9 Key Work and Money Lessons from ‘Your Money or Your Life’
Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash.
Reading time: 8 minutes
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Introduction to Vicky Robin’s Work and Money Insights
Do we have a healthy relationship with our job?
In today’s post, we'll discuss 9 key insights from Vicky Robin's classic book, "Your Money or Your Life". This book is essential reading for anyone interested in personal finance and achieving financial independence, as well as those seeking to achieve work-life balance and a purposeful life. I've read this book three times, and while I don't agree with everything Robin says, the book certainly deserves its reputation—it’s filled with transformative ideas that will change the way you think about work and money.
Exploring job satisfaction and modern work motivations
In previous posts, like our exploration of job satisfaction, we’ve discussed different aspects of our relationship to work. For instance, we found that a staggering 77% of global employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, highlighting the need for a new approach: 59% do not feel engaged, while 18% are actively disengaged, meaning they take actions that directly harm their organization.
Besides the mental health considerations, this widespread job dissatisfaction and lack of engagement costs the global economy approximately 8.8 trillion USD (roughly 9% of global GDP). From an employer’s perspective, there is a strong economic incentive to make jobs more appealing to employees. However, employees should also consider whether the expectations they place on jobs are simply too unrealistic—are we asking too much from them?
We've also examined why, despite enormous economic and technological progress over the centuries, humans continue to work so hard, resulting in unprecedented levels of stress. In James Suzman’s book “Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time,” we identified six potential reasons for this: the pursuit of social status, the desire to keep up with others, increasing inequality, and various inherited traits and mindsets from both our farming and hunter-gatherer ancestors. Frankly, none of the reasons we uncovered would support the idea that working 8 hours a day for decades is a great idea.
Today, we delve deeper into this topic by exploring Vicky Robin's transformative insights from her book “Your Money or Your Life.” Robin argues that to craft a truly meaningful and fulfilling life, it is crucial that we redefine our relationship with work and achieve financial independence.
Robin argues that redefining our relationship with work is crucial for crafting a meaningful and fulfilling life
Order ‘Your Money or Your Life’ now and start your journey towards financial independence (affiliate link).
Redefining Work: 10 Lessons from Your Money or Your Life.
1) Rethinking the 9-to-5 workday: are we making a living or making a dying?
Vicky Robin suggests that the first step is to acknowledge the problem: most of us aren’t making a living; we’re making a dying. Our jobs dominate our waking hours, leaving only the remnants of time for life—whatever can be squeezed in after we come home exhausted. How many people feel more alive at the end of the workday than at the beginning? We are slowly sacrificing our lives for money, often without realizing it. Even those who truly enjoy their job feel there could be more to life than the 9-to-5 grind, that they may be missing out on other important dimensions life has to offer.
2) Our jobs shouldn’t shape our identity and self-worth
We often believe we are our jobs, deriving our identity and self-worth from them. Our jobs reflect our status, and whether we realize it or not, our daily interactions involve the unconscious sizing up of how each of us “makes a living”. When getting to know someone, conversations frequently center around what we do for work, highlighting the importance we place on our occupations. However, focusing our identity too strongly on work can lead us to being extrinsically motivated, basing our worth on external validation—whether through status or the approval of others, such as our boss or colleagues. This performance-based identity can be detrimental, as it ties our sense of self and worth to performance and external recognition, rather than on intrinsic values and self-fulfillment.
3) Trapped in the rat race: the cycle of work and consumption
Many people find themselves trapped in the rat race, believing they work merely to pay the bills. In reality, many spend more than they have on things they don't need, driving them back to work to earn more money to spend on more stuff, perpetuating an endless cycle. Unfortunately, beyond a certain level of comfort, money does not correlate to the happiness we seek. For some, purchasing items may bring short-lived moments of pleasure, but it will always fail to provide lasting fulfillment.
“More is better” is a formula for dissatisfaction. The rat race cycle creates an excruciating balance between working more to afford luxuries and having enough leisure time to actually enjoy them. Today, this problem is exacerbated by the internet, which allows us to be consumers at all times. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements, and the desire to buy is so easy to fulfill—just one click away. According to Vicky Robin, the relentless pursuit of material possessions detracts from our well-being, leaving us in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction and yearning for a simpler, more meaningful existence. If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.
4) We should rethink our job expectations
Of course, in an ideal world your job would offer enough challenges to remain engaging, sufficient ease to be enjoyable, adequate camaraderie for nourishment, solitude for productivity, leisure for refreshment, contribution to feel needed, silliness for fun, and enough income to meet financial obligations. However, in the real world most jobs fall short of meeting these criteria. Remember the Gallup data we presented earlier—77% of global employees experience job dissatisfaction and low engagement. Ultimately, a lot of our discontent with work may arise from unrealistically high expectations we place upon it.
