everyone has their own unique views and needs when it comes to financial success if you'd like to leave your financial woes behind and live a life of Financial Freedom you've come to the right place welcome to the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton the show will help you with the ins and outs of money we talked about financial issues that could be costing you thousands of dollars and keeping you up at night we talked about money tax reduction saving more spending less 401K risk management retirement and everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happy relationship with money now here is your host of saving with Steve Steve Sexton<br>who sang with Steve shall we talk about the ins-and-outs of money pretty much everything under the central AC you having a healthier happier relationship with money my name is Steve sex and I want to thank you for joining us today we've got tons of listeners today tons of viewers today we're glad to have you with us we're expanding overseas hey look if you missed last week's episode we had Polina Liza koshy still lead Economist from sunday.com you was here to educate people on all things real estate what happened in 2021 what happened in 2022 what you can expect here for the remainder of the year you can always go to skating with Steve. Us website to look for episode 73 which is the Pauline episode which one last week you want to check it out and make a big difference if you're interested in buying and selling real estate now this week hey it's been time to pack those bags just tore through the bucket list of dream vacations because he nearly half of Americans are rich<br>I need to hit the road this year according to a recent valuepenguin disturbing Americans are playing has been big on travel and many will be keeping their eyes peeled for travel rewards credit cards to help offset some of those costs we have Sophia Mendel from travel penguin she's a world traveler she's an expert and crafts credit card rewards and travel rewards stick around to that but first I want to watching you through the new legislation that just passed the house it's called the securing a straw now a lot of people referring is secure act you with came in 2019 and they're looking at making some change now I'm not going to go over all the political stuff but I will say this the boat was 414 to 5 that means the bye parts and Republican Democrats are both looking to secure everybody's retirement and here's some of the things so I can tell<br>what it really means to you now the first swing is this if you're an employer<br> and have 10 or fewer employees K or your business has been in business for less than three years you're excluded from this next 15 if you have 10 or more employees have been in business for more than three years they do you know what they're looking at having the reporters require employees to automatically enroll their employees in a 401k plan with employees and 3% of their income income increased by 3% until ten per-cent of their pay. This is really designed to get people to stay in so they can have a return next catch up contribution you know if you're 50 or older<br> okay you can make contributions on top of the 20500 you can add to a 401k you can hit 6000 now<br> and in and for those who qualify in 2020 to you next to 6500 but we'll both the house and the Senate their bills are aimed at adding $10,000 is a catch-up contributions for people 62 63 64 in 2024 and if you're in a simple IRA or simple plan allow you to contribute $5,000 3 which is big now some plans would just like that if you're over the age of 60 you can add an extra ten thousand this is wonderful for people who are looking to catch up or late Savers so there's an opportunity here now next to required minimum distributions we all know that people are working longer secure act 2019 hate we move the state requirement of distribution made the age of 70 have to 72<br> the new legislation would put the required minimum distribution not starting till 873 beginning a 2023 74 + 2030 + 75 + 2023 on top of that for individuals who have less than $100,000 in a great retirement savings guess what they won't have to take a required minimum distribution if you forget to take is it gets voted in they will only be a 25% penalty on top of that there's things like they lately see the benefit of an annuity and it's done through What's called the qualified longevity annuity contract are affectionately known as acute Le once you purchase annuity you can specify when you want the income to start that right now the limits are 135,000 or 25% of your value of your retirement account with there was less<br> but both of the bills with cap that would remove the 25% cap and the measure would also increase the max amount owed or allowed in due to lack of $200,000 now here's the thing that you want to know<br> yes this is past the house and has to pass the Senate and President Biden's got to sign off and but when you have both sides of the fence thing yeah this is something we're going to do it's really about matter then working out the languages you can see something that should come before the end of the year and by golly folks it could make a big difference in your life cuz this is really about the tile and it's hot all the bills not secure at 2 but the title of that bill is the retirement security of securing a strong retirement act during a strong retirement account so that's a biggie you want to stick with this we're going to be right back we have Sophia Mendel valuepenguin she's got some great information for especially if you looking to travel to unpack the survey from valuepenguin and a whole lot more so stick with it we're going to be right back<br> more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show<br> don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the ins-and-outs of money those financial issues that could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending on your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune in to the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon<br> welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton<br> hey welcome back to the same thing with Steve show again we talked about the ins-and-outs of money pretty much everything under the sun to release you having a happier healthy relationship with money first of all I want to thank Sophia Mendel for join us today she's got a credit card and travel rewards writer travel expert with valuepenguin where she abused a top credit cards travel programs to make them more digestible for consumers like today in Jackson to the point sin Mi have completely revolutionize the way she travels she's an expert in the travel space having visited over 40 countries and lived in five her work has been featured in valuepenguin Lonely Planet hostelworld bootsnall transition abroad she documents or worldwide travels on her Blog The unbounded Traveler so hey if you want to check out her blog go to the unbounded traveler I know people love checking out blogs especially when it comes to travel and all the little chip Sophia welcome to the show thanks for being here thank you so much I'm excited to be here well I'm really really tired now<br> one of the big things about her guess everybody likes to know how did you get into loving the travel you know when you been to 40 countries and travel and you're riding you kind of got to be a little bit of a travel nerd so how did that be cool after a semester studying abroad in Madrid Spain and then I stayed on afterwards then I traveled around 20 most of the rest of the countries in Europe not quite all of them but many of them and I just I couldn't stop after that after college I then moves to Argentina for a while and then back to the States and I've just been walking around and doing my thing for work and Europe and the Pacific Rim and then<br> cool thing I liked about even though I work was the fact I was actually get to know the people cuz I was there from anywhere from one month to three or four months sometimes 6 or 8 but I mean you really got to know people and understand how they live and the way they think and how crazy people think other countries are just because of their own perspective so it just was really interesting so I'd like to talk about travel penguin survey and it in your the big headline for that survey it says you know what you have nearly half a traveler's had that got all this pent-up demand to go travel because the last couple years so you don't care to walk us through what's going on there what are people looking at what should people be doing with their looking at traveling<br> oh yeah no I definitely I think it's probably pretty on surprising to hear that more people are ready to travel after an almost two-year Hiatus during covid-19 so I mean I ate I would say these findings are super optimistic and maybe not particularly shocking for especially for people that have been you know it's going to get out there and travel but it's been impossible so yeah I would recommend anybody looking towards travel this year to for sure Step One is open to travel rewards card you can just get so untold amounts of value, opening a travel rewards card is just saw this the other day Southwest you do you get those emails will say hey open up this card will give you fifty thousand points and then when you take a look at what 50,000 points will get you that could be 78 trips<br> you know of receipts it really depends on you know what your travel goals are but for sure that's super useful<br> you know I would say I can tell you what the best travel cards are overall what are the most popular cards which would just be off the top of my head Chase Sapphire preferred Chase Sapphire Reserve I like platinum card from American Express those are three really good ones for travel but you will have to have kind of a high credit score in order to be approved so if you're going to apply for a travel Rewards Card definitely a tip is to make sure you check your own credit score before applying so that your you know not caught off-guard if you don't get approved he'll be so what you're saying is so sore the higher-end card was used to the higher limit so they want to get those people to your Rewards<br> let's see to what are the big do you have to be serving unpack what are the places that people want to go see you know what we didn't talk about that too much in the survey but I would imagine that people are now thinking of traveling internationally and actually they're actually I do have some stats on that for you. Hey I found that a 1/4 of gen Z and Millennials are planning to take that big bucket list trip this year while a third of Travelers that make over $100,000 a year of planning to take International trips but so that's kind of an interesting finding people are ready the ready to spend money the ready to take a big trip you know do the trips that they've been waiting to take for a couple years now so that's it's finally happening That was supposed to get married in 2020<br> because of covid-19 married next month traveled around the world what is the best advice you can give somebody for looking to travel around the world especially in these times<br> I would say well if you would ask me two years ago my advice would probably be different than what it is now but right now I would say the absolute most important thing you can do is check the covid restrictions know what you need before you go internationally and even domestically I mean I know some states in the US are requiring cash for not calling a green passes but they're just requiring that you show your vaccination status or negative covid test in order to go to places like movie theaters restaurant stuff like that and abroad I know that that's definitely a thing especially I'm planning a trip to Italy next month I've been looking into that and yeah they require the green pass for the covid vaccination card everywhere you go so that's super important and I would say yeah check the requirements for entry check the requirements for entry re-entry back into the u.s.<br> that's going to be number one when you talk about a green past I know in the United States we have those cards that are from the CDC is there a universal card that people who should have like for example in the you know what we put our information in to here in California into a little electronic card that we can show when we go to a play or something like that is it something similar when you're traveling overseas you know what I really wish it was and in fact I wish that they had something like that for this country because I know that it is very state-by-state some states have apps but if you're from out of state you might not have access to that app and I think that's kind of the same thing for example the green pass in Italy I've been doing a little bit of reading on this and it doesn't look like if you're from the US you're able to use the green pass that they're using over there don't quote me on that I'm not<br> but I think that that's the case so what they're saying is that if you're from United States you can use your regular covid you know government-issued covid vaccine card and that will work in place of you know using the app or something would it be great if they would get a worldwide Universal app or at least a United States wide app absolutely but so far I haven't seen or heard anything like that don't travel credit card rewards and more will be right back in just a few moments here on saving whiskey<br> more expert advice for having a happier relationship with money still to come on the saving with Steve show<br> don't let your financial woes keep you up at night and prevents you from living a life of Financial and personal freedom hi I'm Steve Sexton post of the saving with Steve show where did he talk about the ins-and-outs of money those financial issues that could be costing me thousands of dollars causing stress keeping you up at night we're going to talk about money tax reduction saving more spending your investment risk management retirement and everything is so sweet with you having a healthier happy relationship with money soon as you've ever dreamed of living a life of Financial and personal freedom you owe it to yourself and your family to tune in to the saving with Steve show join me Steve section of the saving with Steve show as we talked about everything under the sun when it comes to money to learn more about the show visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us saving with Steve. Us will see you soon<br> welcome back to the show that is here to help you achieve your financial goals it's the saving with Steve show now here's your host Steve Sexton<br> play welcome back to the shaving with Steve show where we talked about the ins-and-outs of money pretty much everything under the sun early so you having a healthier happy relationship now I want to thank you for joining us sharing this with your friends and family and you know what all the replays are available at saving with Steve. 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Us now back with Sophia Mendel hey we'd like to talk a little bit about you know what we were talking about having number one thing is to have that gray<br> card of your ear European or scdc card if you're nine states after that what's the most important thing people should be looking at when they're looking to travel overseas<br> that is a really good question Steve I would say I would say plan your route I like to plan so I'm a big planner I would say know where you're going know how to get from place to place look at the most economical way to get from place to place whether that's they're going to Europe trains or maybe it's cheap flights or if you're not on a budget just you know if you're not on a budget and you're not concerned with time constraints maybe rent a car maybe I hire a private car anything you know stuff like that is good I like to say if you're going somewhere more a little bit more off the beaten path check if you can drink the water it's a big one that has burned me a couple of times check to see if you know is the street food something that is is something that you can comfortably eat and not get sick from<br> Scrabble illness is a big thing for me like they just big for everybody cuz even though you know what I've had the deep fried spiders and stuff like that and other countries which team gross to people but they actually taste like you know candied pecans with an almond filling but I've also seen people eat stuff in the next day they were really tough shape. No I agree with that one and also the drink the water stuff is very very big I was in certain parts of South Africa while I was working there and I just decided drink out of the fountain and it wasn't<br> I'll tell you what I left lost a lot of unwanted weight in the next 5 days so regardless of how great your Constitution is important that's really important for the next thing is this we seen a big ride and remote work and obviously makes it easier to get away but you know what what should people be thinking about if they are you know what do considering you know getting away doing revolve work what do they need to be concerned about you no cell service whatever the case maybe yeah it definitely I mean actually according to our survey we found that about 40% of gen Z and Millennials are actually planning to take to work remotely on at least one of their trips and 30% of all Americans are planning which is to do that so that's a huge huge amount I mean definitely up from what it would have been before covid so<br> have you steps will be useful I would imagine I would say check the time zone where you're where you're headed make sure that it aligns appropriately with your work schedule figure out with your employer how you can make that work if there's a time difference even for me I'm I'm heading to Rio De Janeiro Brazil to work and check it out and I'm going to do the digital Nomad thing so I it's only two hours ahead of the time zone that I'm usually in but it totally adjust my work schedule so I have to account for that I would say make sure that you are going to work in a place that has appropriate Wi-Fi connection that's going to be open and quiet during when he needs to work and definitely set boundaries because if you're going to a new place and you want to work