Rating: 
Summary: it works!
Review: I started following the program they outline several years ago before this book came out, and it really works. It's no get-rich-quick scheme but rather an ongoing way of evaluating what's important in your life. It also suggests possibilities that aren't usually discussed in financial books, like how its possible to be financially independent on less, without strain
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Summary: life transforming ......
Review: Most books about money are frankly boring or greedy
(which is worse ?). This is not a book about money as much
as how you allocate your (limited) life energies.
Try it out and see if it doesn't hit you as hard as me (we are on their
recommended program of Financial Independence and it's working !!!). See us soon riding our bikes and planting
trees, while you're in a traffic jam commuting.........
Rating: 
Summary: Your Money or your Life
Review: I found this book to be a nice departure from the usual "get rich quick" books. Dominguez and Robin give an alternative to the 9 to 5 "making a dying" lifestyle of most Americans. Their book makes us examine why we want money and material objects while showing how these pursuits lead to depletion of the word's resources and our own depletion of money. I read the book once and put it on the self only to rediscover it and ask myself why I had done so. It is full of excellent advice for reducing the cost of living and investing money(treasury bills). Some of the advice may not be practical, such as keeping track of every single penny that you spend for a month. Of course anything worth while isn't easy. I've attempted to follow the ideas in "Your Money or Your Life" and it isn't easy but if people make a true effort it is worth while.
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Summary: Move from 'working' to Living
Review: If you want to make an effective contribution to the world, "Your Money or Your Life" shows how you can make it happen. By paying attention to the relevant details, you will relearn how to live within your means, and to build a steady income stream to support you for the rest of your time on this planet. And you'll learn along the way how you best choose to live in full harmony, and what that requires in terms of time and money. Enlightening examples abound. I'm currently working through this process as a married man with heavy mortgage and no children yet. My engineering side appreciates the simplicity and elegance of the process; my business side appreciates the clear approach and proven results. Thanks to this book, my wife and I have paid off our 10% second mortgage in 14 months (yes, fourteen months). Each of the nine phases of this process build on and reinforce each other. Common pitfalls at each stage are noted, such as 'obsessive penny pinching'. The underlying mantra is 'no shame, no blame, just awareness'. This awareness is the driving force of this process, and (as my alma mater states in its motto, "The truth shall set you free"). This is explicitly a "diets don't work, awareness does" process, as the authors demonstrate repeatedly throughout the book. The authors recommend a specific place to park your capital, the money which throws off income for you to live on: US Treasuries. This surprises many (such as the reader from Santa Fe), but fits perfectly with the goals of this process. Once you know exactly how much your current lifestyle costs you (by tracking your expenses to the penny so as to miss nothing), you know how much steady investment income you must generate. And once you can see, from your chart on the wall, that in some number of years you will never have to accept a salary again, Life Opens Up. You can contribute in whatever way is most uniquely yours, what is most deeply satisfying, without any money issues -- starting wi! thin a definite and finite period of time from NOW. And that is the true meaning of Financial Independence. Money becomes a non-issue. And, along the way in this process, you will clear up many other issues which show up from your monthly money tracking. If you want to contribute effectively while on this planet, you deserve to read this book and work the process through to Financial Independence. You will be able to contribute more effectively with the tools of this book, from the depths of your heart. I know I'll be able to expand what I've done so far, thanks to "Your Money or Your Life".
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Summary: Not Your Everyday Relationship Book! But a Lifesaving One...
Review: A friend of mine first recommended Your Money or Your Life to me ten years ago. I went out and bought the book, read it, put it on my bookshelf where it languished collecting dust, and finally re-read it three months ago. Why didn't the book's messages sink in the first time I read it? Was I lazy? Not ready to have a relationship with money? Or did I need to hit rock bottom and accumulate significant credit card debt to understand that money was controlling me and not the other way around? The bottom line is I finally admitted I had a problem with managing money and needed to do something about it. Money is a very emotionally-charged, personal, and difficult subject. Dominquez and Robin attempt to take out the emotional and conduct a rational conversation with you about money and the role it plays in our lives. Money is simply a medium of exchange and you need to understand how you are exchanging it with your life energy. Some of the language is "new agey" and environmentally-oriented, but make sure you see the forest through the trees. This book is the one that finally motivated me to start tracking my expenses on a daily basis. I've read books by Suze Orman, David Bach, Charles Schwab and countless other money experts. But Your Money or Your Life brings to life how tracking your income and expenses, in a way that works for you, will make you want to think about each and every dollar that you spend. We spend our time earning money, we spend our time spending money, but how much time do we spend thinking about and tracking where our money goes? And you don't have to use Intuit or some other fancy software program to manage your money. Design a format that works for you. I now look forward to the end of each month where I tally up what I've spent, put it in into categories, and paint a picture of where my money is coming from and where it is going. I'm still recovering from the shock of what I spend on "communicating" with the world: a cell phone, a phone, an internet connection, and a cable connection add up to a significant amount of dollars each month. Is it all really necessary? The next step is to understand how my spending patterns match up with my values. I see a phone reduction in my near future! For anyone who is ready to build a stronger relationship with money, this is the book to read. Your Life or Your Money clearly states that there is no shame and no blame for how you've managed your relationship with money in the past. However, I sure do wish I had listened to my friend and this book ten years ago. I know I would be in a different place financially than I am today, but am excited about what the future will bring.
