Category: economy

business, economy

Beginning: Now I Know What Occupy Wall Street Wants and How I Feel About It

Christa Avampato

My friend, Amy, sent me a link to a The 99% Declaration put together by the members of Occupy Wall Street. After reading through it carefully, I understand what they’re looking for as well as their goal. And now I know for certain that I am not a part of their 99%. I’m not a part of the 1% either. I guess I am on my own, which is where I’d prefer to be.

Here is the link to the Declaration if you’d like to read it: https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/. Here are my concerns with it:

1.) I don’t like that they are suggesting that as an individual I would not be able to donate to the candidates’ campaigns whose ideals I support. I think that’s infringing upon my own individual freedoms.

2.) Many people in this country have retirement savings in 401Ks, IRAs, etc. that are made up of mutual funds and stock holdings. To say that I can’t have those savings if I or anyone in my immediate family holds public office is again infringing upon my rights to financially care for my future. Exactly what am I supposed to do with those holdings if I or someone in my immediate family decides to run for office?

3.) I am all for healthcare reform and change but single payer healthcare seems like a very scary thing to propose is such a sweeping gesture. Our healthcare system is quite complex and there are many countries with nationalized healthcare who are unhappy with their system as well. In the end, doctors actually don’t have to take insurance at all and wealthy individuals will just pay out-of-pocket for the best care, likely to the best doctors who would no longer be a part of the healthcare system because they couldn’t afford to practice in a single payer system. We’d run into the similar issue we have with public versus private education.

4.) Why should free market corporations subsidize all student loans? Individuals choose which debts to take on – I certainly did and I am responsible for those choices. There are deferment programs already in place which I have taken advantage of at times when I was not employed so I’m not sure why they think that is not an option.

5.) The recall of military personnel is based upon a great deal of top-secret information that we are not privy to for our own safety. While I do want the troops to come home, I also want to make sure that all of their efforts don’t fall apart and that our national and global security is not further jeopardized in the process.

6.) In general, our economy is moving toward more skills-based roles and away from manufacturing. Tom Friedman wrote an excellent article on this topic today that lays out his opinion on how to transform our economy: Imagined in America.

7.) They are implying the passage of embargoes against certain nations like China who manipulate their currency. This would be disastrous for our country, particularly in this recession. Again, Tom Friedman addressed this idea in his column today.

8.) The bank regulation they are proposing around lending does not allow financial institutions to take risk into account to make good business decisions. In short, if someone has a low credit score then it is tough to justify that banks should give them loans at a very low rate. What if they again cannot repay the debt they take on? Who pays then if banks couldn’t appropriately price for risk in granting the loan? I also think they don’t fully understand how regulated the banking system has become in the last few years since the recession hit full force. Much of that regulation is a very good thing but the side effect has been that it is much harder for those in lower socioeconomic brackets to get any credit.

9.) I absolutely think that they should form their own party and run candidates in elections. YES! Their last point all but says that this is what they intend to do. I think that’s a great idea and I hope they follow through with it. This is the way to have them voice their concerns about the system and become a part of participatory government, as well as to see the complications that are inherent in running an incredibly complex political, economic, and social system.

Get in the game Occupiers and don’t wait until July 2012. Now is the time to make yourselves heard and for others to consider your proposals in the upcoming election season.  

choices, economy, money

Beginning: I’m Not Occupying Wall Street. I’m In It and Trying to Change It.

Christa Avampato

Photo from Occupy Wall Street
“Find a small stream in which your strengths can flow and then see if you can carve it into the Mississippi.” ~ Marcus Buckingham

I am conflicted about Occupy Wall Street. So conflicted, that I have been conflicted about writing anything on the situation other than a tweet here and there. I certainly support everyone’s right to speak their mind and raise their concerns. The frustration that has served as the fuel for the protest is widely understood and shared, by me and nearly everyone else I know. Yesterday someone asked me if I’ve been down to the protest, and when I said no, they were a bit surprised. Given my outspoken and scrappy personality, this movement seems like it would be a natural fit for me.

Here’s the rub: I can’t show up at the protests authentically. I work for a financial services company, I have an MBA, and though I grew up in a family of very few financial means, I pushed myself instead of the government or the economy to get my life on track. I never expected anyone to do anything to get me a job. I always felt fully responsible for my own well-being. The world never owed me anything, and never will, except the opportunity to try. My happiness and success falls squarely on my shoulders, and my shoulders alone.

