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Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence Paperback – September 1, 1999
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 1999
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions5.3 x 0.72 x 7.46 inches
- ISBN-100140286780
- ISBN-13978-0140286786
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books
- Publication date : September 1, 1999
- Language : English
- Print length : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140286780
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140286786
- Item Weight : 8 ounces
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Dimensions : 5.3 x 0.72 x 7.46 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #233,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #699 in Budgeting & Money Management (Books)
- #23,064 in Self-Help (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Vicki Robin is a prolific social innovator, writer and speaker. She is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Viking Penguin, 1992, 1998, 2008). It was an instant NY Times best seller in 1992 and steadily appeared on the Business Week Best Seller list from 1992-1997. It is available now in eleven languages.
Her new book, Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; what eating closer to home can teach us about food, community and our place on earth (Viking/Penguin 2014) tells how her experiment in 10-mile eating not only changed how she ate, but also renewed her hope and rooted her in her community. She calls this “relational eating.” She went on to investigate how we might restore the vitality of our regional food systems so everyone could have the benefit of relational eating – healthy food, healthy communities. She calls this building “complementary food systems,” not to replace but to work along side of the global industrial systems we now depend on for almost 100% of our food. Her book offers many practical tools for transformation, from changing our attitudes, to changing our habits to changing our food sources to getting active in social and political change.
Called by the New York Times as the “prophet of consumption downsizers,” Vicki has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Good Morning America" and National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" and "Morning Edition"; she has also been featured in well over 100 magazines including People Magazine, AARP, The Wall Street Journal, Woman's Day, Newsweek, Utne Magazine and the New York Times.
Vicki has helped launch many sustainability initiatives including: The New Road Map Foundation, The Simplicity Forum, The Turning Tide Coalition, Sustainable Seattle, The Center for a New American Dream, Transition Whidbey and more. In the 1990’s she served on the President's Council on Sustainable Development's Task Force on Population and Consumption.
In addition to her sustainable consumption work, Vicki has been a leader in the field of dialogue. She co-created the Conversation Cafés method and initiative, promoting it first in Seattle and then throughout the world. Conversation Cafés are hosted conversations among diverse people in public places on subjects that matter. Vicki has spoken at workshops, conferences and to the media (Readers Digest, National Public Radio, Utne Magazine, The New York Times, The Seattle Times and many local media) about the Conversation Café method and its possibilities for revitalizing our public life.
For fun, Vicki is a comedy improv actress, appearing frequently with her troupe, Comedy Island.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Vicki grew up on Long Island and graduated cum laude from Brown University in 1967. She received awards from Co-op America and Sustainable Northwest for her pioneering work on sustainable living. Vicki’s one of 61 visionaries featured in Utne Magazine’s book, Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life. A&E Entertainment’s show “Biography” honored Vicki as one of ten exceptional Seattle citizens. She currently lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.
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Customers find the book provides useful tips on improving financial situations and achieving financial independence, with one customer noting how it transformed their expenses into savings. The content is simple to understand and has a profound influence on readers, though some find it a bit outdated. While customers enjoy the book, they express mixed opinions about its ease of use and consider it not worth the money.
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Customers find the book provides useful tips for improving financial situations and emphasizes frugality, helping readers prioritize spending and transform expenses into savings.
"This is a book about achieving financial independence, It's about freeing yourself from the seemingly never-ending cycle of debt and loan payments...." Read more
"...insight packed into the first few pages alone that the book pays for itself instantly...." Read more
"...I liked the fulfillment curve, and the book has some interesting ways to look at money, I think I'm going to toss this book in the trash." Read more
"There were some good concepts in this book, such as the ones about considering each purchase and weighing it against the time it takes to work for it..." Read more
Customers find the book's influence positive, describing it as profound and an eye-opener that provides good information, with one customer noting it makes them want to take action.
