Advanced Wellbeing offers financial therapy insights each week to inform more details about financial therapy.
I recently visited Greenland and was a bit uncertain about what kind of reception to expect, given the impact of President Trump’s expressed interest in acquiring the world’s largest island for the U.S. The proposal appeared insulting at best and destabilizing at worst. But here’s the twist: Greenland came out ahead.
Buying an expensive machine to make coffee at home instead of frequenting a coffee shop could save around $1,000 a year. The same home-vs-store financial benefit could apply to a host of other small spending habits. Why should it matter?
Here’s one reason: putting annual savings of $1,000 into an IRA invested in stocks averaging a 7% return could potentially grow a nest egg of over $94,000 in 30 years.
Travel insurance is a game-changer. It can keep a physically and emotionally stressful travel experience gone wrong from becoming a financial disaster. But only if you have the coverage you need.
As I described last week, my wife and I recently had our 30th anniversary trip ruined by a mechanical delay. The travel insurance company denied the claim.
Here’s how you can avoid making the same mistake.
When a cancelled flight sank our 30th wedding anniversary expedition cruise to the Arctic, I learned something new about travel insurance. It was an expensive lesson.
As always, I had purchased travel insurance. As always, I assumed cancellation coverage was for any cancellation of a common carrier resulting in you losing non-refundable deposits. I also assumed that purchasing “travel interruption for any reason” coverage meant just that, for any reason. Unfortunately, I had not read the 48 pages of fine print that would have revealed my assumptions were wrong.
In my forties I delighted in buying AARP memberships as 50th birthday gifts for my friends to remind them they were now officially “over the hill.” You can imagine their delight in doing the same for me when I turned 50. I remember the disbelief in realizing that I was really a senior citizen. I let my gift membership lapse after the first year.
Now, 18 years later, there is no denying I am a full-blown senior.
One important thing to take along when you travel abroad is travel insurance. I needed to use mine on three international trips this year. Obviously, my post-pandemic travel is not going well. While traveling back to the U.S. with a 102-degree fever is miserable, the pain is even worse if you don’t have medical coverage.
In writing last week about hidden “junk fees,” I ended with a recommendation. Before choosing a phone plan, booking a hotel stay, buying an airline ticket, or making many other types of financial commitments, ask, “What other fees or charges are there I need to know about?”
That’s easy to recommend, and harder to implement.
In his State of the Union address, President Biden announced his intent to “take on junk fees.” I have written previously about undisclosed fees related to investments. Hidden fees are also found in service industries such as airlines, restaurants, hotels, and utilities.
Why don’t sellers of services transparently list one price that includes all fees?
Do your credit card reward points belong to you?
For frequent travelers, who often choose credit cards based on reward programs, accumulated points can be worth thousands of dollars. Whether points are an asset that can be transferred to an heir is another matter.
“Hi, my name is Rick. I am addicted to thistling.”
It’s true. Every summer weekend that I am in town I spend 2-8 hours scouring the canyons and gullies in my neighborhood for noxious weeds. With my four-gallon backpack sprayer and wide-brimmed hat, I probably look like an alien. By now I have the Canadian, bull, and Scotch thistles under control, so I am after mullein, hounds tongue, and cockleburs.
Why would I do that?
