Your Money or Your Life - 2018
What if the real cost of earning a living isn’t just the hours we spend at work, but the life energy we exchange for money?
BOOK NOTERESOURCESFINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
Wendy Boey
6/27/20262 min read
Financial advice often is about working towards a "number", but this book reminds that don't need plenty to live a good life for the long term. Like many other readers, I've used this book as a go-to guide on financial freedom.
After receiving the devastating news that my breast cancer is back, I chanced upon this book note which I've saved in Obsidian. I borrowed the book again and this time I was focused on Vicki Robin's cancer story. Out of curiosity, I searched for her online and read her article Liberating Limits.
She was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2024, and given an estimated 45% chance of survival. After surgery and chemotherapy, she chose a holistic healing approach. My online search results on 27 June 2026 revealed that Vicki is still alive at a ripe age of 80.
In Vicki's words, "Even the diagnosis didn’t slow me down. It took the insults and assaults of treatment – surgery and chemo (which I stopped mid-course before it killed me) – to stop me nearly dead." I have had my double mastectomy. I don't have breasts now. But I stopped myself from chemotherapy after agreeing too fast initially. My oncologist gave me that option but he was 50-50 on it.
And now I read through Your Money or Your Life with fresh eyes again. I'm 44 this year, and have spent more than 20 years of life energy giving my all to my employers until I was retrenched a month after the mastectomy. With my health situation and active advocacy, I have concerns about future employability. But reading this book again at this point in life was an eye-opener.
In the 1970s, Vicki Robin learned from Joe Dominguez about the possibility of living a "financially free" life. Brought about by a desire to pursue intentional living, they experimented with frugality and simple living and found it was possible to live on a fraction of the money spent by a typical household. Their individual investments in treasury bonds provided a combined monthly income of $1,500, which was enough for their way of life in the 1990s. I estimated that to be around SGD3,845 per month in 2026.
When I looked into my finances after the layoff, even without the severance payout, I realized I can consider myself financially independent. It comes as a surprise as I lost over SGD700,000 in a scam in 2021, and what I have today is a fraction of that amount. Since the scam, I've been saving around 50% of my previous take-home income each month. I also greatly reduced my personal living expenses.
However I don't feel deprived and do not rely on my husband's income, but have led a rich life. I'll buy my favorite Japanese stationery from time to time. We'll go into Johor Bahru for short stays and more affordable vegetarian restaurant cuisine. Compared to my earlier years of accumulating, I've learned that I don't need much to be happy.
To me, Your Money or Your Life is a book about contentment with enough. And the authors reminded that contentment requires me not to be bothered about what others think of me.
Robin, V., & Domínguez, J. (2018). Your Money or Your Life: 9 steps to transforming your relationship with money and achieving financial independence (rev. ed.). Penguin Books.
© 2026 Boey Hui Foong, Wendy. All rights reserved.
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