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🎯 The Book in 3 Sentences
💡 Key Takeaways
- Calculate how much money you have made in your life until now.
- Find what is the actual wage of your job.
- Track your expenses from now on and put them in categories.
- Find in which categories you feel fulfillment and satisfaction or not.
- Create a plot of income and expenses and put it in common view.
- Minimize spending, maximize income, and invest.
✏ Top Quotes
“More is better” turns out to be a formula for dissatisfaction.
Money is something you trade your life energy with.
📝 Summary + Notes
1. The Money Trap: The Old Road Map for Money
- We live our routine lives and work to live unhappily.
- Part of the secret to life comes from identifying for yourself that point of maximum fulfillment.
- The author proposes an exercise:
- A. Find out how much money you have earned in your lifetime.
- B. Create a balance sheet of your assets and liabilities. What do you have to show for the money you’ve earned?
- What does “enough” mean to you?
- What do you have (in storage or closets) that you’d be better off without? Why do you keep it?
2. Money Ain’t What It Used to Be—and Never Was
- More is like a mirage. We can never reach it because it isn’t real.
- Financial Independence has nothing to do with the rich. It is the experience of having enough—and then some.
- Establish (accurately and honestly) how much money you are trading your life energy for, and discover your real hourly wage.
- Learn about your money behavior by keeping track of every cent that comes into and goes out of your life.
3. Where Is It All Going?
- Establish spending categories that reflect the uniqueness of your life.
- Let’s say you pay $1,500 a month for the privilege of living in your house or apartment. Applying the awareness that your real hourly wage is $10, divide that $1,500 by $10. Here’s the reality: It costs you 150 hours a month to put this particular roof over your head.
4. How Much Is Enough? The Quest for Happiness
- For each spending subcategory in your Monthly Tabulation, ask:
- “Did I receive fulfillment, satisfaction, and value in proportion to life energy spent?” Mark your answer with a + (or an up arrow), a – (or a down arrow), or a 0.
- “Is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose?” Mark your answer with a + (or an up arrow), a – (or a down arrow), or a 0.
- “How might this expenditure change if I didn’t have to work for money?” Mark your answer with a + (or an up arrow), a – (or a down arrow), or a 0, and write the estimated change on the Monthly Tabulation.
- Review and make a list of all categories with the – symbol (or down arrow).
5. Getting It Out in the Open
- Make and keep up-to-date a chart of your total monthly income and your total monthly expenses.
- Look at it often.
6. The American Dream—on a Shoestring
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Lower your total monthly expenses by valuing your life energy and increasing your consciousness in spending. Learn to choose the quality of life over the standard of living.
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Don’t go shopping.
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Live within your means.
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Take care of what you have.
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Wear it out.
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Do it yourself.
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Anticipate your needs.
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Research value, quality, durability, multiple use, and price.
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Buy it for less.
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Meet your needs differently.
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7. For Love or Money: Valuing Your Life Energy—Work and Income
- Increase your income by valuing the life energy you invest in your job, exchanging it for the highest pay consistent with your health and integrity.
8. Catching Fire: The Crossover Point
9. Where to Stash Your Cash for Long-Term Financial Freedom
- Become knowledgeable and sophisticated about long-term income-producing investments and manage your finances for a consistent income sufficient for your needs over the long term.