Rating: 
Summary: good but flawed
Review: As I began the book, I found myself nodding and agreeing with many of the observations. But by the end I was disappointed. The recommended obsessive tracking of money (including coins found in the sofa!); the way the authors summarily dismiss the more expense pleasures in life (e.g. referring to travel as "vacating"); and their rejection of the idea of right livelihood all seemed to belie their overall message that your time is more important than your money. Also, they recommended a low-return investment as a one-size-fits all approach, dismissing very lucrative options like retirement plans, mutual funds, and stocks. You'd have missed out on a lot of easy money if you had all your money in treasury bonds in the recent market. I suppose very materialistic people could really benefit from this book, but of course they're not going to be the ones reading it.
Rating:
Summary: good advice for lifestyle, bad advice for finance
Review: Cutting back on expenditure and living well within our means is good advice. But don`t give the book to too many friends because if everyone starts doing this a consumer driven society such as that found in the USA will head rapidly into recession ! But the financial advice is somewhat dubious. I live in Zimbabwe where inflation is 35% and rising. It may be 100% by next year. So anyone holding their life savings in bonds would be reduced to poverty within a few years. And just because you lucky folk living in the USA have had low inflation for many years don`t think it will last forever.
Rating: 
Summary: Your Money or Your Life
Review: I worked with this book in several groups of 10-15 people to discuss "Voluntary Simplicity". The book is easy to read and inspires people to simplify their lives. It is perfect for a Sunday Morning Discussion with people of different ages. They learn from each other,with the book offering a framework for the discussion. The "above 65 folks" already understand this book in spades,and it is quite a revelation for the younger people in the class that have big house and car payments, and haven't thought about "how much is enough". The authors suggest that you write down all your expenditures to document that much of your life is spent making a "dying" and not a "living". If you're not an obsessive type you can easily skip the "recording your expenditures" section and go to the "meat" of getting some balance in the American pursuit of materialism. Others will enjoy seeing how they spend their money by writing down each expenditure. People are shocked by the hours they spend working for the newest "toy". If you are reading this review, you are probably interested in getting more balance in your life. This book is definitely a "buy" in my opinion. It is the kind of book you will want to share with a friend or group. It is a wonderful book to read with your spouse and talk about over dinner. You may even find time for dinner after reading this gem:-)
Rating: 
Summary: I've read this book so much, I can quote it like the bible!
Review: And that is the effect it has had on my atheist mind! I purchased this book 5 years ago. I read it and never actually followed the steps. Just now I am doing all the steps, and it has changed my life! Some may say there is too much work involved, I say maybe at first, but it is well worth it. I track every penny without even a second thought, and it takes no time at all with a computer. I even read a review that said "the invesment strategy is a little conservative, you could make more money in mutual funds and stocks". That review was written in 1998. I wonder if that guy has changed his tune, Ha! If you are looking for a 'get a lot of money!' book, then look elsewhere. The bottom line is, if you do the steps 100% percent, (not 50%, not 90%) you are bound to live a lifestyle that not only gives you more FREE TIME! but it will be at your choosing. There is no budget plan, no turning your underwear inside out to save on laundry soap, etc. How you save, where you save, and how much you save are truly your choice, and that is why this book is great. Whether you make 500k/yr, or 25k, I garauntee if you do the steps, it will change your life for the better. I am willing to bet that all the negative reviewers did not do the steps 100%. I have been doing the steps for 6 months now and I have cut my monthly expeditures by $1500 a month (sold my BMW, cancelled cellphone, havent bought 1 item of clothing, stopped trying to 'keep up with the Joneses', etc), and paid off $13,000 in credit card debt (cut them all up)! not because the book told me to do this, it is because after I read this book I WANTED to do this. My life is worth more to me then slaving at work trying to pay/insure/worry about all this stuff. You may not go to such extremes, that choice is up to you, but you will find yourself getting out of debt, and saving more money regardless. Convincing your spouse is the hard part. When I started doing the steps, my wife thought I was either in some cult or joined the 'Your MOney or Your Life' Witnesses. And yes, I am ready to go door to door to deliver the book's message. It is that strong. But, my wife is coming along and see's the upside of me staying home more with her and my 1 yr old son, instead of working 7 days a week so i can buy/insure the 'Next New Thing that Nobody Else Has!'
