What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? How about Rocky Road? Maybe dark chocolate? Or sunny pineapple? There are about as many views of the current economic situation, and solutions to the problems, as there are ice cream flavors.
Emory University economist Leonard Carlson warns that the deficit is the main enemy, and we’re just going to have to face higher taxes and/or federal spending cuts as the baby boomers age. International Monetary Fund forecaster Prakash Lougani says the combined efforts of government and the private sector will help ailing local governments out of their misery. Don Sabbarese, director of the Economic Center at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, talks of moral hazard – government aid to the private sector and the future expectation of help in dire times. Meanwhile, Richard H. Timberlake, retired economics professor at The University of Georgia, just urges government to get out of the way of the free markets.
The four shared their views in articles in the Aug. 22, 2010, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The economy is like a tractor-trailer. When it’s cruising down the highway, there are no problems. Everyone, or just about everyone, moves ahead, or at least keeps up with himself. When the tractor-trailer jackknifes, or weaves into a ditch, it can’t get itself out. Everything is stuck. Nothing can move. It needs something – one of those heavy-duty tow trucks – to right itself.
We all wish there were one of those heavy-duty tow trucks in the private sector specifically placed for this situation. There isn’t. The private sector is directed by individual bottom lines, and there is very little concern with helping to right the overall economy. The disinterested government seems to be the only entity equipped to be the tow truck.
If the markets were left to right themselves, assuming they can in all cases, it would take much longer, and more innocent people would get hurt. That’s why the government steps in, with its ability to bail out certain entities, or put people to work who suddenly lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
HOW THE GOVERNMENT ACTS AS AN ECONOMIC TOW TRUCK

How the government uses its power — cutting taxes or “stimulus” spending – is certainly debatable. But having the government do nothing while the markets are in standoff mode will generate the ire of the innocents who were harmed.
All indications point to government aid helping the overall economy. The debate erupts over the extent of success, whether more help is needed and how to give it. The government played tow truck in the downturn of 2008 and beyond, and may even be still pulling what was the tractor-trailer. When the vehicle will cruise again is anyone’s guess. Are we in for another dip? Are we still in our first dip? Will there be no more dips? It’s OK not to know the answer. Even the experts don’t know for sure. Besides, you didn’t need all that ice cream anyway.
You can help the economy by getting your own house in order. Save more. Spend less. Don’t give up looking for work if you need work. Or, perhaps you’ll find an opportunity amid the malaise that you never thought you’d ever find.
Bad times often produce good opportunities, so keep looking as you clean up from the mess you probably didn’t make. Once the tractor-trailer is cruising again – and it will be – treat yourself to an ice cream.
Peter

Is there an ideal retirement? Is there a typical scene of serenity for senior years?
Obviously, there needs to be some financial security. No one is totally serene if he has to worry about where the next buck is coming from.
But what else would make a serene retirement? Here’s one scenario: no prejudices, no pretenses and no burdensome obligations.
First, no prejudices. Some may think of prejudice as being biased against a certain person or group of persons. But prejudice is about being closed-minded. When one is closed-minded, he won’t try new things. He won’t taste certain foods because he doesn’t THINK he’ll like it. He won’t travel to certain places because he has a pre-conceived notion about what he might find there. A working person has to set priorities based on time and money. As a result, he sifts and sorts his priorities based on prejudices. But without the limits of time, there is no need to set priorities this way. There are certain things you may do later rather than sooner. But having a goal to release your prejudices when opportunities arise to see or try new things might make a more fulfilling retirement.
No pretenses. In the working world, one has to pretend to like something, even if he doesn’t. Why? Because the boss likes it. There are certain workplace behaviors that are politically correct. These are called career protectors. If you tell your boss that you hate something he’s very passionate about, chances are you will not gain his favor. In fact, he may fire or otherwise punish you. Pretenses are pretty much required in the workplace, but not so in retirement. If you don’t like something, you don’t have to deal with it, in many cases.
No burdensome obligations. Throughout our lives, obligations are put upon us – be they from work or home. You have obligations to your job, obligations to your family, obligations to your church etc. Some of these obligations lead to stress. Some, combined, can take one to his wit’s end. Even if fulfilled, they bring no sense of achievement or pleasure – only relief. In retirement, you may still have obligations. But you have more ability to choose obligations that carry less burden. Or, ideally, you have no obligations at all that you don’t choose to have. Retirement can be freedom for many.
IT’S NOT THE MONEY, IT’S WHAT ONE DOES WITH THE MONEY

