Is the economy still affecting your vaca plans?

[dvrliz1]

Bill,

Fortunately, we are holding our own. I think the fact that our price point is less than the waterfront property (much less!) we are giving divers an opportunity to take those much needed dive vacations, so that is good.

The big thing we are hearing on the island is it is REALLY quiet, and and businesses expected to start seeing some kind of recovery, based on the news reports. I have to tell you though, this past week we have been seeing a tremendous drop in rental vehicles driving around and the restaurants are very quiet.

Ancillary spending is way down on the island. People who are coming to Bonaire are paying the airfare, hotel, dive package, truck, taxes, and not much more. Our apartments have full kitchens and we are DEFINITELY seeing them cooking in much more. A lot of them are opting to go out to dinner once, maybe twice, then eat in the rest of the time.

I can tell you this, Ed and I used to go out to dinner a couple of times a week, now, as a plan option that something drastically might happen, for safety reasons, we are really cutting back personally as well. Dinner once a month, no mini vacations to Aruba or Curacao, hanging out at the beaches here for the day, bringing sandwiches and drinks...

There still IS an economy out there somewhere? Wouldn't know it from the visitor counts here on the island. DVD sales have dropped to the lowest levels ever despite my having 20 titles available now.

Plans to travel to places like the Red Sea, Philippines, South America and Bonaire all on hold until my local bank builds up enough deposits to make robbing it worthwhile.

Good thing I live in a world class dive destination.

 

[lulubelle]

I didn't really see the choice that best reflected my plans and the reasons behind them either. I am traveling more than ever and looking at the same value for cost that I always do, well maybe looking a bit harder at that piece due to the economy. So maybe i am traveling just as much but looking for more value?

I am fortunate in that last year when just about every part of my life EXCEPT my employment/financial life broke in two that I am still somehow employed. As Deputy Dan said though, my company has been undergoing tough times, not really related to the economy, and I was a bit nervous about committing to trips because one never knows when those tough times are going to start equaling layoffs. So when I was looking at a trip to Fiji/GBR which was looking like it was going to cost twice as much as two weeks in Indonesia, although I didn't choose the Indo trip due to the cost, it did make it easier to go ahead and choose one and pay for it.

To the OP< I'm very sorry to hear that you were unable to dive due to medical issues. I was in the same spot. Getting cleared was a lot of work, but I am diving again after 9 months. So keep the faith, do what you need to do, and hopefully you will be in the water again soon. I've never been to Bonaire...

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Are you sure that you are not my wife ?????
I have heard this exact rant just a few days ago

Wanna go to the UP of Michigan sweetie? oh and wanna pack all my stuff

Actually I don't mind packing, its unpacking and putting stuff away I hate. I still have 1 bag from our August 2009 cruise that needs unpacked. Ugh.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[robint]

We invaded a Catalina Scubaboard gathering a few years ago. The diving out there is great but its a long flight from Ohio and we have all the extra cold water diving baggage. Bleh.

We went in November so the water was still warm. Yea, Catalina is warm water in my book LOL!
Ber :lilbunny:

Catalina is great, but not as great as around the other islands as they have less visitors (divers, dive boats, etc). I still think you should check out a multi-day boat trip and then you wouldn't mind hauling the drysuit there.

I have had 2 particular dives out there, one to Anacapa and one to San Clemente, plus the 3 dives on the oil platform Grace, that rate up there with my dives in Palau. Yes, that good!

robin

 

[didi440]

I took one trip in April and usually do 2 more in the fall. However, I will be doing a lot more local diving. It's less expensive, I have dive buddies readily available and all that good stuff. I am watching for "deals" on dive trips and planning my trips further out and paying cash for them.

 

[DeputyDan]

Jim, I have conversations with people like you all day, every day...I hear the good, the bad, and the ugly....often tragic and very personal/intimate details of peoples' personal and financial lives, and am paid to help people solve problems and provide options/investment education. Obviously my firm (and federal regulations) prohibit me from doing any of that here on the internet, and of course, I don't know enough detail about you to do any such thing, nor are you asking anyone here to do such a thing. That being said, some generic things I can say are:

1) are you contributing to your 401K at a sufficient level to receive full company 401K matching $ ? (assuming your firm offers 'matching'.)