Rating:
Summary: A Revelation
Review: I'm always wary of books stating that they have "9 steps to a different life" and didn't buy this book for years after after I learned of it. I picked it up a couple of months ago when a new boss caused me to look at my job in a different light. If I was fired or wanted to quit, how would I survive? If I wanted to get a lower paying job doing something I enjoyed, could my lifestyle afford it? With these things weighing on my mind, I purchased this book. Most of the steps I understood, and many of them made sense, but it was the 8th step that "hit me on the side of the head." What a revelation! I needed the previous 7 steps to fully appreciate it. I *can* change my life. This isn't some new-age feel good, think positive mumbo jumbo, but a solid plan for achieving financial independance. I tell my friends about my plan to retire early, and they say "Oh, that's nice" and "You'll never do it" and "I could never cut back my spending enough to do that." The promise, though, of not having to work for a living is keeping me motivated, and I think of it every time I spend money. Oddly enough, I recognize some of the principals as being similar to what financial guru types like Robert Kiyosaki and Robert G. Allen recommend - spend less, save more, invest what you save - yet this book, unlike those, provides a proven method for getting there. Some books I read, such as Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously by Gerrold Mundis prepared me for this book, and it agrees with my personal philsophies, even though I tend to spend more money than I should. The 9th step details how to invest your money, but is now out of date because of changes instituted by the federal government. These issues are dealt with on by Vicki Robbins on a website based on this book. I've read other 'retire early' books and this is one of the best. It's also unique in that it wasn't written at the end of the 90's. Several others were written by people who were able to retire at the end of the great bull market of the 90's based on their stock investments. This book, however, was written in the mid to late 90's before there was such a thing as Internet millionaires. One of those people even wrote a book explaining why other methods don't work and how to buy his system! I guess he lost a lot of money and is looking to raise some quick cash. My girlfriend found the tone of the book overly preachy. They talk a lot about being eco and environmentally friendly in a way that some would consider heavy handed. While I felt some parts were preachy - things I would do once I had the resources to do them and wasn't spending all of my time 'making a dying,' - I found the information in this book valuable enough to read through those parts. As an experiment I'm trying to see if I can spend no money during the month of November and one of my friends who's deeply in debt is doing it with me. Just necessities and the occasional cab fare or movie. The purpose of the experiment is to see how much money I need to live on and how much I can save. I know it doesn't go much into investing and where to put your money, which is very popular now that everyone's got money in the stock market, but I consider this the single most important investment book I've ever read. I also recommend The Average Family's Guide to Financial Independence by Toohey, Nickel and Dimed by Ehrenreich, and of course, Getting a Life by Blix and Miller.
Rating:
Summary: It's your life - Take charge of your personal finance
Review: YMOYL is one of my top ten books of all time. Why? Because it maturely and rationally analyzes your personal relationship and attitudes about money, status, and life style and basically forces any sentient human being to realize that living within his or her means is a plausible and desirable way to live. By doing a personal inventory and finding what we really want to do and cutting all the unnecessary crap out of lives that isn't fulfilling. It encourages you to reduce your consumption, reevaluate your career path and dare to do what you really dream to do, or even work less. You rethink the American Dream, maybe you don't need to have a house or a fancy car. Maybe you'd rather have your time. Maybe you just know that the way you are living isn't how you want to. The books teaches you to see money as your life energy. To think of every dollar as an increment of your time. And it teaches you how very precious your life energy is. In our hectic, status-fueled, mad world this book is a breath of fresh air. It offers a lot of information on how other humans simplified their lives and to open up the possibilities for you to live this way as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great plan, and message.
Review: This book is truly about more than just getting out of debt and gaining control over your money. It is about choosing what is most important to you personally, then making the choices to help you get it (whatever that may be). If you get this book, and want it to change your life, you have to follow the system laid out in it. It does no good whatsoever to just read it and then hope for the best. We need to take action and control of our money situations if we are going to make a change, and this book gives the tools needed to do just that.
Rating:
Summary: If you're not reading this book, you're really missing out.
Review: Wow! This book is so much more than about money. It's about life, purpose, fulfilment, values, responsibility, integrity, awareness... If you're not reading this book, you're really missing out.
Rating:
Summary: Cut consumption until it hurts and invest in bonds
Review: A hard but sure way to get out off the rat-race. The program in this book is very demanding. The demands will be too great for most readers. It will work only for the very determined. I am retired with a nest-egg of condos, so I do not need this book as practical guide on how to achieve financial independence. I have it. But it was worth reading just for educational purposes.
I give this book five stars for telling us so effectively what the real value of money is.
Rating:
Summary: Helps you examine your ideas about money and work .
Review: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, is a collection of simple, common sense observations about money. Perhaps because money is so fundamental to our lives, or because we associate it with work, often we don't examine these simple truths. But the first step to making sound decisions, about money as about every other topic, is to gather all the facts so you can make a knowledgeable and concious decision. This book helps you do that. The book takes you through 9 steps to Financial Independence, from cataloging all the money you've ever made to keeping a budget to their solution for non wage income. The lessons are told in a easy, simple manner, with 'real life' stories interspersed throughout. Some of their most profound ideas aren't about money, but about work--what human beings look for in work that they used to look for in community and family. I'm a single guy, and I felt this book was aimed at big spenders with families, mortgages and boats, but I still felt there were lessons to take away. Their end solution is something I'm still up in the air about, but the steps along the way were fabulous--every one simple enough to understand, yet powerful enough to change the way you thought about the concepts discussed. I liked this book and would recommend it.
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