Author Topic: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin  (Read 27697 times)

lifejoy

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Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« on: February 09, 2017, 02:26:16 PM »
I didn't see a thread already started for this book, but let me just say: it is epic.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78428.Your_Money_or_Your_Life

Also I feel like the Mad FIentist's graph pairs really well with it: http://www.madfientist.com/fi-laboratory/

For myself, I've read the book but I recently listened to the audiobook (for free, through my library, on Overdrive) and it was fantastic.

Anyone else love this book?

dandarc

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2017, 02:29:56 PM »
I still need to read this book, as it is like the FIRE bible, or at least a founding document.

But, if you're looking for forum threads, if you google:

forum.mrmoneymustache.com "your money or your life" will get you to some existing discussion

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2017, 03:56:51 PM »
I still need to read this book, as it is like the FIRE bible, or at least a founding document.

But, if you're looking for forum threads, if you google:

forum.mrmoneymustache.com "your money or your life" will get you to some existing discussion

Definitely like a FIRE bible!!! Damn it's good. I loved the updated audiobook. Vicki Robin has such a nice voice.

Thanks for the reminder about google. I actually went page by page in the book club section of the forum, and went ctrl F on each page to see if this title had been mentioned in its own thread. I think perhaps not? But this book is so great, if it gets mentioned time and time again - that's ok too ;)

Stachey

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2017, 06:15:06 PM »
Yes YMOYL is the book that started it all I would say.
It was a life changing book for many people, including myself.
I definitely recommend it.

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2017, 06:04:33 AM »
In my own book, I told the story of how I never got past the first chapter (?), yet it transformed EVERYTHING for me. Also, Googling the title many years later is how I found this forum :)

Scrubbyfish? Is that you?

Livingthedream55

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2017, 11:27:01 AM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )

pachnik

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2017, 04:49:19 PM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )

That's good to know.  I just got the 2008 one and keep meaning to try it again.  Tried a few years ago and didn't get very far.  :(   

ditkanate

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2017, 02:53:11 PM »
Recently bought this book at a thrift store, but haven't had time to read it yet.  Will post a review / notes when I do.

iris lily

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2017, 06:56:08 AM »
The central idea of the book, that you are trading your life energy for money from The Man, is gold.

The rest of it, figuring up your past income and where it went, tracking spending, and income producing assets to see the crossover point, is all detailed mechanics.

I knew abput the book abput 20 years before I actually read it. That idea of early retirement from a punch-the-timeclock-job was always in my mind, so I didnt need or want the detailed methodology to get there. I have my own methodology, Joe and Vicky didnt corner the market on that. I respect the tedious process of tracking everythng, it is just not for me.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2017, 06:58:19 AM by iris lily »

Heroes821

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2017, 07:31:01 AM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )

Any news on when that will release I heard MMM is doing the forward for it and I've been holding off getting a copy until this one is released.

kite

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2017, 09:27:43 AM »
Love this book. 
YmOYL and Amy Daczyzyn had an unshakeable impact in my formative years. 

rpr

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2017, 09:33:15 PM »
By the time I first came across this book, I was well into my upper 30s. Just the exercise of listing how much total income we had made over our working life that far compared to how much we had left (Net Worth) was very illuminating. Of course, the net worth was negative back when we started.  This idea really clicked with me.

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #12 on: May 15, 2017, 09:39:18 PM »
Love this book. 
YmOYL and Amy Daczyzyn had an unshakeable impact in my formative years.

Me, too!

I remember watching AmyD on Phil Donohue when I was in high school.

Read YMOYL as I was nearing the end of grad school (dissertation avoidance technique), after seeing Joe and Vicki on Oprah. 

I guess I also watched a lot of talk shows back in the day.  Podcasts and forums are my thing now....

I wish I could see that Oprah episode!!

iluvzbeach

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2017, 09:55:47 PM »
Love this book. 
YmOYL and Amy Daczyzyn had an unshakeable impact in my formative years.

Me, too!

I remember watching AmyD on Phil Donohue when I was in high school.

Read YMOYL as I was nearing the end of grad school (dissertation avoidance technique), after seeing Joe and Vicki on Oprah. 

I guess I also watched a lot of talk shows back in the day.  Podcasts and forums are my thing now....

