This month, my “actively reading” list is:

• “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness : Walking the Buddha’s Path” (Bhante Henepola Gunaratana)
• “The 48 Laws of Power” (Robert Greene)
• “iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business” (Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon)
• “Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time” (Maria Veloso)
• “The Irresistible Offer : How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less” (Mark Joyner)
• “Grow Rich! : With Peace of Mind” (Napoleon Hill) – One of the most recommended self-help books of all time, a great grandaddy of them all. It is worthy of all that praise, in my opinion.
• “Pandora’s Star” (Peter F. Hamilton)
• “Deadhouse Gates : Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Malazan Book of the Fallen)” (Steven Erikson)

From audible, I am listening to:

• “The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living” (Joseph M. Marshall III)

This month, my “actively reading” list is:

• “How to make $2,000 a Week Selling Information By Mail” (Russ von Hoelscher). Purchased based on a recommendation at The Warrior Forum, haven’t started reading it yet.
• “The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism” (Robert Thurman) – A good book I am resuming reading before bed. I really like the visualization of the Jewel Tree.
• “iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business” (Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon) – Won this book at InBubbleWrap, which gives away books every day. I’m quite interested to read it, actually.
• “Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible” (Brian Tracy) – Mr. Tracy is one of my personal heroes, I unreservedly recommended his books.
• “Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time” (Maria Veloso) – just picked this up last week and started reading today. It looks stunningly good, and is exactly what my business needs.
• “The Irresistible Offer : How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less” (Mark Joyner) – excellent, motivatingly great, strips everything down to the essence.
• “Grow Rich! : With Peace of Mind” (Napoleon Hill) – One of the most recommended self-help books of all time, a great grandaddy of them all. It is worthy of all that praise, in my opinion.
• “Pandora’s Star” (Peter F. Hamilton) – Just picked up, I like Hamilton, but I haven’t started this yet.
• “Deadhouse Gates : Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Malazan Book of the Fallen)” (Steven Erikson) – So far, not as gripping as the first book, but still very involving and interesting. I like the exceptionally detailed world.
• “Interface” (Neal Stephenson, J. Frederick George) – just picked up for my vacation trip, but didn’t get to it.

From audible, I am listening to:

• “Thou Shall Prosper” (Rabbi Daniel Lapin) – This is a long audiobook, which tries to show “Jewish money making wisdom” from the Torah and tradition. Conservative, but interesting so far.
• “The Ape in the Corner Office” (Richard Conniff) A really fun book which makes for great conversations. I particularly like the Alpha Male CEO stories. Seriously, urinating in a sink during a board meeting?

Last month, I finished:

• “Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Vol. 1)” (Steven Erikson) – One of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in years.
• “Rhinoceros Success” (Scott Alexander) – Purchased for $0.26 at a Thrift Shop, so I didn’t risk much. Repetitive and not very motivating for me.
• “Maximum Achievement: Proven System of Strategies & Skills That Unlock Powers” (Brian Tracy) – A life changing book for me, one of the books I am crediting with helping spark my recent explosion of personal development.

This month, the books are:

• “The Attractor Factor : 5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth (or Anything Else) from the Inside Out” (Joe Vitale)
• “Never Eat Alone : And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time” (Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz)
• “Never Eat Alone : And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time” (Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz)
• “Grow Rich! : With Peace of Mind” (Napoleon Hill)
• “The Great Formula : for Creating Maximum Profit with Minimal Effort” (Mark Joyner)
• “Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires” (Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks, Wayne W. Dyer)
• “Become A Recognized Authority In Your Field – In 60 Days Or Less” (Robert W. Bly)
• “Book Yourself Solid : The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling” (Michael Port)
• “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results” (Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffery Eisenberg)
• “Influence: Science and Practice (4th Edition)” (Robert B. Cialdini)

I can’t take a picture of it, but at the moment, I am listening to

“The Ape in the Corner Office : Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us” (Richard Conniff)

Technorati Tags: reading, virtual coffee table

In the tradition of the Virtual Coffee Table posts I’ve been making, I think I’ll start sharing about significant new possessions entering or leaving my life. For the moment, I’m picking $100 as the cutoff for a single item to be marked “significant”. Before we started the budget last year, $100 was the cutoff amount between “spend at will” and “talk to my spouse.”

