Self-checkouts aren't the only things becoming more and more common for shoppers. Now the option to donate money as shoppers pay at the checkout has become a common occurrence, but should you use the opportunity to share the wealth? On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by NerdWallet's Sara Rathner who weighs in on when it's a good idea to skip the charitable donation at the checkout and when it might be a good idea.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. 

When it comes to supporting a charity, it doesn't get much more easy than donating at that card reader in the checkout line. But depending on your motivations and your financial situation, it might not be the best approach, really. NerdWallet Travel and credit card expert Sara Rathner joins us to help you decide whether you should give to charity on your next shopping trip or you're checking out a cash register at any given store.

And oftentimes you'll be greeted with that little donation. QUESTION Would you like to donate $1 or $3, $5 to whatever charity? So today we're focusing on if you should skip or give to a donation, whatever it may be. So let's just go right into it. We're going to play a little game of skip a bit. So let's say you want to have a significant impact and you want to give maybe a little bit more than a dollar.

When you head into Walgreens, what's your suggestion there? Should you skip the cash register then or give at that time?

In that case, skip the cash register and donate directly to the cause, either the one that's being offered to you at the register or another cause that's really meaningful to you?

And kind of what I just mentioned, a lot of times those questions that you'll be greeted with at the cash register are, Hey, do you want to make a small donation? So if that suits you, is this the time to give or a time to skip?

Yes. And it could suit you for a couple of reasons. One, you're giving budget might be a little bit low this year if you've had a tough year financially, but you still want to give money to causes, it could be meaningful for you and impactful to give a couple dollars here and there to different causes as you shop for the holidays, or if it just makes you feel good to spread your donation dollars around to a number of different causes rather than concentrate them all in one place, then in that case, giving at the register could be not just a useful way to do that, but also a convenient way to do that because it's something you can do while you're already completing other tasks in your life.

Okay. And this is maybe trying to get one of those tasks off your list, talking about tax breaks. So if you're hoping for an easy task, break. My guess is probably skip in this.

Year for a couple of reasons. First of all, in order to get a tax deduction for charitable donations, one, you'd actually need to itemize your deductions, which many taxpayers don't do. Many opt to take the standard deduction. So if you take the standard deduction, you're don't count on your charitable donations being a tax deduction you can still give, of course, is just not something that you're going to have to submit proof of when you do your taxes later on in a couple of months.

You also need to make sure that the charity in question is recognized by the IRS so that you could get that itemized deduction for it. And so you'll want to look into that before you give. And then the third thing is you need to be able to provide proof in the form of some sort of receipt that you've made this charitable deduction.

And so if you're spreading your charitable dollars around across multiple retailers at these, you want to keep receipts of everything so that if you do itemize your tax deductions, you'll have receipts available to provide proof of that. And that's just a little bit of an administrative lift. But honestly, so is itemizing your deduction. So if you're already doing all that extra work, then then you'll want this to count to.

Serve as all just go full in.

Yes.

So speaking of your budget, times are tough for a lot of Americans out there. You I'm going to cut a scene here. So you're at any given store and the person working at the cash register asks you, you said, would you like to give a donation to, you know, the Children's museum? The children's hospital? They really get you.

It seems every time like with a really, really a tough one that's hard to refuse oftentimes. But let's say your budget's a little bit tight. What do you do in that situation?

It's okay to graciously say, no, no, thank you. It's nice to do that. Right. And a lot of people feel pressure and guilt into giving. Our survey found that 67% of Americans don't actually like to be asked this question at the Register. And part of that is because nobody likes to feel pressured to give, especially at a time where budgets might be tight and you're already feeling kind of bad about all the other things you have to say no to.

And this is just one more thing to have to say no to. And it makes you look like a total Scrooge, at least in your own mind. But the person asking the question does not know the full story of what's going on in your day to day life. And so that moments of discomfort where they ask you a question, you have to say no and you feel really bad about it.

And there's that awkward silence in there. It's okay. Just let the moment pass in a sure transaction. Ultimately, the most important thing is making sure that you and any anyone in your household has as much financial security as you can have. And then hopefully you might be in a place later on where your situation has stabilized and now you can give as generously as you're able.

And so it's okay to say no to stuff. It's okay to say no. In general. It's a complete sentence.

How do you do that sometimes, man? And I was just going to say it's good to keep perspective because those people are just doing their jobs.

They're just doing their job. They were told by their manager to ask the question, so don't take it personally and they don't take it personally. If you say no, it's maybe they do you, I don't know. But like so what? They're probably also I mean, you know, it's just it's everybody's just doing the best they can.

That's a great attitude and perspective of anything else you want to add about this charitable donation stop at the register that I didn't mention.

So we talked a little bit about tax deductions is now 2024 and all of your actions will be applied to that tax year. Yes.

So start early in that case.

So. Yeah. So, yeah, you know, listen, I mean, maybe it's a situation where like by the end of the year you're feeling so strapped for money or buying gifts and paying for travel and entertaining and hosting guests, and it's just a very expensive time of year. But you want to give to charity and you don't want to feel that pressure.

Maybe give to charities at times of year where you aren't spending so much money on other things and spread your donations out not just to different charities, but throughout different months of the year. And that might make it easier for you to have that charitable giving budget that feels realistic given all of your other obligations.

Nothing like wham bam at the end of the year.

Yeah, you already have so much other stuff going on at the end of the year. Maybe take a little pressure off of yourself and be charitable over the summer or in the spring or in February, like Valentine's Day Show the love by giving donations to causes that you care about at a time of year where you're not really spending much money on too many other things unless you have a habit of buying really expensive Valentine's Day gifts, it's another story entirely.

I'll talk to you in February at that time then about.

How to save money on jewelry. I don't know.

Buy five cards from Hallmark, get one free.

Exactly.

Anyways, that's all I have for you. I am sure I will talk to you more in the future.

Self-checkouts aren't the only things becoming more and more common for shoppers. Now the option to donate money as shoppers pay at the checkout has become a common occurrence, but should you use the opportunity to share the wealth? On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by NerdWallet's <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sara-rathner">Sara Rathner</a> who weighs in on when it's a good idea to skip the charitable donation at the checkout and when it might be a good idea.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/charitable-donations-data">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. 
When it comes to supporting a charity, it doesn't get much more easy than donating at that card reader in the checkout line. But depending on your motivations and your financial situation, it might not be the best approach, really. NerdWallet Travel and credit card expert Sara Rathner joins us to help you decide whether you should give to charity on your next shopping trip or you're checking out a cash register at any given store.
And oftentimes you'll be greeted with that little donation. QUESTION Would you like to donate $1 or $3, $5 to whatever charity? So today we're focusing on if you should skip or give to a donation, whatever it may be. So let's just go right into it. We're going to play a little game of skip a bit. So let's say you want to have a significant impact and you want to give maybe a little bit more than a dollar.
When you head into Walgreens, what's your suggestion there? Should you skip the cash register then or give at that time?
In that case, skip the cash register and donate directly to the cause, either the one that's being offered to you at the register or another cause that's really meaningful to you?
And kind of what I just mentioned, a lot of times those questions that you'll be greeted with at the cash register are, Hey, do you want to make a small donation? So if that suits you, is this the time to give or a time to skip?
Yes. And it could suit you for a couple of reasons. One, you're giving budget might be a little bit low this year if you've had a tough year financially, but you still want to give money to causes, it could be meaningful for you and impactful to give a couple dollars here and there to different causes as you shop for the holidays, or if it just makes you feel good to spread your donation dollars around to a number of different causes rather than concentrate them all in one place, then in that case, giving at the register could be not just a useful way to do that, but also a convenient way to do that because it's something you can do while you're already completing other tasks in your life.
Okay. And this is maybe trying to get one of those tasks off your list, talking about tax breaks. So if you're hoping for an easy task, break. My guess is probably skip in this.
Year for a couple of reasons. First of all, in order to get a tax deduction for charitable donations, one, you'd actually need to itemize your deductions, which many taxpayers don't do. Many opt to take the standard deduction. So if you take the standard deduction, you're don't count on your charitable donations being a tax deduction you can still give, of course, is just not something that you're going to have to submit proof of when you do your taxes later on in a couple of months.
You also need to make sure that the charity in question is recognized by the IRS so that you could get that itemized deduction for it. And so you'll want to look into that before you give. And then the third thing is you need to be able to provide proof in the form of some sort of receipt that you've made this charitable deduction.
And so if you're spreading your charitable dollars around across multiple retailers at these, you want to keep receipts of everything so that if you do itemize your tax deductions, you'll have receipts available to provide proof of that. And that's just a little bit of an administrative lift. But honestly, so is itemizing your deduction. So if you're already doing all that extra work, then then you'll want this to count to.
Serve as all just go full in.
Yes.
So speaking of your budget, times are tough for a lot of Americans out there. You I'm going to cut a scene here. So you're at any given store and the person working at the cash register asks you, you said, would you like to give a donation to, you know, the Children's museum? The children's hospital? They really get you.
It seems every time like with a really, really a tough one that's hard to refuse oftentimes. But let's say your budget's a little bit tight. What do you do in that situation?
It's okay to graciously say, no, no, thank you. It's nice to do that. Right. And a lot of people feel pressure and guilt into giving. Our survey found that 67% of Americans don't actually like to be asked this question at the Register. And part of that is because nobody likes to feel pressured to give, especially at a time where budgets might be tight and you're already feeling kind of bad about all the other things you have to say no to.
And this is just one more thing to have to say no to. And it makes you look like a total Scrooge, at least in your own mind. But the person asking the question does not know the full story of what's going on in your day to day life. And so that moments of discomfort where they ask you a question, you have to say no and you feel really bad about it.
And there's that awkward silence in there. It's okay. Just let the moment pass in a sure transaction. Ultimately, the most important thing is making sure that you and any anyone in your household has as much financial security as you can have. And then hopefully you might be in a place later on where your situation has stabilized and now you can give as generously as you're able.
And so it's okay to say no to stuff. It's okay to say no. In general. It's a complete sentence.
How do you do that sometimes, man? And I was just going to say it's good to keep perspective because those people are just doing their jobs.
They're just doing their job. They were told by their manager to ask the question, so don't take it personally and they don't take it personally. If you say no, it's maybe they do you, I don't know. But like so what? They're probably also I mean, you know, it's just it's everybody's just doing the best they can.
That's a great attitude and perspective of anything else you want to add about this charitable donation stop at the register that I didn't mention.
So we talked a little bit about tax deductions is now 2024 and all of your actions will be applied to that tax year. Yes.
So start early in that case.
So. Yeah. So, yeah, you know, listen, I mean, maybe it's a situation where like by the end of the year you're feeling so strapped for money or buying gifts and paying for travel and entertaining and hosting guests, and it's just a very expensive time of year. But you want to give to charity and you don't want to feel that pressure.
Maybe give to charities at times of year where you aren't spending so much money on other things and spread your donations out not just to different charities, but throughout different months of the year. And that might make it easier for you to have that charitable giving budget that feels realistic given all of your other obligations.
Nothing like wham bam at the end of the year.
Yeah, you already have so much other stuff going on at the end of the year. Maybe take a little pressure off of yourself and be charitable over the summer or in the spring or in February, like Valentine's Day Show the love by giving donations to causes that you care about at a time of year where you're not really spending much money on too many other things unless you have a habit of buying really expensive Valentine's Day gifts, it's another story entirely.
I'll talk to you in February at that time then about.
How to save money on jewelry. I don't know.
Buy five cards from Hallmark, get one free.
Exactly.
Anyways, that's all I have for you. I am sure I will talk to you more in the future.

PennyWise is a show about money, personal finance, investing and travel. Hosted by Nat Cardona, the program features the financial experts from NerdWallet.

PennyWise is a show about money, personal finance, investing and travel. Hosted by Nat Cardona, the program features the financial experts from NerdWallet.

PennyWise: Personal Finance & Travel Tips

5 tips on when to skip the charitable donation option at the checkout and when to donate

Are you a Disney fan, but weary of the prices and endless lines at the theme parks? Or perhaps you have a large family and taking a trip to Orlando, Florida or Anaheim, California isn't in the budget. In this week's episode, host Nat Cardona is joined by NerdWallet's Sally French who has 5 U.S. destinations for Disney fans that aren't Disneyland or Disney World.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona.

Calling all Disney fans! Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California. Been there, done that, right? Are you looking for a new adventure to express your love for Disney? We have NerdWallet travel rewards expert Sally French with us today, ready to share five alternative Disney inspired destinations. All right, Sally, we've got a fun topic today, as you know.

I know pretty much anyone in the living world knows Disney fans are big fans. They're just all hyped up for all things Disney. The two destinations we have in the US are the one in Anaheim, Disneyland and then Disney World in Orlando and all the things that come with it. But you've recently written an article about five US destinations that Disney fans may not know of that are maybe some hot places for them to go.

So let's just jump right into it. I looked at this list and was pretty surprised by every single one. First one being New York City. 

Yes. You know, this is a major tourist destination for anyone, Disney fan or not. But there are some good reasons for Disney fans to skip the Disneyland and Disney World vacation in 2024 and maybe head to New York City instead. So, for starters, Disney's official stuff is the two musicals that it's got running Aladdin and Lion King. Lion King is an absolute classic, really stunning art.

And then Aladdin is just so much fun. The genie is hilarious. It's just great energy. So if you want to see a Broadway musical, those are two good ones to see. And not far from Broadway is the Times Square Disney Store. Unlike your usual mall Disney store, this one's two stories. It's got the usual Disney merch, but it's also got cool, unique, unique New York merchandise.

And then finally, my best free to visit option and doesn't require, you know, that $100 plus Broadway ticket or buying stuff at the Disney store. This one's free You can head to the New York Public Library. What's really cool is they have the actual original plush versions of Stuffed Winnie the Pooh and all his friends. So little stuff, Tigger, Piglet, all those guys.

So I think that's a pretty cool historical thing to see that Disney fans in the plaza.

Who do guess it's super awesome. Very, very cool. The next saw an even less of what I expected. Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. What's Disney related We're.

We're heading south to Hilton head get a little more warmth from New York and this is home to a really interesting Disney owned resort. It's called Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. And it's part of the Disney Vacation Club. And this is a sort of timeshare like program. And to be honest, Nerdwallet does not recommend that most people join this unless you're the most ardent Disney fan who spends a lot of money as it is.

In fact, the baseline cost to join it now is more than $30,000. And then there are annual resort fees or sorry, sorry annual annual dues for DDC. But what's interesting is you don't necessarily need to be a DVC member to stay at this resort. You can pay cash rates when available. And another thing that people do is they rent DVC points from existing members who just aren't vacationing that year.

00:03:27:18 - 00:03:52:13
Speaker 2
And so I will pay you to use your points instead. And it's interesting, unlike the resorts that are, you know, super high energy, you have a ton going on. Hilton Head is more leisurely. This is good for the Disney fan who want some Disney touches, but also just wants to go fishing or hiking or swimming. And so this is a really great way to take a Disney vacation that's far more relaxing than your theme park vacation.

Actually, that's fascinating. I wish I could talk to somebody that's a part of that because I had no idea. That's nuts. Yeah, yeah.

And you know, it can definitely be worth it if you truly go to Disney every year and, you know, sometimes you can get DLC, look at, you know, a resort like the Animal Kingdom budget, Disney World, which is so beautiful and has actual animals out front. You can get rooms there for the equivalent of like 100 or $200 in your DVC points versus, you know, the cash rates.

There are can be easily over 400. So it can be a good deal. The problem is you have to commit to a Disney vacation every single year, which you might not necessarily want to do, or maybe just something like, you know, hopefully not another COVID pandemic happens and you can't travel that year and you're kind of out of luck.

Yeah, we don't want that at all. But the next place we have, we're heading down to Missouri. Yes.

This is Marceline, Missouri. I and this is Walt Disney's considered his hometown. Walt Disney was actually born near Chicago, but he spent most of his boyhood in Marceline. So so we consider this Walt Disney's hometown. And it's actually said to have shaped his vision for Main Street U.S.A., which is the iconic entrance to the park. And when you go to Marceline, you really feel that same thing.

It's a small town, feel really cute, small town. And then if you're a Disney fan, you have to go to the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. They have tons of memorabilia. They've got Walt's desk there from when he was a grade school kid. And you know, it is because he carved his name in the desk just like we all did when we were in first grade.

Walt Disney did the same thing. And you can see that desk there on some other cool stuff. You can see his boyhood home. A really great place to check out if you're a Disney fan.

And Sally, I see that you've maybe gone there before from this date.
I checked it out. I saw I saw his desk with my own eyes. And it's a fun spot. It's sort of a little hard to get to it. I would recommend flying into Kansas City Airport and then you definitely will need a rental car to get there. But if you're a Disney fan, it's absolutely worth it.

Yeah, Missouri is one of those cool little spots, various parts across the state. I'm from Chicago, and so Illinois is obviously the next state over and there's a lot of hidden gems there. And I just really didn't know that Walt Disney's Hometown Museum was one of them. So not to mention it totally is. So we're heading towards your neck of the woods, San Francisco.

That's correct. So there's the hometown museum in Marceline, Missouri, and then there's the Walt Disney Family Museum. And this is located in San Francisco. Walt Disney, whose family lives in the San Francisco Bay area. So this museum was actually founded by his daughter, who has since passed away. But now it's sort of overseen by his grandchildren. And this is a really cool place, especially if you love history of any type, whether it's Disney history or just, you know, World War Two era history, Depression era history is really compelling.

00:07:06:19 - 00:07:37:10
Speaker 2
And they have cool stuff in there. They have a multi plane camera, which is just one of three in the world that was used to film animated movies like Pinocchio and Bambi. And there's an amazing Disneyland model, and it's really fun to look at. You could spend hours and hours there. And besides the the Walt Disney Family Museum, there's other really interesting Disney touches on the other side of the Bay Bridge over in Emeryville, which is the city adjacent to Oakland, is Pixar's headquarters.

You can't walk through. But they do have, you know, some stuff that you can see out front. And of course, when in Oakland, you need to stop for ice cream at Fenton's Creamery, which you can see that exact version animated in the Pixar film app.

I didn't know that. And the other one little aside that you had mentioned, Disney at Berkeley, the library, that's very similar to the one in Monsters University I can contest. That's true. And I'm a good old friends. I went to Berkeley and we walked through it and I was like, my God, I'm 20 years old. Look at this.

This is just like the movie. It looks familiar, doesn't it? It's that's really last on on the list here. Looks like Oahu, Hawaii. Tell me more.

Now. This is another vacation club outpost, so much like we talked about with the Hilton head, where you have to be a DVC member to stay. Alani is the DVC resort. But again, you can rent points or you can book remaining rooms on cash. This is an interesting resort. It's removed from Waikiki Beach. Where is all the tourists hullabaloo?

This is an area called Colina, which is a little quieter, a little bit off the beaten path from Waikiki. And you can meet Disney characters here. The lines are so much shorter than meeting them in the parks. So if you want to meet Moana, you want to meet Mickey and Minnie, come do it here. And they've got giant pools and water slides, and then they've also got the Disney treats.

So Disney fans loved it. You can buy that there. You can buy a spare moose Ruby in the shape of a mickey Mouse. And then, of course, if you do love toilets, you might as well head to Oahu anyway, because they've got the Dole plantation there, which is definitely a must visit for any door fans.

Yeah, I've heard. It's very beautiful too, from the pictures that I've seen it Absolutely beautiful. Is it fair to say, since we're wrapping up this list here of these other Disney destinations, that you're a Disney fan yourself?

Ooh, I think you got me. How did you guess?

I don't know.

I've been to all of these places because I'm such a personal fan. In fact, I was just at Aulani last week doing some very important research. I had to buy a Mickey shaped spam musubi just to make sure that I knew what I was talking about when I came to talk to you.

Okay. And can you just tell me exactly what that is? I mean, I know you're saying the word spam, but I don't know what the next part is.

Yes. Is there spam? Musubi is is a great Hawaiian classic treat. And you can buy these everywhere. You can buy them in the little mini markets like little ABC stores. And it's basically just a piece of spam and some rice and it's wrapped in seaweed and it's really tasty and those sprinkles and seasonings on it. And you can also customize these things.

So if you want to get fancy, you could add some egg. You could add a little shrimp, you could add, you know, avocado. You can get fancy with a spam movie. But, you know, the fanciest for Disney fans is eating the rice in the spam in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head.

Yeah. So once in a lifetime event can't be said.

All right, Sally, anything else you need to add? Want to add about these Disney destinations?

You know, there's so many good destinations around the U.S. and I think, you know, so many of us Disney fans go to Disneyland and go to Disney World. And we think we've seen it to the max. We've seen every corner. But there are so many other places to go travel to and experience Disney without being at a theme park.

And save yourself some of those lines, too. Thank you so much, Sally. I appreciate it. 

Thank you.

Are you a Disney fan, but weary of the prices and endless lines at the theme parks? Or perhaps you have a large family and taking a trip to Orlando, Florida or Anaheim, California isn't in the budget. In this week's episode, host Nat Cardona is joined by NerdWallet's <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">Sally French</a> who has 5 U.S. destinations for Disney fans that aren't Disneyland or Disney World.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/5-u-s-destinations-for-disney-fans-that-arent-anaheim-or-orlando">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona.
Calling all Disney fans! Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California. Been there, done that, right? Are you looking for a new adventure to express your love for Disney? We have NerdWallet travel rewards expert Sally French with us today, ready to share five alternative Disney inspired destinations. All right, Sally, we've got a fun topic today, as you know.
I know pretty much anyone in the living world knows Disney fans are big fans. They're just all hyped up for all things Disney. The two destinations we have in the US are the one in Anaheim, Disneyland and then Disney World in Orlando and all the things that come with it. But you've recently written an article about five US destinations that Disney fans may not know of that are maybe some hot places for them to go.
So let's just jump right into it. I looked at this list and was pretty surprised by every single one. First one being New York City. 
Yes. You know, this is a major tourist destination for anyone, Disney fan or not. But there are some good reasons for Disney fans to skip the Disneyland and Disney World vacation in 2024 and maybe head to New York City instead. So, for starters, Disney's official stuff is the two musicals that it's got running Aladdin and Lion King. Lion King is an absolute classic, really stunning art.
And then Aladdin is just so much fun. The genie is hilarious. It's just great energy. So if you want to see a Broadway musical, those are two good ones to see. And not far from Broadway is the Times Square Disney Store. Unlike your usual mall Disney store, this one's two stories. It's got the usual Disney merch, but it's also got cool, unique, unique New York merchandise.
And then finally, my best free to visit option and doesn't require, you know, that $100 plus Broadway ticket or buying stuff at the Disney store. This one's free You can head to the New York Public Library. What's really cool is they have the actual original plush versions of Stuffed Winnie the Pooh and all his friends. So little stuff, Tigger, Piglet, all those guys.
So I think that's a pretty cool historical thing to see that Disney fans in the plaza.
Who do guess it's super awesome. Very, very cool. The next saw an even less of what I expected. Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. What's Disney related We're.
We're heading south to Hilton head get a little more warmth from New York and this is home to a really interesting Disney owned resort. It's called Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. And it's part of the Disney Vacation Club. And this is a sort of timeshare like program. And to be honest, Nerdwallet does not recommend that most people join this unless you're the most ardent Disney fan who spends a lot of money as it is.
In fact, the baseline cost to join it now is more than $30,000. And then there are annual resort fees or sorry, sorry annual annual dues for DDC. But what's interesting is you don't necessarily need to be a DVC member to stay at this resort. You can pay cash rates when available. And another thing that people do is they rent DVC points from existing members who just aren't vacationing that year.
00:03:27:18 - 00:03:52:13 Speaker 2 And so I will pay you to use your points instead. And it's interesting, unlike the resorts that are, you know, super high energy, you have a ton going on. Hilton Head is more leisurely. This is good for the Disney fan who want some Disney touches, but also just wants to go fishing or hiking or swimming. And so this is a really great way to take a Disney vacation that's far more relaxing than your theme park vacation.
Actually, that's fascinating. I wish I could talk to somebody that's a part of that because I had no idea. That's nuts. Yeah, yeah.
And you know, it can definitely be worth it if you truly go to Disney every year and, you know, sometimes you can get DLC, look at, you know, a resort like the Animal Kingdom budget, Disney World, which is so beautiful and has actual animals out front. You can get rooms there for the equivalent of like 100 or $200 in your DVC points versus, you know, the cash rates.
There are can be easily over 400. So it can be a good deal. The problem is you have to commit to a Disney vacation every single year, which you might not necessarily want to do, or maybe just something like, you know, hopefully not another COVID pandemic happens and you can't travel that year and you're kind of out of luck.
Yeah, we don't want that at all. But the next place we have, we're heading down to Missouri. Yes.
This is Marceline, Missouri. I and this is Walt Disney's considered his hometown. Walt Disney was actually born near Chicago, but he spent most of his boyhood in Marceline. So so we consider this Walt Disney's hometown. And it's actually said to have shaped his vision for Main Street U.S.A., which is the iconic entrance to the park. And when you go to Marceline, you really feel that same thing.
It's a small town, feel really cute, small town. And then if you're a Disney fan, you have to go to the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. They have tons of memorabilia. They've got Walt's desk there from when he was a grade school kid. And you know, it is because he carved his name in the desk just like we all did when we were in first grade.
Walt Disney did the same thing. And you can see that desk there on some other cool stuff. You can see his boyhood home. A really great place to check out if you're a Disney fan.
And Sally, I see that you've maybe gone there before from this date. I checked it out. I saw I saw his desk with my own eyes. And it's a fun spot. It's sort of a little hard to get to it. I would recommend flying into Kansas City Airport and then you definitely will need a rental car to get there. But if you're a Disney fan, it's absolutely worth it.
Yeah, Missouri is one of those cool little spots, various parts across the state. I'm from Chicago, and so Illinois is obviously the next state over and there's a lot of hidden gems there. And I just really didn't know that Walt Disney's Hometown Museum was one of them. So not to mention it totally is. So we're heading towards your neck of the woods, San Francisco.
That's correct. So there's the hometown museum in Marceline, Missouri, and then there's the Walt Disney Family Museum. And this is located in San Francisco. Walt Disney, whose family lives in the San Francisco Bay area. So this museum was actually founded by his daughter, who has since passed away. But now it's sort of overseen by his grandchildren. And this is a really cool place, especially if you love history of any type, whether it's Disney history or just, you know, World War Two era history, Depression era history is really compelling.
00:07:06:19 - 00:07:37:10 Speaker 2 And they have cool stuff in there. They have a multi plane camera, which is just one of three in the world that was used to film animated movies like Pinocchio and Bambi. And there's an amazing Disneyland model, and it's really fun to look at. You could spend hours and hours there. And besides the the Walt Disney Family Museum, there's other really interesting Disney touches on the other side of the Bay Bridge over in Emeryville, which is the city adjacent to Oakland, is Pixar's headquarters.
You can't walk through. But they do have, you know, some stuff that you can see out front. And of course, when in Oakland, you need to stop for ice cream at Fenton's Creamery, which you can see that exact version animated in the Pixar film app.
I didn't know that. And the other one little aside that you had mentioned, Disney at Berkeley, the library, that's very similar to the one in Monsters University I can contest. That's true. And I'm a good old friends. I went to Berkeley and we walked through it and I was like, my God, I'm 20 years old. Look at this.
This is just like the movie. It looks familiar, doesn't it? It's that's really last on on the list here. Looks like Oahu, Hawaii. Tell me more.
Now. This is another vacation club outpost, so much like we talked about with the Hilton head, where you have to be a DVC member to stay. Alani is the DVC resort. But again, you can rent points or you can book remaining rooms on cash. This is an interesting resort. It's removed from Waikiki Beach. Where is all the tourists hullabaloo?
This is an area called Colina, which is a little quieter, a little bit off the beaten path from Waikiki. And you can meet Disney characters here. The lines are so much shorter than meeting them in the parks. So if you want to meet Moana, you want to meet Mickey and Minnie, come do it here. And they've got giant pools and water slides, and then they've also got the Disney treats.
So Disney fans loved it. You can buy that there. You can buy a spare moose Ruby in the shape of a mickey Mouse. And then, of course, if you do love toilets, you might as well head to Oahu anyway, because they've got the Dole plantation there, which is definitely a must visit for any door fans.
Yeah, I've heard. It's very beautiful too, from the pictures that I've seen it Absolutely beautiful. Is it fair to say, since we're wrapping up this list here of these other Disney destinations, that you're a Disney fan yourself?
Ooh, I think you got me. How did you guess?
I don't know.
I've been to all of these places because I'm such a personal fan. In fact, I was just at Aulani last week doing some very important research. I had to buy a Mickey shaped spam musubi just to make sure that I knew what I was talking about when I came to talk to you.
Okay. And can you just tell me exactly what that is? I mean, I know you're saying the word spam, but I don't know what the next part is.
Yes. Is there spam? Musubi is is a great Hawaiian classic treat. And you can buy these everywhere. You can buy them in the little mini markets like little ABC stores. And it's basically just a piece of spam and some rice and it's wrapped in seaweed and it's really tasty and those sprinkles and seasonings on it. And you can also customize these things.
So if you want to get fancy, you could add some egg. You could add a little shrimp, you could add, you know, avocado. You can get fancy with a spam movie. But, you know, the fanciest for Disney fans is eating the rice in the spam in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head.
Yeah. So once in a lifetime event can't be said.
All right, Sally, anything else you need to add? Want to add about these Disney destinations?
You know, there's so many good destinations around the U.S. and I think, you know, so many of us Disney fans go to Disneyland and go to Disney World. And we think we've seen it to the max. We've seen every corner. But there are so many other places to go travel to and experience Disney without being at a theme park.
And save yourself some of those lines, too. Thank you so much, Sally. I appreciate it. 
Thank you.

5 vacation spots for Disney fans that aren't Orlando or Anaheim

Unexpected expenses can cause a lot of stress-- emotional and financial. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by NerdWallet's Kimberly Palmer who has six key tips for recovering from financial surprises and how to prepare for the next one.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to PennyWise and the Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor of the show, filling in for Nat Cardona. Today we're talking about ways to recover from a financial shock and how to prepare for the next time. Being faced with unplanned expenses is a challenge that can feel overwhelming in the moment and for longer for managing a sudden loss to emergency house repairs to an unexpected medical bill.

The reasons may be common, but that doesn't lessen the shock or lasting impact on your finances. Joining me today from NerdWallet is personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer to discuss how to recover from these shocking expenses and what to do to prepare for next time. Generally, thanks again for joining us. So you have some guidelines for our listeners. What is the number one tip to help in situations when you suffer a big financial shock?

The most powerful tool you can have for yourself to help you get through a financial shock is to have an emergency fund, because basically that is your insurance policy. If you suddenly lose your job or have a huge house repair that you didn't expect any kind of big expense, you can turn to that emergency fund. And of course, not everyone has that all set, but that is the goal is to have an emergency fund, you know, ideally of 3 to 6 months worth of expenses.

But even having a smaller amount can really go a long way toward insulating us from financial shocks, which really are inevitable to experience at some point.

And I read the article that you should tailor your savings to a type of emergency. What does that mean and how can people do it?

I really like this idea of having separate emergency the savings account, so it's not all lumped into one because really there's all kinds of different emergencies we could face. I mean, something really catastrophic, like a job loss or, you know, a death, Something really horrible is a different kind of situation than if there is a sudden house repair or, you know, a bigger than expected tax bill or something like that that's a bit more manageable.

So actually having separate accounts that are tailored towards these different types of situations can just kind of help us be prepared and help that mental accounting of knowing where our money is. So you might have one account that's for catastrophic things that you are putting money into over time, and then you might have another account that's for unexpected bills that pop up.

And it can just give you that peace of mind to know you have some money tucked away for those different kinds of financial stocks.

Okay, so as an elder millennial, I can say that Treat yourself was the refrain the past several years. But just do things that people might seem is a little unnecessary, but that can be something that we probably should stop in order to help these situations, right?

That's right. If you notice that your emergency fund is nonexistent or, you know, it should be much bigger than it is, then you really want to think about maybe cutting back on some unnecessary expenses. So instead of going out to eat at restaurants, instead of making those retail purchases, you can put that money into your emergency savings instead, and it gives you that protection.

So you're more prepared if something does happen that you really weren't expecting and you suddenly have to pay out more money.

Okay. So we are talking about, you know, sudden financial shocks. Are there hardship options for people who might need extra time or some kind of help?

There are so many options out there and it's so worth understanding them just in case you get into this situation. So, first of all, most importantly, if you are ever in a situation where you cannot afford the basics like food or housing, there's a really helpful website 211. org and it helps connect you to local resources, places like food banks, other resources that can help you.

So that's the most important thing. And then a lot of utility companies and even credit card companies, mortgage companies, they have hardship programs. So if you fall on tough times, say you lose your job, For example, you can call and see if you can enter one of their hardship programs, which might give you more time to pay your bills.

I mean, it is worth noting that if you are paying a loan, interest will likely still accrue, but it does give you the extra flexibility of having more time and at least knowing that you're not also hit with late fees and just compounding the problem and making it even worse.

And how do people stay organized and kind of, I guess, keep from being overwhelmed in these situations?

It is so hard because any time you experience a financial shock, it is overwhelming on so many levels. And that's why it's so important to know that you have a support network behind you to share with a good friend or family member when you're going through something really hard. And maybe they can share when they've gone through something similar.

And just knowing that you have that support can really go a long way. Just staying on track and, you know, not really feeling hopeless because sometimes situations that are so challenging, you can almost just want to throw up your hands and say, you know, I don't even know what the next step is, but that friend, that support network can help you figure out the next step.

How about managing, you know, just kind of the stress and strain that people might experience when something like this happens.

It's so challenging and really it can be so helpful to just even acknowledge that mental health side of things and understanding that there is room. Everyone feels stress, everyone goes through these things. And so just having that room to talk openly about it can really go a long way.

And is there anything else that people can do or any other tips that you might ask?

I think what surprised me most is just acknowledging that we all experienced financial shocks at some point in our life. So even though it's a shock, it's really something we should and can anticipate and prepare for. And ideally, it starts with having that built up savings account, but it also just starts with acknowledging that these things happen and it's not something to be embarrassed or ashamed of and it's something we can just confront and work through and get to the other side.

That's great. Thank you so much for this. Listeners, you can go to Nerdwallet and check out the full article. We will have a link in the show notes to that. Thanks, Kimberly.

Thank you.

Unexpected expenses can cause a lot of stress-- emotional and financial. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by NerdWallet's <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> who has six key tips for recovering from financial surprises and how to prepare for the next one.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/ways-to-recover-from-a-financial-shock-and-be-prepared-next-time">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to PennyWise and the Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor of the show, filling in for Nat Cardona. Today we're talking about ways to recover from a financial shock and how to prepare for the next time. Being faced with unplanned expenses is a challenge that can feel overwhelming in the moment and for longer for managing a sudden loss to emergency house repairs to an unexpected medical bill.
The reasons may be common, but that doesn't lessen the shock or lasting impact on your finances. Joining me today from NerdWallet is personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer to discuss how to recover from these shocking expenses and what to do to prepare for next time. Generally, thanks again for joining us. So you have some guidelines for our listeners. What is the number one tip to help in situations when you suffer a big financial shock?
The most powerful tool you can have for yourself to help you get through a financial shock is to have an emergency fund, because basically that is your insurance policy. If you suddenly lose your job or have a huge house repair that you didn't expect any kind of big expense, you can turn to that emergency fund. And of course, not everyone has that all set, but that is the goal is to have an emergency fund, you know, ideally of 3 to 6 months worth of expenses.
But even having a smaller amount can really go a long way toward insulating us from financial shocks, which really are inevitable to experience at some point.
And I read the article that you should tailor your savings to a type of emergency. What does that mean and how can people do it?
I really like this idea of having separate emergency the savings account, so it's not all lumped into one because really there's all kinds of different emergencies we could face. I mean, something really catastrophic, like a job loss or, you know, a death, Something really horrible is a different kind of situation than if there is a sudden house repair or, you know, a bigger than expected tax bill or something like that that's a bit more manageable.
So actually having separate accounts that are tailored towards these different types of situations can just kind of help us be prepared and help that mental accounting of knowing where our money is. So you might have one account that's for catastrophic things that you are putting money into over time, and then you might have another account that's for unexpected bills that pop up.
And it can just give you that peace of mind to know you have some money tucked away for those different kinds of financial stocks.
Okay, so as an elder millennial, I can say that Treat yourself was the refrain the past several years. But just do things that people might seem is a little unnecessary, but that can be something that we probably should stop in order to help these situations, right?
That's right. If you notice that your emergency fund is nonexistent or, you know, it should be much bigger than it is, then you really want to think about maybe cutting back on some unnecessary expenses. So instead of going out to eat at restaurants, instead of making those retail purchases, you can put that money into your emergency savings instead, and it gives you that protection.
So you're more prepared if something does happen that you really weren't expecting and you suddenly have to pay out more money.
Okay. So we are talking about, you know, sudden financial shocks. Are there hardship options for people who might need extra time or some kind of help?
There are so many options out there and it's so worth understanding them just in case you get into this situation. So, first of all, most importantly, if you are ever in a situation where you cannot afford the basics like food or housing, there's a really helpful website 211. org and it helps connect you to local resources, places like food banks, other resources that can help you.
So that's the most important thing. And then a lot of utility companies and even credit card companies, mortgage companies, they have hardship programs. So if you fall on tough times, say you lose your job, For example, you can call and see if you can enter one of their hardship programs, which might give you more time to pay your bills.
I mean, it is worth noting that if you are paying a loan, interest will likely still accrue, but it does give you the extra flexibility of having more time and at least knowing that you're not also hit with late fees and just compounding the problem and making it even worse.
And how do people stay organized and kind of, I guess, keep from being overwhelmed in these situations?
It is so hard because any time you experience a financial shock, it is overwhelming on so many levels. And that's why it's so important to know that you have a support network behind you to share with a good friend or family member when you're going through something really hard. And maybe they can share when they've gone through something similar.
And just knowing that you have that support can really go a long way. Just staying on track and, you know, not really feeling hopeless because sometimes situations that are so challenging, you can almost just want to throw up your hands and say, you know, I don't even know what the next step is, but that friend, that support network can help you figure out the next step.
How about managing, you know, just kind of the stress and strain that people might experience when something like this happens.
It's so challenging and really it can be so helpful to just even acknowledge that mental health side of things and understanding that there is room. Everyone feels stress, everyone goes through these things. And so just having that room to talk openly about it can really go a long way.
And is there anything else that people can do or any other tips that you might ask?
I think what surprised me most is just acknowledging that we all experienced financial shocks at some point in our life. So even though it's a shock, it's really something we should and can anticipate and prepare for. And ideally, it starts with having that built up savings account, but it also just starts with acknowledging that these things happen and it's not something to be embarrassed or ashamed of and it's something we can just confront and work through and get to the other side.
That's great. Thank you so much for this. Listeners, you can go to Nerdwallet and check out the full article. We will have a link in the show notes to that. Thanks, Kimberly.
Thank you.