Financial security is, of course, paramount. But living is not just about money. It’s what one does with the money. Write your dreams. Plan your future. Look forward to the day when all your prejudices, pretenses and burdensome obligations are gone, and you can focus on your dreams.
Have a job you like? Keep it. Or, find one you like if you want to keep working. Remember, there’s a difference between having a job and having to work. When you have to work, there is more of a master-slave relationship. Generally, the employer calls the shots. He owns you. If you have your own business, it can own you, but at least it’s yours. You deal with this because you need the money. When you no longer need the money, but want to work for pleasure or accomplishment, the arrangement is more a mutual negotiation with the employer. You scratch his back, he scratches yours. He gives you the freedom you need as long as you give him the work he needs. If you have a job you like, you’ll never have to work a day the rest of your life.
So plan and dream. When you dream, your curiosity is aroused and your prejudices suspended. Work and enjoy life. Save with abandon, spend with care, but still do what you like. When retirement comes, let’s all wish that you can live with no prejudices, no pretenses and no burdensome obligations.

Peter

In case you haven’t heard, local, state and county governments are going broke. Well, we’ve been yelling for decades that government spends too much, but how do we handle things when government funds run dry?
In some parts of the country, they are actually breaking up paved roads and converting them to gravel, just so they won’t have to maintain them, according to Paul Krugman, a prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist. Krugman also says they are turning out streetlights in some places to save money.
Being careful with money is one thing, but regressing back to the olden days before America became the envy of the world?
That isn’t the half of it, as Krugman points out. Some places are cutting the number of days kids go to school. Perhaps a decade ago, some were telling America that its kids didn’t spend enough time in school, and advocated longer school days and longer school years. After all, other countries, mostly in Asia, were out-educating America, and kids in those countries were leaving their American counterparts in the dust in terms of educational achievement. Now, America is too broke to educate its kids properly.
What to do? First, wake up. America is in financial trouble. It didn’t get that way overnight, and won’t get out of it overnight. Second, let’s not do anything rash. Digging up streets and shrinking the school year are drastic measures, and we don’t need government leaders taking desperate measures to prove a point – or, depending on one’s way of thinking, maybe we do!
The bank-bailout funds were designed to get strapped banks to lend money again. Instead, they stash the cash to help their bottom lines and don’t lend it out. Then, federal stimulus money was supposed to be used to improve the infrastructure that is now being torn up. We can debate whether that money should have been allocated (read, printed), but if we determine that it should, it should go toward the public good. Public projects create jobs, if properly conducted.
As for the schools, it’s easy to understand that teachers, who get paid relatively little to start with, don’t want to give up benefits they have fought hard for. But how can one be a good, dedicated teacher and watch a school system cut school days?

CREATIVE FUNDING

Government shouldn’t waste money, but no good citizen should want its government impoverished. People and their elected officials need to talk these things out, so that babies don’t get thrown out with the bathwater. Citizens, public officials and public employees need to do their part to prevent tearing up roads, turning off lights, cutting school years and sending America back to the status of a developing country.
It may mean higher taxes, lower salaries and fewer non-essential services. It may also mean that officials dig through budgets to find relatively painless savings they may have overlooked. Undoubtedly, no public official relishes tearing up roads and turning off lights. Few would relish cutting school years, unless to send a message to teacher and other employee unions.
Governments have to get creative to fund their operations. Perhaps setting up endowment funds for specific purposes, i.e. education and recreation, allowing local residents or their estates to contribute to them in lieu of federal taxes. They must find more ways to privatize certain services without creating unethical profit for those well-connected to government officials.
If we “adopt” more schools with private funds, we may be able to keep them in session for a full school year, and have teachers earn a full-year’s pay.
We hate government spending, but watching government go broke is much more painful.

