Don’t Let Your Vacation Be Ruined By Cheap Tour

People can learn from others’ mistake to be able to make wise choice when they have to face the same situation. That is the purpose of sharing my story from a recent vacation.

Beautiful Dream

Living in New York, I dreamed to spend my vacation with my spouse to different atmosphere of the west cost. When the time came, we decided to go to the happiest place in the world the Disneyland, the sin city Las Vegas, and one of the wonders of the world Grand Canyon. We signed up at a travel agent, Harmony Int’l Travel, to join a six-day west cost tour operated by American Business Connection (A.B.C. Inc), located in San Gabriel, CA. The agent convinced us it would be a bilingual Chinese-English tour. We were really happy to be able to materialize the dream soon; and I was also satisfied to be able to buy a bargain tour package for the price of $368 a person, excluding airfare.

Untruthful and Rip-off

On May 19th, 2008, we left for Los Angeles airport for the long awaited vacation. When we arrived in the LAX airport after six-hour flight, we had to make several telephone calls to the tour operator, the A.B.C Inc., and wait for 45 minutes, before a man, called Mr. Chen, from the tour operator came to pick us. Next, we were dropped at a fast-food restaurant and Mr. Chen left us there to pick other people from the same airport. One hour passed, he didn’t show up; two hours passed he still didn’t show up. Again, we had to make several calls to, both the travel agent and the A.B.C. tour office before Mr. Chen showed up to bring us to the hotel. It’s unpleasant welcome gesture by the tour operator on the first day, because we had to wait for three hours since arriving in the airport before getting to a hotel.

On the third day of the tour we got a new tour leader, called Andy who would lead the group going to Las Vegas and then visiting Grand Canyon for the next three days. In the morning of May 21st, we were picked by a big tour couch, # 2009, license plate #CP83117. I had to remind the tour leader that we don’t speak Chinese because since leaving the hotel, the tour leader had spoken only in Chinese. What happened next was out of our expectation; the tour leader kept speaking Chinese regardless our request and the fact there were at least five people didn’t speak Chinese. Andy spoke English only for limited purposes, such as collecting money for optional tour, informing us where the bus would stop, and time to come back to the couch. The rest of trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon was the same; the guiding was only delivered in Chinese. When we asked Andy about the language problem, he took it easy and said he forgot that we didn’t understand Chinese. Complaints were also voiced by another couple who also kept asking the tour leader for guiding in English.

Arriving in Las Vegas on the May 21st the afternoon, the couch directly dropped us at Las Vega Club hotel located in old town Las Vegas. It was just 4 pm when the guided tour of the day was ended. I expected the bus would at least take us around the city because it was still too early to go to the hotel; and after all it is a Las Vegas tour. Instead, the tour leader arranged an optional tour to explore the city for extra cost $25 a person. When selling the optional tour, the tour leader convinced us that exploring the city by oneself would be more expensive because it would cost $30 a person only to reach the new city. What tuned out later, the optional tour was merely dropping the participants at one point on the Las Vegas Boulevard South and let the participant to take picture; no guiding at all, nothing. Add to the insult, it was turned out that it was easy to reach the place with only $5 bus fare valid for all day. Some participants grumbled for paying the optional tour; some of them felt that the tour leader and the tour company had cheated them. The rest of the group that didn’t join the optional tour also complained; that it was not the kind of tour they intended to join because what they got was only transportation to and accommodation service in Las Vegas, nothing to do with going around Las Vegas city.

It was still early morning on the way back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas when Andy collected $18 a person for his and the driver’s salary for the three days. He didn’t mention it as a “tip”, instead he used the term “salary”, which implicitly indicated everybody had to pay him regardless of his poor, unprofessional service. Still, some participants didn’t give him the full amount he requested. Tour members revealed disappointment with the tour because the tour leader, Andy, didn’t do his job and didn’t care what tour members concerned about, while handling complaints with unprofessional, rude manner. Some refer the tour leader as nasty rude person, while others called him as a greedy and no manner person.

