I was born and raised in Manhattan. As such, I have a built-in situational awareness barometer that helps keep me safe. It’s a sixth sense that city-kids have. We just “know” when things aren’t right. If we listen to our gut, we can stay out of trouble almost 100% of the time. However, I grew up in the 80s, when New York City didn’t have the same “Sex and the City” siren’s call that it has now. In the past ten years, I’ve seen more people come to NYC without a clue in their heads – Doing the most irresponsible stuff known to man (or woman.) Taking the subway home at 2am, drunk off their ass. Pulling out their $600 [...]

Why You’re Always Broke I spent last weekend in Florida, jumping out of airplanes. When I had some downtime (no pun intended,) I was doing some quick homework as to my expenses last year. I came up with ten reasons we waste money, and how to prevent them. A ton of them I’d already been doing, but I thought of a few new ones, as well. Hope they help you, too. Why you’re always broke: 10) You’re broke because you mistakenly believe that coffee served by a person in a green apron tastes better than coffee you make yourself at home. $4 a day, $20 a week, $80 a month, $960 a year on the cup of coffee you get [...]

EDITED TO ADD: Meagan isn’t leaving me, and I’m not looking for someone new. She’s still working for me. She just has less to do, since I’m doing a ton more speaking and consulting all around the world. So she just wants more to do, and has my blessing to look for more to do, while continuing to work for me. And no, I haven’t “kicked her to the curb,” as one friend texted me to ask. For those of my age, you’ll recognize the subject as a play on that random Harrison Ford movie. For those not as old as me… Well, this is a post about Meagan. Meagan Walker, for the few who don’t know, is the reason [...]

I’m sitting on CO/UA 1755 from EWR to PBI this morning, and in the seat next to me is a 25-year old, heading down to Palm Beach for a Jewelry convention. Nice enough kid. We start talking. He mentions that he’s just met someone about eight weeks ago and really likes her. Then he says something that jolts me out of my “casual chat” comfort zone. “You’re married, and obviously older. Can I ask you some advice?” *Blink.* I wanted to say “first piece of advice, you little shit, is to not call out the fact that I’m “obviously” older.” But I let it go. He wanted advice on how to deal with this new girl in his life. It [...]

We’ve got seven days left before 2012. And much like how we do when we have any deadline left to anything, we’ll mostly ignore it until the last possible second. With that, a few ideas on things you can do this week (come on, it’s not like you’re actually that busy this week) that’ll make the next 52 weeks a little easier. Back up, clean out. This week is the perfect chance to upgrade your computer without spending a cent. Back up all your important files to multiple places, then go through your applications one by one: If you don’t remember the last time you used one, trash it. Do the same thing on your iPhone or Droid, and all [...]