Your Money or Your Life: Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned

I’ve been (re) reading Your Money Or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and I’m glad I did, as is often the case, when you re-read a book that you read at an earlier life stage. I’m a different person now, and I understand some of the concepts in the book differently. 

Your Money or Your Life: Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned

You use your life, your time, and your energy to earn money, so when you spend it you really are spending the energy it took to earn it. This time around I started to think about this concept in a very concrete way.

Money Really Is Life Energy

If you make $30 an hour and spend $60 on going to a play or concert that lasts two hours, you traded two hours of life energy for two hours of entertainment.

We live in a world where the advertising industry needs to persuade us that more is always better. Buying more, doing more, spending more.

More Is Rarely Better

If everyone thinks they need more than they have, it’s unlikely that’s based on any true ‘need’ or even ‘want’. There are a few things at play.

The authors suggest that we all need clarity on our past financial life, and we can get that by looking back at our life to clearly see our past behaviour around money. It’s important that you do this with what the authors refer to as a ‘no shame, no blame’ attitude.

The Importance of Clarity

You’re not beating yourself up over past mistakes. But you are identifying them so you can avoid them moving forward.

Once you have clarity, keeping track of your financial life going forward is vital. Knowing where your life energy is going will help you make better decisions, short term and long. 

Keeping Track