Weekend reading: Your New Year future self, plus a look back

Before I started focusing all the time I spent faffing on the Internet into one blog, I posted a lot on various money forums.

One phrase I used a fair bit was ‘your future self’. To be honest, I think I assumed I’d invented it.

Not in a self-aggrandising way, you understand. More like you presumably know what you had for breakfast.

However, it’s become clear in recent years that either:

A) I’m overdue a Noble prize in economics for coining the concept of ‘the future self’, which has gone on to be used everywhere

Or,

B) The term ‘future self’ was in action well before I pinched it.

I’m an autodidact dilettante when it comes to economics (and pretentious vocabulary) so perhaps you know full well that the concept of the future self was coined by, say, Carl Jung in the 1930s, when he was too lazy to diet, and wanted a conceptual get-out clause. (Or perhaps he was just looking forward to spanking Keira Knightley).

Whatever my accidental hubris, a reader kindly thought of me – perhaps remembering my post on borrowing from your future self – when he saw this TED lecture by Daniel Goldstein on the battle between your present and future self:

Goldstein’s insights seem appropriate as we make our New Year’s resolutions.

On a related note, my future self will be in a ski resort for the New Year when you read this. I’ll (that is, he’ll) therefore be unable to provide you with your usual Weekend Reading fare.

Instead, let’s end 2011 by looking back to some posts written by previous incarnations of my co-blogger, our guest authors, and me during the past 12 months.

If your former self missed them, now is your chance to put that right. 🙂

17 Monevator highlights from 2011

• Our new passive investing HQ
• How did Warren Buffett get rich?
• Should you rent or buy your home?
• How to live off investment income
• Never say never again: investments run in cycles
• Become your money hero
• How to lifestyle Vanguard’s LifeStrategy funds
• 10 lessons learned from accidentally starting a business
• The risks of synthetic ETFs
• Pros and cons of a plunge protection fund
• Five things to remember after the market falls
• Should you pay off the mortgage or invest?
• Conjure big savings without sacrificing your quality of life
• How much should we fear inflation?
• Online financial advice in the future
• Introducing the Slow & Steady passive portfolio
• The Investor’s 2020 vision

We hope you enjoyed reading Monevator in 2011 as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Which to be honest was sometimes more than other times. I admit on occasion I’d rather have been tucked up in bed with a good book and a hot chocolate, or out on the town with neither. But I always believed that keeping up with this blog would be worth it in the long run.

I hope that you (mainly) feel the same – about Monevator, and more importantly about your investing.

Here’s to a prosperous 2012!

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