I wish I could see that Oprah episode!!

Me too! If someone knows how to find it, please post info.

Livingthedream55

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #14 on: May 18, 2017, 10:27:12 AM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )

Any news on when that will release I heard MMM is doing the forward for it and I've been holding off getting a copy until this one is released.

I am a volunteer reviewer. It's going to Penguin next month. I have no idea after that how longs things take.

Heroes821

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #15 on: May 18, 2017, 12:29:19 PM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )

Any news on when that will release I heard MMM is doing the forward for it and I've been holding off getting a copy until this one is released.

I am a volunteer reviewer. It's going to Penguin next month. I have no idea after that how longs things take.

Thanks Livingthedream!. I appreciate that. I figured it'd be ready by Christmas, but I was going to buy a copy for mother's day as a gift. Oh well no harm in waiting.

chrisgermany

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2017, 04:50:06 AM »
I bought it on a summer trip in Seattle 1992, when I was 34. I was hooked instantly and realised that I could apply some of it living in Germany, too.
We have not been extremely mustachian, never hated our jobs but wanted to get our time back while still able to enjoy travelling.
ERed in 2013, DH age 61 and me at 55.




rpr

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #17 on: June 24, 2017, 04:48:04 AM »
By the time I first came across this book, I was well into my upper 30s. Just the exercise of listing how much total income we had made over our working life that far compared to how much we had left (Net Worth) was very illuminating. Of course, the net worth was negative back when we started.  This idea really clicked with me.

I finally got around to do a modified calculation for the last 10 years based on one that I read in the book about determining your lifetime income that you have received from all sources and how much you have saved.

Out of every $1.00 earned over the last 10 years:
Taxes = $0.21 (includes Fed+State+FICA)
Savings = $0.42  ***
Spending = $0.37

*** The savings does not include the principal portion of the required mortgage payments nor the down payment on the house. This is considered as part of spending.

So savings rate was 42% of gross income or 53% of take home (disposable income).


lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #18 on: June 24, 2017, 05:27:56 PM »
I'm reading the "sequel" called "Getting a Life". I'll let you know if it's any good!

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2017, 06:24:13 PM »
I'm not trying to be the contrarian, but this is the one personal finance book that people seem to love, that I didn't care for. I don't remember what I didn't like about it now, it's been a while. I'll try the new version when it comes out.

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #20 on: June 26, 2017, 03:47:47 AM »
I'm not trying to be the contrarian, but this is the one personal finance book that people seem to love, that I didn't care for. I don't remember what I didn't like about it now, it's been a while. I'll try the new version when it comes out.

Books can speak to us at different times. I know I've picked up books I'm supposed to love and not cared for them. So maybe the timing wasn't right, or maybe it's just not your cup of tea! :)

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #21 on: October 13, 2017, 08:54:33 AM »
Reading this book now and so excited to learn it is being updated again!!!!!

Rhoon

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #22 on: October 17, 2017, 10:29:21 PM »
Quick Question on this book. If you're already on the FIRE track, will it impart any additional knowledge? Or will it basically say most of the same we all already know?

EarthSurfer

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2017, 04:21:13 AM »
Quick Question on this book. If you're already on the FIRE track, will it impart any additional knowledge? Or will it basically say most of the same we all already know?

You may want to read through the first few parts if you are lacking a cohesive philosophy in regards to FI.

YMOYL initially focuses on coming to terms with materialism and understanding the relative flood of income we have had in our lives. It also introduces Voluntary Simplicity as a philosophy with frugality as its core virtue. (I consider "Minimalism" as the 21st Century tweaking and rebranding of VS.)

The second part of the book introduces FI hand the tools for achieving it. This section will likely be familiar to you. The authors have a preference for paper based tools for monitoring spending and progress toward FI, which would need to be adapted to the smartphone centric world of today. The FI plan in the original YMOYL version doesn't work in the 21st century low-interest rate environment. I haven't read the 2007 edition.

Twenty years later I still update the same spreadsheet I developed as part of YMOLY to track my finances. It calculates "months of freedom," and it avalanched over to "forever" about 5 years ago.

I also track my spending by category in Quicken and evaluate what I am spending in each area at least every calendar quarter.

