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Great Guides to Help You Plan Your Travel Budget

Admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:21:06 +0000

There are literally hundreds of guides on budget travel to be found on the Internet and in bookstores. Some are useful, some are not. It really depends on what you want and where you are going. Many web sites offer email subscriptions and regular updates on where the best deals are. So how do you decide which ones are the most useful? A lot of the sites are confusing, so how do you find the ones that are going to give you the information you need?

Online bookstores have sections on travel guides. Try Amazon or specialty travel book stores like the Globe Corner Bookstores. They have an amazing array of guide books for the traveler on a budget. The most important thing to keep in mind about published guidebooks is that once the information is printed, it is probably out of date. Although most of them are updated annually, you cannot take what is written as set in stone. Internet guides are preferable in this area because their information is updated sometimes on a daily basis so all the deals on offer are available when you see them.

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The best guides seem to be the ones that give you specific information on either your choice of destination or the type of holiday you will be taking (family vacation, backpacking, students, seniors, etc). There are the well known guide books/web sites like The Lonely Planet that will give you information on just about every destination you can think of. Or you can contact the embassy of the place you want to visit or go to the library to find out more about your choice of destination. Most web sites will also have links to travel deals that are from the site sponsors. Some of the deals look great but research them. Compare to other sites to get the best deal for you.

Some guides worth having a look at for the budget traveler are:

* ‘The World’s Cheapest Destinations’ by Tim Leffel

* ‘Europe on a Day’ by Arthur Frommer

* Any guidebook from the Lonely Planet ‘Shoestring’ series

* Any guidebook from the ‘Cheap Eats and Sleeps’ series

If you are backpacking, getting a guide on hostels in the area you are traveling to is a good idea. There are many sites dedicated to finding hostels. You will be able to get prices and make bookings in advance.

Once you know where you are traveling you’ll be able to find a guide on just about anything. How to get there, where to sleep, where to eat, what to visit and how to travel around are all going to be available in a travel guide. And once you get to your destination go to the local tourist information stand and look at what other helpful guides are available.

This article is brought to you by: Stuart S. Travel – Your Online Travel Guru

www.stuartstravel.com

How Cheap Budget Travel Online Experts Can Help You on All of Your Travel Needs

Admin — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:26:07 +0000

More considerable travel savings are given to the best travel planner. Oftentimes, the best planners are those who hire travel agents. There are lots of cheap budget travel online experts who can help you on your travel needs. With their help, you will be able to obtain the best travel deals, save money and prevent problems in your chosen destination.

A wealth of information on cheap travel deals is available on the Internet. Because of it, you can easily compare different travel deals and prices. Excellent budget travel online experts can not just offer you great perks that can help you save hundreds of dollars but they can also help you save time in planning and booking. They can also inform you which airlines or cruises charge the less and how you can avoid other travel charges.

Consulting and hiring affordable budget travel online experts is truly rewarding, since they could get special hotel accommodation rates and have the skills to negotiate a cheap vacation package that would enable you to save both time and money. Also because of their expertise, you will be able to have a more enjoyable vacation or travel experience. These people often have access to cheap hotel deals, airfares and other travel perks that average travelers cannot simply obtain on their own.

Oftentimes, most budget travel online experts get bombarded with lots of travel promotions that sometimes you can even get travel packages for as low as a hundred dollars. At a minimum, budget travel online experts can book you tickets to your specific destination. Most of them typically focused on air, sea and rail travel as well as on other options available. They may also prepare a car that you can rent along with other services like arranged arrival meals and airport or dock pickups.

Budget travel online experts also have more to offer. They can even provide recommendations regarding immunization and preventive medicine routines that may possibly be required when traveling in different countries. These experts can also be of great help in organizing passports and visas, ensuring that their clients move effortlessly during their trips.

Some budget travel online experts can also suggest and recommend language classes and other travel arrangements, while others may give helpful tips and hints for their clients to make sure their clients will be able to experience an enjoyable trip. A travel expert who specializes on things like business travel may take account of travel itineraries that are customized for businesspeople like well-organized tours and accommodations that include services like Fax machine usage and Internet access.

Budget travel online experts usually sell themselves based on their abilities to organize intricate and enjoyable trips, whether it could be whirlwind tours or relaxing luxury cruises. With lots of websites offering the services of these experts, you can surely find one who is experienced and knowledgeable in all of the eccentricities of the travel scheme and a trip can at times run more slickly with an expert at the helm.

