As the days turn dark and cold, 2010 is winding its way to a close and 2011 is fast approaching. It’s been a great year for me, but I’m looking forward to more progress in the months ahead.
One exciting project on the horizon is Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit, which is just 177 days away. On June 4th and 5th, a few hundred people will gather here in Portland to attempt to answer the question: “In the face of overwhelming pressure to conform, how do we live remarkable lives in a conventional world?”
For nearly a year, a small group of us have been working to pull this conference together. The schedule is beginning to fall into place, and we’ll start final preparations in January. Chris tells me the conference is already at 80% capacity, so if you’re thinking about attending, don’t wait too long to register. I’ll be there — I’d love to see you there, too. (You can read more about the WDS to see if you’d like to join this group of thinkers, dreamers, and entrepreneurs.)
Meanwhile, here are a few articles from around the web about the transition from 2010 to 2011:
First up, Kiplinger looked back over the past year in finance to create their list of the Best of Everything 2010. The magazine names their favorite investment resources, personal-finance resources, money-saving websites, and more.
Looking to the future, the Mighty Bargain Hunter has a short list of six year-end financial tasks you may want to tackle in the next couple of weeks. These are smart things you can do today to set yourself up for a more prosperous 2011.
In a similar vein, Trent at the Simple Dollar is publishing an ongoing series in December called “Out with the Old, In with the New”. These articles are a sort of “greatest hits of personal finance”, covering financial chores we should each do on a regular basis. Trent’s suggestions range from calculating your net worth to cleaning out your closets.
Over at Pop Economics, Pop says he’s not really a fan of Dave Ramsey, and he’s always considered the debt snowball method of debt repayment “non-sensical”. But it turns out that maybe Ramsey has a point. Pop writes about using the “small wins” strategy to achieve big goals. That is, breaking large tasks into smaller steps to make them less daunting. “A lot of very big things can happen if you take the right small steps,” writes Pop. Amen!
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Dang that Dan Ariely. He’s up there with George Lowenstein. I need to work faster.
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I wish I was in Portland next week to talk to you guys.
How come so many influential people come from Portland? (the water)
Have fun!
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Good reference articles–I’m checking out the investment resources list right now.
I wish I could make it out to Chris’ summit! I’ll really have to consider flying cross country :/
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Sounds like a great unconvention. I’ll definitely drop by Powell’s.
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The Non-Conformity, fight the status quo, givem’ hell summit is right up my alley. Looking forward being in the middle of the mix.
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“Most importantly, you’ll engage with like-minded people who are interested in pursuing big goals while changing the world. Speakers and workshop leaders will merge inspirational stories with practical info, showing how they’ve crafted their own adventures and helping you build yours.
How can you travel the world? How can you start a small business? How can you build a legacy project? The World Domination Summit is a gathering of incredible people from all over the world designed to answer these questions and more.”
The above paragraphs from the World Domination ‘un’convention convention website I like. The whole “oooo, we’re so unconventional and everyone else is so conventional and always trying to make us conform” … bleh. Perhaps I’m a party pooper but I tend to find stuff like this a little too self-congratulatory, too forced … just plain too pretentious.
LOL, or maybe that just says something about me. <>
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Looking forward to it
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I think I’m with Jaime.
The “In the face of overwhelming pressure to conform, how do we live remarkable lives in a conventional world?” line just has me laughing.
One of the reasons i like this site is because JD is not condescending and arrogant like other personal finance writers and bloggers out there. But this convention, from the title on down, come on.
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I really thought the name of the convention was a joke.
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Gonna check out the World Domination Conference
Hopefully I can afford to go
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I’m with Jaime as well. It kind of reminds me of the goth kids in high school. They all think they are cutting edge…but they all dress the same and listen to the same music.
But I must confess I used to toss around words like “non-conformist” all the time…when I was 17. Now that I’m 40 I can’t imagine saying that without adding a “mannn!!!!!!!” at the end. This shows that I know I’m being self-indulgent.
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I stumbled across your site and felt a momentary thrill to find such a great resource. I’m a fan of anything advocating sensible money management.
But then I hit this post, and it just turned me off. Nothing frustrates me more than the “We love difference and individuality” dressing of a world view that divides Americans into three groups 1) “neo-hippies with dreads who take 2 minute showers, eat no meat, and are awesome and unique,” 2) “brown people who have values we abhor but are to be forgiven because they are oppressed,” and 3) “everyone else, with their conformist, selfish and ignorant ways.”
If you take the work of educating people seriously, you might consider showing less self-regard and more interest in and respect for the breadth and depth of people’s experiences. Personal finance is not a niche concern visible only to people who like Portland.
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Being unconventional for the sake of being unconventional is just weird – and just another way of looking at others to find out how to behave. If what I want to do and be is conventional, so be it! I won’t have my life controlled by what others think is normal, either way around.
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Another super speaker would be LIsa Shannon (she lives in POrtland) – she is the Author of, A Thousand Sisters, and Founder Run for Congo Women. She is young and she has forgone a traditional life for what she believes in – very inspiring!
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