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Your Money or Your Life
Read in 19 min.
Listen in 24 min.
Learn the key ideas of the book by Vicki Robin , Joe Dominguez

Your Money or Your Life

Improve your relationship with money to find freedom

Achieving financial independence means choosing your own direction in life, rather than sticking to that imposed upon you by society. The methods explained in Your Money or Your Life, will help you stop money from being an oppressive and limiting factor, and transform it instead into an instrument of freedom, which allows you to lead a lighter and more harmonious life. All it takes is a little awareness and, as in all things in life, a good deal of commitment.

Your Money or Your Life
Read in 19 min.
Listen in 24 min.
IDEA CHIAVE 1/12

Financial independence is what makes a person happy, not the amount of money they have

Most people are so engrossed in their work, they can barely find time for themselves. Overwhelmed by a routine, and with no way out, women and men of all ages are investing their time and effort into something that, at the end of the day, leaves them feeling drained and unmotivated. To what end? Just so they can acquire those material possessions that seem to constitute the only criterion by which to measure a person’s value and prestige. More often than not, though, an expensive car and a two-story villa are unable to calm the sense of frustration that arises from an all-encompassing and constricting working model. What’s more, this is a model which, in addition to not guaranteeing full and genuine satisfaction, also drives us ever deeper into a materialist life of consumerism, as well as wearing down the world’s natural resources.

This pattern pushed the authors to revisit and update their original text, which proposes an alternative approach, in the form of a programme, aimed at transforming people’s relationship with money, and how they manage their time. The goal is to achieve financial independence, and reach a state where you are liberated from the compelling need to work for money. And the benefits don’t stop there: by following Robin and Dominguez’s advice, you will be able to enjoy more time for yourself, and you will free yourself, once and for all, from the constant stress that money matters can cause. You will be able to eliminate all of your unnecessary expenses, while your savings will only continue to increase, as though of their own accord.

Furthermore, becoming more aware of your lifestyle and finances will help you to achieve a balance that extends across both your personal and professional life, and your rationale around material belongings. To do this, however, there is a fundamental step that you must overcome, linked to the concept of "enough", to learn how to recognise when you have reached that point. Having “enough” means you enjoy enough of the things you want, and possess everything you need. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a place where you are content and free, rather than being bogged down in the superfluous, cumbersome, and suffocating environment that comes with living to excess. There is no single definition of exactly how much is “enough”, but rather it changes from person to person. Once you have identified how much is enough for you, you open yourself up to a thousand possibilities, and will experience a sense of serenity that is completely independent of any material asset.

  

The key ideas of "Your Money or Your Life"

01.
Financial independence is what makes a person happy, not the amount of money they have
02.
When you understand that money is life energy, everything changes
03.
You need to keep track of the money coming in and going out of your life to understand how you relate to money
04.
You can get a realistic idea of your finances by calculating your income, personal expenses, and work-related expenses
05.
You need to personalise how you record your expenses, rather than using standardised categories
06.
Good organisation will help you get back into abandoned projects and goals that you gave up on too early
07.
Gain support and security by being open, and discussing money with the people around you
08.
Saving will reignite the pleasure that living a frugal lifestyle can bring
09.
Breaking the connection between work and salary will help you to focus more on yourself
10.
Precise planning and solid know-how will help you to earn passive income through investments
11.
Quotes
12.
Take-home message
 
 
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