6 ways to prepare for financial shocks

Gen Z and Millennials stand to inherit a significant amount of money and propert in the future as family members age. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by NerdWallet's Kimberly Palmer shares tips on how to ensure you're well-prepared for any future inheritance.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to PettyWise, A Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor filling in for Nat Cardona, surreally associate, a Boston based research and consulting firm, so that over $80 trillion in wealth will be passed to millennials and Gen Xers via inheritance from parents and grandparents between 2021 and 2045. That is a pretty mind boggling amount, particularly when you consider that they anticipate that less than half of that volume is expected to come from high net worth households to discuss how to prepare for potential inheritance.

NerdWallet personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer's joining me. Kimberly, let's talk about potential inheritance. If someone knows they're going to leave anything to their kids, grandkids, just any relatives or friends, what's the first step that everyone needs to take to get ready?

The first step is to talk openly about it. The last thing anyone wants is surprises or unexpected things to come up later when you no longer have the chance of talking about it. So basically, even though it can be kind of an awkward topic, talking about inheritance, you want to discuss that with your parents, your grandparents, and just talking about money generally can help make everyone feel more comfortable.

And I think it's important to note that this isn't just a conversation for the super wealthy, and that's because there is a massive transfer of wealth between the baby boomers, older generations, and then the younger generations over the coming 20, 30 years or so. And so it's something we can all be mindful of. It's not that everyone is going to inherit a ton of money, but it might be something like $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, any amount is worth talking about because what you do with it then is up to you.

Gotcha. When it comes to money, I know some families do find it difficult to have conversations about it, especially, you know, certain cultures. Is that something that can be kind of navigated?

Absolutely. One thing I heard over and over again from financial advisors who work with clients on this topic is that basically every family is different and you want to be really sensitive, especially if you're, say, your parents or grandparents are just resistant to talking about this topic of money. You don't want to ambush some or make them feel uncomfortable, but you want to set aside a time in advance, say, hey, we're all going to be together for the holidays.

For example, why don't we talk about money? Talk about your expectations, the future, what the future holds. If you need any help managing your money. If there's something I can do to be of assistance to you, all of those conversations can be difficult. But if you set aside a time so everyone knows to be prepared to talk about it, that can really help.

And the article said that you should make sure that the money is safe. What does that mean?

Well, unfortunately, among older adults, we see a lot of fraud and scam artists actually targeting older adults. And that's for the simple reason that older adults hold so much wealth. So from a scam artist perspective, they make a really good potential victim. And so we want to help protect our parents and grandparents from all of that. And even just talking about the risk of scams and being open about it can help everyone protect themselves.

Now, my grandfather there has definitely a few years ago started getting a lot of those phone calls. So that's been a fun thing to navigate with my mom and my uncles of my grandfather.

That is so, so hard.

There are some depressing statistics about lottery winners going broke, for example, and sometimes I think an inheritance can feel like winning the lottery. Are there any tips on what people can do so that they're not one of those statistics?

Definitely. And actually, the first thing to consider doing, if you're lucky enough to to get an inheritance, is to think about what is really important, your overall financial picture. And that might mean paying off any debt that you've accrued. Building up savings. And then you can think about more fun things like maybe if you have dreamed of buying a home but haven't been able to.

Or something like that. Or even a vacation, A family vacation. Something that you've really wanted to do for so long but haven't had the ability to do. So basically talking in advance with the person who might potentially leave you an inheritance can also help you incorporate their ideas and their wishes for what you might do with that money.

And why should people be counting on inheriting wealth from older generations?

Well, the challenge is that you really never know what's going to happen. And older adults often face a lot of big expenses later in their life that are hard to anticipate. For example, health care costs could come up later in life that you didn't really fully realize the impact of or the expense of. And so you don't ever really want to count on that money.

But that doesn't mean we can't talk about it and plan and have those conversations.

Was it definitely all great tips? Everybody can go to Nerdwallet. We have a link at our show notes that you can read the article if you want even more details. Thanks, Kimberly. I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Ambre.

Gen Z and Millennials stand to inherit a significant amount of money and propert in the future as family members age. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by NerdWallet's <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> shares tips on how to ensure you're well-prepared for any future inheritance.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-plan-for-a-potential-inheritance">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to PettyWise, A Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor filling in for Nat Cardona, surreally associate, a Boston based research and consulting firm, so that over $80 trillion in wealth will be passed to millennials and Gen Xers via inheritance from parents and grandparents between 2021 and 2045. That is a pretty mind boggling amount, particularly when you consider that they anticipate that less than half of that volume is expected to come from high net worth households to discuss how to prepare for potential inheritance.
NerdWallet personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer's joining me. Kimberly, let's talk about potential inheritance. If someone knows they're going to leave anything to their kids, grandkids, just any relatives or friends, what's the first step that everyone needs to take to get ready?
The first step is to talk openly about it. The last thing anyone wants is surprises or unexpected things to come up later when you no longer have the chance of talking about it. So basically, even though it can be kind of an awkward topic, talking about inheritance, you want to discuss that with your parents, your grandparents, and just talking about money generally can help make everyone feel more comfortable.
And I think it's important to note that this isn't just a conversation for the super wealthy, and that's because there is a massive transfer of wealth between the baby boomers, older generations, and then the younger generations over the coming 20, 30 years or so. And so it's something we can all be mindful of. It's not that everyone is going to inherit a ton of money, but it might be something like $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, any amount is worth talking about because what you do with it then is up to you.
Gotcha. When it comes to money, I know some families do find it difficult to have conversations about it, especially, you know, certain cultures. Is that something that can be kind of navigated?
Absolutely. One thing I heard over and over again from financial advisors who work with clients on this topic is that basically every family is different and you want to be really sensitive, especially if you're, say, your parents or grandparents are just resistant to talking about this topic of money. You don't want to ambush some or make them feel uncomfortable, but you want to set aside a time in advance, say, hey, we're all going to be together for the holidays.
For example, why don't we talk about money? Talk about your expectations, the future, what the future holds. If you need any help managing your money. If there's something I can do to be of assistance to you, all of those conversations can be difficult. But if you set aside a time so everyone knows to be prepared to talk about it, that can really help.
And the article said that you should make sure that the money is safe. What does that mean?
Well, unfortunately, among older adults, we see a lot of fraud and scam artists actually targeting older adults. And that's for the simple reason that older adults hold so much wealth. So from a scam artist perspective, they make a really good potential victim. And so we want to help protect our parents and grandparents from all of that. And even just talking about the risk of scams and being open about it can help everyone protect themselves.
Now, my grandfather there has definitely a few years ago started getting a lot of those phone calls. So that's been a fun thing to navigate with my mom and my uncles of my grandfather.
That is so, so hard.
There are some depressing statistics about lottery winners going broke, for example, and sometimes I think an inheritance can feel like winning the lottery. Are there any tips on what people can do so that they're not one of those statistics?
Definitely. And actually, the first thing to consider doing, if you're lucky enough to to get an inheritance, is to think about what is really important, your overall financial picture. And that might mean paying off any debt that you've accrued. Building up savings. And then you can think about more fun things like maybe if you have dreamed of buying a home but haven't been able to.
Or something like that. Or even a vacation, A family vacation. Something that you've really wanted to do for so long but haven't had the ability to do. So basically talking in advance with the person who might potentially leave you an inheritance can also help you incorporate their ideas and their wishes for what you might do with that money.
And why should people be counting on inheriting wealth from older generations?
Well, the challenge is that you really never know what's going to happen. And older adults often face a lot of big expenses later in their life that are hard to anticipate. For example, health care costs could come up later in life that you didn't really fully realize the impact of or the expense of. And so you don't ever really want to count on that money.
But that doesn't mean we can't talk about it and plan and have those conversations.
Was it definitely all great tips? Everybody can go to Nerdwallet. We have a link at our show notes that you can read the article if you want even more details. Thanks, Kimberly. I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Ambre.

5 key tips to plan for potential inheritance

While it's best to refrain from going into debt, sometimes incurring debt can be unavoidable. Attempts to pay off the debt can be difficult. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by WalletHub's Jill Gonzalez shares tips on the best ways to pay off debt.

Read more on WalletHub here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Jill Gonzalez is the spokesperson for WalletHub. Her appearances as a Wallet Guru include Wall Street Journal Live, Yahoo Finance Live and ABC News New York. Her take on consumer finance issues has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC Online and Kiplinger.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Sometimes incurring debt just can't be avoided. It can, however, be a struggle trying to figure out how to pay it off. Welcome to Pennywise, the Enterprise Enterprises podcast. I am Ambre Moton, producer and editor of the show filling in for Nat Cardona. Jill Gonzales from Wallethub is joining me today to talk about the best ways to pay off debt.

Jill, thank you so much for being here for the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

We going to be talking about the five best ways to pay off debt. So I guess overall, like what's the first step that people should take towards paying off debt?

So the best way to really pay off debt is definitely a multi-pronged approach so that you're ready for your future once you don't have this debt anymore. So look at your spending patterns. Get current on your payments, lower your interest rates. All of that starts with stopping the bleeding by making a budget.

We definitely hear about that a lot. You mentioned lowering interest rates and I know I hear about that all the time, but how can that actually be done?

Right. So lowering your interest rates on your debts is going to lower your costs overall. So the first step here is trying to lower your interest rates by consolidating your debt or by negotiating with lenders. You know, if you actually call up your lenders or sometimes you can use the chat little feature on, you know, their website or app.

I think calling is probably still the best way. A little more time consuming, but worth it 80% of the time. If you ask your lender, hey, I want a lower interest rate or I'm considering, you know, opening up a new card, jumping ship, something like that, then they'll negotiate with you and you should be able to get that interest rate lowered.

That won't decrease your balance, but it can at least slow it or even stop it from increasing.

That's really good. You know, I've heard that you can do it. And I fully admit I have never attempted, but to hear that statistic about how many, you know, the chances of it actually happening, that is going to motivate me, I think, to actually do it my own life.

Exactly. Yeah. Take take the risk. Women, what have you got to lose?

Right. Worst case, they say no. And I'm still making my regular payments with my regular APR. Right. But I feel like I've always been told to have an emergency fund. But, you know, how can someone do that if they're also struggling with debt?

Yeah. So when we talked about budgeting, so part of your budget and, you know, our first step here is going to be budgeting for saving. So that's going to become your emergency fund. So that's something that we need. You know, setbacks happen all the time. We just came off of a huge pandemic. A lot of people lost jobs.

There were a lot of emergency health issues. So, you know, there are setbacks that happen all the time that even if you pay your debt off, can send you right back to it. So any safety net that you have can keep you afloat just enough to avoid erasing all your debt. Pay off progress that you made. So ideally, one day you'll be able to have six months to a year's worth of income as an emergency fund.

But, you know, take small steps and start with just budgeting for any type of saving in your step. Number one.

I like that. That makes it sound a lot more manageable than when you say taking steps to do it, start doing it as opposed to, you know, you need to have six months immediately. You know, I think that hearing that it's kind of intimidating for people when they're struggling.

Exactly. And that's kind of the key here. I mean, that's why we started off with saying stop the bleeding, because I think sometimes people get so overwhelmed, they're like, I don't want to look I don't even want to look at my savings right now. I want to look at my credit card bills. I don't want to look at my, you know, banking app.

But that really is number one. You got to know where you stand on each of your balances. And you know what? You can afford to pay off. Now, what you're working to pay off later, but stopping the bleeding and just, you know, making it more manageable is the first step, right? Baby steps.

So if someone has a balance on multiple credit cards, which I think is a lot more common than most people think, what's the best strategy for dealing with that?

So this is what I refer to as the island approach. And for all of us in debt, I know it's hard to think about Hawaii and ever being able to go there, but for the purposes of this, think of Hawaii. Think of your debts and your credit card, your separate credit cards, as you know, interconnected islands, each kind of having their own approach.

And then we're going to use the snowball effect. So kind of the opposite of Hawaii did pay them down. So I understand. And rank your dad's and pay off the highest rate balance first. So say you have three credit cards and the one with the lowest balance might be $1,000. The one with the lowest balance I would do that might be 800.

But the difference is that $1,000 balance has an interest rate of 20% and your $800 balance has an interest rate of at 26%, which is actually the average right now, which is the highest it's ever been. So you want to rank that highest rate balance first because that is costing you the most money over time. So instead of sprinkling any extra cash you have on hand across all of your credit cards, focus any extra cash on that one with the highest balance and pay the minimum, do the minimum bills on the other.

And then once you've paid off that highest rate balance first, then you can move on to the next highest rate balance. So that is really going to be the cheapest and the most efficient way for you to pay off your debt. There's something to be said for tackling the smallest island first as well. I mean, if you do have a balance that is $100 and you know that you can tackle that, it might be worth the psychological payoff for you to do that.

And that's just a different approach. It's not the least expensive approach, but maybe you do need that to even get in to this mindset of paying off debt. And hey, you can mix them up. Maybe you need to do that to dip your toe into debt, pay off, and then you switch to the bigger island and then you get to the middle one.

So it can definitely be whatever works for you and whatever motivates you.

So there's no real wrong approach. It just might be financially smarter to pay off that highest rate balance first.

Exactly. That's going to be the least expensive.

I like that. So what other debt solutions can people explore if they maybe aren't able to be completely or feel that they're being completely successful with the tips we've already discussed?

Yeah. So this will really depend on the size of your debt. There is what's called debt settlement that typically happens directly with your lender. So you pay a portion of what you owe as a lump sum. If you're already in default, it's usually unavailable and then any amount forgiven will probably be taxed as income by the IRS. So that's good to keep in mind.

But essentially you're paying off what you can pay off and hopefully getting the rest forgiven. That's debt settlement that happens directly with your lender. And then the other option is bankruptcy, which is not necessarily the end of the world. There is chapter seven, Chapter 11. The bad news is it does really tank your credit score. You're going to have to work on that after this.

And basically, it either restructures your debt with a 3 to 5 year payoff plan. That's Chapter 11. Then that's usually the most common, or it discharges all of your unsecured debt with chapter seven. And that's a little bit harder to essentially get approved for. But Chapter 11 bankruptcy, especially after a pandemic, especially in the midst of sky high inflation, is a lot more common than people think.

I know a lot of people tend to think of bankruptcy as kind of a scarlet letter when it comes to finances. So it sounds like it's something if you if you desperately need it, but maybe not look at it as your first choice.

Exactly. Right. So, you know, hopefully when you do these other steps, you know, budget, lower your interest rate, rank your debts, then, you know, if none of this is working and you've exhausted other options, bankruptcy is certainly there.

I really appreciate everything that you've mentioned. You know, is there anything else you just kind of wanted to add?

So if you need more help on any one of these things, you know, there's a guide that wallet hub to, you know, really get into budgeting or really get into the island approach the snowball method, the avalanche method, all of which we, you know, briefly mentioned here.

While it's best to refrain from going into debt, sometimes incurring debt can be unavoidable. Attempts to pay off the debt can be difficult. On the latest episode of PennyWise, producer/editor Ambre Moton is joined by WalletHub's Jill Gonzalez shares tips on the best ways to pay off debt.
Read more on WalletHub <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/d/best-way-to-pay-off-debt/24477">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Jill Gonzalez is the spokesperson for WalletHub. Her appearances as a Wallet Guru include Wall Street Journal Live, Yahoo Finance Live and ABC News New York. Her take on consumer finance issues has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC Online and Kiplinger.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Sometimes incurring debt just can't be avoided. It can, however, be a struggle trying to figure out how to pay it off. Welcome to Pennywise, the Enterprise Enterprises podcast. I am Ambre Moton, producer and editor of the show filling in for Nat Cardona. Jill Gonzales from Wallethub is joining me today to talk about the best ways to pay off debt.
Jill, thank you so much for being here for the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
We going to be talking about the five best ways to pay off debt. So I guess overall, like what's the first step that people should take towards paying off debt?
So the best way to really pay off debt is definitely a multi-pronged approach so that you're ready for your future once you don't have this debt anymore. So look at your spending patterns. Get current on your payments, lower your interest rates. All of that starts with stopping the bleeding by making a budget.
We definitely hear about that a lot. You mentioned lowering interest rates and I know I hear about that all the time, but how can that actually be done?
Right. So lowering your interest rates on your debts is going to lower your costs overall. So the first step here is trying to lower your interest rates by consolidating your debt or by negotiating with lenders. You know, if you actually call up your lenders or sometimes you can use the chat little feature on, you know, their website or app.
I think calling is probably still the best way. A little more time consuming, but worth it 80% of the time. If you ask your lender, hey, I want a lower interest rate or I'm considering, you know, opening up a new card, jumping ship, something like that, then they'll negotiate with you and you should be able to get that interest rate lowered.
That won't decrease your balance, but it can at least slow it or even stop it from increasing.
That's really good. You know, I've heard that you can do it. And I fully admit I have never attempted, but to hear that statistic about how many, you know, the chances of it actually happening, that is going to motivate me, I think, to actually do it my own life.
Exactly. Yeah. Take take the risk. Women, what have you got to lose?
Right. Worst case, they say no. And I'm still making my regular payments with my regular APR. Right. But I feel like I've always been told to have an emergency fund. But, you know, how can someone do that if they're also struggling with debt?
Yeah. So when we talked about budgeting, so part of your budget and, you know, our first step here is going to be budgeting for saving. So that's going to become your emergency fund. So that's something that we need. You know, setbacks happen all the time. We just came off of a huge pandemic. A lot of people lost jobs.
There were a lot of emergency health issues. So, you know, there are setbacks that happen all the time that even if you pay your debt off, can send you right back to it. So any safety net that you have can keep you afloat just enough to avoid erasing all your debt. Pay off progress that you made. So ideally, one day you'll be able to have six months to a year's worth of income as an emergency fund.
But, you know, take small steps and start with just budgeting for any type of saving in your step. Number one.
I like that. That makes it sound a lot more manageable than when you say taking steps to do it, start doing it as opposed to, you know, you need to have six months immediately. You know, I think that hearing that it's kind of intimidating for people when they're struggling.
Exactly. And that's kind of the key here. I mean, that's why we started off with saying stop the bleeding, because I think sometimes people get so overwhelmed, they're like, I don't want to look I don't even want to look at my savings right now. I want to look at my credit card bills. I don't want to look at my, you know, banking app.
But that really is number one. You got to know where you stand on each of your balances. And you know what? You can afford to pay off. Now, what you're working to pay off later, but stopping the bleeding and just, you know, making it more manageable is the first step, right? Baby steps.
So if someone has a balance on multiple credit cards, which I think is a lot more common than most people think, what's the best strategy for dealing with that?
So this is what I refer to as the island approach. And for all of us in debt, I know it's hard to think about Hawaii and ever being able to go there, but for the purposes of this, think of Hawaii. Think of your debts and your credit card, your separate credit cards, as you know, interconnected islands, each kind of having their own approach.
And then we're going to use the snowball effect. So kind of the opposite of Hawaii did pay them down. So I understand. And rank your dad's and pay off the highest rate balance first. So say you have three credit cards and the one with the lowest balance might be $1,000. The one with the lowest balance I would do that might be 800.
But the difference is that $1,000 balance has an interest rate of 20% and your $800 balance has an interest rate of at 26%, which is actually the average right now, which is the highest it's ever been. So you want to rank that highest rate balance first because that is costing you the most money over time. So instead of sprinkling any extra cash you have on hand across all of your credit cards, focus any extra cash on that one with the highest balance and pay the minimum, do the minimum bills on the other.
And then once you've paid off that highest rate balance first, then you can move on to the next highest rate balance. So that is really going to be the cheapest and the most efficient way for you to pay off your debt. There's something to be said for tackling the smallest island first as well. I mean, if you do have a balance that is $100 and you know that you can tackle that, it might be worth the psychological payoff for you to do that.
And that's just a different approach. It's not the least expensive approach, but maybe you do need that to even get in to this mindset of paying off debt. And hey, you can mix them up. Maybe you need to do that to dip your toe into debt, pay off, and then you switch to the bigger island and then you get to the middle one.
So it can definitely be whatever works for you and whatever motivates you.
So there's no real wrong approach. It just might be financially smarter to pay off that highest rate balance first.
Exactly. That's going to be the least expensive.
I like that. So what other debt solutions can people explore if they maybe aren't able to be completely or feel that they're being completely successful with the tips we've already discussed?
Yeah. So this will really depend on the size of your debt. There is what's called debt settlement that typically happens directly with your lender. So you pay a portion of what you owe as a lump sum. If you're already in default, it's usually unavailable and then any amount forgiven will probably be taxed as income by the IRS. So that's good to keep in mind.
But essentially you're paying off what you can pay off and hopefully getting the rest forgiven. That's debt settlement that happens directly with your lender. And then the other option is bankruptcy, which is not necessarily the end of the world. There is chapter seven, Chapter 11. The bad news is it does really tank your credit score. You're going to have to work on that after this.
And basically, it either restructures your debt with a 3 to 5 year payoff plan. That's Chapter 11. Then that's usually the most common, or it discharges all of your unsecured debt with chapter seven. And that's a little bit harder to essentially get approved for. But Chapter 11 bankruptcy, especially after a pandemic, especially in the midst of sky high inflation, is a lot more common than people think.
I know a lot of people tend to think of bankruptcy as kind of a scarlet letter when it comes to finances. So it sounds like it's something if you if you desperately need it, but maybe not look at it as your first choice.
Exactly. Right. So, you know, hopefully when you do these other steps, you know, budget, lower your interest rate, rank your debts, then, you know, if none of this is working and you've exhausted other options, bankruptcy is certainly there.
I really appreciate everything that you've mentioned. You know, is there anything else you just kind of wanted to add?
So if you need more help on any one of these things, you know, there's a guide that wallet hub to, you know, really get into budgeting or really get into the island approach the snowball method, the avalanche method, all of which we, you know, briefly mentioned here.

5 tips to pay off debt

Inflation is up, interest rates are high and Americans' budgets are getting tighter. The balance transfer offers on credit cards can look like an attractive option for those carrying balances on their cards. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Melissa Lambarena, credit card expert at NerdWallet, shares tips on how to avoid common pitfalls with credit card balance transfers.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to PennyWise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona. Times are tough for many American households right now. High interest rates, inflation, tight budgets, debt piling up. For all of these reasons. Balance transfer credit cards may be a helpful option for zapping that debt, but they aren't a cure all. Nerdwallet Credit Card Team senior writer Melissa Lambarena is here with us with some ways to avoid balance transfer credit card mistakes.

Everyone knows that we've got high inflation, high interest rates. People are really hitting up their credit cards because times are tough for a lot of households. And something appealing may be moving your high interest from one credit card to another that has maybe zero APR. You can run into some trouble with some of these things, though. So we want to kind of go over some of the mistakes to avoid.

The first being, this one that I see right here is trying to transfer a balance between cards with the same issuer. Let's just go into that. That's something you probably want to avoid. Yes. You actually even transfer a balance with the same credit card issuer. So this is when it might make sense to open a balance transfer credit card with the new issuer.

Sometimes if you have a different credit card with another issuer, they might send you offers via email or in your email inbox. And this might be helpful in letting you use an existing line of credit to take advantage of a 0% balance transfer offer. Okay, that makes sense. And sometimes you might be missing the balance transfer deadline. Let's get into that.

That might be something that people aren't aware of. When you're trying to transfer a balance, you typically have somewhere between 30 and 120 days to complete that transfer. So if that's your main goal, you want to make sure to act quickly so that you can take advantage of all of the benefits and make sure that you still qualify and are able to complete that transfer.

Sure. And just like anything else, there are hidden fees left and right, and you could miss the fact that you're not taking into account that there is a balance transfer fee, right? Yes. The balance transfer fee is one thing that people sometimes fail to consider and it can be a little bit tricky. You have to compare that costs with the amount of interest that you're already paying and projected to pay over time.

So you want to factor in the transfer fee that might be 3% or 5% of the total amount transferred. And compare if it's going to save you money compared to the amount of interest you'll pay over several months. And Nerdwallet has a calculator that can help you weigh these costs. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up, because that's very important, because a lot of this stuff can be overwhelming for sure.

This is one that I have heard of people encountering in the past, overestimating how much debt that can be transferred. Let's get into that. Yes, a balance transfer limits is very different from your cards credit limit. It's significantly lower where you can only transfer as much as that balance transfer limit permits. So you want to be mindful of that.

This means that you might not get to transfer all of the debt that you were hoping to do, do so, and you might have to come up with another plan, a different plan for that balance that might be leftover that you couldn't transfer. Sure. And when you're planning things out and planning out your finances and budgeting, just kind of with any credit card or any bill you have, you need to and probably want to make more than the minimum payment, especially when it comes to those balance transfers.

Right. Thinking more than the minimum is always a great idea. And that is one common mistake that people might make with a balance transfer because you're not paying interest in that promotional period. But the goal of this card is to make sure that you make a debt in that balance, and by paying more than the minimum, you'll be able to do so.

You want to make sure that you take the total balance and divide it by the number of months within that promotional period and contribute that amount monthly to make sure that it's paid off once that promotion expires. Sure. And speaking of making those smarter financial decisions, so you've moved your hefty balance from one card to the next. You've now got zero IPR, a little bit of breathing room.

Some may be tempted to continue spending on that now freed up original card. Right. And of course, it's got to be something you want to avoid. Yes, you definitely want to avoid this. It will delay your progress. And not only that, if you think about the mindset, right, you're looking and hoping for that balance to decrease over time.

If you see it continue to build up. What is that going to do to your motivation as well? So it can delay your goals in several different ways and you just want to make sure that you keep that card with the goal of paying it down and maybe consider other options. Switching to debit or cash for other expenses.

And that can make a huge difference in final thing here, while balance transfers may be a beautiful tool and very helpful in a time of need and actually a good financial decision when it comes down to it, it's not the overall debt management solution for your finances, right? That's right. A balance transfer credit card can be a great tool for getting out of debt, but it's important to come up with a plan to prevent that debt cycle for repeating.

And this might mean that you do your budget and make any necessary changes or work to an emergency fund or any other changes that might keep debt up. It's important to be able to have your finances in order to make sure that the cycle doesn't keep repeating. Sure, it's that lifestyle change stuff that's welcome to adulthood. You got to kind of pivot where necessary.

Okay, Melissa, anything else you want to add about balance transfer between credit cards, benefits, anything like that? You can use your time to shine. Anything you want to add when considering a balance transfer credit card, make sure that you weigh all the cost. The ideal balance transfer credit card should have no annual be a 0% introductory EPR. That's long enough to help you pay down your debt and a low balance transfer free fee, which is typically 3% or less.

Well, beautiful. Thank you so much.

Inflation is up, interest rates are high and Americans' budgets are getting tighter. The balance transfer offers on credit cards can look like an attractive option for those carrying balances on their cards. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/melissa-lambarena">Melissa Lambarena,</a> credit card expert at NerdWallet, shares tips on how to avoid common pitfalls with credit card balance transfers.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-card-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to PennyWise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona. Times are tough for many American households right now. High interest rates, inflation, tight budgets, debt piling up. For all of these reasons. Balance transfer credit cards may be a helpful option for zapping that debt, but they aren't a cure all. Nerdwallet Credit Card Team senior writer Melissa Lambarena is here with us with some ways to avoid balance transfer credit card mistakes.
Everyone knows that we've got high inflation, high interest rates. People are really hitting up their credit cards because times are tough for a lot of households. And something appealing may be moving your high interest from one credit card to another that has maybe zero APR. You can run into some trouble with some of these things, though. So we want to kind of go over some of the mistakes to avoid.
The first being, this one that I see right here is trying to transfer a balance between cards with the same issuer. Let's just go into that. That's something you probably want to avoid. Yes. You actually even transfer a balance with the same credit card issuer. So this is when it might make sense to open a balance transfer credit card with the new issuer.
Sometimes if you have a different credit card with another issuer, they might send you offers via email or in your email inbox. And this might be helpful in letting you use an existing line of credit to take advantage of a 0% balance transfer offer. Okay, that makes sense. And sometimes you might be missing the balance transfer deadline. Let's get into that.
That might be something that people aren't aware of. When you're trying to transfer a balance, you typically have somewhere between 30 and 120 days to complete that transfer. So if that's your main goal, you want to make sure to act quickly so that you can take advantage of all of the benefits and make sure that you still qualify and are able to complete that transfer.
Sure. And just like anything else, there are hidden fees left and right, and you could miss the fact that you're not taking into account that there is a balance transfer fee, right? Yes. The balance transfer fee is one thing that people sometimes fail to consider and it can be a little bit tricky. You have to compare that costs with the amount of interest that you're already paying and projected to pay over time.
So you want to factor in the transfer fee that might be 3% or 5% of the total amount transferred. And compare if it's going to save you money compared to the amount of interest you'll pay over several months. And Nerdwallet has a calculator that can help you weigh these costs. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up, because that's very important, because a lot of this stuff can be overwhelming for sure.
This is one that I have heard of people encountering in the past, overestimating how much debt that can be transferred. Let's get into that. Yes, a balance transfer limits is very different from your cards credit limit. It's significantly lower where you can only transfer as much as that balance transfer limit permits. So you want to be mindful of that.
This means that you might not get to transfer all of the debt that you were hoping to do, do so, and you might have to come up with another plan, a different plan for that balance that might be leftover that you couldn't transfer. Sure. And when you're planning things out and planning out your finances and budgeting, just kind of with any credit card or any bill you have, you need to and probably want to make more than the minimum payment, especially when it comes to those balance transfers.
Right. Thinking more than the minimum is always a great idea. And that is one common mistake that people might make with a balance transfer because you're not paying interest in that promotional period. But the goal of this card is to make sure that you make a debt in that balance, and by paying more than the minimum, you'll be able to do so.
You want to make sure that you take the total balance and divide it by the number of months within that promotional period and contribute that amount monthly to make sure that it's paid off once that promotion expires. Sure. And speaking of making those smarter financial decisions, so you've moved your hefty balance from one card to the next. You've now got zero IPR, a little bit of breathing room.
Some may be tempted to continue spending on that now freed up original card. Right. And of course, it's got to be something you want to avoid. Yes, you definitely want to avoid this. It will delay your progress. And not only that, if you think about the mindset, right, you're looking and hoping for that balance to decrease over time.
If you see it continue to build up. What is that going to do to your motivation as well? So it can delay your goals in several different ways and you just want to make sure that you keep that card with the goal of paying it down and maybe consider other options. Switching to debit or cash for other expenses.
And that can make a huge difference in final thing here, while balance transfers may be a beautiful tool and very helpful in a time of need and actually a good financial decision when it comes down to it, it's not the overall debt management solution for your finances, right? That's right. A balance transfer credit card can be a great tool for getting out of debt, but it's important to come up with a plan to prevent that debt cycle for repeating.
And this might mean that you do your budget and make any necessary changes or work to an emergency fund or any other changes that might keep debt up. It's important to be able to have your finances in order to make sure that the cycle doesn't keep repeating. Sure, it's that lifestyle change stuff that's welcome to adulthood. You got to kind of pivot where necessary.
Okay, Melissa, anything else you want to add about balance transfer between credit cards, benefits, anything like that? You can use your time to shine. Anything you want to add when considering a balance transfer credit card, make sure that you weigh all the cost. The ideal balance transfer credit card should have no annual be a 0% introductory EPR. That's long enough to help you pay down your debt and a low balance transfer free fee, which is typically 3% or less.
Well, beautiful. Thank you so much.

7 balance transfer credit card mistakes and how to avoid them

As of 2023 Americans owe more than $1 trillion in credit card debt, but being proactive and completing four key steps can help consumers avoid credit card debt. Joining PennyWise this week is personal finance writer at WalletHub, Chip Lupo, to describe in detail how to accomplish the four steps.

Read more on WalletHub here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Chip Lupo is a personal finance writer for WalletHub.com, specializing in credit cards, credit reports and scores, and debt management, and has worked remotely from the Columbia, SC area since joining the WalletHub team in 2018. Chip manages all the finances in his household and has become adept at employing strategies to minimize the family’s debt.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to PennyWise, a Lee Enterprises Podcast. I'm Ambre Moton the producer and editor of the show, filling in for Nat Cardona. Americans collectively owe more than $1 trillion in just credit card debt as of 2023. So it's fair to say that staying out of debt is a challenge for many people. Luckily today, our friends at Wallet Hub published a story called How to Stay Out of Debt, Tips, Strategies and more.

To help with that, I'm being joined by Chip Lupo of Wallet Hub to go over some tips for staying out of debt. Chip, according to this article, there are four main steps to staying out of debt. The first step is to cover all of your bases. What exactly does that mean? Well, it's a tiered process here. And start off.

It's important to note that these rules are these tips. While they primarily apply to people who have spent months or years trying to get out of debt, they're also very helpful to someone starting out managing finances for the first time to avoid getting into debt in the first place. So there's just four basic steps and we'll expand on these as we go.

You want to build an emergency fund? That's that's the first step. You want to set a budget very important and stick to it. What you set your budget develop a routine which involves checking your finances to make sure you're staying on budget. And then finally, most important, avoid repeating any past mistakes that got you into debt. That's definitely a good one.

And then you said developing a routine. What can you. Can you just kind of explain that a little bit more? Well, developing a routine is just basic habits. Once you once you set a budget, you want to make savings, a recurring expense. Most people put savings on the back end when it comes to prioritizing. You want to make that part of your part of your budget the same as your mortgage, the car payments, utility bills, a certain amount every week, every month, according to your finances.

But make sure that's built into your budget. That's part of the one step of the routine. You also want to review your monthly bills regularly, particularly those that fluctuate power bills, utility bills. Check your cable bills regularly or phone bills for any, you know, rates go up, things like that. So if you want to stay on top of that, because sometimes price hikes can make a major change to your budget, you also want to keep track of any savings investment accounts, review your bank statements regularly, check for fees, check for anything, any hidden costs.

Look for any any types of frauds or any errors in your account. So you want to stay on top of that. You also want to employ what we call the island approach to credit card spending, which means using different credit cards for specific expenses. If you have a gas credit card, you want to use that to track you fuel purchases every month.

That way, they're isolated. They're itemized on one statement. And then you can adjust your budget accordingly. Now, of course, that approach works best if you plan on paying your credit card bill in full every month, which is something you should be doing anyway in order to stay at it. You also. Okay, so the next thing in this article, it says that you should activate, safeguard or safeguard just it's more like protecting your investments.

You want to sign up for credit monitoring checks, anything that checks for identity theft, anything along those lines that will more or less keep your mind, your ease, particularly if you're one of these people who's been in debt and the last thing you want is some identity theft or someone racking up loans on your on your credit. Things like that.

That's what we mean by talking about safeguards in your in your banks and your credit card companies. They have a vested interest in fraud prevention, too. So check with them. A lot of times you can get free services, wallet, help has three credit monitoring services shop around and find a deal that works best for you. When you talk about shopping around specifically related to credit monitoring systems, you know what quality should be looking for, what you would want something ideally something that is 24 seven.

Weekends, holidays, any time. Fraud is 24% and there's no timeline when it comes to fraud. So you would want a service that would be able to provide that around the clock. Are there any other things that people struggling with debt or, you know, struggling to stay out of debt should really do? Sure. Building an emergency fund that's probably that should be your first step because you would want to have a backup plan if you lose your job, if you have an injury to prevent you from working or any other unexpected costs that would help you avoid falling back into debt once you pay off what you owe.

And ideally, you would want to try to have at least six months of salary saved up. That's usually recommended, but that can be more or less depending on your budgets. Secondly, the budget you want to set a budget and stick to it. Basically, that means and it can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be, but it boils down to writing down all of your expenses and how much money you're bringing in, and it allows you to track where your money is going and identifying the sources of any overspending that could be.

Subscription services. You sign up for a trial, 14 day trial, and then a year later you're still being charged for something you may not even be using anymore. Next up is that every month you would want to divvy up how much you want to put towards the essential expenses savings and for one case or any kind of retirement plan.

Do that first to determine how much you have left at the end of the month for any non-essential expenses for dining, entertainment, those types of things. And that way. So when the time comes, if you have to make any major spending cuts or a change in your financial situation, you'll know exactly what needs to go, what has to stay, what has to go.

Yeah, all of those sound, you know, pretty, I guess, common sense. And there's no way, no better way to do that than to put it down on paper if you see it in front of you, especially in this electronic credit card, you don't see the money coming in knowing you have a spreadsheet or a notebook or however you want to track your budget.