remotely you want to make sure you have enough time to enjoy yourself while you're there enjoy while you want to enjoy and work when you need to work so for me that's the hardest thing to figure out how to<br> set those types of boundaries know what about you know what the airbnb's and places like that oversees how does that work with a different than what we are experiencing over here or is it just a shame what do you have to watch out for<br> as far as renting an Airbnb you mean<br> gosh you know in my experience it's been it's similar renting an Airbnb in the US and renting Airbnb abroad is really similar it can get tricky as you mentioned before with like cell service and things like that if your phone isn't working a lot of times you need to connect with your host once you're in the destination I know kind of a relatively new thing is a lot of cell phone providers like AT&T you can do just like turn on your data for $10 a day and then use your phone normally and so that might be worth it if you're doing that an Airbnb or VRBO situation now when it comes to the actual travel plans in your overseas are their basic or what are the best websites are locations to go to get the best airline ticket prices<br> oh I love that question Google flights is buying large my go-to I feel that Google flights has the most resources it's super useful to use a lot of elements that you can use to find if you're not sure where you want to go do it has kind of a map with flight prices if you're flexible on your dates it has a map with you know when's the cheapest a door when's you know when is it going to be more expensive the only thing I will say about using Google flights is that some airlines are not on Google flights for example Southwest you have to go to their website specifically off the top of my head I can't think of which other airlines are not included on Google flights but for the most part it covers a lot of<br> and that's that's great that's good to know now when it comes to you no renting cars and things like that I mean is it you can go to Enterprise on my way to obvious there's different carriers when you're going overseas but is it as there's things to look out for when renting Vehicles is our insurance is an issue<br> yeah I I can actually speak to this personally my boyfriend and I just went to AAA the other day to get our international driver's permit we're planning on renting a car in Italy and I would have never expected that you'd need that but I read you know I somebody else's travel blog online that said do not rent a car unless you have your international driver's permit because you might need you might need that in addition to the insurance or there can be big fines or you can run into all sorts of issues so that's not you know that's not a blanket statement for all countries I don't know if every place requires something like that definitely Italy does and I would imagine other places in Europe to to show how much does it cost to get a international driver's permit at Triple-A bucks it was so cheap cuz when I worked overseas which is like 8 years straight<br> I always had a international I thought it was international driver's license but it's an international driver's permit and for that $20 you know what I'll stay there if you don't have with the country requires your looked on as like a Scofflaw so you could be the one that could be responsible for an accent even though you might not have been at fault just because you're a foreigner without the right document so you know not to scare everybody but I've had conversations with many people that have had issues with that so good car great great great piece of advice messy last but not least what's the most favorite place you've travel to<br> don't ask me that that's the hardest question I don't know the favorite I would say<br> RC maybe India I mean it was so fascinating it was like the craziest most different place that I've ever been and I've been I've been to every continent I think except for Antarctica but it is on my list but I mean India is just it's loud it's colorful it's interesting it's got great culture nice people really good food but you have to be careful about what you eat and drink there for sure but yeah I know obviously has a lot of a lot of its own character and and culture I'm not sure if that's obvious to everyone but<br> yeah I'll say this I chat with people in Mini airports and talk to them some people love places some people hate places it all depends on prospective my favorite part was South Africa going on a safari never forget every time I talk about has been 20 plus years I still get Goose Bumps so it just the perspective of what you get to seeing what you've experienced Sophia I want to thank you for being on the show I want to thank you for imparting your wisdom in your knowledge from your travels most of the credit card rewards it means a lot to our viewers and you know when sometime the future would love to have you back talk a little bit about more little more about travel to reward as well as some of the cool places you've been awesome I appreciate it thank you so much everybody this is Sophie Amanda love with valuepenguin hey you know what you probably want to check out her blog called unbounded Travelers that right yeah the unbounded traveler the unbounded travel be pretty cool she would probably love to communicate<br> with you with that do you know what next week we have Felix's skip to he's a cryptocurrency expert out of the Chicago Illinois area and for all you people do you want to stick around for that so look look forward to seeing you all next week thanks for being with us this week right here on saving with Steve be safe be healthy by buy thank you for joining us for the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton to learn more about the show and how to become a guest or sponsor visit saving with Steve. Us that's saving with Steve. Us join us again next time as we continue to talk about everything under the sun that relates to you having a healthier happier relationship with money this has been the saving with Steve show hosted by Steve Sexton<br>