Worth reading, even if you don't take the advice
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I'm self-employed, and I wish I had read this book when I set out. It provides an excellent perspective on just how important money management is in life. It's up there with being able to read. The author says you've got to treat your life like a business, monitoring all expenditure and evaluating if what you're spending is absolutely necessary. Are you having fun spending that money? If not, cut it out.
I've been amazed to discover that you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds on psychoanalysis, you can find out most of the interesting stuff about yourself by studying your spending habits.
What I admire about the book is the premise that you really don't want to have to go to work. Going to work is expensive, and you have to put up with a load of trouble there, which means you have to spend more money cheering yourself up. The goal is financial independence.
Years ago I would have dismissed it as excessively prosaic. Imagine standing up at speech-day to tell a group of graduates that what's it's all about is getting enough money so you don't have a career. Get out of the 9-5 if you possibly can. But having spent a few years in the world of work, it's actually pretty sound.
Some of the ideas seem a bit tree-hugging but isn't that all coming back into fashion?
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A real eye opener.
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I just wish I read this book at 20 unstead of 50. It would have saved me years and years of stress, misery, debt and working at jobs I hated, trapped by overspending. This book makes you realise that EVERYTHING you buy is paid for with your life energy, and all those little 'treats' you buy yourself (which only give fleeting pleasure, then it's on to the next one) to compensate for being unhappy at your job actually dig you deeper into the hole, and perpetuate the cycle. This book explains the wonderful concept of knowing when you have 'enough'. Too little is stressful, too much is stressful. Enough is what makes you happiest, when you truly love and enjoy everything you own. This book should be read by every young person starting on their working life, so that they don't make the same mistakes that many of us have made.
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Disappointing and out of date
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The introduction of this new edition explains that the system is so good there has been no attempt to update if from the original. Which is a shame given that chapter nine - on where to invest the extra money you'll find by following the program - has lost any relevance since the 30 year US Treasury bonds which are it's only real recommendation, no longer exist. For those who want or desperately need to get control of their finances the rest of the book is still relevant whether you are a US or UK reader. If you are already interested in getting off the consumption treadmill then it's an ideal system that will help you define how much money is really 'enough' for your needs. In the vast majority of personal examples this is invariably far less than the people started with, possibly because most of them are middle class earners 'downsizing' rather than poor people 'upgrading'. YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE makes good points about how much of your wages go straight back into the costs of the job (suitable clothing, daily transport, relaxation from all the stress, lunch away from home etc) and shows how to calculate your real hourly wage. This could be useful if you are planning to re-enter the job market. Strangely it also recommends WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR PARACHUTE which is about finding the perfect job for your interests and aptitudes, despite having spent several pages explaining there is no 'job charming' for any of us and we should just reconcile ourselves to working for money, content that it's for the greater aim of Financial Independence. Middle class babyboomers tired of the rat race will lap it up whlist those still trying to get into that race will find useful financial techniques to get started from a firm foundation.
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This book is killer.
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If you read this book, and follow its advice, you are a better man than I. My attitude was "step one sounds great -- but I'll skip it." And I put all my money in Internet stocks, and they took off, and then they fell, and the simple life is not for everyone. Still, the book is quite thought-provoking (if a bit dogmatic). Get rid of all that you do not need, and live off investment interest, then you can do what you WANT to do instead of what you HAVE to do. A good plan, indeed, and a nice antidote to the get-rich-and-die yuppi credo. See you in shangri-la
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Don't pass this book up!
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This book is more than a book about money, it's a book about time...your time. I heard about this book and I thought it would be interesting, but I had no idea it would completely transform my life. Before I even finished it I found myself talking about the ideas to family and friends. "Your Money or Your Life" has given me the strength to know the path that eluded me for so long. Now I can focus on things that are meaningful, instead of just being another 9-5 drone. Now I realize the myths behind modern employment, and the modern stencil-cut pattern for living. Still every day I talk with brainwashed people who say "I love my work" then come home exhausted and unfufilled, deeper in debt, down a 6-pack or just simply collapse after dinner...ignoring their family and friends. You don't have to be one. Read this book with an open mind, and you will never be just a piece of the machine that a select few profit from again.
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United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada