Vacation in Cancun Mexico - All Inclusive Resort

I recently stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. This was my first time at an all-inclusive and I must say, it was a great experience. The weather was great and the beach was awesome, and the all-inclusive aspect of our trip definitely added to our enjoyment.

Easy to budget. It is very hard to accurately budget for a big vacation, and I frequently find that it takes away from the enjoyment of the trip when I am trying to decide if I am staying close to my budget while on the trip. Airfare and hotels are easy to budget upfront, but meals, activities, and other parts of your trip can quickly drain your budget. The all-inclusive trip allows you to plan the airfare, meals, adult beverages, activities at the resort, gratuities, and various other aspects of your trip that are otherwise somewhat unknown.

Relaxing. My wife and I were able to have meals on our schedule and plan activities when we wanted to do them. We did not have to make reservations, and the restaurants were open late for our convenience. Also, the staff was great and went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed.

Great service. We received excellent service throughout our stay. Many of the staff members called us by name and knew our usual drinks and preferences within a couple of days.

Pre-paid. One of the best parts of our trip was that we paid for the entire trip prior to taking the trip. I found that I was able to enjoy the trip more knowing that the cost of my trip was not increasing while I was on vacation, and I could do as much or as little as I wanted to each day. No choices to make due to budget constraints.

Choice. Our hotel had a variety of restaurants from which to choose. You could have a meal at a snack bar or buffet for one meal, and then have dinner at the steakhouse or Japanese restaurant. Or, you could enjoy elegant meal at an upscale restaurant. The choice was ours - no reservation required.

Open bar. The hotel had several bars throughout the property, but the poolside and beachside bars were probably the most frequented. Service was great here as well. It was very nice to be able to enjoy a beautiful day by the pool/beach and have someone drop off ice cold drinks from time-to-time.

We had a great time and would go back again in a heartbeat. I consider myself a frugal person, and my wife and I reviewed several options before choosing this resort. Vacations are the best investment that you will not get a financial return on, but the experiences and memories are priceless. Selecting an all-inclusive provided me with the opportunity to feed my adventurous wander lust side while appeasing my practical/frugal side. I feel I was able to have my cake and eat it too (cake was included in the all-inclusive meal plan).

Are you killing your credit score?

Everywhere you turn these days someone is running your credit to rate you as a customer, and many are now quick to report you as being delinquent or bad debt.

Credit scores are used by a wide variety of companies to rate new customers, determine which customers they want to keep, and target customers they would like to see leave.

Having a strong credit score can help you save money on everything from car insurance to the interest rate you pay on loans. It can also come in handy when you apply for service with a utility or cell phone provider. Check out www.myfico.com to learn more about what goes into determining your FICO score. Learning the things that affect your score is the first step in improving your credit score.

There is a great article on money.com today - "5 Ways to Kill Your Credit Score":
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/10/pf/credit_killers/index.htm


The article discusses 5 areas that many people ignore or don't realize may impact their credit score. I will admit that I made 3 of these mistakes many years ago, and ironically, I thought I was being smart with my money at the time.

The article warns against, "Too many in-store cards," but one Christmas, several years ago, I decided to take advantage of every in-store offer to save the 10-15% by signing up for a credit card. I only took advantage of the offers where the savings would be $25 or more, and my savings was as high as $75 at one store. Unfortunately, my credit score probably plummeted 100+ points in December of that year, and it probably took close to a year to recover.

My next step was too clean up my credit report. I decided it was probably not wise to have open accounts on my credit bureau report that I was not using. I started contacting creditors and closing accounts. I included accounts I had just opened at Christmas, but I also included accounts that I had used in the past but were not currently in use. This most likely caused my credit score to drop even further, or at least recover more slowly.

As the article mentions, part of your score is based on the time accounts have been open so "closing credit cards" is not necessarily a wise move. By closing the accounts I was stopping the clock from running on the length of time the accounts had been open.

Also, a more important factor that it mentions is "High card balances, low FICO score." Let's say I had $20,000 in available credit when all of the accounts were open, but I only had a balance of $2,000 on all of the accounts combined. That would mean I had 90% "available credit." However, if I close all of the accounts except for the one card that has the $2,000 balance but only has a $4,000 limit, I have essential reduced my "available credit" from 90% to 50% by closing the other accounts.

Having a high credit score can help you save money and gain a higher standing with companies you do business with on a daily basis. Companies want to attract and retain customers with high FICO scores, and they know that you have lots of choices when you shop. Don't be afraid to shop around for the best rates and services. Remember, money saved on expenses can go toward investments, retiring debt, or enjoying life (like vacation!!), and leveraging your FICO score is a great way to do just that.

Personal finance rants and discussions!

I am looking forward to having a forum to discuss my favorite topic...personal finance! My plan is to use this blog to post my personal experiences with personal finance issues (I will share both my successes and failures), and share information I've learned about the topic of personal finance.

I have worked in the financial services arena for over 15 years, and I spend much of my free time reading or researching various money related topics. I have used this knowledge to increase my FICO score, save money on expenses, learn how to successfully negotiate for favorable terms on big ticket items, grow my investment portfolio, etc. My plan is to discuss many of those topics here.

There are topics that I will discuss that you will agree with, and there are topics that you will probably think I'm way off base. That's ok. Everyone is different and everyone's situation is somewhat different. My hope is to present topics here that will make people think and possibly evaluate their personal situation.

The ultimate goal in personal finance is not that you get everything perfect. The most important thing is that you TAKE ACTION!

I talk to people all the time that have put off doing vital things like starting their 401k at work because they are unsure what investments they should choose. These are college educated people who procrastinate for years starting their 401k and pass up on free money (employer matching and tax deductions) because they are too afraid of making the wrong decision.

Other people complain about being sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck, but they won't put forth the effort of doing a budget. They are unwilling to take control of their personal balance sheet. Ironically, many of these people have jobs that require them to budget and forecast on a monthly basis, but they seem unable or unwilling to do the same for themselves.

You've probably heard some of these same people, or maybe you are a personal finance procrastinator.

If you have any personal finance topics that you would like to see discussed on this blog, reply to this post or email me at averagejoeintexas@tx.rr.com.