

The chapter ends on a very interesting note below – It also mentions 10 sure-fire ways to save money with “don’t go shopping” top of the list. It outlines spending your money efficiently and always calculating your life energy before you splurge on something. Step 6: Valuing your Life Energy – Minimizing Spending Having the effects of your spending right in front of you should shock you into making the right decisions about money.Īdditionally, over time you will begin to see progress with fewer expenses and more savings. This step focuses on making visible results of all the previous steps via graphs and charts. Is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose? How might this expenditure change if I didn’t have to work for a living? Step 5: Making Life Energy Visible This step asks three questions – did I receive fulfillment, satisfaction, and value in proportion to life energy spent? Step 4: Three Questions that will Transform Your Life You are also advised to convert the expenses into the hours of life energy spent. This is more of a tool to help you identify areas of your life where you are wasting money and do something about it. Keep an extensive table of all your income and spending and categorize them.


Related Content: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. The book recommends tracking every penny that comes in and out of your life, spending consciously and thinking seriously before blowing off your life energy on something frivolous. Next time you’re about to buy something you don’t need for $25/hour, remember you’re about to burn off an entire hour of your life energy. When you calculate the amount you spend on clothes, commuting to work, lunches, activities to de-stress, etc., and divide this by the number of hours you work, you are taking home a lot less than the $25/hour. Are you making enough money in exchange for your life energy?įor instance, you make $4,000 a month at a 40-hour a week job. It’s safe to say we spend most of our lives there. Personally, I used to spend over 60 hours. We spend, at the very minimum, 40 hours a week at work. This step raised the question, “How much are you trading your life energy for?” How much money are you making based on the amount of time you spend at and on work?Īs it turns out, a lot less than you think. Step 2: Being in the Present – Tackling Your Life Energy However, as the name of the step indicates, this is all about making peace with your past and accepting your mistakes with money. I’ve been working since 2002 and the upsetting question I was left with after I completed this exercise in 2010 was, “Where did all my money go?” Outline all the money you’ve ever earned in your life, then calculate your net worth today. The information in Your Money or Your Life is antiquated in parts and the politics ramble on a bit but I skipped over that and focused more on the great parts of the book which is presented in 9 steps:- 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money & Achieving Financial Independence Step 1: Make Peace with Your Past You can find out more about the authors HERE. Your Money or Your Life is a result of his efforts. The movement educated thousands of people on money management and they eventually became debt-free. The author of Your Money or Your Life retired at age 31 and founded a movement called New Roadmap Foundation. Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin This is something I am yet to see in other finance books I’ve read even though this book was published in 1993. This book forces you to reconsider your life choices. This is a routine a great deal of the world settles into without really thinking about the connection between money and the entire range of life. The norm is – graduate, get a job, work, save money, work, save money, pay off debt, work some more, save some more money, pay some more debt – you catch my drift. It’s one of the books that instigated me to start looking at ways to not just become debt-free but financially independent so I can pursue the things I really love doing. Your Money or Your Life was the book that led me to seriously start questioning what I’m doing with my life and how I’m spending my time on earth.
