Photo by Renate Vanaga on Unsplash

You don’t actually spend money…

You are expending your life energy.

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin wrote a cult-classic book called Your money or your life. Initially published in 1992 the book has sold millions of copies and has been updated (at least twice from what I know) and re-released in 2018. The book had a massive impact on me. It changed my relationship with, my thoughts about, and the way I used money.

The funny thing about my experience is that it was the premise behind the book and not its reading that changed me. When I picked up a copy of the novel, I could not get through it. The exercises in the book, the tracking and categorizing of expenses, the calculations, and the financial estimates that were required turned me off. They were laborious to complete and yielded few if any, useful results to me.

One calculation that I found particularly onerous was the calculation required to find out my “real” hourly wage. Dominguez and Robin wanted to point out that when we earn, say $25 per hour at our job, we are really earning an amount that may be far less. For example, to earn $25 per hour, we may need to drive our car to get to work. Or we might need tools or special clothing to perform our tasks. One thing that has stuck in my mind to this day is that the book points out that for some jobs “costuming” may be required. I was once…