If you’re catching yourself daydreaming about lazing on a beach with a good book and nothing on your to-do list lately, you’re not alone. We know we have been.
Despite persistent inflation, TripAdvisor’s Seasonal Travel Index found that 66 percent of travelers who responded to the survey planned to travel this season. A majority of respondents (86 percent) said they planned to travel the same or more than they did in summer 2022.1
But we know those lazy beach days don’t come cheap. Greg Iacurci reports in CNBC that this summer travel season will be expensive and incredibly busy.2
CNBC offers some tips to save some cash during your summer travels, including:2
Being flexible. Be flexible in both your destination and when you travel during the week. Iacurci reports that traveling in the middle of the week is oftentimes less expensive than traveling on the weekend.
Pick the offseason. Traveling to a popular summer destination in the fall or winter could be less expensive than traveling during the peak season.
Build your rewards. Many of our clients utilize rewards-based credit cards for bills to rack up the benefits, like free travel or discounts.
But travel is an investment in your happiness, rest and rejuvination.3 Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco and Cornell found that spending on experiences made people happier than spending on material things. The research even found that the anticipation of our experience (or upcoming trip) lasts longer than the anticipation of owning something new.4
So, where are you planning to go next?
The Power of Introspection to Achieve Financial Goals
If you’re like most people, you might struggle to answer the question, “What are your financial goals?” As financial professionals, we oftentimes ask this question without appreciating how vague it is.
But if you’re asked this question, instead of feeling stumped, consider your answer through the lens of your goals. To do this, you can use a goals-based planning framework that Jamie Hopkins, managing partner at Carson Group, writes about in his book, Find Your Freedom Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose. This framework consists of three steps: exploring your aspirations, identifying your personal goals, and building a financial plan that is designed to help you realize both of those things.5
But before we move on, it’s important to explore some critical definitions. Aspirations refer to your long-term vision and the impact you want to make, while goals are the specific milestones to measure progress on the path to achieving those aspirations.
Now, let’s get into the steps of the framework:
Step 1: Identify your aspirations. Introspection is key to figuring out your goals and aspirations. As such, you want to schedule some time for solitude to reflect on the things that matter to you. One way to do this, albeit morbid, would be to write your own eulogy. This can help you figure out what is important to you in various areas, from your relationships, family, community or spirituality.
Step 2: Set your goals. Identify your goals using the SMART-A goal-setting technique – which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound and actionable. Write your goals down once you’ve set them. Writing down your goals makes it more likely that you will achieve them.6
Then, align your goals to your aspirations. For example, if your aspiration is to be cultured and have new experiences (and perhaps even pass the travel bug on to the next generation), then your goal could be to travel to one new country per year.
Step 3: Put together your financial plan. Your plan should answer the question, “What are your financial goals,” by aligning your financial resources with your goals and aspirations. Tying back to the second step, if you’ve decided your goal is to travel to one country per year, you can build that into your financial plan.
Whatever your aspirations and goals are, we can help you develop the best plan to help you get there. Give us a call and let’s dive in!
Crab Rangoons!
You’ve likely tasted the crispy, cheesy with a hint of sweet and savory goodness that is the crab Rangoon. Maybe you’ve tasted them on your travels – whether that’s any number of the Chinatowns in any major city in the United States or maybe even Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma) itself.7
And a year ago, these treats were all the rage on TikTok.7 Even though we’re over a year late on the crab Rangoon TikTok trend, they’re timeless and super easy to make for an appetizer or something to much on while catching up on your favorite stories.
If you have a six-quart air fryer (and even if you don’t, you can just put them in the oven), you can make a healthier version of the fare.8
What you’ll need:
- 4 ounces lump crabmeat (or 4 ounces of flake-style imitation crabmeat)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (for a lighter swap, choose 8 ounces of whipped cream cheese)
- 3 scallions, white parts finely diced and green parts thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 28 square wonton wrappers
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Sweet chili sauce
How you’ll cook it:
- Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (if you don’t have an air fryer, you can preheat the oven to the same and then grease a cookie sheet to place the wontons on).
- Stir together the crabmeat, cream cheese, scallion whites and Worcestershire sauce in a medium bowl with a rubber spatula until combined.
- Place the egg in a small bowl.
- Place a wonton wrapper on a plate; keep the remaining wonton wrappers in their package or cover them with a towel to prevent them from drying out as you work.
- Place 2 teaspoons of the crab filling in the center of the wrapper.
- Dip your finger (or a brush) into the egg and run it around the edges of the wrapper.
- Seal the wonton into a pyramid shape by pulling two corners up and pressing them together with your fingertips, then draw up the other two corners and do the same.
- Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling. Spray the outside of the wrappers all over with nonstick spray.
- Add the crab Rangoons to the basket of the air fryer in a single layer, ensuring they don’t touch. If you don’t have an air fryer, put them on the cookie sheet instead of the air fryer basket and pop them in the oven instead.
- Cook until the wonton wrappers are golden and crispy. This should take about three to five minutes in the air fryer and about five to seven minutes in the oven.
- Repeat until you have made all 28.
Garnish with the sliced scallion, serve with sweet chili sauce for dipping, and enjoy. And if you do plan to travel to new places this summer, be sure to try some crab Rangoons wherever you land!
The Travel Quiz
Let’s test your knowledge on random travel facts:9
- Which of these is not in the top three most-traveled countries in the world?
a. Turkmenistan
b. Spain
c. The United States
d. France
- Why does food taste different when flying?
a. Because the airlines serve inferior snacks than the airports
b. Because of the lower air pressure and dryness in the plane cabin
c. Because travelers tend to drink more alcohol in the airports, dulling their taste buds
d. Because airline snacks tend to be old and oftentimes expired
- What island uses rocks as currency?
a. Bora Bora
b. Boracay
c. Yap
d. Ko Samui
- True or false: Bulgarians shake their heads from side to side to mean yes and nod up and down to mean no.
a. True
b. False
Quiz Answers:
- A – Turkmenistan
- B – Because of lower air pressure and dryness in the plane cabin
- C – Yap
- A – True
Best regards,
DEAN, JACOBSON FINANCIAL SERVICES
