HAPPY NEW YEAR!
In my last post (which seems like a year ago), I talked about preparing for the upcoming tax season. Hopefully you get a return, but if don't that's okay. That just means you paid about the right amount of taxes for the year (when you get a refund it means the government took too much in taxes and therefore got a free loan from you). So what are you going to spend that money on? Maybe updating your house (we offer loans for that), buying a new house (we offer loans for that) or traveling somewhere this year (I offer advice for that).
Step 1 - Excitedness
a.) You finally have some money saved for a get away.
b.) You were finally able to get the time off work.
c.) You finally asked someone to watch the kids.
d.) The kids sports finally have a break.
Whatever the reason, you are excited to START planning your vacation. You hate that it's 6 months away, but it's really the anticipation that can be the best part of the vacation.
Step 2 - Reality
a.) You see the cost.
b.) You look at the travel.
c.) You realize it needs more planning than you had initially thought.
Whatever reality strikes you the hardest , it does. Does $755 for flight and 4 day cruise sound doable? It sure does, until you realize it's per person. If you're making $30,000/year that means you're spending more than 2 weeks (TAKE HOME) salary for 4 days. If you're traveling across the county, you have a layover probably, time zone changes and maybe the fear of flying. You're looking on the interwebs and notice there are about 1,500 different prices for: CMH to MIA (1 night hotel, 4 day cruise) MIA to CMH. That seems weird? How are there so many different options?
Step 3 - Back to Excitedness and/or Antsineess
a.) It's all booked.
b.) It's all paid for.
c.) Tomorrow is your Christmas morning.
d.) Finally you get your 4 day cruise.
Just like step 1, this is a great part of the trip. Everything you're looking forward to is coming to fruition tomorrow! Wait... Did I pack everything? Did I print out everything I need? Do I have my passport? Do I even need my passport? Did I set up my automatic email response?
Step 4 - The Vacation Itself!
a.) We're here!
b.) The sun is out!
c.) I'm loving life!
We'll just hope everything does well with this part!
Step 5 - Last Day of Vacation
a.) A little sadness sets in.
b.) Maybe you didn't do everything you wanted.
c.) You are DEFINITELY coming back though!
It's bittersweet because it will be nice to be home, you have work stacking up, you don't spend like this at home, etc.
Step 6 - The Reminiscing Stage
a.) That was the best vacation ever!
b.) You did so much cool stuff!
c.) Do you remember when we? Yeah, that was awesome!
d.) Dinner that one night was SO GOOD!
e.) Seafood on a cruise is SO much better than Red Lobster!
You talk about the good times, the best times and you glorify it.
In my opinion, those are the 6 steps of a good vacation. The ONLY step I see that can be an issue is step 2 - reality.
Step 1 - You're just picking out a place, great time.
Step 3- You've already paid, worst case here you have some buyer's remorse.
Step 4 - You're there and maybe you get some sand in your crack!
Step 5 - You've enjoyed it all, everything is fresh in your memory.
Step 6 - You laugh and smile talking about your recent trip.
Step 2 however, is not fun (to most people). As a numbers nerd, I LOVE COMPARING STUFF. So comparing different options for flights, hotel, etc is very enjoyable to me.
Let me start off with a few dont's of booking travel.
1.) Generally NEVER USE THE HOTEL'S DIRECT WEBSITE
a.) This is much in the same of going directly to a bank for a loan. They have you in their office and they can charge you more because you're there and essentially inviting them to.
b.) Use a broker!
Example Price's for Luxor Hotel June 12th to June 15th.
Luxor.com - $369.60
Hotels.com - $361.95
Hotwire.com - $362.17
Travelocity.com $361.95
*Bonus Tip - If you book on hotels.com (when you need a specific hotel) you get a free night after 10 nights booked. This is equal to the average value of your 10 nights.
**Bonus Tip - Hotwire.com is currently offering $25 off when you download their app for booking between 12-30-13 to 3-31-14.
***Bonus Tip - Travelocity.com offers a low price guarantee where if you find a lower price online they match it AND refund the difference.
2.) Unless you NEED A SPECIFIC HOTEL (which generally you don't) book a HIDDEN ROOM RATE!
a.) Loyalty points aren't worth saving a few $'s.
At Intercontinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn and subsidiaries) I was at the top of the earning status totem pole. I was a platinum earner that had a credit card and signed up for every bonus they offered! The reason? We HAD to book IHG hotels at Reynolds and Reynolds, so if I am going to earn some points, why not earn as much as I can. UNTIL I CHALLENGED THEM! Now (at least when I left) you were able to book your own rooms wherever you chose and IHG is only a recommendation.
On one of my trips we stayed for 4 total weeks (M-F 4 separate times) at this location. The rate is $105.26/night or $484.20 after taxes per week. That equates to approximately 3500 points. At 20,000 points (6 times that) you can get a $50 gift certificate to a multitude of restaurants. Therefore, you spend $484.20 and get $8.75 back. Net cost = $475.45.
Another time we went back and used Travelocity and let me tell you about the savings! It was 4 nights (at what I think was a nicer hotel) for $358.40 after taxes. Net cost = $358.40. Net savings $117.05.
b.) Check for places that have the amenities you want!
When you book on Priceline, Travelocity, Hotwire etc, it shows you the amenities that each place offers.
