Getting a Life: Strategies for Simple Living, Based on the Revolutionary Program for Financial Freedom, Your Money or Your Life

Rating:
Summary: Very satisfying.
Review: After reading "Your Money or Your Life" twice I wondered if there could possibly be a sequel to match it. "Getting a Life" was not disappointing at all, but it's hard to beat "Your Money or Your Life."

My overall impression of this book was very good. According to the authors, you don't need to read "Your Money or Your Life" before reading this book. I disagree. Read "Your Money or Your Life" first and then this book. You'll appreciate it a lot more.

This book consists of stories of people who used the principles of "Your Money or Your Life" to change their lives. I got a bit bored at certain points of the book as people's stories dragged on and on, but I still liked the stories because they gave a human face to the principles of simple living and freeing yourself from the rat race of earning and spending day after day, month after month and year after year. Much of the information is repeated, but the different viewpoints filled in a lot of missing pieces for me.

Here is my favorite passage from the book: "If you didn't need to work for income, what would you do with your time? What was the last thing you bought that you really didn't need, and why? If you had no money, would you still have the same friends? What would you estimate to be the total weight of all your possessions?"

Probably the most important thing for me with this book was the distinction some people made on how to live without a traditional job. In "Your Money or Your Life" the recommendation was to get your expenses down low and then live off interest from Treasury Bonds. It can be done, but that disappointed me. I was hoping for something a little more aggressive like a mix of dividend paying stocks and other investments. I was pleased to read the story of the man who did just that. He adjusted his life where he had a mixture of various investments producing passive cash flow, and he did just fine. That was a relief for me. I've been working on financial freedom for a while now, and the thought of living off Treasury Bond interest for the rest of my life, although safe, just doesn't appeal to me.

I also found some really good practical information in this book. The common misperception in this country is that we all have to buy a new car every few years. I was pleased to read stories of people who owned their cars for many years and just kept them in good running condition. There were many other tips regarding wasteful spending that I've never thought of before. I probably paid less than 10 bucks for this book. What a terrific return on my investment.

I'm giving this book 4 stars because I appreciated the real life stories it contained. It made everything very practical for me, and now I can see how it all fits into my life. Of course it can't match "Your Money or Your Life" as that was an extraordinary book. Still, if you liked that book, by all means read this book as well. You can't get enough of a good thing.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Your Money or Your Life, but still good
Review: After reading Your Money or Your Life by the late Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Getting a Life: Strategies for Simple Living Based on the Revolutionary Program for Financial Freedom Your Money or Your Life seemed to be a natural progression.

This book *does* offer some very helpful examples of individuals who used the advice in Your Money or Your Life. However, after reading the original book, I was somewhat disappointed by these authors' inconsistent choices in areas of voluntary simplicity. For example, they talk about how they cut their food bill down to just ($) a month for two people, and I know many couples who are into voluntary simplicity who can easily spend much less than that in a month. They also mention that they kept Call Waiting because they only have one phone line, which made me think, What did people do in the past with only one phone line when people were trying to call them? It just seemed inconsistent with some of the other advice they give in the book. Another annoyance was their example of a family who decided to go without health insurance, and just put money away in savings every month in the event of health expenses down the road. This would seem to me false economy. What would happen to this family if after saving a few thousand dollars they were hit with a serious accident or illness? Such an event could easily wipe out all of their savings.

In spite of the inconsistencies, this book does offer some good advice as well as list plenty of helpful resources for anyone interested in voluntary simplicity. The epilogue does a follow-up of the individuals listed throughout the book and tells you where they're at now in their lives. The epilogue is followed by a section of resources listing foundations, books, newsletters, organizations and other helpful resources for those interested in voluntary simplicity and financial independence.

Rating:
Summary: Not even close to YMOYL
Review: Should be subtitled, "How Two Seattle Yuppies Retired Early on 3.5K a Month". This book contains some helpful info, but I was hoping to see someone with a negative net worth pay off their debts and become FI. What I got was the story of a couple of yuppies saying, "Whoa, were worth a bundle and if we refuse to pay for our kids' college we can retire early". Not too impressive to me. I would not read this book if I were looking for material on voluntary simplicity. Why does Vicki Robin endorse this book?

Rating:
Summary: A very nice complement to Your Money or Your Life
Review: This book opens up a whole new avenue for living. I see things in a totally different light. For the first time in my life I truly know that I can be the one to affect my own future. I no longer have to rely on my job/husband/the lottery, etc., for security. I have everything I need. This book shows you that you have the ability to live life by your own rules and in a way that is earth friendly. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Good price but not very useful
Review: We read Duane Elgins excellent book Voluntary Simplicity decades ago, and would simply caution that this book Getting A :Life will probably appeal to those who have lots of money and really do not have to worry about making ends meet. For those who are on some type of a fixed income. or those with middle class incomes in a precarious economy it doesn't have much useful information. And I agree with those reviews that note the "yuppy" element.

We run a small simple living group in the Sierras, that is like the ones we ran in Alameda and San Joaquin counties here in California. So we are not new to the live simply and get out of debt ideas. And I note that there is a big difference between spoiled brats needing to learn what is really important in life and those who know what is important in life and want to know even more about how to simplify their lives.

The Intenet be it google searches or Yahoo groups has a whole lot more free information that is useful than this book. Amazon[.com]offers a whole lot more books on the subject that I would recommend.