Author: Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
Amazon Link: amzn.to/2mhZ7Io
TL;DR:
In Your Money or Your Life, money is presented as something we exchange our life energy for; life energy being the very valuable hours we have in our life (to do things). We learn to look at how we spend by looking at the costs not only in monetary units but also in the amount of life energy spent to buy them. It has you questioning whether you received fulfilment from each expenditure you make. Where a purchase you made was a reflection of your values & goals in life? The book is a 9-Step programme that opens your eyes to a new way of looking at the money in your life. You ask yourself some deep & important questions about how, why and where you make and spend your money as you work towards financial independence.
The Review:
I’ve heard and seen this book recommended a million times by personal finance enthusiasts. A MILLION times!
The book is essentially a programme that you work through to try to change your relationship with money. It is definitely not a book you read through once and never refer to again. Halfway through my first read, I knew that I’d have to come back to it many, many times in the future.
There are 9 steps highlighted within that are accompanied by in-depth explanations and exercises to improve not only your financial well-being, but your view on life as well. The steps that struck a chord with me the most were Steps 4, 6 & 7.
In Step 4, the book introduces the “Three Questions that Will Transform Your Life” where you look at each of your unique expense categories and their monetary totals as hours of your life energy. Then you ask yourself:
- did I receive fulfilment & satisfaction & value in proportion to life energy spent?
- is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose?
- how might this expenditure change if I didn’t have to work for money?
- then a bonus: should the expense increase, decrease or stay the same for my optimal fulfilment?
If you needed anything to get you to give up the senseless spending you’d been doing on eating out or clothing or gadgets like me, this just might be it. When you look back at your spending in terms of how much fulfilment it gave you, you start asking yourself some serious questions.
Pretty soon you’ll find yourself decreasing expenses in some categories without feeling like you’re punishing yourself. And that’s what Step 6 is about. You should find that it’s easier to let go of some things when you realise they’re not worth however much in life energy it was costing you. The icing on the cake? Your savings account will thank you for it.
Step 7 then has you learning to value your life energy in another way – through maximising your income. When you know exactly how much your real hourly wage is from your job (current or future), it’s easy to evaluate if you’re getting the money that you deem necessary for you to continue in that job or to accept a new offer. On the other hand, this exercise teaches you that you might be willing to take less pay for a job that takes up less of your life energy. An example is when you have a high-paying, high-stress job that also has you spending a lot of money on de-stressing activities because of it. You could instead decide to take up a less-paying, better-fitting job that doesn’t leave you as strung out every day and allows you time to not only enjoy the work you do but also activities outside paid employment that you couldn’t do before. The book encourages you to always look out for the highest pay consistent with your health and integrity.
The best part about Your Money or Your Life for me was the overarching theme on the idea of life purpose. You have to look within to find your life purpose because the only way the things you buy will give you satisfaction and fulfilment is if they align with what brings you genuine happiness. I found myself pondering whether my purchases reflected the kind of person I am or that I aspire to be. Vicki Robin also asks you to consider making socially conscious investments if you can, and I found this very enlightening. I should put my money where my heart is; both for investments and the daily purchases I make.
Conclusion:
Overall, this is a great personal finance book to pick up, particularly for the introspection you’ll get out of it’s pages even on your 20th read. I did find that some sections were not necessary (for me) e.g. the “get out debt” ones and the ways to invest one’s money since those were more geared to an American audience but then the general idea was still worth going through the difficult parts. The book will have you changing your mindset towards money whether you’re halfway through your FIRE journey or just starting out. Pick it up on Amazon (amzn.to/2mhZ7Io) as a paperback or audiobook and get started!