It took only 12 or so hours in Newfoundland this summer before my wife and I were glad we topped up on cash before leaving home.
You know from reading this newsletter that I’m always looking for the lowest cost and most convenient way to pay for things while travelling. I’ve written recently about pre-paid cards and credit cards with no foreign transaction fees. Now, for cash.
After an overnight stopover in Deer Lake, my wife and I needed a ride from our hotel to the airport to pick up the rental vehicle we would use to drive to Gros Morne National Park. The helpful women at the front desk of our hotel tried one taxi company, but didn’t get an answer. Before trying the other taxi company in town, she warned us that they only take cash.
“No problem,” I said. Whereas I might spend weeks at home with little or no cash in my wallet, our pre-trip ATM pitstop left me with much more than enough to pay the taxi. We hardly used the rest of our cash in Newfoundland, but later in our vacation we used it to buy fresh produce from a cash-only roadside vender in Prince Edward County in southeastern Ontario.
My thinking is that roughly $200 in Canadian dollars or the foreign currency equivalent is a good starting amount of cash to carry for situations where paying with plastic isn’t an option. You can always get more from ATMs, but that usually involves fees. Ideally, cost-efficient prepaid and credit cards will carry most of the weight when you pay for things while away.
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Rob’s personal finance reading list
Those tricky mortgage payments
Is your mortgage payment for the month just passed or the month to come? Misunderstanding this detail can lead to costly problems.
Curb your enthusiasm
Must reading for people basing their expectations for future investment returns on stock market returns of the past year or so. Think along the lines of long-term average annual stock market returns in the 7 per cent zone, before fees.
Health warnings for financial products
John Stapleton, an expert on financial planning for low-income people, presents a really smart idea in a blog post inspired by hours of watching TV commercials during the Olympics. Why not require advertising for financial products to list potential negative side effects, just as ads for prescription drugs do.
He’s 61, with a year to live
Long-time Wall Street Journal finance writer Jonathan Clement reflects on his retirement in light of the fact that he’s 61 and has cancer. He says he perhaps has a year to live. The insights here are based on living in the United States, but there’s wisdom here for everyone.
Podcast fans
Subscribe to Stress Test on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
Ask Rob
Q: In estate planning, is a GIC with a term longer than one year an undesirable option because upon the death of the individual, the funds locked in the GIC would be unavailable for the executor to liquidate until the maturity of the certificate?
A: I asked financial advisers and planners on LinkedIn about this and the consensus is that most banks will redeem a GIC with interest paid if an executor makes a request.
Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Sorry I can’t answer every one personally. Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity.
Today’s financial tool
Five summer fraud prevention tips.
In the social sphere
Social media: “Being frugal for too long destroyed my marriage.”
Listen: CBC Radio’s Cost of Living show looks at senior’s discounts and whether they still make sense.
Money-Free Zone: Sturgill Simpson is using the name Johnny Blue Skies for his new album, Passage du Desir, which features a standout country-rock number called If the Sun Never Rises Again. Easy listening, in the best way.
ICYMI
- What inflation? FIRE advocates on how their aggressive retirement savings plans are holding up
- These Canadians want the ‘right to repair’ their stuff: ‘We can’t continue on the same way of consuming’
- Four EV myths that just won’t die
- Home co-ownership can cause estate-planning havoc