You see it right in front of you. So you know immediately where every penny of your money is going. That's definitely an awesome tip. I just bought a new notebook specifically for tracking all of my expenses because I feel like you said, with everything being electronic, paying my bills, my rent, everything electronic, it's sometimes hard to see where everything's going out compared to what's coming in.

Right. And again, as I mentioned earlier, it can be as simple or as elaborate. We talked about developing a routine earlier. So what we're going to do now is avoiding repeating any prior mistakes. You have to understand how you got into debt in the first place and detail onto that. You make a plan to to resist the temptation to overspend.

Treat yourself once in a while when you're making progress. Rewards yourself. Go to Starbucks, have a long day. But don't get to the point where it becomes a habit again, because otherwise you're going to be falling right back into that same cycle all over again. And then what's a really good thing that we can do? Are there ways to teach next generation?

Is that a good way to help keep them from getting underwater when they first, you know, strike out on their own? Well, that's very important, and I'm glad you brought that up. It is never too early to teach your children financial literacy. And a lot of banks now have cards and accounts set up specifically for children with spending limits.

So you teach them about budgeting. You open out or give them a debit card with a $100, $200 limit so they know right away how much they have and if they blow it all in the first day, or whether you gain financial literacy through practice, it's you know, we stand here and talk about and talk about habits through practice that you really understand how to stay out of debt.

It's never too early to start planning to stay out of debt and never too late to try and get out. Right. To make smart choices. Absolutely. Yes.

As of 2023 Americans owe more than $1 trillion in credit card debt, but being proactive and completing four key steps can help consumers avoid credit card debt. Joining PennyWise this week is personal finance writer at WalletHub, Chip Lupo, to describe in detail how to accomplish the four steps.
Read more on WalletHub <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/d/how-to-stay-out-of-debt/25855">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Chip Lupo is a personal finance writer for WalletHub.com, specializing in credit cards, credit reports and scores, and debt management, and has worked remotely from the Columbia, SC area since joining the WalletHub team in 2018. Chip manages all the finances in his household and has become adept at employing strategies to minimize the family’s debt.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to PennyWise, a Lee Enterprises Podcast. I'm Ambre Moton the producer and editor of the show, filling in for Nat Cardona. Americans collectively owe more than $1 trillion in just credit card debt as of 2023. So it's fair to say that staying out of debt is a challenge for many people. Luckily today, our friends at Wallet Hub published a story called How to Stay Out of Debt, Tips, Strategies and more.
To help with that, I'm being joined by Chip Lupo of Wallet Hub to go over some tips for staying out of debt. Chip, according to this article, there are four main steps to staying out of debt. The first step is to cover all of your bases. What exactly does that mean? Well, it's a tiered process here. And start off.
It's important to note that these rules are these tips. While they primarily apply to people who have spent months or years trying to get out of debt, they're also very helpful to someone starting out managing finances for the first time to avoid getting into debt in the first place. So there's just four basic steps and we'll expand on these as we go.
You want to build an emergency fund? That's that's the first step. You want to set a budget very important and stick to it. What you set your budget develop a routine which involves checking your finances to make sure you're staying on budget. And then finally, most important, avoid repeating any past mistakes that got you into debt. That's definitely a good one.
And then you said developing a routine. What can you. Can you just kind of explain that a little bit more? Well, developing a routine is just basic habits. Once you once you set a budget, you want to make savings, a recurring expense. Most people put savings on the back end when it comes to prioritizing. You want to make that part of your part of your budget the same as your mortgage, the car payments, utility bills, a certain amount every week, every month, according to your finances.
But make sure that's built into your budget. That's part of the one step of the routine. You also want to review your monthly bills regularly, particularly those that fluctuate power bills, utility bills. Check your cable bills regularly or phone bills for any, you know, rates go up, things like that. So if you want to stay on top of that, because sometimes price hikes can make a major change to your budget, you also want to keep track of any savings investment accounts, review your bank statements regularly, check for fees, check for anything, any hidden costs.
Look for any any types of frauds or any errors in your account. So you want to stay on top of that. You also want to employ what we call the island approach to credit card spending, which means using different credit cards for specific expenses. If you have a gas credit card, you want to use that to track you fuel purchases every month.
That way, they're isolated. They're itemized on one statement. And then you can adjust your budget accordingly. Now, of course, that approach works best if you plan on paying your credit card bill in full every month, which is something you should be doing anyway in order to stay at it. You also. Okay, so the next thing in this article, it says that you should activate, safeguard or safeguard just it's more like protecting your investments.
You want to sign up for credit monitoring checks, anything that checks for identity theft, anything along those lines that will more or less keep your mind, your ease, particularly if you're one of these people who's been in debt and the last thing you want is some identity theft or someone racking up loans on your on your credit. Things like that.
That's what we mean by talking about safeguards in your in your banks and your credit card companies. They have a vested interest in fraud prevention, too. So check with them. A lot of times you can get free services, wallet, help has three credit monitoring services shop around and find a deal that works best for you. When you talk about shopping around specifically related to credit monitoring systems, you know what quality should be looking for, what you would want something ideally something that is 24 seven.
Weekends, holidays, any time. Fraud is 24% and there's no timeline when it comes to fraud. So you would want a service that would be able to provide that around the clock. Are there any other things that people struggling with debt or, you know, struggling to stay out of debt should really do? Sure. Building an emergency fund that's probably that should be your first step because you would want to have a backup plan if you lose your job, if you have an injury to prevent you from working or any other unexpected costs that would help you avoid falling back into debt once you pay off what you owe.
And ideally, you would want to try to have at least six months of salary saved up. That's usually recommended, but that can be more or less depending on your budgets. Secondly, the budget you want to set a budget and stick to it. Basically, that means and it can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be, but it boils down to writing down all of your expenses and how much money you're bringing in, and it allows you to track where your money is going and identifying the sources of any overspending that could be.
Subscription services. You sign up for a trial, 14 day trial, and then a year later you're still being charged for something you may not even be using anymore. Next up is that every month you would want to divvy up how much you want to put towards the essential expenses savings and for one case or any kind of retirement plan.
Do that first to determine how much you have left at the end of the month for any non-essential expenses for dining, entertainment, those types of things. And that way. So when the time comes, if you have to make any major spending cuts or a change in your financial situation, you'll know exactly what needs to go, what has to stay, what has to go.
Yeah, all of those sound, you know, pretty, I guess, common sense. And there's no way, no better way to do that than to put it down on paper if you see it in front of you, especially in this electronic credit card, you don't see the money coming in knowing you have a spreadsheet or a notebook or however you want to track your budget.
You see it right in front of you. So you know immediately where every penny of your money is going. That's definitely an awesome tip. I just bought a new notebook specifically for tracking all of my expenses because I feel like you said, with everything being electronic, paying my bills, my rent, everything electronic, it's sometimes hard to see where everything's going out compared to what's coming in.
Right. And again, as I mentioned earlier, it can be as simple or as elaborate. We talked about developing a routine earlier. So what we're going to do now is avoiding repeating any prior mistakes. You have to understand how you got into debt in the first place and detail onto that. You make a plan to to resist the temptation to overspend.
Treat yourself once in a while when you're making progress. Rewards yourself. Go to Starbucks, have a long day. But don't get to the point where it becomes a habit again, because otherwise you're going to be falling right back into that same cycle all over again. And then what's a really good thing that we can do? Are there ways to teach next generation?
Is that a good way to help keep them from getting underwater when they first, you know, strike out on their own? Well, that's very important, and I'm glad you brought that up. It is never too early to teach your children financial literacy. And a lot of banks now have cards and accounts set up specifically for children with spending limits.
So you teach them about budgeting. You open out or give them a debit card with a $100, $200 limit so they know right away how much they have and if they blow it all in the first day, or whether you gain financial literacy through practice, it's you know, we stand here and talk about and talk about habits through practice that you really understand how to stay out of debt.
It's never too early to start planning to stay out of debt and never too late to try and get out. Right. To make smart choices. Absolutely. Yes.

4 ways to stay out of debt

Text messages warning of financial concerns will prompt users to click on a link or call a number to resolve an urgent matter. But that message is very likely an attempt to extract sensitive information. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Elizabeth Ayoola of NerdWallet to share tips on how to avoid a common text messaging scam.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, the Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Today, we're talking scams. There are a million types of scams to choose from, but our focus today are those sneaky little text message scams that find their way to your phone. We have NerdWallet personal finance writer Elizabeth Ayoola with us today, ready to share a few basic but important precautions you can take to ensure that you don't fall prey to a bank impersonation tax scam.

Scams are here. They're everywhere. They come in a million shapes and sizes and formats. Today we're talking about the top tax message scam that's putting your cash at risk. And I was really shocked to find it's under the guise of being your banking institution. So the first thing I want to get into is can you call to lay out what this could look like when it comes to your phone?

Yes. So you may get a text message and someone a strange phone number may send you a link or tell you, hey, you have to call me right away, because if you don't, you're going to lose money or you're going to be locked out of your account. I personally have gotten those messages before. And when it comes to your money, that can create a lot of urgency or fear within yourself because you're like, my God, you know what's going to happen to my money?

And I want to protect my stuff? So sometimes that allows people judgment and the first thing that they do is click on the link or call the number and what the scammer might do on that and is now try to extract sensitive information from you. So it could be your account number, your source code, your Social security number, your address.

And unfortunately what they could do with that information is an array of things they can set up auto pays with your information and deduct money from your account that way. And also in some cases as well, they can actually use your information to get credit cards out or take out loans, which can be terrible for people, which is why it's so important as well to check your credit report regularly, to check your bank information regularly and flag any suspicious information that you see on there.

Right. I've had this actually happen to me personally, but it was under the guise of of what do you call it, a masked phone number. It was the exact same number as my banking institution. I mean, it said the name everything and yeah, and it was the phone number and it was I mean, it's just insane. But the text message I haven't personally seen, so it'll probably pop up with urgency.

But then going off of what you just said is never makamu under pressure like Hastings. Always.

Now I have personally an email. I've actually email scam. I've fallen prey to. And again, it was that urgency. And they said that actually I was getting overpaid in taxes. So my first instinct was really, I'm getting money back. But then I was just like, okay, so they take me to some forum. And again, these things are really sophisticated.

They really mimic the institutions they say they are. And I filled out my account number, my shortcode and everything, and after I did it, I was like, Ooh, this probably was a bad idea. So it's very, very easy to fall prey to that. But just be sure, take a pause, no matter how urgent it is, and call your financial institution to confirm first.

Sure. Which leads me to my next point here. But don't call a number that's texted to you.

Please don't. And in your case, that's crazy because it looks like the same number as your bank.

So it was insane.

Yeah, that's really, really crazy. So definitely go to your Financial institutions website and, you know, get the number directly from there. And a lot of these institutions also have an app, you know, customer service contacts. So sometimes you can log into your app and call directly that way. So call in a secure way and not from the number that they give you for sure.

And actually under the same header that I just read about, don't call the number that's texted to you. It seems that the median loss of these texts scams could be in the amount of like $3,000. It's so it's not an insignificant amount of money. I mean, it's not a 25 bucks. They got a gift card out of you or whatever, right?

Yeah. No, it's not always a significant amount, but a good tip for people is to definitely if you can bank with FDIC insured banks so that even if you do lose money, you can get some of your money back. Most banks that I've worked with personally are pretty good, and I have less lost money through fraud before. In kind of returning those funds.

They will launch an investigation first. But, you know, sometimes you can recoup your money.

So let's get into that a little bit more. It's kind of the last major thing here is like the worst has happened. You fell prey to don't just get past the shame and the embarrassment. It is what it is. What do you do if you were unable to avoid that scam, what's the next stop waiting to take?

Well, the first thing that you want to do is you want to contact your financial institution and you want to let them know what has happened. So most banks usually have a fraud department, so you can report that to the fraud department. The second thing that you want to do is reporting it to an institution like your local police station, even the FBI or any kind of institution that can basically help you with that.

And the importance of doing that last step as well is to help other people. I know it's not necessarily your obligation to do that, but when you report these scams, hopefully they can, you know, get investigated and shut down if possible, so more people don't fall prey to it.

Sure. Sure. I've seen stuff even in my local news. I live in the Madison, Wisconsin area. And when there is an uptick in these things and it somehow leads just strictly in the same area, there's always usually a good news story about it, about, you know, X amount of people that have been dealing with something. So, yeah, it does help if you report these things.

So and this is a thought that's popped in my mind and correct me if I'm wrong with your expertise, but like your book is not going to text you. Well, they'll probably text you. You know, the banking texts that I get are very robotic, like you made a deposit in X amount of money and it's like, but I've set it up that way so I know what to expect.

But like otherwise you're not going to have Jane or Jim texted you like, gosh, right now, right?

You're not. You're not. But again, some people get thrown off card with like, you know, getting a random text message. And again, when it has to do with your money, you're like, my God, my God. So you're just not thinking about your bank or financial institution is. I hope they're not going to affect you. For my experience, they're usually not going to call you and tell you to call the strange number.

The most I usually get is an encrypted message that says, Hey, even if they send you a message on your app, log in to your app. You know, we have something that we want to tell you. So again, always just call and confirm first. I think that's the best practice.

So there you go. Anything else you want to add about this topic?

Yes, just generally, because I do have to say I'm not a financial investment advisor and because everyone's financial situation is different, this information is not personalized. So I do have to put that out there. But otherwise you can go on nerdwallet dot com and get more information about how to keep your bank safe and secure. I will also add that it's good safe practices to get two step authentication.

Most platforms offer that, so that's another another layer added added layer of protection where aside from adding in your password, they might send you a one time code as well that you have to put in. So scammers will find it a lot more harder to hack into your accounts if you have to step authentication. I know we hate doing this, but change your passwords regularly, even if it means just adding a one to the end of your existing password because you just never know who might have access to that sensitive information.

thank you for saying that, because when I fell prey to it, the two the two factor authentication, it just it really changed my world. Yes, it's annoying. I feel ridiculous to have to press extra links, but that added layer of security is actually in the last few years since this snafu had happened. Breathing easier every day. Yeah.

Yes. But when a friend of mine set up alerts with your bank from emails and text. So anytime suspicious, suspicious information goes on in your account, you get alerted about it as well.

All about that piece of mind. Well, thank you so much, Elizabeth.

You're welcome.

Text messages warning of financial concerns will prompt users to click on a link or call a number to resolve an urgent matter. But that message is very likely an attempt to extract sensitive information. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/elizabeth-ayoola">Elizabeth Ayoola</a> of NerdWallet to share tips on how to avoid a common text messaging scam.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/text-message-scam">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, the Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Today, we're talking scams. There are a million types of scams to choose from, but our focus today are those sneaky little text message scams that find their way to your phone. We have NerdWallet personal finance writer Elizabeth Ayoola with us today, ready to share a few basic but important precautions you can take to ensure that you don't fall prey to a bank impersonation tax scam.
Scams are here. They're everywhere. They come in a million shapes and sizes and formats. Today we're talking about the top tax message scam that's putting your cash at risk. And I was really shocked to find it's under the guise of being your banking institution. So the first thing I want to get into is can you call to lay out what this could look like when it comes to your phone?
Yes. So you may get a text message and someone a strange phone number may send you a link or tell you, hey, you have to call me right away, because if you don't, you're going to lose money or you're going to be locked out of your account. I personally have gotten those messages before. And when it comes to your money, that can create a lot of urgency or fear within yourself because you're like, my God, you know what's going to happen to my money?
And I want to protect my stuff? So sometimes that allows people judgment and the first thing that they do is click on the link or call the number and what the scammer might do on that and is now try to extract sensitive information from you. So it could be your account number, your source code, your Social security number, your address.
And unfortunately what they could do with that information is an array of things they can set up auto pays with your information and deduct money from your account that way. And also in some cases as well, they can actually use your information to get credit cards out or take out loans, which can be terrible for people, which is why it's so important as well to check your credit report regularly, to check your bank information regularly and flag any suspicious information that you see on there.
Right. I've had this actually happen to me personally, but it was under the guise of of what do you call it, a masked phone number. It was the exact same number as my banking institution. I mean, it said the name everything and yeah, and it was the phone number and it was I mean, it's just insane. But the text message I haven't personally seen, so it'll probably pop up with urgency.
But then going off of what you just said is never makamu under pressure like Hastings. Always.
Now I have personally an email. I've actually email scam. I've fallen prey to. And again, it was that urgency. And they said that actually I was getting overpaid in taxes. So my first instinct was really, I'm getting money back. But then I was just like, okay, so they take me to some forum. And again, these things are really sophisticated.
They really mimic the institutions they say they are. And I filled out my account number, my shortcode and everything, and after I did it, I was like, Ooh, this probably was a bad idea. So it's very, very easy to fall prey to that. But just be sure, take a pause, no matter how urgent it is, and call your financial institution to confirm first.
Sure. Which leads me to my next point here. But don't call a number that's texted to you.
Please don't. And in your case, that's crazy because it looks like the same number as your bank.
So it was insane.
Yeah, that's really, really crazy. So definitely go to your Financial institutions website and, you know, get the number directly from there. And a lot of these institutions also have an app, you know, customer service contacts. So sometimes you can log into your app and call directly that way. So call in a secure way and not from the number that they give you for sure.
And actually under the same header that I just read about, don't call the number that's texted to you. It seems that the median loss of these texts scams could be in the amount of like $3,000. It's so it's not an insignificant amount of money. I mean, it's not a 25 bucks. They got a gift card out of you or whatever, right?
Yeah. No, it's not always a significant amount, but a good tip for people is to definitely if you can bank with FDIC insured banks so that even if you do lose money, you can get some of your money back. Most banks that I've worked with personally are pretty good, and I have less lost money through fraud before. In kind of returning those funds.
They will launch an investigation first. But, you know, sometimes you can recoup your money.
So let's get into that a little bit more. It's kind of the last major thing here is like the worst has happened. You fell prey to don't just get past the shame and the embarrassment. It is what it is. What do you do if you were unable to avoid that scam, what's the next stop waiting to take?
Well, the first thing that you want to do is you want to contact your financial institution and you want to let them know what has happened. So most banks usually have a fraud department, so you can report that to the fraud department. The second thing that you want to do is reporting it to an institution like your local police station, even the FBI or any kind of institution that can basically help you with that.
And the importance of doing that last step as well is to help other people. I know it's not necessarily your obligation to do that, but when you report these scams, hopefully they can, you know, get investigated and shut down if possible, so more people don't fall prey to it.
Sure. Sure. I've seen stuff even in my local news. I live in the Madison, Wisconsin area. And when there is an uptick in these things and it somehow leads just strictly in the same area, there's always usually a good news story about it, about, you know, X amount of people that have been dealing with something. So, yeah, it does help if you report these things.
So and this is a thought that's popped in my mind and correct me if I'm wrong with your expertise, but like your book is not going to text you. Well, they'll probably text you. You know, the banking texts that I get are very robotic, like you made a deposit in X amount of money and it's like, but I've set it up that way so I know what to expect.
But like otherwise you're not going to have Jane or Jim texted you like, gosh, right now, right?
You're not. You're not. But again, some people get thrown off card with like, you know, getting a random text message. And again, when it has to do with your money, you're like, my God, my God. So you're just not thinking about your bank or financial institution is. I hope they're not going to affect you. For my experience, they're usually not going to call you and tell you to call the strange number.
The most I usually get is an encrypted message that says, Hey, even if they send you a message on your app, log in to your app. You know, we have something that we want to tell you. So again, always just call and confirm first. I think that's the best practice.
So there you go. Anything else you want to add about this topic?
Yes, just generally, because I do have to say I'm not a financial investment advisor and because everyone's financial situation is different, this information is not personalized. So I do have to put that out there. But otherwise you can go on nerdwallet dot com and get more information about how to keep your bank safe and secure. I will also add that it's good safe practices to get two step authentication.
Most platforms offer that, so that's another another layer added added layer of protection where aside from adding in your password, they might send you a one time code as well that you have to put in. So scammers will find it a lot more harder to hack into your accounts if you have to step authentication. I know we hate doing this, but change your passwords regularly, even if it means just adding a one to the end of your existing password because you just never know who might have access to that sensitive information.
thank you for saying that, because when I fell prey to it, the two the two factor authentication, it just it really changed my world. Yes, it's annoying. I feel ridiculous to have to press extra links, but that added layer of security is actually in the last few years since this snafu had happened. Breathing easier every day. Yeah.
Yes. But when a friend of mine set up alerts with your bank from emails and text. So anytime suspicious, suspicious information goes on in your account, you get alerted about it as well.
All about that piece of mind. Well, thank you so much, Elizabeth.
You're welcome.

How to keep your money safe from text message scams

Common credit card mistakes and how to avoid them

Travel booms during the holiday season and between winter weather and large crowds, delays and cancelations are to be expected. U.S. airlines are not required by law to compensate passengers for flight delays, and refunds are only guaranteed for flights that are canceled. There are, however, things you can do to get some compensation for travel disruptions. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Sally French of NerdWallet who shares the script that worked for her to get compensation from airlines for cancelations and delays. 

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona.

Ah, air travel. It's stressful at times, especially when you're hit with seemingly endless delays or a cancellation that will leave you sitting in an airport chair staring at that God awful carpet pattern while you wait. Nerdwallet Traveler Awards expert Sally French joins us today with two personal flight anecdotes that prove maybe, just maybe, you can be compensated for your time in trouble through your airline if you follow her script.

Sally we're talking about flight delays and two experiences that you had going off of a script to get compensation because of those two flights. So flight delays and cancellations happen. They seem like they're happening more and more often or more. Maybe people on social media are complaining about it. Whatever. Have you. So you're in the airport, your flight's delayed and delayed or delayed.

Let's talk about your anecdotes first and we can just pop in tips along the way. So just go for it.

Yes. So I've been caught up in two fairly significant flight delays this year. The first one happened because I was trying to fly from my home in Oakland, California, to Saint Louis, and I had a layover in Denver. So what happened is the flight departing from Oakland departed late, and it turned out that it ended up being so late that we missed the connecting flight to Saint Louis.

We missed it by just barely. In fact, 20 of my now closest friends who were also trying to make that connection. We ran off the first plane and we saw the plane taking off from the jet bridge and rolling on to the tarmac just there, and they couldn't wait for us. So what ended up happening is we got rebooked on the next departing flight.

But that meant an irritatingly long layover, many hours in the Denver airport, plus a 2 a.m. arrival time in Saint Louis was not ideal. So my question was, what can I do? What can I get out of this other? The flight was on Southwest and they did automatically rebook me to my next flight, but it was still pretty annoying.

So I headed to the customer service desk and I basically said, Hey, it's because this flight is leaning so late, my ride isn't going to be able to pick me up. Do you offer any sort of compensation? And they said, No, we can't get you a ride to your next destination, but how about we offer you an $100 voucher?

And I was like, You know what? I'll take it. I'm rebooked. Anyway, this sounds like a good deal as they're printing out the voucher. I said. Can you offer any food as well? And they also sent me a voucher so I could get dinner up to $14 in the airport to tide me over until the flight. So that was my first.

That Southwest experience. It ended up being not too bad. I got $100 out of it and I had to stay at the airport for like a bonus for hours. But it seemed to work. My second situation was the United flight melt down during 4th of July weekend. I was headed to again, I was actually headed to Colorado. And as I was just looking at my flight arrival time, I saw that my flight had been canceled.

And so this was a huge meltdown because many, many people's flights were canceled that weekend. So what happened is I had to get to Colorado. So I ended up booking a flight actually on Southwest Airlines last minute because I was going to get there no matter what. So you are legally entitled to a full refund for a canceled flight?

I had to pay initially for my United flight. I then paid for an expensive last minute Southwest flight, but I was able to get a full refund on that United flight. However, I felt like that wasn't good enough because I had to book a last minute flight for a higher cost. So I emailed United and I basically said, Hey, my flight was canceled.

The next available option for you to rebook me was to wait. It was going to be two days later, which wouldn't work for my travels. I ended up having to book this other expensive flight. So I'm requesting compensation and I requested exactly $599.56, which was the cost of my new airfare, my travel companions, new airfare, plus an Uber to the hotel that we would have to take because of the delayed flight.

And so I requested about $600 and they responded back to me. They sent both me and my travel companion 30,000 United Miles points and we also got a a refund on the offer. And then the United rep sent me a $500 gift certificate towards future United flights, which basically made up the cost of my flight that I had to purchase anyway.

All in all, it was a pretty good deal out of a bad situation. And and so it just sort of illustrated a big learning is that in the U.S., you are not entitled by the government to compensation for delayed flights. But that doesn't mean you can't get compensation. You just simply have to ask.

Right. Right. And that's immediately with your first story of the delayed flight. It's just putting yourself out there to talk to the agent at the desk and being polite. I imagine, is a huge thing, which you often see in airports is not the case. Right?

Right. That's exactly. Is the person at the ticket counter or is not the cause of your delay, but they can help you get to where you need to go. They can ultimately have that power to rebook you. They're the ones who can issue those meal vouchers or those frequent flier miles. So you really want to make sure that they are on your side?

I'm sure. Sure. And then, you know, in the second predicament that you had with the cancellation, any advice and I don't know if you can just pull this out of your back pocket, but let's say somebody doesn't have immediate extra funds to rebook on a separate airline outside of what they've already. Let's say if it's united or American and you kind of are stuck with a horrible cancellation and reschedule, what would your approach be there, do you think?

Right. That's exactly one of the tough situations, is I just immediately booked a Southwest flight for a couple of reasons. One, I was able to have the funds on hand to book the flight right away. Two, Southwest is a great airline because you can then cancel your flight pretty much within 10 minutes of takeoff and you can get that money back as a Southwest travel credit.

So I knew that all my plans are up in the air and I would be able to at least have that Southwest credit on hand. Southwest makes it really easy to change and cancel flights. In fact, there normal top rated airline in terms of change and cancellation policies. The other thing that you might want to consider is simply holding travel insurance because travel insurance will often help you rebook on another flight.

The catch is it has to be a covered reason and it can be really nebulous. What a covered reason is. It varies based on the policy and it depends on the reason for the cancellation. Travel insurance is typically a percent of your overall trip cost. However, you might not even need to pay for travel insurance. Many travel credit cards offer travel insurance is a benefit for booking that trip on the card.

So I would definitely recommend looking into one of these travel credit cards that offers travel insurance as a benefit. So that way, if you are in a similar predicament where maybe you have to stay in a hotel for an extra night, often your travel insurance is the one that will cover that. Nerdwallet has a list of all the best credit cards that have travel insurance.

Many of them do have annual fees, but the reality is often annual fee is still less than the cost to buy travel insurance out of pocket. So if you are going to buy a travel insurance, it's often a no brainer.

Yeah, that's a great suggestion because it's when you book your tickets individually and then you see that checkbox at the end, do you want to add travel insurance? A lot of people overlook it, but nowadays pretty beneficial. And yeah, if you're using your credit card, I didn't even realize if you have a travel credit card that that perhaps could already be looped in there.

So that's that's important stuff. The one other thing I want to touch on here is acting quickly. If you get yourself in one of these predicaments, whether if like it's canceled or delayed, that being in my personal experience. Pay attention to your app that is connected to your airlines, because if you have to manually pick seats, choose what flight, what time.

Remember, you're probably competing with a lot of other people for the same thing. 

Correct.

That's a great point, because especially, you know, in my Southwest example, there were about 20 of us who needed to get on this connecting flight, which means there were 20 empty seats on the flight that were left without us. And who knows how many empty seats are on the next departing flight. Luckily, in that case, there was a seat for everybody.

But if there hadn't have been, then we would have been competing against each other to get that seat on the next departing flight could be really stressful. Similarly, in the United situation where United just completely canceled flights, I ended up booking on Southwest. And the reality is so many other people did. In fact, I when we were boarding in the southwest, boarding gate attendant said, how many of you guys never intended to take this Southwest flight and are coming from United?

And the whole boarding gate erupted in cheers because there were so many people. And the the attendant said, you know, I had to get that because this flight usually has like ten people who take it on average. And it's a full flight, which means everyone, when there's a cancellation or a delay, is jumping to get on the next available flight, which again, you're just competing with everyone.

And often there's not enough seats.

There to have your phone charged and wallet handy.

Really. And the good news is that there are so many apps that have made it better. The airline apps make it pretty easy to book a flight online and often, you know, you look at the customer service desk and the line is just snaking around the airport. But often you can rebook yourself self-service using the app is is often just as good as speaking to a human at the customer service desk.

There you go. I've done it more than handful of times that I'd rather admit I've had a lot of bad luck multiple times. no. My husband and I were talking about it like, seriously, the last five trips we've taken and we have a little one they've gotten totally just whether it's a severe delays or cancellations. But we are both separately on our phone, moving things around.

So, yeah, just that's I'm a big believer in that. Good tips there. Okay.

I'm glad you're on top of it. Despite all the flight cancellation woes.

Hey, no, it's not going to you know, just I'm not going to cancel my travel plans in the future, but I'm like, come on, this can't happen six times in a row now.

So you don't like it happening more frequently, which is why it's just never a bad idea to have that backup plan to know what other flights are departing because you might need to take advantage of that. 

Travel booms during the holiday season and between winter weather and large crowds, delays and cancelations are to be expected. U.S. airlines are not required by law to compensate passengers for flight delays, and refunds are only guaranteed for flights that are canceled. There are, however, things you can do to get some compensation for travel disruptions. On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1699316256817099&amp;usg=AOvVaw34vuBfUeztXIu0bSxwgIyd">Sally French</a> of NerdWallet who shares the script that worked for her to get compensation from airlines for cancelations and delays. 
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/flight-compensation?trk_location=ssrp&amp;trk_query=compensation%20for%20flight%20delays&amp;trk_page=1&amp;trk_position=4">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona.
Ah, air travel. It's stressful at times, especially when you're hit with seemingly endless delays or a cancellation that will leave you sitting in an airport chair staring at that God awful carpet pattern while you wait. Nerdwallet Traveler Awards expert Sally French joins us today with two personal flight anecdotes that prove maybe, just maybe, you can be compensated for your time in trouble through your airline if you follow her script.
Sally we're talking about flight delays and two experiences that you had going off of a script to get compensation because of those two flights. So flight delays and cancellations happen. They seem like they're happening more and more often or more. Maybe people on social media are complaining about it. Whatever. Have you. So you're in the airport, your flight's delayed and delayed or delayed.
Let's talk about your anecdotes first and we can just pop in tips along the way. So just go for it.
Yes. So I've been caught up in two fairly significant flight delays this year. The first one happened because I was trying to fly from my home in Oakland, California, to Saint Louis, and I had a layover in Denver. So what happened is the flight departing from Oakland departed late, and it turned out that it ended up being so late that we missed the connecting flight to Saint Louis.
We missed it by just barely. In fact, 20 of my now closest friends who were also trying to make that connection. We ran off the first plane and we saw the plane taking off from the jet bridge and rolling on to the tarmac just there, and they couldn't wait for us. So what ended up happening is we got rebooked on the next departing flight.
But that meant an irritatingly long layover, many hours in the Denver airport, plus a 2 a.m. arrival time in Saint Louis was not ideal. So my question was, what can I do? What can I get out of this other? The flight was on Southwest and they did automatically rebook me to my next flight, but it was still pretty annoying.
So I headed to the customer service desk and I basically said, Hey, it's because this flight is leaning so late, my ride isn't going to be able to pick me up. Do you offer any sort of compensation? And they said, No, we can't get you a ride to your next destination, but how about we offer you an $100 voucher?
And I was like, You know what? I'll take it. I'm rebooked. Anyway, this sounds like a good deal as they're printing out the voucher. I said. Can you offer any food as well? And they also sent me a voucher so I could get dinner up to $14 in the airport to tide me over until the flight. So that was my first.
That Southwest experience. It ended up being not too bad. I got $100 out of it and I had to stay at the airport for like a bonus for hours. But it seemed to work. My second situation was the United flight melt down during 4th of July weekend. I was headed to again, I was actually headed to Colorado. And as I was just looking at my flight arrival time, I saw that my flight had been canceled.
And so this was a huge meltdown because many, many people's flights were canceled that weekend. So what happened is I had to get to Colorado. So I ended up booking a flight actually on Southwest Airlines last minute because I was going to get there no matter what. So you are legally entitled to a full refund for a canceled flight?
I had to pay initially for my United flight. I then paid for an expensive last minute Southwest flight, but I was able to get a full refund on that United flight. However, I felt like that wasn't good enough because I had to book a last minute flight for a higher cost. So I emailed United and I basically said, Hey, my flight was canceled.
The next available option for you to rebook me was to wait. It was going to be two days later, which wouldn't work for my travels. I ended up having to book this other expensive flight. So I'm requesting compensation and I requested exactly $599.56, which was the cost of my new airfare, my travel companions, new airfare, plus an Uber to the hotel that we would have to take because of the delayed flight.
And so I requested about $600 and they responded back to me. They sent both me and my travel companion 30,000 United Miles points and we also got a a refund on the offer. And then the United rep sent me a $500 gift certificate towards future United flights, which basically made up the cost of my flight that I had to purchase anyway.
All in all, it was a pretty good deal out of a bad situation. And and so it just sort of illustrated a big learning is that in the U.S., you are not entitled by the government to compensation for delayed flights. But that doesn't mean you can't get compensation. You just simply have to ask.
Right. Right. And that's immediately with your first story of the delayed flight. It's just putting yourself out there to talk to the agent at the desk and being polite. I imagine, is a huge thing, which you often see in airports is not the case. Right?
Right. That's exactly. Is the person at the ticket counter or is not the cause of your delay, but they can help you get to where you need to go. They can ultimately have that power to rebook you. They're the ones who can issue those meal vouchers or those frequent flier miles. So you really want to make sure that they are on your side?
I'm sure. Sure. And then, you know, in the second predicament that you had with the cancellation, any advice and I don't know if you can just pull this out of your back pocket, but let's say somebody doesn't have immediate extra funds to rebook on a separate airline outside of what they've already. Let's say if it's united or American and you kind of are stuck with a horrible cancellation and reschedule, what would your approach be there, do you think?
Right. That's exactly one of the tough situations, is I just immediately booked a Southwest flight for a couple of reasons. One, I was able to have the funds on hand to book the flight right away. Two, Southwest is a great airline because you can then cancel your flight pretty much within 10 minutes of takeoff and you can get that money back as a Southwest travel credit.
So I knew that all my plans are up in the air and I would be able to at least have that Southwest credit on hand. Southwest makes it really easy to change and cancel flights. In fact, there normal top rated airline in terms of change and cancellation policies. The other thing that you might want to consider is simply holding travel insurance because travel insurance will often help you rebook on another flight.
The catch is it has to be a covered reason and it can be really nebulous. What a covered reason is. It varies based on the policy and it depends on the reason for the cancellation. Travel insurance is typically a percent of your overall trip cost. However, you might not even need to pay for travel insurance. Many travel credit cards offer travel insurance is a benefit for booking that trip on the card.
So I would definitely recommend looking into one of these travel credit cards that offers travel insurance as a benefit. So that way, if you are in a similar predicament where maybe you have to stay in a hotel for an extra night, often your travel insurance is the one that will cover that. Nerdwallet has a list of all the best credit cards that have travel insurance.
Many of them do have annual fees, but the reality is often annual fee is still less than the cost to buy travel insurance out of pocket. So if you are going to buy a travel insurance, it's often a no brainer.
Yeah, that's a great suggestion because it's when you book your tickets individually and then you see that checkbox at the end, do you want to add travel insurance? A lot of people overlook it, but nowadays pretty beneficial. And yeah, if you're using your credit card, I didn't even realize if you have a travel credit card that that perhaps could already be looped in there.
So that's that's important stuff. The one other thing I want to touch on here is acting quickly. If you get yourself in one of these predicaments, whether if like it's canceled or delayed, that being in my personal experience. Pay attention to your app that is connected to your airlines, because if you have to manually pick seats, choose what flight, what time.
Remember, you're probably competing with a lot of other people for the same thing. 
Correct.
That's a great point, because especially, you know, in my Southwest example, there were about 20 of us who needed to get on this connecting flight, which means there were 20 empty seats on the flight that were left without us. And who knows how many empty seats are on the next departing flight. Luckily, in that case, there was a seat for everybody.
But if there hadn't have been, then we would have been competing against each other to get that seat on the next departing flight could be really stressful. Similarly, in the United situation where United just completely canceled flights, I ended up booking on Southwest. And the reality is so many other people did. In fact, I when we were boarding in the southwest, boarding gate attendant said, how many of you guys never intended to take this Southwest flight and are coming from United?
And the whole boarding gate erupted in cheers because there were so many people. And the the attendant said, you know, I had to get that because this flight usually has like ten people who take it on average. And it's a full flight, which means everyone, when there's a cancellation or a delay, is jumping to get on the next available flight, which again, you're just competing with everyone.
And often there's not enough seats.
There to have your phone charged and wallet handy.
Really. And the good news is that there are so many apps that have made it better. The airline apps make it pretty easy to book a flight online and often, you know, you look at the customer service desk and the line is just snaking around the airport. But often you can rebook yourself self-service using the app is is often just as good as speaking to a human at the customer service desk.
There you go. I've done it more than handful of times that I'd rather admit I've had a lot of bad luck multiple times. no. My husband and I were talking about it like, seriously, the last five trips we've taken and we have a little one they've gotten totally just whether it's a severe delays or cancellations. But we are both separately on our phone, moving things around.
So, yeah, just that's I'm a big believer in that. Good tips there. Okay.
I'm glad you're on top of it. Despite all the flight cancellation woes.
Hey, no, it's not going to you know, just I'm not going to cancel my travel plans in the future, but I'm like, come on, this can't happen six times in a row now.
So you don't like it happening more frequently, which is why it's just never a bad idea to have that backup plan to know what other flights are departing because you might need to take advantage of that.

