Fearless Money

After a month hiatus, I am back to taking shots of my “virtual coffeetable”, where I’ve stacked all the books I am actively reading.This summer, I took a break from my non-fiction diet, since a book I’d long been anticipating finally came out. I knew the first one was a cliffhanger, so I waited (years) until the second half of the story came out. Each is about 800 pages, so that was a lot to read!

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Starting a business is possibly more important than exactly what the business is intended to do.At least, that’s what I’ve been thinking about for the last few months as I’ve worked toward launching my first real business.

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I found it painful to read this article about pitfalls to avoid when starting an internet business. Too many of them are things that have occurred to me as good ideas in the past.

Don’t start a business teaching how to make money online.
Choose non-internet related niches.
Don’t focus on making money.
Don’t enter a tiny market.
Watch […]

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On my coffee table this month, I remain focused on building my business, but I’m adding a sprinkling of personal development and religious books.This month, my “actively reading” list is: “iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business” (Jeffrey S…. 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…. 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.

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This is the fourth edition of my “Virtual Coffee Table”, a tradition I began observing in February. Every month I take a shot of the books I am actively reading or have started and finished reading in the last month.

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One of my most often thought about and discussed joys in life is travel. I am blessed with a compatible traveling companion/wife, who shares my enthusiasm and my style of travel.
Above is a map of the world showing where we’ve been so far. There is still so much of the world to visit! […]

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Every month, I talk about my major purchases or losses for the last month.

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According to the Sustainlane 2006 City Rankings, Portland Oregon is the number one best city when ranked by economic and quality-of-life measures.
The study measured the top 50 cities in the country. For reference, other cities I or my wife have lived in are:

#37 Omaha, NE
#10 Minneapolis, MN
#14 Austin, TX
#7 New York City, NY

Technorati Tags: […]

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Last year I wrote extensively about my experiences dealing with debit fraud. Via Monkeyfilter, I just found a great resource with tips and help for other victims.
Phantom Withdrawals is a resource site with the mission statement:
Your bank statement arrives in the post, and you find a thousand pounds missing. Someone has been making ATM […]

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Reading the comments on BlinkSale’s Weblog article on how to set your hourly rate, I found a great resource. It is a Rate Calculator with interactive knobs and sliders. Really quite slick.
For what it’s worth, it says that if my target is $200K, and I want 36 days a year off (vacation, sick […]

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