Here in New York, where real estate values have risen to unprecedented levels, limited equity co-ops created under the Mitchell-Lama program are presented with the choice of either embracing their own dizzying market value by removing the r…
The well-known business guru Peter Drucker once said, "Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions." This is the basic philosophy professional financial planners use in guiding their …
If someone were to tell you that as a New York co-op or condominium owner you may be throwing away up to $1,000 a year on unnecessary taxes, you’d probably be pretty indignant, right? No matter who you are or what you do, a thousand bucks i…
The time has come to ask yourself some tough questions: Do I find myself constantly sneaking my clothing into my partner’s closet? Am I running out of drawer space because my bureau is overflowing with items I can’t fit into my tiny closet?…
On March 22, 2001, after 53 years of accepting New York City’s trash, Staten Island’s Fresh Kills Landfill received its final shipment. Fresh Kills was originally intended to serve as a temporary storage site, but over 400,000 garbage barge…
In the depths of a New York winter, few things are as uncomfortable and uneconomical as drafty, rattling windows. Icy wind howling around your building is one thing–you can always appreciate the austere beauty of the drifting snow from a co…
It’s difficult to imagine life without the appliances and technological perks to which we’ve become accustomed. But the scores of appliances found in a typical home create a huge demand for energy and costs for both the consumer and the env…
Government spending may get a bad rap, but there is one federal program that saved consumers $4 billion last year and benefited the environment as well. It’s called Energy Star, and it’s a voluntary labeling effort that identifies both prod…
Alan Greenspan and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve have received a lot of press coverage recently for their aggressive attempts to revive the economy and ward off a recession. Their unprecedented program of mostly half-poin…
As construction insurance has evolved into a highly specialized and complex field over the past few decades, effective management of risk and insurance is critical when undertaking a construction project. Unfortunately, there is still no si…