Lesson to Learn

Don’t be fooled and lured by a cheap tour package for your vacation. The price is not the only issue you have to concern about. Buying an inexpensive tour, you may end up paying even more costly and having unpleasant vacation because of many hidden extra costs, unprofessional service, and rude treatment from the tour leader.

Read the brochure carefully and ask questions, especially about the tour details, potential extra costs, optional tours, and admission tickets for attractions. You have to make sure the tour operator provides guided tour when visiting the tour destination mentioned on the brochure instead only arranging transportation and accommodation.

When joining a bilingual tour, get a guarantee from the agent about it. This is crucial if you want to have fun and enjoy your vacation. There is no point to purchase a guided tour conducted in foreign language that you don’t understand and only to become a stranger among the crowd.

Finally, get recommendation from friends, relatives, or others who are satisfied with the tour that your will join to.

Time To Start Investing For Your Golden Age

It’s never too late to start saving for your future. You should begin set aside your cash for retirement as early as possible. You can’t rationally anticipate retiring in comfort unless you save.

When is the good time?

The market is has down significantly from the last peak in October 2007. The market may still continue going down or may be ready to take off; nobody knows. History of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index shows the longest bear market lasted for three years, which happened from 1946 to 1949. Market recovery is only a matter of time. In addition, short-term fluctuation in your investment is not relevant for long-time investment horizon, such as an investment for retirement. Nowadays should be a good time for starting invest for you retirement.

How do you start investing for retirement?

Most financial institutions and brokerage firms offer such retirement accounts as Traditional IRA and Roth IRA. You simply walk-in or sign-up online to your financial institution to open one of the retirement accounts. If your employer offers 401(k) plan, you should take the opportunity.

What are 401(k), Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA?

401(k) plan is a defined contribution plan offered by a corporation to its employees, which allows employees to set aside tax-deferred income for retirement purposes, and in some cases employers will match their contribution dollar-for-dollar. Taking a distribution of the funds before a certain specified age will trigger a penalty tax. The name 401(k) comes from the IRS section describing the program.

IRA (Individual Retirement Account), also known as traditional IRA, is a tax-deferred retirement account for an individual that permits individuals to set aside money each year, with earnings tax-deferred until withdrawals begin at age 59 1/2 or later (or earlier, with a 10% penalty). The exact amount depends on the year and your age. IRAs can be established at a bank, mutual fund, or brokerage. Only those who do not participate in a pension plan at work or who do participate and meet certain income guidelines can make deductible contributions to an IRA. All others can make contributions to an IRA on a non-deductible basis. Such contributions qualify as a deduction against income earned in that year and interest accumulates tax-deferred until the funds are withdrawn. A participant is able to roll over a distribution to another IRA or withdraw funds using a special schedule of early payments made over the participant’s life expectancy.

Roth IRA is a new type of IRA, established in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which allows taxpayers, subject to certain income limits, to save for retirement while allowing the savings to grow tax-free. Taxes are paid on contributions, but withdrawals, subject to certain rules, are NOT taxed at all.

What is the golden rule of investment?

Invest your savings in a diversified blend of stock and bond funds. The key is to create a portfolio that’s aggressive enough to generate reasonable long-term growth. There’s no single “correct” mix of stocks and bonds; a typical blend of 65% stocks and 35% bonds is a good starting point. You can adjust the stock portion up or down according to your own tolerance for risk.

What is the follow up?

Your investment portfolio has to be regularly evaluated at least once a year. Changes in the financial markets or other circumstances might distort the balance of your portfolio mix. By reviewing your portfolios, you can ensure your investment mix remains aligned with your retirement objective.

your prospects will improve greatly if you save more. So look for opportunities to boost the amount you sock away, whether it’s using funds freed up from paying off credit cards, extra money you have after the kids have moved out or the mortgage is paid off or whatever.

So, why are you still waiting?

Remember that having comfortable retirement is got to start with saving. If you act now, you’ll definitely be much better off than if you procrastinate or end up doing nothing at all.