Steve's note: In today's DailyWealth, my colleague Dr. David Eifrig continues his series on retirement loopholes...
After a decade on both Wall Street and in the medical community, David has collected secrets like how to withdraw your retirement money early without penalty, where to find 80% discounts on dinner, and a way to get paid to own the ultimate store of wealth. Today, read on to learn...
How to Take a Nearly-Free Vacation
By Dr. David Eifrig, MD
February 5, 2009
I love traveling for almost nothing.
There's something about knowing I'm getting 10 times the value it costs me... I truly love that feeling. It's like the first blindfolded wine tasting I conducted in 1978, when we all discovered a $15 wine can taste as good as the stuff French wine snobs were selling for $95. What a joy.
This past fall, I got that same feeling when I rented a luxury RV and drove the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert of northern Arizona. I did it for almost nothing. It normally costs $200 a day to rent a high-quality RV. But I found a secret way to take an RV trip for just $22 a day...
How does this secret work?
Well, the company that rents these giant RVs constantly needs to move them around the country, from one location to another. Rather than hire expensive drivers or moving companies, it seeks out "volunteers" to make the trip for them. In my case, I got a 90% discount on what the company would normally charge. You can do the same thing.
Many retirees dream about spending winters in Florida and summers around northern lakes, motoring across the country in a comfy RV. It's not for everyone. But if you're intrigued, this is a great way try out the RV life without spending much. In some cases, you can travel across the country for weeks at a time.
Here's how I did it: I flew one-way on Southwest into Las Vegas ($89) and took a cab ride ($30) to a lot run by Cruise America. (Maybe you've seen Cruise America's RVs painted with outdoor murals. The company has 126 rental locations in 35 states and in Canada.)
From Vegas, I drove to the Grand Canyon; Sedona, Arizona; and through to Phoenix. I had nearly unlimited miles (normally, there is a mileage charge – which can add up quickly) and up to six days to make the trek. The ease of driving these things was surprising. And best of all... I got to use a $95,000 RV for just $22 a day.
After my drive, I flew home from Phoenix – again $89 on Southwest. The only big charge was for gas. The RV got about 12 miles per gallon, and it cost about $110 to fill up (that was when gas was going for about $3 a gallon).
Total cost – airfare, gas, RV... everything – for five nights and six days was $520.
To get started booking your RV trip, go to Cruise America's website (www.cruiseamerica.com). There, click on "Hot Deals." If you want to do a trip like mine, look under the heading "Rolling Into Arizona" or "Rolling Out of Arizona" As of today, Cruise America has deals ranging from five to nine nights.
Also, be sure to pick up a guidebook called Woodall's. It gives a listing of every campground in North America including amenities, costs, and contact information.
Keep in mind, you don't need any special license – your regular driver's license works fine. Driving these is simple. And most campgrounds are designed to make things easy.
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I plan to do another trip this spring with a friend. We're going to do nine days across country and figure it will cost about $500 per person… I'm starting to like the RV life.
To a wealthy retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig
P.S. I've uncovered lots of other great travel secrets for retirees, like how to get a totally free California wine country vacation... how to get free golf at some of the world's best courses... and more. Click here for my full report. |
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MOONSHOT HUNTING? START LOOKING AT BIOTECH
Today, we check in on the sector we added to our "watch list" in early December… the defensive sector of biotechnology.
As we mentioned in December, the S&P Biotech ETF can make a claim oil stocks, real estate, gold stocks, bonds, and tech stocks can't: It's showing a positive return over the past two years. The bulk of this fund's holdings are in the 10 or so large biotechnology firms with products bringing cash in the door.
It's strange to see biotechnology as a safe haven right now. Biotechs are one of the world's greatest "boom and bust" assets. Biotech busts can be wild. The 2000-02 bust sent the sector down 70%. But every so often, the public falls in love with the promise of cancer cures and age-stoppers. This love can drive biotech bull markets to hundreds, even thousands of percent returns.
We recommend keeping a close eye on the biotech space. Not only has biotech held up during the past two years, it reached a new four-month high yesterday. That's after one of the worst Januarys on record for stocks. If the market puts together a rally, a lot of biotech stocks will be "moonshots" in the next few years.
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Wells Fargo abruptly canceled Tuesday a pricey Las Vegas casino junket for employees after a torrent of criticism that it was misusing $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money.
The company initially defended the trip after The Associated Press reported it had booked 12 nights beginning Friday at the Wynn Las Vegas and the Encore Las Vegas. But within hours, investigators and lawmakers on Capitol Hill had scorned the bank, and the company canceled.
"Recognition events are still part of our culture," spokeswoman Melissa Murray said Tuesday afternoon. "It's really important that our team members are still valued and recognized."
"...On Capitol Hill, lawmakers disagreed.
"Let's get this straight: These guys are going to Vegas to roll the dice on the taxpayer dime?" said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican who sits on the House Financial Services Committee. "They're tone deaf. It's outrageous."
The trip was to come on the heels of this week's announcement that Wells Fargo lost more than $2.3 billion in the last three months of 2008.
– Associated Press
Citigroup Inc said it will use $36.5 billion in taxpayer bailout money to boost lending, while a source told Reuters the bank was not backing out of a controversial $400 million baseball stadium sponsorship deal with the New York Mets.
Both the bank's announcement on its capital deployment plan and the political pressure it faces over the baseball deal reflect the U.S. government's increasing sway over Citigroup, which has been weakened by more than $80 billion in writedowns and credit losses.
– Reuters
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