Peter

Baby boomers have made the economy tick for decades. Now, as the generation ages, it will have to keep ticking for the economy to turn.
Michael E. Kanell, economics reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, talks about the influence the generation born between 1946 and 1964 has had on the work force. Also, Kanell points out that because many of them are still working, there are fewer jobs for their children’s and grandchildren’s generation to get.
He says that in 1970, 46 percent of the work force was baby boomers. A decade later, it was 72 percent. This year, 2010, it’s still at 46.6 percent, since some boomers have retired.
Kanell discussed the boomers’ economic history in an Aug. 8, 2010, article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The baby boom gave rise to the consumer-driven economy. The boomers worked, but they also spent – and borrowed. Now that they are at or approaching retirement, will they keep spending, or will they follow in their parents’ footsteps, and save more. Some may have to save more, because their retirement funds have dwindled considerably over the past few years.
As the baby boomers worked and spent, they also inherited. Many had parents who accumulated large sums, largely from growth in housing value in past decades. Hopefully, they’ll put that inheritance to good use growing the economy for their children and grandchildren.
Many had lucrative careers, and are still well off despite the economic downturn. When they retire, maybe that accumulated wealth – if they hadn’t already spent it or used it to pay off massive consumer debt – may trigger new economic growth.
FEWER WORKERS BEHIND THE BOOM: A GOOD THING?
It may turn out to be a good thing that there are fewer workers coming behind them. Some of the jobs lost in the recent recession – and prior recessions – won’t come back. Some boomers are holding on to jobs that will soon go away.
As the ways we create income change, the ways we shop for goods and services will change as well. They already have, with the explosion of the Internet. You’ll continue to see fewer stores – or, at least, fewer store buildings. That will mean fewer jobs to be had.
Retirement has also changed. Many boomers who’ve “retired,” are still doing something to generate income. Also, they are enjoying their avocations more than perhaps their parents did. That may be because they are healthier with age than their parents were. The trend also shows them living longer, so active retirements will last longer. Caring for the health of this generation will be a certain growth engine.
If Kanell’s article proves prophetic, the children and grandchildren of baby boomers will need their elder lineage more than they know now. They’ll need them to stay healthy, even if it means postponing their inheritance. They’ll need them to keep spending, so that they can help preserve the jobs that are left.
The boomer generation was called lots of things – the Me Generation, the Woodstock Generation, even, in TV ads, The Pepsi Generation. As it turned the economy from the 1960s through the 1990s, it may have to lead another turn, even as it seeks more recreation. We may have to call it The Re-Creation Generation.

