In January I joined Simple Mom's book club and read Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez.I consider our finances to be in pretty good shape but I'm always up for new ideas and motivation to keep more of OUR money in OUR pockets.
I confess I mostly skimmed this book. I found it heavy on theory and light on practical which is not my preference for personal finance books. But, even with all the "theory," I managed to glean a couple of ideas.
1. Financial independence is possible for everyone. Here's how:
- Work hard.
- Have a plan.
- Spend less than you make.
- Save. Save. Save.
- Invest wisely.
That one really made me think. Which would I rather have - eat out once a week or Joel home an extra hour a week? When you put it that way frequent trips to On the Border seem like such a waste!
I came away from this book with a renewed focus on reducing our expenses and increasing our income so one day we CAN live financially independent.
If you have read other financial books and are looking for renewed inspiration then I recommend Your Money or Your Life.But, if you are fairly new to the concepts of personal finance, I suggest you start with Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. His approach is practical and easy to understand. We're big Dave fans at my house!
Did you join me in reading Your Money or Your Life? If so, what did you think about it?
4 comments:
I picked up the book from the library and didn't care much for it either. I learned a lot from Dave Ramsey though. I love how you put spending your husbands money into perspective! That's good!
I haven't read the book, but I thought of this idea once several years ago....One day before Caleb was born I figured up how much Todd makes "per hour" for this reason. He had to help me get to that exact number using the details from his pay stub. I try to remind us (him and myself)of that exact number when we are trying to make decisions about purchases. I started doing that back before we had kids and it has probably kept us from some purchases that could have hurt us! I have figured how many hours/days/weeks/months it would take to pay for purchase X. Another way I try to remember to look at things is on the basis of how much they cost for an entire month, year or longer....and I think if I were handed all the money we would be responsible for in our entire lifetime, how much would I be willing to hand over for our purchase of X over our entire life out of that one, lump sum? If I were holding that theoretical one, lump sum of money would I decide to get....cable, for instance? (considering the cost of cable for 40-60 years...) It kind of puts into perspective what is really important to me and what isn't. It would be interesting to know how much time it would take working to pay for 40years of cable!!! I remind us of these things if we ever start to get cable, etc. It kept me from some major purchases in the Providence Place Mall when I was very pregnant with Caleb. :)
Great idea, ajourneyinmommying! I've started doing something similar at the grocery store.
A 2 liter Dr. Pepper costs me $1. I heart Dr. Pepper. And I'm willing to pay $1 each week. But then I think drinking a 2 liter of DP for a year costs me $52. Is there some other way I would prefer to spend $52?
OUCH!!! I heart Dr. Pepper, too!!! You're making me want to cut back quoting me those numbers!!!
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