Entrepreneurs
Steve Jobs and every other entrepreneur out there didn’t expect anyone to create jobs. They actually didn’t want anyone to give them a job. They wanted to build their own careers, their own companies. They wanted to invent the future, theirs and the world’s. Their futures were safer in their own two hands.

Thrifty People
Susan Gregory Thomas is a single mother who takes care of her family’s nutrition and personal needs on about $100 / week thanks to an oversized amount of curiosity, necessity, and a love for simplicity. To do so, she and her family went back to the land, reluctantly, in Brooklyn. She was a freelance writer who lost most of her income in the recession and had to reign in her spending in a serious way. Her story is inspiring and shows just how much we can do when the stakes are high and the options are few. We are far more resourceful and creative than we realize.

The only people I know who really make something extraordinary out of their days are those who roll up their sleeves and build it. I recognize that people feel badly about this economy and about our government. I feel badly, too. My days are not spent doing exactly what I want to do at every single moment. There is this pesky little matter of over-sized student loans that I really want to pay off as quickly as I can. I put myself through school twice, and my education is the very best investment I’ve ever made. And that investment has come at a price tag that I am responsible for paying. To do that, I have to delay my dream of working for myself for a bit.

Of course I’d like the situation to be different, but it’s not. Complaining about it doesn’t do anything except make me feel worse so I don’t complain about it. I made my choices and now I live with their consequences. I got myself a job that pays the bills and I work on my creative projects when I’m done with my bill paying job. It won’t always be this way, though for now this will do just fine. I can make short-term sacrifices for the sake of a long-term dream.

And that may just be the trick. We want short and long-term gain, in every area of our lives. Understood sacrifice is no longer a part of our national fabric. The moment we are made to make any compromises or trade-offs, the moment we are asked to be patient for anything we want, we are furious. I’m not sure how we can sustain this mindset, and there will certainly be pain in putting our economy back together. Lots of it.

It’s this very mindset, not big business, that got us into this mess in the first place. If we hadn’t been so eager to take on more debt than we can afford and if we hadn’t been more-than-willing to buy anything and everything that big business is selling, we may well have avoided this recession, or at least made it less severe. Now we are really in a tough place, and it is very painful to look in the mirror and say, “We are responsible.” That act is ALWAYS painful. Personal responsibility is a tough and often uncomfortable possession. We are looking for someone to blame, someone whom we can hold accountable for our unhappiness and our collective mistakes. And we are looking for someone to save us. The person we are waiting for is us; we must be our own saviors,

Banks, big business, and millionaires (even self-made ones) are easy, accessible targets. I’m not in agreement with the Tea Party or the GOP – I don’t think there is anything Un-American about Occupy Wall Street. I certainly think that big business prayed on our weaknesses and made their cheap, poorly made goods and services attractive in deceptive ways. But they didn’t force us to do anything. We chose where to spend our money and how much of it.

We are free thinkers and we make choices every moment of every day. Those collective small choices brought us to where we are today. And the choices we make going forward will determine how this whole thing shakes out. In no way do I mean to discourage people from joining Occupy Wall Street. Maybe their voices will raise a new and badly needed source of consciousness in government, in business, and in the minds of individuals.

But you won’t see me Occupying Wall Street. I’m inside the belly of the beast trying to make it more compassionate and raise its awareness from the inside out. There are a lot of people like me in financial services and big business trying to do the same. If we really want to change the financial system, we first need to understand how it operates. I’ve found the best way to do that is get in there, grab a front row seat, and then work like hell to make it a better place.

economy, politics, Steve Jobs, success, Thomas Friedman

Beginning: The Secret to Everyone’s Success, a la Thomas Friedman and Steve Jobs

Christa Avampato

“The melancholy over Steve Jobs’s passing is about the loss of someone who personified so many of the leadership traits we know are missing from our national politics…He did not read the polls but changed the polls by giving people what he was certain they wanted and needed before they knew it; he was someone who was ready to pursue his vision in the face of long odds over multiple years; and, most of all, he was someone who earned the respect of his colleagues, not by going easy on them but by constantly pushing them out of their comfort zones and, in the process, inspiring ordinary people to do extraordinary things…There isn’t a single national politician today whom you would describe by those attributes.” ~ Thomas L. Friedman

This quote is excerpted from Tom Friedman’s immaculate weekly column in The New York Times. He has been perhaps the lone voice in our current policy debate who has been able not only to articulate our problems with laser beam accuracy, but to also formulate a plan of how to dig ourselves out. Friedman has been highly critical of both sides of the aisle – he’s not running for office, he’s not trying to make friends, and he’s not trying to support anyone’s agenda. He’s on our side – the side of people who are willing to buckle down and turn our economy around through our own volition. He’s giving a savvy and brutally honest voice to our concerns and worries, and also giving us a ray of hope that there actually is a way for ordinary folks to put our nation back on track toward a future that’s better than our present.