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Summary: Best Financial Planning Book I've Ever Read
Review: This is one of the best financial planning books I've read, mostly because instead of figuring out how to take the paycheck you current have and deciding how to spend it, this one helps you decide if you need your paycheck at all--it really thinks outside the box. I work as a mortgage loan officer. I talk to people about their finances all day. I know 100s of clients that could use this book. If I could only keep and read one book on financial planning, this would be it. --JOHN (an employee of one of America's largest lending institutions).
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Summary: This book will change your life!
Review: This book will change the way you look at money. If you follow the steps you will become aware of all the little ways (and some big ways) that you are wasting money. By making a connection between how we spend money and our true quality of life, this book presents a revolutionary way of looking at money. Your Money or Your Life is an essential tool in overcoming the rampant consumerism promoted in American culture and regaining control of our lives and happiness.
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Summary: Different to other books I've read
Review: I have read a lot of self-help & money books in my time, but this one is different to all the others.... it actually makes you WANT to take action!! I have since joined their website forum, and stacks of people are following the same steps to freedom... and getting more out of their lives. Also they have an On-Line Study Group which I've just signed up for. (These aren't free, but you can start doing the steps with other like-minded people and a trainer)
This book helps you to think about what's really important to you and your life.... after all, we only get one go at this! Rather than being about budgeting, it's about evaluating the level of enjoyment you get out of spending your money (also referred to as "life energy") It's certainly made me think differently about spending on things that give me no value in life.
The aim in the end is to reach the "cross-over point", where your income from investments cover all of your expenses, "and then some". You are then free to pursue whatever it is that really will make you happy... and the authors suggest doing something for the good of the planet, or at least to make a difference with all that free time you will have!!
If you feel that while you're making a living, you're really "making a dying", or if you often think "There must be something else to life", then I highly recommend this book to you.
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Summary: The how and the why
Review: I've been a compulsive spender for years and never could find a way out of it. I found Suze Orman's nine steps (esp. respecting yourself and your money) to be helpful, but I never figured out how to implement said respect. And the wisdom of the Proverbs tells me, "One gives freely, yet grows all the richer," yet I was too busy lining the pockets of corporate fat cats to extend a charitable arm. Dominguez and Robin gave me a system by which a little diligence would help me understand my spending patterns and consciously change them.
Obviously, when I bought this book, I wasn't looking for an early retirement (financial independence) solution. And the steps don't have to be done in order. I haven't done all of them yet, but the core of the program--that which directly deals with financial intelligence and finacial integrity--is in steps two through four. Those are what set it apart from everything else I've read.
Many of the concepts in this book seem so simple and obvious, yet the constant murmur of advertisements and the spend-spend-spend ideology surrounding me obscured them completely. I haven't done all of the steps in the book, but I can tell you that steps two, three, and four have turned my world upside-down.
Many books offer the promise of changing your life; this book delivers on it.
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Summary: Tree-hugging? Sign me up!
Review: Reading the negative comments about this book made me laugh. Apparently, anyone who doesn't think that driving a BMW makes someone better than everyone else or doesn't want to work until the day they drop dead is a tree-hugging commie pinko. That's how nutty things are in the U.S. right now. People seem to be afraid of numbers, as though simply writing down what you spent on a candy bar this afternoon is way too demanding. And people seem to want to be told EXACTLY what to do.
My advice: Don't sweat the small stuff. The authors get a little carried away at times with obsessive detail niggling. Don't worry about the nickel that you forgot to write down. Don't worry about perfectly balancing your monthly tabulation. Don't worry about doing the steps in order. Just read the book, start the program, and start with a step that appeals to you.
I started by writing down my daily expenses, which seemed easiest. After doing that for just two weeks and using a calculator to figure out how much I was spending on certain things over a year, I made some substitutions. Presto: I reduced my annual expenses by $2,000.
Adding up the money I'd earned during my lifetime was interesting (and took a whopping 10 minutes because I had my Social Security statement). My income has reflected phases of my life, and this step made it crystal clear to me that money and happiness are not related. During the happiest time of my life I lived on very little money and never felt deprived.
Some of the benefits of doing the program just sort of HAPPEN. If you buy less, you will generate less garbage. If you go to the store less, you will have more time to do other things. If you write down what you spend, you spend less because you become more conscious of where your money is going. These benefits don't require any big efforts or time commmitments on your part.
I think the personal values stuff is hard to deal with. I mean, do you want to continue to be a destructive, wasteful pig or do you want to live consciously and take responsibility for your actions (which include your purchases)? People---especially Americans---have weird, complicated psychological issues with money. No one relishes starting the process of working with this mental baggage, and working with it is part of the program.
I'm not sure I will be able to retire early. But I do want to feel more in control of my money, and I want to feel more in control of my life. I'm learning a lot about myself by doing the steps, and for the first time in ages I'm feeling optimistic about my future. I like spending less. I don't feel the least bit deprived. I don't miss shopping. I'm spending more time talking to my friends and doing other things I like to do. I'm happier.
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