I have meticulously maintained a list of every non-consumable item I own. This has been my single greatest defense again buying more stuff! It is hard to feel anything but wealthy when I look at the 21,000 items in my life.

for-profit noodle

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #24 on: October 18, 2017, 08:27:03 AM »
I've found it really useful regarding the psychology of making a switch to the FI mindset. It is both practical and philosophical. I think it would be easy enough to skim to find bits of wisdom. Also, I just generally enjoy reading about FI so I get a warm fuzzy feeling from this book even though I am current reading a section that sounds familiar after reading MMM. It's affirming!

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #25 on: November 04, 2017, 10:07:38 AM »
Quick Question on this book. If you're already on the FIRE track, will it impart any additional knowledge? Or will it basically say most of the same we all already know?

You may want to read through the first few parts if you are lacking a cohesive philosophy in regards to FI.

YMOYL initially focuses on coming to terms with materialism and understanding the relative flood of income we have had in our lives. It also introduces Voluntary Simplicity as a philosophy with frugality as its core virtue. (I consider "Minimalism" as the 21st Century tweaking and rebranding of VS.)

The second part of the book introduces FI hand the tools for achieving it. This section will likely be familiar to you. The authors have a preference for paper based tools for monitoring spending and progress toward FI, which would need to be adapted to the smartphone centric world of today. The FI plan in the original YMOYL version doesn't work in the 21st century low-interest rate environment. I haven't read the 2007 edition.

Twenty years later I still update the same spreadsheet I developed as part of YMOLY to track my finances. It calculates "months of freedom," and it avalanched over to "forever" about 5 years ago.

I also track my spending by category in Quicken and evaluate what I am spending in each area at least every calendar quarter.

I have meticulously maintained a list of every non-consumable item I own. This has been my single greatest defense again buying more stuff! It is hard to feel anything but wealthy when I look at the 21,000 items in my life.

Wow! How long did it take you to make the list of everything you own??

EarthSurfer

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #26 on: November 04, 2017, 12:05:43 PM »
Quick Question on this book. If you're already on the FIRE track, will it impart any additional knowledge? Or will it basically say most of the same we all already know?
...
I have meticulously maintained a list of every non-consumable item I own. This has been my single greatest defense again buying more stuff! It is hard to feel anything but wealthy when I look at the 21,000 items in my life.

Wow! How long did it take you to make the list of everything you own??

It was a project for a weekend and a few weeknights. I was able to borrow the digital camera from the office (back when these were rare $550+ items!). I spread out everything on the floor, and took pictures. I viewed the pictures on a computer as I entered the items into a spreadsheet. I didn't get crazy specific, but I listed "5 dress shirts, 3 flannel shirts, 10 pair underwear, etc." I was very specific on anything that might be part of a disputed insurance claim. (I have an insurance rider to cover specialized tools for my consulting business.)

I lived in a small 1 bedroom condo at the time, and I have always been a minimalist. I have sold off almost everything I own a few times for a bit of "EarthSurfing."

If you ever want to feel incredibly wealthy, do this exercise! You will likely be overwhelmed by the number of things you own, and the things you forgot you owned.

A more insightful exercise is to estimate the cost of each item and the value if you sold it today. I almost immediately cut by my spending and started purchasing far more used items.

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #27 on: November 04, 2017, 03:20:56 PM »
Quick Question on this book. If you're already on the FIRE track, will it impart any additional knowledge? Or will it basically say most of the same we all already know?
...
I have meticulously maintained a list of every non-consumable item I own. This has been my single greatest defense again buying more stuff! It is hard to feel anything but wealthy when I look at the 21,000 items in my life.

Wow! How long did it take you to make the list of everything you own??

It was a project for a weekend and a few weeknights. I was able to borrow the digital camera from the office (back when these were rare $550+ items!). I spread out everything on the floor, and took pictures. I viewed the pictures on a computer as I entered the items into a spreadsheet. I didn't get crazy specific, but I listed "5 dress shirts, 3 flannel shirts, 10 pair underwear, etc." I was very specific on anything that might be part of a disputed insurance claim. (I have an insurance rider to cover specialized tools for my consulting business.)

I lived in a small 1 bedroom condo at the time, and I have always been a minimalist. I have sold off almost everything I own a few times for a bit of "EarthSurfing."

