Sherry Tingley

10 Travel Tips To Stay Within Your Travel Budget

March 24, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

A vacation is something that most people enjoy, but few are able to afford consistently. However, a fun vacation doesn’t have to break the bank. Whether you want to take vacation to the beach or to an exotic location you will need to plan ahead. By discovering your hidden thrifty streak and checking out these ten travel tips, you can make a vacation affordable for you.

Prioritize

Before you start thinking of where you’d like to go, consider what you want to do on your trip. If you’re after a five-star vacation, you’re likely going to need to save for it. However, if you just want to try new cuisine, see something historic or simply relax, it’s possible to do it for less. Try shopping at ethnic markets for new foods and cultures, or hitting the beach to relax.

Decide on a Travel Budget

It’s unwise to travel without a budget. Take into account your current financial situation and see how your vacation fits into it. However, you should allow for a margin of error. Few things ruin a vacation faster than realizing you’re out of money because you forgot to plan for something. Once your budget is set, don’t stray from it. These days, many websites are available that allow you to find options within your specific price range.

Take Advantage of Slow Periods

Depending on your schedule and preferences, you can shave hundreds off your costs by taking advantage of off-season trips. Prices tend to be considerably higher during peak travel seasons, like summer and holidays. Plus, you also won’t have to deal with crowds, long lines and other things that make traveling stressful.

Find Cheaper Accommodations

Even the cheapest hotels can cost a small fortune, so consider possible alternatives. Staying at hostels, rental properties, the home of a friend or family member and even camping are several alternatives that will cost you little or no money. Some travel tips even suggest couch-surfing.

Make it Short

A vacation doesn’t have to last for weeks. If you take a shorter trip, you could save a lot of money. Why not visit an area in your state, like a camping trip to a national forest or a weekend at the beach? Another benefit of this is that some services offer you a discount if you’re a state resident, making your trip even cheaper.

Wait Until the Last Minute

If you’re flexible, try finding some last-minute deals on fare and accommodations. If there are any slots left over by a certain point, companies want them filled, even at a discount. However, last-minute fares can change without warning, so book quickly.

Be Sale Savvy

Watch for sales on fare or hotels. This is especially helpful if you’re planning well in advance. You can sign up for alerts on a number of websites to let you know when a good deal has become available. Even if you book several months ahead, the price will still be good on the day of departure.

Group Vacations

If you have friends and family who also need a vacation, consider making it a group affair. Many airlines and hotels offer steep discounts for groups, which means you might pay a fraction of the cost of going solo.

Enlist the Crowd

Sometimes, a vacation can get staggeringly expensive. However, the Internet has revolutionized even this. Crowdfunding, enlisting others online to donate money for a cause, is one way to finance your trip.

Doing Volunteer Work During Vacations

If you like helping out and you need a getaway, why not try volunteering for a vacation? You still have to pay your way there and back, but many organizations will provide all other accommodations for people working for the greater good. Check with your local Habitat for Humanity, church groups and other charities to learn more.

Take a Good Look Before Refinancing Your Mortgage

January 31, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Thinking about refinancing your mortgage to pay off credit card debt? Don’t jump too fast. There are factors that make such a financial leap a very bad idea.

On the face of it, it seems a good idea to swap “bad” credit card debt for an extension of your mortgage, which is generally viewed as “good” debt. Among the arguments people use when making such a decision is the fact that mortgage interest is tax-deductible, while credit card interest — usually much higher, climbing up to 30 percent in some instances — is not. In fact, long experience shows that making such a change is seldom a wise step.

Trading Unsecured Debt For Secured Debt

The most compelling reason you should not exchange mortgage debt for credit card debt is that you are converting unsecured debt (the credit card balances) for secured debt. A credit card company doesn’t ask for security, only your word that you will pay the debt. If you fail to pay, you could conceivably be sued, although most credit card companies don’t go to that extreme unless your balances are very large. The company could put a lien on your home, but typically it could not force you to sell.

With a mortgage, your house becomes collateral for the loan. The lender has a security interest in your home.

Loan Costs

Refinancing is not free. You’ll likely have to pay for an appraisal and possibly a home inspection, as well as loan origination fees and closing costs. The cost will depend on your credit score, your mortgage lender and the amount of the mortgage. In 2008, the Bankrate Survey determined that closing costs to refinance a $200,000 home amounted to an average $3,118. Those costs may to a degree offset the costs of high interest rates on credit cards.

Longer Time To Repay

Refinancing extends the time you will be obligated to discharge a mortgage (and the credit card debt you have added to the mortgage.) In reality, you are only extending the life of the credit card debt to the mortgage. That may mean it stays with you for the usual 15- to 30-year term of the mortgage. It is possible you will end up paying more interest than if you chose to plug along and pay off the credit card debt as you are able.