Peter

We want government services, yet resent paying for them. We feel entitled to government benefits, yet complain about government expenditures. In short, we love to take, but hate to give, when it comes to government.
As Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson discussed in the Aug. 1, 2010, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, unless we get at the entitlements we all love – Social Security and Medicare – we’ll never make a dent in government debt.
As Gerson discusses, Franklin D. Roosevelt, went on a mission back in the 1940s. He wanted to make sure the older generation could retire with something, no matter what they had done for work – whether or not they worked outside the home at all. To make it “fair,” everyone – rich and poor – would be eligible for Social Security. Young people were no longer forced to take elderly relatives into their homes to live when there was a way they could live on their own.
Later in the 1960s, more was done for older people when Lyndon B. Johnson created Medicare. Again, everyone over a certain age would be eligible for it. Since then, Congress has widened the Social Security net to include young people in certain circumstances, i.e. with a disability.
As time has passed, the population who qualified for these benefits has gradually increased. No one could have imagined in Roosevelt’s time that a person might live more than a few years past retirement age. But many people today are living decades in retirement, and many more are retiring at younger ages.
Many studies have shown that the older generation has much more wealth than the younger generation. If you are in your 20s now, do many of you envy your parents for what they have? If you are in your 50s and 60s and approaching, if not in, retirement, did you inherit some nice, valuable things your parents worked very hard for in their lives? After all, wasn’t their goal to make sure you would be better off than they were?
DON’T LET GOVERNMENT MESS WITH MY MEDICARE
As we complain about government debt, we are complaining about government spending that we believe does not affect us. We want the government spending that we benefit from to stay, while that which we don’t directly benefit from to be cut. Well, that won’t cut it.
If we want government debt cut, we have to get at those entitlements. We complain about the new health care plan, but those of a certain age don’t want “the government to mess with my Medicare.” They aren’t thinking that Medicare is government. Well, it is.
Don’t blame the politicians here. We have put them between a rock and a hard spot. Remember, anyone can cut taxes. Anyone can raise taxes. Cutting spending is the tough one because we, as citizens, are not willing to make the sacrifices needed for the politicians to do their jobs. We can’t have it both ways. Taxation is like spending. We have to take money out of OUR pockets to balance the budget – be it what the government takes from us, or what it gives to us.
If we don’t send the message of personal sacrifice to our political leaders, we will continue to hear double talk. We’ll continue to hear them say one thing to get elected, and do something else when in office. We’ll get what we vote for – and the problem won’t go away.
The solution? If you are young and working, reduce your expectation on what government will do for you when you get older. Cover your own retirement if you are able. If you are older, and have saved and invested well in your life, don’t take benefits you don’t need. Yes, you’ve faithfully paid in all those years, but Social Security ceased to become a “pension plan” decades ago. It’s merely a tax-some-to-give-to-others plan. Only then can we make meaningful headway with government debt.
In short, give what you are able and only take what you need from the government. We, not the politicians, are the only ones who can solve the debt problem.
Peter

Flying is not what it used to be.
What was once elegant and speedy travel is now, often, frustrating.
Back in the 1960s, an airline ad on TV showed two men sitting down to a steak dinner. One says to the other something like, “I can’t think of too many places where I enjoy a steak.” The camera pans away and it shows the two men in airline seats on a plane.
On July 22, 2010, a USA Today article detailed how manners and etiquette have completely disappeared from air travel. Both fliers and those employed to serve them have gotten downright surly.
Complimentary in-flight meals, never mind steak, have all but disappeared. Airlines are charging fees to check bags. Flights are so chock full that any problem or delay, be it caused by weather or mechanical issues with aircraft, can strand people in airports for hours, if not days. That’s not to mention all the post -9/11 security screenings – and uncertainty about which airport will accept what items in bags.
It’s no wonder fliers’ fur flies!
Meanwhile, airlines have whittled their staffs down to bare bones, or worse. Flight attendants often act as referees as passengers battle for space in the overhead bins – perhaps because they didn’t want to pay to check a bag. The staffs are working harder for less money.
It’s no wonder smiles have disappeared from many “customer service” professionals.

