140286780
* ISBN-13: 978-0140286786
* Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
* Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces

This review was done by Brad Trupp in January 2009.

This book -- Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez + Vicki Robin -- is on the reading list for The Personal MBA - A DIY approach to Business Education.

Tags: Books