Moneywise24 Personal Finance

The winter period can be quite romantic, with frozen lakes, frosty trees and landscapes, and the cold inviting for a short refreshing stroll alongside the river, after which the cozy home invites for a warm bath or a night at the fireplace. However, if you intend to drive your car during winter, especially snowfall and ice on the road can be quite tricky. Especially around Christmas and New Year’s Eve, where so many people are traveling and on the road, it takes only a small misfortune to become involved into an accident.

Although we all tend to think of ourselves that we are good and safe drivers, there are a few things you may want to consider, especially if you hit the road when there is snow and ice. The first important thing to consider is to have the right type of tire. Tires usually come in three variants: summer tires, all-year tires, and winter tires. The profile of winter tires is a bit different than that of summer tires, and the rubber of the tires consists of a different mixture than summer tires, making them maintain their grip at very cold temperatures. Some people believe that all-year tires can be used all year round, which in a sense is true. However, when its snows or when it is very icy, all-year tires will not do you any good.

The distance needed when breaking greatly depends on the weather. In rainy weather, it takes twice as long to stop a car than when it’s dry, and when it is icy it takes again much longer to bring a vehicle to a full stop than when it is raining. Therefore, be sure to keep your distance in winter when it is raining, snowing, or when the road looks especially shiny; this is an indication that the road is very icy. Furthermore, adjust your speed to the weather. Driving in snowy or icy weather will usually take you longer to get to where you want to go, but this is still much better than getting involved into an accident.

Furthermore, you may want to think to drive on the right side of the highway as much as you can. Should need to break suddenly, you will have the possibility to quickly guide the car to the emergency lane if you are unable to timely bring the card to a full stop. Also try to avoid sudden moves of the stearing wheel; drive as smooth as you can, since sudden and fast actions may cause your vehicle to loose the grip on the road. Should you need to break suddenly, it will very much help if you have a car with ABS; ABS will cause the breaks to control the breaks, so that the chance of the vehicle losing its grip is minimal. ABS is a very important safety feature nowadays.

In some countries, it is forbidden for most trucks to travel on a sunday. Therefore, it might well be worth it to plan your travel on a sunday; the roads will not be that crowded, and the chance of huge traffic jams is reduced.

Whichever driving method or journey you prefer, have a good and safe trip!

This article is brought to you by The Man Experience.

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Christmas is a joyful time; it is a time to spend with family, good friends, and simply enjoy being together and sharing the good times. Nevertheless, many people decide to spend their Christmas possibly as far away as possible. How about spending Christmas in Las Vegas, Miami, or traveling to Bangkok to enjoy a traditional Thai massage?

Although traveling is fun, exciting and even educational, there are a few top reasons why you may do yourself a favor and spend Christmas at home.

High Price

Traveling comes at a price, and this is especially true during Christmas. Believe it or not, you are not the only one thinking about spending Christmas in another city or country. The demand for flights and hotels is extremely high during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve period, driving prices high. In fact, prices are probably the highest during this time of the year. A simple non-stop return ticket to Europe may cost you as much as nearly two thousand Dollars for an Economy Class ticket; just mind, that during other times in the year, Economy Class tickets for similar flights may easily be obtained at 600 Dollars or even less on regular non-stop flights. Additionally, if you are not visiting friends or family, you will need to spend some money on a hotel or a place to stay. These prices are also literally sky-rocketing during this time of the year; the high demand of travelers makes it possible for hotels to ask much higher fees than they would otherwise.

Stress

Staying home for Christmas and New Year’s Eve can save you a lot of stress. Think about all the millions of passengers and travelers, extremely long waiting lines, and the high amount of traffic on the road. Traveling is definitely most fun when done in a stress-free environment. In fact, most fights between family and friends occur during holidays and travel, due to the elevated stress factor. You may do yourself a big favor by staying at home during this time of the year.

Weather

The weather during winter can be quite tricky. Think about unforeseen snow storms, cancelled flights, or sudden fluctuations in temperature; all the more reason to stay in your own house or apartment.

If you still do not want to celebrate this time of the year at home, consider the following tips, which might save you a lot of hassle:

• Plan well in advance. Planning 6 or more months in advance will ensure that some low fare tickets and prices may still be available. The longer you wait for planning a trip during this time of the year, the more prices will go up, punishing you for making last-minute decisions.
• Do not travel the week before Christmas or the week after New Year’s Eve: these are weeks where most people want to travel. This could possibly mean, that you need to take a long holiday or vacation, but the benefit is you will avoid the peak traveling periods.

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You might ask yourself, how does traveling actually contribute to personal finance, and what can I learn learn from it? Actually a lot. A can speak from my own personal experiences; traveling has many benefits, which can be applied to your personal life, also personal finance. And I believe it’s a good thing, traveling broadens horizons, you get to know new people, new experiences, and generally get to see many different situations from different perspectives.

If you have traveled a lot already, especially outside of your own country or cultural circle, you probably know what I talking about. Applied to personal finance, I believe having traveled a lot offers major benefits. I want to discuss a few of them below, but of course you are more than welcome to post comments with additional ideas.

The Unknown

One of the major features of travel, in my opinion is being confronted with the unknown. In the most extreme case, you would not speak the language, the cultural differences are like worlds apart, and you feel fairly lost in this new surrounding. However, since you are in a foreign country, far away, you have no choice to deal with it. It can be quite overwhelming, and it is also why many travelers, who meet each other on distant trips, tend to stick together during their voyage; it is a way of trying to keep the known and the unknown balanced out.

