Final preparations are underway for a short Seattle getaway. Traveling can add up and have a significant impact on your finances if you’re not careful how you do it. Taking advantage of opportunities can save you a lot of money, especially on accommodation. Through work, I was able to get a friends and family rate at the W Hotel – a very trendy hotel in the middle of Downtown Seattle, for just under $150/night. Then, thanks to my Fairmont Presidents Club membership (free!), I was emailed a room rate deal for $139/night at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel – a five star property. Since we could get a better deal (and CF really likes the starched white sheets at the Fairmont), we cancelled our W reservation and went for the Fairmont. Being flexible is very important if you want to save money! If we had not gotten a good deal in advance of heading south, we would have checked out Priceline.
Here’s what we’ll be reading on our vacation:
From CF:
- A good resume and cover letter key to getting past HR and landing yourself an interview. When I was younger, I was able to score a lot of interviews to jobs I was completely unqualified for, simply because my cover letter and resume were intelligent and well thought out. Even now, as I am looking for a post-graduation comp sci job, I’ve been up to my ears in interviews! (Hopefully I don’t just look good on paper…) Frugal Zeitgeist offers some resume tips for job hunters.
From Brian:
- My dad recently met with a financial planner to plan for his own upcoming retirement. In the spirit of looking at retirement from a more traditional sense, WealthyBoomer shares his thoughts on Mastering your Retirement, a book by Douglas Nelson. It has some good information on tax planning and avoiding high management fee investments.
- The Financial Blogger proposed a solution to underfunded government pensions and less generous corporate pension support in retirement: force people to save by deducting an RRSP contribution off the top of their paycheck. I wholeheartedly disagree with this idea, and I think the emphasis should be on financial education, rather than assuming that people won’t contribute if you don’t force them. What are your thoughts?
- My favorite article of the week comes from Teacherman at Canadian Finance Blog. I love hearing stories of younger Canadians putting entitled members of the older generation in their place with cold hard facts and logical reasoning. Get an inside view of a teacher’s lunchroom in The Generation Gap.
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Finally, Canadian Dream was featured on CBC’s The National last night. If you missed it, watch it here – the section starts at about the 22 minute mark.
