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Your Money or Your Life book

6 replies

Youmeandacupoftea · 02/05/2024 21:03

Has anyone followed the steps in this book and would you mind sharing the difference it made if you did please.

I’m reading it at the moment and looking for real life reviews and feedback on it.

Thanks!

OP posts:
ILikeRoses · 02/05/2024 22:15

Do you mean the Vicky Robin/Joe Dominguez book?
(I believe there is also one with the same title by Alvin Hall).

If it's the VR/JD one, I read it 30 years ago and followed the steps! I'm guessing it's been revamped and updated since then....

Youmeandacupoftea · 03/05/2024 14:46

ILikeRoses · 02/05/2024 22:15

Do you mean the Vicky Robin/Joe Dominguez book?
(I believe there is also one with the same title by Alvin Hall).

If it's the VR/JD one, I read it 30 years ago and followed the steps! I'm guessing it's been revamped and updated since then....

Yes the VR/JD one and it was updated in 2018 so it’s more current.

Would you mind sharing what changes, if any, you made after reading it? And have you kept it up? Thanks!

OP posts:
seekingasimplelife · 03/05/2024 18:28

Yes, it had a very significant impact for me.
I read it alongside 'The Millionaire next Door' Thomas J Stanley, and 'Simplify your life' by Elaine St James.

It's hard to imagine now the prevalent lack of knowledge and understanding at the time. No one to ask, no internet and virtually no information about finances. Investing was the preserve of the very wealthy (and I had no idea what S&S were anyway). Broker fees were prohibitively expensive, if you even knew how to find one.

I'd trained and entered a highly stressful professional career to escape childhood poverty. But it sucked every hour of my week away and weekends too. I was utterly miserable. At first I thought it was because I was new and still learning - perhaps next year would be better, but it never was. The book came at the perfect time for me.

The main lessons I remember from the book:

How to create a budget and live below your means; The purpose of savings (I had only viewed savings as a means of 'saving up' to buy something specific); Concept of passive income; Money as an exchange for time - or life energy.

There really wasn't any template of how to work less, simplify and live frugally, Unless you wanted to follow in the footsteps of The Good Life and grow your own food/ raise your own meat - which wasn't appealing at all.

I paid off my new mortgage in a few short years; avoided debt of all kinds, drove a modest, older but reliable car. It enabled me to define my own priorities and immune myself somewhat from consumerist pressures. I was able to reduce my working to about a day and a half a week, and eventually stop altogether when I was financially secure.

One of the things that very soon became apparent - the book's strategy of buying US Treasury Bonds wasn't an option! UK Gilts were out too. So, for building passive income it didn't work in the UK. Savings bonds seemed a good substitute until ultra low rates came along.
I quickly realised that investing was a much more profitable means of building wealth, and moved on from the book.

I suspect this approach might have since been updated?

Youmeandacupoftea · 04/05/2024 14:36

seekingasimplelife · 03/05/2024 18:28

Yes, it had a very significant impact for me.
I read it alongside 'The Millionaire next Door' Thomas J Stanley, and 'Simplify your life' by Elaine St James.

It's hard to imagine now the prevalent lack of knowledge and understanding at the time. No one to ask, no internet and virtually no information about finances. Investing was the preserve of the very wealthy (and I had no idea what S&S were anyway). Broker fees were prohibitively expensive, if you even knew how to find one.

I'd trained and entered a highly stressful professional career to escape childhood poverty. But it sucked every hour of my week away and weekends too. I was utterly miserable. At first I thought it was because I was new and still learning - perhaps next year would be better, but it never was. The book came at the perfect time for me.

The main lessons I remember from the book:

How to create a budget and live below your means; The purpose of savings (I had only viewed savings as a means of 'saving up' to buy something specific); Concept of passive income; Money as an exchange for time - or life energy.

There really wasn't any template of how to work less, simplify and live frugally, Unless you wanted to follow in the footsteps of The Good Life and grow your own food/ raise your own meat - which wasn't appealing at all.

I paid off my new mortgage in a few short years; avoided debt of all kinds, drove a modest, older but reliable car. It enabled me to define my own priorities and immune myself somewhat from consumerist pressures. I was able to reduce my working to about a day and a half a week, and eventually stop altogether when I was financially secure.

One of the things that very soon became apparent - the book's strategy of buying US Treasury Bonds wasn't an option! UK Gilts were out too. So, for building passive income it didn't work in the UK. Savings bonds seemed a good substitute until ultra low rates came along.
I quickly realised that investing was a much more profitable means of building wealth, and moved on from the book.

I suspect this approach might have since been updated?

That’s amazing, thank you so much for sharing your experience. It clearly had a very positive impact on your life!

I’m about halfway through the book so I guess the investing chat will come and it’s something I’ve been researching too.

It’s giving me food for thought at the moment about defining my goals and what I want from my life but paying off our mortgage sooner is definitely something I’d like to prioritise.

Thanks again for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it.

OP posts:
Fatlittlefruits · 06/05/2024 20:21

Yes, it is a great book. I don't follow it to the letter but its general philosophy really appeals/resonates. I'm fortunate that I'm in a very well paid job - but my lifestyle is stuck at the level it was many jobs ago. I run a cheap 2nd hand car, live in a modest house and never need to work again if I don't want to.

I also highly recommend 'The Psychology of Money' by Morgan Housel.

redmapleleaves1 · 07/05/2024 07:03

Read it probably 10 years ago like @seekingasimplelife , along with The Millionaire Next Door and also Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, and Overcoming Underearning. Together they made a major impact.

I was a single mum of two, just divorced, worried about money, had no idea of reliable ways with money. I learned to make a budget, use YNAB, save, invest in index funds, check what was happening with my pension and be more strategic. None of it has been a magic wand, and I'm in an average income job, but I'm in a much more secure place, and have felt much more in control through the process through the massive expenses of two young adults at uni in expensive cities one one income, thanks to these. I'm now in a position to prioritise my spending on my priorities (eg a move to another part of the country), thanks to having practised this in small ways in everyday life.

My main takeaway from Your Money or your Life was pricing your time (and so staying in a role where I love the impact of it, but doing an additional freelance contract to earn more too, rather than going for promotion.) I was very struck by the exercise where you cost up all the money which has passed through your hands from childhood on, - Saturday jobs, birthday gifts etc, and devastated to discover how much cash I'd had access to and how little I could show for it, and which aspects I did still remember. Helped me focus more on the bits which make a difference, rather than just the junk purchases.

I've since read lots of frugal bloggers, which help me feel part of a community of this. It has been lifechanging for me, through what was a very stressful process. Good luck

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