How to get compensation for flight delays

'Tis the season — the season for shopping and massive sales. With the holiday season in full swing, many people are counting down and plotting their plan of attack for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On the latest episode of PennyWise, show producer Ambre Moton is joined by Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet who shares the top items to buy, what to skip and a few other tips for navigating two of the biggest shopping days of the year. 

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor of the show filling in for Nat Cardona.

'Tis the season, the season for shopping in big deals anyway. While shoppers have already seen early Black Friday deals in October from retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart, a survey reported that only a quarter of verified buyers during Amazon Prime Big Deal days purchased holiday gifts waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, maybe.

And are those deals even really worth it? Joining me today from NerdWallet is personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer to go over what to buy and what to avoid on two of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Kimberly, thank you so much for joining. Let's just go ahead and dive in. My mom mentioned that she's had a TV every year that isn't working properly. Should I plan on waiting for Black Friday to get her a new one?

Yes, Black Friday is actually a great time to buy big electronics like televisions. You have another opportunity in February or on the Super Bowl. So if you missed a chance, it's okay. You have another chance to get great TV deals. But it sounds like your mom might need it sooner. And Black Friday is such a good time because we see those prices on big electronics, including televisions, drop on Black Friday and the days surrounding Black Friday.

So it's the perfect time to buy.

What are some of the other good things to buy during those post-Thanksgiving sales?

Definitely. Anything in the electronics category, which includes appliances, both large and small appliances. So if you are in the market for anything like a vacuum, a coffeemaker, anything like that around your house. Black Friday is when we see the lowest prices on those items. So it's the perfect time to pick those up. And then if you need to stock up on any winter clothing, winter jackets, any of that winter gear, it's also a great time to buy on Black Friday.

So basically, those are the highlights. You want to think electronics, big electronics, small appliances, large appliances and then winter clothing.

Awesome. I am definitely in the market for a new winter coat, so I will hold off until Black Friday to go looking for a new one.

Yeah, you'll see some great deals.

Okay, so how about what do you think should be avoided?

The biggest category to avoid on Black Friday is toys and holiday decor. And that is because the prices on those items keep dropping as we get closer to the holidays. And so you don't want to make the mistake of buying them too early because you will pay more. However, you do want to keep in mind that if your child or the children in your life want a specific toy, we do start to see inventory really drop as we get closer to the holidays too.

So it might be worth paying a little extra just to make sure you get that one item they really have their eye on. But in general, you want to wait on toys and holiday decor and then also sporting goods. So we do see lower prices for sporting goods as we get closer to Christmas as well. So if you can you want to wait on that.

And then tools and home improvement items is another category that we tend to see lower prices hit as we get closer to the end of the year and even into January.

Okay. That's definitely things to write down because I had a lot of things on my of those on my list for shopping. So I'm really glad I'm talking to you now.

Yeah. And it's really helpful if you do have a list like that, you can actually use a tracking tool like Honey or camel eyes or browser extension, and you can track all these items. And so then you can see as soon as the price drops, which if it's in the right category, will be on Black Friday, you can go ahead and make that informed decision of whether or not it's a good time to buy.

that is a great shopping tip. Do you have any other holiday shopping tips? I know I see a lot of buy now pay later badges. Is that something that's a good idea to take advantage of?

Well, basically, you want to be a little careful with buy now, pay later, because basically it does give you that flexibility to spread out your spending. You're you're essentially breaking up a payment into usually for chunks. And so instead of paying all of the money upfront, you can pay it over time. However, you want to be careful because you're still you still have to pay that money and you don't want to enter the new year with a lot of debt and a lot of payments that you owe.

So as long as you're careful about it as ideally the best way to cover all of these expenses is out of savings. But not everyone has that option. And so buy now, pay later can offer some flexibility and it lets you spread out those payments over time.

Gotcha. And then one of the drawbacks I know personally for me about shopping during the holiday season is the pressure to get the perfect present or please, people. Do you have any tips for mitigating that?

There is so much pressure and I think the best thing we can do is to kind of step away when we start feeling that intense. Basically, retailers want you to feel that. They want you to get wrapped up in all of that stress because then we end up spending more. And so the best thing we can do as shoppers is to kind of step away and give ourselves space and breathing room.

One really helpful thing is because Black Friday sales are not just on one day, they tend to start earlier and last longer. So you don't have to buy everything on one day. And actually spreading out those purchases over time can make it easier on our budget and also just easier emotionally to handle all of that intensity.

That's great. That definitely will help relieve some stress when it comes to holiday shopping. Is there anything we've missed that you wanted to make sure that all of our listeners get to hear about Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Just one more thing we've noticed this year as a trend, because so many people are feeling that stress of inflation and higher prices. A lot of people are talking with their family and friends and saying, Hey, let's scale back a little bit this year. We'll all spend less. And it's something that everyone can get on board with. And so it might be a good idea just to have those conversations early.

And that way you can save money.

That's great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

'Tis the season — the season for shopping and massive sales. With the holiday season in full swing, many people are counting down and plotting their plan of attack for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On the latest episode of PennyWise, show producer Ambre Moton is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> of NerdWallet who shares the top items to buy, what to skip and a few other tips for navigating two of the biggest shopping days of the year. 
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/what-to-buy-skip-black-friday-2023">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor of the show filling in for Nat Cardona.
'Tis the season, the season for shopping in big deals anyway. While shoppers have already seen early Black Friday deals in October from retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart, a survey reported that only a quarter of verified buyers during Amazon Prime Big Deal days purchased holiday gifts waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, maybe.
And are those deals even really worth it? Joining me today from NerdWallet is personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer to go over what to buy and what to avoid on two of the biggest shopping days of the year.
Kimberly, thank you so much for joining. Let's just go ahead and dive in. My mom mentioned that she's had a TV every year that isn't working properly. Should I plan on waiting for Black Friday to get her a new one?
Yes, Black Friday is actually a great time to buy big electronics like televisions. You have another opportunity in February or on the Super Bowl. So if you missed a chance, it's okay. You have another chance to get great TV deals. But it sounds like your mom might need it sooner. And Black Friday is such a good time because we see those prices on big electronics, including televisions, drop on Black Friday and the days surrounding Black Friday.
So it's the perfect time to buy.
What are some of the other good things to buy during those post-Thanksgiving sales?
Definitely. Anything in the electronics category, which includes appliances, both large and small appliances. So if you are in the market for anything like a vacuum, a coffeemaker, anything like that around your house. Black Friday is when we see the lowest prices on those items. So it's the perfect time to pick those up. And then if you need to stock up on any winter clothing, winter jackets, any of that winter gear, it's also a great time to buy on Black Friday.
So basically, those are the highlights. You want to think electronics, big electronics, small appliances, large appliances and then winter clothing.
Awesome. I am definitely in the market for a new winter coat, so I will hold off until Black Friday to go looking for a new one.
Yeah, you'll see some great deals.
Okay, so how about what do you think should be avoided?
The biggest category to avoid on Black Friday is toys and holiday decor. And that is because the prices on those items keep dropping as we get closer to the holidays. And so you don't want to make the mistake of buying them too early because you will pay more. However, you do want to keep in mind that if your child or the children in your life want a specific toy, we do start to see inventory really drop as we get closer to the holidays too.
So it might be worth paying a little extra just to make sure you get that one item they really have their eye on. But in general, you want to wait on toys and holiday decor and then also sporting goods. So we do see lower prices for sporting goods as we get closer to Christmas as well. So if you can you want to wait on that.
And then tools and home improvement items is another category that we tend to see lower prices hit as we get closer to the end of the year and even into January.
Okay. That's definitely things to write down because I had a lot of things on my of those on my list for shopping. So I'm really glad I'm talking to you now.
Yeah. And it's really helpful if you do have a list like that, you can actually use a tracking tool like Honey or camel eyes or browser extension, and you can track all these items. And so then you can see as soon as the price drops, which if it's in the right category, will be on Black Friday, you can go ahead and make that informed decision of whether or not it's a good time to buy.
that is a great shopping tip. Do you have any other holiday shopping tips? I know I see a lot of buy now pay later badges. Is that something that's a good idea to take advantage of?
Well, basically, you want to be a little careful with buy now, pay later, because basically it does give you that flexibility to spread out your spending. You're you're essentially breaking up a payment into usually for chunks. And so instead of paying all of the money upfront, you can pay it over time. However, you want to be careful because you're still you still have to pay that money and you don't want to enter the new year with a lot of debt and a lot of payments that you owe.
So as long as you're careful about it as ideally the best way to cover all of these expenses is out of savings. But not everyone has that option. And so buy now, pay later can offer some flexibility and it lets you spread out those payments over time.
Gotcha. And then one of the drawbacks I know personally for me about shopping during the holiday season is the pressure to get the perfect present or please, people. Do you have any tips for mitigating that?
There is so much pressure and I think the best thing we can do is to kind of step away when we start feeling that intense. Basically, retailers want you to feel that. They want you to get wrapped up in all of that stress because then we end up spending more. And so the best thing we can do as shoppers is to kind of step away and give ourselves space and breathing room.
One really helpful thing is because Black Friday sales are not just on one day, they tend to start earlier and last longer. So you don't have to buy everything on one day. And actually spreading out those purchases over time can make it easier on our budget and also just easier emotionally to handle all of that intensity.
That's great. That definitely will help relieve some stress when it comes to holiday shopping. Is there anything we've missed that you wanted to make sure that all of our listeners get to hear about Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Just one more thing we've noticed this year as a trend, because so many people are feeling that stress of inflation and higher prices. A lot of people are talking with their family and friends and saying, Hey, let's scale back a little bit this year. We'll all spend less. And it's something that everyone can get on board with. And so it might be a good idea just to have those conversations early.
And that way you can save money.
That's great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you.

What to buy and what to skip on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Disaster strikes — your washer is making a weird noise and won't drain. Do you fix it or replace it? On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet with tips when to repair and when to replace your large appliances.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona.

A disaster strikes. Your large home appliance is making a funny noise and not working how it should. Maybe even water is involved. Choosing whether to repair or replace major appliances can be more complex than you would expect. Nerdwallet personal finance writer Kimberly Palmer joins us today as a living, breathing financial guide to paying out your appliance repair or replace options when to repair or replace your appliances.

I just went through this myself and the picking and choosing of what you're going to do and what's most cost effective. Talk about really having to work really hard to figure things out. So let's go into this. I mean, where should we start?

Well, the interesting thing about appliances is that sometimes when you actually buy a new one and replace one, even though it's so expensive, you can save money in the long run. And that's because these newer appliances are so sophisticated, energy efficient. You know, if you have a 15 year old fridge, it might be taking up more energy than a newer model.

And the same is true for other big appliances. And so that is a way of kind of, you know, justifying that shopping spree. If you do need a new appliance.

Or the one thing that's mentioned in this article, let's talk about those smarter appliances that they've got fancy buttons and they hook up to I and this and that, but maybe that's not always necessarily the route you want to go.

Exactly. These new appliances are I mean, they're really amazing. They look like, you know, what we would have thought of as the future years ago. You can have a TV screen on while you are on the front of your fridge, while you're making dinner. You can have a camera inside your fridge that you know, when you're at the grocery store and you're not sure if you're out of milk, you can just log in and have an inside look at your fridge.

So it's really incredible the directions of all these new appliances. The downside, like you alluded to, is the fact that first of all, they're more expensive and then also they're harder to fix. So if something does break down, you might need to hire someone with really specialized knowledge of your specific appliance for them to fix it. And those the cost to fix it can actually be a lot higher than you might be anticipating.

So it's something to keep in mind if you do buy one of the more complicated appliances, you always want to ask about those repair costs because sometimes they can be really steep.

Yeah, like I mentioned at the top, this there's literally three of our appliances went in two months ago. They all went in within the hour. Now, it was insane. And so we had a lot of the decisions to make and that between research and talking to store specialists, I found out there's a couple brands that they can't just be you can't call your local handyman to do and fix in, you know, five years if something happens that, yeah, the more specialized that you need, that specialized scalp.

So there is it was interesting and kind of sad or I was like, okay, maybe I'm not going to get the most fancy one because of that. You know, you have to think ahead and actually the another interesting thing that was mentioned here are, yeah, we know that these are all going to be big ticket purchases, you know, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars range.

But I see that maybe where we are here, where we're price prices now between basically 2019 and last year. Do you have. Yeah, well, the hard thing.

For consumers is that the cost of these big appliances has gone up just like so many consumer goods. So between 2019 and 2022, the cost of major appliances rose more than 22%. So that's a pretty shocking figure given that, you know, of course, people's incomes haven't gone up that much in that time on average. And so it's really challenging to fit the cost of buying a new appliance into your budget.

It's often something you have to plan for and, you know, save up for setting aside money. In some cases, you might be able to finance it with 0%, a 0% intro offer a pure credit card, but not always. And so it's something to consider before you make that purchase there.

It's at the end of the day, appliances are investments. See, I've got to really think it through. Let's see. It looks like the last thing here would be the easing, the environmental, environmental impact on the appliances that you choose or the appliances that you have. Let's go into that for sure.

So first of all, one thing to be to note is just how much more energy efficient big appliances have become. And so that's why it can make sense in some cases if you're looking at your energy bill, which of course, has also gone up for so many people to make that initial upfront cost to buy a more energy efficient appliance can actually help you in the long run.

And then the other thing to think about is how you're going to dispose of your appliance when you are replacing it. So you might want to investigate where your fridge or freezer or you know, any kind of big appliance is going after it's replaced because in some cases there are recycling facilities. And so it's definitely something to ask about because, of course, we all want to ease that environmental impact for sure.

Yeah. And another sneaky cost that can come upon you if you don't do your research as far as Holloway and recycling. So yes, explore those options. Anything else that you want to add as far as replacing or repairing your appliances goes?

The only other thing I would add is that one really difficult decision for consumers is when your appliance does break down as you experience firsthand, you always have to decide, am I going to repair it or replace it? And to help you make that decision, there are some helpful online calculators. So, for example, Consumer Reports has one online and it can help you just weigh those costs because often replacing it might be more expensive in the short term, but you don't want to be hit with recurring repair costs year after year as well.

So there's a lot to think about.

And I didn't know that existed. That would have been helpful. But I will say we had a very trusted handyman who was just honest and he said we had our two appliances fixed in the past and he was like, the next time something happens, don't just buy new ones because it's just going to be might as well be the same price.

So, yes, you go that route to have a trusted person just really let you know, you know, way that the cost ratio there. So yes.

That's even better than a calculator for sure.

But all good tips. Thank you so much, Kim.

Disaster strikes — your washer is making a weird noise and won't drain. Do you fix it or replace it? On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> of NerdWallet with tips when to repair and when to replace your large appliances.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/when-to-repair-or-replace-your-appliances">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona.
A disaster strikes. Your large home appliance is making a funny noise and not working how it should. Maybe even water is involved. Choosing whether to repair or replace major appliances can be more complex than you would expect. Nerdwallet personal finance writer Kimberly Palmer joins us today as a living, breathing financial guide to paying out your appliance repair or replace options when to repair or replace your appliances.
I just went through this myself and the picking and choosing of what you're going to do and what's most cost effective. Talk about really having to work really hard to figure things out. So let's go into this. I mean, where should we start?
Well, the interesting thing about appliances is that sometimes when you actually buy a new one and replace one, even though it's so expensive, you can save money in the long run. And that's because these newer appliances are so sophisticated, energy efficient. You know, if you have a 15 year old fridge, it might be taking up more energy than a newer model.
And the same is true for other big appliances. And so that is a way of kind of, you know, justifying that shopping spree. If you do need a new appliance.
Or the one thing that's mentioned in this article, let's talk about those smarter appliances that they've got fancy buttons and they hook up to I and this and that, but maybe that's not always necessarily the route you want to go.
Exactly. These new appliances are I mean, they're really amazing. They look like, you know, what we would have thought of as the future years ago. You can have a TV screen on while you are on the front of your fridge, while you're making dinner. You can have a camera inside your fridge that you know, when you're at the grocery store and you're not sure if you're out of milk, you can just log in and have an inside look at your fridge.
So it's really incredible the directions of all these new appliances. The downside, like you alluded to, is the fact that first of all, they're more expensive and then also they're harder to fix. So if something does break down, you might need to hire someone with really specialized knowledge of your specific appliance for them to fix it. And those the cost to fix it can actually be a lot higher than you might be anticipating.
So it's something to keep in mind if you do buy one of the more complicated appliances, you always want to ask about those repair costs because sometimes they can be really steep.
Yeah, like I mentioned at the top, this there's literally three of our appliances went in two months ago. They all went in within the hour. Now, it was insane. And so we had a lot of the decisions to make and that between research and talking to store specialists, I found out there's a couple brands that they can't just be you can't call your local handyman to do and fix in, you know, five years if something happens that, yeah, the more specialized that you need, that specialized scalp.
So there is it was interesting and kind of sad or I was like, okay, maybe I'm not going to get the most fancy one because of that. You know, you have to think ahead and actually the another interesting thing that was mentioned here are, yeah, we know that these are all going to be big ticket purchases, you know, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars range.
But I see that maybe where we are here, where we're price prices now between basically 2019 and last year. Do you have. Yeah, well, the hard thing.
For consumers is that the cost of these big appliances has gone up just like so many consumer goods. So between 2019 and 2022, the cost of major appliances rose more than 22%. So that's a pretty shocking figure given that, you know, of course, people's incomes haven't gone up that much in that time on average. And so it's really challenging to fit the cost of buying a new appliance into your budget.
It's often something you have to plan for and, you know, save up for setting aside money. In some cases, you might be able to finance it with 0%, a 0% intro offer a pure credit card, but not always. And so it's something to consider before you make that purchase there.
It's at the end of the day, appliances are investments. See, I've got to really think it through. Let's see. It looks like the last thing here would be the easing, the environmental, environmental impact on the appliances that you choose or the appliances that you have. Let's go into that for sure.
So first of all, one thing to be to note is just how much more energy efficient big appliances have become. And so that's why it can make sense in some cases if you're looking at your energy bill, which of course, has also gone up for so many people to make that initial upfront cost to buy a more energy efficient appliance can actually help you in the long run.
And then the other thing to think about is how you're going to dispose of your appliance when you are replacing it. So you might want to investigate where your fridge or freezer or you know, any kind of big appliance is going after it's replaced because in some cases there are recycling facilities. And so it's definitely something to ask about because, of course, we all want to ease that environmental impact for sure.
Yeah. And another sneaky cost that can come upon you if you don't do your research as far as Holloway and recycling. So yes, explore those options. Anything else that you want to add as far as replacing or repairing your appliances goes?
The only other thing I would add is that one really difficult decision for consumers is when your appliance does break down as you experience firsthand, you always have to decide, am I going to repair it or replace it? And to help you make that decision, there are some helpful online calculators. So, for example, Consumer Reports has one online and it can help you just weigh those costs because often replacing it might be more expensive in the short term, but you don't want to be hit with recurring repair costs year after year as well.
So there's a lot to think about.
And I didn't know that existed. That would have been helpful. But I will say we had a very trusted handyman who was just honest and he said we had our two appliances fixed in the past and he was like, the next time something happens, don't just buy new ones because it's just going to be might as well be the same price.
So, yes, you go that route to have a trusted person just really let you know, you know, way that the cost ratio there. So yes.
That's even better than a calculator for sure.
But all good tips. Thank you so much, Kim.

Key tips for when to repair and when to replace household appliances

While it may still be early fall, the time to figure out your holiday travel is here. From flights to hotel stays to finally taking that trip to Europe to visit the Christmas markets, travel costs can add up.

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Sally French  of NerdWallet with tips when to start booking your travel for the holidays.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. 

It may be the very start of fall, but if you plan to travel for the holidays, now is the time to do your research and pull out your wallet. We have Nerdwallet travel rewards expert Sally French here with some tips to save on holiday travel this year. Okay, so talking about holiday travel, you know, as people look towards the next couple of months, you've got Thanksgiving and then it seems around Christmas, people are flying here, they're everywhere. Is there any advantage to last minute flights? I know that last year that was a big thing.

Yes. In general, booking last minute flights is not something you should bank on. We typically see last minute hotel deals because hotels just want to fill up whatever available rooms that they have. But that's not really the case with airfares because people would be desperate to book a last minute flight. We actually see airfares get more expensive last minute.

So I don't want to completely write off the idea that you won't find a great last minute airfare. But the reality is you should plan to book your airfare now, especially for holiday travel there.

So a lot of that would entail tracking prices. So let's go into that.

Yes. So there are a number of apps that make it pretty easy to track your prices. One of the great ones is Google flights. And Google flights has a bunch of individual features that can make this helpful. So Google flights has a calendar display that will show the flight prices across all the airlines for any day of that month.

This is great for people who want to fly, let's say, for the holidays, but are flexible. If they fly out on Tuesday or Thursday, they don't really care. Google Flights Calendar View makes this really easy. Another thing that you can do is if you know you want to fly a specific airport, which is pretty common. If you're going to visit family for the holidays, you can enter in that airport versus your home airport.

And Google flights will send you an alert when it sees that airfares are cheaper than usual to that destination.

I am a huge believer in that calendar layout that you just mentioned. There's nothing more beautiful in my like, planning mind when it's you know, this says 380 on Tuesday and then a week later on a Friday, it's whatever, 300. I just love the breakdown. It's just all it's so neat how they do it right.

And, you know, you would be so surprised at how much the price is different just by adjusting your flight by a couple of days. And there are just a lot of people who automatically assume they're going to fly out one day because they think that's most convenient for them. But when you realize maybe extending by one day could save you $200 times all for people in your family, then this can be a huge savings.

So don't overlook that calendar view and see if you can change your trip gates by just one or two days to possibly save money.

Sure. And I just kind of want a ground back here. So for Thanksgiving, when would be a good time to book for that long weekend?

Yes. So definitely I would recommend booking that Thanksgiving travel by mid-October at the latest. However, Nerdwallet in general recommends booking travel 1 to 3 months out, and the reality is for the holidays, people should probably. But even earlier, we know that more people are planning to travel for the holidays this year versus last. And holidays are one of the busiest days to fly.

In fact, in each of the past four years, the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the most crowded day to fly of that week. So you want to avoid traveling that week. And perhaps most interestingly, is that every year in the past four years, aside from 2020, the Sunday after, after Thanksgiving was also the busiest single day to fly of the entire year.

Well, my gosh, everyone. I mean, that's the classic camera shot. And see ABC, CBS, whatever that reporter in the airport. And it's utter chaos happening in the background as people try to go home for Monday to start.

Right? Right. Everyone thinks that they need to fly homeless sunday after thanksgiving. But that's exactly it is. Use that calendar view and realize that there's going to be way lighter traffic if you change your travel itinerary by just a couple of days. In fact, the best day to travel post holiday is giving. Tuesday has among the lightest crowds.

So is the Wednesday after and so does Black Friday. If you want to do that Thanksgiving dinner and just fly home the next day, that's also a great day to travel.

Okay. And then as far as the Christmas holiday goes, that end of December or last week or two. What's the suggestion with purchasing or booking your flight any time soon?

Yes. Again, it's never too early to book Christmas travel, especially when we're talking about right now. It's just, again, a busy day to fly. That said, if you want to avoid crowds, travel on Christmas Day itself is a pretty light day. So if you are in a pinch, you've booked last minute, you don't know what to do. Maybe except that you travel on Christmas Day.

It'll be less crowded, probably cheaper, and everyone will probably be a lot more merry on the flight that day anyway.

Just fly and show up for dinner. That's fine. You think that's your only obligation?

I agree. Open presents at home, fly and then have family dinner over at your next place.

And make it all in. Let's talk about European travel. Whether you're a family or you're being adventurous. This one's often a little bit more difficult because not necessarily direct flights. You usually have two legs of a flight that you have to do. Let's get into that.

Yes. So we're seeing a lot of interest in European travel, especially for the holidays. You can go abroad to the Christmas market. People love that. It's so magical. But the reality is, even though we're seen flight prices drop domestically, we're seeing a high interest in European travel. Everyone wants to go there to make up for lost time during the pandemic.

So what we're seeing is that European travel is past its 2019 travel levels and the best time to book an international flight. So that would be the European flight from the U.S. is 72 days or more before departure. Once it's within that ten weeks window, we see airfares start to rise significantly. Unfortunately, we are sort of past that booking window for holiday travel to Europe.

But again, that's where you start to employ those tricks, like being open to the exact day that you travel, maybe booking that basic economy airfare instead to save money.

Sure. And that just goes back to this next point for the article. Being flexible, we've really kind of beat the dead horse on that throughout everything that we just talked about. So, I mean, anything you want to add as far as holiday travel goes as people are planning the next couple of months?

One of the big things that I think some people almost forget about traveling to Europe is that Europe is not celebrating Thanksgiving. So if you do want to go to the Christmas markets, a lot of people want to go for Christmas, but consider traveling for Thanksgiving because you won't see that huge spike in not only airfares but hotel prices, because for them, the end of November is pretty much just a normal day.

So stay home for Christmas and maybe consider doing in Europe for Thanksgiving.

Yeah. Kick off the holiday season that way. That's that's a really good tip. Yeah. And so be that Christmas.

Shopping at the Christmas markets. And then you have your gifts ready to go.

Yeah, go to Germany. That would be really cool. That's on my bucket list.

Same.

While it may still be early fall, the time to figure out your holiday travel is here. From flights to hotel stays to finally taking that trip to Europe to visit the Christmas markets, travel costs can add up.
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">Sally French</a>  of NerdWallet with tips when to start booking your travel for the holidays.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/the-best-time-to-book-holiday-travel-is-very-soon">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. 
It may be the very start of fall, but if you plan to travel for the holidays, now is the time to do your research and pull out your wallet. We have Nerdwallet travel rewards expert Sally French here with some tips to save on holiday travel this year. Okay, so talking about holiday travel, you know, as people look towards the next couple of months, you've got Thanksgiving and then it seems around Christmas, people are flying here, they're everywhere. Is there any advantage to last minute flights? I know that last year that was a big thing.
Yes. In general, booking last minute flights is not something you should bank on. We typically see last minute hotel deals because hotels just want to fill up whatever available rooms that they have. But that's not really the case with airfares because people would be desperate to book a last minute flight. We actually see airfares get more expensive last minute.
So I don't want to completely write off the idea that you won't find a great last minute airfare. But the reality is you should plan to book your airfare now, especially for holiday travel there.
So a lot of that would entail tracking prices. So let's go into that.
Yes. So there are a number of apps that make it pretty easy to track your prices. One of the great ones is Google flights. And Google flights has a bunch of individual features that can make this helpful. So Google flights has a calendar display that will show the flight prices across all the airlines for any day of that month.
This is great for people who want to fly, let's say, for the holidays, but are flexible. If they fly out on Tuesday or Thursday, they don't really care. Google Flights Calendar View makes this really easy. Another thing that you can do is if you know you want to fly a specific airport, which is pretty common. If you're going to visit family for the holidays, you can enter in that airport versus your home airport.
And Google flights will send you an alert when it sees that airfares are cheaper than usual to that destination.
I am a huge believer in that calendar layout that you just mentioned. There's nothing more beautiful in my like, planning mind when it's you know, this says 380 on Tuesday and then a week later on a Friday, it's whatever, 300. I just love the breakdown. It's just all it's so neat how they do it right.
And, you know, you would be so surprised at how much the price is different just by adjusting your flight by a couple of days. And there are just a lot of people who automatically assume they're going to fly out one day because they think that's most convenient for them. But when you realize maybe extending by one day could save you $200 times all for people in your family, then this can be a huge savings.
So don't overlook that calendar view and see if you can change your trip gates by just one or two days to possibly save money.
Sure. And I just kind of want a ground back here. So for Thanksgiving, when would be a good time to book for that long weekend?
Yes. So definitely I would recommend booking that Thanksgiving travel by mid-October at the latest. However, Nerdwallet in general recommends booking travel 1 to 3 months out, and the reality is for the holidays, people should probably. But even earlier, we know that more people are planning to travel for the holidays this year versus last. And holidays are one of the busiest days to fly.
In fact, in each of the past four years, the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the most crowded day to fly of that week. So you want to avoid traveling that week. And perhaps most interestingly, is that every year in the past four years, aside from 2020, the Sunday after, after Thanksgiving was also the busiest single day to fly of the entire year.
Well, my gosh, everyone. I mean, that's the classic camera shot. And see ABC, CBS, whatever that reporter in the airport. And it's utter chaos happening in the background as people try to go home for Monday to start.
Right? Right. Everyone thinks that they need to fly homeless sunday after thanksgiving. But that's exactly it is. Use that calendar view and realize that there's going to be way lighter traffic if you change your travel itinerary by just a couple of days. In fact, the best day to travel post holiday is giving. Tuesday has among the lightest crowds.
So is the Wednesday after and so does Black Friday. If you want to do that Thanksgiving dinner and just fly home the next day, that's also a great day to travel.
Okay. And then as far as the Christmas holiday goes, that end of December or last week or two. What's the suggestion with purchasing or booking your flight any time soon?
Yes. Again, it's never too early to book Christmas travel, especially when we're talking about right now. It's just, again, a busy day to fly. That said, if you want to avoid crowds, travel on Christmas Day itself is a pretty light day. So if you are in a pinch, you've booked last minute, you don't know what to do. Maybe except that you travel on Christmas Day.
It'll be less crowded, probably cheaper, and everyone will probably be a lot more merry on the flight that day anyway.
Just fly and show up for dinner. That's fine. You think that's your only obligation?
I agree. Open presents at home, fly and then have family dinner over at your next place.
And make it all in. Let's talk about European travel. Whether you're a family or you're being adventurous. This one's often a little bit more difficult because not necessarily direct flights. You usually have two legs of a flight that you have to do. Let's get into that.
Yes. So we're seeing a lot of interest in European travel, especially for the holidays. You can go abroad to the Christmas market. People love that. It's so magical. But the reality is, even though we're seen flight prices drop domestically, we're seeing a high interest in European travel. Everyone wants to go there to make up for lost time during the pandemic.
So what we're seeing is that European travel is past its 2019 travel levels and the best time to book an international flight. So that would be the European flight from the U.S. is 72 days or more before departure. Once it's within that ten weeks window, we see airfares start to rise significantly. Unfortunately, we are sort of past that booking window for holiday travel to Europe.
But again, that's where you start to employ those tricks, like being open to the exact day that you travel, maybe booking that basic economy airfare instead to save money.
Sure. And that just goes back to this next point for the article. Being flexible, we've really kind of beat the dead horse on that throughout everything that we just talked about. So, I mean, anything you want to add as far as holiday travel goes as people are planning the next couple of months?
One of the big things that I think some people almost forget about traveling to Europe is that Europe is not celebrating Thanksgiving. So if you do want to go to the Christmas markets, a lot of people want to go for Christmas, but consider traveling for Thanksgiving because you won't see that huge spike in not only airfares but hotel prices, because for them, the end of November is pretty much just a normal day.
So stay home for Christmas and maybe consider doing in Europe for Thanksgiving.
Yeah. Kick off the holiday season that way. That's that's a really good tip. Yeah. And so be that Christmas.
Shopping at the Christmas markets. And then you have your gifts ready to go.
Yeah, go to Germany. That would be really cool. That's on my bucket list.
Same.

Tips for when to book holiday travel

It seems like every day there's a new warning about financial scams circulating, with the scammers getting more and more creative. Many people think that it could never happen to them, and then they find themselves on the phone with their bank trying to recoup their losses.

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet with tips on how to avoid falling for common scams and what to do in case you do.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. 
One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to protecting yourself from financial scams is thinking you're too smart to be duped by one. It can literally happen to anyone, regardless of age or circumstance. I mean, come on. There are a lot of sophisticated scams out there. But thankfully, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Kimberly Palmer joins us today with a few key strategies to help keep you safe.

Man, those scammers are really sneaky out there. Let's talk about that. If you get a call from your bank, probably not legit. Let's go into that.

Exactly. One of the most common scams out there is your bank or some kind of financial institution calling you. But it's not really your bank. It's someone. It's a scam artist, essentially impersonating your bank. And because they can be so convincing, they actually convince people who have picked up the phone to share their personal information, share things like passwords, Social Security numbers, all kinds of personal details that they then use to steal your money or steal your identity.

And so you want to be so careful whenever you get a phone call from anyone or a text message or an email you want to verify who it is. So actually, even though it feels rude, you want to say, I'm going to hang up and call my bank myself, and then you get the verified number on the back of your bank card or wherever you have it and call yourself.

And that's the only way to really know who you're talking to.

Right. And just for clarity sake. Scammers can spoof numbers. I've had this happen personally where it says your banking institution, it's the exact same number, whatever, one 800 number calling you. But again, it's you should call that not the other way around.

Exactly. I'm so glad you mentioned that, because it can be so convincing. And also, when you get that call, they are often the most pleasant kind of sounding customer service reps you've ever spoken to. But it's all a scam. Just trying to get to trying to trick you.

Right. Right. And a lot of that comes back to general security practices, especially when you're banking online and on your phone and all of that jazz. Any tips there?

The most important thing is just to make sure that you are constantly monitoring your own accounts, because often the first sign of a scam is even a really small deduction, like a $5 deduction that you don't recognize. And it's a way for the scam artists to really test if they can go bigger and subtract more money from your account.

So you want to be regularly reviewing your credit card statements, your banking statements, most importantly, to look for anything you don't recognize. And if there is something that seems out of place, you want to call and investigate because then you can shut down. If there is a scam starting to take place, you can shut that down. And then also you want to just be sure that you have strong passwords across all your accounts.

Set up two factor authentication so a person can't log in with only the password but needs to get that code. Also texted or emailed to you as well just to make sure all those accounts are safe.

Yeah, I 100% agree with that. That two factor authentication authentication is just that has changed my life and given me such a peace of mind just because there's so many goofy things that people are trying to get at us. Let's go into that. The common scams that might come your way. Aside from the banking one that we mentioned, anything you want to add there?

It's really helpful, I think, to know what those common scams are. So every year, the Federal Trade Commission basically puts out a list of the top scams. And so they include things like impersonating institutions like we talked about. Also fake sweepstakes. So someone you get in a letter or an email saying that you won something, but of course it's just a way to get your personal information.

Fake job postings, especially for remote work that has really taken off and then, sadly, romance scams. So if you're, you know, online dating have a profile, you ought to be really careful about whoever is reaching out to you.

Definitely. If it's good, too good to be true in any sense. It's it is. It always is the one thing and I wonder if it fits here. I just personally experienced this lesson a week ago. I was selling some stuff on Facebook Marketplace and there are like the cash app scams, whether it be Venmo or Zelle, where people will comment on your post right away message you and then they are trying to get.

It's a crazy swapping of information like they're they want your, you know, whatever email or phone number you use with your cash app account. And then there's I had to look into this whole thing because it happened repeatedly and I was like, What the heck is going on? And it was the yeah, I think I don't remember what, but some site that protects people was explaining that yes, this is a scam that people do.

Again, it's just like trying to get a hold of your information in this really roundabout way and it can really cut you off guard when you feel like you're in the right place doing the right thing. So just lots.

It's so frustrating. And you think that you're, you know, connecting with a real person, but it actually turns out to be just the scammer.

Yeah. Yeah. It's the it's the mental pretzel stuff. Like, it's hard to trust anyone sometimes, but let's say you one of those scams that you mentioned has come across your your computer screen or your phone. What do you do in that case?

Well, the first thing you want to do, if you actually have shared any of your personal details, is to immediately alert your bank. You might your bank will probably suggest that you change your bank account, you know, shut down the old one or the new one just to keep that money safe. If you have actually shared anything with anyone who has contacted you and then you want to report it, because if we report scams, it makes it easier for the authorities to track them, to find patterns and of course, to track down these scam artists.

And so there's a whole bunch of places you can report scams to the Federal Trade Commission, your state attorney general's office, the FBI, even your local police station, just like any theft. And so you definitely want to do that. Unfortunately, when you do have money stolen from you in this way, it can be really hard to recover it.

And so even if you do report it to the police station, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily see that money again. Sadly, that's the really tragic thing about these scams. But you might be helping other people, you know, prevent this fraud from continuing.

Definitely. It's one of those things it's okay to be hyper about and be very, very cautious about. Do you have your walls and guards up? I'm all there.

Yes, exactly. And I think one interesting thing is that it can really happen to anyone. There's so much kind of shame and embarrassment around scams because you feel like it's your fault for falling for something. But I think that it's so important to let go of that feeling of embarrassment and shame, because really anyone can fall for a scam.

These scam artists have gotten so sophisticated that it's not your fault at all. You shouldn't, you know, be embarrassed. And we just want to try to prevent it from happening again.

Thank you for imagining that, because I know people that have had that experience and I've had that experience myself where I just got duped, that I never very good, but you live, you learn.

