Your Money or Your Life – Are You Trading Your Work Life Balance For Money?
Are you trading your life for money? One of my favorite books on personal finance/lifestyle choices is Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and it explores this very topic in easy-to-understand, clear and concise language. I have read it cover to cover several times over, and it remains a staple item on my bookshelf. In fact, it was part of my taking a risk in leaving a high-paying career in the entertainment field for self-employment and freedom from schedules and bosses. Working at a job I didn’t like was financially rewarding for quite some time, but eventually it became a black cloud draining the life out of my soul. I realized I was trading my life away for money, and I had had enough; I up and quit and have been on my own for years now. I was no longer trading my life for money and it was the best decision I have ever made.
Banks are in the business of money. Some companies sell goods and others sell services, but banks are in the money business. From credit cards to personal loans to mortgages, banks make money the old fashioned way — they earn it (in interest charges). Well, that and they like to charge random exorbitant fees to their customers, too. But in the end, they are just trying to cover the spread between the money they take in and pay interest on and the money they lend out and charge interest on. It’s a pretty simple concept, if in theory only. 