As I’ve mentioned recently, my maternal grandmother passed away a few days ago, my second of two grandmothers to pass away in the past few weeks. A few years ago, she moved out to California to be cared for by my mother and brother who had also moved out to the west coast several years earlier. When my grandmother entered hospice care, I mentioned to my boss that I would be taking a few days off for the funeral with short notice, as I intended to travel to California to be with my family. On Tuesday last week, my mother called me to share the news while I was getting ready to leave work for the day.
I immediately began searching for a round-trip flight that would take me from the New York City or Philadelphia area to the Los Angeles area on Wednesday and back over the weekend. My primary tool for searching for flights online is SideStep, but I also look at websites for individual airlines. Not finding anything and wanting to leave the office to continue searching at home, I notified my boss that I would be out for the remainder of the week.
I decided to give the Visa Signature concierge service a try. I signed up for a Visa Signature card earlier this year for the purpose of putting its service through real-life tests and writing about them here. There is no annual fee, but the card is marketed offering exclusive perks and services, such as a 24-hour concierge and access to exclusive events. I called the Visa Signature concierge during the drive home with the intent of using the service to find and book my flight to California.
The concierge who answered the phone could not have been less helpful. To research flights, a travel specialist needs to be on call, and at the time I called, they had none. The best they could do is take my flight requirements and get back to me within 24 to 48 hours, and the impression I took away from the call is that all travel requests require this excessive turnaround time. Since this was Tuesday evening and I needed to travel Wednesday, this did not meet my needs. A regular travel agent would have been able to take care of my request immediately.
I thanked the representative for her help but I spent an hour or so doing my own research and booking the flight when I arrived home. I determined that bereavement fares, last-minute rates designed for people who need to fly in situations like mine, do no longer exist at most airlines. When they do, the rate is a five or ten percent discount off the full coach fare, not the non-refundable economy fare. I would be better off with the economy rate. I spent more than I would have liked, but the fare I chose was decent for a non-stop flight considering the circumstances.
I’m pleased I was able to be with my family in a difficult time, but I would have liked the process to be smoother, and the concierge service let me down.
Photo: Doug Letterman
Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You to Be Rich is currently putting the final touches on his first published book, aptly named, I Will Teach You to Be Rich. He’s probably tweaking the final paragraphs as I write this. Ramit’s new book, which will be released on March 23, includes a few pages I’ve contributed focusing on smart ways to get out of debt. As long-time readers might guess, my contribution focuses on what I’ve been calling the Debt Avalanche, but doesn’t stop there. There is so much more in this book, and I’m planning to write a full review. But the two of us have more plans, including something we think is going to be fun.
Ramit and I are setting up a one-hour call to answer reader’s questions about absolutely anything, no holds barred. Of course, the call will focus on personal finance, including saving, investing, debt, budgeting, just about anything you can name if it’s related to what people need to know about money. I’m looking forward to this chat, I imagine the two of us on the phone are going to be quite entertaining.
We’ll be making a recording of this phone call available as an MP3 to certain readers, and details concerning how to receive the recording will be forthcoming in the next two weeks. Until then, Ramit and I want to get started on planning the discussion so we need your questions. You can ask more than one, and feel free to be creative. Either leave your questions here as a comment below this post, or, if you’d rather not share just yet, email your questions directly to me (flexo at this domain name).
Ask your questions now and listen to Ramit and I discussing the answers in a few weeks.
A little over a year ago, Russell Bailyn, an investment adviser who crossed the barrier into the blogosphere with his Financial Planning Weblog, contacted me to let me know he was beginning work on a book. As Russell and I were both music education majors in our respective undergraduate universities, I was eager to support his endeavor. I’m happy to report that Navigating the Financial Blogosphere: How to Benefit From Free Information on the Internet was published earlier this fall.
In Navigating the Financial Blogosphere, the author takes twenty-six of the most popular financial questions and dedicates a chapter or two to each. The questions run the gamut from basic financial knowledge to intermediate investing techniques, professional financial designations, and the mystery of variable annuities. 
Russell takes a real-world approach to answering financial questions, such as, “Are Credit Cards My Enemy?” and “What Are My Chances of Getting Social Security?” In this book, the author is able to present two sides of a story, particularly when addressing a hotly debated issue. For example, Russell tackles the question of dabbling in real estate as an important part of an investment portfolio. He discusses the pros and cons and allows the reader to decide how real estate can fit into their own overall investing scheme. I applaud Russell for not making many blanket recommendations other than the most basic. He understands that financial advice is personal and the right answer for one investor is not always the right answer for another.
I have not yet mentioned this book’s strongest selling point and what makes Navigating the Financial Blogosphere unique. It’s apparent from the title, however. Not only does the book cover the essential aspects of financial planning, but it is full of references to online resources, all free. These resources can be used by the reader with an Internet connection to research any issue. Many of the resources are personal finance blogs, like Consumerism Commentary, Free Money Finance, and My Money Blog.
Russell goes beyond blogs as well, pointing the reader towards Motley Fool, FinAid, and BankRate. Each chapter concludes with a summary of the online resources available for that chapter’s topic. All of the resources listed are still active as today, and they are the types of websites that should be around for a long time. These summaries function as a filter. One could simply enter the topic about which they wish to read more into Google, but the quality of these results will vary. Russell has picked the best for you.
The methodology of including current websites also provides the author with a reason to publish updated editions periodically.
If you’re familiar with the world of free online information, particularly personal finance blogs, and you feel you are confident in your ability to pick the wheat from the chaff, then you might not be the primary audience for this book. However, if you are just starting to become aware of the importance of personal finance and enjoy online research, this would be an excellent book for you. The value of this book is in the financial advice and information coupled with the best online resources.
Russell’s first paragraph on the hardcover sleeve explains his philosophy in writing this book:
While many of us trust the advice of so-called “experts” when it comes to our financial well-being, the fact is that many of these professionals either aren’t objective enough or simply have an opinion that they want to push on us. This is ironic in that finance is a very subjective discipline, and many financial issues can be resolved by combining a few simple rules with a solid understanding of your own personal preferences.
I’m quite flattered that Russell included Consumerism Commentary as a resource in several of the chapters, and it’s an honor to be mentioned alongside the other great financial resources available for free online. I highly suggest reading Russell Bailyn’s Financial Planning Weblog if it’s not all ready part of your personal finance blog reading.
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