Before you travel checklist

Posted on May 5, 2015

Planning a holiday can be a long and stressful task, but also really fun, as you can plan all the potential things you’ll be able to do.

Visas

One of the easiest ways to rack up costs before you even leave the country is visa fees. Check at wikipedia for a rough guide as to what visa you will get, or the Australian government’s travel website for more official (but harder to find) information. Be mindful that visas can sometimes take 3-4 months to process, or the waiting list for interviews can be months. Get it early to avoid the heartbreak of having to cancel your trip because you haven’t got the visa to get into the country you want to travel to.

Passport

Check your passport is valid!! Check at least 4 months before, as any visas you’ll need will almost certainly need your passport to process. Visa can be done express for an extra fee.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is a modern day must for any traveler. The main areas of cover are medical, theft and airline.

Medical covers if you are sick overseas, and you have to go to the hospital for treatment. This is very important as you are susceptible to different types of food that your body might not agree with. Medical bills can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars if you get seriously sick.

Theft is obvious, if your belongings are lost or stolen, you can be re-imbursed for them. Expensive items such as laptops or phones may need to be declared before you travel, so make sure you read the agreement properly to make sure your valuable items are covered. Also, if your bag is lost in transit, you can be re-imbursed for this, too.

Airline costs covers if your flight is delayed or cancelled. This can be a real nightmare, as there can be fees for things such as flight change fees, hotels (if you need to stay another night), baggage costs and more.

Chances are you won’t need to use travel insurance, but it’s better to get it and not need it than the other way around. Imagine being overseas in a country that doesn’t speak English, and you need medical treatment, your bags are lost and you’ve missed your flight.

Airport taxes

Even if you’ve already got a visa, some airports have fees for entering the country, and some have them for leaving the country. These can be airport specific or across the entire country. Make sure you have some of the local currency before you get to your destination to avoid any complications.

Currency conversion fees

Taking out money can be costly but necessary. It’s never a good idea to be carrying around all your cash at once. Have a look at your card’s fees when you withdraw money overseas, and consider getting a special card for traveling. Even if you’re only going for one trip, it will be worth it to get a card. You can cancel it after your trip. Common things to look out for are overseas ATM costs, currency conversion costs and your banks reputation on their conversion rates. Banks have a notoriously bad exchange rate, so calculate exactly how much money you’ll have in the local currency by the bank’s exchange rate, not the foreign exchange rate.

Splurge vs. Steal: How to get the most out of your wedding budget

Posted on February 9, 2015

You’ve got the ring, now you need to plan the wedding.

Wedding planning is difficult, you’re never going to make everyone happy, but the most important person you’re going to have to keep happy is reading this – you. At the end of the day it’s your wedding, so make sure you focus on what’s important to you. Everyone will have their own opinions, make your wedding your own.

The key is to personalise based on what you like. Break down every item on your checklist to:

Must have
Nice to have
Not a priority

Filter everything into 1, 2 and 3. Calculate what the “must haves” tally up to, and see how much you have left for 2 and 3. Ideally, we would like to be able to spend obscene amounts to get everything we want. Realistically, you’ll have to sacrifice some things to make what’s really important to you comes to life.

Let’s take a look at the three main areas that will affect your budget:

Guest List

Your special day deserves to be shared with the ones you love, your friends and family. Segregate your list into three distinct groups;

those that have to come,
those who you’d like to come, and
those it would be nice to have.

There aren’t corners to cut with the guest list, you either invite some people or don’t invite others. The guest list will have a big effect on the rest of the budget, as the venue and catering budget will make up around half of your entire wedding budget, depending on how big you go.

Splurge – invite everyone. You can’t have enough.

Steal – invite immediate family and your most intimate friends. Spend your special day with those truly special to you.

Help
Unless you’ve been planning the big day for years, there are people that can help. There are things you can miss, there is help finding the most tasteful option to fit your budget – there is lots a professional knows and has dealt with many times before that can save you a giant headache.

Splurge – get a professional wedding planner with a portfolio of amazing weddings.

Steal – crowdsource ideas from your friends that have already gone through planning their own weddings.

Personalise
Find what’s important to you and stick to it. Compromise on things that aren’t a priority. Flowers aren’t a big thing for some couples – some choose to forego everything but the bare necessities of the bouquets, whereas others love flowers, and need them there to complement the theme of the wedding, depending on the venue.
Music and dancefloors. Again, if dancing is something big for you and your family and friends, you need a dancefloor to accommodate a large amount of people. Coupled with that is a good DJ/MC, as they’ll be controlling the pace of the evening for you, helping the photographer and generally helping to keep the music flowing along the lines that is keeping your guests happy.

Splurge – A live band, flowers to rival Floriade, a photobooth and all the bells and whistles you can cram in.

Steal – focus on one really important point and take bottom dollar for the rest.

At the end of the day, if you try to get everything, looking at your budget can give you nightmares. Focus on what’s important to you, and stick to your budget. You may need finances or a loan to get what you want perfect. It’s your day, make it count.

5 Most Common Reasons for a Personal Loan

Posted on November 17, 2014

Don’t know what you can get a personal loan for?