If you ever want to feel incredibly wealthy, do this exercise! You will likely be overwhelmed by the number of things you own, and the things you forgot you owned.

A more insightful exercise is to estimate the cost of each item and the value if you sold it today. I almost immediately cut by my spending and started purchasing far more used items.

Wow. Amazing!!!!

I find that moving does the same trick for me. I've lived five different places in the last seven years and every single time my brain goes: holy heck, why do I own so much stuff???!!!

But I may have to take it up to the next level and try some of your methods.

hadabeardonce

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #28 on: December 13, 2017, 05:06:27 PM »
Vicki Robin is working on a 2017 version as we speak. : 0 )
The first line of this blog post makes it sound like it will be released 2 or 3 months from now: https://vickirobin.com/2017/11/14/privilege/


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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2017, 08:49:13 PM »
Many of us Seattle-area Mustachians got the opportunity to meet Vicki Robin last weekend. I picked up an e-book copy from our local library and am partway through it. So far there's nothing too new to me, but it's well-presented and I can definitely appreciate how ahead-of-its time it was.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #30 on: December 20, 2017, 01:33:27 AM »
I'm reading this book now and it's good. I'm an FIer!

lifejoy

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #31 on: December 22, 2017, 07:59:25 AM »
Many of us Seattle-area Mustachians got the opportunity to meet Vicki Robin last weekend. I picked up an e-book copy from our local library and am partway through it. So far there's nothing too new to me, but it's well-presented and I can definitely appreciate how ahead-of-its time it was.
Oh wow, you met her? How was that?!!

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #32 on: December 22, 2017, 12:08:05 PM »
I have meticulously maintained a list of every non-consumable item I own. This has been my single greatest defense again buying more stuff! It is hard to feel anything but wealthy when I look at the 21,000 items in my life.

Dayam. That sounds like a crazy amount but I'm sure I have as many items.

It sounds like a good project on a cold, rainy, weekend.

Zola.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #33 on: December 28, 2017, 02:39:53 PM »
Does anyone have this in mobi format I could acquire from? I could do a book swap with you.

Busta

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #34 on: December 30, 2017, 03:55:06 PM »
I've bookmarked this on amazon a while back. I need to go back and see If it's still available. Thanks for the insight

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #35 on: January 13, 2018, 04:52:23 PM »
I just finished Step 1 (4 years working) and found out I've averaged for every dollar made:

Taxes - .21
Savings - .20
Spent - .59

Considering this includes a lengthy "finding the right job" and 3 bouts of unemployment I am pretty happy with this. It has helped put in perspective how much I really have made and how quickly I can change move these averages in the direction I want to go now that I have landed a job I can happily go to.

kaizen soze

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #36 on: January 26, 2018, 02:46:08 PM »
I read this book way back in 2006 and found it hugely motivating. It got me on the path to FI. Incidentally, I bought this book and Getting Things Done in the same trip to the bookstore and I don't know that I could ever repeat the feat of making a single trip to the bookstore and getting better value for money.

With that said I didn't follow much of the practical advice in YMOYL. The central idea of trading money for life energy is golden. But how do you measure? The book has you calculate a real hourly wage and figure out how much life energy (i.e., time) you spend at work to buy a thing. The problem was that I could justify a lot of spending this way. My real hourly wage was pretty high, so a Starbucks mocha was just a few minutes of work. It was MMM that introduced to me the idea of figuring out how much longer you'd have to work to maintain spending in early retirement before I found the right metric for measuring life energy.

The idea to account for past earning and saving, well that just got bogged down. I ended up skipping it. The crossover point is interesting, but ultimately you should focus on SWR, not how much interest your stash earns. And the investment advice in the original was pretty bad.

I'm not trying to pan the book. It was really eye opening and got me going down this very fulfilling path. It's just not the only book on ER that you'll ever need.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #37 on: January 26, 2018, 02:53:15 PM »
I read this book way back in 2006 and found it hugely motivating. It got me on the path to FI. Incidentally, I bought this book and Getting Things Done in the same trip to the bookstore and I don't know that I could ever repeat the feat of making a single trip to the bookstore and getting better value for money.

