Seven Tips For Traveling

Welcome once again to Mr. Stillman's Opus. I'm John Stillman, founder of Rosewood Wealth Management, joined again by Kristin Staley. She is our travel consultant here to help our clients be sure that your travel in retirement or before retirement is as efficient and headache-free as it can possibly be because we feel like that's a big part of the retirement experience.

And a big part of making sure the financial plan works like it's supposed to. So we're talking today about seven travel tips, life hacks, if you will, that you should keep in mind if you're traveling. Kristin, thanks as always for being here.

Thanks for having me. And tip number one is going to be take a picture of your luggage before you leave. It might be easier to recover for the airlines or wherever you have lost the luggage. Or depending on how old you are and how sharp your memory is, maybe you just need a picture of your luggage to know when it's coming around on the conveyor belt.

True, very true. I will also add to this, I always take a picture in the parking deck at the airport of where we are because, you know, trying to remember what level and row you are. I usually text that to my husband because I am afraid that four or five days later when I return, I will forget where that is. Absolutely.

So that's a good thing to keep in mind. Take a picture of your luggage and your parking situation. Tip number two, take an empty water bottle with you.

Yes. So when you get on the airplane and you are thirsty, it usually takes a good 30 minutes before the flight attendants start their rounds. So you can't take liquids through security, but you can take an empty water bottle and then fill it up when you are in the airport and then you have something to drink while you are traveling. As opposed to buying the $17 bottle of Aquafina. Exactly, it adds up. Save your pennies.

Be careful with that. Yeah, I have my 42 ounce bottle that I take through everywhere because I try to drink a gallon a day. And if you are traveling, that makes it tough because, one, you don't want to have to get up to go to the bathroom four times while you are on the airplane. But, you know, if you are buying a gallon worth of bottled water in airports, that is going to add up quickly. So yeah, the empty bottle fill up with the water fountains in the airport is a good way to go. Alright, tip number three, think about taking smaller bags with you in your carry-on.

Yes. So there have been many times that I have gotten somewhere and not had a little purse or a little bag to carry around while I am in the location that I am in. So I packed everything in my giant carry-ons or a giant backpack and then I have nothing smaller to carry around. So I have started packing smaller items, laptops and things in smaller bags and then put them in the carry-on to get them still through the airport.

But then when I arrive I will have some smaller bags to carry around. So quick aside while we are on the subject of carry-ons. What is your philosophy on what goes in the carry-on? I have always kind of approached it from the standpoint of, well, if my luggage gets lost, let me put enough in the carry-on to get me through the first day, maybe. But is that the wrong way to think about carry-ons?

What is your philosophy? I usually do the same thing. If I can get everything in the carry-on and just take a carry-on, I will do that. But if I have to check luggage, I usually try to keep, obviously, medicines, passports and then I usually keep my camera in the carry-on and a change of clothes, some toiletries so that I am not left without anything.

Very good. Dirty clothes. That is tip number four. Think about laundry. So I like to take a little mesh laundry bag. They have the laundry bags that are smaller that you can use or if you are driving and have space in a trunk, you can take a college dorm sized pop-up laundry. Put it in the corner of your hotel room and just throw all your dirty clothes there so that you don't have to sort things when you get home. You can just throw everything into the laundry. Speaking of college dorm laundry baskets, I still have the same baskets that I had in college. I don't know what they make that stuff out of. I think there are kids' laundry baskets right now. They are made out of titanium or something. I don't know.

I haven't had these things for 20 years. All right. Let's think about tip number five, which is a little bit terrifying, but beware of your computer stalking you. Explain. So when you are searching for flights, use an in-private browsing or clear your cookies so that the computer doesn't know that you are looking for flights and raise the prices on you.

All right. You're going to have to explain this more. So if you're using Firefox or something, you can open the incognito browser. I think Chrome has the same thing. But explain how your computer knows you're searching for flights. I don't know how it knows, but the airlines know and supposedly they will, if you continue to search for flights and they know that you're looking for a certain time, they will raise the price. Also, I have heard that you should search for the price of one person because if you're trying to search for multiple people, they will raise the price on that as well.

And then when you go to book, you can see if those prices line up. The reason that I believe this to probably be true is because if I visit a certain website, like the other day, I was buying a gift from Molly. And, you know, there's no reason I would ever be on this particular website if I was not buying a gift for her. I don't look for ladies' blouses online that much, right? So I bought this shirt and then for a week after that, I'm constantly seeing ads for that company, you know, because it knows where I visited and it's trying to target me with those ads. So I know you probably had that experience too. That's why I believe that this is indeed a thing. All right.

Terrifying. Tip number six, be flexible with the days of the week that you're actually traveling. If you can travel midweek, often you'll find cheaper flights. So I use an app on my phone called Hopper and we'll use Google Flights and we'll often start to search early and look and see which date range will offer me the cheapest flights. And if I have the flexibility, I'll book a Tuesday to Monday instead of a Sunday to Saturday or whatever. That makes sense. And then also if you think about it, I mean, I guess some people maybe if they want to do like a 10-day trip and you're only taking a week's vacation, then yeah, you're probably, you're working through Friday and then you're traveling Saturday and you've got that weekend all the next week and then you'll have to be back till the following Sunday.

Okay. In those cases, yeah, you're pretty much backed into a corner on when you can travel. But think about the beauty of leaving midweek, not just for cost savings, but let's say you're taking a week's vacation and you're leaving, let's say it's a Wednesday through Tuesday trip.

All right. Well, one week you're going to work Monday and Tuesday. So it's a two-day workweek. Your Tuesday is essentially your Friday. Then you have your trip and then you come back and you don't even have to work a whole week after that.

You only have a three-day workweek. So I don't know, really elongates the pleasure of the vacation experience in my mind. Tip number seven, and this will be our last one, is check the iron in the hotel before you use it.

Explain. So if you are going, especially on a business trip, you have meetings or you are going somewhere for a destination wedding and you have nice dress that you don't want ruined, a lot of times people will not pay attention to the iron settings when they use it and they will melt things onto that iron. And then you go to use it and now you have melted orange all over your white wedding dress or what have you. Oh, so like the previous person that used the iron messed it up and then didn't bother to clean up the mess. So take a towel out of the hotel room and just test that iron. Make sure that there's nothing stuck on there, something sticky or some clothes melted onto it that would ruin your outfit. Interesting. And that's probably you do that at the same time that you turn off the lights in the room and turn on the black light to see what's on the bedspread in the hotel.

But that's another story for another day. So there you go, your seven travel tips. Kristin, thank you very much.

You're welcome. Again, you can get in touch with Kristin if you'd like some help with your travel, just to be sure that you're making the best decisions you can, doing everything as cost efficiently and logistically efficiently as you can. Her number is 919-636-1526. That's 919-636-1526. Or email Kristin at customtravelprofessionals.com. That's Kristin with eyes in both places. Kristin at customtravelprofessionals.com. We'll talk with you again soon right here on Mr. Stoneman's Opus.