For example:
Priceline: $124/night, 5 star hotel, 8.0 Guest Rating
Amenities Include - Pool, Business Center, Bed Choice, Free Internet
Location - Las Vegas Strip Vicinity South
My guess is that this would be the Mandalay Bay hotel because it is on the south Strip, includes free parking and internet, has a guest rating of 8.3 and a hotel rating of 4.5 stars. When rooms are hidden, the guest ratings and stars are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Assuming I am correct, let's look at the numbers:
Hotel's Website: $700.00
Priceline (Hidden Rate): $507.72
Hotwire (Hidden Rate): $609.36
Worst case scenario, you get a 5 Star Hotel in the area you want, with the amenities you want for a much discounted price.
c.) Don't trust the rate you find is the lowest possible rate you can get.
If there is a place you really want to stay, call them up, be forceful and see what they can offer in the way of a discount. They WANT you to come back and only stay there. Loyalty is rewarded in this sense. Using Vegas as an example, tell them you come a few times a year, normally stay at (a hotel that is not in the same brand so they can't look it up), but didn't have a good experience, so you are looking for a new place to crash when you make your quarterly visits. If they think you're coming 4 times a year, you're 4 times as likely to get a good deal. Also, sign up for MGM and Total Rewards cards (if you haven't already) to show your loyalty.
Hotel Brands:
MGM - Aria, Bellagio, Vdara, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Luxor, Excalibur, Circus - Circus, Railroad Pass
TOTAL REWARDS - Caesar's Palace, Flamingo, Harrah's, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Bally's Rio, The Quad
IHG - Venetian, Palazzo, Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn - Desert Club, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites
Most of the rest are independent.
That should provide you with some good insight to hotel savings in the future. If there is ever anything you DON'T UNDERSTAND. PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
This is written for you to save money in every aspect of your life. I always practice what I preach so these methods have worked in the past and I expect them to work in the future.
I am going to add a new feature this year, stocks I like and what prices I like them at.
This is in no way to encourage you to buy the stocks, but just to provide more transparency into my trading style which will provide a more rounded view into my financial habits. In addition, the trades I make are in my Roth IRA and therefore short and long term gains taxes are non-applicable because I have already paid taxes on them. This is also not advice, any trades you make are simply because YOU wanted to make them. By reading this article you agree to those terms.
From 12-31-12 to 12-31-13 I increased my Roth IRA by 133%. That means if you gave me $50,000 to invest, it would be worth $116,600. Just for some perspective, these were some numbers for last year:
Dow Jones - +28.12%
S&P 500 - +31.80%
Average Hedge Fund - +8%
LET ME MAKE MY POINT WITH THIS CHART I STOLE!
The highest ever Dow Return (which most people seem to base the stock market off of) was about 73% in 1933 I ALMOST DOUBLED THAT!
Again, I am not telling you to take my advice, but it would behoove you to listen a little to the words coming from my fingers.
Stocks I loved in 2013:
Fannie Mae - FNMA - Profited 720%
Titan Med - TITXF - Profited 53%
Best Buy - BBY - Profited 26%
BDub's - BWLD - Profited 15%
Fifth Third - FITB - Profited 12%
I don't want you to think all I did was pick correct stocks, BUT I only lost money on 2 trades (and made money on 1 of those in 2014) and made money on 10 stock picks.
That being said, these are my 2014 Buy and Sells so far:
As of Dec 31st, 2013 I held the following:
FNMA (1) - $2.84 valued at $3.01/share
EVOK (236) - $8.55 valued at $7.45/share
TITXF (3,001) - $1.02 valued at $0.87/share
My trades since:
Ticker Shares Per Share Total (Cost) Income
| Z | 132 | $ 91.04 | $ (12,021.22) |
| TITXF | -3000 | $ 1.04 | $ 3,123.45 |
| PHOT | 5700 | $ 0.35 | $ (2,004.99) |
| PHOT | -5699 | $ 0.46 | $ 2,583.06 |
| Z | -132 | $ 87.01 | $ 11,481.38 |
| EVOK | -236 | $ 10.27 | $ 2,413.68 |
| MJNA | 10000 | $ 0.19 | $ (1,909.99) |
Currently I hold:
FNMA (1) - $2.84 valued at $3.01/share
PHOT (1) - $.35 valued at $0.219/share
TITXF (1) - $1.01 valued at $1.0602/share
MJNA (10,000)- $0.19 valued at $.188/share
My thoughts are that MARIJUANA stocks are going to get much higher (so many easy puns).
Some stocks I would look out for in the near future:
MJNA, PHOT, CBIS, EDXC, FSPM, GRNH
All these have shown the ability to be quite volatile and where there's volatility there's money to be made. You just have to buy low and sell high (there it is again).
ON TO THE GRIDIRON!!!
These final 3 weeks of football (sad I know) are upon us and I plan to pick overs, unders and spreads.
Quick picks:
NO (+8) @ SEA (U45.5)
IND (+7) @ NE (O51)
SF (-1) @ CAR (U42)
SD (+9.5) @ DEN (O55)
That's right folks, all road covers and a nice mix of overs and unders.
Happy betting, happy finance and I will probably make this a bi monthly endeavour from here on out because I don't want you to get overwhelmed.
***I WILL BE UPDATING PICKS AND STOCKS ALONG THE AWAY THOUGH SO CHECK BACK FREQUENTLY!
UPDATED STOCKS!
Buy - PHOT (8,000) @ .275
Buy - GRNH (4,515) @ .443
CURRENT HOLDINGS:
FNMA (1) - $2.84 valued at $3.12
MJNA (10,000) - $0.19 valued at $0.203
PHOT (8,001) - $0.275 valued at $0.276
GRNH (4,515) - $0.443 valued at $0.415
