Mary Mac’s Tea Room (Restaurant)

From time to time I travel for business and I love to check out great restaurants. I'm currently in Atlanta attending a Neighborworks conference and I have frequented some of my favorite local restuarants including Mary Mac's Tea Room. Mary Mac's is a venerable Atlanta institution. If you want good down home southern style cooking then look no further. The service is impeccable, the dress is very casual but a suit and tie can work as well. They feature all of your Southern favorites like Sweet Tea "the table wine of the South," Pot Licker (if you don't know what this is ask your Grandmother or an older relative), Fish and Chicken, and last but not least Homemade Peach Cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Tonight I had an outstanding Blackened Grouper with Cheese Grits, Fried Okra, and Cole Slaw. Everything was PERFECT! I topped this meal off with a peach cobbler.

If you are ever in Atlanta and you want some authentic southern food check out Mary Mac's Tea Room. The restaurant is located near midtown Atlanta at 224 Ponce de Leon Ave, NE, Atlanta, GA 30308. The phone number is 404-876-1800.

Healthcare for the Self Employed

Last year my wife left her job with our church due to the birth of our son. At the time she had healthcare coverage but once she left the church for full time motherhood we had to figure out another option for healthcare coverage. As an entrepreneur I am always dealing with ways to cut corners and save money but unfortunately you cannot do that with your health. I had to do some research to figure out what our options were. I needed to obtain healthcare coverage for my family and I needed to make sure we were not going to be paying huge premiums or deductibles.

I did the normal "Googaling" around to see what was available and I stumbled on a company that offers a large number of business services to entrepreneurs. Northeast Business Trust acts as a kind of association of small businesses that is able to harness the buying power of these companies to solicit significant savings that are usually only reserved for larger corporations. Northeast Business Trust offers Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Long Term Care Insurance.

You can reach them at http://www.nbtgroup.com/nbtWebApps/default.htm

I dealt with a very helpful agent there, Paul Yoffe, (pyoffe@nbtgroup.com), who was very knowledgable about the options available to my family. We finally ended up with a great program with Neighborhood Health Plan and things have been perfect since. Most importantly, we got to keep our primary care physician.

Check out NBT or drop Paul a line if you are looking for healthcare coverage. Also, I've run across a great prescription card that is absolutely free but can save you up to 75% off the purchase of certain prescription drugs. Visit my site at www.Parableofthetalents.org and click on the links page and look up "Drug Card."

Happy hunting and drop me a line if this information is helpful to you or you've stumbled upon something else that I should share with our audience.

Green Homes (Water)

From time to time I will be providing information with regards to developing a community of Greener Homes. Given that Boston has some of the oldest housing stock in the country we don't have the luxury of building from scratch as much as other parts of the country. A lot of times developers, investors, landlords, and real estate agents have to make recommendations for the retrofit and rehabilitation of our current housing stock to a more efficient product. I will be providing information and links to sites that may be helpful during a rehab project or just figuring out ways to save money.

This is the first of many installments. I learned of a great site that focuses on water efficiency and it outlines the big water wasters in a home, (The toilet is one of the biggest culprits in case you were wondering), as well as offering an online assessment of your current water situation with your personal property, clients property, or investment property.

Check out the site at http://www.h2ouse.org/ . Let me know what you think….

Welcome to Parable Of The Talents

Thank you for visiting the Parable of The Talents Blog. This blog is in conjunction with the Parable of The Talents website (www.Parableofthetalents.org) which focuses on helping you be a better Steward over the things God has blessed you with. There are tons of sites in the web universe that give you information about being a smart consumer we have just taken it to another level by infusing the Word of God into our advice because nothing good ever comes from trying to seperate our relationship with God with our finances etc. There are over 2500 verses in scripture dealing with finances and stewardship. Clearly finances and stewardship are topics that are very important to God. The information that we provide on this blog will come out on a regular basis and it will be a complement to our website. Please feel free to post to this blog with any questions that you may have and we will respond to you in a timely manner.

"If you have not been found faithful with the use of Worldly wealth who will entrust the true riches to you."

Luke 16:11