Take a moment and think what you would do in this situation: you’re out for an evening stroll & someone comes up to you.  Not just anyone, mind you, but someone with a gun, who wants what you have.  You’re given the option: your money, or your life.  Which do you take?

For most, the answer is simple: you’d give up the money in a heartbeat if it meant saving your life.  That is the basis for the book Your Money Or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.  The authors take it one step further and equate the standard 9-to-5 work life with the evil gunman.  From their perspective, each of us is dying a bit every day, and that process is speeding up thanks to the stress induced by our jobs. 

The key to the philosophy presented in this book is the concept of life energy, the idea that each of us has a finite amount of energy that we can do with as we choose.  Most of us choose to life the “good” life, carrying on with our daily business, racking up credit card balances, trying to save for retirement, and living for either the weekend or that week-long summer vacation.  Dominguez and Robin challenge us each to focus more on finding our true meaning and living out our dreams.  They argue that if we can give up the 9-to-5 job, we will be lead much more fulfilling lives.  We will be able to make the most of our limited life energy by doing what we love best - not what society thinks we should be doing.

Your Money or Your Life presents a useable plan for getting to the point where we can leave our day jobs to live out our dreams.  The basic plan is as follows:

1. Analyze the true cost of your job.  How many hours do you work per week?  How many hours do you spend commuting to and from work?  How much do you pay for that commute (gas, wear and tear on the car, bus tickets, etc.)?  Do you have to wear dressier clothing for your job?  What about meals?  Do you eat out for lunch every day?  Or do you run by that coffee shop in the afternoon as a quick pick-me-up?  Do you have to unwind for an hour every day after work just to function?
2. Determine your true rate of pay based on the figure you found in the first step.  This is typically a frightening step when you figure out just how little you’re actually paid.  This is where the concept of life energy comes in.  Think of all the options that would open up to you if you weren’t tied to that day job!
3. Take stock of where you are right now financially.  Take a couple weeks and watch your spending, tracking the money you take in and the money you let go.  If you start to think in terms of how many hours of work went into purchasing something, chances are good you’ll start to question whether you really want or need what you’re about to purchase.  Again, think of that life energy you’re giving up - is a cup of frou-frou coffee really worth an hour of your life?  (Not that I’m saying you should give up frou-frou coffee - I’m all for the occasional treat…)  
4. Once you get a handle on where you money is coming from and going, make a point of figuring out how you feel about each transaction.  Does spending $100 on a new suit make you feel good?  How about that $1000 you just spent on a pool table?  The answers here are going to depend highly on where you find enjoyment in life.  For instance, someone may feel like they got a great bargain on a $100 suit that makes them look fabulous, while another person may feel it’s just a waste of money.  Similarly with the pool table, it may be worth that $1000 if it means fun get-togethers with your friends for the next several years.
5. Develop a Wall Chart - a graph displaying your income and your expenses by month.  Initially, you may find that the point showing your expenses is higher than the one showing your income.  Eventually though, when you get into the “life energy” mind-set, your expenses will start to drop when you realize that it may not be worth your while to spend that money on something you may not use.  The Wall Chart is an excellent visual resource for showing exactly how you’re doing - and how long it’s going to take to get to the point where you can LEAVE your day job.  I plan to add a page with my Wall Chart to Cheese Everywhere! very soon to show the world how I’m doing - and to keep me motivated to stay on track.  More on that later.
6. Start tracking the gap in your Wall Chart between the expenses and income lines - that’s your rate of savings.  Now, here’s the whole point of Your Money or Your Life:
7. Eventually you’ll start building interest on that savings gap.  At some point in the future (it may be near, it may be far), you’ll be able to live off the interest from your savings.  Dominguez and Robin encourage you to put your savings into bonds directly from the government since those are the safest, most stable sources of income over the short term.
8. Live your life the way you’ve always wanted!  Go for your dreams - if you’ve made it to this point, you’re no longer dependent on anyone else for your survival.  You can continue to work if you so choose - but that’s very different from having to work.  Or maybe you want to work for a non-profit, or even try out teaching…  Whatever the case, you’re now free to do it.

The Bottom Line

Your Money or Your Life is an excellent book that provides the motivation you need to see your in future the life you’ve always wanted.  As I mentioned earlier, I believe whole-heartedly in the concept of the Wall Chart and plan to post my own on this site to share my experience with everyone and to help keep me motivated.  The more often I see the chart, the more likely I am to question whether my life energy is worth everything I’m spending to get by.  If I can lower my expenses even more, I should be able to get to the point where I can live off the interest of my savings even faster. 

Just to show how much I loved this book, I may even go buy it so that I’ll have it at my disposal to re-read any time…  I originally borrowed it from the library, but this one would be worth the cost to purchase!