If you were to achieve financial independence, would you still go in to work tomorrow? If the answer is “no”, then perhaps it's unrealistic to expect your job to fulfill all these functions listed above. Vicky Robin describes this as the “Job Charming syndrome,” where we expect our jobs to provide fairy-tale levels of satisfaction. It's important to remember that the primary purpose of paid employment is to earn money—that is the fundamental reason we show up at work every day. While jobs can offer additional benefits such as service, learning, socializing, and structure, it is important to remember that these needs can also be met through various unpaid activities outside of work.
Photo by Pixabay. No author attribution.
5) Our perception of leisure has changed dramatically over time
In the US, alongside the rights to life and liberty, workers were educated to see employment, not free time, as their right as citizens. This contrasts with the idea that economic growth and increased productivity could potentially lead to reduced work hours and more leisure time. Instead, leisure is often viewed as an economic drain, a wage liability, and a hindrance to progress.
Historically, the perception of leisure has shifted dramatically. In ancient Greece, leisure was essential for a well-rounded life, allowing for intellectual and cultural pursuits integral to personal and societal development. This view was echoed in the early 20th century in the US and Europe, where increased productivity was expected to provide more leisure time for self-improvement and family activities.
Contrast this to today, where many are unable to relax and enjoy leisure without feeling guilty. This change stems partly from the relentless push for full employment and the pervasive influence of advertising, which together have fostered a society that is obsessed with work. The emphasis has shifted towards earning more money to facilitate higher consumption of resources, rather than valuing leisure as a positive outcome of economic advancement.
Understanding this evolution highlights the need to reassess our values surrounding work and leisure, and to consider the benefits of a more balanced approach that recognizes the positive impacts of leisure on overall well-being and societal progress.
6) The evolving role of work in modern society
Over the last century, we've started to lose the fabric of family, culture, and community that once gave meaning to life outside the workplace. There used to be a clear structure for non-work time, providing people with a sense of purpose and belonging. But without this important fabric, leisure can often lead to loneliness and boredom. As life outside work has lost its vitality and meaning, work has shifted from being a means to an end to becoming an end in itself.
According to Vicky Robin, paid employment now takes on functions traditionally fulfilled by other facets of life. For many, it now answers existential questions like "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", and "What is it all for?". Additionally, work has assumed the role of the family, offering answers to questions such as "Who are my people?" and "Where do I belong?". This shift has led to work occupying a central place in our identities and lives, often at the expense of other meaningful connections and experiences.
7) Redefine work to set yourself free: embrace a holistic approach
Redefining “work” as any productive or purposeful activity, with paid employment being just one among many, liberates us from the false notion that earning a living must also provide our sense of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. If your job does not align with your values or purpose, or aligns only partially with a small subset of them, the significant amount of time spent there can understandably lead to feeling unhappy. Recognizing that meaningful work exists outside of paid employment allows us to pursue activities that resonate with our values and aspirations, fostering a more fulfilling and balanced life.
Historically, people used to be self-sufficient, possessing a wide range of skills to meet their day-to-day needs. In contrast, today’s focus on specialization in single professions may have narrowed our potential. By adopting a holistic view of work—valuing all our activities and skills, not just those for which we are paid—we can use our time in more enriching ways. According to Robin, by redefining work, we become life designers, not just wage earners, and honor unpaid activities, leading to a richer and more balanced existence.
8) Redefining work adds life to your retirement
Many people criticize the "retire early" component of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early), a popular strategy for early retirement, questioning the practicality of stopping work in your 30s or 40s. However, with a redefined concept of work, retirement doesn't mean ceasing all work; it simply means no longer working for money. When we stop working for money, we may be out of a job, but we are never out of work.
It's unlikely that those achieving financial independence early will spend the next 50 years doing nothing. Instead, most will continue to contribute to society in different ways and to pursue their passions. They quit their paid employment, but not work itself, in the broader sense defined by Vicky Robin. This new understanding of work allows for a fulfilling and active retirement, focusing on meaningful activities without the need for financial compensation.
9) Find a job that pays you well
Beyond the reminder that our lives encompass more than just our jobs, Vicky suggests seeking employment that offers the highest possible compensation. Valuing the life energy you invest daily in your work means aiming for the highest pay that aligns with your health and integrity.
This perspective isn't about adopting a philosophy that "more is always better." Instead, when money reflects the energy you invest in your life, earning more can elevate the quality of life you experience. It's not about amassing wealth for unnecessary expenses, but rather about achieving greater personal freedom. This pursuit isn't driven by greed or competition, but by self-respect and a deep appreciation for life.
Order ‘Your Money or Your Life’ now and start your journey towards financial independence (affiliate link).
Enjoyed this post? Don’t miss our post on 8 frugality lessons from ‘Your Money or Your Life’ and or our empirical exploration of how difficult it is to experience job fulfillment today.