Here are the five most common reasons for a personal loan:

Home Improvement

Whether you’re looking to sell, upgrade the value or just make your home nicer, home improvements can be expensive. A new kitchen, living room, bathroom, or even adding an extension can be expensive, but can pay for itself in the long run when you improve the value of your house.

A home improvement loan can be more of an investment, as you’re putting your money into your making your home better.

Holiday

Holidays can be expensive, but one of the best memories you’ll ever have. Don’t let worrying about extra spending money get in the way. A bit of extra cash to do the things you really want can make your amazing trip just that more special. Organising your budget and getting a holiday loan before you go to give yourself some wiggle room can mean you don’t have to be checking your bank balance after every meal, and focus on what’s important – your holiday!

Medical bills

Medical bills can pop up. No-one plans to get injured or sick. Hospital and doctor bills can also be very expensive, and have to be paid on the dot. These are most often unplanned and unexpected, adding additional stress to what can be an already stressful period. There’s also family members that can need medical bills, and again, you can’t cut corners for your family’s health.

Debt Consolidation

Unfortunately, life is expensive. There are a myriad of expenses you can accrue. Student loans, credit card debt, mortgage repayments. The list can get very, very long. Consolidating all of your debt into one manageable (and perhaps better interest rate) personal loan can make a nightmare disappear.

Car

There are always costs with cars. Insurance, registration, services, cleaning, and that’s not to mention buying or leasing the car. A lot of these can be planned for, but that doesn’t mean they still can’t be expensive or come up at bad times. Some of them can come at terrible times. If your car breaks down, a quick auto loan can mean you’re back up and running before the inconvenience of not having a car can start hurting, personally or financially.

Funding your cosmetic surgery in Australia: Why it pays to stay local

Posted on November 17, 2014

Many Australians are starting to look abroad for their cosmetic surgery procedures, as the lure of low costs prove too much to ignore, but what are you really getting for your money?

Let’s look through what you need to consider when taking your cosmetic surgery overseas.

The main allure of wanting to go overseas is cost. Due to the lower cost of living and education, South-east Asia has proven very popular. The same procedure can be half the price in Thailand, and from experts of a high quality. Of course, there are horror stories of dodgy practices overseas, but these can exist in Australia, too. Be mindful that the cheaper option, might be more expensive long term.

When you opt to have your surgery in Australia, it is much easier to find a surgeon you can trust. Certifications differ from country to country – board certification in Australia might be a lot tougher to get and be much more reputable than those in another country.

Recommendations, both professional and personal, and prior experience can mean you find a doctor you know and can trust to do the job right. This means you can be confident in your decision and relaxed going into the procedure. Finding a good surgeon in a country you don’t live in can be problematic, and you might find yourself out of pocket if you don’t like the surgeon, or worse, find someone who isn’t particularly good. Feedback from third party sites can be misleading, as there can be a lack of quality reviews and the sources may be unreliable. If things go badly, don’t expect the doctor to fly to Australia for you – if you need to see them again, expect to be paying for more flights and trips to fix things, if you’re lucky enough that it’s actually reversible.

Built in with the trust factor is accountability. If your surgeon lives in the same city, you can call on him if you have any problems weeks or even months after the procedure. Doctors recommend at least 18 months until you can be sure that there won’t be any further complications. If you’re surgeon lives in another continent, their priority might just be to get you out the door as soon as possible. Extra consultations for your peace of mind are not usually included, and will add to your medical bills. Take the risk at your own peril.

At the end of the day, you go with what you can afford. The cheaper option may not end up being the cheaper option if things go wrong. If going Australian is out of your budget, but you don’t want to risk going overseas to get the job done, speak to a professional at EasyPlan to make sure you can get it done in Australia.

Home Renovation : Things to consider

Posted on November 17, 2014

If you’re looking to build your dream home, or just touch up one room, like your kitchen or bedroom, don’t let your finances crush your ideas before they have a chance to shine. Take a look at what you need to consider before you start to renovate.

Planning and Design

Before you start renovating, think of how you live. Do you like to have friends and family over? Are you ok with cleaning? Are you noisy? How you answer these questions will change your layout, but also the colour schemes and even surfaces.

Things you need to do before you start planning your renovations are:

Assess your current home
What do you want your renovation to achieve
Requirements and permits
Find an architect
Find a builder
Have your finances sorted

Quotes and Budget

Shop around. Quotes are just that – quotes. They aren’t an iron clad contract. There are plenty of calculators online to help you get an initial estimate.

Some of the costs you’ll need to budget for are:

Building inspectors
Architects
Builders
Electricians
Plumbers

DIY or professional

If you know what you are doing, you can look to cut costs by doing some of the work yourself. If you’re experience is watching the Block every week, be wary, as it’s a lot harder than it looks, and doing a bad job can be worse than doing nothing at all.

Long-term savings

Before cutting out items from your renovation due to budget, factor in how it will affect the long term value of the renovation. Things such as solar panels, double brick insulation and even your windows might cost you more initially, but will pay back themselves quickly, and will increase the sale value of your house.

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