No Real Government Help to Stop Foreclosure

Admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:54:11 +0000

If you are waiting for government help to stop foreclosure, you will need to wait until President Elect Obama and the new congress is seated before you have any financial difficulty. That’s because the existing program, Hope for Homeowners (H4H) is great for the government but not so good for anybody else. When the initial plan was unveiled by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) the anticipation was that it would help to save over 400,000 homeowners from foreclosure. H4H went live on October 1st, 2008 and in the first two months relatively few homeowners have taken advantage of it. There will be many articles touting it as a great thing that will help many people. To me, it is a fairly stupid idea.

H4H requires lenders to take a serious haircut and for borrowers to give up their equity. At first look, it seems like a good idea. Under further investigation I think it falls apart. Let’s take a look at how the FHA describes this will work. For purposes of discussion, we will presume that you paid $250,000 for the house with a 10% down payment. The example information below is taken directly from the FHA website.

These are examples of how the unique equity and appreciation sharing elements of this program work. Keep in mind that these are only examples, and your actual experience will depend on many things, including how much your home increases or decreases in value1

Let’s say your home has an appraised value at the time you receive your FHA mortgage of $200,000.

And your mortgage is 90% of this, or $180,000.

This means the initial equity is the difference between 1 and 2, or $20,000.

In this example, you and the FHA share this $20,000 when you sell your home or refinance your loan, because the program requires you as the homeowner to share the “equity” created when the lender walks away from $45,000 of debt.

Here’s how that $20,000 would be split:

If you sell or refinance:

During Year 1 FHA receives 100%, or $20,000 you receive 0%, or $0

During Year 2 FHA receives 90%, or $18,000 you receive 10%, or $2,000

During Year 3 FHA receives 80%, or $16,000 you receive 20%, or $4,000

During Year 4 FHA receives 70%, or $14,000 you receive 30%, or $6,000

During Year 5 FHA receives 60%, or $12,000 you receive 40%, or $8,000

After Year 5 FHA receives 50%, or $10,000 you receive 50%, or $10,000

So, if you sell or refinance right after receiving the new loan, the FHA keeps the equity that was created, and you don’t receive any of it. On the other hand, let’s assume you stay in this loan and don’t sell or refinance for ten years. At that point, you’re entitled to half of the equity – in this example, that’s $10,000 – and the FHA is entitled to the other half2.

In addition to this equity sharing, you will have to share any future home price appreciation with the FHA. This means that, if your home has gone up in value between the time you receive your FHA mortgage and the time of your home sale (or other disposition); you will share the amount of this increase with the FHA (less closing costs and a portion of any improvements you have made). This is a 50/50 split that does not change over time.

For example, if:

1. The value of your home when you take out this loan is……………………$200,000

2. After some years, you decide to sell. Now the home is worth…………………$250,000

3. That means the appreciation is the difference between 1 and 2, or………………$50,000

In this example, you would keep half of this, or $25,000. The FHA would also receive half, which is also $25,000.

Naturally, if the value goes down, there will be no equity to split and therefore no issue. Fortunately, given enough time, home values always improve, so you will see some proceeds from equity growth at the time you sell or refinance. Did I mention that you also cannot go get a second mortgage except for making home improvements? That’s right! A second mortgage would cut into the equity, of which the government is entitled to half, unless you’re making improvements and thereby increasing the amount of equity that the government gets. Even if you are currently in trouble, would you consider using this type of government help to stop foreclosure? Or would you look for some sort of assistance that is not so intrusive?

Now I know what you’re thinking, what if I don’t sell my house? I’ll just stay in it until a mortgage is paid off. Maybe even pay it off early and enjoy the house in my retirement. This way I’ll never pay the government anything. Not so fast! Take a close look at the information above and you will see which you must pay the government their half of the equity when you refinance, sell “or other disposition” of the property. Your estate could potentially have to pay the government half of the equity when they inherit. This could force them to sell or refinance the house. Is that what you want?

Today banks are in the mood to negotiate and modify loans in order to avoid foreclosure in the first place. This could be a far better option for you than expecting any government help to stop foreclosure. I’m afraid that help from the lender is the best you’re going to do, at least until the new President is seated.