Dh and I read a lot of personal finance books. Having spent years wasting money we wanted to re evaluate our finances and our life
. We didn’t want to move to Portugal without any money, without any assets and have to come back home after a while with nothing left in the bank. We wanted to have a well thought out plan that will help us achieve our dreams and yet still remain sensible about it.
Lizzie at Lizzies Homeworld has a link to our blog that says ‘Laura taking sensible action to Move To Portugal ‘ and this is exactly what we are doing. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Sensible does not equal boring though. Trying to pay off your mortgage is fun.
As part of our move from consumerism to a more frugal way of life we’ve read many personal finance books. The best for us without a doubt was Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin. This book is not just about money but about your relationship with it. This book shows you how to get your life back, so that you can start living it on your own terms. Some of it is outdated, some of it is a bit tree hugger for us, but overall the book is brilliant. If you want to escape the rat race and are fed up ‘keeping up with the Jones’ then we would recommend reading this book.
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Good for you and your husband. You can’t make it without a goal.I’ve read this book.
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This book (I shorten it to YMOYL) is what got me started on the road to frugality and financial independence! I wish it were required reading for school children. . . hmmm, there’s an idea. Maybe I’ll write to my local school board.
Just discovered your blog, and am rooting for you!
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You mentioned this book a week or two ago, so I decided to give it a whirl. I have also read quite a few business/career/personal finance/personal development books over the years, and to be honest my hopes weren’t high. Anyway, I just finished reading it this morning and I have to say this is one HELL of a good book!
Over the last 7 years I had independently put many of the ideas in the book into practice – so I found myself nodding in agreement on practically every page.
There were a lot of new tips I picked up though. The idea of a wall chart with income/expenses/investment income is a great one. I keep a month-by-month, blow-by-blow record of income/expenses, but it’s hidden away in a spreadsheet. Bringing your status out into the open is a great idea – I think that’s going to help – especially as I can see how close (or not) I am to the Crossover Point (investment income exceeding expenses).
This has definitely encouraged me to keep a more detailed financial record – especially with respect to value in terms of Life Energy. It’s also helped me come to terms with the fact that some expenses are attempts to compensate for deficiencies in other areas of life.
One of the biggest surprises I had reading this book was it helped solve a problem I’d been having for years – and funnily enough that was a career problem, not a money problem! Amazing. The chapter on work (Step 7) is a masterpiece in my opinion – it really does blast through some pretty common career-related mental blocks. For me the insight gained into my “career” was the biggest gain from reading this book.
Having learnt the truth of this book the hard way, I found myself wishing I’d had this book 27 years ago. In fact on doing a “back of fag packet” calculation on total life earnings in Step 1, I realised that if I’d read this book back when I started out I would have been comfortably retired at the age of around 35! That Step 1 calculation is downright scary – and somewhat depressing! But “no shame, no blame” as the book’s mantra goes.
I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to others, especially if you are just starting out. Although, I can’t help feeling that one needs to have suffered in a disliked job, wasted quite a bit of cash, and dealt with debt issues before you REALLY get to understand the power of this book. Yes, you might have to suffer a bit before you truly “get it”. Such is life. Having said that I still highly recommend this book.
Thanks so much for recommending this book – unlike many of the books I’ve read this one does actually change your life!
One final point, this book is NOT to be confused with the book by Alvin Hall that has the same title – I have read that book too and it’s just OK – but not a patch on the Joe Dominguez book.
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