2) if you're 'cynical' about the stock market and very risk averse, consider at least contributing to your 401K to the extent you're getting full company match, and then considering (assuming your 401K plan has this option, and the vast majority of them do) putting your $ into a money market/stable value oriented fund, focusing on capital preservation...that way at least you can (mostly) guarantee you won't lose your contributions and matching $.

3) don't leave your firm until you're fully 'vested', otherwise you will forfit some/all your company matching $.

4) stick around at your firm until you're at least 55 yrs old and if you do a withdrawal the year you turn 55 yrs old (or older) there's no 10% age based withdrawal penalty.

5) did you have the forsight (or option) to make ROTH 401K contributions ? The earnings on such contributions are exempt from taxes/penalties IF you don't withdraw them before (a) you're 59 1/2 yrs old AND (b) the 1st ROTH contribution was made at least 5 yrs ago. (that's not to say ROTH 401K contributions are necessarily the best way to go....there are pros and cons to everything, but if you did choose that option, and pay taxes on those contributions already, when you had more income and could more easily afford to do so, then it will feel nice to not have to pay those taxes in future)

6) depending on the country you are going to move to, and depending on if you plan to remain a US citizen, the US has 'tax treaties' with many countries such that, if you go through the appropriate process/procedures your 401K withdrawal will not be taxed as though you're a US citizen....in many cases the US tax rate would be 0% and you're just subject to the tax laws of your 'new' country.

7) I'm assuming you've 'run the numbers' on your retirement ? If not, my firm (as I'm sure all the others that are in this business too) offers free WWW based financial planning tools/spreadsheets/projections to help you see if you're on track to fund your retirement, or if you're not on track, these tools can quantify (via projections/assumptions) what it would take for you to get on track to adequately fund your retirement.....you REALLY should take advantage of such free services that are likely available within your 401K....our firm also (for free) offers professional help with the tools via our 'lifetime solutions' group too. These tools can be a real eye-opener and I'm convinced that I help change people's lives on a daily basis, so my job is both high stress but sometimes highly rewarding too. Some people who call me walk away saying 'WOW!', it's like I showed them a brand new universe they had no conception even existed!

Very good advice.

Everyone on this forum should read and heed!

 

[Rhone Man]

By God's good grace, the economy wilting didn't affect my holiday plans too much, so I didn't need to 'recover' as much.

Booked to go to Truk Lagoon in January. Anyone else from SB coming?

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

It not only has ruined our plans for vacations but it's ruined our plans for retirement. Many won't see the effects of this economy until later and with the direction our country is headed I can't see a genuine recovery unless we change our way of wanting freebies from the government.

We will probably retire in Mexico now instead of the Keys or Maui.

 

[BDSC]

I can't say that the economy has had a negative impact on my travel plans. If anything, it's been just the opposite. I usually take two and sometimes three dive trips a year to the Caribbean. It looks like this year it may very well be four. If a person has a stable job with a good income, it's really a great time to travel because of all the bargins/deals to be had. I'm lucky enough to be in that position.

The one thing I have been doing over the past few years to save money is organizing my own trips and dealing with the resorts directly. I find that most resorts will right off the top discount their price at least 10% (typical commission they would pay to a travel agency or dive shop) and on top of that, will give you a "free spot" if you have X number of people going. I have just worked out a deal going to Roatan this fall where the resort gave us 10% off the rate and for every 5 that pay one goes free. Everyone in our group shares equally in the free spot.

So what I have found is, if you can get together with some friends who like to travel/dive and you come as a group, be it large or small, you can negotiate some really good bargins to help stretch your travel dollars.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Not yet, but that will probably change pretty quickly if BP doesn't get a handle on stopping the disaster it helped create in the Gulf of Mexico and the moratorium against drilling stays in effect for 6 months.....that will devistate the economic base of the State of Louisiana and make the great recession look like a pimple on a gnat's a__ to all us folks here in South Louisiana.