I read and loved another book by the author so I decided to try and read all his other books.

But this one was not right for me and I couldn’t even get through it.

One thing I did appreciate was his listing of the various money archetypes – the saver, the innocent, the performer, the sensualist, the vigilant and the giver.

I found out I was a vigilant – the most resolute about fulfilling their duties and responsibilities”. “Dependable, helpful, and hardworking”,

The shadow side of vigilants is tht they can be frightened of any kind of change.

Vigilants can be taken for granted and may not get the gratitude they deserve.

They pass on the belief that for every problem there is a solution.

They have a deep sense of fair play and aren’t overly

dramatic or self-aggrandizing.

Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, was an evolved vigilant.

Jefferson declared that “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance”.

I got stuck on the chapter on the four steps to financial freedom.

Here the author insisted that we evaluate the exact amount of money we had including the value of our possessions.

I was unable to do this.



We had also to make a list of our liabilties – debts, etc and had to ascertain our real hourly wage and all sorts of other expenses.

I am not a money person, and all this was totally uninteresting and unachievable for me.

So I missed most of the book, but don’t feel that this was a problem.

I trust the author’s remaining books are better. ( )

I picked up The New Good Life on a whim. I didn't know who John Robbins was nor did I know his program Diet for a New America. Robbins, an heir to the Baskin-Robbins fortune, has experienced financial highs and lows. In The New Good Life he offers suggestions for how to create a life that brings you psychological security and happiness without all the trappings of our consumer culture. He examines how we've gone from being citizens to consumers and how that change has made us less happy, less satisfied and has put us at odds with the environment, when we're not out and out at war with it.Beginning with his own story of creating wealth after having walked away from his family's money and business, and then loss of his life savings through no fault of his own except to have trusted an advisor who unwittingly turned the investments over to Bernie Madoff, Robbins gives a list and character sketch of money archetypes and explains how they relate to money and how they can find a better way to relate to money.Robbins transitions to the practical by outlining how to learn where your money is spent, how much money you actually earn per hour and how you can re-examine and readjust your spending, save money and reduce your impact on the environment.I was especially happy to find recipes for food and for making cleaning supplies. I've worried for a while that we're marinating in petro-chemicals each and every day and have wanted a comprehensive list of safe cleaning supplies and personal care items.I recommend this book for its readability, practical information and for how it approaches the "new normal." As our family has adjusted to having half its income, we've found that some things are easy to do without while others are harder to let go. As we still live and work in a middle class world and have children attending school with peers whose families haven't been so negatively by this economy, we've struggled with meshing reality with old expectations. Do middle schoolers really need a full-color yearbook, for example. And don't get me started on electronics and gadgetry. We've always known that we couldn't keep up with the Joneses, but now that we truly do not have the means to even try, we're learning how to find peace with this knowledge, to not compare ourselves and to understand that the life we have now can be full and satisfying without debt and within our means.What I learned from John Robbins' book will help. ( )