3 easy-to-avoid vacation expense bloopers that can save you hundreds.

    

Or How My "Free" European Travel Vacation Really Cost $2,500

When I started saving money for my 8-day European dream vacation, my biggest focus was on earning enough Delta Frequent Flyer Skymiles to get a free round trip ticket. 75,000 miles gets you a free round trip to the European continent.  That’s the most expensive part of the tab, right? (Hint: yes, it usually is the biggest single ticket item in a trip to Europe, but other items add up quickly)

Hotel rooms are high too, but I have a relative in one country who was willing to put me up for a few nights before I headed out for my real dream destination: Florence and Venice Italy! So how expensive could the whole trip be? I got back from my vacation yesterday and added up $2,500 in vacation expenses. Gulp.

After careful review, I realized that some of the biggest expenses were due to my ignorance about travel in Europe and could have been avoided:

1) I didn’t realize how expensive Eurail passes could be. If you are going to more than one location, understand that even with Eurail passes, transportation costs in Europe can be high. And there aren’t always direct trains connecting your city to the next. My ticket from Luxembourg to Florence was $240 and took twelve hours with four train connections (Luxembourg to Basel Switzerland, Basel to Nancy, France, then Nancy France to Milan and Milan to Florence).   I booked a flight back from Florence to Luxembourg because it only took 4 hours and cost about the same amount. After all I’d heard about Eurail passes being so cheap, I felt pretty jipped.

2) Try to make your plans first re: what cities you want to visit, then book your flight “open-jaw” if you can. If I had flown into Brussels, then flown out of Florence (instead of flying into and out of Brussels round trip), I would have saved the $240 it cost me to get back to Brussels to catch my plane home. Once I booked the plane ticket, I couldn’t change it back without hefty penalities.

3) When I had to cut my trip short because my budget was running out, I was stuck with a $100 change fee from Delta. It was still cheaper for me to shorten the trip, so I took the hit. But I thought travel insurance would cover it. WRONG. I didn’t realize that the basic travel insurance I purchased when booking my flight would only cover me if I had a medical illness and had to return early or change my plans. It also required documented evidence from a physician that I had been ill and what dates. Realize that travel insurance won’t cover your plane fare if you simply change your mind.

I'll be posting more tips on what I got right -- and how you can do the same -- in my next blog re: Real Money In Europe!

Links:
Booking Eurail passes
Delta Frequent Flyer Miles Reward Travel Info

Do you have travel money tips or rip-offs to share?

Health Care Reform Implementation Timeline

It's been awhile since my last post.   A family health crisis put me in the ICU waiting room for the last couple of weeks.  During that time I had a first hand look at how health care reform legislation may make a huge difference in my (and your) financial future.

An easy-to-read timeline for the health care insurance reform changes is available on the Senate website or by clicking on this link.

One of the topics you'll find covered in the time line is the section that extends coverage for young adults.  "Extending Coverage for Young Adults. Requires any group health plan or plan in the individual market that provides dependent coverage for children to continue to make that coverage available
until the child turns 26 years of age. Effective six months after enactment."

My daughter graduated from college this May and has a job managing a restaurant -- but no health insurance. Luckily, I have a job that does provide coverage, and has already begun offering coverage to employees whose children are twenty-six-years old or younger.   What a benefit!  I was considering moving jobs, but now I'm not so sure.  This strategy of early adoption has given me a new appreciation for my job and my current organization.

At the same time that my daughter is now covered, I have friends and colleagues who are not, and their financial futures are at great risk.    These are working people....but they have jobs that offer work for 38 hours per week or less so that the employer doesn't have to provide benefits.  The majority of the uninsured are working people.  They are forced into using .  And they are hoping to hold out until they can find a job with benefits, or in some cases, until they can age into Medicare.   Some other friends are "under insured," thinking they have benefits, but the lifetime insurance caps leave them vulnerable.

This isn't a blog for politically posturing, but for common sense advice born of real-life experience.   A friend asked me recently if I agreed with the health insurance reform plank that "forces" everyone to buy health insurance.  Being known as a rebel in so many areas of my life, I'm sure my answered surprised him.  I'm absolutely delighted to be able to access insurance, and gleefully pay for it every month.  Thank you to my company for providing it.   My advice to you if you can buy insurance?  Grab it. 



 
 
 
 

Get Rich Slowly Video Contest

You can win $500 just by submitting your personal financial success to JD Roth at Get Rich Slowly.  His last post about the contest motivated me to enter -- he's only got six entires so far and the contest goes until April 15th.  He's giving away 3 different cash prizes along with runner-up prizes that include copies of his new book, Your Money:  The Missing Manual.  (Even a non-math major like myself can figure that she has a pretty good chance of winning something, just by entering).

With only two minutes to express my personal success story, it really made me clarify the most important lessons I learned on my journey out of debt into financial freedom.   Here's a stab at a short list of what I recommend to anybody and everybody who is interested.

Jerrold Mundis' "How to Get Out of Debt and Stay Out of Debt."  This little paperback taught me that Debt is just a number, and that the more fearful you are, the harder it is to dig out.  He takes the shame out of owing, and puts you back in control of your finances.

Andrew Tobias' "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need."  It's a thumbs up recommendation because stock picking is hard, and math is hard, and Tobias reminds us that even supergurus on Wall Street lose money all the time.  Most important?  He says you don't have to be in the stock market to be financially secure some day.  (His tips on hoarding tuna under the coffee table are pretty funny -- and I'm 'long' on Tide Detergent right now, at $8.99 for the 63-100 load liquid variety, because Tobais taught me how.)

MSN.com Money Blog.  All the authors there are great and they, along with JD Roth at Get Rich Slowly, taught me that downsizing my house and car was a plausible, workable next step that would bring me a great deal of financial peace.  And it has!   Also an awesome reasource for car purchasing.

Dave Ramsey's envelope budgeting method (I still use it), and his debt snowball concept.  The envelope budgeting method helped me get to a place where I am out of debt snowballing, fully funded in my emergency account, fully funding my retirement plan, and now paying off my mortgage.

Langiappe (a little extra):  Quicken.com (I play with my accounts like other people play video games), Mint.com, Michael BlueJay's tips on saving energy,

Check out the videos on Get Rich Slowly!  Everyday people sharing everyday wisdom.  It's pretty inspirational.