It seems like every day there's a new warning about financial scams circulating, with the scammers getting more and more creative. Many people think that it could never happen to them, and then they find themselves on the phone with their bank trying to recoup their losses.
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> of NerdWallet with tips on how to avoid falling for common scams and what to do in case you do.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-stay-safe-from-financial-scams">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona.  One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to protecting yourself from financial scams is thinking you're too smart to be duped by one. It can literally happen to anyone, regardless of age or circumstance. I mean, come on. There are a lot of sophisticated scams out there. But thankfully, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Kimberly Palmer joins us today with a few key strategies to help keep you safe.
Man, those scammers are really sneaky out there. Let's talk about that. If you get a call from your bank, probably not legit. Let's go into that.
Exactly. One of the most common scams out there is your bank or some kind of financial institution calling you. But it's not really your bank. It's someone. It's a scam artist, essentially impersonating your bank. And because they can be so convincing, they actually convince people who have picked up the phone to share their personal information, share things like passwords, Social Security numbers, all kinds of personal details that they then use to steal your money or steal your identity.
And so you want to be so careful whenever you get a phone call from anyone or a text message or an email you want to verify who it is. So actually, even though it feels rude, you want to say, I'm going to hang up and call my bank myself, and then you get the verified number on the back of your bank card or wherever you have it and call yourself.
And that's the only way to really know who you're talking to.
Right. And just for clarity sake. Scammers can spoof numbers. I've had this happen personally where it says your banking institution, it's the exact same number, whatever, one 800 number calling you. But again, it's you should call that not the other way around.
Exactly. I'm so glad you mentioned that, because it can be so convincing. And also, when you get that call, they are often the most pleasant kind of sounding customer service reps you've ever spoken to. But it's all a scam. Just trying to get to trying to trick you.
Right. Right. And a lot of that comes back to general security practices, especially when you're banking online and on your phone and all of that jazz. Any tips there?
The most important thing is just to make sure that you are constantly monitoring your own accounts, because often the first sign of a scam is even a really small deduction, like a $5 deduction that you don't recognize. And it's a way for the scam artists to really test if they can go bigger and subtract more money from your account.
So you want to be regularly reviewing your credit card statements, your banking statements, most importantly, to look for anything you don't recognize. And if there is something that seems out of place, you want to call and investigate because then you can shut down. If there is a scam starting to take place, you can shut that down. And then also you want to just be sure that you have strong passwords across all your accounts.
Set up two factor authentication so a person can't log in with only the password but needs to get that code. Also texted or emailed to you as well just to make sure all those accounts are safe.
Yeah, I 100% agree with that. That two factor authentication authentication is just that has changed my life and given me such a peace of mind just because there's so many goofy things that people are trying to get at us. Let's go into that. The common scams that might come your way. Aside from the banking one that we mentioned, anything you want to add there?
It's really helpful, I think, to know what those common scams are. So every year, the Federal Trade Commission basically puts out a list of the top scams. And so they include things like impersonating institutions like we talked about. Also fake sweepstakes. So someone you get in a letter or an email saying that you won something, but of course it's just a way to get your personal information.
Fake job postings, especially for remote work that has really taken off and then, sadly, romance scams. So if you're, you know, online dating have a profile, you ought to be really careful about whoever is reaching out to you.
Definitely. If it's good, too good to be true in any sense. It's it is. It always is the one thing and I wonder if it fits here. I just personally experienced this lesson a week ago. I was selling some stuff on Facebook Marketplace and there are like the cash app scams, whether it be Venmo or Zelle, where people will comment on your post right away message you and then they are trying to get.
It's a crazy swapping of information like they're they want your, you know, whatever email or phone number you use with your cash app account. And then there's I had to look into this whole thing because it happened repeatedly and I was like, What the heck is going on? And it was the yeah, I think I don't remember what, but some site that protects people was explaining that yes, this is a scam that people do.
Again, it's just like trying to get a hold of your information in this really roundabout way and it can really cut you off guard when you feel like you're in the right place doing the right thing. So just lots.
It's so frustrating. And you think that you're, you know, connecting with a real person, but it actually turns out to be just the scammer.
Yeah. Yeah. It's the it's the mental pretzel stuff. Like, it's hard to trust anyone sometimes, but let's say you one of those scams that you mentioned has come across your your computer screen or your phone. What do you do in that case?
Well, the first thing you want to do, if you actually have shared any of your personal details, is to immediately alert your bank. You might your bank will probably suggest that you change your bank account, you know, shut down the old one or the new one just to keep that money safe. If you have actually shared anything with anyone who has contacted you and then you want to report it, because if we report scams, it makes it easier for the authorities to track them, to find patterns and of course, to track down these scam artists.
And so there's a whole bunch of places you can report scams to the Federal Trade Commission, your state attorney general's office, the FBI, even your local police station, just like any theft. And so you definitely want to do that. Unfortunately, when you do have money stolen from you in this way, it can be really hard to recover it.
And so even if you do report it to the police station, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily see that money again. Sadly, that's the really tragic thing about these scams. But you might be helping other people, you know, prevent this fraud from continuing.
Definitely. It's one of those things it's okay to be hyper about and be very, very cautious about. Do you have your walls and guards up? I'm all there.
Yes, exactly. And I think one interesting thing is that it can really happen to anyone. There's so much kind of shame and embarrassment around scams because you feel like it's your fault for falling for something. But I think that it's so important to let go of that feeling of embarrassment and shame, because really anyone can fall for a scam.
These scam artists have gotten so sophisticated that it's not your fault at all. You shouldn't, you know, be embarrassed. And we just want to try to prevent it from happening again.
Thank you for imagining that, because I know people that have had that experience and I've had that experience myself where I just got duped, that I never very good, but you live, you learn.

Tips to stay safe from financial scams

Want to travel around but don't have a travel buddy? Traveling alone can come with single surcharges and not having someone to share costs with can make solo travelers blow through their budgets quickly. 

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by Sally French of NerdWallet with tips for solo travelers who want to be fiscally responsible while exploring the globe.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

Today we're talking solo travel. It's getting more and more popular these days, but let's face it- Traveling by yourself can get really pricey. Thankfully, we have NerdWallet travel expert Sally French here with us to give us tips on how to make the most of it all. 

Today we're talking about the topic of solo travel, keeping it fun and I guess financially friendly, you could say. 

Okay, I love it. First things first. From the Nerdwallet article, I read the amount of people opting for solo travel has gone up as compared to past years. Is that correct?

That is correct. So what Nerdwallet has found is actually based on Google searches for solo travel, they have increased 59% in the first half of this year versus the same period in 2019. More people now are interested in solo travel travel than they were pre-pandemic.

No, that's what they say. So what's the big difference that I guess people are just eager to get out there, huh?

Yeah, You know, I think there is definitely this uptake since the pandemic of people being okay out there, being solo. We spent so much time alone and now people are spread out. People have moved away, but people still want to go on trips. People especially want to take those bucket list trips. So sometimes the best way to take that bucket list trip might just be by yourself.

Yeah, there's a few steps you got to take first. Let's talk about the travel in itself, that airplane ticket. Any advantages to flying solo?

Well, this is actually an area where you can save money. So one of the challenges with flying solo or traveling solo is that it can be more expensive. You're not able to split the cost of that rental car, of that ride, share of that hotel room. But with airfare, in some ways, you can find a better deal. You might just be able to get that last available flight if seats are sold out for two.

That's not going to work If you're traveling with someone else. If you're by yourself, that can be better. Another thing is you might be more inclined to be okay with that middle seat. What we've seen is that airfare prices are actually down this year versus last year. They're down this year versus 2019. They're down this year versus what they were ten years ago.

And a big reason for that is because airfares have engaged in this practice called unbundling or bundling, where they'll charge a lower base airfare, and then they'll add all these extra costs, extra cost check bags, extra cost to board early. And one of those extra costs is to pick your seat, especially with families. People want to sit together.

And so we see a lot of air. Airlines will pay. A lot of travelers will pay extra to be able to take their seat to travel with their family members. But if you're traveling solo, you don't have any family members to travel with. And so you can probably skip that expense. The reality is you're probably going to end up in the middle seat, but maybe not a huge deal if you're a solo traveler looking to save money.

Seriously, at the end of the day, it's just tapping the person next to your shoulder. Got to get up quick. It's never a big deal.

But I remember going on a flight. You're going to remember the trip. You're not going to remember the middle seat anyway. At least I.

Totally. They keep remembering that something you touched on just a bit ago is the other important part of travel. And traveling alone is picking that place to stay. So when we put a price tag of, let's say 150 bucks a night on a hotel room, that's often great if you're traveling with a friend, you split it down the middle and you know it's everyone's happy.

But when you're by yourself, it's all on you. So what are your options there for your lodging?

Yeah, you're completely right, is what Nerdwallet has found is that at hotels, you can save money when you're traveling with someone else. In fact, if you're traveling with large groups, nerdwallet encourages you to book. Airbnb is where you can save even more money. But the bad news is when you're traveling solo, there's no one to split that cost with.

That said, there are a few options. So I mentioned Airbnbs and the rule is found that these are a far better deal with large groups, but actually Nerdwallet or Airbnb recently revamped their rooms feature. And so if you're willing to stay in a house that you share with other people, Airbnb has what's called rooms and you can book just a room and that might not be something that you're willing to do with a family.

But when you're a solo traveler, you book just that room. Airbnb has filters where you can filter out rooms that have a lock on the inside, which might be something that you want to do as a solo traveler. You can search by hosts and hosts, even write a bio about themselves. It's intended to sort of help connect travelers who actually want to talk to the host.

What we found is increasingly Airbnb is just kind of operate like vacation rentals or timeshares where you never even meet the host. And, you know, sometimes that's great if you want to spend your vacation with your family and friends, you don't want to talk to the host anyway. But as a solo traveler, often you do. And so Airbnb rooms can be a really good way to save other things that you might consider are hostels.

Hostels don't just have to be for 19 year olds, we've increasingly been seeing more hostels that older adults are going to. That can be an excellent way to save money as well as capsule hotels. So these are just little tiny rooms. Often the ceiling won't even be a full room ceiling height. These are like pods. And so sometimes the ceiling can be six feet, eight feet.

It'll typically be just a bed with a room to put down a bag and that's it. You're probably not going to want that if you have to share it with somebody else. But if you're by yourself and you're just looking for a place to lay down your head to sleep, just store your bags and you're going off into the city to check it out.

A capsule hotel can be an amazing option for solo travelers.

That's awesome. I've never heard of the last option. Are those more popular in some countries or places and others.

Do you know? Yeah. You know, I actually stayed in in a pod hotel or a capsule hotel in Singapore, because Singapore is one of the most expensive places that you can visit. And I'm not really interested in spending a lot of time in the hotel. I'm interested in spending the time out in Singapore to see what they have.

And you're right, the ceiling was really, really short. Luckily, I'm short, so it was like just a little bit taller than what I was. And I have to tell you, the only time I spent in that room was sleeping enough to change my clothes and get out of there. But again, if you're really on a budget, that can be an excellent way to go.

And we're seeing this more and more. Not necessarily even capsule hotels in the US, but just these really micro hotels. There is a chain called the hotel and those focused on really small hotel rooms, which is ideal if you don't want to pay for site space that you're not using otherwise.

Yeah, I golden rule. Just go to sleep there, clean up there, then be outside. The rest of the time.

I'm definitely a you know, if you're traveling with a family, you want to have that kitchen and living room and all that. But you know, for couples, for people who want to see the city, they're not trying to relax in the room. And solo travelers, that's you. You definitely do not need that.

There you go. And the other main part of travel, food and going out and grab it, food and drinks. Any tips there?

Yeah. You know, one of the fun things about traveling is that if you're with a big group, you can order a bunch of things and try a little bit of everything and you're probably not going to experience that as a solo traveler. But one of the nice things is that you have freedom. Often when people are in groups, they feel like they have to do an expensive waiter service restaurant.

But as a solo traveler, you can eat on your own time, on your own budget, on your own schedule. And I always encourage all travelers to do this. But go to the street food stands, get what the people are eating locally. And especially as a solo traveler, you have just a little bit more freedom to do that. The food's more expensive or it's more authentic, it's tastier.

And the reality is it's probably a lot cheaper, too.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things to do when I travel is grab something from a cart and just sit and people watch in the area wherever you may be. I go to Mexico a lot and that's what we were doing, is a lot of the taco carts and then crossing the street, sitting on the bench and watching the cars go by.

There's nothing better.

Definitely. And food is one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the local culture. You know, I love a breakfast buffet for groups can be really convenient because everyone can ensure that they eat. But the reality is breakfast buffet food is probably just going to be your generic hotel pancakes. When you go out in that car, you're trying the local fruits, which are probably way fresher than what's in your grocery store.

You can get amazing meat skewers. That is a really, really good way to immerse yourself in the culture, try something new.

Grab and go. Keep it moving. The final thing that I had in mind is financials aside, how can we keep solo travel fun and light?

Yes. So one of the challenges I think for solo travel is just inherently you're alone, you're by yourself, you don't have people to talk to and to share your experience with. But that doesn't have to be the case. One of the best piece of pieces of advice is to take one of your hobbies you have at home and experience that out on the road.

And so if you're someone who loves to take a yoga class at home, find a local yoga class in that new city that you're exploring. And I'm a competitive weightlifter. And so whenever I go travel, I find a local weightlifting gym and I make friends that way. And those people are always the one telling me the best wrecks of places to go eat, things to go.

See, it's always way better than what the guidebooks are going to tell you anyway.

More personalized that way. A little ambitious to put yourself out there, but that is seriously great advice. Thanks for mentioning that. That's good. That's a good one to keep.

Yeah. The other thing to remember is that there are often group tours and some of these tours, things like cruises or other tours that put you in a hotel, they might charge extra if you're traveling solo because you're not able to split the cost of the room. But some don't. If you look specifically for tours that do not charge an extra single supplement, and that's the wording that you'll see single supplement, find those that don't charge extra.

And that can be an excellent way to meet people as well, is just make friends with people on the cruise or on the group tours.

Well, good to know. Sally, anything you want to add about solo travel? No.

Solo travel is fun. Get out there. You're not tied to someone's schedule, especially for international trips where everyone has jetlag. Your partner is asleep super early. You want to stay up super late. That doesn't matter. When you're traveling solo.

You work on your own schedule. I've done it and I just highly recommend it. So yeah, also awesome as always. Thank you, Sally.

Want to travel around but don't have a travel buddy? Traveling alone can come with single surcharges and not having someone to share costs with can make solo travelers blow through their budgets quickly. 
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joined by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">Sally French</a> of NerdWallet with tips for solo travelers who want to be fiscally responsible while exploring the globe.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/ask-a-travel-nerd-how-can-i-make-solo-travel-affordable-and-fun">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona
Today we're talking solo travel. It's getting more and more popular these days, but let's face it- Traveling by yourself can get really pricey. Thankfully, we have NerdWallet travel expert Sally French here with us to give us tips on how to make the most of it all. 
Today we're talking about the topic of solo travel, keeping it fun and I guess financially friendly, you could say. 
Okay, I love it. First things first. From the Nerdwallet article, I read the amount of people opting for solo travel has gone up as compared to past years. Is that correct?
That is correct. So what Nerdwallet has found is actually based on Google searches for solo travel, they have increased 59% in the first half of this year versus the same period in 2019. More people now are interested in solo travel travel than they were pre-pandemic.
No, that's what they say. So what's the big difference that I guess people are just eager to get out there, huh?
Yeah, You know, I think there is definitely this uptake since the pandemic of people being okay out there, being solo. We spent so much time alone and now people are spread out. People have moved away, but people still want to go on trips. People especially want to take those bucket list trips. So sometimes the best way to take that bucket list trip might just be by yourself.
Yeah, there's a few steps you got to take first. Let's talk about the travel in itself, that airplane ticket. Any advantages to flying solo?
Well, this is actually an area where you can save money. So one of the challenges with flying solo or traveling solo is that it can be more expensive. You're not able to split the cost of that rental car, of that ride, share of that hotel room. But with airfare, in some ways, you can find a better deal. You might just be able to get that last available flight if seats are sold out for two.
That's not going to work If you're traveling with someone else. If you're by yourself, that can be better. Another thing is you might be more inclined to be okay with that middle seat. What we've seen is that airfare prices are actually down this year versus last year. They're down this year versus 2019. They're down this year versus what they were ten years ago.
And a big reason for that is because airfares have engaged in this practice called unbundling or bundling, where they'll charge a lower base airfare, and then they'll add all these extra costs, extra cost check bags, extra cost to board early. And one of those extra costs is to pick your seat, especially with families. People want to sit together.
And so we see a lot of air. Airlines will pay. A lot of travelers will pay extra to be able to take their seat to travel with their family members. But if you're traveling solo, you don't have any family members to travel with. And so you can probably skip that expense. The reality is you're probably going to end up in the middle seat, but maybe not a huge deal if you're a solo traveler looking to save money.
Seriously, at the end of the day, it's just tapping the person next to your shoulder. Got to get up quick. It's never a big deal.
But I remember going on a flight. You're going to remember the trip. You're not going to remember the middle seat anyway. At least I.
Totally. They keep remembering that something you touched on just a bit ago is the other important part of travel. And traveling alone is picking that place to stay. So when we put a price tag of, let's say 150 bucks a night on a hotel room, that's often great if you're traveling with a friend, you split it down the middle and you know it's everyone's happy.
But when you're by yourself, it's all on you. So what are your options there for your lodging?
Yeah, you're completely right, is what Nerdwallet has found is that at hotels, you can save money when you're traveling with someone else. In fact, if you're traveling with large groups, nerdwallet encourages you to book. Airbnb is where you can save even more money. But the bad news is when you're traveling solo, there's no one to split that cost with.
That said, there are a few options. So I mentioned Airbnbs and the rule is found that these are a far better deal with large groups, but actually Nerdwallet or Airbnb recently revamped their rooms feature. And so if you're willing to stay in a house that you share with other people, Airbnb has what's called rooms and you can book just a room and that might not be something that you're willing to do with a family.
But when you're a solo traveler, you book just that room. Airbnb has filters where you can filter out rooms that have a lock on the inside, which might be something that you want to do as a solo traveler. You can search by hosts and hosts, even write a bio about themselves. It's intended to sort of help connect travelers who actually want to talk to the host.
What we found is increasingly Airbnb is just kind of operate like vacation rentals or timeshares where you never even meet the host. And, you know, sometimes that's great if you want to spend your vacation with your family and friends, you don't want to talk to the host anyway. But as a solo traveler, often you do. And so Airbnb rooms can be a really good way to save other things that you might consider are hostels.
Hostels don't just have to be for 19 year olds, we've increasingly been seeing more hostels that older adults are going to. That can be an excellent way to save money as well as capsule hotels. So these are just little tiny rooms. Often the ceiling won't even be a full room ceiling height. These are like pods. And so sometimes the ceiling can be six feet, eight feet.
It'll typically be just a bed with a room to put down a bag and that's it. You're probably not going to want that if you have to share it with somebody else. But if you're by yourself and you're just looking for a place to lay down your head to sleep, just store your bags and you're going off into the city to check it out.
A capsule hotel can be an amazing option for solo travelers.
That's awesome. I've never heard of the last option. Are those more popular in some countries or places and others.
Do you know? Yeah. You know, I actually stayed in in a pod hotel or a capsule hotel in Singapore, because Singapore is one of the most expensive places that you can visit. And I'm not really interested in spending a lot of time in the hotel. I'm interested in spending the time out in Singapore to see what they have.
And you're right, the ceiling was really, really short. Luckily, I'm short, so it was like just a little bit taller than what I was. And I have to tell you, the only time I spent in that room was sleeping enough to change my clothes and get out of there. But again, if you're really on a budget, that can be an excellent way to go.
And we're seeing this more and more. Not necessarily even capsule hotels in the US, but just these really micro hotels. There is a chain called the hotel and those focused on really small hotel rooms, which is ideal if you don't want to pay for site space that you're not using otherwise.
Yeah, I golden rule. Just go to sleep there, clean up there, then be outside. The rest of the time.
I'm definitely a you know, if you're traveling with a family, you want to have that kitchen and living room and all that. But you know, for couples, for people who want to see the city, they're not trying to relax in the room. And solo travelers, that's you. You definitely do not need that.
There you go. And the other main part of travel, food and going out and grab it, food and drinks. Any tips there?
Yeah. You know, one of the fun things about traveling is that if you're with a big group, you can order a bunch of things and try a little bit of everything and you're probably not going to experience that as a solo traveler. But one of the nice things is that you have freedom. Often when people are in groups, they feel like they have to do an expensive waiter service restaurant.
But as a solo traveler, you can eat on your own time, on your own budget, on your own schedule. And I always encourage all travelers to do this. But go to the street food stands, get what the people are eating locally. And especially as a solo traveler, you have just a little bit more freedom to do that. The food's more expensive or it's more authentic, it's tastier.
And the reality is it's probably a lot cheaper, too.
Yeah, that's one of my favorite things to do when I travel is grab something from a cart and just sit and people watch in the area wherever you may be. I go to Mexico a lot and that's what we were doing, is a lot of the taco carts and then crossing the street, sitting on the bench and watching the cars go by.
There's nothing better.
Definitely. And food is one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the local culture. You know, I love a breakfast buffet for groups can be really convenient because everyone can ensure that they eat. But the reality is breakfast buffet food is probably just going to be your generic hotel pancakes. When you go out in that car, you're trying the local fruits, which are probably way fresher than what's in your grocery store.
You can get amazing meat skewers. That is a really, really good way to immerse yourself in the culture, try something new.
Grab and go. Keep it moving. The final thing that I had in mind is financials aside, how can we keep solo travel fun and light?
Yes. So one of the challenges I think for solo travel is just inherently you're alone, you're by yourself, you don't have people to talk to and to share your experience with. But that doesn't have to be the case. One of the best piece of pieces of advice is to take one of your hobbies you have at home and experience that out on the road.
And so if you're someone who loves to take a yoga class at home, find a local yoga class in that new city that you're exploring. And I'm a competitive weightlifter. And so whenever I go travel, I find a local weightlifting gym and I make friends that way. And those people are always the one telling me the best wrecks of places to go eat, things to go.
See, it's always way better than what the guidebooks are going to tell you anyway.
More personalized that way. A little ambitious to put yourself out there, but that is seriously great advice. Thanks for mentioning that. That's good. That's a good one to keep.
Yeah. The other thing to remember is that there are often group tours and some of these tours, things like cruises or other tours that put you in a hotel, they might charge extra if you're traveling solo because you're not able to split the cost of the room. But some don't. If you look specifically for tours that do not charge an extra single supplement, and that's the wording that you'll see single supplement, find those that don't charge extra.
And that can be an excellent way to meet people as well, is just make friends with people on the cruise or on the group tours.
Well, good to know. Sally, anything you want to add about solo travel? No.
Solo travel is fun. Get out there. You're not tied to someone's schedule, especially for international trips where everyone has jetlag. Your partner is asleep super early. You want to stay up super late. That doesn't matter. When you're traveling solo.
You work on your own schedule. I've done it and I just highly recommend it. So yeah, also awesome as always. Thank you, Sally.

Tips for keeping solo travel financially friendly

Are you struggling with the cost for tickets to see The Eras Tour? Still trying to decide if you need every variant of "1989 (Taylor's Version)" on vinyl or CD? 

The costs of being a Taylor Swift fan are high, but there are ways to manage your spending to keep from blowing your budget.  

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joibed by Elizabeth Ayoola of NerdWallet to guide Swifties through getting the full Taylor experience without blowing swiftly though your bank account.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

Today's finance-ocused topic is Taylor Swift. Ah, yes, you heard that right. As of this recording, her mega-popular Eras tour is on the road and fans have shelled out unfathomable amounts of money to sit in seats worse than in the nosebleeds to dress like her while they attend and to collect every item under the sun that has Taylor's name stamped or attached to it.

Let's think beyond the life of her tour is chasing her ongoing music merchandizing a financial-friendly decision or more of a burden on your financial well-being. Thankfully, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Elizabeth Ayoola is here to help guide Swifties in the right direction. 

I am not a Taylor Swift fan. I don't get what is going on with this. I mean, I can understand fandom and stuff like that, so you're going to really have to help guide through the logic behind some of these purchases that people decide to make. Yeah. So today we're talking about Taylor Swift and the good old business woman that she is and her entertainment. Oh, my God. Mega stardom, whatever you want to call it that she has. Though the Eras tour is going on right now, very cutthroat market out there for those tickets and all of that jazz.

Whether you buy them directly from Ticketmaster, you're getting them at resale value. People are going insane and spending tons of money. Really, the first thing that came to my mind is when people are making these big purchases for a ticket for themselves for a Taylor Swift concert. What would be your suggestion in way of funding it? Like, should you really should you shop that much money from your checking account, or is this an appropriate time for a credit card purchase? 

Well, you got it. So I would say the latter. Credit cards can be very helpful when it comes to credit card rewards. Right. So people can take advantage of credit card rewards, which usually basically give you money for spending money. And yes, it's free money. So if you get the right card, specifically a cashback card and you use that card to buy your ticket, then at least, you know, you get some money back after spending all that money on the ticket. You know, assuming that it's expensive and even if it's inexpensive, you still get some money back. So you can be a Swifty and also get paid for being one. 

Mm hmm. Is there any element of restraint that you would suggest one would have? I mean, these people are really big fans and it is that big ticket purchase. I mean, I know you keep you're not in everyone's minds telling them what to do. But is is it okay to splurge sometimes like that? 

Well, it's such a sentimental thing. I wouldn't say there's a right or wrong to splurge like that, but I think the primary thing is planning, budgeting, saving. Right. So one thing that people could do, especially the diehard fans, is create a Taylor Swift budget. Right. So you could open yourself maybe a high yield savings account and dedicate that literally towards all of your merch, concert tickets and everything else and just pop money in there every month. It may be five or $10. It could be more depending on how crazy you go. But I think another key thing to remember is not to impulse spend, if possible. So before you're making that purchase, whether it's on buying your third concert ticket or buying some more merit. Ask yourself, is this thing really going to bring me joy or is this just like a knee jerk reaction to her dropping a new album or her dropping some new merch? And is it going to put me in a bad financial spot? Sure. I'm glad you mentioned that the budgeting and saving, because I realize that there's this new slew of concert dates that she put out and they're quite far out. So you could potentially have a year plus to be budgeting for this. And like you said, five bucks here, ten bucks here, and then, you know, that's a win win for everyone, I guess.

Heading into the whole merchandizing thing. The segue would ideally be when you're at the concert and you see that T-shirt or sweatshirt or whatever have you. Again, is this a justifiable moment when your T-shirt that's 100% cotton is 50 bucks at least, or is this one of those things that you should kind of just like stay away from?

Well, again, I'm just going to bring up the budget again because I can sometimes be a shopper myself. So I know the struggle, but something I personally do is create a budget for things. So again, if you say an A cash, actually bring in cash for the concert might be another way to tackle that. So if you say I'm only going to bring 50 bucks to the concert, this is all I have. My cards are at home and please don't use Apple Pay on your phone. Okay. I'm not saying don't, but you might be tempted to do that. Right. But if you only have that cash, then you have no choice but to spend what is on you. So, again, you know, having some self-control and saying, this is my budget, this is my limit, and I'm not going to exceed that.

I love that idea. I have to use that idea. But I need to be more careful with my cash because the joke is when I go to like live sporting events or concerts, I have a couple of beers and I drop my cash out. Oh, no, no, that would suck. That looks like that. Yeah. So do better than me.

But that is a good way. Taylor Swift, like I said at the beginning, is a really, really good businesswoman knows how to make her money and put out her products and this and that. So concert and current to her side, she's doing all those rereleases of her albums and re-recordings and this and that. But it seems that it's not just on one download or one CD or one rocker that you can buy. It's multiple options, maybe with different cover or that kind of thing, different kind of collectible details, I guess, whatever have you. What what's your advice there when something like this or of the different collectible CDs, they all of the same music are $15 a pop? I could see someone spiraling and being like, I need all four. You know, even though they're all the same thing, like, what is your advice here?

So that is a tough one, especially if you're an impulse buyer again. But I think it's just reminding yourself that, you know, do I really need every version and every color? Is this really going to bring me more joy again? And also, just remembering that there are always going to be more albums, there's always going to be more merch, and you literally don't necessarily have to buy every single one.

But if you're itching and you must. Another tip is just, as I mentioned, credit card rewards before. Maybe you can let those kind of the cash points that you build up or the cash you build up, rather, you can let it build up and sit in your account and you can say, Hey, I'm going to use my cash rewards to buy a couple. But again, set a limit for yourself, whether it's two three so that you're not just spiraling out of control and buying literally everything that drops. Be general message that I'm getting here is stay away from that impulse knee jerk kind of purchasing. In so many respects in life, but mostly if you're 60, probably. Yes. Yes. And if it helps.

I personally blocked Zara on my phone because I was all week long. Zara. So if you need to block the website with the vs. dropping so that you can. You know, our phones make it so easy to make purchases, right? So you know, you're just going to go on there if you need to block that whatever you need to do to kind of restrain yourself, just do it.

Love it. Love it. Unfollow that account. It's hard to follow Taylor Swift, if you love gets to use. If you have anything else you want to touch on with this, lay it on me. If you've got any other thoughts on this whole topic, nothing much more except if people want. Like you said, the main theme here is budgeting, save, saving and trying to avoid impulse spending.

So we have more tips on Nerdwallet for how to budget, save and make the right financial decision when it comes to music and toys as well. And the one thing I will say about Nerdwallet is much of the information you all put out there, it still allows you to have fun. That good old balance. That was important because otherwise if you restrict yourself too much, then you go crazy.

It's just like with the dieting and stuff and then you overspend, right? And money is the tool is supposed to bring you joy. It's supposed to make life easier. So you should get happiness from things you spend your money on too. Bing, bing, bing. There we go as well. 

Thank you so much, Elizabeth. 

You're welcome.

Are you struggling with the cost for tickets to see The Eras Tour? Still trying to decide if you need every variant of "1989 (Taylor's Version)" on vinyl or CD? 
The costs of being a Taylor Swift fan are high, but there are ways to manage your spending to keep from blowing your budget.  
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joibed by <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/elizabeth-ayoola">Elizabeth Ayoola</a> of NerdWallet to guide Swifties through getting the full Taylor experience without blowing swiftly though your bank account.
Read more on NerdWallet <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/taylor-swift-eras-tour-cost">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona
Today's finance-ocused topic is Taylor Swift. Ah, yes, you heard that right. As of this recording, her mega-popular Eras tour is on the road and fans have shelled out unfathomable amounts of money to sit in seats worse than in the nosebleeds to dress like her while they attend and to collect every item under the sun that has Taylor's name stamped or attached to it.
Let's think beyond the life of her tour is chasing her ongoing music merchandizing a financial-friendly decision or more of a burden on your financial well-being. Thankfully, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Elizabeth Ayoola is here to help guide Swifties in the right direction. 
I am not a Taylor Swift fan. I don't get what is going on with this. I mean, I can understand fandom and stuff like that, so you're going to really have to help guide through the logic behind some of these purchases that people decide to make. Yeah. So today we're talking about Taylor Swift and the good old business woman that she is and her entertainment. Oh, my God. Mega stardom, whatever you want to call it that she has. Though the Eras tour is going on right now, very cutthroat market out there for those tickets and all of that jazz.
Whether you buy them directly from Ticketmaster, you're getting them at resale value. People are going insane and spending tons of money. Really, the first thing that came to my mind is when people are making these big purchases for a ticket for themselves for a Taylor Swift concert. What would be your suggestion in way of funding it? Like, should you really should you shop that much money from your checking account, or is this an appropriate time for a credit card purchase? 
Well, you got it. So I would say the latter. Credit cards can be very helpful when it comes to credit card rewards. Right. So people can take advantage of credit card rewards, which usually basically give you money for spending money. And yes, it's free money. So if you get the right card, specifically a cashback card and you use that card to buy your ticket, then at least, you know, you get some money back after spending all that money on the ticket. You know, assuming that it's expensive and even if it's inexpensive, you still get some money back. So you can be a Swifty and also get paid for being one. 
Mm hmm. Is there any element of restraint that you would suggest one would have? I mean, these people are really big fans and it is that big ticket purchase. I mean, I know you keep you're not in everyone's minds telling them what to do. But is is it okay to splurge sometimes like that? 
Well, it's such a sentimental thing. I wouldn't say there's a right or wrong to splurge like that, but I think the primary thing is planning, budgeting, saving. Right. So one thing that people could do, especially the diehard fans, is create a Taylor Swift budget. Right. So you could open yourself maybe a high yield savings account and dedicate that literally towards all of your merch, concert tickets and everything else and just pop money in there every month. It may be five or $10. It could be more depending on how crazy you go. But I think another key thing to remember is not to impulse spend, if possible. So before you're making that purchase, whether it's on buying your third concert ticket or buying some more merit. Ask yourself, is this thing really going to bring me joy or is this just like a knee jerk reaction to her dropping a new album or her dropping some new merch? And is it going to put me in a bad financial spot? Sure. I'm glad you mentioned that the budgeting and saving, because I realize that there's this new slew of concert dates that she put out and they're quite far out. So you could potentially have a year plus to be budgeting for this. And like you said, five bucks here, ten bucks here, and then, you know, that's a win win for everyone, I guess.
Heading into the whole merchandizing thing. The segue would ideally be when you're at the concert and you see that T-shirt or sweatshirt or whatever have you. Again, is this a justifiable moment when your T-shirt that's 100% cotton is 50 bucks at least, or is this one of those things that you should kind of just like stay away from?
Well, again, I'm just going to bring up the budget again because I can sometimes be a shopper myself. So I know the struggle, but something I personally do is create a budget for things. So again, if you say an A cash, actually bring in cash for the concert might be another way to tackle that. So if you say I'm only going to bring 50 bucks to the concert, this is all I have. My cards are at home and please don't use Apple Pay on your phone. Okay. I'm not saying don't, but you might be tempted to do that. Right. But if you only have that cash, then you have no choice but to spend what is on you. So, again, you know, having some self-control and saying, this is my budget, this is my limit, and I'm not going to exceed that.
I love that idea. I have to use that idea. But I need to be more careful with my cash because the joke is when I go to like live sporting events or concerts, I have a couple of beers and I drop my cash out. Oh, no, no, that would suck. That looks like that. Yeah. So do better than me.
But that is a good way. Taylor Swift, like I said at the beginning, is a really, really good businesswoman knows how to make her money and put out her products and this and that. So concert and current to her side, she's doing all those rereleases of her albums and re-recordings and this and that. But it seems that it's not just on one download or one CD or one rocker that you can buy. It's multiple options, maybe with different cover or that kind of thing, different kind of collectible details, I guess, whatever have you. What what's your advice there when something like this or of the different collectible CDs, they all of the same music are $15 a pop? I could see someone spiraling and being like, I need all four. You know, even though they're all the same thing, like, what is your advice here?
So that is a tough one, especially if you're an impulse buyer again. But I think it's just reminding yourself that, you know, do I really need every version and every color? Is this really going to bring me more joy again? And also, just remembering that there are always going to be more albums, there's always going to be more merch, and you literally don't necessarily have to buy every single one.
But if you're itching and you must. Another tip is just, as I mentioned, credit card rewards before. Maybe you can let those kind of the cash points that you build up or the cash you build up, rather, you can let it build up and sit in your account and you can say, Hey, I'm going to use my cash rewards to buy a couple. But again, set a limit for yourself, whether it's two three so that you're not just spiraling out of control and buying literally everything that drops. Be general message that I'm getting here is stay away from that impulse knee jerk kind of purchasing. In so many respects in life, but mostly if you're 60, probably. Yes. Yes. And if it helps.
I personally blocked Zara on my phone because I was all week long. Zara. So if you need to block the website with the vs. dropping so that you can. You know, our phones make it so easy to make purchases, right? So you know, you're just going to go on there if you need to block that whatever you need to do to kind of restrain yourself, just do it.
Love it. Love it. Unfollow that account. It's hard to follow Taylor Swift, if you love gets to use. If you have anything else you want to touch on with this, lay it on me. If you've got any other thoughts on this whole topic, nothing much more except if people want. Like you said, the main theme here is budgeting, save, saving and trying to avoid impulse spending.
So we have more tips on Nerdwallet for how to budget, save and make the right financial decision when it comes to music and toys as well. And the one thing I will say about Nerdwallet is much of the information you all put out there, it still allows you to have fun. That good old balance. That was important because otherwise if you restrict yourself too much, then you go crazy.
It's just like with the dieting and stuff and then you overspend, right? And money is the tool is supposed to bring you joy. It's supposed to make life easier. So you should get happiness from things you spend your money on too. Bing, bing, bing. There we go as well. 
Thank you so much, Elizabeth. 
You're welcome.

Tips for Swifties to keep costs down while enjoying all Taylor has to offer

From curated ads to influencers showcasing the newest, hottest items it is impossible to escape ads on social media, and it's never been easier to purchase these items. But how can you stay on top of trends without overspending on things you, frankly, don't need?

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet about how to keep social media from helping you overspend.

Read the NerdWallet article here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

We're all guilty of it sucked into buying a gadget you saw in a Facebook ad or late night scrolling that turns into a whole shopping spree because of all those hard to miss deals. Personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer joins us today on how to curb your social media spending. I'm actually kind of excited to talk about this topic.

We're looking at five tips to keep you from overspending on the things that you see on social media. A lot of people are guilty of it, myself included. The first one is just an oldie but goodie. Making that wish list and waiting.

Yes, I actually use this myself all the time because it's such a helpful way just to not buy everything you want right away. So if you see something online, maybe on social media or anywhere, instead of clicking purchase, you just click to put it in your cart or add it to your wish list and then you can circle back to it later. You can wait a day or a week or a month, and it just gives you that extra chance to think about if you really want it.

Definitely my go to approach with Amazon. Yeah, this is the cart. It kind of lives there. Gets stores on it, and then I'm like, Oh, you know, why did I even think I wanted that?

Exactly. And the secret that a lot of people don't know is that retailers, online retailers, notice when you put it in your cart and then they might even send you a follow up coupon to apply. So it's extra It's actually an extra way to save money, too.

Oh, I like that. Next thing here: Evaluate the item without thinking about the sale price attached to it. Too much. Let's go into that.