FROM WELL-TO-DO TO MAKING DUE
Back when that steak ad aired, fliers were largely business people and the relatively well-to-do. Most common folk drove to their vacation destinations and family visits. To get a new customer base and to fill planes, airlines reduced some fares. Travel and cruise packages were created that included air fares, so the average vacationer didn’t feel as if he were paying for his air fare.
As the economy grew and business became more global, more business travelers occupied aircraft. The airlines’ heyday evolved.
Now, with recession and no “new” customer base left, airlines’ survival was threatened. Cuts were needed. Consolidation was inevitable. Cuts in maintenance personnel mean more planes with mechanical issues. Cuts in pilots and flight attendants mean fewer and more crowded flights. Airline financial losses mean baggage fees.
The good news? Many airlines that were losing money in the last two years have started to make money again. Airlines may never see their heyday again, but at least their bottom lines are improving.
The flying experience has prompted travelers to drive more – again. If a person goes to a destination that takes two hours by air and they are stuck in an airport for two, three or more hours, a 10-hour drive becomes appealing. At least they know, barring an accident, that they’ll get where they want to go and don’t have to worry about what they can take with them.
It might be interesting to quantify how much business was NOT done because a business person was unable to reach his or her destination in a reasonable time because of flight delays. That could translate to “real” money lost.
With the elegance gone, airliners have become little more than buses with wings. Still, the next time you fly, remember that it’s not just you that is being affected by the air-travel problems. Perhaps fliers and staff should try to comfort each other, rather than curse each other.

Peter

“Illegal aliens are costing Georgia taxpayers over a billion dollars a year.”
The above quote came from a political ad on behalf of Nathan Deal, a former congressman from Georgia now running for governor of that state. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed that statement and concluded it was half true. In fact, the newspaper’s analysis said it was virtually impossible to come up with the real costs of illegal immigration.
Most analyses of illegal immigration’s cost use different numbers, depending on the point of view of the analyzer. Applying context or changing the data slightly, can create entirely different impressions, and the numbers can be off by a lot, the paper says. For instance, the newspaper says, if you lump legal and illegal immigrants together, as a group they bring in more taxes than they use up over the long term. That casts doubt on those who believe they are paying taxes to support illegal immigrants.
Another point: Those who advocate sealing the borders and mass deportation of the illegals already here may tally the costs of education by including children born in the U.S. to illegal parents. Is the U.S. obligated to educate them, or not?
The bottom line is that there is no way to get an objective, accurate measure of the costs – or benefits – of illegal immigration. If immigrants of any status are indeed contributing more taxes than they are using, it’s probably safe to presume much of what they are paying is sales taxes. And some analyses include the taxes companies embed in the prices of their goods and services. After all, these folks have to buy things here, right?
VET THE FAIR TAX
Given that, why then would we not want to vet the proposal to create a Fair Tax in this country? In a nutshell, the Fair Tax would eliminate all income, corporate and Social Security and other taxes at the federal level, and replace them with a 23% sales or consumption tax on all purchases of new goods. According to www.fairtax.org, “Americans” would get an annual prebate of taxes paid on necessities, like food staples. The plan would eliminate the taxes embedded in the prices of goods and services so, in theory, the 23% sales tax would not increase prices of goods.
Imagine if the millions of illegal immigrants in this country were paying 23% sales tax on everything they buy here? Because they aren’t “Americans,” they would not get the prebate. How long would it take for them to help the U.S. out of its debt crisis? Ironically, many proponents of the Fair Tax also favor sealing the borders and deporting all illegals.
In bad economic times, innocent people get badly hurt. They become fed up when things don’t improve quickly and look for someone to blame. Illegal immigrants are taking the heat from those vents. The U.S. immigration policy is inconsistent and uneven, and people find their way in, and probably always will, no matter how diligently we, as a nation, enforce the law.
Illegal immigration is a U.S. BUSINESS-DRIVEN issue, not an immigrant-driven issue. The vast majority who come here are desperate for a better life. They work hard and, yes, they send much of their hard-earned money back home to take care of family there. Some bear children here. If we don’t like that, perhaps we can revise the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require children born here to have at least one biological parent be a U.S. citizen, before they would get citizenship. That would then mean changing the laws about compulsory education to exempt non-citizen children. How easy would that be? Will that chase the parents back to their native land? Do we just deport these kids when they are adults, even though they had nothing to do with their situation, and may hardly speak their “native” language? What if some of them turned into brilliant innovators, even without a formal education?
The next time you rail against illegal immigration, think about these things: would you do the jobs they are now doing for what they are being paid? To them, the pay is much more than they can earn in their native lands. If there are no jobs, most immigrants will not come. Also, if someone is taking care of your yard, or helping to remodel your home, do you care more whether they are legal, or whether they will do a good job for you at a reasonable price?