Entering

This month was much bigger than normal. We got two MacBook Pros ($2000 and $2700) and an outstanding Brenthaven laptop bag ($100) for mine. Luckily, the more expensive laptop and the bag were purchased by my new employer.

Leaving

One of the 65 books I sold on Amazon this month went for over $100. Sadly, we also said farewell to my wife’s old Powerbook G3. It was dying for some time, and is now fully replaced with the MacBook Pro.

Technorati Tags: macbook

This is the third edition of my "Virtual Coffee Table", a fun tradition I began observing back in February. I just take a shot of the books I’m currently “actively” reading. I may not read each one completely cover-to-cover, but I do try to do that with most books.

This month, the books are:

• “Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible” (Brian Tracy)
• “How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit” (Guy Kawasaki, Michele Moreno)
• “Influence: Science and Practice (4th Edition)” (Robert B. Cialdini)
• “Grow Rich! : With Peace of Mind” (Napoleon Hill)
• “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results” (Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffery Eisenberg)
• “Maximum Acheivement” (Brian Tracy)
• “Free Prize Inside : The Next Big Marketing Idea” (Seth Godin)
• “The Ultimate Sales Letter” (Dan Kennedy)

Technorati Tags: reading, virtual coffee table

These are the things I am reading at the moment, with no editing. My goal is to finish a book a week. I think I usually do hit that mark these days, or very close. I try to read on downtime at work, and I set aside an hour a day to reading, from 10-11pm each evening.

• Financial Times newspaper

• “StartupNation : America’s Leading Entrepreneurial Experts Reveal the Secrets to Building a Blockbuster Business” (Jeff Sloan, Rich Sloan)
• “Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible” (Brian Tracy)
• “How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit” (Guy Kawasaki, Michele Moreno)
• “Influence: Science and Practice (4th Edition)” (Robert B. Cialdini)
• “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” (Michael E. Gerber)
• “No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs” (Dan Kennedy)
• “Grow Rich! : With Peace of Mind” (Napoleon Hill)
• “Secrets from an Inventor’s Notebook” (Maurice Kanbar, Maurice Kanbar)“Secrets from an Inventor’s Notebook” (Maurice Kanbar, Maurice Kanbar)
• “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results” (Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffery Eisenberg)

Technorati Tags: reading, books, coffee table

The way we did it this year was by budgeting “gift money” every month. The money, $50 each for Dustin and me, goes in envelopes marked “Dustin Gift Money” and “Bruce Gift Money” in the safe. That money accumulates month-to-month in the envelopes. It is not separately tracked or accounted-for, which helps keep the presents secret. We use it to fund all gift giving throughout the year, supplemented by whatever we feel like kicking in from our personal “mad money” allowances. Since we started the formal budget in June last year, there were a total of $800 maximum dollars in the envelopes. Due to birthdays and such, the total left was more like $500.

$500 really is not a lot to buy presents for the five people in the family, relatives, and close friends. According to an article I read the average spent per person is between $1000-$1500, which means that we spent significantly less than the average. We did this by setting our limits up front, and by not really buying any “impulse gifts”. Most presents were carefully planned and ordered online for significant discounts.

When we did shop for gifts at the mall, we took cash. That is an entirely different experience to shopping with a credit card. I found myself thinking things like “that is a nice shirt, Dustin would love it, but if I buy it, I wont have enough left to get that bracelet I came here to buy.” Exactly the point. Temptation is just easier to avoid when you are using cash.

Another big help was something I read on another personal finance blog (sorry I can’t recall which). It pointed out that young children really don’t have the attention to enjoy more than three or four presents. Very true, and helpful to assuage guilt at not getting them everything under the sun.

Favorite presents:
Dustin: Bracelet bought in Mexico on vacation from a vendor on the Artisan’s street in San Miguel.
Bruce: Buddha statue
Ian: Electric Guitar
Mia: Plush velociraptor
Clio: Stuffed kitty with fuzzy green sweater

Technorati Tags: christmas, presents, budgeting