It’s Your Vacation, Make a Plan and Take It!

Do you find yourself struggling to find time to get away for a dream vacation – with excuses like too many errands, finding someone to take care of your pet, or family obligations? When I worked on Wall Street I found myself focusing on work, rather than experiencing the world. After 9/11, I realized that life is too precious and decided to follow my passion to travel and experience different cultures.

I began by planning trips around my top two interests: sports and food, like the Rugby World Cup in England and Grand Bahama Island for a culinary experience. During these trips, I witnessed a lot of incredible matches and ate way too much local cuisine (conch was my favorite). Even though I’m constantly balancing a million things, my experiences and memories at these amazing destinations are priceless to me.

It’s Your Vacation Make a Plan and Take It!

Don’t let yourself forget that with careful planning, the dream vacation you might have been putting off for years can be possible. Especially as summer rolls around and we become eager to be outside and take a break from our daily routines. According to Bank of America survey data*, this summer, two out of three Americans are planning to travel and I’m excited to be one of them. I’m heading to the World Cup in Russia this June! My friends and I are going to watch Argentina and Brazil play and I’m super pumped to try the local food like the pirozhki.

It’s Your Vacation, Make a Plan and Take It!

On the flip side, I often hear cost coming up as a big deterrent for taking a vacation. In fact, Bank of America survey data* also found over 40 percent of people not traveling this summer say that cost is the reason. With advanced planning and strategic spending, I assure you that it is possible to save for a summer getaway. Check out my interview with CNBC on overall tips to travel the world with a limited budget.

It’s Your Vacation, Make a Plan and Take It!

When thinking about the financial side of planning a trip, make sure you’re researching the full benefits of your bank. As you know, I love experiences rather than material things/stuff, so most of my spending goes toward a fun trip, sports tickets, an outdoor adventure or dinner at new restaurants. As you know, I have an ongoing partnership with Bank of America and I recently worked with them to discuss rewarding travel and also started using their Premium Rewards credit card, which earns unlimited two points for every dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1.5 points for every dollar spent on everything else.

Not only was this perfectly tied to my interests, but I learned about additional benefits I could receive based on my overall banking relationship. For example, eligible banking customers can enroll in the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program, where clients earn up to a 75 percent bonus on their credit card rewards ? which translates to an earn rate of up to 3.5 points on travel and dining with the Premium Rewards card. With that nice boost from the Preferred Rewards points bonus, you can earn maximum points for your next adventure while eating at your favorite neighborhood restaurant. Some of the other perks Preferred Rewards clients can qualify for – that help with life in general – are discounts on home and auto loans, free online investing trades, and no-fee transactions at any ATM in the U.S.

It’s Your Vacation, Make a Plan and Take It!

It’s hard to go wrong when traveling based on YOUR interests. And if you can combine all your interests into one trip… that’s golden!

If you’re looking for more tips on travel planning or budgeting, check out this video of myself and Bank of America Preferred Rewards executive Kevin Condon doing a live video Q&A on my Facebook Page last week.

*Omnibus Methodology: Bank of America survey data is based on an online survey of 2,500 panelists administered in April 2018. Panelists are from a sample of US adults matched to the US Census population in terms of age, gender, household income and region.

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Comments

  1. Congratulations on the Bank of America partnership! I’ve been banking with them for years and have had no issues at all. I’m going to look into the card and benefits mentioned here. Thanks for always posting informative and interesting things. Hopefully I’ll make one of your meet ups one day.

  2. Hi Lee,
    This is a well-informed post I have read before. I gain a lot of information from your post. I hope you will have other posts like that.
    Dam Oanh

  3. Hi Lee,
    I share your enthusiasm about travelling and it is a pity that a lot of people don’t travel due to the costs. Because nowadays it is possible to get hold of some real great flight deals. Wish you a great time in Russia at the Football World Cup.

    Greetings from Germany
    Max
    PS: we lost to Mexico yesterday. What a desaster…
    PPS: The link to the PDF from Bank of America does not work. There is a 404 Error.

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