Last week I wrote that I was going to reveal a big change on this blog.  Here it is.

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I’m a huge fan of quality personal development blogs, and for a long while the only ones I followed intently were Steve Pavlina, Scott Young, and Zen Habits.  Fairly recently, I stumbled upon Illuminated Mind, the work of Jonathon Mead, and I’m thrilled that I did.  For such a young newcomer, he has been immensely successful thus far, and I’m just one of many who have been genuinely impressed with his writing (Leo from Zen Habits apparently was- Jonathon is a regular contributor on his blog).

By means of Illuminated Mind, Jonathon freely challenges social norms in pursuit of no-holds-barred personal growth, and he makes his readers question deeply rooted beliefs that often go unquestioned.  It’s really good stuff, and if you haven’t already, you should definitely check out his site. 

Jonathon recently released his first e-book, ‘Reclaim Your Dreams‘, which makes a bold claim.  In his own words- “In Reclaim Your Dreams you’ll learn how to resurrect your dreams from the grave of practicality and start making them a reality.’ 

I acquired a copy of this e-book, and it surpassed my already elevated expectations.  This is truly a quality piece of work, and without giving away too much, I’d like to provide a strong case for why you should give it a shot.

The book is divided into two large sections.  Part 1 is about removing the obstacles standing between you and your dreams.  We (both personally and society as a whole) have ingrained many needless hurdles in our minds that prevent us from pursuing our biggest dreams.  Jonathon identifies the most common among these, and provides explicit  instructions on how to remove them.  

The first part of the book is similar to de-bugging a piece of software, then reprogramming portions to fit a new purpose.  We are ridding our mind of the irrationalities holding us back, then constructing the foundation from which we can successfully chase our dreams.

 A lot of material out there immediately dives into how we can achieve our goals, but without acknowledging the mental roadblocks, our dreams are far less likely to manifest.  

The rubber meets the road in the latter half of the book; Jonathon explains how to identify what one’s dreams are and how to begin taking the concrete actions to make them a reality. 

I particularly found an enormous amount of value from the first section in part two, where three simple, yet deep, questions are posed:

1.) What are your dreams?

2.) What are your values?

3.) What is your purpose?

The percentage of people who could quickly and easily answer all three of these questions is probably extremely low, which is unfortunate.  A lack of clarity on these issues likely means that we are spinning our wheels, completely unsure of where we’re going.  This thought-provoking section alone is well-worth the price of the book.

I’ll leave my little summary at that, which just barely scratches the surface of what’s included in this e-book’s 85 pages.  As if you can’t tell already, I easily feel that it’s worthy of a small investment.  Unless you are perfectly content with where your life is now, or you’re 100% certain that you’re on the fast track to achieving all you life goals, than this book will provide genuine value.

One week from now, I’m going to reveal a big, big change with regards to the future of this blog.  Stay tuned!

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Just as a farmer can hedge against changing crop prices, you and I can hedge against forces beyond our control; things like gas prices, interest rates, food expenses, and the housing market for instance.  While many people assume such a role by default, we don’t have to be a victim to volatile changes in macroeconomic variables such as these.  Here are a few ways you can effectively shield yourself (and potentially even profit) while everyone else is griping and complaining:

Energy Prices:

Remember how much press skyrocketing energy prices were getting last summer?  It would be pretty naïve to doubt that we could see prices like that again in the near future; just wait until the global economy comes roaring back to life.  That said, there’s absolutely no reason why we should simply wait for it to hit.  In fact, now is the perfect time to set up hedges against this imminent happening. 

We can conserve and cut back to an extent, but we all still feel the effects of rising energy prices on our finances.  The extremely easy, yet effective, way to build a hedge is to invest in energy companies who directly benefit from higher prices.  No time or skill to hand-pick a couple of strong investments?  No biggie- just go with an ETF.  With a single transaction, you get instant diversification among hundreds of energy companies.  My weapon of choice is Vanguard Energy (VDE), although there are plenty of similar funds to choose from.  When oil blows past $100 again, the higher cost of filling up the ride and powering your home will be offset by the gains realized through these energy holdings. 

Food Prices:

Obviously we cannot stop eating, so we’re largely powerless to avoid rising food prices.  However, there are some options here as well.

You could always try your hand in the futures market, but unless you have significant trading experience under your belt, you’ll likely be supplying the big players in the game with their consistent supply of newbie’s capital. 