Peter

Some people are “closed” to being “open.” For others, it’s the reverse.
Some fear sales techniques so much, they won’t look at things that could be good for them. To them, it doesn’t matter what they are selling, they aren’t buying. To them, all goods and services are the equivalent of snake oil.
Others are always looking. It doesn’t matter what it is. If it sounds good to them at first blush, they’ll check it out. They are not necessarily compulsive buyers, though that group is definitely out there and may need some help. Rather, they are compulsive shoppers, or “lookers.”
This group, perhaps, can spend hours at the mall and never buy anything. Or, they’ll see something that they want, check out the value and, if it works for them, pick it up. They may have never realized they wanted or needed it, until they saw it.
Unlike compulsive buying, compulsive looking is not an affliction. It’s a state of mind. In 1803, the United States was a small nation expanding westward. President Thomas Jefferson was looking for use of the Mississippi River, which the French, at the time, controlled. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was leading France at the time, needed cash to fight his wars throughout the world. The U.S. was open to buying and, with a stroke of a pen and $15 million, the U.S. bought the land known as the Louisiana Territory (The Louisiana Purchase). The U.S. instantly doubled in size, since the territory included not only the Mississippi River Valley, but much of what is now the Midwest plains and Rocky Mountain regions.
THE FEAR OF BEING ‘CLOSED’
Transactions like this fulfill a need for both buyer and seller. They produce win-win situations. One may never see such a situation if one is not looking. Salespeople are taught to “close” their prospects and create an urgency to buy. Sometimes, the urgency to sell creates a fear of buying. Those that want to avoid that fear, or risk, are “closed” to being open.
Conversely, those who are “open” to being “closed” will risk that fear. They have the mind-set of wanting to see something, but also may not bite at first offer. There may be a need to “kick the tires.” There may be a need to study what they have seen to feel good about the transaction.
Salespeople needn’t curse these people. Many will eventually buy. As long as the product is good, the true compulsive lookers will see it in due time.
There’s nothing wrong with offering incentives that have a deadline to create buying urgency. As long as the product will never go away, some lookers may be willing to forgo the incentives until they’re 100 percent comfortable with the transaction. The seller may know something the looker doesn’t, but the looker may need time to see what he will eventually buy.
The lesson here is: don’t instinctively say “no” when someone offers to share something with you. You could be missing out on the best thing that has ever come into your life. You may be missing out on the answer to your prayers. Be a compulsive “looker.” What you see may not be what you want, but you won’t know if you don’t look. You can’t “kick the tires” if you won’t look at the car.

Peter

Those who bail, fail. Those who stay in, win

Margaret Hamilton, the late actress whose perhaps most famous role was as The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” was later featured in Maxwell House coffee commercials as “Cora,” a shopkeeper. In those commercials, after someone told her they thought something she had was “old,” she would respond, “Old? When something works you stick with it.”

Many of us look for, and ultimately find, whatever it is in life that “works” for us. And, usually, we stick with it. Others keep searching, because nothing seems to be “working” for them. Sometimes, we get so good at something that works for us, we fall in love with it – be it a job, a person, our tradition of worship etc. Other times, something that “works” to pay the bills lets us pursue what we love.

The trouble comes when people find something that “works” and are either talked out of it by someone, or themselves. There are others who are always looking, and when they find what “works”, have one of those ah-ha moments. They’d found what they’d been looking for, or even praying for. They knew they were looking for something, but didn’t know what it was until they’d found it.

If you have found what you’ve been looking for, don’t let others, or even you, tell YOU that it can’t or won’t work. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before getting the light bulb to work. He just chalked it up to thousands of steps before reaching what “worked”. That’s a person who knew what “would work,” even though it hadn’t yet. And, he didn’t let anyone tell him otherwise.

