unconventional women
Monday, 06 February 2012
Home Work and Money Understanding Money Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.
Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Print E-mail
ImageTransforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence
Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
1992, new ed.
Buy new or used from Amazon.com

SimpleLiving.net  The website has lots of information and resources including free Online Study Groups to work  through the material in the book.

This is a good book if you are even slightly Green or feel attracted to the Simple Living movement. Dominguez and Robin concentrate deeply on subjects that are addressed more generally by other writers: discovering your values, getting your spending into alignment with your values, and focusing on achieving financial independence. The goal is to achieve the point where your earnings will support you without working at all, or working at the level and kind of work you want to do. . .
Their approach is radical because they don’t accept the idea that more is automatically better. Their effort is to help you become conscious that you are exchanging your life energy, the limited number of hours you have on earth, for money. Is it worth it?  The goal is figure out how much is “enough”—enough for you to achieve a life that will make you happy because it fulfills what is most important to you.  They have a well-defined and simple system of tracking your income and expenses and rating the value to you of your expenditures, which pinpoints exactly where you can cut costs in order to save. Their investment strategy is extremely simple and conservative, no need for an advisor—they recommend long-term Treasury bonds, and they recommend doing it yourself.

This is a start-from-the-beginning inspiring book which will change your life if you persist and follow the program. There is a new edition with some new information, but the fundamental program remains unchanged and you can buy a used version of the older edition. This approach has new resonance now that it's become clear that a lot of those high salaries and inflated home prices had no basis in reality, but were just castles in the sand that have now been washed away.

See also Choosing Simplicity by Linda Breen Pierce, which tells the stories of people who changed their lives according to the principles set forth in the book and how it worked out for them.


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Links: Understanding Money

Women’s Institute for Financial Education
Money Clubs

Michelle Singletary:
Washington Post Personal Finance Columnist. Online chat where you can ask questions every Thursday.
Singletary's Financial book recommendations

Financial tips for the suddenly single from MSN

Women's Financial Network - Woman-owned investment firm recommended by Barbara Stanny

The Motley Fool - Unorthodox investment information

ChoosetoSave.org - Non-profit web site completely devoted to financial education.

Mind YourFinances - Non-profit resource for personal finance advice, useful tools and educational materials.

360 Degrees of Financial Literacy - Well-organized financial information from American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

360 for Women

"Retirement" Planners:


ChoosetoSave.org - calculators for every money question

MSN - very simple way to see balance between earning, savings, and investment interest.

Social Security Benefit Planner