With that said I didn't follow much of the practical advice in YMOYL. The central idea of trading money for life energy is golden. But how do you measure? The book has you calculate a real hourly wage and figure out how much life energy (i.e., time) you spend at work to buy a thing. The problem was that I could justify a lot of spending this way. My real hourly wage was pretty high, so a Starbucks mocha was just a few minutes of work. It was MMM that introduced to me the idea of figuring out how much longer you'd have to work to maintain spending in early retirement before I found the right metric for measuring life energy.

The idea to account for past earning and saving, well that just got bogged down. I ended up skipping it. The crossover point is interesting, but ultimately you should focus on SWR, not how much interest your stash earns. And the investment advice in the original was pretty bad.

I'm not trying to pan the book. It was really eye opening and got me going down this very fulfilling path. It's just not the only book on ER that you'll ever need.

She admits that the investing advice is outdated. It made sense in the 60s when they first wrote the book.

I do a good job of tracking every penny but I'd like to go back and re-read some of the other steps--I think I could do a much better job of considering whether my spending is in line with my values.

IIRC they encourage you to not just think about each INDIVIDUAL purchase, but the monthly aggregate and whether it fits what you really value.

kaizen soze

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #38 on: January 26, 2018, 03:38:36 PM »


IIRC they encourage you to not just think about each INDIVIDUAL purchase, but the monthly aggregate and whether it fits what you really value.

You are probably right about the monthly purchase. Whatever it was, I never found it helpful. It was the idea of figuring out how much money I needed to sustain those monthly purchases indefinitely in ER that clicked for me. I just never found it helpful to ask myself whether it was worth X amount of my time last month to buy Y trips to Starbucks. I found myself saying, sure why not. Others may find it more useful.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #39 on: February 12, 2018, 05:08:31 PM »
Many of us Seattle-area Mustachians got the opportunity to meet Vicki Robin last weekend. I picked up an e-book copy from our local library and am partway through it. So far there's nothing too new to me, but it's well-presented and I can definitely appreciate how ahead-of-its time it was.
Oh wow, you met her? How was that?!!

Sorry for the super late response. It was sort of a surprise, actually. We have occasional local meetups, and she just happened to show up to one. The people organizing the meetup knew about this in advance but chose not to mention it to the rest of us for fear of attracting an unmanageable number of people. She lives near Seattle and wanted a chance to talk some things over with some Mustachians in advance of the publication of a new edition of her book. I enjoyed listening to what she had to say as someone who has been living the FIRE life for a few decades now and has done quite a few different and interesting things in that time. She seems like a very genuine, down-to-earth person.

Zola.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #40 on: February 19, 2018, 02:59:04 AM »
I bought the updated version on Kindle, getting a lot out of it already. I already have done some of the things they ask you to do, like track every bit of money in and out, the big financial chart etc.

But its a good read. I will read it once through then again and implement all the steps in the program to see how I feel.

Has anyone done all the steps? did it change much for you?

Mezzie

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #41 on: February 19, 2018, 04:34:30 AM »
I recently reread it to see if I wanted to recommend it to students (I do). I also don't much like the chances of a break even point with just bond investments, but otherwise the philosoppy of the book is solid.

Is there a release date for the new version yet? (Or is it already out and my library is slacking?)

hadabeardonce

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #42 on: March 01, 2018, 05:15:28 PM »
Is there a release date for the new version yet? (Or is it already out and my library is slacking?)
It's out. I received my copy from Amazon yesterday.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #43 on: March 02, 2018, 07:05:25 PM »
Is there a release date for the new version yet? (Or is it already out and my library is slacking?)
It's out. I received my copy from Amazon yesterday.
Odd. Amazon still shows an edition dated from 2008.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #44 on: March 02, 2018, 10:27:45 PM »
Okay... Now I see the new version, but only for the Kindle.

