Perkins’ Picks

There are many young adults out there that have just graduated and can’t find a job.

Already graduated but lost their job.

Down to the last $200?

Thrasher Funds is aiming to give a voice to this generation and examine how money is affecting our lifestyles, life, and style, and what can be done about it.

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This morning on my way to work I decided that coming off my European tour of Düsseldorf, Köln, Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp, it would be nice to stop and grab a coffee and croissant with my lady on the way to work. In Europe, stopping to do such a thing is not even such a well-developed thought. Nor is it wallet breaking. 1€ for this, 2€ for that. While tasting beers throughout Germany, I don’t think I ever paid over 2€ for a single beer. When was the last time you spent less than $10 for a drink? Back to this morning. Croissant, ka ching, small café latte, ka ching, small cappuccino, ka ching, orange juice, ka ching! A total of 4 items. $13.55. What?!!

At this point I began to think, I should have just stayed at home, made myself an authentic Italian espresso at home with my new Italian espresso machine gifted to me on my trip to Europe, and had a nice relaxing quiet coffee at home, rather than the $13.55 fiasco at your typical New York café, where the coffee is not as good, the atmosphere is full of nervous and anxious New Yorkers, and above all, I am charged extra for this mediocre experience.

Usually, I am asked to hand out financial advice to help people with their finances, but these days I am more inspired by cultural education as a means to help people advance their finances and up the style of their life. Like learning how to make an amazing authentic espresso with the simple and chic Italian stovetop espresso maker that is found in a typical Italian home (below). Just don’t forget the LavAzza espresso coffee. It’s the best, and it’s sexy. Illy is great too.

Save the money, spend the style.

This should come as no surprise considering the incredibly disappointing sales record that most Department Stores had to endure during the last sales quarter, but Department stores such as Barney’s will be stocking less product in what it hopes to lessen the probability of being stuck with too much product and not enough buyers.  This news comes on the heels of Henri Bendel announcing that they will no longer be selling clothing and will delve solely into cosmetics etc.

 Saks CEO, Stephen Sadove tells Bloomberg that “across the board you are going to find less of the sizes, less of the availability in almost all of the categories.”

Many department stores have already cut back on lines that don’t sell well and others like Ann Taylor have stop carrying Plus sized clothing entirely due to low sales numbers.  High-end retailers like Saks and Barney’s have shifted towards carrying more classic and streamlined looks that have more of a guarantee to sale.  Retailers are also now staying away from more ‘artististic’ looks and leaning toward the guaranteed sales.  As Christian Lacroix already knows clothing might be ‘art’ but it may not be necessarily profitable.

Every day this week we will be posting new episodes of ThrasherTV. Below is Episode 6, where JP talks about investing, finance and being educated about your money in relation to his book ‘Making Money Never Goes Out of Style’ coming out this November via Simon & Schuster.  Enjoy.

Picture of me by Brian Bradley

I read an article in New York Magazine by Jennifer Senior about “Recession Culture,” and it made me think that maybe a recession really isn’t the horrible catastrophe that people make it out to be.

“No money changes everything, from murder rates to museum attendance, from career choices to what you eat for dinner, and not all for the worst”

Could your brain on money be like your brain on crack? Yea, probably not. However, psychological experiments have shown that thinking about money makes people less likely to help strangers, handling money makes people less sensitive to physical pain, and staring at a  screen saver of cash makes people more likely to to work alone and less likely to collaborate. So the current lack of money should have the opposite effect. In fact, New York Volunteerism is booming, divinity school enrollment is up, and more people are going to museums. There has been a 20% drop in Manhattan home sales prices, the same drop for rentals, and violent crime has gone down. The city is also full of deals on clothing, furniture, and even upscale restaurants.

“A more affordable city, better attitudes towards work and leisure, finer civic mores- these are the silver linings for culture and New York’s luckier people.”

Now for some negatives- especially for the students. Those who graduate from college during recession make less money than those who do not, and the disparities don’t completely erode over time. Each point on the unemployment rate at the time of graduation correlates to a 6% decrease in starting salary! Another consideration for  graduates is that there are less jobs in finance, insurance, and real-estate (FIRE) and more in the intellectual, cultural, and educational sectors (ICE).

“In 1992, Marc Jacobs produced a legendary grunge collection that reinvigorated the New York fashion world”

Grunge was all about recession ready style, and what Jacobs did was take risks even during a recession. By the way, Marc Jacobs seems to be doing something similar during the current recession with his affordable line Marc by Marc Jacobs (they have $5 canvas totes!). As Jacobs demonstrated, it’s still a good time for entrepreneurs- companies like Dell, Intel, Apple, Wang, and Adobe even started during tough times.

I appreciate the bit of optimism, but I’m not convinced that money is no longer stylish and we’re all going to volunteer and become more religious.  These are just some things you may want to contemplate.  And I’m really hoping the statistic on graduate salaries is not true.

-DB