In the article he goes on to say that while it’s very easy to get caught up in what is being said – by Occupy Wall Street, politicians, and armchair pundits, “sometimes the news is also in the silence. “ What does that silence mean for us and for our communities, and for the many people who will come along after us? We need to put our own egos aside and consider what we’re leaving for them. My experience has been that the more frustrated people are, the more they shut down. Frustration leads too often to a feeling of power lost, and once someone feels completely depleted of power they have two choices: crawl into a corner or lash out.

Though I strongly disagree with the methods of Occupy Wall Street, I do understand their underlying emotional motivation. They are frustrated and feel like there isn’t anyone in policy listening to those concerns. Rather than slink off, they found others who have many of the same feelings. They have banded together in the hopes that their combined voices will be loud enough to stir change.

What they need to do now, what we all need to do, is what Jobs did so well – he didn’t like the future as it was so he invented his own and won people over to his way of seeing. As The Onion’s obituary of Steve Jobs so eloquently, if painfully, stated, “he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas.” That was his secret and his legacy. It’s a blueprint we can all follow.

choices, economy, government, politics, President

Beginning: Our Role in the Economic Recovery

Christa Avampato

In DC, I was struck by how much wider the street blocks are in comparison to NYC. In New York, we always feel like we’re moving quickly because it’s easy to see progress in our movements. DC has more space and so it feels like a slow march to our destination.

As we have watched the antics play out in Washington in the past month, I couldn’t help but link the seemingly too slow progress on the Hill to the too slow progress I felt as I traversed the city on foot. I pride myself on having a quick New Yorker step. In DC, my progress was slow and steady no matter how quickly I put one foot in front of the other. It felt like I covered so much more ground with so much more effort in DC than I ever do in New York.

And maybe that’s the trick. I know you’re frustrated by Washington politics. I am, too, and I really do believe that the majority of politicians on both sides of the aisle are also frustrated. As I stood in front of that great Capitol Dome, I couldn’t help but feel a very strong sense of responsibility. The awesomeness of its size and detail is overwhelming, but small in comparison to the decisions that are being made inside.

Our government housed in that Dome is an enormous, gangly beast. To tame and then reform it is quite possibly the most complicated task in the world. It takes time, patience, and commitment. There is no slam dunk answer to any problem facing government today. There is no silver bullet despite the clever sound bites being thrown around by those jockeying for a more powerful position. It is a long, multi-term slog. We will take steps forward and back in an unpredictable dance because we are so intricately intertwined with our global neighbors. The butterfly effect is more potent than ever, and it is inescapable.

It would be easy to throw our hands up and buy into the propaganda being highlighted in every major and minor media outlet. It would be so (temporarily) comforting to pin all our hopes on a political messiah who claims he or she can wave some magic Washington wand and sprinkle the glitter of prosperity across our stubbornly depressed economy. That is the stuff of fairy tales.

Recovery will take many small and courageous acts by ordinary folks like you and me. We vote every day with our purchases, large and small, as much as we do at our polling stations on election day. We decide to go to work or look for a new job. We show up and do our best, or we don’t. We decide to work hard or slack off. We decide to innovate or phone it in, on every level of our lives. We decide to be numb or be present. We are teaching everyone around us in every moment through our words and actions. Those are the choices that will create lasting and fruitful change or continue to send us down in a potentially fatal spiral. These small opportunities for choice are so embedded into the fabric of our lives that we sometimes don’t even realize we’re making them. We forget how much impact and power we really have.