"...I read it two years ago and it has opened my eyes to countless truths which I simply could not see before...." Read more
"...this one is different to all the others.... it actually makes you WANT to take action!!..." Read more
"...It's well written, fun, inspiring and oh so practical. Life is short. Live it on your terms. Read this book...." Read more
"...I've read alot of other best sellers. This one changed my thinking and my life...." Read more
Customers find the book enjoyable, with one mentioning the simple joy of living it brings.
"...Rather than being about budgeting, it's about evaluating the level of enjoyment you get out of spending your money..." Read more
"...metality" is robbing many of their peace of mind and the simple joy of living. Stop trying to keep up with the rest - let them stress out...." Read more
"...It's well written, fun, inspiring and oh so practical. Life is short. Live it on your terms. Read this book...." Read more
"...I like the focus on fulfillment and enjoyability. The focus on person values is also great...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's ease of use, with some finding it simple to understand while others find it tedious.
"...plan for living low on the material chain, the book is chock full of helpful suggestions...." Read more
"...The book provides 9 steps to achieve this state, starting with a basic assesment of your net worth and your income, and ending with instructions to..." Read more
"...book as I've ever read but in such deplorable condition it was impossible to finish. True, it only cost a dollar, but shipping was plenty...." Read more
"...(because it is simple and sound), The Millionare Next Door and Millionaire Mind." Read more
Customers find the content of the book outdated.
"...The book feels a bit outdated, as some of the suggested techniques can be replaced with more modern methods...." Read more
"...advice offered is just plain bad - maybe in part due to the book being old...." Read more
"...it is very dated, and 2) most importantly, it is not at all for busy stressed out people in the modern world...." Read more
"nice little book. bit outdated, thought. more useful information i can find in books from hakim bey and john zerzan. but it is ok for a start...." Read more
Customers find the book not worth the money and boring.
"...get the earlier or the latest. this should be listed as some kind of cheapie copy cuz it's smaller and written in super fine print...." Read more
"This book is quite boring (even for an accountant who loves numbers) and seems a bit tedious. Got about half way into the book and quit reading it." Read more
"...There is very little in this book that is useful. This was a waste of money for me." Read more
""Updated" version not worth the money..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2006This is a book about achieving financial independence, It's about freeing yourself from the seemingly never-ending cycle of debt and loan payments. It emphasizes a sense of frugality, high-quality, and community.
The book advises you on how to determine your net worth. After all it is your net worth that truly defines your wealth, and not your weekly income. Basically it has you add your assets and subtract your debts to see how much money you really have, or how deeply in the hole you're in.
It also teaches you how to keep track of every penny that comes through your fingers.
It teaches you how to determine how much you really are making per hour by subtracting the expenses that would not be there had you not had this job. When I performed this, my $11/hr job dropped down to $5/hr. This adjusted hourly wage becomes what is known as "life energy". In other words for every $5 I spend, I'm working 1 hour of my life. Then when you're shopping for something you don't absolutely need you can say to yourself "Do I really want to work [x number of hours] to pay for this?" A lot of times I find myself saying no; something people should say more often.
It helps you create your own wall chart where you can record your income and expenses for the past months, along with recording the amount of income you receive from investments and other passive income. This is a valuable part of your chart, because when the amount of money you receive each month from passive income is higher than your expenses, then you're free and finally have money that works for you instead of you working for your money. And that is the goal of the book, to make enough passive income so you never have to work again.
This book is full of nothing but old-world frugality and common sense, and that's ok as many people have forgotten these lessons or never learned them in the first place. Some people might find the book as only necessary for people "up to their eyeballs in debt". I disagree. Any person who has to work to maintain their standard of living can benefit from this book. And I know very few people who don't have some kind of debt.
The book commonly uses nonsensical words such as "gazingus pin" and "veeblefitzer", as though it were written by an old man struggling to understand newfangled technology. The words are funny at times, as they highlight how silly people can act, but after a while the words just get old.
