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Wealth Column: Planning your long-awaited vacation

Vacations are a big-ticket item. They will have an impact on your budget and, if you don’t play your cards right, you can wind up interfering with your long-term goals.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on KLKS 100.1 FM on Sunday mornings.
Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on KLKS 100.1 FM on Sunday mornings.

If you’re like us, you probably can’t wait to get out of the house. With vaccines slowly getting us back to normal, a lot of folks are considering rewarding themselves with an overdue vacation.

Here’s the bad news. Vacations are a big-ticket item. They will have an impact on your budget and, if you don’t play your cards right, you can wind up interfering with your long-term goals. Perhaps worse, you’ll wind up feeling guilty about the money you do spend, and you’ll enjoy your vacation less.

Related: Wealth Column: Post-COVID spring cleaning Financial advisers Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, Wealth Enhancement Group, look at pandemic organizing of finances. What do you keep? What do you get rid of and how?

Don’t just wing it

Make a vacation part of your budget. This serves two purposes. First, it will help you keep costs under control and make sound decisions when you are in the planning phase. Second, it will keep you accountable to actually taking one!
Budget every aspect of your vacation. Most people think of lodging and travel, and maybe a couple of major entertainment expenses. But vacations are also about spontaneity, the great restaurants you can’t find at home, that T-shirt you just know your nephew will love. Make sure you plan for meals, incidentals, even bus fare.

If you have properly budgeted for your trip, you don’t have to feel guilty about spending money while you are on it, and you won’t have debt waiting for you when you get back home.

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Related: Wealth Column: Avoiding scams amidst the chaos Financial advisers Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, Wealth Enhancement Group, look at common scams with reminders on how to avoid losing money, especially with stimulus checks in bank accounts or on the way.

Be COVID prepared

COVID has rather obviously changed the way we travel, and will for the foreseeable future. For example, the normal adage to book early may not apply. With the lack of business travel, many airlines and hotels are seeing prices drop as you get closer to the date.

Cancellation policies have been an ever-moving target throughout the pandemic. Many people assume you can make changes to your travel arrangements at no cost due to COVID, but those policies are coming to an end in many cases. Further, trip insurance policies often have an exclusion for pandemics.

Understand your risk tolerance and decide what is acceptable to you and your family beforehand.

Related: Wealth Column: Timing is everything with Social Security Decisions on when to retire will determine how much Social Security will be there for retirement. Financial advisers Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, Wealth Enhancement Group, outline considerations in making that decision.

Protect your health and safety

If you have chronic health issues, or are just accident prone, make sure your health insurance policy will cover you wherever you are travelling. It will be important to carry some cash to pay for ground transportation and the like. Make sure to keep this in a separate place from your credit cards you are not left stranded.

Scan important documents, such as your passport, and keep them in a separate location while you travel.

Related: Wealth Column: 5 adviser warning signs Financial advisers Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb, Wealth Enhancement Group, outline ways to know if a financial adviser is the right fit.

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Travelling while retired

If getting away is part of your retirement plan, take advantage of the flexibility. Many booking sites allow you to search with flexible dates. Be open in terms of geographical region. If you want to go somewhere warm, there’s lots of options, and you can save if you aren’t picky.

If you plan to travel extensively, build it into your long-term plan. If you plan to use money to travel in the next 3-5 years, take the money from riskier funds.

One last piece of advice. Have fun!

Related: Wealth Column: Generational money mistakes Whether a baby boomer, Generation X or millennial there are strategies that can help now in planning for retirement with the quality of life you are looking for after the regular working days are done.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb are financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on KLKS 100.1 FM on Sunday mornings. Email Bruce and Peg at yourmoney@wealthenhancement.com. Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Wealth Enhancement Group and Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services are separate entities from LPL.

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