Credit Score Damage

A refinance may damage your credit score. It will trigger a new inquiry on your credit report by shortening the average or y our accounts. The companies that do credit reports will note the higher mortgage and be nervous, particularly if the level or your income is marginal. The impact may be short-term, especially as large-balance credit card debt will no longer show up in the reports, but there will be some impact.

Difficulties Selling Your Home

Selling your home may become more problematic if there are additional mortgages. To sell, you must pay off the balance of the mortgage burdens, and most likely pay a real estate commission of up to 6 percent. Banks typically won’t let you refinance a home unless the anticipated mortgage amount is below 80 percent of the home’s value. And be aware that home values tend to respond to financial vagaries and can fall fast. Having to sell under pressure because of such situations as a new job location might force you into missing the optimum return for your property.

Little Changes Made In Decreasing New Debt

Too many people who use a mortgage refinance to resolve credit card issues don’t overhaul their budgets and change their spending habits to avoid racking up more debt. They pile debt upon debt at an increased risk of losing their home because the mortgage payment is now higher and there are fewer options available. A genuine commitment to avoiding credit card debt is essential to getting any benefit from a refinance.

Solutions

Better alternatives for dealing with high-interest debt include debt settlement, debt consolidation and even bankruptcy. Putting your home at risk should be a last resort.

Debt Management: Save or Pay Down Debt

How Your Spending Data Is Being Used By Banks

January 10, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Customer spending patterns are analyzed by algorithms.

Targeted advertising has reached a whole new level in the “Card Linked Space.” If you bank with one of the 400 financial institutions (including Bank of America, Regions Bank, PNC Bank, Fiserv, and Intuit) that have partnered with Cardlytics, then every spending action that you make with a debit card is stored and analyzed to serve you with the perfect advertisement.

Shopping for groceries? Sporting Goods? Boutiques? Accessories? Home Improvement? You will receive ads that target items commonly sold by those types of merchants. If they had item level data on your purchases, you would see adds for individual items, but banks only get the total amount spent and the merchant names.

Understanding how the algorithms could work with your data takes a little imagination. Can your spending patterns lead them to the conclusion that you are a mom driving kids to and from school and after school activities. Can they tell if you are single or married? Can they tell if you are a baby boomer or senior citizen? Using this information can they predict what types of products you might be interested in?

Lynne Laube & Scott Grimes - Creators of Cardlytics - Photo from Forbes Magazine — Lynne Laube & Scott Grimes – Creators of Cardlytics – Photo from Forbes Magazine

Cardlytics, a company that analyzes $500 billion dollars worth of spending – over 11 billion transactions, seems to be able to accomplish this. They have been accurate enough that hedge funds call and ask to buy their data to predicts increases or decreases in sales. In fact, Cardlytics has patented (U.S. Patent No. 8,595,065) the spending algorithms calling them – Cardlytics Offer Placement System (OPS).

Is it all an invasion of privacy or is there some good to be found?

According to a recent article “Reading Your Financial Footprint,” in Forbes Magazine (Dec. 16, 2013), customers have saved $17,000,000. Sales generated were a staggering $700,000,000. Depending on how you interpret those results, it seems like the whole system actually saves you money.

Interesting to note is that the people that started Cardlytics, Lynne Laube and Scott Grimes had significant experience with the banking industry. Lynne Laube was the Vice President and COO of Capital One and Scott Grimes was their Senior Vice President and general manager. Both with finance, business and marketing backgrounds these two entrepreneurs look young enough to be included in the millionaires under 40 club.

For consumers, we are not likely to see this type of advertising go away. In fact, it will probably increase more as even more sophisticated algorithms are developed. The upside to consumers is not only saving money on products they would be purchasing anyway, but saving them time hunting for bargains, loyalty cards or bulk purchasing deals. Marketing certainly seems to be at the top of it’s game in 2014.

10 Tips To Saving Money In 2014

January 9, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

This is the time of year when many people make an effort to get a handle on their budget. People are turning their thoughts to self-improvement and personal finance is on their minds.

Generally speaking the ability to save money monthly depends on what you do everyday. Do you ask yourself each day if you are adding or subtracting to your net worth?

Companies like Wallet.ai are developing algorithms that will help you answer these questions and send you a notification when you are getting off the savings path. They will analyze your spending patterns and then send you text messages suggesting ways you can cut back. Someday we may be turning over our financial control to a robot.

Until that day comes, people still need to rely on good common sense while doing their financial planning. Below, you will find some helpful money saving tips to use in 2014.

1. Lower Media Consumption

Look into all the media that you are consuming on a daily basis. That means your cell phone, your home internet access, your cable television, your extra devices, like iPads or tablets and add them all up. The bill can easily add up to over $300 a month. Talk to your providers and see about how you can reduce this amount and still enjoy the media that is most important to you.