I'll try again in a few days. I want a physical copy my students can borrow.

hadabeardonce

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #45 on: March 05, 2018, 04:49:29 PM »
Is there a release date for the new version yet? (Or is it already out and my library is slacking?)
It's out. I received my copy from Amazon yesterday.
Odd. Amazon still shows an edition dated from 2008.
Knowing what I was ordering was confusing while I was shopping. Amazon had the photo of the new yellow cover with the MMM forward, but also photos of the old version. Barnes & Noble has the updated cover photo: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-money-or-your-life-vicki-robin/1101987457#/

Looks like Amazon has it listed the same way again: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766/

rpr

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #46 on: March 06, 2018, 07:13:25 PM »
Ah, now I see that the Kindle version shows that it is updated (has 2018 in the title) even though the product details still contain the wrong date (2008). I assume that is for the paper version. I did read the free Kindle sample. Not sure if I will spring for it yet. Waiting for more reviews. I have read the original (1993) and the second edition (2008).


hadabeardonce

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #47 on: March 08, 2018, 01:27:12 PM »
Not sure if I will spring for it yet. Waiting for more reviews. I have read the original (1993) and the second edition (2008).
The references/sources are more up to date, but the methods and nine steps remain the same. I bet it hasn't changed much over time, but I only have the 2008 and current editions.

Here's my quick review of the steps:

Step 1 - Lifetime Earnings vs Current Net Worth
It's a good exercise that probably shows the majority of people that they don't have a lot of what they've spent their life working for. Meant to trigger readers into continue reading about how they can change their financial trajectory.

Step 2 - Real Hourly Wage & Spending Tracking
I really like the real hourly wage exercise. As far as I know, it's unique to this book and is something that helps add perspective to each purchase made by the reader. There are times it really helps me evaluate a purchase, but typically only if the total cost exceeds my the real hourly wage. I can't say it's helped me avoid smaller purchases, like the daily cappuccino.

I cheat by using Mint.com for spending tracking. I look at the transactions each day, but that probably doesn't fulfill the intent of this part of the step.

Step 3 - Where's All the Money Going?
Again I cheat by using Mint to create a budget, track monthly spending, catergorize transactions, etc. I export that data and can add the real hourly wage calculation into my Excel spreadsheet to see that I spend 7.13 hours to pay for my pets per month or 85.62 hours per year.

Step 4 - What's Enough & Spending with Purpose
I go back to two of the three questions pretty often; "Did I receive fulfillment/value from this purchase?" and "Does this purchase align with my goals?" Applying them together would probably prevent me from buying that daily cappuccino, so I probably should re-read this chapter. Right now I use the questions exclusively. Coffee doesn't align with a real goal, but the walk to the coffee shop, interactions with the pople and break from work give me a feeling of fulfillment that's worth the cost in relation to my hourly wage.

Step 5 - Monthly Income, Expenses, & Net Income Chart
I update my household's spreadsheet regularly. It's highly visible, colorful, and gets a lot of views. The 24mo. trendline I added really helps display a future projection.

Step 6 - Methods for Not Spending Money
I already practice a lot of these, so I skipped over the 95% chapter. 

Step 7 - Work
This is a chapter I go back to quite a bit and a reason I bought the book. Some concepts take time to soak in and this is one of them. I've seen the same ideas expressed elsewhere, "your profession is different than what you do," but there are days I need a refresher and a reminder to appreciate the job I have for what it gives me in exchange for the time I spend at work.

Step 8 - The 4% FIRE Line
It's on my spreadsheet, but I also use the Madfientist's lab, Personal Capital and another spreadsheet I put together for early retirement projections. I feel like there should have been a healthcare expense dicussion somewhere. That's an expense that changes in a huge way if you leave your employer provided health care benefit program.

Step 9 - Investing
This is a huge topic that's covered in a very small chapter. "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" left me feeling much more confident about choosing investments, so I would highly suggest reading that book for more information.

Overall the book is worthwhile and worth owning. It poses a lot of questions, thoughts and concepts that most people don't approach. I get a lot of value from it and it aligns with my goals.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #48 on: March 08, 2018, 02:08:05 PM »
@hadabeardonce -- Thank you for this review. I appreciate how show it in action as it applies to you.

To me some of the ideas in this book were quite seminal in helping me focus better on my financial life. I still buy the occasional gazingus pin but mostly am aware of where the money goes.   

Zola.

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Re: Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
« Reply #49 on: March 22, 2018, 06:20:13 AM »
I finished this book last night, shamefully the first book I have finished this year..

I loved that book, the best thing I got out of it was the wealth chart, and the life energy stuff...

Folks - what can I read now?  Appreciate any recommendations.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!