It is so easy to see something that's on sale and just let that excitement get the better of you. And then you think that item is actually better than it really is. And so you want to take a minute and think, Would I actually want this even if it wasn't on sale? Just to consider take that the sale price out of the equation.

Because the fact is, even though there's so much messaging around, you need to buy this now, the sale is only coming once. The fact is sales definitely do reoccur and it's not your only chance to get it. And so if you do actually want it, you can just get it next time it goes on sale too.

I know that around prime days or that Nordstrom's sale that happens, is it just it's going on in the mom influencer world. It kind of feels like you're in competition with other people trying to buy the same kid's gadgets. And I know what I've seen that 30% off price tag. I'm like, I need to get it before that mom over there does so.

Exactly.

Yeah. And then it never turns out well with a huge pack and play like I do that I'm trying to get rid of. Oh, no. This one's an important one for us. All that late night scrolling.

This is such a challenging time of day. When it's late at night, you're exhausted. You've had a long day, you're stressed out, you're trying to unwind. And basically it's so easy to make those purchases that you don't really need when you're doing that late night scrolling because all of your defenses are down. And so if possible, you want to hold off any purchases at that time of day and wait and look at it again the next day when you have a good night's rest and you're looking at it with fresh eyes because basically it's just so easy to click and purchase into seconds late at night and then you can just as easily regret that you did that.

Yeah. Post-Midnight Monopoly money.

Exactly.

Going on to this next tip. It's not so great for your budget oftentimes. So an oldie but goodie. Probably want to know how much you can spend on the things you want.

Exactly. So it can be really helpful to set aside a portion of your budget for spending on things that you want but you don't need. And so one helpful rule of thumb, I really like the 50-30-20 budget, which basically means 50% of your take home pay is going towards needs like housing and food, 30% towards wants and 20% towards savings and debt payments. So out of that middle 30%, you can use that to buy items that you want to shop. And so, of course, everyone's budget will be slightly different, but it's a good rule of thumb because there's no need to feel guilty about things that you actually want and, you know, if it fits into your budget. But using this rule of thumb to decide whether it fits into your budget and how much you want to spend can just help it help you from overspending and prevent that overspending.

And so to me, I think that's a useful kind of rule of thumb to use.

Yeah, it keeps you feeling good about your purchase. Yeah. Yeah. You want to be happy with what you got here? Exactly. And this final tip, the fifth and final one hitting that unfollow button.

You definitely alluded to this already, but basically, it's just so easy to see what other people have online. You know, who knows how they're reporting it. That's not always shared. But basically you see these lifestyles or items that other people have. And then we want them. And so if you notice that you keep getting those feelings of envy evoked from looking at specific influencers online or even friends online, there is nothing wrong with unfollowing them because, you know, it's stirring up that negative emotion and so you might as well just skip it.

That's the word to the wise men Do that. Kim Anything else you want to add about curbing spending on social media?

I think the biggest thing is forget about the guilt. So don't feel bad if you've already done this, but you know you can start fresh and use some of these strategies like putting things into your cart or wishlist, and it's a way to just get back on track. So you feel good about your spending because that's the ultimate goal.

There you go. I appreciate it.

From curated ads to influencers showcasing the newest, hottest items it is impossible to escape ads on social media, and it's never been easier to purchase these items. But how can you stay on top of trends without overspending on things you, frankly, don't need?
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> of NerdWallet about how to keep social media from helping you overspend.
Read the NerdWallet article <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/5-tips-to-keep-social-media-from-spurring-you-to-overspend">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona
We're all guilty of it sucked into buying a gadget you saw in a Facebook ad or late night scrolling that turns into a whole shopping spree because of all those hard to miss deals. Personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer joins us today on how to curb your social media spending. I'm actually kind of excited to talk about this topic.
We're looking at five tips to keep you from overspending on the things that you see on social media. A lot of people are guilty of it, myself included. The first one is just an oldie but goodie. Making that wish list and waiting.
Yes, I actually use this myself all the time because it's such a helpful way just to not buy everything you want right away. So if you see something online, maybe on social media or anywhere, instead of clicking purchase, you just click to put it in your cart or add it to your wish list and then you can circle back to it later. You can wait a day or a week or a month, and it just gives you that extra chance to think about if you really want it.
Definitely my go to approach with Amazon. Yeah, this is the cart. It kind of lives there. Gets stores on it, and then I'm like, Oh, you know, why did I even think I wanted that?
Exactly. And the secret that a lot of people don't know is that retailers, online retailers, notice when you put it in your cart and then they might even send you a follow up coupon to apply. So it's extra It's actually an extra way to save money, too.
Oh, I like that. Next thing here: Evaluate the item without thinking about the sale price attached to it. Too much. Let's go into that.
It is so easy to see something that's on sale and just let that excitement get the better of you. And then you think that item is actually better than it really is. And so you want to take a minute and think, Would I actually want this even if it wasn't on sale? Just to consider take that the sale price out of the equation.
Because the fact is, even though there's so much messaging around, you need to buy this now, the sale is only coming once. The fact is sales definitely do reoccur and it's not your only chance to get it. And so if you do actually want it, you can just get it next time it goes on sale too.
I know that around prime days or that Nordstrom's sale that happens, is it just it's going on in the mom influencer world. It kind of feels like you're in competition with other people trying to buy the same kid's gadgets. And I know what I've seen that 30% off price tag. I'm like, I need to get it before that mom over there does so.
Exactly.
Yeah. And then it never turns out well with a huge pack and play like I do that I'm trying to get rid of. Oh, no. This one's an important one for us. All that late night scrolling.
This is such a challenging time of day. When it's late at night, you're exhausted. You've had a long day, you're stressed out, you're trying to unwind. And basically it's so easy to make those purchases that you don't really need when you're doing that late night scrolling because all of your defenses are down. And so if possible, you want to hold off any purchases at that time of day and wait and look at it again the next day when you have a good night's rest and you're looking at it with fresh eyes because basically it's just so easy to click and purchase into seconds late at night and then you can just as easily regret that you did that.
Yeah. Post-Midnight Monopoly money.
Exactly.
Going on to this next tip. It's not so great for your budget oftentimes. So an oldie but goodie. Probably want to know how much you can spend on the things you want.
Exactly. So it can be really helpful to set aside a portion of your budget for spending on things that you want but you don't need. And so one helpful rule of thumb, I really like the 50-30-20 budget, which basically means 50% of your take home pay is going towards needs like housing and food, 30% towards wants and 20% towards savings and debt payments. So out of that middle 30%, you can use that to buy items that you want to shop. And so, of course, everyone's budget will be slightly different, but it's a good rule of thumb because there's no need to feel guilty about things that you actually want and, you know, if it fits into your budget. But using this rule of thumb to decide whether it fits into your budget and how much you want to spend can just help it help you from overspending and prevent that overspending.
And so to me, I think that's a useful kind of rule of thumb to use.
Yeah, it keeps you feeling good about your purchase. Yeah. Yeah. You want to be happy with what you got here? Exactly. And this final tip, the fifth and final one hitting that unfollow button.
You definitely alluded to this already, but basically, it's just so easy to see what other people have online. You know, who knows how they're reporting it. That's not always shared. But basically you see these lifestyles or items that other people have. And then we want them. And so if you notice that you keep getting those feelings of envy evoked from looking at specific influencers online or even friends online, there is nothing wrong with unfollowing them because, you know, it's stirring up that negative emotion and so you might as well just skip it.
That's the word to the wise men Do that. Kim Anything else you want to add about curbing spending on social media?
I think the biggest thing is forget about the guilt. So don't feel bad if you've already done this, but you know you can start fresh and use some of these strategies like putting things into your cart or wishlist, and it's a way to just get back on track. So you feel good about your spending because that's the ultimate goal.
There you go. I appreciate it.

5 tips to avoid overspending when scrolling social media

With record-setting temperatures across the United States, home energy bills are skyrocketing. 

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Elizabeth Ayoola of NerdWallet about changes people can make to reduce their energy bills.

Read the NerdWallet article here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

It's summer, and pretty much anywhere you go in the US it is hot, just like with anything at this time in the economy. Energy costs are way up, but fear not. We have some steps to share with you to check that your house is working efficiently and ways to take control of your energy bill. Personal finance expert Elizabeth Ayoola joins us today with more on that.

Today we're talking about energy costs and cutting them during the summer. That dreaded bill comes every month. I literally hate seeing the number that pops up. I am very pro air conditioning and I think a lot of Americans feel the same way, especially in these summer months. So we've got about five tips to help us cut our energy costs this summer.

The first one, based off this article was really interesting to me, the idea of your electronics leaking because you obviously wouldn't think of that naturally, you think of pipes bursting and leaking and then that's a real problem. So let's let's jump into that. Taking a baseline of the electronics in your home.

So it is possible for your electronics to leak, Of course. And I am definitely a culprit of leaving everything plugged in and not unplugging things or turning switches off. So it just sometimes requires a change in your daily routine. So if you're used to, again, leaving things plugged in overnight, then you can maybe try before bed, unplugging things and taking things out, turning off all the switches.

And if you have kids at home, of course they could be culprits for that as well, with kids using so much technology. So just have them add that to their nighttime routine in terms of unplugging things and taking them out of the walls as well.

All right. And that just is a perfect segue right into establishing efficient habits. So let's talk about that, especially with your thermostat.

Again, you may want to during the winter months, obviously, you may be using air conditioning as an example. You may tend to use less air conditioning during the winter months. So maybe just consider adjusting for the temperature or the climates that you're in for whatever season you're in so that you can cut costs that way. You can also try to measure how long you have your air conditioning on and compare your bills or whether that be heating in the winter months to see basically how much you can cost by maybe reducing it by 2 hours or, you know, switching between the fan and the air conditioning or the heating at night just to kind of
see what works so well and save dimension to going right off of that is maybe upgrading to a safe thermostats. I still have an old school one in my house so it's it seems to be that's the better way to go though, to save some money.

Yes. So people might be scared by the upfront cost of that at first. But one of the things that you can do is budget for it. So you can go around and do some comparison shopping and see if there are cheaper alternatives that you can do and then save towards it. If it's not a cost that you can kind of do right away.
But remember that you're offsetting the cost long term. So it may seem like, you know, expensive upfront cost, but the change might help you save money long term.

And another thing I wanted to mention is actually I think it depends on what state and what county you're in. At least where I live in Wisconsin, there is a program where they will reimburse you for your upgrade of a smart thermostat, which is a pretty sweet deal. So probably want to check that out wherever you live respectively.

Absolutely. And the same you know, this is kind of jumping off to a kind of different topic, but the same if you want to do solar panels. There's also a tax credit called the federal Residential Solar Energy Credit that homeowners can claim to install panels and help to offset the cost as well. So it's good to do research and see if the government has any incentives. They can kind of help you offset those costs.

Great advice there going right off of that and making small upgrades. So aside from the smart thermostat, there's other things you can do. I'm seeing little house projects like adding or replacing, whether strips.

Yes, absolutely. Another thing you can do is add doors at the bottom and top of your stairs to contain heat or cooling. So that's assuming that you have a two storey house or even a one storey house. Also adding Zealand to Windows and other places that could be leaking heat or cool air like pipes, wiring holes. Baseboards can be an easy way or kind of a low cost way to cut costs as well in terms of energy leaking from your house.

And if you're not sure where the leaks are, because some people may be like, how can I check where they are? You can use an air leak detector as well as the dollar bill technique, which is where you put a dollar bill underneath wherever you think there will be a leak. And if it goes out easily, then you probably have a leak that you need to fix.

Easy enough. I like that one. I'm going to have to do that. Another scary one, perhaps, for for a U.S. customer is maybe taking a look at updating your larger appliances.

That is a scary one. Larger appliances can be extremely expensive to replace and it can be a shock bill. So it's recommended that people put aside what we call a sinking fund, which is a fund where you can save for those kind of larger expenses. So if you're saving for them, for example, throughout the year, then when you do have when it does come time to replace it, if not as much as a financial shock.
Another thing that people can do in that regard is to check when the appliances expire, because also appliances that are close to the expiry date can also consume more energy sometimes as well. So check what the lifespan of your appliance is. And if you know, hey, this has two years left or five years left or one year left on it, then you can plan ahead versus they breaking down and you just having a huge cost on your hands because especially this is summertime and I'm sure unfortunately a lot of people's ACS have broken down this summer and maybe have they kind of looked at what the lifespan of the AC was or done regular maintenance, they wouldn't have had that huge will come when it's so hot, you know.

Good tips for me, Good freaking me out. I'm going, Oh, yeah, my AC is like ten years old, so I've got to think about that. Elizabeth, anything else that you want to add before we part ways on cutting energy costs this summer?

Of course. So negotiating your utility bill, some people might not know that this is something that you can do. But if you live in a state that allows energy choice, the options to choose from various which is options to use from various natural gas and electricity providers, then you might be able to negotiate or compare between providers. You might want to also research other rates for people or rather companies around you that are providing utilities to see if you can use that as leverage to negotiate with your utility company in terms of lowering your bill.
And if you're a loyal customer, that gives you an added advantage as well, because nobody wants to lose a loyal customer, do they? So see if there's anything they can do to kind of help you lower your bill.

All right. It seems like the listeners have a laundry list of things to do to save the money, but all for the good, right?
That's right.

There you go. Well, thank you so much.

With record-setting temperatures across the United States, home energy bills are skyrocketing. 
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/elizabeth-ayoola">Elizabeth Ayoola</a> of NerdWallet about changes people can make to reduce their energy bills.
Read the NerdWallet article <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/creative-ways-to-cut-your-energy-costs-this-summer">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona
It's summer, and pretty much anywhere you go in the US it is hot, just like with anything at this time in the economy. Energy costs are way up, but fear not. We have some steps to share with you to check that your house is working efficiently and ways to take control of your energy bill. Personal finance expert Elizabeth Ayoola joins us today with more on that.
Today we're talking about energy costs and cutting them during the summer. That dreaded bill comes every month. I literally hate seeing the number that pops up. I am very pro air conditioning and I think a lot of Americans feel the same way, especially in these summer months. So we've got about five tips to help us cut our energy costs this summer.
The first one, based off this article was really interesting to me, the idea of your electronics leaking because you obviously wouldn't think of that naturally, you think of pipes bursting and leaking and then that's a real problem. So let's let's jump into that. Taking a baseline of the electronics in your home.
So it is possible for your electronics to leak, Of course. And I am definitely a culprit of leaving everything plugged in and not unplugging things or turning switches off. So it just sometimes requires a change in your daily routine. So if you're used to, again, leaving things plugged in overnight, then you can maybe try before bed, unplugging things and taking things out, turning off all the switches.
And if you have kids at home, of course they could be culprits for that as well, with kids using so much technology. So just have them add that to their nighttime routine in terms of unplugging things and taking them out of the walls as well.
All right. And that just is a perfect segue right into establishing efficient habits. So let's talk about that, especially with your thermostat.
Again, you may want to during the winter months, obviously, you may be using air conditioning as an example. You may tend to use less air conditioning during the winter months. So maybe just consider adjusting for the temperature or the climates that you're in for whatever season you're in so that you can cut costs that way. You can also try to measure how long you have your air conditioning on and compare your bills or whether that be heating in the winter months to see basically how much you can cost by maybe reducing it by 2 hours or, you know, switching between the fan and the air conditioning or the heating at night just to kind of see what works so well and save dimension to going right off of that is maybe upgrading to a safe thermostats. I still have an old school one in my house so it's it seems to be that's the better way to go though, to save some money.
Yes. So people might be scared by the upfront cost of that at first. But one of the things that you can do is budget for it. So you can go around and do some comparison shopping and see if there are cheaper alternatives that you can do and then save towards it. If it's not a cost that you can kind of do right away. But remember that you're offsetting the cost long term. So it may seem like, you know, expensive upfront cost, but the change might help you save money long term.
And another thing I wanted to mention is actually I think it depends on what state and what county you're in. At least where I live in Wisconsin, there is a program where they will reimburse you for your upgrade of a smart thermostat, which is a pretty sweet deal. So probably want to check that out wherever you live respectively.
Absolutely. And the same you know, this is kind of jumping off to a kind of different topic, but the same if you want to do solar panels. There's also a tax credit called the federal Residential Solar Energy Credit that homeowners can claim to install panels and help to offset the cost as well. So it's good to do research and see if the government has any incentives. They can kind of help you offset those costs.
Great advice there going right off of that and making small upgrades. So aside from the smart thermostat, there's other things you can do. I'm seeing little house projects like adding or replacing, whether strips.
Yes, absolutely. Another thing you can do is add doors at the bottom and top of your stairs to contain heat or cooling. So that's assuming that you have a two storey house or even a one storey house. Also adding Zealand to Windows and other places that could be leaking heat or cool air like pipes, wiring holes. Baseboards can be an easy way or kind of a low cost way to cut costs as well in terms of energy leaking from your house.
And if you're not sure where the leaks are, because some people may be like, how can I check where they are? You can use an air leak detector as well as the dollar bill technique, which is where you put a dollar bill underneath wherever you think there will be a leak. And if it goes out easily, then you probably have a leak that you need to fix.
Easy enough. I like that one. I'm going to have to do that. Another scary one, perhaps, for for a U.S. customer is maybe taking a look at updating your larger appliances.
That is a scary one. Larger appliances can be extremely expensive to replace and it can be a shock bill. So it's recommended that people put aside what we call a sinking fund, which is a fund where you can save for those kind of larger expenses. So if you're saving for them, for example, throughout the year, then when you do have when it does come time to replace it, if not as much as a financial shock. Another thing that people can do in that regard is to check when the appliances expire, because also appliances that are close to the expiry date can also consume more energy sometimes as well. So check what the lifespan of your appliance is. And if you know, hey, this has two years left or five years left or one year left on it, then you can plan ahead versus they breaking down and you just having a huge cost on your hands because especially this is summertime and I'm sure unfortunately a lot of people's ACS have broken down this summer and maybe have they kind of looked at what the lifespan of the AC was or done regular maintenance, they wouldn't have had that huge will come when it's so hot, you know.
Good tips for me, Good freaking me out. I'm going, Oh, yeah, my AC is like ten years old, so I've got to think about that. Elizabeth, anything else that you want to add before we part ways on cutting energy costs this summer?
Of course. So negotiating your utility bill, some people might not know that this is something that you can do. But if you live in a state that allows energy choice, the options to choose from various which is options to use from various natural gas and electricity providers, then you might be able to negotiate or compare between providers. You might want to also research other rates for people or rather companies around you that are providing utilities to see if you can use that as leverage to negotiate with your utility company in terms of lowering your bill. And if you're a loyal customer, that gives you an added advantage as well, because nobody wants to lose a loyal customer, do they? So see if there's anything they can do to kind of help you lower your bill.
All right. It seems like the listeners have a laundry list of things to do to save the money, but all for the good, right? That's right.
There you go. Well, thank you so much.

Creative ways to cut your energy costs

Things are tight right now for many Americans. If you find yourself among the growing number of car owners unable to make a car payment on time, there are steps you can take to get back on track and minimize any financial damage for the future.

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet about how borrowers can mange the car payments they can't make.

Nerdwallet explains tips for booking domestic and international flights as well as how to use travel rewards to your benefit.

Read the NerdWallet article here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

Let's be real here for a second. Times are tough. High car prices and rising interest rates are squeezing people's budgets. If you find yourself among the growing number of car owners unable to make a car payment on time, there are steps you can take to get back on track and minimize any financial damage for the future.

Nerdwallet personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer joins us today with more on that.

Are people seeing more of that these days? Right. And let's be honest here, regardless of what your car maker model you're buying, it's usually going to be at least a few hundred dollars.

And it's that's not chump change. Right. So if you are experiencing that financial strain, that hardship, what do you do when you know, if you look at the 15th on the calendar and you're like, oh, no, that payment's coming up. I'm not going to be able to make it. That sets in a lot of panic for a lot of people.

So what would be the first step to take? Right. And I'm thinking back to my younger years and when unfortunately, Financial Times were not the best in my life and really strapped for cash with that first job out of college, that kind of thing and needing to make payments. I can only attest to my story when I've heard from other people.

There's some shame or embarrassment when you aren't able to make those important payments that come every month. Surely I'm guessing your advice would be don't ignore the problem. You have to call that lender because what what's what happens if you don't?

When we're talking about making car payments on a car you own versus leasing, is it kind of the same thing, same process?

Yeah, sure. All good things to keep in mind. Anything else on car financing, car loans at this tough time with inflation going on.

Amen to that and can really ruin you in the future. So great advice. Great advice to live by literally day to day.

Things are tight right now for many Americans. If you find yourself among the growing number of car owners unable to make a car payment on time, there are steps you can take to get back on track and minimize any financial damage for the future.
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a> of NerdWallet about how borrowers can mange the car payments they can't make.
Nerdwallet explains tips for booking domestic and international flights as well as how to use travel rewards to your benefit.
Read the NerdWallet article <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/late-delinquent-car-payment">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona
Let's be real here for a second. Times are tough. High car prices and rising interest rates are squeezing people's budgets. If you find yourself among the growing number of car owners unable to make a car payment on time, there are steps you can take to get back on track and minimize any financial damage for the future.
Nerdwallet personal finance expert Kimberly Palmer joins us today with more on that.
Are people seeing more of that these days? Right. And let's be honest here, regardless of what your car maker model you're buying, it's usually going to be at least a few hundred dollars.
And it's that's not chump change. Right. So if you are experiencing that financial strain, that hardship, what do you do when you know, if you look at the 15th on the calendar and you're like, oh, no, that payment's coming up. I'm not going to be able to make it. That sets in a lot of panic for a lot of people.
So what would be the first step to take? Right. And I'm thinking back to my younger years and when unfortunately, Financial Times were not the best in my life and really strapped for cash with that first job out of college, that kind of thing and needing to make payments. I can only attest to my story when I've heard from other people.
There's some shame or embarrassment when you aren't able to make those important payments that come every month. Surely I'm guessing your advice would be don't ignore the problem. You have to call that lender because what what's what happens if you don't?
When we're talking about making car payments on a car you own versus leasing, is it kind of the same thing, same process?
Yeah, sure. All good things to keep in mind. Anything else on car financing, car loans at this tough time with inflation going on.
Amen to that and can really ruin you in the future. So great advice. Great advice to live by literally day to day.

How to manage car payments you can't make

Who knew that summer vacations could be so much work?

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Sally French of NerdWallet about her top 6 tips for summer travel.

Nerdwallet explains tips for booking domestic and international flights as well as how to use travel rewards to your benefit.

Get more travel tips from Sally French here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Summer is in full swing. But it's not too late to plan your summer vacation and save some money while you're at it. Here's travel expert Sally French. All right. So today's topic, we're talking about six tips for traveling this summer. Where do you want to begin? 

I think we should start by talking about how early in advance you should book on. Unfortunately, it is already this summer, so this advice might come a little bit late. But the bad news is it it can be really difficult to find. Last minute flight deals. A lot of people are used to last minute deals when it comes to hotels and rental cars in shows. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. So the sooner you can book, the better.

For domestic flights, the best deals are usually found 1 to 3 months out for international flights. The best deals are 2 to 8 months out. So, you know, maybe you just start planning ahead for summer of next year. That or the very tail end, right as it's about to hit September. Throw it in there that could be summer, too.

Aside from that, what else do you have for me? Yeah. You know, the next thing is to choose the right location. We saw in the early years of the COVID pandemic, borders were closed. So often domestic airfare prices got really, really high because the people who otherwise would have done international travel might just instead do domestic travel. That sort of actually flipped.

In fact, domestic airfare prices overall have actually dropped in summer 2023 versus summer 2022. So that's really good news. If you are a domestic traveler, you might pay less this year than you did last year. But the reality is international flights are much more expensive. Most people haven't taken international trips in a while. So this is a summer.

They're making it happen. According to Hopper data, the average flight between the U.S. and Asia this summer costs more than 1800 dollars for economy class. And it makes sense. Demand is high. The number of passengers leaving for Asia is about four times what it was this year versus last year. Okay. I may be jumping ahead and one of your tips that you have coming up, but when we talk about flights versus driving, do you have any tips on that?

Yeah, you know, it's hard to say whether driving or flying is a better deal because often it depends on your own individual circumstances. How many people can you fit in that car? Also, what are the things that you typically pay for when you travel? So something to consider when it comes to airfare is often you're not paying for the airfare alone.

You're also paying for checked bags. If you're someone who needs to board early, then you're also often paying for priority boarding. And the nice thing about a rental car or your own car is that you can pack as many people into the car as you can fit. You can pack as much stuff as you can fit. So often, if you're someone who packs heavy, who has a big family or other travel companions, that car can be worth it.

Another thing to consider this year is that luckily gas prices are down from what they were last summer. So you do get that reprieve when it comes to the cost of your road trip. Yeah, thank God for that, because that was a little intense last year. What do we have for number four? Yeah, well, I you know, sort of in that vein is a lot of people think about airfare when it comes to travel, that's often their biggest component.

People will say, I got two airfare deals, so I want to book this trip. But the reality is often hotels and rental cars tend to be an increasingly large factor of your vacation budget, especially car rental prices. They're up 50% more than what they were in 2019. We saw car rentals prices spike during the pandemic because so many people wanted to do road trips.

Couple that with things like the semiconductor shortage just made, car rental prices go so much higher. Luckily, car rental prices are down from those early pandemic highs, but again, 50% more expensive than what they were in 2019. That's a huge factor of your budget. Yeah, And hotels are 20% more expensive, what they were in 2019. So that's still a big factor.

I think a lot of people, especially if they're taking a longer trip, that's going to require them to stay in a hotel for many, many nights. They often figure I got a cheap airfare to someplace, but that place is really expensive. It might actually net out better overall if you book a more expensive airfare to a cheaper place because your hotel costs won't be as high when you're there.

Very, very good advice there. Wouldn't have thought of that. So thanks for sharing that one. We have just a couple more tips for summer travel. What do you got? Yeah, well, you know, I mentioned that hotel and rental car prices are up, but Nerdwallet tracks inflation prices for restaurants as well. And restaurant prices are up 25% now versus the same time in 2019.

That's a huge increase, one of the biggest increases. And of course, most people when they travel, go out to eat at restaurants. So whatever you can do to save on your food costs is so crucial. One of my favorite tips for saving on food costs is to head to the local grocery stores. I find this just to be a fun activity, to learn about the culture.

If you don't even go to a grocery store but go to a farmer's market or some sort of other open air market, these can be a great way to find a new fruit that you've never seen before or just to pick up those local snacks. It's always fun to try the chips and the candy from a different culture.

I always feel like I see something that looks like it's made by Coca-Cola and it doesn't taste like any sodas that I've had before. So I almost think that's one of the most exciting parts about travel anyway, is going to the grocery store, is it? And just to kind of piggyback off of that is if you don't opt for a hotel and you go more of the Airbnb furbo right route, you can always hopefully have a kitchen to be a little bit better equipped for that kind of style of eating.

Absolutely. And then it's fine. You find vegetables you've never seen before and you find a fun ways to cook them that can actually be part of the vacation experience itself. There we go. Keep things interesting for sure. All right, Sally, we got the last thing on the summer list. Of course, my final tip that I live by is making sure I have the right travel credit cards.

So you can use travel credit cards to rack up points to pay for travel. And a lot of people think I don't have that many points. I'm never going to be able to book of international flight with my miles. I just don't have that many. But even if you don't have that many points yet to book after travel, credit cards can save you money in so many other ways, so you can accrue enough points for your spending.

But many airline hotel credit cards will or airline and hotel credit cards will have perks that save you money. So often, airline and credit cards will offer something like free checked bags, free priority boarding. And you figure even if a card has a $100 annual fee, which is pretty common, but you check bags each direction for you and your buddy, that pays for itself right there.

The same goes with these hotel credit cards. Many of them have perks like free breakfast, free room upgrades, even a free night certificate. These credit cards that have annual fees, about $100, and they give you a free night certificate. Find me a hotel room for less than $100 is a challenge that that can be worth it right there.

Other credit card benefits include things like travel insurance, which we all learned during the pandemic are so crucial. Many of the best travel credit cards offer travel insurance as a benefit for paying on the card. So that's just another way that these credit cards can save you money. Even if there's an annual fee, it's not for everyone. But if you can take advantage of that, that can often see you in the end.

Yeah perks all around there and just a friendly reminder this would be going directly through the airline and website, not some third party website if you're using their credit card. Correct. So typically when you are looking to get those bonus points on something like a hotel or an airline, typically you do have to book it directly with that hotel or that airline.

But that's what Nerdwallet recommends anyway. Travel. These are really, really great to get an overview of the location and compare flights or compare hotels, but typically it's best to book directly anyway. You can get more benefits often lower rates, because you figure a hotel likely will have to pay a commission to that third party travel agency if you book with them So often hotels will just pass on that savings to you, at least in some small way.

And even if it's not lower prices, it's pretty common for hotels to offer things like free breakfast if you book directly with them. And then you figure if you have to make a change or a cancellation to your reservation, it's much easier to cut out that middleman and just be able to call the hotel directly and change that reservation rather than then say, Well, we need to contact your online travel agency.

That just adds an unnecessary next step. Most of the time, if things are black and white, no gray area, I can speak from experience to always go the direct route. There's a lot of headaches that every once in a while you'll find like an amazing deal on those third party travel agencies. And if you do, you know, you don't want to pass that up.

But often if the prices are similar, it's better to just go. Director Perfect. Perfect. Well, I think that's it for your six travel tips through the summer. Correct. Good luck to you with your travels this summer. Road trips ahead, nothing too, and saying. Right. Good luck to everything. Thanks so much, Sally. I'll be talking to you soon. Thank you.

Who knew that summer vacations could be so much work?
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">Sally French</a> of NerdWallet about her top 6 tips for summer travel.
Nerdwallet explains tips for booking domestic and international flights as well as how to use travel rewards to your benefit.
Get more travel tips from Sally French <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">here</a>!
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Summer is in full swing. But it's not too late to plan your summer vacation and save some money while you're at it. Here's travel expert Sally French. All right. So today's topic, we're talking about six tips for traveling this summer. Where do you want to begin? 
I think we should start by talking about how early in advance you should book on. Unfortunately, it is already this summer, so this advice might come a little bit late. But the bad news is it it can be really difficult to find. Last minute flight deals. A lot of people are used to last minute deals when it comes to hotels and rental cars in shows. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. So the sooner you can book, the better.
For domestic flights, the best deals are usually found 1 to 3 months out for international flights. The best deals are 2 to 8 months out. So, you know, maybe you just start planning ahead for summer of next year. That or the very tail end, right as it's about to hit September. Throw it in there that could be summer, too.
Aside from that, what else do you have for me? Yeah. You know, the next thing is to choose the right location. We saw in the early years of the COVID pandemic, borders were closed. So often domestic airfare prices got really, really high because the people who otherwise would have done international travel might just instead do domestic travel. That sort of actually flipped.
In fact, domestic airfare prices overall have actually dropped in summer 2023 versus summer 2022. So that's really good news. If you are a domestic traveler, you might pay less this year than you did last year. But the reality is international flights are much more expensive. Most people haven't taken international trips in a while. So this is a summer.
They're making it happen. According to Hopper data, the average flight between the U.S. and Asia this summer costs more than 1800 dollars for economy class. And it makes sense. Demand is high. The number of passengers leaving for Asia is about four times what it was this year versus last year. Okay. I may be jumping ahead and one of your tips that you have coming up, but when we talk about flights versus driving, do you have any tips on that?
Yeah, you know, it's hard to say whether driving or flying is a better deal because often it depends on your own individual circumstances. How many people can you fit in that car? Also, what are the things that you typically pay for when you travel? So something to consider when it comes to airfare is often you're not paying for the airfare alone.
You're also paying for checked bags. If you're someone who needs to board early, then you're also often paying for priority boarding. And the nice thing about a rental car or your own car is that you can pack as many people into the car as you can fit. You can pack as much stuff as you can fit. So often, if you're someone who packs heavy, who has a big family or other travel companions, that car can be worth it.
Another thing to consider this year is that luckily gas prices are down from what they were last summer. So you do get that reprieve when it comes to the cost of your road trip. Yeah, thank God for that, because that was a little intense last year. What do we have for number four? Yeah, well, I you know, sort of in that vein is a lot of people think about airfare when it comes to travel, that's often their biggest component.
People will say, I got two airfare deals, so I want to book this trip. But the reality is often hotels and rental cars tend to be an increasingly large factor of your vacation budget, especially car rental prices. They're up 50% more than what they were in 2019. We saw car rentals prices spike during the pandemic because so many people wanted to do road trips.
Couple that with things like the semiconductor shortage just made, car rental prices go so much higher. Luckily, car rental prices are down from those early pandemic highs, but again, 50% more expensive than what they were in 2019. That's a huge factor of your budget. Yeah, And hotels are 20% more expensive, what they were in 2019. So that's still a big factor.
I think a lot of people, especially if they're taking a longer trip, that's going to require them to stay in a hotel for many, many nights. They often figure I got a cheap airfare to someplace, but that place is really expensive. It might actually net out better overall if you book a more expensive airfare to a cheaper place because your hotel costs won't be as high when you're there.
Very, very good advice there. Wouldn't have thought of that. So thanks for sharing that one. We have just a couple more tips for summer travel. What do you got? Yeah, well, you know, I mentioned that hotel and rental car prices are up, but Nerdwallet tracks inflation prices for restaurants as well. And restaurant prices are up 25% now versus the same time in 2019.
That's a huge increase, one of the biggest increases. And of course, most people when they travel, go out to eat at restaurants. So whatever you can do to save on your food costs is so crucial. One of my favorite tips for saving on food costs is to head to the local grocery stores. I find this just to be a fun activity, to learn about the culture.
If you don't even go to a grocery store but go to a farmer's market or some sort of other open air market, these can be a great way to find a new fruit that you've never seen before or just to pick up those local snacks. It's always fun to try the chips and the candy from a different culture.
I always feel like I see something that looks like it's made by Coca-Cola and it doesn't taste like any sodas that I've had before. So I almost think that's one of the most exciting parts about travel anyway, is going to the grocery store, is it? And just to kind of piggyback off of that is if you don't opt for a hotel and you go more of the Airbnb furbo right route, you can always hopefully have a kitchen to be a little bit better equipped for that kind of style of eating.
Absolutely. And then it's fine. You find vegetables you've never seen before and you find a fun ways to cook them that can actually be part of the vacation experience itself. There we go. Keep things interesting for sure. All right, Sally, we got the last thing on the summer list. Of course, my final tip that I live by is making sure I have the right travel credit cards.
So you can use travel credit cards to rack up points to pay for travel. And a lot of people think I don't have that many points. I'm never going to be able to book of international flight with my miles. I just don't have that many. But even if you don't have that many points yet to book after travel, credit cards can save you money in so many other ways, so you can accrue enough points for your spending.
But many airline hotel credit cards will or airline and hotel credit cards will have perks that save you money. So often, airline and credit cards will offer something like free checked bags, free priority boarding. And you figure even if a card has a $100 annual fee, which is pretty common, but you check bags each direction for you and your buddy, that pays for itself right there.
The same goes with these hotel credit cards. Many of them have perks like free breakfast, free room upgrades, even a free night certificate. These credit cards that have annual fees, about $100, and they give you a free night certificate. Find me a hotel room for less than $100 is a challenge that that can be worth it right there.
Other credit card benefits include things like travel insurance, which we all learned during the pandemic are so crucial. Many of the best travel credit cards offer travel insurance as a benefit for paying on the card. So that's just another way that these credit cards can save you money. Even if there's an annual fee, it's not for everyone. But if you can take advantage of that, that can often see you in the end.
Yeah perks all around there and just a friendly reminder this would be going directly through the airline and website, not some third party website if you're using their credit card. Correct. So typically when you are looking to get those bonus points on something like a hotel or an airline, typically you do have to book it directly with that hotel or that airline.
But that's what Nerdwallet recommends anyway. Travel. These are really, really great to get an overview of the location and compare flights or compare hotels, but typically it's best to book directly anyway. You can get more benefits often lower rates, because you figure a hotel likely will have to pay a commission to that third party travel agency if you book with them So often hotels will just pass on that savings to you, at least in some small way.
And even if it's not lower prices, it's pretty common for hotels to offer things like free breakfast if you book directly with them. And then you figure if you have to make a change or a cancellation to your reservation, it's much easier to cut out that middleman and just be able to call the hotel directly and change that reservation rather than then say, Well, we need to contact your online travel agency.
That just adds an unnecessary next step. Most of the time, if things are black and white, no gray area, I can speak from experience to always go the direct route. There's a lot of headaches that every once in a while you'll find like an amazing deal on those third party travel agencies. And if you do, you know, you don't want to pass that up.
But often if the prices are similar, it's better to just go. Director Perfect. Perfect. Well, I think that's it for your six travel tips through the summer. Correct. Good luck to you with your travels this summer. Road trips ahead, nothing too, and saying. Right. Good luck to everything. Thanks so much, Sally. I'll be talking to you soon. Thank you.

6 tips for planning summer travel

Did your grandparents give you savings bonds for high school graduation and you don't know what to do with them?

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Chanelle Bessette of NerdWallet about the article: Ask a Nerd: How do I cash in a savings bond?

Nerdwallet explains how and where to cash in a savings bond, what documents you need to do so and how to check the value and see if it's worth it.

Before you run to the bank, make sure you do your homework. 

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Dust off your old savings bonds. It might just be time to give them another look. We have Nerdwallet personal finance writer Chanel Bessette with us today to guide us through the process of cashing in, saving smart, talking about the world of cashing savings bonds. It's usually one of those things you have a stack of.

