Tips for Successful Personal Finances
If you love to travel like we do, you better read on. Do you owe the IRS money? If you owe a
substantial money and haven’t made payment arrangements, your passport could be in jeopardy.
Here’s some more information from AARP’s travel newsletter.
Another reason to stay on top of your finances.
What to do in each port? That’s a difficult question. So much to do and so little time.
If it’s a new place, sometimes we just want to take a tour to get an overview. That’s the case for the first and last stop of this cruise. We are taking a cruise line shore excursion to see the coast and in another city we are doing a whale watch.
Yet another city, San Francisco with a two day stop (we have been there before), what to do? Our original thought was to go to Yosemite for the day. We even worked out the details to make it work for us. But now the wildfires may derail this plan.
For us, the research is critical to saving money. First, what do we want to do? To start, we look at the cruise line shore excursions for ideas. If we find something that appeals to us – great! Then the research begins. What other companies offer this excursion? The research piece begins with for these other companies:
These are important questions that we need the answers to.
Some of my favorite websites are Trip Advisor, Viator, Cruise Critic and more. I should tell you that Cruise Critic is the best. You join the chat room for your specific cruise and this puts you in touch with others sailing with you. This is a great resource, as we have shared private tours many time by joining others (and sometimes we have booked the tour and are looking for others to share with us).
All these are factors in determining what to do in port.
Those of you that are regular readers, we have an upcoming vacation for the fall. I am going to take you through the planning this week, to see how we save money.
Our airfare, hotels and cruise are booked and paid (a while back). We always fly in a day or more before a cruise (never want to miss the ship). Since we are arriving late the night before, we are staying close to the air
port.
Getting to the the ship in the morning, we have several options:
Our choices was the alternated transfer. This was our thought process, we have never been to this city and wanted to see some of it. We didn’t want to get to the ship too early and wait there to board. We found a cruise transfer tour company that will pick us up at the hotel and give us a 3 hour tour of the city and drop us off at the pier.
The savings for us:
Yes, this is more than the transfer alone, but we have never been to the city (I don’t count changing planes here years ago a visit). This way we will be familiar with the city before we spend the weekend after the cruise.
You know we love to travel. Personally, the $85 I spent to get TSA Precheck was well worth it. It is so much easier to not have to take out your toiletries, electronics and/or take your shoes off. Note, that not all international airports recognize this status. Although, recently in London’s Heathrow airport and they did stamp my boarding pass on connecting flights and I was pleasantly surprised.
We actually had to wait weeks to get an appointment with the local (30 minutes away) office of IdentoGo. Then you wait more time to get your TSA Precheck number. Yes, it’s well worth it to not have to take off your shoes.
But by later this year, it will be easier. IDEMIA, the company will be offering the interview process through select Staples locations to start – 50 locations to start. How convenient will that be? When my renewal is due, this should be so easy.
Thank you all for your posts / comments over the past few weeks. We are back from a fantastic vacation to Amsterdam (as you can see the flowers / tulips from Kuekenoff) and then a British Isles cruise. Starting next week, we will be live posting and responding.
If you have travel plans for Memorial day weekend or the summer, you should check your pricing again (just before you leave). We always recheck the pricing on hotels, cruises, rental cars and more. 
A while back, we found our hotel room was $60 less per night. Made a new reservation and cancelled the original. For our most recent trip, we were able to get upgraded to an executive room for the same price. The executive room includes breakfast and light dinner. This saved money as we will be paying less for food.
A few years back for an upcoming cruise, it seemed as if the price went down every Monday. We we are able to save about $500 – this is money that was deducted from what we would have owed at the time the final payment was due. After the final payment is made, any savings is given back to you as an onboard credit – which we had another $200).
Money is my pocket is always good. Make sure to check your reservations to save more money.
As you know, we love to travel. For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.
These are some great tips from Samantha Brown to do before you leave for that great vacation. This way you will come back to a relaxed home (and maybe have a few more hours of vacation) before you jump back into your life.
As you know, we love to travel. For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.
There is so much to do in the days before you leave on vacation. Here is a check list of what has to be done before we leave:
Happy Travels!
As you know, we love to travel. For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.
Should you buy travel insurance for your upcoming trip? That’s not an easy question to answer, there are many questions to answer so that you can decide for yourself.
According to Wallet Hub, 1 in 6 Americans have an illness or natural disaster happen to them. Are you covered so that you don’t lose you hard earned money? Of these 1 in 6, only 22% have insurance to cover their travel costs and expenses.
Some credit cards offer you coverage for lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, trip cancellations and even death sometimes. All credit cards are different and you need to check your individual card for what your offers you. If you are covered, they offer you reimbursements. That means that you pay upfront. Do you have that money? And they come with restrictions. Remember my Microsoft Surface Pro experience from last fall?
We have one credit card that we always use to rent a car. It gives us coverage so that we can decline the optional rental car company insurances and feel comfortable. We have another credit card that gives us the travel protection of lost or delayed luggage, missed connections, etc. We have done the research for us and you should too.
You should think about what you may need and find out if you are covered with the credit card you already have. Typically, if you don’t charge the trip to that specific credit card, you don’t have the coverage. Then check with your personal insurance, such as auto insurance for rental car coverage, home owners / renter’s for loss of property, etc. Then look into travel insurance, if you need or want more or additional coverage.
You should do this process for your health insurance as well. Most insurance policies don’t cover you when you travel outside the US. All of this pre-planning could offer you the needed assistance in your time of need. So do your research and make the choices that are right for you.
As you know, we love to travel. For this month, my posts are going to be about how we plan the day to day details of our upcoming cruise.
You need to pack what you need for the vacation and stay within the limits of your airline.
First find out the dimension and weight of allowable luggage – both checked and carry on. You don’t want any surprise fees when you arrive at the airport. We are always allowed one free checked bag each because that is one of the benefits of the airline credit card.
Next, we use a packing list so we don’t forget anything. There are different things to pack in addition to clothing – such as towel clips for a beach vacation, lanyards for a cruise, umbrella / windbreaker for unexpected weather and more. Create a master packing list and stick to it.
I select three colors for clothing – that way I know that I can mix and match to create more outfits and pack less. Packing cubes help keep everything organized.
A few extras that we do:
Have a safe trip.