Inexpensive Methods to Travel the World

Many people dream about being able to someday retire and travel the world. There are also a growing number of people who are considering career breaks and time after school to travel extensively. A top concern and deterrent of these individuals is the cost of travel. This article will outline the several ways to save on transportation costs to allow discounted travel around the world.Know your top destinations, but be flexible. Making a list of top destinations is an excellent outline for a travel plan, but keeping flexibility on how and when you arrive there is a key to budget travel.• Airlines use specific airport hubs to connect flights to other destinations. Searching for direct flights both in and out of these locations can save significant amounts of money on tickets. It also often allows for time to explore the area around these hubs between flights.• Start at an end destination and work your way back. Look at a top destination’s airport website and look at all inbound and outbound flights. This will give you information on which hubs service these locations most often, and other possible destinations of interest you can use as a connection.Time is your friend. Long-term travel requires considerable planning with as much notice as possible.• Taking time to research destinations is key to affordable pricing. Traveling to destinations during popular events will cost more than during non-peak times. Researching all forms of transportation are key: South America, and Asia offer luxury buses that are often cheaper and more comfortable than flights, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean can be cheaper on a cruise than by a flight once lodging and meals are factored in.• Having flexibility in time of travel is a significant source of savings. Searching tickets over a month time-frame will allow for the cheapest options. Additional flexibility in travel time, and not being rushed to your destination will also allow for multiple connections and long layovers, the cheapest tickets usually available.• Many cruise lines and some airlines offer a best price guarantee but do not advertise it. Booking well in advance and routinely checking back for drops in ticket prices gives you the opportunity to contact the company and request they match their current price. If they will not match the price often companies will provide you with a credit of the difference in price to use on future travel.Use technology to your advantage. The Internet is the best tool for planning, searching, and booking cheap travel.• Many search engines allow for you to search multiple airlines over multiple dates to find the lowest prices.• Checking directly with the airline, cruise line, or bus company and not through a travel agent will give a comparison for all other prices. Signing up for the travel company’s newsletters and loyalty groups will often provide you with first access to special pricing.• Following travel companies and travel groups on social media provides direct access to immediate news and specials. Travel groups often post glitches in booking software and most travel companies repair these in minutes. Followers that are able to book during the window of glitches are usually allowed to keep their prices. Travel companies occasionally offer followers discounts and travel credits for public feedback on social media.• Use the booking company’s currency conversion. Changing the booking to multiple currencies can provide significant savings. Often changing currency in software assumes you are in a poorer region and provides discounted pricing. A quick search engine lookup will provide you with an accurate conversion, and a global credit card with no international fees is best for purchase.Planning well in advance, keeping flexible travel times, and using technology to your advantage can allow you to follow your dreams and travel the world at an affordable price!

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Auto Insurance Guide to Risks and Premium Auto Insurance

