Getting a Life

Your Money or Your Life, the earlier book by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, has sold more than half a million copies and is widely regarded as a foundational text of the voluntary simplicity movement. Its nine-step program shows readers how to rethink their attitude toward money, rank their material wants, reach financial independence, and live fully on less.

Getting a Life is written by Jacqueline Blix and David Heitmiller, a married couple who spent six years applying that program to their own lives. They describe leaving fast-paced careers in corporate jobs, along with the costly cars, far-flung vacations, and careless spending that came with them, in favor of a life that matches what they actually value and why they are here. Calling themselves reformed yuppies, they are joined by more than two dozen people and families from varied backgrounds who tell their own stories of thrift and contentment.

The book covers practical concerns such as paying for medical care, bringing up children in a consumer-driven culture, and separating one's work from one's sense of self. It also offers concrete advice for each step of the program, including the hardest obstacles and the mistakes people most often make, and takes an candid look at the larger philosophical questions that come up when someone pursues this integrated approach to work and daily living. An introduction by the authors of Your Money or Your Life opens the book.