I turned these thoughts over and over in my mind as I made my way up to meet friends in Northwest DC for dinner and drinks. Visiting our nation’s capitol, my former home and maybe one day home again, reminded me of the incredible responsibility that rests with all of us. If we are going to truly reap the benefits of a free nation and free markets, then we cannot turn our backs in frustration when it so desperately needs our attention. Keep tuning in. Keep asking questions, searching for solutions, and raising possibilities. It’s a big ship, and we will all need to work together to turn it around.

economy, school, wellness

Beginning: My Favorite Economic Principle

Christa Avampato
From Dr. Marc Dussault

“We are spurred by our personal goals tempered by reality.” ~ Bill Flax

You might be surprised to learn that my primary major in college was economics. I bounced around from the School of Engineering to several life science majors to international relations and then ended up loving economics. 7 years after undergard, I went to business school and econ was one of my favorite classes while many of my other classmates groaned at the thought of it.

The economy is the world’s largest machine, dynamic and always being tinkered with. It is the manifestation of our collective consciousness, our hopes and fears, our expectations, disappointments, and triumphs. It is our living, breathing history.

Bil Flax’s article in Forbes Magazine this month reminded me of how much we have to learn from watching the economy. He clearly and succinctly lays out its main tenants in a single page. He untangles some of the mystery and takes out the trepidation felt by those just beginning to study the economy. He brings it to a human level. He reminded me of why I majored in econ and the principle that driven my entire career – leverage.

In recent months leverage has gotten a bad wrap. It’s connotation denotes reckless spending and irresponsibility. The kind of leverage I’m talking about is the opportunity to make a difference. Think about what you’re doing every day. How many people is it helping? And in helping those people, are they enabled to then help others, and so on down the line. I’m in the process of making my next career move and this definition of leverage has been on my mind a lot lately. My greatest wish is to be useful, to look back from the other side of this life and say, “What I did with my days made an enormous difference in the lives of others. I helped as many people as I possibly could.”

So how am I going to get there? I’m going to lever up. I’m going to inspire, encourage, and provide wellness in all its forms to people who want to help others be well. This is economics at work.

career, economy, innovation

Step 154: Getting Serious About Innovating Your Career

Christa Avampato

“If you’re serious about innovation, you have to get serious … and systematic … about forgetting. PERIOD.”
~ Tom Peters

Tom Peters projects the exact message I need to hear, exactly when I need to hear it. I subscribe to his daily emails and each one gives me a little jolt. Sometimes he times them particularly well, allowing me to share his wisdom with another soul in need of a good talking to.

Today a friend of mine called me to talk about her job. Bright, enthusiastic, and innovative, she toils away on stop-start projects in a very gray cubicle. Today, her CEO gave a rousing speech about innovation and the forward path of the company. “He just gave the speech to the wrong company,” she said to me. “We cut innovative, game-changing projects right and left here, and then complain about being beat out by our competition. I felt like I was living the book The Emperor’s New Clothes. I think he was trying to convince himself of his plan more than he was trying to convince us.”

Despite a very tough economy, she started looking for a new job today. For a few minutes after the CEO’s speech, she said she felt disappointed, let down. Just a few months ago, she felt so excited and inspired by her company. Last week, collective fear about innovation set in around the office, some champions of innovation were let go, the remaining leadership pulled funding for new product development, and she found herself twiddling her thumbs.

I know senior leaders at companies have a lot of pressure on them to produce bottom-line results. In their angst some forget that when they pull the plug on innovation, their most innovative team members, the ones they really need in this tough economy, don’t stick around for things to improve. They look for other opportunities, find them, and take off. Like it or not, CEOs, you can’t keep innovative people down for long. They need appreciation for their efforts, and if you show your appreciation by cutting funding for innovation, you lose their loyalty.

As my friend told me about her story, I listened patiently, and then read this Tom Peters quote to her. She worked hard in her role at this company, and they didn’t recognize the value of her contributions. Now she needs to forget them and start looking for greener pastures. If I put on my yogi hat, I remember that this latest turn of events must mean another place needs her right now. So, she’s setting off on the road toward greener pastures.

books, economy, education, yoga

Step 6: The Roots of Ideas

Christa Avampato

I double majored in Economics and American History and got a minor in Psychology at Penn because I was interested in the energy of money, its influence on major world events, and its effect on the human psyche. Through the lens of History and Psychology, I found that Economics was much more a moral discipline than a disinterested field. Early on, we learned the name John Maynard Keynes and the underlying theories of Keynesian economics: a system of checks and balances, a fervent acceptance of the role of uncertainty, and a logical, predictable linking of specific actions to specific consequences. Because of my interest in the human impact of money, I was made to be his student.