PLEASING THE ‘LOOKERS’

The “lookers” can be a tough bunch to please. They will find a lot of what won’t work for them before they ever find what will. Ever work for one of those? They can tell you what they DON’T like, but can’t tell you what they DO like. They won’t know it until they see it. Knowing what you don’t like is fine, but not knowing what you do like can be frustrating for those trying to please you. Once you find what works, staying with it is as hard as it can be rewarding. You’ll hit rough patches. You’ll have people close to you tell you you’re a fool for doing it. You’ll have forces wanting to pull you away. But as long as you know it works, or will work, for you, don’t give up. You won’t fail at it unless you quit.

Of course, not everything “works.” Staying with something that doesn’t work IS foolish. But if your heart tells you it will work, stick with it, as “Cora” would say. Don’t let the naysayers tell you otherwise. The greatest “I told you so” is ultimate success. That’s the power of staying.

Peter

Traveling is fun, but can be costly. Sometimes, you can bite the bullet, wait until you’ve saved the money and take that nice trip. You’ll get pampered, waited on and treated like royalty, all for a price.
You can also take nice trips on a budget. Camping is fun and cheap. Camping is work, too, but it’s not the same as working at your job, or around the house. The toils of camping can actually be relaxing.
A good balance between total pampering and camping may be going where you want to, and finding ways to do it more affordably. The time-share concept is a beautiful way to buy luxury vacations for an affordable price. A time-share provides a home away from home, so you can cook in if you’d like, or dine out. Having to dine out every meal raises the cost of a trip considerably. Being able to cook in provides a huge cost savings. If there’s a place you like to go, and would go to every year, look for a time-share resale in that location. You can pick up a week for a very good price. If you want to buy time-share points to trade to go anywhere, look at Wyndham Vacation Resorts. They are the big cheese of time-shares, but you’ll pay top dollar. Still, the trading power may be worth it. There are also ample opportunities to rent time-shares if you don’t want to buy.
Do you drive or fly? Obviously, distance is a factor in that decision. But today, many people are driving instead of flying because of the baggage fees. If you want to take golf clubs, skis or other recreational equipment with you, you could pay handsomely to tote that on a plane. Look at driving vs. flying in terms not only of distance, but what you’d like to bring.
SIMILAR AMENITIES, DIFFERENT PRICES

Some destinations are pricier than others. If you just want to go to the beach, check out the various beach destinations. You’ll see a difference in price among different areas. Some areas create a mystique about them to attract a higher-end clientele. Some don’t mind paying extra for exclusivity, but if you just want to hit the beach, there are perfectly nice beaches not so exclusive. Remember, sun is always free. Sand and water have varying prices.
Same goes for dining. The best resorts are those with many dining options so you are not paying $100 every night for dinner, and $30 every morning for breakfast, presuming you can’t or don’t want to cook in. The best compromise is to spring for a really nice dinner one night, and eat at your favorite chain restaurants, or at good, inexpensive local establishments, the rest of the time. Breakfast and lunch don’t need to be costly. If you can’t cook, you can always buy food that doesn’t have to be cooked for those little meals.
Recreation is another cost. Beaches and swimming should be free in most places, but beware of those resorts that don’t let you onto their beach or pool, unless you’ve somehow paid. If you can, bring your own chairs, blankets, umbrellas or whatever else you like on the beach instead of renting them. That will save you money.
Golf, tennis, skiing and other sports have different prices. If sports are your thing, check out the prices of those sports before you go. Bring your own equipment if you can, but do the math on renting vs. bringing if you must fly. How many times will you use your clubs or skis. If daily, it may pay to bring them. If once or twice, renting may be the better option.
There’s lots of fun out there and it doesn’t have to break you. Plan, calculate, go and enjoy!

Peter