A couple of old favorites dish up bargains—and memories on the side.
By Nancy Mandell, guest blogger
If you want the early bird special, maybe you should move to Florida! But if you don’t mind eating on the early side of a beautiful summer evening, there’s no shame in searching out a pre-theater, pre-fixe dinner—even if you don’t have tickets to a show. Read More…
By Nancy Mandell, guest blogger
With Mothers’ Day just passed and Fathers’ Day on the horizon, it’s time for the readers among us to prepare for the inevitable. Under the wrapping paper and ribbons may lurk an electronic reading device—the new special occasion gift-of-choice from (self-supporting) kids to book-loving parents.
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By Nancy Mandell
Whether you’re drawn to the scent of sausages sizzling on street corners—or repelled by it—the facts are undeniable: Street Fair season has arrived.
By Qi Lu, Ph.D, Senior Portfolio Strategist
The free fall stopped in the second quarter of 2009 and economic recovery is well under way; yesterday the International Monetary Fund lifted its forecast of global economic growth to 4.2%. Although the National Bureau of Economic Research still believes it is premature to declare an official end to the recession, the view of strong economic recovery is gaining popularity and has certainly taken hold in the equity market. Investors are torn, however, between whether or not this recovery will be similar to past ones. Read More…
By Nancy Mandell, guest blogger
Last week, I had the good fortune to meet 25 of New York City’s finest—finest women, that is. Almost all of them were personal clients of Karen Altfest. Karen had invited them to lunch at the Cornell Club in midtown, asking me to lead a discussion focused on my blog about the inexpensive pleasures of retiring in the city—exceptional ways to enjoy the benefits of New York that enrich our lives without depleting our bank accounts. Read More…
…Enjoy the Eternal City, but don’t expect your senior discount!
By Nancy Mandell, guest blogger
Having just returned from a week in Rome, let me say that it is a great city to visit, but you might think twice before moving there to live!
First of all, there don’t appear to be any senior discounts! Museums reduce entry fees for children and students—but not for senior citizens! At the movie theatre where we saw Sherlock Holmes in English on New Year’s Day, the policy was discounted tickets for children, students and the military!
Furthermore, while the rigid dining hours I found on previous trips now seem relegated only to the most formal of ristorantes I don’t think there is anything like an early-bird special! And at $1.43 to the euro, even the prix fixe menus carried sticker shock. But at least you can sit down for a snack—anything from pizza to panini—at virtually any hour of the day. If you want just a slice, however, you’ll probably have to take it to go. By the way, it’s important never to forget that a cappuccino from the same machine at the same coffee bar may cost you as much as double if you take it sitting at a table rather than standing at the counter. They’re shorter—and to my taste, better—than the US version, anyway, and usually never too hot to handle.
By Nancy Mandell, guest blogger
Are you suffering from “frugal fatigue?”
If so, you’re among the many holiday shoppers—more than two-thirds of them women, by the way—who are believed to be succumbing to a malady as unique to the past year as the H1N1 virus. The cause of frugal fatigue is less mysterious than the origin of swine flu, however: It’s the economy, stupid! And as memories of the early pall cast by a lackluster Black Friday and Cyber Monday fade, retailers are seeing evidence that a good many shoppers have decided they’re “fed up and not going to take it anymore!”.
In the recession, women not only had to change their (shopping) habits—often putting their own needs at bay—but also to make more concessions than their male counterparts, explains Marshall Cohen, chief retail industry analyst for the NPD Group and author of Buy Me! How to Get Customers to Choose Your Products and Ignore the Rest, to be published next month. In fact, Cohen dates the start of the recession to the point where sales of women’s apparel began declining at a greater rate than men’s, all the way back to January 2007 “when we began to see the women’s market underperforming the men’s.”