Here are the top 5 personal finance articles from the past week, as selected by me.
Is there an article you liked this week that didn’t make the list? Add your favorite below.
Have a great weekend!
School is out, the weather is warming up, and the summer vacation season is in full swing! Everyone is talking about their vacation plans and sharing their excitement with friends and family.
But for those who are trying to decrease debt – or stay out of it altogether – all of this talk of summer vacations can be bittersweet. Is it really possible to have a relaxing and fun vacation without breaking the bank? Is there really anything else you can do to save money on a vacation … that is, without sleeping on your car and sponge-bathing in hotel lobby bathrooms? The answer is a resounding YES! You can save money and have fun.
Here are three helpful concepts to utilize when planning a reduced-cost vacation, followed by a practical, true-to-life example of how we’re applying these principles to our own upcoming family trip:
Be Flexible about location and dates:
You will always pay more when going to popular places at popular times, even if the quality of the services you receive there are average or below. Convenience sometimes comes at too high a price for those of us trying to be frugal. For my family’s upcoming weekend getaway, we wanted to meet up with some friends who had planned a beach trip a few hours from where we live. In this situation, our dates were not negotiable, but we could be flexible with our lodging arrangements. While staying close to the beachfront itself would have been ideal, these hotel rooms usually run two to three times more than hotel rooms further inland. We found a very nice (wife approved) hotel about 35 miles from the beach and right off the major interstate highway that leads to it. Even after factoring in the cost of extra gas, we came out way ahead just by accepting a longer transit to the waves. Amount Saved: $80 per night
Minimize Food Costs:
It is not uncommon while on vacation to eat out multiple times a day, and this adds up quickly! Sometimes, indulging in a special meal at a great restaurant is an essential part of enjoying the trip, but most of the time we blow extra cash on meals that we won’t even remember for the sake of convenience. With a little planning ahead on your part, you’ll be amazed at how much you can save by being intentional about when and where you will eat out, and when and what you will eat in while on your trip. When booking a place to stay, ask about deals on rooms with a kitchenette, or at a minimum, a microwave and small refrigerator. This will allow you to enjoy your restaurant leftovers instead of throwing them out. For longer trips, my wife has a practice of going to a normal, boring grocery store upon arriving at our destination to buy food to be consumed between planned restaurant outings. This helps curb the temptation to drop extra money on food when you’re on the go. Many hotels offer complimentary breakfast, which is an added bonus for people who like to start out the day with a big meal. Since our upcoming destination is only a few hours away and a couple of days long, we will be able to bring much of our food with us straight from home, and plan on really enjoying one nice restaurant visit with our friends. Amount saved: $20 – $40 per day/per adult
Bring your own entertainment:
Even when traveling to exciting venues like theme parks and concerts, it’s common to find ourselves bored between the scheduled events. This is when we begin making knee-jerk purchases to keep ourselves entertained and fill the time: Unplanned shopping trips to overpriced stores, pay-per-view movies, and the like. When planning your trip, anticipate the inactive hours between your main intentions for the trip, and bring along your favorite leisurely pastime whenever possible. While I’m away I like to read, so I will be taking along some books I’ve been wanting to read. Not only that, but I didn’t even purchase the books myself! I have them on reserve from my local library, so that I can check them out first before deciding if I want to spend the money to own them myself. Amount saved: $15 per book
There are countless other ways you can save money when vacationing. But the keys are found in being initially very flexible, then subsequently very intentional.
What is your best money-saving tip for vacations?
Not long ago, I attended a presentation during which the speaker utilized a large screen at the front of the room. To my annoyance, each of the presentation slides was just slightly out of focus. It soon became clear to me that the projector itself was not properly calibrated for its distance from the screen, yet no one else seemed to mind the blurry type enough to pause and request that the image be properly aligned. Finally, I asked the person next to me if the fuzziness of the image was bothering him, and to my surprise, he politely replied, “The image looks fine to me.” Sure enough, another colleague confirmed the fact: The projector wasn’t out of focus … I was out of focus!
Talking about personal finances it oftentimes just that: PERSONAL. Many people assume that their perspective about money is clear; or at least, as good as anyone else’s. After all, if it wasn’t, it would be obvious, right? Wrong.
In the same way that vision changes crept up on me so subtly that I didn’t even notice until I was already far from 20/20, our financial focus can go awry for months – even years – before we notice the symptoms of financial vision-loss. Like the senior who compensates for poor sight by squinting at every road sign – yet refuses to admit that they need to have their eyes checked – we often live in denial regarding the blurriness of our financial perspective, and find ourselves compensating for poor fiscal vision at every turn… Unexpectedly using a credit card here, taking out a small personal loan there,and before we know it, we can’t see our way out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.
To correct my eyesight, I ultimately had to go to a professional who could present me with a standard, and then give me the tools – namely, glasses – to move forward in my life with crisp, clear vision. To correct poor money perspectives, the same thing is necessary: You have to let someone get up close and personal with your personal finances and help you bring your income, your spending habits, and your saving/investing plan into line with the standards that consistently produce freedom and wealth.
Is your financial condition showing signs of poor vision?
Do you find yourself constantly having to compensate for past financial decisions?
Call me at (850) 320-8739 for a free, 30-minute financial vision exam, and we’ll figure out what tools you need to regain a 20/20 perspective on your money!
Photo Credit: SeniorLiving.org
If you’re facing mounds of debt with few assets and poor cash flow, it’s common for this and other questions to plague your mind. What if I get behind on payments? Will I need to file bankruptcy to keep creditors from suing me or taking my property?
While everyone’s situation is different, the good news is that the answer is almost always, NO! Nine times out of 10, you don’t need to file personal bankruptcy.
So what is “bankruptcy,” exactly?
Bankruptcy is a legal status obtained through the court system when a person or a business cannot pay off their debts. Personal bankruptcy is often filed when the individual can no longer make even minimum payments on their debts. Depending on the legal arrangement, the court may cancel some or all of the money that the debtor owes to creditors.
But there’s a catch.
Bankruptcy doesn’t magically fix any problems.
The first problem with bankruptcy is that it can’t legally free you of IRS payments or student loans–two of the more common debts carried by American households.
The second problem is that filing bankruptcy on property such as a vehicle will require that the creditor repossess it, unless that debt is “reaffirmed.” A reaffirmed debt is debt that you choose to keep in spite of the bankruptcy, and you agree to continue making the arranged payments to that creditor. However, if you begin reaffirming debts, you haven’t solved the ultimate problem of legally owing more than you have.
Third, bankruptcy isn’t free! That’s right. Filing bankruptcy requires an attorney, and the average cost of this legal counsel runs about $2,000.
And fourth: A bankruptcy appears on your credit report for 7 years. And as if that weren’t enough, you have to answer “yes” to the question, “Have you ever filed bankruptcy?” on legal and financial documents till the end of your days on earth.
So what are my options?
If you’re afraid you may be facing bankruptcy, seek outside financial guidance! You’ve already taken the first step. Find a financial coach who can look objectively at the details of your situation and help you develop the best strategy for tackling your debt. Always avoid filing bankruptcy if at all possible, and reserve that option as an absolute last resort.
As always, you can contact me to set up a free 30-minute session to discuss your specific situation.