He was an economist who loathed an over-reliance on data. Data can say anything we want it to say; it can be twisted and turned and reinterpreted to suit any hypothesis. To really understand a situation, we’ve got to pick our heads up, knowledgeable of the current data, though able to correlate it to easily expressed principles and moral values.

This morning I started reading Keynes: The Return of the Master by Robert Skidelsky. From the very first words, I re-discovered how important it is to read original theories and primary source material, not just interpretation of that material. As I got out of the subway, I thought about the other books I’m currently reading. I’ve started to gravitate toward these primary sources: books of Yogic scripture to prepare for my yoga teacher training class, works by John Dewey to understand the underpinning of our education system, autobiographical accounts of world events, and original documentation that established our government.

While it’s one thing to observe, practice, and read the works of experts and influencers, it’s only in reading the original grounding work of a philosophy, of a movement, that we can develop our own views and deep observations. If all we do is interpret and translate someone else’s interpretations of primary material, eventually we enter into a game of telephone, and the original beliefs are likely distorted beyond recognition.

To truly understand an idea, we have to go to the source, to the seed that gave that idea to the word. As Keynes so brilliantly stated and Skidelsky rightly echos, “ideas matter profoundly…indeed the world is ruled by little else.” The roots of those ideas matter profoundly, too. Get to the root.
business, charity, economy, education, Junior Achievement, philanthropy

My Year of Hopefulness – M.S. 223 One Year Later

Christa Avampato

“A writer – someone who is enormously taken by things anyone else would walk by.” ~ a quote found in the hallways on M.S. 223

Today I went to M.S. 223 in the South Bronx with Junior Achievement. It has been a year almost to the day that I first visited that school. One year later, I still felt excited and nervous, prepared and completely unprepared. My work with the organization, and others like it, make me feel more useful and alive than I feel anywhere else. Teaching is hard work – perhaps the hardest work I’ve ever done because it requires me to draw on every skill I have and then some. Every time I stand in front of a class, I learn something new about myself and about the world.

We spent the morning talking about international trade – how it works and its impact on our everyday lives. In one topic, we covered math, politics, economics, diplomacy, contract negotiations, sociology, and psychology. We didn’t even get to the prescribed activities because the students had so many questions, insights, and concerns. As usual, I had to summon my improvisation skills early and often.
When we talked about product imports and legal stipulations that often impact those imports, some students brought up a topic I was not at all expecting: guns. They knew about licensing, having a warrant to search a house, the relationships between the police and people in a community, and the damage that guns cause. They asked me about laws governing guns, in the U.S. and abroad, their sale, purchase, and sadly, their use in neighborhoods in New York City. It was a tough conversation – this is the reality of an inner-city middle school student.
After lunch, they were wound up. We reviewed the activities in their workbooks. Some were engaged, and some were not. Most couldn’t seem to sit still or focus or listen to one another. For the first time in a classroom I began to see the split between students who really embraced learning and those who did not, and I got very worried. I couldn’t leave some behind and feel good about the day. I had to find a way to bring them all with me. What I was doing wasn’t working and so for the last activity, we turned to the tool I love best – a blank sheet of paper.
On the back of their workbooks, I had them design and describe a product they would like to make and sell.
“How much money do we have?” they asked.
“Unlimited,” I responded.
“How do I make something?” they asked.
“Think of something in your life that you want to fix and develop a product or service that fixes it,” I said.
“Anything?” they asked.
“Yes, anything you want,” I replied.
The floodgates were open. Even the most disruptive students had a rush of ideas: a global communication device that translates your voice to another language so communication with others is easier across the globe; a machine that cures every disease known to man; a pocket-sized screen connected to a home security camera. There was no shortage of creativity in that room and I was able to relate what I do every day at work to what these students were doing in this exercise.
“You get paid to make things?” one student asked.
“I do,” I replied.
“Wow, you’re lucky,” another one said.
“It’s not about luck,” I said. “It’s about deciding to get a certain skill set and then working hard. You could do it, too.”
They raised their eyebrows as if to say, “Really?”
Our class ended in a rush and before I knew it, silence filled the classroom. Off they went out into the world, to circumstances that are more difficult than most people can ever imagine. I worry about them all the time. I’d like to think that years from now, one of them will create a product or service because of our 45 minute lesson on product development. Maybe it inspired a small dream that someday becomes a reality for one of them.
This is the most curious thing about teaching: you plant seeds with nothing but love and faith, hoping that somewhere down the line something you said resonates with someone, inspires them, encourages them, gives them a reason to believe.
economy, money, opportunity, The Journal of Cultural Conversation

The Journal of Cultural Conversation – Keep It Positive

Christa Avampato

Latest post on The Journal of Cultural Conversation: Keeping it Positive and what I do to maintain optimism in the current economy. It’s a bit more business-y than our signature cultural posts. One of my economics professors at Darden always opened his classes by saying economics is the most relevant of all subjects to study because it underpins everything we do in the world. He’s a bit biased of course being an economist, though I completely agree. Money talks and (fill in the blank) walks.

