Best finance book EVER

Jer and I spent two hours on Sunday walking through Costco and just learning where stuff was, and what type of stuff they had. Very informative. And while we were there, we stumbled upon the book section and saw Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vick Robin, Joe Dominquez, and Monique Tilford. Now, I had heard of this book as one of the top finance books out there, and since we are all about finances this year, we picked it up. And let me just say, this is the finance book to read before you read anything else.

Its not about budgeting or living thrifty, investing, or making more money. Those are all great topics, but this one really starts at the beginning. And I'm not talking three year old "toys cost money, dear" type of beginning. It goes to the root of our financial issues: Why we earn and spend the way we do. The book takes you through 9 steps. The first two steps are all about grounding you in the present: totaling up all the money you earn, all your assets, and all your liablities; keeping track of all your expenses for a month; and calculating your actual hourly wage (including time spent commuting, decompressing, preparing for work, clothes bought for work, etc).

Once you are finally in the present and aware of exactly how much money you have (or don't have), how much you spend, and how much you earn, then the fun begins. And this is the part that's really exciting for me. You are asked to look at expenses not in money, but in hours of your life that is costs to earn that. And THEN you look at whether you got fulfillment from that item, whether it aligns with your life purpose, whether it would stay the same if you didn't have to work.

There's a lot of introspection that goes into that step, and the further steps that build on it, clearly. (Seriously, this is a lot of personal growth stuff) But it is so empowering. Instead of saying "I'm cutting my expenses by $200 this month" and going on a money diet, you get to say "Eating out just doesn't fulfill me. Maybe I'd like to spend that money on something that does." Or whatever you end up saying to yourself.

It makes money really easy to think about, make choices about, and even talk about, cause its no longer tied up in who you are. Its just a tool to get you to where you want to go.

Of course, once you know what you REALLY want to accomplish (life wise, and money wise) then it makes sense to research how to get there (investing, frugal living, second job, whatever) but how great to be doing it because you are called to it, instead of because you feel like you should. I swear, this is the best money book I've read, and really one I recommend reading before you read anything more specific.

If you're over at our house in the next couple weeks you'll see our charts on our fridge as we bring our money into alignment with our goals and purposes.