Just like the energy market, there are funds offering exposure to the agricultural commodities market for even the smallest of investors.  This article lists some of the options.  With a small investment, you can be in a conservative position to profit from rising agricultural prices. 

There are also individual companies who stand to benefit from continued tightening of world food supplies.  The Monsanto’s of the world have plenty of haters, but they are definitely here to stay.  They’ll have a prosperous future as we must continue to feed more and more mouths with a fixed supply of land. 

House Prices:

If you have recently had the opportunity to acquire a home during this incredible buying market (Joe), congrats.  For many of us though, we aren’t currently in a position where we can directly invest in a house for ourselves.  I’m probably 3-5 years away from seriously considering home ownership, and by that time prices will have rebounded sharply and mortgage rates will likely be far higher than they are now.  This doesn’t automatically mean that people like me must miss this once-in-a-lifetime buyer’s market altogether though.

Once again, we can turn to recent financial innovations to obtain exposure to the broad housing market.  Like the energy and food sectors, there are ETFs available that track the real estate market (IYR is one).  As for individual companies, Lowe’s and Home Depot offer some rebound potential that should coincide with that of the housing market.

These ideas are by no means exhaustive; there are a million ways to take action.  The point is that we are not completely at the mercy of what the economy does.  You can either sit around and take whatever is dished up, or be proactive and take the reins.  I’ll choose the latter.

This probably makes for a good time to link to my disclaimer. 

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Early last semester, I outlined an extremely ambitious financial goal for myself.  With just under one year to work with, my goal was to not have to take out a private loan for the 2009-2010 school year.  Nearly 7 months later, I figured I should give an update on how it’s progressing.

I’m managed to make some significant progress over the past half-year, closely following the plan I drew up last September.  My small income while in school hindered me somewhat, but consistently saving seemingly small amounts adds up surprisingly fast.  Pursuing this goal has only reinforced my fanatical obsession with funneling money into highly defined savings accounts on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, barring an unforeseen inheritance of other windfall between now and August, I will need private financing next year.  As of now, I’ve saved about 35% of what I would need to completely forget about private loans.  Given the price-tag of attending private college though, I don’t think that figure is too shabby.

Although I’m not technically going to succeed in achieving my goal, I certainly won’t consider it a failure.  Had I not defined my desire to lessen the burden of college debt next year, I’d simply be waiting for the bill to arrive, complaining about the outrageous cost rather than proactively doing something about it.  Now when my junior year’s tuition is due, it’ll be a huge relief to pay a good deal of it up front rather than financing my education almost entirely with borrowed money.  

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I bought this book several months ago, and after breezing through the first few chapters, I’ve struggled to make the time to read more.  So I figured if I made it the subject of my post, that’d get me in gear.  I’ve since started it over again, this time with a much more focused mind and a highlighter in hand.

It’s impossible to spend much time in the blogosphere and not hear mention of this book.  After seeing it mentioned numerous times by various bloggers, then reading through the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon, I figured it was worth about $8 to invest in a paperback version for myself. 

The story behind the writing of this book is pretty incredible in itself.  After interviewing the billionaire Andrew Carnegie and hearing his firsthand take on the ’secret’ of success, Hill went on to interview hundreds of the most successful people in the world (Edison, Ford, Rockefeller, Schwab, Roosevelt, Wrigley…).  Over 20 years after his first meeting with Carnegie, Hill published Think and Grow Rich in 1937, which is a summation of what he learned from all those incredible people.

“Truly, ‘thoughts are things’, and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material wants.”

That opening line of chapter 1, ‘Thoughts are Things’, is a powerful one and it sets the tone for a quality opening chapter.  I won’t give much away, but it reminds me a great deal of the law of attraction, which basically states that we attract into our lives whatever dominates our minds- whether it’s for better or for worse (hence, why optimism and pessimism are quite often self-fulfilling prophecies).

Of course, thoughts on their own don’t do squat.  The world is full of people who dream big things but fail to accomplish anything worthwhile.  Thoughts, however, are the first step to getting somewhere though- if you don’t consciously think about what you want, chances are you won’t get it.  To get from A to B, you’ve got to constantly immerse your mind with thoughts of B and how you’re going to get there.  Otherwise, you’ll most definitely stay stuck at A. 

I was not disappointed in the slightest by the first chapter.  I can already tell that this book is about far more than money and material success- or at least it can be applied well beyond those subjects.  It should be a great book on achieving success of any kind, and I’m looking forward to continuing further.  I’ll definitely be giving updates in the near future as I get deeper into Hill’s masterpiece.  

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