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I’m another step closer to quitting the day job: today I began to train my replacement. I’ve never actually trained somebody in sales before, so this is a strange experience. It’s almost like the blind leading the blind! I’m hoping to find a quality sales seminar in the Portland area so that he can learn from a professional. Meanwhile, as you’d expect, I’ve accumulated some interesting personal stories to share:

“Still believe real estate values never go down?” asks Flexo at Consumerism Commentary. He points to recent stats that indicate U.S. home prices have fallen 6% in the past year. Some experts expect prices to drop as much as 30% in the next three years. (By contrast, prices in the Portland area have continued to increase, if only slightly.)

Yahoo! Finance recently posted a list of the 13 most overlooked tax deductions, including:

  • Sales tax
  • College tuition
  • Charitable contributions
  • State tax
  • Points paid during refinancing
  • And more!

I spent some time yesterday updating my list of online high-yield savings accounts. With today’s fed rate drop, yields may drop further. I’m looking for a way to make this page more useful — if there’s any info you’d like to see added, please let me know. (I currently intend to list additional banks and to note historical interest rates, where possible.)

Finally, David sent me a Wired magazine story from last fall about Getting Things Done guru David Allen and his cult of hyperefficiency. “Allen’s approach is not inspirational. Instead, it is detailed and dry. But within his advice about how to label a file folder or how many minutes to allot to an incoming email there is a spiritual promise.” I’ve tried to adopt GTD a couple times before, but ultimately I’m more fond of simpler methods.