Take a peek at the article, let us know what you think, and give us any feedback on our new site design, too. Click here for the article.

economy, finance, home, housing, New York City, real estate

My Year of Hopefulness – A Room (or Two) of My Own, Eventually

Christa Avampato

Tonight I went to a session offered by Mindy Diane Feldman, a Penn alum and SVP at Halstead Realty, on the ins and outs of buying an apartment in Manhattan. It is a complicated, cumbersome process and the current economic downtown has heightened the complexity considerably. The session lasted almost 3 hours and we just barely scratched the surface. It is not an undertaking for the faint of heart! While many of the other alums left feeling a little dejected and depressed how complicated the process is, I felt lifted up. I felt like I was armed with a little information that would help me to move in the right direction of finding a room (or two, or three) of my own on this tiny little island that I love so much.

Some of my friends are surprised by my desire to stay in New York after this September. I can understand the confusion. I had the opportunity to just pick up and go somewhere new after losing my last apartment and most of my belongings. Realizing how much I don’t need in the way of material belongings, why would I ever want to be tied down and own my own tiny place?

I don’t have a clean answer. All I can say is that the thought of leaving New York never crossed my mind. In fact, I feel it’s even more important now for me to know my neighbors and my building and my neighborhood by owning an apartment. I am so tired of starting over. I’ve done it every year since I was 18 years old. I’ve had enough moving and transience in my life. A temporary dwelling is no longer appealing to me. And while I’d love to work abroad on an assignment and travel extensively, I finally found the city where I feel most at home. After so much looking and so much loss, the comfort of calling someplace a real home brings me a tremendous sense of peace.

I won’t even attempt to cover the 3 hour session in this blog post. I can’t even list all of the highlights in a reasonable amount of space. Here are the top 5 pieces I found most useful in my decision to begin working toward buying my own place:

1.) There are huge differences between co-ops, condos, and “condops”. Each has its positives and negatives and determining which one is the right one for us takes extensive research and soul-searching.

2.) Unlike with rentals where I find most brokers to be a little tough to handle, when we buy a place, particularly in New York City, our real estate broker is our very best ally, resource, and champion. Interview them. Ask A LOT of questions, and go exclusively with 1 broker (and tell them that you’re doing so.) If they know that you’ve committed to them, they will be committed to you. They are the lynch pin to helping you go from being a renter to an owner.

3.) There is actually a triumvirate of allies that are critical to buying an apartment in Manhattan: the real estate broker, an established, private residence real estate attorney, and a financial broker. The real estate broker is the pilot of the entire transaction and the other two are the co-pilots.

4.) The savings process and the purchase process are long affairs. Mindy opened the session by asking who was interested in buying an apartment in the next 3 years. That was the shortest time horizon she asked about. With today’s climate and for the foreseeable future it takes much more money than it ever has before to buy an apartment. It is a serious investment of time and money. At first I thought it was foolish for me to go to this session because I am several years away from being able to purchase an apartment. Mindy helped me realize that planning now, years out, is the best thing I could possibly do!

5.) I’m one of those people who is always out in the world looking for opportunity. With the economic downturn and the real estate crash, I’ve been wondering if I should buy now, even if I’m not really ready. Deals abound so shouldn’t I take advantage of them? Mindy’s answer was an emphatic “no”. A home is not our retirement or our 401K. It is an investment on a very different level. There is a psychological, emotional, and financial investment wrapped up in one and it needs to be treated with greater care than any other investment we make. To buy when we aren’t ready, financially or emotionally, is a huge mistake. Gaming the economic situation is not a good idea. Buy when you’re personally ready.

Given the value of this session, I highly recommend getting in touch with Mindy should you be interested in learning about the apartment buying process in Manhattan and determining if it’s the right thing for you. She can be reached at 212.317.7887 or mfeldman@halstead.com.