If you’re looking to purchase real estate in Manhattanor in some other area of New York, then you can check out Prudential Douglas Elliman. Whenever I start looking for homes in a new area it can be difficult to find a website that’s easy to use where you can search through all the listings. At this site you can easily search for homes that fit your specific criteria and in your target neighborhoods. It’s simple to navigate and you can then easily get in touch with a professional to help you once you’ve found what you’re looking for. So check them out if you’re looking for any real estate in the New York area.

I ran across an article from Fortune about the 25 Most Desirable MBA Employers, and since I’m going back to to school this fall to get my MBA, I naturally had some sort of interest in it. If you’d like to know where I’m going to school and why, you can check out this article.

Even though in the long term I’d like to start and run my own company, I thought I’d at least browse through this list of possible employers for MBA graduates to see what is out there. Not surprisingly, Google tops the list with it’s long list of perks such as onsite laundry and tuition reimbursement. I’ve also heard that you get free lunches as well with them.

There are also a variety of investment banks and consulting firms on the list, but I’m not all that interested in them since I don’t really have the desire to put in 70 hour weeks all the time. A few of the other companies topping the list are Apple, Walt Disney, Nike, Coca-Cola, and BMW. And I’ll be honest, I think I would really enjoy working for someone like BMW, at least for a little while.

It’s interesting to see a list of the many different companies that MBA grads would like to work, but mostly what I got out of the article was a realization of the many different opportunities that are available. There are many different industries and types of companies all operating in various business environments. I’ll have to eventually pick just one, but I haven’t narrowed down exactly what I’d like to eventually do just yet.

Businessuites is an interesting company that provides office suites that can be leased for really any length of time. They provide fully furnished offices as well as optional administrative services and it’s on a pay per use basis. You can lease Dallas Office Space as well as other locations in Texas, Nevada, Maryland and Virginia. So, depending on your business needs as a private professional or any other type of business professional you can use their executive suites to accommodate them.

I thought I’d throw out a reminder that all Entertainment Books are still only $9.99!

I’ve already ordered one as a gift for someone and am going to order another one for myself. A couple friends of mine have also ordered them, and I had the chance to take a look through the one for my area. There are a lot of great discounts and coupons in there, most of them 50% off or buy one get one free offers. It’ll definitely pay for itself after just using one or two coupons. Take a look at their website linked above and you can even browse the offers online before you buy it.

I also had seen a commercial for Sonic Drive-In where they were advertising their regular shakes for just 99 cents. We stopped by the other night and both got chocolate shakes which were actually pretty decently sized for a promotional offer. So with just some spare change we had, it was something fun to get that hardly cost anything at all. So they’re something else that I would recommend as we head on into summer.

I ran across a short article on CNN Money entitled, Buffett Sees U.S. in Recession, and when the Oracle of Omaha speaks, people tend to listen. Now, whether or not the country is actually in a recession as it’s technically defined still remains to be seen, but here’s what Buffett had to say:

“I believe that we are already in a recession. Perhaps not in the sense as defined by economists. … But people are already feeling the effects of a recession.”

It’s an interesting take on the subject of recession, and one that’s definitely more practical. I mean, aren’t the effects on people’s behaviour more important than whether we’ve actually had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth? If people are feeling pinched and are afraid of inflation and other financial worries, what does it really matter if we technically are or aren’t in a recession?

I must say though that it depends on one’s individual situation whether they feel this way or not. I personally don’t feel the pressure of a recession even amidst rising gas prices and such. We have a certain buffer built into our “budget” (if you can call it that) so the current conditions aren’t having all that horrible of an effect on our situation. Others will see things differently though.

Regardless of your personal situation though, it’s safe to say that things are definitely changing. The lifestyle of the past couple of years probably won’t be the same going forward. The days of easy credit and the “we can pay for it later” attitude are going to have to change if they haven’t already. It’s not something that we can’t deal with, but change happens and we’ll have to adapt. For those who are unwilling to adapt and make changes, it’ll probably be tough, but if you’re willing to find and learn a new way to play the game in the changing financial landscape, you should manage to do just fine.

So, I’ve now been tagged by Gen X Finance for a Six Word Memoir meme. I figured I’d participate and be a good sport, but I will say that it’s tough to try think of the most important thing or things in your life and put it into six words. So, I’m not even going to try to distill my best words of wisdom down to six words, or even try to capture the central theme of this blog in six words (if it were that simple, I wouldn’t need to keep writing everyday). So instead I’ll just give a six word thought that I believe is important among other things. And here it is:

Living is Giving, Giving is Living.

That seems pretty redundant, and it may be, but I think it’s important both ways. Whether it’s giving of your financial means, your knowledge and experience, your time, or anything else, giving to and helping others is really what makes life worth it. More important than anything we can accumulate are the people in our lives and the relationships we build with them. And there’s no better way to feel alive than by giving of whatever you have.

So there you have it. Six words (really only three) that are important to me. I believe I’m supposed to tag others with this meme, but I don’t usually do that, so if you feel so inclined to post your own six word memoir, consider yourself so tagged…

With it being Memorial Day weekend, many people (albeit fewer than usual) are traveling to visit family and friends since they have an extra day off on Monday. Still for many others it’s just a typical weekend. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, hopefully you’ll take at least a moment to think about the reason for Memorial Day. We can get caught up in a lot of things such as barbecues, movies, and traveling that we don’t even remember why we have the day off or celebrate it at all.

We’re not going anywhere this weekend. We decided to just stay put and get some things done around the house. We’ll probably attend a barbecue/picnic on Monday with our church which should be fun, but other than that, nothing extravagant. So, have a great time this weekend.