Book Review: Your Money Or Your Life

Unknown-1Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, is one of my favorite books ever and easily the best book on personal finance ever written. It changed my life, and I still refer to it on a weekly basis.

There are a ton of personal finance books out there, and as I have been attacking debt I have read most of them. This book is unique in that it approaches money and life from a different angle; you have a very finite amount of life energy, so you don’t want to waste it working just so you can have enough money to buy material possessions. Once this hits home with you, you realize that you can live on less and probably retire early.

Pare down your life, live on less, and retire early. That concept has changed my life.

The book begins by describing the “normal” person in our society — someone who works long hours, is stressed out ad barely sees their families, all to support a lifestyle of “luxury” (aka material possessions).  The story of my life.

The book then focuses on how we exchange our finite “life energy”  in order to get money to buy possessions. If you find that when you total your time working and you are trading that time for not-so-much money, then they suggest you reduce your living expenses, increase your income, invest the difference, and retire early.

Dominguez did just that;  he reduced his annual expenses to just $6,000 and spent his time volunteering and enjoying free time for himself to enjoy the act of living.

This book is helped me (and will help you):

  • get out of debt and develop savings
  • unclutter your life and decide what you truly “need” to be happy
  • embrace a renaissance lifestyle learn new skills
  • pinpoint the exact moment that you can achieve financial independence and retire early

The Crossover Point is an important concept. Here’s how it works:

  • Track your living expenses on a graph, using colored pencils and a few different data points (salary, investment income and expenses)
  • Track your income vs. living expenses.
  • Take the difference between income and expenses, and invest that amount.
  • Watch the income investment rise on your graph until it crosses over your living expenses — the Crossover Point.

Once you reach that Crossover Point, you have enough income from your investments to retire.

At at this Crossover Point, you can walk away from your job.  That’s pretty cool.  You can quit and do whatever you want.


That’s the book in a nutshell, but there is so much more.  The case studies featured in the book hit close to home and are worth the read for sure.  The book changed my life.  Buy it!

Check it out here: Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

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