Being confronted with such an unknown situation will surely lead to more flexibility and a more ‘risk taking’ mentality when you get back, at least it did with me. And the more often you throw yourself in such unknown situation, the more you get used to it. I can only tell from my own experience, it has definitely benefited me.

Your life isn’t really that bad

My trip to Kenya in 1998 made a huge impact on my life; Kenya is a very poor country, and myself being originally Dutch (I was 19 at that time) I realized for the first time in my life how good a life I am actually leading. I used to complain about the huge loan I had to take to study, and about the small room I was living in… but I had never truly realized that there are literally billions of people on this planet, who simply don’t have enough food to eat, and whose life conditions is beyond what I could have ever imagined. Sure, I had seen it on the television and in the news quite often, but it is nothing compared to going to such a country and seeing it all live. I became more of a relaxed person, and not so money focussed.

Different cultures, different mentalities

I find it fascinating, how different nations think differently. A great example is a Dutch/German comparison. I am originally Dutch, but currently living in Germany, and honestly the Germans are much more formal and closed than the Dutch. Usually, when I meet a German people and I tell them I am Dutch, they are always so amazed how open, relaxed, friendly and easy going the Dutch are, they really seem to like that, while on the other side they are complaining about their the closedness of their own people. Yet, these people don’t change, they are caught in routines of what they just said they did not like. A bit of a long trip might give you real in-depth insights of how other cultures think, act, and related to each other, and you could adopt something of that. But more importantly, traveling lets you related other cultures to your own, and you can look at your own habits a bit more objectively; it makes you a more free person in a sense.

Getting to know people

If you are an open minded person, you will surely make many contacts while traveling; either with other travelers or with some locals. This is a great way to expand your network, and who knows you have a business partner some day, or who knows what a network might be useful for.

Traveling is a great passion of mine, and I try to plan a trip as often as I can. I believe traveling greatly contributes to the quality of my life, my development, my way of seeing things, and definitely also my personal finances.

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Being in the airline business is not easy: airlines are litterally fighting over their customers. For consumers, the biggest challenge is to find an airline, which offers as cheap as possible flights, yet offering a certain level of service.

Alternatively to booking your flights with low cost carriers, there are three basic things you need to know about airline pricing… it might save you some money in future.

Don’t book a weekend flight

Most people tend to plan their vacation and holiday from saturday to saturday. As a result, the demand for flight tickets during and around the weekend is the highest, which also increases the price of weekend tickets. The same also applies during populair holidays. If you are looking for cheaper flight tickets, you may want to see if it is possible for you to fly somewhere during the week. How about tuesday, or wednesday?

Book well in advance

People booking well in advance are in a sense committing themselves to a certain flight and airline. Airlines like this, because it givest them a better chance to plan their seat occupation. As a result, if you book well in advance, flight tickets tend to be less expensive. An exception to this are last-minute tickets: these are tickets, which the airline was not able to sell, which are also sold at low prices, often only hours before take-off.

Be committed

Airlines apply different pricing models, depending on the commitment of the passenger. People who need to be flexible, and need the option to re-book or cancel a flight on short notice, will pay more for their ticket than people who do not.

An example

Consider the following example, in which I looked up a teturning flight for one adult from New York City to Frankfurt (Germany), Economy class:

• If I would have booked the flight for 12 december 209, returning one week later, the cheapest flight would have costed me at least 1032 USD, excluding extra charges.
• The same flight, booked on 16 March and returning one week later, would have costed me only 698 USD, excluding extra charges.

Yes, it does really cost some time to figure out what works best, but the extra money saved might well be worth it.

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China alone has more than 1 billion inhabitants. Worldwide there are more than 800 million native Mandarin Chinese speakers. With the Chinese economy booming, is Chinese on its way to becoming the dominant global language?

The question is very legitimate, since the Chinese economy is outperforming, and an increasing number of companies are starting doing business with China. In addition, Chinese products are flooding the world markets, and the world is becoming smaller and smaller in a sense. In common business situations, language is still a barrier, and many occasions require a translator to be present.

English has mainly become the dominant global language due to the widespread presence of the British during history. The participation of the United States during WorldWar I and II. As such, English has become increasingly popular as well as important. Additionally, both Great Britain and the United States take very important position in the global economy. Looking at this history, however, the popularity and acceptance of English as a dominant global language has grown slowly over time.

Chinese could well be on its way to become a more important language in business life. In fact, the popularity of Chinese, as well as other language contributing to the global economy, is increasing. However, the language itself poses also some important limits in the way it can be used. Probably the most important limits are the use of characters and the number of limited sounds available. As soon as foreign companies become active in China, they will often have to change their name completely, in order for the company name to be written in Chinese. The same applies to names of people. In addition, schools, colleges and universities will need to adopt Chinese as an integral part of their educational program. This is a very big step, since Europeans and Americans will have a great difficulty learning the language as it belongs to a totally different language family. And still, for this to happen, the Chinese economy itself will also need to take the dominant position in the global economy.

Although it is unlikely for us to (still) experience Chinese being the dominant global language, the Chinese language is gaining importance and popularity in general; there are still many people worldwide, some of them very educated or in high positions within large corporations, who do not speak English adequately. Speaking Chinese might indeed prove to be an important asset, increasing one’s value on the emloyment markets.

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