Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

This slim paperback changed my life as no other book has, financially. The most important things I learned from this book are (1) Avoid consumerism and (b) Cut your expenses, easily. I agree with readers earning $30,000 a year that it is difficult to become financially independent on that kind of salary - I also know it's difficult to live on $200k/year in NYC. (I mean it!) I spent about $13 on the book. At the time I was technically bankrupt - unemployed, and living off a rapidly diminishing overfdraft. A month later, I got my wits together and - in one day- cancelled Call Waiting and 3-Way-Conferencing and a bunch of other options on my home phone; zapped the cell phone; cancelled my order for cable TV; joined the local library; un-subscribed to every mail-order catalog I was on; fired the maid and cleaned the place myself (quite satisfying; I mean, the latter); and lost all interest in Prada, Gucci, and keeping up with the neighbors. Immediate savings: $200 a month or more, before you get into the Prada stuff. That's the best return on investment I've ever had. And I felt nothing but satisfaction - there was no sense of loss. It was as though I had been told by someone, you must have these things, these Palm Pilots, these gadgets in the catalogs; and I learned: Wrong! Didn't need them at all. In fact, I felt quite smug about not having them. This is not a bible for everyone. It did enable me to retire at 40. Thank you, Joe and Vicki. But whether you want to retire or just feel less owned by your job, you cannot read this book without yearning for FI and taking a cold, hard look at the ridiculous ways you are spending money today. There is so much pressure from ads to buy things you don't need. Read this and wise up. Stop driving the Beemer to the gym. Buy a pair of sneakers and walk for an hour. Do your own gardening. Stop thinking "I am what I spend". Start thinking, what would it feel like to be free? A: Wonderful. I am adding to this 5 years into freedom. I'm not rich. I'm not insecure, which is the best gift this book has given me. My car is worth abt $5,000 - in my dreams- and I live in a place full of Bentleys and Mercs. My car gets me around, which is what a car is supposed to do. If someone totals it, I can live with that. I do the occasional splurge - but I do it because I can. I don't track expenses. If something is expensive, I genuinely don't want it. This book is brilliant. It has some shortcomings, but they are so few in relation to the knock on the head I got from reading it. You don't need half the stuff you have in your life. You probably don't need three-quarters of it. And, in response to the liberal-bashers on this site, you don't have to hug a tree to give the finger to the materialistic society that we live in. Excuse the cliche but no one ever died wishing they had spent more time at the office. This little book has given me five years off to just enjoy the things I want to do.

This book is timeless. I essentially developed this same plan through trial and error (and lots of soul searching) over the last three years. It was great to see my scattered thoughts and philosphies put down in such a concrete, well-documented manner.You should read the other reviews below with a bit of skepticism.1) The investment advice in this book is not dated; it is conservative. Conservative is precisely what you need if you want to sleep well every night and live off of your money. Actually, many folks who are already financially well off follow this advice. The 15 year bull market seems to have turned everyone into an investment guru.2) Someone way down the review list claims that saving $800 per month will not let you save $300,000 within 30 years. They asked for a hole in their logic, here's one: compound interest. Actually, at 5% and $800/month you will hit $300k in 19 years with virtually no risk. Low risk bonds should return 7% to 8% over this period and get you there in 17 or 16 years respectively. The recent bull market would have accomplished this in 10 years or less. There are a few other minor holes in the logic that would shorten the window another couple of years...3) You have to have discipline to follow this plan. Otherwise, you will be working for a long time. If you are looking for a get-rich-quick book, look elsewhere. Like all important things in life, this also requires dedication and commitment. I am young, but I will be retiring to part time work in just under 10 years while my co-workers will be on the job an additional 25 years.4) It takes me approximately 30 minutes each month to track my expeses to the dollar using Quicken and credit cards that automatically categorize expenditures via online account access, (of course the credit cards are direct drafted from the bank so I do not incur interest -- make credit cards work for you and take advantage of the system, some even pay you cash back).5) This books compliments "The Millionaire Next Door" quite well if you understand your own personal philosophy on life and work. I suggest you check out both books out at the library; skim TMND and read YMOYL thoughtfully. TMND suggests working hard and living frugally; ultimately this results in accumulated wealth. YMOYL suggests working hard short-term, living frugally all the time, then moving to a more personally satisfying life. But YMOYL quantifies this and defines what you need and why you would need it. YMOYL is a plan; TMND is an analysis of recorded data.