Good basic info for newbies - heavily outdated investment advice!

books:

	• Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial ... Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, ... Penguin (Non-Classics), 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 263 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good basic info for newbies - heavily outdated investment advice!

I've read some 500 books on this topic and I don't consider myself exactly a lightweight in this category. The book gives good basic information about money. However, it gives outdated and completely inadequate investment advice. I would recommend other books for getting the beasic knowledge and some others for ivnestment strategies. The problem I had with the book that I seriously doubt people will become wealthy with this advice. It does give you the basics - but that's all it gives you. There are better books. Only if you don't know anything about money is this book worth a read. You can accumulate wealth by being cheap but the problem is you're still cheap.

I'd recommend Robert Kiyosaki's classic "Rich Dad Poor Dad" for newbies more than this one.

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Great book, creative & motivating ideas.

I got this book after reading in several blogs how good this book is. Now I know why. To start with, the nine steps mentioned in this book are:
(1) Making Peace with the Past;
(2) Being in the present - Tracking Your Life Energy;
(3) Where Is It All Going? (The Monthly Tabulation);
(4) Three Questions That Will Transform Your Life;
(5) Making Life Energy Visible;
(6) Valuing Your Life Energy - Minimizing Spending;
(7) Valuing Your Life Energy - Maximixing Income;
(8) Capital and the Crossover Point;
(9) Managing Your Finances.

You really gotta do the steps! Sure the steps take times and discipline to implement, but once I started, I got a lot out of it. Some of the shifts that I experienced:
1. A way of thinking that "money is simply something you trade life energy for".
Because I really want to know how much I trade my life energy for doing my job, I become very discipline in tracking my spending and created many new categories in my Quicken to be able to answer the the 3 Questions in step 4.

2. The attitude of "no shame no blame" when evaluating what one had done with one's finance. The book mentioned many times this mantra that helped whenever I felt bad about my previous decision, I would tell myself "no shame no blame" and no regret (my own addition).

3. The hope of being financial independence. The step of charting and making life energy visible were very helpful. I am looking forward to the time when my monthly investment income crosses over with my monthly spending. The book gave examples of people who successfully crossed over this point which are very motivating. It is also realistic in saying that we may have set back because there is nothing guaranteed with investment, but if we are conditioned to have control over our spending and income, we would be more confident in handling the setback.

This book is not an investment technique book, so if you are looking at a more technical way of managing your finance such as Asset Allocation by Gibson, you will not get it. This is also not like Needleman's book (Money and the Meaning of Life) that is philosophical. This book I would classify it as a hybrid between the psychology of money and the pragmatic ways of managing money so that you can reach financial independence. For me, the shift in thinking that I got from reading this book, made this book very very worth it.

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nice read

This book provides a different perspective on money as a means to an end vs an end in itself. Reading this book makes you reconsider how you use money and what you're trying to achieve with your finances.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

"The seminal guide to the new morality of personal money management" (Los Angeles Times(on the first edition))

In an age of great economic uncertainty when everyone is concerned about money and how they spend what they have, this new edition of the bestselling Your Money or Your Life is an essential read. With updated resources, an easy-to-use index, and anecdotes and examples particularly relevant today-it tells you how to:

? get out of debt and develop savings
? reorder material priorities and live well for less
? resolve inner conflicts between values and lifestyle
? save the planet while saving money
? and much more

In Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin shows readers how to gain control of their money and finally begin to make a life, rather than just make a living.

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