Nothing like some hand-picked links to enjoy on your flight over to the Financial Blogger Conference! I’ve already read the FinCon12 magazine from cover to cover, so if you’re nerdy like me, here are a few good reads until we all meet up in Denver:

Does Money Make You Mean? -New York Magazine

On the Global Black Market – Great article that DQYDJ referred to me

The Geography of Poverty – The Economist

My Book Recommendation of the Week: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. I just finished it. It examines the history of Mormonism written by the guy who wrote Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, in which the author climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest on an expedition which left 8 others dead and several stranded during a rogue storm. So I think I recommend any Krakauer book for a worthwhile non-fiction read. But especially Under the Banner of Heaven because Joseph Smith is certainly a historical figure worth getting to know.

From the Blogosphere:

Four years of blogging for eemusings. Her writing is top notch. Click on every link like I did.

You Can Never Talk Too Much by Dog Ate My Wallet. Thank you Erin for always writing inspiring and honest stuff. Just the reminder I needed.

L Bee and the Money Tree wrote Fashion Bloggers Piss Me Off. Me too, L Bee, with their silky harem pants and perfectly backlit photographs, me too.

The whole Blogging Tips series at Modest Money. I could probably be making more money if I implemented his advice faster.

Changes in how hedge funds can advertise at Money Mamba. Can’t wait till this guy is running a hedge fund!

Somewhere along the way, So Over Debt became So Over This. How to Stop Procrastinating was helpful, and I’ve also started excessively scheduling my time to get shit done. I once heard the Olsen twins say their time is scheduled down to 15 minute increments up to three months in advance. It sounds crazy but it’s how they handle running several successful and fast-moving companies.

Are your financial prejudices fair? by Daily Money Shot was another on-it post from Jana.

The Free Financial Advisor enlightened me with Getting Out of Debt Isn’t a Goal. Dang it, what am I gonna write about now?! Just kidding, it’s still step 1 for me. But the goals are much bigger than just paying off debt. I was also included in the latest Blog Post of the Week, and mark my words, someday I will get TOP BILLING in this series.

National TV. That’s where you’ll end up if you blog as entertainingly and consistently as Punch Debt in the Face. Go Ninjas!

It was a battle of the cities (Seattle v. Portland) at Frugal Portland. I’ve been meaning to do a few of these, so I really enjoyed this post. Geography is one of my favorite discussions, ever.

Budget & the Beach has been changing her perspective. This is the fundamental stuff, and I love when people realize their own potential. My dad and I had an interesting discussion where he was saying we are never in control because our brain, our genetics are in control. I think that gives up SO MUCH personal responsibility and the power that self-education and self-direction can have. I could easily blame my debt on my upbringing and social values. But I think that’s bullshit. I am 100% capable of getting out of debt just as I am capable of staying in debt and living almost the same life (with just a little more unease). But we can change our perspective to feel less helpless in a lot of matters, if not all of them.

I’ve been watching Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff build their dream home. Their self-employment has made it harder to find a good mortgage (even though by all means they are stacked, yo!) but Crystal has been putting that into perspective too with their Backup Option.

DQYDJ & Sons (just had a ring to it) revisited the Employment-Population ratio. Always a metric that I like to look at and think about what the other 41% are doing…and whether I should be doing said thing with them :).

 Accountability Partners

At this point I feel like we know each other Tony. But we also know you’re totally hooking up with Dreya.

One of my entrepreneurial friends turned down dinner with me because she was meeting with her accountability partner. “What’s that? I want one!” I whined. And it’s a pretty basic idea: keep one another on track. So I’ve got one for my second attempt at P90X: Cassie from Tales from the Trenches. I love her writing and we seem to be like-minded on a lot of things. So it’s just a nice extra push to keep going. How do we do it, you ask? Through the voodoo magic of shared Google documents.

See You Suckas at FinCon12

Well shoot, I guess we’re doing this thing. I’ve got the business cards. I’ve got my agenda. I’ve got ideas on who I most want to meet and am excited to run into whoever else. I want to get motivated to blog more regularly, attract more readers, provide relevant advice that’s not over my own head and maybe make some money in the process. Can’t wait to meet all of you!