If you're lucky enough, they're in an envelope. They're in a box and probably haven't been dusted off in a very long time. So what's the first thing you want to know when you grab them? Look at them and say, Hey, they're ready to be cashed? What do you do first?

The age of them definitely matters because once they're past a certain age, they've stopped earning interest. So you are potentially facing that opportunity cost of losing money by keeping them as paper. Paper bonds instead of cashing them. So looking at the age first and foremost is great. If you haven't looked at them in a long time, if you've had them for a long time, it is likely that you're not facing any kind of penalty by withdrawing early.

But that is something to consider if you did get a savings bond recently. So so let's say it's the former and that you do have that old savings bond. Cashing it out is going to be a great opportunity for you to have a little windfall or a big windfall, depending on how much the bond was. And then you can take that money and reinvested.

Use it for a purchase that you want to make or just use it to beef up your emergency bond and have it as liquid cash so that you can use it for more day to day conveniences and needs.

All right. And physically, when you're like, okay, this is good to go, these guys are ready to be cash. Do you go to your bank? Where do you go for this?

So it's important to reach out to the bank in advance to make sure that they can, in fact, cash it. Not all major banks do. So you want to maybe call around at first and make sure that you know which bank is actually going be able to accept it. If you have an electronic savings bond, then you'll go to the U.S. Treasury website and cash it there.

Okay. Quick question about the physical savings bonds. Ironically or coincidentally enough, my husband had found a stack of them literally a week ago. They were good to go. So we were like, okay. And didn't realize it kind of looks like a check on the back that you would endorse, fill in that kind of thing. I did read something on one of these Nerdwallet articles that you actually aren't supposed to fill that out before heading to the bank, correct?

Correct. Do you want to wait until you are at that moment of reimbursement? You probably want to follow along with whatever banker is working with you, whatever customer service rep is working with you to make sure that you are doing everything at the right time, at the right moment, because you don't want to accidentally create more problems for yourself with the with the process.

That'd be a big bummer. After waiting so damn long. Yes, exactly. So speaking of that, going into the physical bank branch, let's say you have your I.D. Do you need any other forms of I.D. to fear this is you on these savings bonds?

Yes. When you do go in, you need usually at least a couple of forms of ID. It's a good idea maybe to have your your state issued ID like a driver's license and maybe something like your Social Security card or passport. That way, you're you're genuinely confirming that you are who you say you are.

Right. And once you cash in those savings bonds, as we realized, you get a nice little form that you get to submit to the IRS when you have to pay your yearly taxes. What what other implications surrounding that on taxes that you need to know when it comes to cashing in savings bonds?

Right. So savings bonds actually are a lot like bank account in that way and that you do have to pay taxes on the interest that you've earned. A lot of people don't necessarily think about that usually, because always in the past, interest rates have been so low that you don't really have enough that to like really register by paying a lot of taxes on what I've earned.

But when it comes to a savings bond, that could be quite a bit of money if you've had it for decades. So it's important to make sure that you're taking that into consideration as your, you know, check cashing out that savings bond and making sure that you have that money set aside to pay Uncle Sam.

It all catches up to us eventually. Right. This is just maybe me thinking out loud here. Another thing we didn't realize about the savings bonds is, hey, aside from them being a valuable thing to have and keep safe your Social Security number, at least on the physical ones from 30 years ago, plus have your whole social on them, which I didn't realize.

And I think maybe not everybody realizes that.

Right? Yeah, it's kind of wild how we could be so at risk for something like that. That's such a official government documentation. Yes. So. So the physical security of your savings bonds is something to think about and consider. Hopefully your parents kept it in a safe place, maybe a security deposit box or in your safe at home or in some filing cabinet that is hard to know.

You know where exactly it is. People were not able to rifle through it and find your Social Security number just hanging out. So, yeah, when it comes to any kind of government documentation that could potentially put you at risk for some kind of identity theft or, you know, someone using your Social Security to open new accounts, it make sure that you are keeping it somewhere safe and away from prying eyes.

Lovely, lovely. Always good advice for multiple things, unfortunately. Speaking of these savings bonds and kind of being a thing of yesteryear when it came to anniversaries or birthdays, baptisms, other special events, where where do you savings bonds come in today's world? Is it a weird thing to give out nowadays, or is it actually coming back? Is it hot?

Yeah, you don't hear about it a ton, but you know a lot of older folks who are looking for a gift to give, maybe a new grandchild or a parent looking to give something to their child that's going to mature over the course of their young adulthood. You know, savings bond can still be something pretty, pretty great to get because it does help hedge against the rate of inflation and help you earn interest.

And it's perhaps a little less technical than having to manage a savings account for that long period of time. So being able to add that beneficiary or co-owner on the savings bond makes it pretty easy to transfer as a gift. And I would say the main difference these days, though, is that paper bonds are probably not as frequently used as electronic ones.

Electronic ones are also a little bit easier to cash. As I mentioned a moment ago, you can do it online and that's just the way the world has had it in a lot of different ways when it comes to finances is being able to just manage everything electronically. So that's probably how things are changed these days. But there are, of course, other options for setting up money for your child or grandchild.

You know, college savings accounts and things like that are also fairly common.

Aside from gift giving or out of the goodness of your heart when to give one of these out, would you suggest getting some of your own personal life or your own finance?

Hmm. That could be something doable, but something worth noting though. So. So keep in mind, I'm not a financial advisor when it comes to investments. This is just me as a personal finance writer. But when it comes to investing in savings, bonds do tend to pale in comparison to how mutual funds or other stock based investments do over a long enough period of time.

So if you're looking for something like investing and saving for retirement, that's where 41k comes into play. Or if you do want to do a college 529 investment for your child, you are likely to earn more interest than you potentially would with the savings bond on both savings bonds. There is the nice factor that is a guaranteed return, whereas saving in the stock market, you know it it could be volatile, especially in the short term.

So that's why you're thinking of the longer term investments. Stock market investing is definitely something to look for.

Okay. All important things to think of as you look at your finances. Is there anything else that you want to add about cashing in savings bonds, savings bonds in general in the year 2023?

Yeah. So savings bonds could be a solid part of a, you know, diversified portfolio for your finances. You know, there are all kinds of vehicles that you can use to set aside money in interest if you're looking at just a regular banking products right now, savings accounts, the answer certificates of deposit are earning relatively high interest rates compared to how they have been in recent years.

So you could look into that. You could look at a CD if you want to access that money sooner than you might think. On savings, bonds could be very long term and therefore less accessible and less liquid for things that you might need in the short to medium term. So just making sure you know what kind of options are available to you, what kind of rates you could potentially get.

And and of course, you know, your own tolerance for risk and how you like to manage your money. But it's definitely a worthwhile option if that's something that you think you would benefit from.

Beautiful. Sounds good. Thank you.

Did your grandparents give you savings bonds for high school graduation and you don't know what to do with them?
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Chanelle Bessette of NerdWallet about the article: Ask a Nerd: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/ask-a-nerd-how-do-i-cash-a-savings-bond">How do I cash in a savings bond?</a> 
Nerdwallet explains how and where to cash in a savings bond, what documents you need to do so and how to check the value and see if it's worth it.
Before you run to the bank, make sure you do your homework. 
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona. Dust off your old savings bonds. It might just be time to give them another look. We have Nerdwallet personal finance writer Chanel Bessette with us today to guide us through the process of cashing in, saving smart, talking about the world of cashing savings bonds. It's usually one of those things you have a stack of.
If you're lucky enough, they're in an envelope. They're in a box and probably haven't been dusted off in a very long time. So what's the first thing you want to know when you grab them? Look at them and say, Hey, they're ready to be cashed? What do you do first?
The age of them definitely matters because once they're past a certain age, they've stopped earning interest. So you are potentially facing that opportunity cost of losing money by keeping them as paper. Paper bonds instead of cashing them. So looking at the age first and foremost is great. If you haven't looked at them in a long time, if you've had them for a long time, it is likely that you're not facing any kind of penalty by withdrawing early.
But that is something to consider if you did get a savings bond recently. So so let's say it's the former and that you do have that old savings bond. Cashing it out is going to be a great opportunity for you to have a little windfall or a big windfall, depending on how much the bond was. And then you can take that money and reinvested.
Use it for a purchase that you want to make or just use it to beef up your emergency bond and have it as liquid cash so that you can use it for more day to day conveniences and needs.
All right. And physically, when you're like, okay, this is good to go, these guys are ready to be cash. Do you go to your bank? Where do you go for this?
So it's important to reach out to the bank in advance to make sure that they can, in fact, cash it. Not all major banks do. So you want to maybe call around at first and make sure that you know which bank is actually going be able to accept it. If you have an electronic savings bond, then you'll go to the U.S. Treasury website and cash it there.
Okay. Quick question about the physical savings bonds. Ironically or coincidentally enough, my husband had found a stack of them literally a week ago. They were good to go. So we were like, okay. And didn't realize it kind of looks like a check on the back that you would endorse, fill in that kind of thing. I did read something on one of these Nerdwallet articles that you actually aren't supposed to fill that out before heading to the bank, correct?
Correct. Do you want to wait until you are at that moment of reimbursement? You probably want to follow along with whatever banker is working with you, whatever customer service rep is working with you to make sure that you are doing everything at the right time, at the right moment, because you don't want to accidentally create more problems for yourself with the with the process.
That'd be a big bummer. After waiting so damn long. Yes, exactly. So speaking of that, going into the physical bank branch, let's say you have your I.D. Do you need any other forms of I.D. to fear this is you on these savings bonds?
Yes. When you do go in, you need usually at least a couple of forms of ID. It's a good idea maybe to have your your state issued ID like a driver's license and maybe something like your Social Security card or passport. That way, you're you're genuinely confirming that you are who you say you are.
Right. And once you cash in those savings bonds, as we realized, you get a nice little form that you get to submit to the IRS when you have to pay your yearly taxes. What what other implications surrounding that on taxes that you need to know when it comes to cashing in savings bonds?
Right. So savings bonds actually are a lot like bank account in that way and that you do have to pay taxes on the interest that you've earned. A lot of people don't necessarily think about that usually, because always in the past, interest rates have been so low that you don't really have enough that to like really register by paying a lot of taxes on what I've earned.
But when it comes to a savings bond, that could be quite a bit of money if you've had it for decades. So it's important to make sure that you're taking that into consideration as your, you know, check cashing out that savings bond and making sure that you have that money set aside to pay Uncle Sam.
It all catches up to us eventually. Right. This is just maybe me thinking out loud here. Another thing we didn't realize about the savings bonds is, hey, aside from them being a valuable thing to have and keep safe your Social Security number, at least on the physical ones from 30 years ago, plus have your whole social on them, which I didn't realize.
And I think maybe not everybody realizes that.
Right? Yeah, it's kind of wild how we could be so at risk for something like that. That's such a official government documentation. Yes. So. So the physical security of your savings bonds is something to think about and consider. Hopefully your parents kept it in a safe place, maybe a security deposit box or in your safe at home or in some filing cabinet that is hard to know.
You know where exactly it is. People were not able to rifle through it and find your Social Security number just hanging out. So, yeah, when it comes to any kind of government documentation that could potentially put you at risk for some kind of identity theft or, you know, someone using your Social Security to open new accounts, it make sure that you are keeping it somewhere safe and away from prying eyes.
Lovely, lovely. Always good advice for multiple things, unfortunately. Speaking of these savings bonds and kind of being a thing of yesteryear when it came to anniversaries or birthdays, baptisms, other special events, where where do you savings bonds come in today's world? Is it a weird thing to give out nowadays, or is it actually coming back? Is it hot?
Yeah, you don't hear about it a ton, but you know a lot of older folks who are looking for a gift to give, maybe a new grandchild or a parent looking to give something to their child that's going to mature over the course of their young adulthood. You know, savings bond can still be something pretty, pretty great to get because it does help hedge against the rate of inflation and help you earn interest.
And it's perhaps a little less technical than having to manage a savings account for that long period of time. So being able to add that beneficiary or co-owner on the savings bond makes it pretty easy to transfer as a gift. And I would say the main difference these days, though, is that paper bonds are probably not as frequently used as electronic ones.
Electronic ones are also a little bit easier to cash. As I mentioned a moment ago, you can do it online and that's just the way the world has had it in a lot of different ways when it comes to finances is being able to just manage everything electronically. So that's probably how things are changed these days. But there are, of course, other options for setting up money for your child or grandchild.
You know, college savings accounts and things like that are also fairly common.
Aside from gift giving or out of the goodness of your heart when to give one of these out, would you suggest getting some of your own personal life or your own finance?
Hmm. That could be something doable, but something worth noting though. So. So keep in mind, I'm not a financial advisor when it comes to investments. This is just me as a personal finance writer. But when it comes to investing in savings, bonds do tend to pale in comparison to how mutual funds or other stock based investments do over a long enough period of time.
So if you're looking for something like investing and saving for retirement, that's where 41k comes into play. Or if you do want to do a college 529 investment for your child, you are likely to earn more interest than you potentially would with the savings bond on both savings bonds. There is the nice factor that is a guaranteed return, whereas saving in the stock market, you know it it could be volatile, especially in the short term.
So that's why you're thinking of the longer term investments. Stock market investing is definitely something to look for.
Okay. All important things to think of as you look at your finances. Is there anything else that you want to add about cashing in savings bonds, savings bonds in general in the year 2023?
Yeah. So savings bonds could be a solid part of a, you know, diversified portfolio for your finances. You know, there are all kinds of vehicles that you can use to set aside money in interest if you're looking at just a regular banking products right now, savings accounts, the answer certificates of deposit are earning relatively high interest rates compared to how they have been in recent years.
So you could look into that. You could look at a CD if you want to access that money sooner than you might think. On savings, bonds could be very long term and therefore less accessible and less liquid for things that you might need in the short to medium term. So just making sure you know what kind of options are available to you, what kind of rates you could potentially get.
And and of course, you know, your own tolerance for risk and how you like to manage your money. But it's definitely a worthwhile option if that's something that you think you would benefit from.
Beautiful. Sounds good. Thank you.

Have a stack of old savings bonds? Learn how to cash those in with these simple steps

Flying isn't always the most enjoyable part of a vacation and some of the biggest airports in America can challenge even the most patient traveler. 

But not every airport has to cause frustration. There are a lot of smaller airports, even ones near big cities like Los Angeles or major vacation destinations such as Yellowstone National Park, that offer a charming experience.

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Sally French of NerdWallet about her article: 9 of America’s Most Charming Airports

French's list highlights airports that offer unbeatable views, unique amenities and a great atmosphere. To qualify for this list, airports also had to have fewer than 1.5 million arriving passengers in 2022. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International had more than 37 million arriving passengers in 2022.

Before you book your next trip, give these airports your consideration.

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona. Believe it or not, not every airport will leave you stressed out as you travel. NerdWallet has rounded up a collection of nine U.S. airports that are enjoyable to spend time in. We have travel expert Sally French joining us today with more. We will start at the beginning of the list with number nine.

Hit me with it. One of the airports that NerdWallet loves is Long Beach Airport. It's in southern California and it is not too far from LAX, which is one of the largest airports in America. And that airport is wild to navigate. You have to take shuttles everywhere, even just to get to your Uber or Lyft. But another alternative airport that might be really compelling is Long Beach.

So it is on the larger end of all the airports that NerdWallet analyzed, about 1.3 million passengers arriving each year in 2022 at least. But this airport is absolutely charming. It really has that sort of art deco style. It was built in 1941. The architecture just makes you feel like you're traveling back in that golden age of air travel.

And what's really great about the airport now is that they've taken advantage of southern California's beautiful weather and a huge portion of the airport is entirely outdoors. So as you're waiting for your flight, you can sit and enjoy. And it's not just any old outdoors. It's beautifully landscaped, a really nice. And that you can take advantage of getting that last dose of Southern California sun before you jump on your flight.

I never would have known that. Thanks for sharing. Very cool. Very definitely. If you can get out of the flying into LAX and instead fly in to Long Beach for your Southern California vacations, Absolutely. Do it. Noted. Next up, we have number eight. Bozeman at Yellowstone International Airport is number eight. And these airports are all ranked by the number of passengers arriving or departing from them.

So so this isn't necessarily a ranking of how much we like them, but just their size. But Bozeman, Yellowstone has become especially compelling in pandemic era travel, when everyone wanted to go to national parks. What better National Park to go to than Bozeman, Yellowstone, and chose Yellowstone to be the national park and in most people would fly into Bozeman, which puts you pretty close to the west entrance of Yellowstone.

And this airport, just like the rest of your Yellowstone experience, is probably going to be has really nice cozy mountain vibes. There's a fireplace inside so you can sit by that fire, warm up, feel like you're in the mountains when you're really just in the airport and then eventually go off to your Yellowstone vacation. Yeah, that's a beautiful little addition to your already cozy trip.

Who knew your stay at the airport, whether you're landing or go. And that's great. Number seven. Looks like we have the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina. Yes. So Asheville is already a city known for its vibrant art scene. And I love that Asheville Regional Airport sort of extends that directly into the airport. So while you're there, you can see local art on the walls.

It's often coming from local artists, local school groups, and there's often live music. So you might see a local choir performing some folk musicians, a grand piano, and so you get a free little concert before your flight. It's awesome. I got to go there. I love it. Number six looks like we're heading back to California for our most charming.

We're heading back to California, and this time we're going to Santa Barbara, California. And so a lot of people very much like the Long Beach situation when they're taking a trip to Santa Barbara, they might think that they need to fly in to LAX. But if you're heading north of Los Angeles, you can be far better served by flying into Santa Barbara.

This airport is really, really tiny. Only a couple little gates, but it's got an incredible Mediterranean style. And if you've been to Santa Barbara, most of the city is also in this same Mediterranean style. There's Spanish murals that really distinctive architecture. And this airport, again, much like Long Beach, has a small little outdoor airport area. It's not as big as long beaches, but again, you can soak up that SoCal sun while you're waiting for your flight.

And if you do actually go inside, it's absolutely gorgeous. It kind of reminds me of other things you might see in Santa Barbara like this in a Barbara mission or just that general esthetic walking around downtown. And even better, now that I'm looking at the airlines that are there, I mean, the big ones are included American, Southwest, United and Alaska.

That's great. It's also yeah, and it's definitely growing. Southwest just joined to offer service in 2021 and you're looking at departures to Vegas. Denver. Denver is such a huge hub for connections. So is Las Vegas that it can be really easy to get there no matter where in the country you live it Perfect. Next up on the LIST, if you would, please.

Yes. So number five is Jackson Hole Airport, Jackson, Wyoming. And we sort of mentioned going on a trip to Yellowstone. And you might also fly into Jackson, Wyoming, and especially if you're going to the southern portion of Yellowstone or if you're going to Grand Teton National Park. Speaking of Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole Airport is really cool because it's actually located within Grand Teton National Park.

So unsurprisingly, the views at this airport are absolutely astounding. You're looking at the mountain ranges and then, you know, even besides just these unparalleled views, the airport itself is absolutely charming. There's a little Teton County Library bookshelf and you don't even need to be a library member to use it. It's one of those take a book, leave a book style shelves so you can leave one behind and then take, take, take a book with you for your flight home.

Oh, good old middle America for you. I love it. I love it. I love it. Very cool. Very cool. Number four, it looks like Cherry Capital Airport. Tell me more about this. Well, we're staying in Middle America and absolutely, just like those Jackson Airport vibes, Cherry Capital Airport has those very similar homey, cozy vibes. This airport is located in Traverse City, Michigan, and this airport has really incredible architecture.

It's inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. So you can expect to see kind of that stained glass esthetic, all that stone, a lot of really nice copper light fixtures, much like how the Jackson airport's got a fireplace. This one has a fireplace, too. So it's one of these places where it feels like you're hanging out in an amazing lodge rather than in this horrible gross airport is just getting, say, dirty carpets and blank white walls.

Yeah, I would definitely trade that. For all of the things you've mentioned thus far. I mean, out of any of these places. Number three here, tell me how to pronounce this. This is a tough one. Oh, you know what? You're putting me on the spot, but I'm going to guess that it precludes International Airport. And we are heading to Alaska now.

This airport made the list for obviously being really small. There were about 125,000 passengers departing in 2022. But the reason it makes the list in particular for being charming is how you get to this airport. You are not rolling up in the shuttle bus. You're not driving up in your car to get here. You are boarding a ferry.

So you take a brief ferry ride. It's like 5 minutes on, but you need to take the ferry to actually get to the airport, which I think just completely adds to this experience of an incredible, memorable vacation. Awesome. I might never find myself there, but maybe I wish I do now. But you can't have too many bags because you're going to have to take them on the ferry as well as the airplane.

It's probably my husband's dream. You don't need to bring that big of a bag. All right. Number two, looks like we have Martha's Vineyard Airport. We are heading to Martha's Vineyard for number two. This is in Massachusetts. And this airport reflects the same Cape Cod style that you can expect to see across the broader island of Martha's Vineyard.

So we're talking those cedars, shingles, views of the lighthouses, views of the beach. It is It's located in the middle of the island, which makes it a really convenient location. And what's nice about this airport is it's so close to where you're probably going to stay. Many people, when they stay at Martha's Vineyard, if they're not staying in a bigger vacation rental farther off the island, they'll probably stay in Edgartown.

And what I love about this airport is a lot of people are thinking about Martha's Vineyard as being a public transit hub. But you can hop on the bus and it is a three minute bus ride to Edgartown, which is that Maine Seaport Village. So incredible location, which makes it really easy to get on your flight home. You don't need to take a ton of time to get to the airport because it's so conveniently located.

And once you're there, the trip hasn't ended because you're getting that beautiful Cape Cod vibes even while you're waiting for your flight.

All right. My personal favorite, the last one on the list. You know, now I feel like this is my personal favorite as well. It's number one for being absolutely tiny. There were about 6000 departing passengers in 2022. So that's why it makes the number one spot. But I really do think it deserves the number one spot. Just in general.

This airport is located in the Ozark Mountains in Branson, Missouri. Now, Branson, Missouri, is this absolutely amazing family entertainment hub in the Midwest. So, you know, when you go to Branson, there's a lot to do. There's a lot of live entertainment. There's a historic downtown. There's lakes, there's museums, and it's kind of like this like Wild West vibe.

And that's exactly what the airport is like as well. In fact, there is an actual creek that flows inside the airport. And then when you're there, the Missouri Fun doesn't stop. But Bass Pro Shops is headquartered nearby, and so there's actually a mini bass pro shops inside the airport. What better suited area than that? And if you don't want to do that, you can just hang out inside the airport, which has absolutely hilarious and adorable facades like a saloon and a sawmill.

It just seems like so much fun inside this airport. It's like a it's like a miniature Disneyland as you're waiting for your flight special place. Looks like it's out of a storybook, which is actually very fitting for that area. So. Oh, I love it. Well, that wraps up the end of this. And most nine most charming airports list.

I got to ask you, Sally, have you been to any of these yourself? You? Yes, in fact, I have been to most of them. I haven't been to Alaska, but I'm waiting to hop on that boat. I'm actually a Southern California girl at heart. So I make it a point to fly in and out of Long Beach Airport whenever possible.

It's not the closest to my family, but it is worth it because it's a far better airport experience. So many people think of airports as being miserable, being loud, being chaotic. It's a long TSA line. And then once you get there, you're sitting in this chair that seems like it was designed for like some sort of elephant to sit in because it fits No.

One. And, you know, the loudspeaker is blaring, but all of these airports really make air travel enjoyable. And so many people hate air travel. And I think it's because they've only been exposed to these brutal airports. But when you go to these charming ones, it really, really makes air travel actually fun and actually part of the vacation experience.

So I would go out of my way, whether it's long Beach for me to go home or just taking a little trip to any of these other airports, absolutely worth it. I'm glad I asked that. Thank you so much, Sally. I appreciate it. Thanks for taking some time out with me. Absolutely.

Flying isn't always the most enjoyable part of a vacation and some of the biggest airports in America can challenge even the most patient traveler. 
But not every airport has to cause frustration. There are a lot of smaller airports, even ones near big cities like Los Angeles or major vacation destinations such as Yellowstone National Park, that offer a charming experience.
On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Sally French of NerdWallet about her article: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/chaming-airports">9 of America’s Most Charming Airports</a>
French's list highlights airports that offer unbeatable views, unique amenities and a great atmosphere. To qualify for this list, airports also had to have fewer than 1.5 million arriving passengers in 2022. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International had more than 37 million arriving passengers in 2022.
Before you book your next trip, give these airports your consideration.
About this program
Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/late-edition-crime-beat-chronicles">Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles</a>. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. <a href="https://linktr.ee/leepodcasts">Learn more here</a>.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona. Believe it or not, not every airport will leave you stressed out as you travel. NerdWallet has rounded up a collection of nine U.S. airports that are enjoyable to spend time in. We have travel expert Sally French joining us today with more. We will start at the beginning of the list with number nine.
Hit me with it. One of the airports that NerdWallet loves is Long Beach Airport. It's in southern California and it is not too far from LAX, which is one of the largest airports in America. And that airport is wild to navigate. You have to take shuttles everywhere, even just to get to your Uber or Lyft. But another alternative airport that might be really compelling is Long Beach.
So it is on the larger end of all the airports that NerdWallet analyzed, about 1.3 million passengers arriving each year in 2022 at least. But this airport is absolutely charming. It really has that sort of art deco style. It was built in 1941. The architecture just makes you feel like you're traveling back in that golden age of air travel.
And what's really great about the airport now is that they've taken advantage of southern California's beautiful weather and a huge portion of the airport is entirely outdoors. So as you're waiting for your flight, you can sit and enjoy. And it's not just any old outdoors. It's beautifully landscaped, a really nice. And that you can take advantage of getting that last dose of Southern California sun before you jump on your flight.
I never would have known that. Thanks for sharing. Very cool. Very definitely. If you can get out of the flying into LAX and instead fly in to Long Beach for your Southern California vacations, Absolutely. Do it. Noted. Next up, we have number eight. Bozeman at Yellowstone International Airport is number eight. And these airports are all ranked by the number of passengers arriving or departing from them.
So so this isn't necessarily a ranking of how much we like them, but just their size. But Bozeman, Yellowstone has become especially compelling in pandemic era travel, when everyone wanted to go to national parks. What better National Park to go to than Bozeman, Yellowstone, and chose Yellowstone to be the national park and in most people would fly into Bozeman, which puts you pretty close to the west entrance of Yellowstone.
And this airport, just like the rest of your Yellowstone experience, is probably going to be has really nice cozy mountain vibes. There's a fireplace inside so you can sit by that fire, warm up, feel like you're in the mountains when you're really just in the airport and then eventually go off to your Yellowstone vacation. Yeah, that's a beautiful little addition to your already cozy trip.
Who knew your stay at the airport, whether you're landing or go. And that's great. Number seven. Looks like we have the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina. Yes. So Asheville is already a city known for its vibrant art scene. And I love that Asheville Regional Airport sort of extends that directly into the airport. So while you're there, you can see local art on the walls.
It's often coming from local artists, local school groups, and there's often live music. So you might see a local choir performing some folk musicians, a grand piano, and so you get a free little concert before your flight. It's awesome. I got to go there. I love it. Number six looks like we're heading back to California for our most charming.
We're heading back to California, and this time we're going to Santa Barbara, California. And so a lot of people very much like the Long Beach situation when they're taking a trip to Santa Barbara, they might think that they need to fly in to LAX. But if you're heading north of Los Angeles, you can be far better served by flying into Santa Barbara.
This airport is really, really tiny. Only a couple little gates, but it's got an incredible Mediterranean style. And if you've been to Santa Barbara, most of the city is also in this same Mediterranean style. There's Spanish murals that really distinctive architecture. And this airport, again, much like Long Beach, has a small little outdoor airport area. It's not as big as long beaches, but again, you can soak up that SoCal sun while you're waiting for your flight.
And if you do actually go inside, it's absolutely gorgeous. It kind of reminds me of other things you might see in Santa Barbara like this in a Barbara mission or just that general esthetic walking around downtown. And even better, now that I'm looking at the airlines that are there, I mean, the big ones are included American, Southwest, United and Alaska.
That's great. It's also yeah, and it's definitely growing. Southwest just joined to offer service in 2021 and you're looking at departures to Vegas. Denver. Denver is such a huge hub for connections. So is Las Vegas that it can be really easy to get there no matter where in the country you live it Perfect. Next up on the LIST, if you would, please.
Yes. So number five is Jackson Hole Airport, Jackson, Wyoming. And we sort of mentioned going on a trip to Yellowstone. And you might also fly into Jackson, Wyoming, and especially if you're going to the southern portion of Yellowstone or if you're going to Grand Teton National Park. Speaking of Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole Airport is really cool because it's actually located within Grand Teton National Park.
So unsurprisingly, the views at this airport are absolutely astounding. You're looking at the mountain ranges and then, you know, even besides just these unparalleled views, the airport itself is absolutely charming. There's a little Teton County Library bookshelf and you don't even need to be a library member to use it. It's one of those take a book, leave a book style shelves so you can leave one behind and then take, take, take a book with you for your flight home.
Oh, good old middle America for you. I love it. I love it. I love it. Very cool. Very cool. Number four, it looks like Cherry Capital Airport. Tell me more about this. Well, we're staying in Middle America and absolutely, just like those Jackson Airport vibes, Cherry Capital Airport has those very similar homey, cozy vibes. This airport is located in Traverse City, Michigan, and this airport has really incredible architecture.
It's inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. So you can expect to see kind of that stained glass esthetic, all that stone, a lot of really nice copper light fixtures, much like how the Jackson airport's got a fireplace. This one has a fireplace, too. So it's one of these places where it feels like you're hanging out in an amazing lodge rather than in this horrible gross airport is just getting, say, dirty carpets and blank white walls.
Yeah, I would definitely trade that. For all of the things you've mentioned thus far. I mean, out of any of these places. Number three here, tell me how to pronounce this. This is a tough one. Oh, you know what? You're putting me on the spot, but I'm going to guess that it precludes International Airport. And we are heading to Alaska now.
This airport made the list for obviously being really small. There were about 125,000 passengers departing in 2022. But the reason it makes the list in particular for being charming is how you get to this airport. You are not rolling up in the shuttle bus. You're not driving up in your car to get here. You are boarding a ferry.
So you take a brief ferry ride. It's like 5 minutes on, but you need to take the ferry to actually get to the airport, which I think just completely adds to this experience of an incredible, memorable vacation. Awesome. I might never find myself there, but maybe I wish I do now. But you can't have too many bags because you're going to have to take them on the ferry as well as the airplane.
It's probably my husband's dream. You don't need to bring that big of a bag. All right. Number two, looks like we have Martha's Vineyard Airport. We are heading to Martha's Vineyard for number two. This is in Massachusetts. And this airport reflects the same Cape Cod style that you can expect to see across the broader island of Martha's Vineyard.
So we're talking those cedars, shingles, views of the lighthouses, views of the beach. It is It's located in the middle of the island, which makes it a really convenient location. And what's nice about this airport is it's so close to where you're probably going to stay. Many people, when they stay at Martha's Vineyard, if they're not staying in a bigger vacation rental farther off the island, they'll probably stay in Edgartown.
And what I love about this airport is a lot of people are thinking about Martha's Vineyard as being a public transit hub. But you can hop on the bus and it is a three minute bus ride to Edgartown, which is that Maine Seaport Village. So incredible location, which makes it really easy to get on your flight home. You don't need to take a ton of time to get to the airport because it's so conveniently located.
And once you're there, the trip hasn't ended because you're getting that beautiful Cape Cod vibes even while you're waiting for your flight.
All right. My personal favorite, the last one on the list. You know, now I feel like this is my personal favorite as well. It's number one for being absolutely tiny. There were about 6000 departing passengers in 2022. So that's why it makes the number one spot. But I really do think it deserves the number one spot. Just in general.
This airport is located in the Ozark Mountains in Branson, Missouri. Now, Branson, Missouri, is this absolutely amazing family entertainment hub in the Midwest. So, you know, when you go to Branson, there's a lot to do. There's a lot of live entertainment. There's a historic downtown. There's lakes, there's museums, and it's kind of like this like Wild West vibe.
And that's exactly what the airport is like as well. In fact, there is an actual creek that flows inside the airport. And then when you're there, the Missouri Fun doesn't stop. But Bass Pro Shops is headquartered nearby, and so there's actually a mini bass pro shops inside the airport. What better suited area than that? And if you don't want to do that, you can just hang out inside the airport, which has absolutely hilarious and adorable facades like a saloon and a sawmill.
It just seems like so much fun inside this airport. It's like a it's like a miniature Disneyland as you're waiting for your flight special place. Looks like it's out of a storybook, which is actually very fitting for that area. So. Oh, I love it. Well, that wraps up the end of this. And most nine most charming airports list.
I got to ask you, Sally, have you been to any of these yourself? You? Yes, in fact, I have been to most of them. I haven't been to Alaska, but I'm waiting to hop on that boat. I'm actually a Southern California girl at heart. So I make it a point to fly in and out of Long Beach Airport whenever possible.
It's not the closest to my family, but it is worth it because it's a far better airport experience. So many people think of airports as being miserable, being loud, being chaotic. It's a long TSA line. And then once you get there, you're sitting in this chair that seems like it was designed for like some sort of elephant to sit in because it fits No.
One. And, you know, the loudspeaker is blaring, but all of these airports really make air travel enjoyable. And so many people hate air travel. And I think it's because they've only been exposed to these brutal airports. But when you go to these charming ones, it really, really makes air travel actually fun and actually part of the vacation experience.
So I would go out of my way, whether it's long Beach for me to go home or just taking a little trip to any of these other airports, absolutely worth it. I'm glad I asked that. Thank you so much, Sally. I appreciate it. Thanks for taking some time out with me. Absolutely.

Nine of the most charming airports in America for your consideration

Travel is the fastest growing segment of the "buy now, pay later" purchasing trend. It may work for some, but there are some big pitfalls, too.

Helping us navigate the scenarios with host Teri Barr is Sally French, a travel expert with NerdWallet, to help explain the pros and cons.

Travel is the fastest growing segment of the "buy now, pay later" purchasing trend. It may work for some, but there are some big pitfalls, too.
Helping us navigate the scenarios with host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/author/sfrench/">Sally French</a>, a travel expert with NerdWallet, to help explain the pros and cons.

3 tips before you use buy now, pay later to fund travel costs

Is there any new information about the student loan debt cancellation plan from the President?

Host Teri Barr is finding out by talking with Cecilia Clark, a student loan specialist with NerdWallet.

Clark also answers the five biggest and most confusing questions about student debt cancellation, including if the lawsuits filed against the President's plan are going to the Supreme Court anytime soon, plus two new parts of the plan to consider if you are already thinking about bankruptcy.

Also, the income-driven repayment plan hasn't received a whole lot of attention, but could be important for many borrowers:
How the New Income-Driven Repayment Plan Works

More from Cecilia at NerdWallet:
Is $20K Student Debt Forgiveness Still Going to Happen?
What to Do With Your Remaining Student Loan Debt
Unlock the College Financial Aid You Need Starting Oct. 1

Is there any new information about the student loan debt cancellation plan from the President?
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is finding out by talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/cecilia-clark">Cecilia Clark</a>, a student loan specialist with NerdWallet.
Clark also answers the five biggest and most confusing questions about student debt cancellation, including if the lawsuits filed against the President's plan are going to the Supreme Court anytime soon, plus two new parts of the plan to consider if you are already thinking about bankruptcy.
Also, the income-driven repayment plan hasn't received a whole lot of attention, but could be important for many borrowers:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/the-new-idr-plan">How the New Income-Driven Repayment Plan Works</a></li>
</ul>
More from Cecilia at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/debt-relief-lawsuits-qa">Is $20K Student Debt Forgiveness Still Going to Happen?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-to-do-with-your-remaining-student-loan-debt">What to Do With Your Remaining Student Loan Debt</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/2023-24-fafsa-opens">Unlock the College Financial Aid You Need Starting Oct. 1</a></li>
</ul>

Answers to 5 confusing student loan debt cancellation questions

If you have one checking and one savings account, you have what's considered, the typical accounts. But could you — and your money — be doing better?

PennyWise host Teri Barr is talking with Chanelle Bessette, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it pays to do an annual review of your bank accounts.

Chanelle also shares the five questions to ask yourself to understand if your current set up is working best for you or if it's time to consider some other options.

Past Pennywise episodes with Chanelle Bessette as the guest:
4 things to consider before changing banks
Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings
Looking for a different way to save money? 4 rules for starting your own savings circle

More from Chanelle on NerdWallet:
Carver Federal Savings Bank Review: Checking, Savings and CDs
Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types
Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?
4 Bank App Features You Might Be Missing Out On

If you have one checking and one savings account, you have what's considered, the typical accounts. But could you — and your money — be doing better?
PennyWise host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/chanelle-bessette">Chanelle Bessette</a>, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it pays to do an annual review of your bank accounts.
Chanelle also shares the five questions to ask yourself to understand if your current set up is working best for you or if it's time to consider some other options.
Past Pennywise episodes with Chanelle Bessette as the guest:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/4-things-to-consider-before-changing-banks">4 things to consider before changing banks</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/four-of-five-americans-are-choosing-to-reallocate">Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/looking-for-a-different-way-to-save-money-4-rules">Looking for a different way to save money? 4 rules for starting your own savings circle</a></li>
</ul>
More from Chanelle on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/banking/carver-bank?trk_channel=web&amp;trk_copy=Carver%20Federal%20Savings%20Bank%20Review%3A%20Checking%2C%20Savings%20and%20CDs&amp;trk_element=hyperlink&amp;trk_elementPosition=0&amp;trk_location=PostList&amp;trk_subLocation=tiles">Carver Federal Savings Bank Review: Checking, Savings and CDs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/overdraft-protection-what-it-is-and-different-types">Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/ask-a-nerd-will-interest-rates-continue-to-rise">Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/4-bank-app-features-you-might-be-missing-out-on">4 Bank App Features You Might Be Missing Out On</a></li>
</ul>

5 questions to ask to better understand if you have the right bank accounts

A new survey shows one in three Americans say their resolution for 2023 will focus on finances.

PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with Jill Gonzalez, a Spokesperson for WalletHub, to learn why the number of Americans making a money-related resolution is higher than in the past. Jill also shares four ways to make your resolution stick throughout the year.

A new survey shows one in three Americans say their resolution for 2023 will focus on finances.
PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillrgonzalez">Jill Gonzalez</a>, a Spokesperson for <a href="https://wallethub.com/">WalletHub</a>, to learn why the number of Americans making a money-related resolution is higher than in the past. Jill also shares four ways to make your resolution stick throughout the year.

4 ways to make your money-related resolutions stick

If you are still searching for a one-of-a-kind last minute present, here's a unique idea for your holiday shopping -- check out a thrift store!

PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn why the idea of thrifting for gifts is trending right now. Kimberly also shares five benefits you'll enjoy when spending your hard-earned-money at a resale store.

If you are still searching for a one-of-a-kind last minute present, here's a unique idea for your holiday shopping -- check out a thrift store!
PennyWise Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn why the idea of thrifting for gifts is trending right now. Kimberly also shares five benefits you'll enjoy when spending your hard-earned-money at a resale store.

Need a last minute gift idea? 5 reasons to try a thrift store

Planning carefully now can help you before it's time to file your 2022 taxes next year.

PennyWise host Teri Barr talks with Andy Rosen, investing and tax spokesperson for NerdWallet, to learn why — even though the holiday season is busy — it's also important to think about your taxes before the end of the year. Andy also shares five things to consider to support your planning efforts.

Planning carefully now can help you before it's time to file your 2022 taxes next year.
<a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise">PennyWise</a> host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/andy-rosen">Andy Rosen</a>, investing and tax spokesperson for <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/">NerdWallet</a>, to learn why — even though the holiday season is busy — it's also important to think about your taxes before the end of the year. Andy also shares five things to consider to support your planning efforts.

5 tax tips to consider as the end of the year approaches

Winter travel, especially during the holidays, can be trying on both your patience and your pocketbook.

PennyWise host Teri Barr is talking with John Kiernan, managing editor at WalletHub, to learn why it's especially important to plan ahead for your travels. Kiernan also shares five important tips to make your travels, smooth sailing.

Helpful links from WalletHub:
Best Travel Credit Cards
2022 Winter Travel Survey
Best No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards

Winter travel, especially during the holidays, can be trying on both your patience and your pocketbook.
PennyWise host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://wallethub.com/profile/13301077i">John Kiernan</a>, managing editor at <a href="https://wallethub.com/">WalletHub</a>, to learn why it's especially important to plan ahead for your travels. Kiernan also shares five important tips to make your travels, smooth sailing.
Helpful links from WalletHub:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wallethub.com/best-travel-credit-cards__;!!LvYzicI!lZR8BEuVWF1texyXY5fzuXSsnxSjeTlBSlfDgIK5WtLRFB_ii20qhVbsAfeaoETqb8zUBgfs4H5DJtI$">Best Travel Credit Cards</a></li>
<li><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wallethub.com/blog/winter-travel-survey/54756__;!!LvYzicI!lZR8BEuVWF1texyXY5fzuXSsnxSjeTlBSlfDgIK5WtLRFB_ii20qhVbsAfeaoETqb8zUBgfsCEUQR5U$">2022 Winter Travel Survey</a></li>
<li><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wallethub.com/credit-cards/no-foreign-transaction-fee/__;!!LvYzicI!lZR8BEuVWF1texyXY5fzuXSsnxSjeTlBSlfDgIK5WtLRFB_ii20qhVbsAfeaoETqb8zUBgfs1b5jLFA$">Best No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards</a></li>
</ul>

5 winter travel tips to save your patience and your pocketbook

Could more disruptions in the supply chain lead to new shortages on store shelves?

Host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a Personal Finance Expert with Nerd Wallet, to learn if supply chain issues are expected to derail the holidays. Kimberly also shares four things to consider right now -- from retailers overstocking to weather and strikes impacting items you may have on your shopping list.

More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
Holiday Survival Strategies From 5 Financial Educators
5 Ways to Save Money on Holiday Shopping This Season

Could more disruptions in the supply chain lead to new shortages on store shelves?
Host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with Nerd Wallet, to learn if supply chain issues are expected to derail the holidays. Kimberly also shares four things to consider right now -- from retailers overstocking to weather and strikes impacting items you may have on your shopping list.
More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/holiday-survival-strategies-from-5-financial-educators">Holiday Survival Strategies From 5 Financial Educators</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/5-ways-to-save-money-on-holiday-shopping-this-season">5 Ways to Save Money on Holiday Shopping This Season</a></li>
</ul>

4 tips to get ahead of holiday season supply chain shortages

Are you considering a way to support a charity or nonprofit right now?

PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with Adam McCann, a Financial Writer and Editor with WalletHub, to learn whether you should donate time or money this holiday. He shares five great tips to help you make the right decision when it comes to your time or money and how it helps make a difference for others.
Determine the best value of volunteer hours versus working more and giving cash: Charity Calculator
Find a charity and see how it rates: Charity Navigator

Are you considering a way to support a charity or nonprofit right now?
PennyWise Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://wallethub.com/profile/15598394i">Adam McCann</a>, a Financial Writer and Editor with <a href="https://wallethub.com/">WalletHub</a>, to learn whether you should donate time or money this holiday. He shares five great tips to help you make the right decision when it comes to your time or money and how it helps make a difference for others.
<ul>
<li>Determine the best value of volunteer hours versus working more and giving cash: <a href="https://wallethub.com/charity-calculator/">Charity Calculator</a></li>
<li>Find a charity and see how it rates: <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/?c_src=WPAIDSEARCH&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA7bucBhCeARIsAIOwr-9_rniFnqVpf-OnAp4xiv5XFPlbsi4sTmPJ_55BW2Knr7Osen8wf3saAohSEALw_wcB">Charity Navigator</a></li>
</ul>

5 tips for donating your time or money this holiday season

Are you struggling to find the perfect present right now? PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with Milvionne Chery, a Personal Finance Editor for WalletHub, to learn how a gift card can take the guesswork (and stress) out of your gift-giving.

Milvionne also shares five important tips you need to know if you plan to purchase any gift cards for others this holiday season.
Best Gift Cards in 2022
Can You Buy Gift Cards with a Credit Card?

Are you struggling to find the perfect present right now? PennyWise Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://wallethub.com/profile/68371234i">Milvionne Chery</a>, a Personal Finance Editor for <a href="https://wallethub.com/">WalletHub</a>, to learn how a gift card can take the guesswork (and stress) out of your gift-giving.
Milvionne also shares five important tips you need to know if you plan to purchase any gift cards for others this holiday season.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wallethub.com/edu/cc/best-gift-cards/27133__;!!LvYzicI!nV-XS_BKBO-KlezkO8BRAUrnydI316euR9P6jl_jK-GYcPRpJqnLqNno4tzSEdjaFnXxVXUzKmwEJA$">Best Gift Cards in 2022</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wallethub.com/answers/cc/can-you-buy-gift-cards-with-a-credit-card-2140662766/">Can You Buy Gift Cards with a Credit Card?</a><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wallethub.com/answers/cc/can-you-buy-gift-cards-with-a-credit-card-2140662766/__;!!LvYzicI!nV-XS_BKBO-KlezkO8BRAUrnydI316euR9P6jl_jK-GYcPRpJqnLqNno4tzSEdjaFnXxVXU5zKy7pg$"></a></li>
</ul>

5 tips to consider if you're giving gift cards this holiday season

Are you working on your gift list but you also really need to stick to your budget?

PennyWise Host Teri Barr is talking with Christie Matherne, a Personal Finance Writer and Editor for WalletHub, to learn why a new survey shows many shoppers will spend thousands of dollars, despite not having the budget to support these big holiday purchases.

Christine also shares five tips to help you save money during the gift-giving season!

Are you working on your gift list but you also really need to stick to your budget?
PennyWise Host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://wallethub.com/profile/15862659i">Christie Matherne</a>, a Personal Finance Writer and Editor for WalletHub, to learn why a new survey shows many shoppers will spend thousands of dollars, despite not having the budget to support these big holiday purchases.
Christine also shares five tips to help you save money during the gift-giving season!

5 gift-giving tips that won't break your budget

The student loan debt plan is on hold, again, and no one knows if or when it's coming. What could this mean for you?

Host Teri Barr is talking with Cecilia Clark, a student loans expert with Nerd Wallet, to learn why this newest hold on the program could take awhile and three things you need to know about right now, including making your loan payments again in the New Year.

The latest from Cecilia at NerdWallet:
Is $20K Student Debt Forgiveness Still Going to Happen? - NerdWallet
What to Do With Your Remaining Student Loan Debt - NerdWallet
Unlock the College Financial Aid You Need Starting Oct. 1 - NerdWallet

More episodes on debt:
Pros and cons of holiday shopping with store credit cards
Don't wait! 3 steps to help you start tackling debt right now
3 ways debt can be a helpful tool

The student loan debt plan is on hold, again, and no one knows if or when it's coming. What could this mean for you?
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/cecilia-clark">Cecilia Clark</a>, a student loans expert with Nerd Wallet, to learn why this newest hold on the program could take awhile and three things you need to know about right now, including making your loan payments again in the New Year.
The latest from Cecilia at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/debt-relief-lawsuits-qa">Is $20K Student Debt Forgiveness Still Going to Happen? - NerdWallet</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-to-do-with-your-remaining-student-loan-debt">What to Do With Your Remaining Student Loan Debt - NerdWallet</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/2023-24-fafsa-opens">Unlock the College Financial Aid You Need Starting Oct. 1 - NerdWallet</a></li>
</ul>
More episodes on debt:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/holiday-shopping-store-credit-card-pros-cons">Pros and cons of holiday shopping with store credit cards</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/dont-wait-3-steps-to-help-you-start-tackling-debt">Don't wait! 3 steps to help you start tackling debt right now</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/3-times-debt-can-be-a-helpful-tool">3 ways debt can be a helpful tool</a></li>
</ul>

Student debt forgiveness on hold (again): 3 things to know

Are you feeling some pressure when it comes to your holiday shopping this year? If you plan to use or open a store credit card account, there are some good and bad cards — and things to know — before you decide to swipe it as your payment.

Host Teri Barr is talking with Melissa Lambarena, a credit card expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it's important to slow down and think about financing your purchases with a store credit card. Lambarena also breaks down the pros and cons about using these types of cards during the Holidays, or anytime.

Past episodes of Pennywise with Melissa Lambarena:
Don't wait! 3 steps to help you start tackling debt right now

More from Melissa Lambarena on NerdWallet:
What Fed Interest Rate Hikes Mean for Your Credit Cards
7 Lesser-Known Credit Card Moves to Stretch Your Budget
AmEx's Member Week Brings Cardholders Exclusive Discounts

Are you feeling some pressure when it comes to your holiday shopping this year? If you plan to use or open a store credit card account, there are some good and bad cards — and things to know — before you decide to swipe it as your payment.
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/melissa-lambarena">Melissa Lambarena</a>, a credit card expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it's important to slow down and think about financing your purchases with a store credit card. Lambarena also breaks down the pros and cons about using these types of cards during the Holidays, or anytime.
Past episodes of Pennywise with Melissa Lambarena:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/dont-wait-3-steps-to-help-you-start-tackling-debt">Don't wait! 3 steps to help you start tackling debt right now</a></li>
</ul>
More from Melissa Lambarena on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/what-fed-rate-interest-hikes-mean-for-your-credit-cards">What Fed Interest Rate Hikes Mean for Your Credit Cards</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/lesser-known-credit-card-moves-to-stretch-your-budget">7 Lesser-Known Credit Card Moves to Stretch Your Budget</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/amex-member-week-cardholder-discounts">AmEx's Member Week Brings Cardholders Exclusive Discounts</a></li>
</ul>

Pros and cons of holiday shopping with store credit cards

Prices are up more than 8% in the last year. Is that why many consumers have already started their "Black Friday" shopping?

Host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn what to expect if you are hunting for holiday deals this year, and why there are four specific things you should be prepared for while shopping.

More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
How to Handle Your Medical Bills
How to Find a Happy Balance Among Competing Savings Goals
5 Ways to Feel Richer (Even If You’re Not)
How to Plan Your Big Expenditures for the Year

Prices are up more than 8% in the last year. Is that why many consumers have already started their "Black Friday" shopping?
Host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn what to expect if you are hunting for holiday deals this year, and why there are four specific things you should be prepared for while shopping.
More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-handle-your-medical-bills">How to Handle Your Medical Bills</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-find-a-happy-balance-among-competing-savings-goals">How to Find a Happy Balance Among Competing Savings Goals</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/5-ways-to-feel-richer-even-if-youre-not">5 Ways to Feel Richer (Even If You’re Not)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-plan-big-expenditures">How to Plan Your Big Expenditures for the Year</a></li>
</ul>

Black Friday deals: 4 tips to get the biggest bang for your door-busting buck

Host Teri Barr talks with Andy Rosen, an investing and taxes spokesperson with NerdWallet, to learn about the new projections for 2023 taxes based on inflation.

If your income isn't keeping up, we'll tell you why some tax adjustments, credits and savings contributions could change your bill, and why it may be for the better.

Read more here:
Higher Inflation Could Mean Smaller Tax Bills

More from Andy on NerdWallet:
Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake in Cryptocurrency
Friendly Reminder: Celebrity Crypto Endorsements Don’t Mean Much
What Are Smart Contracts in Cryptocurrency?

Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/andy-rosen">Andy Rosen</a>, an investing and taxes spokesperson with NerdWallet, to learn about the new projections for 2023 taxes based on inflation.
If your income isn't keeping up, we'll tell you why some tax adjustments, credits and savings contributions could change your bill, and why it may be for the better.
Read more here:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/income-taxes/inflation-impact-taxes">Higher Inflation Could Mean Smaller Tax Bills</a></li>
</ul>
More from Andy on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake">Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake in Cryptocurrency</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/celebrity-crypto">Friendly Reminder: Celebrity Crypto Endorsements Don’t Mean Much</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/smart-contracts">What Are Smart Contracts in Cryptocurrency?</a></li>
</ul>

Higher inflation could mean smaller tax bills for some

A new survey shows one in five Americans have decided to put off any debt payment planning.

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Melissa Lambarena, a credit card expert with NerdWallet, to learn why so many people are deciding not to deal with their debt right now.

Melissa tells us more about the survey, than walks us through the simple but solid steps to start tackling your debt.

More from Melissa on NerdWallet:
AmEx's Member Week Brings Cardholders Exclusive Discounts
5 Things to Know About the Dick's Sporting Goods Credit Card
5 Things to Know About the JCPenney Credit Card

A <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/personal-finance">new survey</a> shows one in five Americans have decided to put off any debt payment planning.
PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/melissa-lambarena">Melissa Lambarena</a>, a credit card expert with NerdWallet, to learn why so many people are deciding not to deal with their debt right now.
Melissa tells us more about the survey, than walks us through the simple but solid steps to start tackling your debt.
More from Melissa on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/amex-member-week-cardholder-discounts">AmEx's Member Week Brings Cardholders Exclusive Discounts</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/dicks-sporting-goods-credit-card">5 Things to Know About the Dick's Sporting Goods Credit Card</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/jcpenney-credit-card">5 Things to Know About the JCPenney Credit Card</a></li>
</ul>

Don't wait! 3 steps to help you start tackling debt right now

What do you know about your credit score? PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it's important to understand some of the "myths" surrounding your credit score.

Kimberly takes us through a new survey showing most of us admit to not knowing enough, including confusion about the top three credit score myths. We talk about those and get you the right answers, too.

Past Pennywise episodes with Kimberly as the guest:
6 tips to help you save on back-to-school shopping this year!
6 steps you can take to control your food budget

More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
How to Handle Your Medical Bills
How to Find a Happy Balance Among Competing Savings Goals
5 Ways to Feel Richer (Even If You’re Not)

What do you know about your credit score? PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a>, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it's important to understand some of the "myths" surrounding your credit score.
Kimberly takes us through a new survey showing most of us admit to not knowing enough, including confusion about the top three credit score myths. We talk about those and get you the right answers, too.
Past Pennywise episodes with Kimberly as the guest:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/6-tips-to-help-you-save-on-back-to-school-shopping">6 tips to help you save on back-to-school shopping this year!</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/6-steps-you-can-take-to-control-your-food-budget">6 steps you can take to control your food budget</a></li>
</ul>
More from Kimberly on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-handle-your-medical-bills">How to Handle Your Medical Bills</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-find-a-happy-balance-among-competing-savings-goals">How to Find a Happy Balance Among Competing Savings Goals</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/5-ways-to-feel-richer-even-if-youre-not">5 Ways to Feel Richer (Even If You’re Not)</a></li>
</ul>

3 common myths about credit scores and what you really need to know

Have you ever thought about who your bank does business with using your money in checking or savings as loans to those businesses?

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Chanelle Bessette, a banking expert with NerdWallet, to learn why more Americans want to deal with banks considered socially conscious.

Bessette explains what it means, and how you can find out if your bank is using your money to make loans to businesses that matter to you.

She'll also share details to find a socially conscious bank that matches what you care about as a customer and community member.

Learn more about what to ask if you want a socially conscious bank at the brand new hub from NerdWallet here: https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/ethical-finance

More from Chanelle Bessette on PennyWise:
4 things to consider before changing banks
4 rules for starting your own savings circle
Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings

The latest from Chanelle Bessette at NerdWallet:
Andrews Federal Credit Union Review: Checking, Savings and CDs
Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types 
Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?

Have you ever thought about who your bank does business with using your money in checking or savings as loans to those businesses?
PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/chanelle-bessette">Chanelle Bessette</a>, a banking expert with NerdWallet, to learn why more Americans want to deal with banks considered socially conscious.
Bessette explains what it means, and how you can find out if your bank is using your money to make loans to businesses that matter to you.
She'll also share details to find a socially conscious bank that matches what you care about as a customer and community member.
Learn more about what to ask if you want a socially conscious bank at the brand new hub from NerdWallet here: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/ethical-finance">https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/ethical-finance</a>
More from Chanelle Bessette on PennyWise:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/4-things-to-consider-before-changing-banks">4 things to consider before changing banks</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/looking-for-a-different-way-to-save-money-4-rules">4 rules for starting your own savings circle</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/four-of-five-americans-are-choosing-to-reallocate">Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings</a></li>
</ul>
The latest from Chanelle Bessette at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/banking/andrews-federal-credit-union?trk_channel=web&amp;trk_copy=Andrews%20Federal%20Credit%20Union%20Review%3A%20Checking%2C%20Savings%20and%20CDs&amp;trk_element=hyperlink&amp;trk_elementPosition=0&amp;trk_location=PostList&amp;trk_subLocation=tiles">Andrews Federal Credit Union Review: Checking, Savings and CDs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/overdraft-protection-what-it-is-and-different-types?trk_channel=web&amp;trk_copy=Overdraft%20Protection%3A%20What%20It%20Is%20and%20Different%20Types&amp;trk_element=hyperlink&amp;trk_elementPosition=1&amp;trk_location=PostList&amp;trk_subLocation=tiles">Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types </a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/ask-a-nerd-will-interest-rates-continue-to-rise?trk_channel=web&amp;trk_copy=Ask%20a%20Nerd%3A%20Will%20Interest%20Rates%20Continue%20to%20Rise%3F&amp;trk_element=hyperlink&amp;trk_elementPosition=2&amp;trk_location=PostList&amp;trk_subLocation=tiles">Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?</a></li>
</ul>

What to ask if you're looking for a socially conscious bank

Do you have an extra $12,000? It's how much more experts say you are spending, on average this year, compared to two years ago.

PennyWise host Teri Barr is talking with Elizabeth Renter, a Personal Finance Data Analyst with NerdWallet, to learn more about the specific categories where you've had to spend a lot more money in 2022.

Elizabeth also shares what this means related to a recession, and what you can do about it.

More from Elizabeth on NerdWallet:
First-Time Home Buyer Metro Affordability Report – Q2 2022
Got an Extra $11,500? You’ll Need It to Keep Up With 2022 Prices
U.S. Drivers’ Gas Spending Soars Toward $562 Billion in 2022

Do you have an extra $12,000? It's how much more experts say you are spending, on average this year, compared to two years ago.
PennyWise host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/elizabeth-renter">Elizabeth Renter</a>, a Personal Finance Data Analyst with NerdWallet, to learn more about the specific categories where you've had to spend a lot more money in 2022.
Elizabeth also shares what this means related to a recession, and what you can do about it.
More from Elizabeth on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/mortgages/fthb-affordability-q22022">First-Time Home Buyer Metro Affordability Report – Q2 2022</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/data-inflation-spending-recession">Got an Extra $11,500? You’ll Need It to Keep Up With 2022 Prices</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/data-gas-inflation">U.S. Drivers’ Gas Spending Soars Toward $562 Billion in 2022</a></li>
</ul>

An expert answers: How much money do you need this year?

Are you happy with your current bank? Our host Teri Barr is talking with Chanelle Bessette, a banking expert with NerdWallet, to learn why right now may be the perfect time to make a change!

Bessette also shares the four important things to consider if you are ready to open a new account or go to a different bank, altogether.

Past Pennywise episodes with Chanelle Bessette as the guest:
Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings
Looking for a different way to save money? 4 rules for starting your own savings circle

More from Chanelle on NerdWallet:
Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types
Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?
4 Bank App Features You Might Be Missing Out On

Are you happy with your current bank? Our host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/chanelle-bessette">Chanelle Bessette</a>, a banking expert with NerdWallet, to learn why right now may be the perfect time to make a change!
Bessette also shares the four important things to consider if you are ready to open a new account or go to a different bank, altogether.
Past Pennywise episodes with Chanelle Bessette as the guest:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/four-of-five-americans-are-choosing-to-reallocate">Four of five Americans are choosing to reallocate their savings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/looking-for-a-different-way-to-save-money-4-rules">Looking for a different way to save money? 4 rules for starting your own savings circle</a></li>
</ul>
More from Chanelle on NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/overdraft-protection-what-it-is-and-different-types">Overdraft Protection: What It Is and Different Types</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/ask-a-nerd-will-interest-rates-continue-to-rise">Ask a Nerd: Will Interest Rates Continue to Rise?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/4-bank-app-features-you-might-be-missing-out-on">4 Bank App Features You Might Be Missing Out On</a></li>
</ul>

4 things to consider before changing banks

Many people are remaining in their homes right now and hoping to increase the value with a remodel of their bath, kitchen or basement.

Our host Teri Barr talks with Kate Wood, a home and mortgage writer for NerdWallet, to learn what areas of a house are currently bringing the best bang for your buck.

Wood also explains why it's so important to budget for your project and shares some options to help you pay for it.

Past Pennywise episodes with Kate Wood as a guest:
Will interest rates go up again? What to do if you are a homebuyer

More from Kate at NerdWallet:
Fed Raises Target Rate Again, but Mortgage Rates Are Unfazed
Mortgage Rates Head Higher as Federal Reserve Raises Key Interest Rate
What Are Real Estate Agent Networks?

Many people are remaining in their homes right now and hoping to increase the value with a remodel of their bath, kitchen or basement.
Our host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kate-wood">Kate Wood</a>, a home and mortgage writer for NerdWallet, to learn what areas of a house are currently bringing the best bang for your buck.
Wood also explains why it's so important to budget for your project and shares some options to help you pay for it.
Past Pennywise episodes with Kate Wood as a guest:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/will-interest-rates-go-up-again-what-to-do-if-you">Will interest rates go up again? What to do if you are a homebuyer</a></li>
</ul>
More from Kate at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/mortgages/federal-reserve-july-mortgage-rates">Fed Raises Target Rate Again, but Mortgage Rates Are Unfazed</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/mortgages/federal-reserve-75-basis-points-june">Mortgage Rates Head Higher as Federal Reserve Raises Key Interest Rate</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/mortgages/what-are-real-estate-agent-networks">What Are Real Estate Agent Networks?</a></li>
</ul>

Ready to renovate? Try these budgeting options to get the most bang for your buck!

Host Teri Barr talks with Sara Rathner, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, about the increase in additional costs to own and operate a new car.

A new survey from AAA shows those expenses are up 11% in the last year:
Buying a New Car? Prepare for Over $10K in Yearly Ownership Costs

Thankfully, Sara shares 8 factors to consider and be prepared for, and how knowing these can help you save money.

Past Pennywise episodes with Sara:
3 ways debt can be a helpful tool
5 tips to help avoid credit card debt
5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates

More from Sar at NerdWallet:
Best USAA Credit Cards - NerdWallet
A Scarcity Mindset Can Cost You Mentally and Financially
How the Wells Fargo Autograph Stacks Up Against Competitors 

Host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sara-rathner">Sara Rathner</a>, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, about the increase in additional costs to own and operate a new car.
A new survey from AAA shows those expenses are up 11% in the last year:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/buying-a-new-car-prepare-for-over-10k-in-yearly-ownership-costs">Buying a New Car? Prepare for Over $10K in Yearly Ownership Costs</a></li>
</ul>
Thankfully, Sara shares 8 factors to consider and be prepared for, and how knowing these can help you save money.
Past Pennywise episodes with Sara:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/3-times-debt-can-be-a-helpful-tool">3 ways debt can be a helpful tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/5-tips-to-help-avoid-credit-card-debt">5 tips to help avoid credit card debt</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/5-tips-to-help-tackle-higher-credit-card-interest">5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates</a></li>
</ul>
More from Sar at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/best-usaa-credit-cards">Best USAA Credit Cards - NerdWallet</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/scarcity-money-mindset-amid-recession">A Scarcity Mindset Can Cost You Mentally and Financially</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/wells-fargo-autograph-vs-competitors">How the Wells Fargo Autograph Stacks Up Against Competitors </a></li>
</ul>

U.S. drivers are on track to spend twice as much on gas in 2022 as in 2021 — pushing overall new car ownership costs higher!

8 money-saving factors to consider when buying a new car

The cost to travel remains expensive — and airfare, which is still up by 30% compared to a year ago — isn't going down in price anytime soon.

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Sam Kemmis, a travel rewards expert with NerdWallet, to learn if there are ways to find any deals on your next flight. Kemmis has four great tips to help you find affordable airfare, but you'll also need to be flexible.

Past PennyWise episodes with Sam as a guest:
3 of the worst hidden travel fees and how to avoid them

More from Sam Kemmis for NerdWallet:
Airbnb Prices: Here’s What They Actually Are
What You Should Bring to Your Next Airbnb to Make It Livable
Are People Getting COVID on Planes?
Is it Better to Book Airbnbs in Advance or Last Minute?
Has Remote Work Changed the Travel Landscape?
Airbnb Cleaning Fees Can Be Brutal — How to Cope

The cost to travel remains expensive — and airfare, which is still up by 30% compared to a year ago — isn't going down in price anytime soon.
PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sam-kemmis">Sam Kemmis</a>, a travel rewards expert with NerdWallet, to learn if there are ways to find any deals on your next flight. Kemmis has four great tips to help you find affordable airfare, but you'll also need to be flexible.
Past PennyWise episodes with Sam as a guest:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/3-of-the-worst-hidden-travel-fees-and-how-to-avoid">3 of the worst hidden travel fees and how to avoid them</a></li>
</ul>
More from Sam Kemmis for NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-prices-how-much-is-an-airbnb">Airbnb Prices: Here’s What They Actually Are</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/what-to-bring-to-an-airbnb">What You Should Bring to Your Next Airbnb to Make It Livable</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/covid-transmission-on-planes">Are People Getting COVID on Planes?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/best-time-to-book-airbnb">Is it Better to Book Airbnbs in Advance or Last Minute?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/remote-work-travel">Has Remote Work Changed the Travel Landscape?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-cleaning-fees-brutal">Airbnb Cleaning Fees Can Be Brutal — How to Cope</a></li>
</ul>

Four tips to help you find affordable airfare

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr talks with Sally French, a travel expert with NerdWallet, about the high cost to rent a car these days.

French reveals what she found during a recent analysis comparing brands, prices and where you rent your car.

She also shares her tried and true tips to help you save money the next time you need to book a car rental.

Past PennyWise episodes with Sally French as a guest:
Is room service dead? Why you're seeing other, cheaper options taking over
How to Be a 5-Star Traveler This Holiday Season
Planning a trip to Vegas? Here's what you need to know!

More from Sally for NerdWallet:
This Major Travel Cost Is Up 50% Since Before the Pandemic
Is It Worth Booking Airbnbs for 1 Week?
Airbnb Cleaning Fees Can Be Brutal — How to Cope
Travel Problems? 12 Ways to Make It Less Bad
Are Airbnbs Really Cheaper for Large Groups?
Avoid Airline Cancellations: How to Book Better

PennyWise Podcast host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> talks with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sally-french">Sally French</a>, a travel expert with NerdWallet, about the high cost to rent a car these days.
French reveals what she found during a recent analysis comparing brands, prices and where you rent your car.
She also shares her tried and true tips to help you save money the next time you need to book a car rental.
Past PennyWise episodes with Sally French as a guest:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/is-room-service-dead-why-youre-seeing-other-cheape">Is room service dead? Why you're seeing other, cheaper options taking over</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-be-a-5-star-traveler-this-holiday-season">How to Be a 5-Star Traveler This Holiday Season</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/planning-a-trip-to-vegas-heres-what-you-need-to-kn">Planning a trip to Vegas? Here's what you need to know!</a></li>
</ul>
More from Sally for NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/car-rental-price-increase">This Major Travel Cost Is Up 50% Since Before the Pandemic</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/why-its-worth-booking-airbnbs-for-a-week-or-longer">Is It Worth Booking Airbnbs for 1 Week?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-cleaning-fees-brutal">Airbnb Cleaning Fees Can Be Brutal — How to Cope</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/travel-problems">Travel Problems? 12 Ways to Make It Less Bad</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-for-large-groups">Are Airbnbs Really Cheaper for Large Groups?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/avoid-airline-cancellations">Avoid Airline Cancellations: How to Book Better</a></li>
</ul>

Tried and true tips to help you save money the next time you need to rent a car!

10 easy tips to save money on rental cars!

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Sara Rathner, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn how you can use debt as a financial tool.

Sara shares the differences between bad and "good" debt, and explains the three ways to use it to your advantage, especially right now.

More Pennywise episodes with Sara:
How to protect yourself from debt collectors using this new tactic
High gas prices have you down? Try these 4 simple tips to save at the pump!
How to manage credit card debt with inflation and rising interest rates
5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates

More from Sara at NerdWallet:
Sometimes, Debt Can Be a Helpful Tool
5 Things to Know About the Upgrade OneCard
How the Wells Fargo Autograph Stacks Up Against Competitors

PennyWise Podcast host <a href="https://twitter.com/teribarrmedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sara-rathner">Sara Rathner</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn how you can use debt as a financial tool.
Sara shares the differences between bad and "good" debt, and explains the three ways to use it to your advantage, especially right now.
More Pennywise episodes with Sara:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-protect-yourself-from-debt-collectors-using">How to protect yourself from debt collectors using this new tactic</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-save-at-the-pump-with-these-4-simple-tips">High gas prices have you down? Try these 4 simple tips to save at the pump!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-manage-your-credit-card-debt-in-the-face-of">How to manage credit card debt with inflation and rising interest rates</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/5-tips-to-help-tackle-higher-credit-card-interest">5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates</a></li>
</ul>
More from Sara at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/3-times-debt-can-be-a-helpful-tool">Sometimes, Debt Can Be a Helpful Tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/upgrade-onecard">5 Things to Know About the Upgrade OneCard</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/wells-fargo-autograph-vs-competitors">How the Wells Fargo Autograph Stacks Up Against Competitors</a></li>
</ul>

It's not always bad. You can use debt to your advantage, or to soften the blow of an unexpected expense.

3 ways debt can be a helpful tool

Teri is off this week, so Chris Lay is filling in as the host and introducing this little dip into the archives from August, 2021:

Host Teri Barr is talking with Jason Metz, Insurance Analyst from Forbes Advisor, to learn why insurance often isn't on the back to school list for college students.

Jason has important details about insurance in case of an accident, theft or poor decision making while your student is away from home. He also shares a checklist to help you consider if you do -- or don't -- need to add any levels of protection; plus, explains a few types of insurance you may not have heard about until now. 

Read more here: Insurance Checklist For College Students And Their Parents

Teri is off this week, so Chris Lay is filling in as the host and introducing this little dip into the archives from August, 2021:
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/author/jmetz/">Jason Metz</a>, Insurance Analyst from Forbes Advisor, to learn why insurance often isn't on the back to school list for college students.
Jason has important details about insurance in case of an accident, theft or poor decision making while your student is away from home. He also shares a checklist to help you consider if you do -- or don't -- need to add any levels of protection; plus, explains a few types of insurance you may not have heard about until now. 
Read more here: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/college-student-checklist/">Insurance Checklist For College Students And Their Parents</a>

Insurance checklist for kids heading off to college

A new survey shows credit card use has quickly grown in the last few months and many people say they are also racking up debt due to the increased use of their cards.

PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Sara Rathner, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn why so many people are turning to their credit cards right now.

Sara also shares five important tips to help you avoid going into debt due to your credit card use.

More Pennywise episodes with Sara:
How to protect yourself from debt collectors using this new tactic
High gas prices have you down? Try these 4 simple tips to save at the pump!
How to manage credit card debt with inflation and rising interest rates
5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates

More from Sara at NerdWallet:
Getting Therapy When Cost and Access Are a Barrier
5 Things to Know About the Walgreens Credit Card
AmEx Blue Cash Everyday Gets More Rewarding
Sometimes, Debt Can Be a Helpful Tool
5 Things to Know About the Upgrade OneCard

A new survey shows credit card use has quickly grown in the last few months and many people say they are also racking up debt due to the increased use of their cards.
PennyWise Podcast host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/sara-rathner">Sara Rathner</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn why so many people are turning to their credit cards right now.
Sara also shares five important tips to help you avoid going into debt due to your credit card use.
More Pennywise episodes with Sara:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-protect-yourself-from-debt-collectors-using">How to protect yourself from debt collectors using this new tactic</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-save-at-the-pump-with-these-4-simple-tips">High gas prices have you down? Try these 4 simple tips to save at the pump!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/how-to-manage-your-credit-card-debt-in-the-face-of">How to manage credit card debt with inflation and rising interest rates</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/5-tips-to-help-tackle-higher-credit-card-interest">5 tips to help tackle higher credit card interest rates</a></li>
</ul>
More from Sara at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/getting-therapy-when-cost-and-access-are-a-barrier">Getting Therapy When Cost and Access Are a Barrier</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/walgreens-card">5 Things to Know About the Walgreens Credit Card</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/amex-blue-cash-everyday-2022-new-rewards">AmEx Blue Cash Everyday Gets More Rewarding</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/3-times-debt-can-be-a-helpful-tool">Sometimes, Debt Can Be a Helpful Tool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/upgrade-onecard">5 Things to Know About the Upgrade OneCard</a></li>
</ul>

5 tips to help avoid credit card debt

A new survey revealed that 90% of shoppers say the current economic conditions will impact their back-to-school budget this year.

Host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn how higher prices and lower supplies are impacting back-to-school shoppers.

Kimberly also shares six creative tips to help you save on your school shopping budget.

More Pennywise episodes with Kimberly:
6 steps you can take to control your food budget
Worried about interest rate increases? Try these quick money-saving tips!
Going to any weddings? Here are tips to keep your costs down!
5 easy steps to strengthen your finances for Financial Literacy Month!
Four great tips for buying used cars online

More from Kimberly at NerdWallet:
Spring-Clean Your Finances With Some Automation
To Fight Inflation, Take Down Food Expenses
How to Offset Rising Prices and Interest Rates
Why Managing Your Money Starts With Your Emotions
How to Plan Your Big Expenditures for the Year

A new survey revealed that 90% of shoppers say the current economic conditions will impact their back-to-school budget this year.
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/TeriBarrMedia">Teri Barr</a> is talking with <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/author/kimberly-palmer">Kimberly Palmer</a>, a Personal Finance Expert with NerdWallet, to learn how higher prices and lower supplies are impacting back-to-school shoppers.
Kimberly also shares six creative tips to help you save on your school shopping budget.
More Pennywise episodes with Kimberly:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/6-steps-you-can-take-to-control-your-food-budget">6 steps you can take to control your food budget</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/worried-about-interest-rate-increases-try-these-qu">Worried about interest rate increases? Try these quick money-saving tips!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/going-to-any-weddings-in-2022-heres-how-to-keep-yo">Going to any weddings? Here are tips to keep your costs down!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/5-easy-steps-to-strengthen-your-finances-for-finan">5 easy steps to strengthen your finances for Financial Literacy Month!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise/four-great-tips-for-buying-used-cars-online">Four great tips for buying used cars online</a></li>
</ul>
More from Kimberly at NerdWallet:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/spring-clean-your-finances-with-some-automation">Spring-Clean Your Finances With Some Automation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/to-fight-inflation-take-down-food-expenses">To Fight Inflation, Take Down Food Expenses</a></li>
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6 tips to help you beat the high prices & save on your back-to-school shopping this year

.css-2log3m{color:currentColor;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}.css-2log3m:hover,.css-2log3m:focus{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}PennyWise: Personal Finance & Travel Tips

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PennyWise: Personal Finance & Travel Tips