A New Book Review by David Heitmiller (June 2005)

Rational Simplicity: Setting the Course to a Simpler Life by Tim Covell, iUniverse, Inc. 2005

Rational Simplicity is a short easily read book that covers the basic concepts of simplicity well. Covell includes many of the ideas of Your Money or Your Life and other simplicity books but at a more basic level. For example, living below your means, separating wants from needs and recognizing the exchange of time for money are emphasized.

If you are primarily a left-brain rational thinker, this book will appeal to you. Covell’s writing style is simple and straight-forward and he emphasizes a logical approach to simplifying your life. He starts the book by asking the reader to answer some basic questions about their life and financial situation and then refers back to those questions and answers throughout the text. A minimum of charts and graphs are used to illustrate points and will be useful to get someone stuck in the mainstream started down the simplicity path.

I disagree with Covell’s belief that the final goal of simplifying one’s life is to “escape from paid work.” That was my initial goal too but I believe that most people must have a higher motivation to stay the simplicity course over the long run. For me that higher motivation includes trying to preserve the planet for future generations and aligning my behavior with my spiritual values. Some fortunate people have found their calling in life within their paid work and may never choose to leave even after simplifying their life. Others may begin the simplicity journey later in life or may have other situations that would make building a nest egg big enough to “retire” early difficult or impossible. There are many valid reasons to simplify one’s life other than the personal goal of financial independence.

The author also spends a lot of time talking about “changing your values” as if you can do so like changing your socks. He uses the example of separating wants from needs as a change in values. I see this more as behavior modification…certainly desirable…but something different than the tough reflective and introspective work that Your Money or Your Life suggests in step four of that program. In my opinion there are deeper core values that make one want to simplify and bring behavior into alignment with those core values.

Covell does offer the reader useful tips on calculating your net worth, building capital and understanding compound interest but if you’re a intuitive right-brain type your eyes may glaze over in these sections. His personal story is interesting as is his experience of building a nest egg through real estate investing. (I’m not sure his real estate strategy would work in many parts of the country however.)

If you are stuck in the mainstream, suffering from time famine and looking for an easy starter book to “jump start” a move to a simpler life, Rational Simplicity is a good resource. It gets right to the point and will spark some internal questions to get you going. Once you are going though I’d suggest following up with one or two of the many other simplicity related books that give real-life examples of people who have gone through the simplicity transformation.