2. Spend Less On Dining Out

Let’s face it, dining out is enjoyable and like it or not, you will make all kinds of exceptions in your head about why you need to eat out. To combat this, try hitting restaurants that have happy hours and dinner entrees at half price. Check the coupon sites for restaurant specials. Forgo the expensive dessert, fancy waters and cocktails. When reading your menu, don’t ignore prices just because there is no dollar sign in front of the numbers.

3. Spend Less On Movies

Going out to the movies will always be a powerful form of entertainment. Ticket prices have gone up in some theaters to $11.50 per person. Watch for special days that theaters reduce their prices and you can sometimes save up to 50% off. If you have Netflix at home, watching episodes of good television productions has become so popular that newscasters have coined a new phrase for 2013 – “Binge Watching.” You may get caught up in this activity for days at a time, but still you will be saving entertainment money by staying at home.

4. Enjoy Nature

The outdoors provides plenty of opportunities for enjoyment. Hiking local trails will keep you away from shopping centers and provide you with good exercise as well. If you are trapped inside because of bad weather, try your local indoor gyms.

5. YouTube Parties

Gather your friends together and have everybody contribute their favorite “funniest YouTube videos.” Television producers aren’t the only ones that can provide you entertainment.

6. Cut Back Cruising Expenses

Save money by bringing your own wine on board and by booking spa treatments ahead of time. Arrange to be a guest speaker on board the ship to lower costs. Book an inside room instead of a room with an ocean view. You’ll have plenty of time to have enjoy the ocean. Check for deals at VacationsToGo.com.

7. Read More

If you are looking for action and adventure, BuzzFeed published reviews of 16 books they judge as perfect movie scripts. Make your reading more enjoyable by using a Kindle PaperWhite which holds over 1,000 books and is small enough to easily carry around with you. With free 3g connections in over 100 countries, no contracts and no monthly fees, reading has never been more convenient.

8. Save 10% or More Of Your Income

When people tell you to pay yourself first, they mean save part of your income. Decide on a percentage to save each month and then set up an automatic transfer to your savings account so that it is done automatically. This system of automatic transfers makes savings much easier.

9. Avoid Buying Just Because It’s ON SALE

Everyone uses different criteria for spending, but one common problem is that people see things on SALE and make purchases just because of the sale. There isn’t anything wrong with doing that if the purchase is within your budget. The question that fails to get asked is “Do I Really Need This Item?”

10. Avoid Thinking “There is room on my credit card.”

Silly as this may sound, some people decide they can afford something if they have room on their credit card for it. Of all erroneous purchasing strategies, this is the worst one to make. You should be paying off your credit card expenses every month. You should also remember that there is a rule about the amount of credit that is extended to you. Credit scores are based on the percentage of debt extended to you and the balance you owe. Best advice is to keep this under a 50% ratio to maintain good credit scores.

We look forward to hearing what your best money saving strategies are in 2014. Please let us know by commenting below.

Building Up Your Savings Accounts

May 6, 2013 By Sherry Tingley

Every year a survey called the Financial Literacy Survey, questions about 2,000 adults that are over 18 years of age. Results from this year indicate that building a savings account is the one area of improvement that people need to make. About two in five people say that their emergency savings account is something they are constantly worried about. The same amount of people are worried about not having enough money set aside for retirement. So how can you save more money?

Give Up A Bad Habit

People enjoy habits because they make life easier and require less thought. It is time to ask yourself what habit have you created that is costing you money every week? Which one can you manage to live without? If you are eating lunch out 5 times a week, you could be spending $200 a month ($2,400 a year) on this luxury. Cut down to 2 times a week and you can save up to $1,440 a year.

Save The Change

Create a place to empty out all the change you accumulate each day. Save the change plus the lowest bill in your wallet. Make this a habit for a month. See how long you can do it and add up the amount you have saved. To build real wealth, put that money in a money market savings account or mutual fund. The longer you leave it alone, the more it will grow.

Spend Less Than You Earn

There is no way to build wealth unless you spend less than you earn. To meet this goal, you may have to increase your income, just to start saving the amount of money you need. Evaluate what you need to adjust in your life to make this possible and then do it.

Learn From The Best Finance Books

Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover will teach you how to get rid of debt and build wealth. It is nice to learn from someone who has seen both poverty and wealth.

Ilyce R. Glink, wrote a book called, “50 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Personal Finances.” Her first suggestion involves preparing a place in your home for handling your personal finance tasks. Getting organized like this really helps. She also offers many new ideas about saving money. She covers topics like taxes, credit reports, planning for retirement and budgeting. For a short read, this book is worth the current price of $2.89.

Learning Online

Since 2008, the number of people that said they have learned about personal finance on the internet has grown from 4% to 12%. While everything you read on the Internet is not guaranteed to be true, there are reliable sources for you to use without hesitation. Bankrate.com has a trusted reputation and provides you with current mortgage rates, housing trends and retirement information.

Although many people report that they don’t feel that they have enough of a savings account, there are many solutions to that problem. Start today by using these personal finance tips from Coolchecks.net.