The book feels a bit outdated, as some of the suggested techniques can be replaced with more modern methods.
- The book suggests investing in US treasury bills. While this is a sound investment, with today's interest rates it can hardly keep up with inflation. A better investment might be balanced mutual funds that pay dividends, coupled with some tax-managed accounts.
- The book requires you to write down every cent that comes in or goes out. I tried this process for several months and eventually became sick of it. I now have Microsoft Money 2005 to download my transactions so I may review and categorize them without the headache the book's process gave. I also use Microsoft Money to display my income and expenses for the past year instead of a cumbersome wall chart.
- The book recommends shopping around by phone to find better deals. Modern shoppers can use the internet for this.
The book suggests moving to cheaper places such as the heartland. I could never move to the heartland, not only because there are no jobs out there and, like another reviewer, I am gay and practice a non-Christian religion. So I don't expect much tolerance. I also crave high-density citylife living.
Overall this is a good book for anyone to read, as it does give many usfeful tips on improving your financial situation. There are several parts of the book that wouldn't work in today's world, but there are also many parts that work very well.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2008I have read over 50 books by all the most popular financial authors today, and I believe this classic from the early 90's is by far the best if your goal is to be financially independent from your job once and for all. The author himself actually became independent in his early thirties and remained so for over 20 years until his untimely death due to a critical illness. So this book is not about theories it is showing how some one achieved financial independence in real life.
The philosophy of this book is that you earn money through sacrificing your precious life energy through work. It talks about how the majority of people have destroyed their quality of life in pursuit of a high standard of living. The end result being they lose their identity in the position they hold and no longer live, they just work on a treadmill of endless earning and spending with little enjoyment.
The author proposed a nine step plan that will cause you to be mindful with your money. Track your spending, are you really getting the value out of what you have bought for the effort you gave to earn the money? He proposes a chart graph to track your monthly spending against your monthly income, with a third line of savings. When the interest on your savings surpasses your expenses you are completely financially free for the rest of your life. You have the rest of your life to enjoy and do what ever you please. Volunteer, work part time at something you truly love, of just sleep until noon until you are bored. The key to this program is:being frugal, aggressively eliminating all debt and cutting expenses in every way possible and saving diligently. I admit that this program is a little extreme for most people, but I am willing to follow it for the ultimate pay off, financial freedom to do as I please for the rest of my life. The new American dream.
I would highly recommend also reading Dave Ramsey's :"Total Money Makeover" if you find this book to Spartan for your personal tastes. Dave has lead me to being debt free with a large net worth over the past 15 years, and I started with nothing.
Top reviews from other countries
- SquidReviewed in Canada on November 17, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Getting old, but the idea's are still very much relevant to today.
Fantastic book, changed my life. Bought multiple copies to give to friends and family over the years, which have never been read. It's a scary book in a way, because it asks you to do some math (which scares some people) and then if you do that math, you're left looking at a sheet of paper and wondering how you've managed to waste so much money/time.
If you can do that without getting bummed out or defensive and learn from it, it's awesome. If you're not willing to learn and change then you might have a bit of cognitive dissonance to deal with, because it lays things out pretty easily for anyone to understand.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read - Sound Advice That You Can Use
Would hate to use the term 'life changing', but this really should be required reading for anyone who likes to think they are 'financially intelligent' - it might have you considering whether you really are whilst at the same time giving you direction towards a life well lived.
It was written some time ago, therefore the practical approaches are out of date - "there's an app for that", but the points covered are completely relevant to life now, possibly even more so with the growth of consumerism and the mantra of "I'm worth it, therefore I buy it".
Within the first couple of chapters it had me considering quite profound elements around my finances - how much have I earned/has passed through my bank account so far in life and what have I now got to show for it. Thought provoking.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on January 30, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
A+
- L H PELLReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Arrived promptly and makes interesting reading
- C. FreedomReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Value your life? Like Money? Read it...
Good little tome on the relationship between money and life energy...