Auto Insurance Guide To Risks And PremiumsThe cost and benefits of an auto insurance policy are influenced by numerous factors including national and state laws, the type and make of vehicle, and perhaps most volatile of all, the insurance enrollee’s risk profile. Simply put, when you are at a higher risk of meeting a traffic accident for one reason or another, then you will need to pay a higher price to be insured. For example, having a drunk driving record will be taken to mean that you are likely to be involved in a DUI or DWI-related incident in the future, thus potentially costing the insurance company more.Vehicle insurance is a policy to protect any of the vehicle’s driver or passengers, the vehicle itself and other people against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents. Most countries and states require a person by law to have vehicle insurance before using a vehicle on public roads. Car insurance will cover the aforementioned losses in exchange for a premium, or the amount of money a person must pay for the car insurance policy. The premium depends on a process known as risk assessment, in which a person is evaluated based on factors expected to affect the cost of auto insurance claims to be made in the future.Getting fast auto insurance quotes online should give you a good idea of your risk profile, on top of being a convenient means of comparison shopping. First-time car owners would be surprised to find out that individual attributes like age, gender and marital status can raise or lower auto insurance quotes. Long-time car drivers would be confounded by how a change of home, job or lifestyle can affect how much they pay for auto insurance from one month to the next.Personal ProfileAge is easily the first personal attribute having a noticeable effect on auto insurance comparison quotes. It operates on the assumption that the more knowledge and experience you gain in driving a car, the less likely you are to meet a traffic accident. Higher car insurance premiums will be imposed on new drivers, specifically, teenage drivers without an existing driving record. Premiums typically start decreasing by age 25. Even lower premiums are then imposed by retirement age due to the anticipated lower mileage covered at this stage in life.Recognizing that teenage drivers have less financial independence, auto insurance companies offset high premiums by offering conditional discounts. Common conditions to qualify for a car insurance discount would be by earning a higher driving education, such as via recognized advanced driving courses, by maintaining a good academic standing, or simply as a resident student incentive to teenagers living far from home while studying. Auto insurance companies would then protect discounted premiums by enforcing driving limitations, commonly, disallowing the teenage policy holder from giving rides to other teenagers or from driving at night.Gender is another individual characteristic that affects car insurance comparison quotes although not by much. The incidence of traffic accidents involving females is statistically lower than of those involving males. While gender tends not to impact car insurance for adults, teenage female drivers usually enjoy lower insurance premiums.Marital status has always been a determining factor for insurance across the board, from car insurance to home and health insurance. Marriage signifies a more financially capable household. Married persons may be more compelled than single persons to earn money because a family depends on them, and at the same time, having more than one gainfully employed person in a house means more help in shouldering expenses.Driving HistoryOnce you enroll in a car insurance policy, the insurer will automatically pull up your driving record. Online auto insurance quotes typically indicate the use of a points system to compute for risk, each offense on your driving record corresponding to a specific number of points. As a general rule, the worse your driving record looks, the higher you will pay. The insurer will further review your driving record periodically, say, every two to five years, and if it isn’t looking any better, your insurance premiums can go up as high as by 20 to 30 percent.Some of the most common drivers’ offenses are moving violations, such as speeding or running a red light. A DUI or DWI is no doubt a more serious offense that will cause your premium to swell unexpectedly. Car insurance companies typically let one moving violation, DUI or DWI offense pass every three to five years and will not raise your premium until after a second such offense. The number of traffic accidents where you have been involved will definitely be dug up, the nature and graveness of each, based on your driving record.Uses For The VehicleIn tandem with your driving history, your predicted driving history will be considered when ascertaining the risks you pose. That is, how you intend to use the insured vehicle can make or break auto insurance rates quoted for you. Driving to and from work at an established distance, with an established frequency, will make you a different risk profile than someone who has no need to be in certain places at certain times regularly. By moving from an urban to a suburban address, closer to or farther from work, you also affect risk selection. Other than routinary driving, your mobility will be assessed, like how much you go out socially. Regular odometer readings are presently the most widely accepted means of determining the risks involved in your reasons for using the vehicle.

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How to Invest Money and Make It Grow?

Learn how to grow your money through investing. Investing is one of the best ways to achieve financial freedom but there are required skills and knowledge to succeed. Aside from your knowledge and skills, you also have to “take risk”, do not be afraid to risk because you can manage risk, minimize it by equipping yourself a skills and knowledge. As the old saying goes, in investing you should know what you are doing to avoid loss of capital investment.Before Investing MoneyBefore you invest money, make sure you have prepared the following important things. Make sure you have paid all your debts or liabilities. Make sure before you invest you have your cash reserve or the emergency funds needed to help you in case there is an emergency so that you will never pull out your investment.The ideal amount of emergency funds should at least 3 to 6 months of your income. So, if your income is $2,500 per month. You should have $15,000 emergency funds good for 6 months.You should also have to buy a life insurance. A life insurance is for protection. You need life insurance just in case something bad happened to you. Life insurance can help your family to recover from financial losses in case you died.The ideal life insurance coverage should at least 3 years of your total annual income. If your annual income is $60,000, you should buy a life insurance that has a face amount of $18,000 good for 3 years to help your family to recover from financial losses.After you have paid your debts, have emergency funds and bought insurance, it’s time to know your risk appetite.Know Your Risk AppetiteIt always depends on your age, of course if you’re still young, you can take high risk and for mid 40s to 50′s you have to take medium risk and for 50s and above, they should only take low risk investments.For low risk investments, money market funds, time deposits and bonds are appropriate investments.For medium risk investments, combination of bonds with equities are appropriate investments.For high risk, you can choose to invest purely on stock equities.Make an Investment GoalAfter you analyze your risk appetite, you have to make an investment goal. What is an investment goal? It is goal wherein you should know the purpose of your investments, how much should your investment cost your every month or annually. When should you start investing and when is your plan to redeem your investments.Take Investing ActionA plan is good if you work for it. You can never see a result of your investments if you didn’t work your plan. You have to take action, just do one thing at a time. From opening your investment account, funding your investment account. And if you choose to invest in the stock market, you should buy your first stocks, you don’t need to be afraid. All is easy especially if you really want to grow your money. Just ask the financial advisor or financial experts, there are advisors in the bank or any financial investments firms.Achieve Financial FreedomSaving is good because it will teach you the habit of managing your money. If you are disciplined money saver, you will also be a disciplined investor. Ste aside money from your salary or income every month and fund your investments account such as mutual funds, stock broker account or fund your savings account intended to use as a business capitalI hope you do learn many things in this article. To achieve financial freedom, you must “take risk” and reap the rewards someday. Thank you for reading this article, I wish you a prosperity and financial freedom. If you have time, read other financial blogs, business and finance books and magazines or attend financial literacy seminars.

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