Money Management

Shore excursions are a common extra expense on cruise vacations. Here are some good reasons you might want to book them through your cruise line. 

Shore excursions are one of the most common parts of a trip that cruise passengers take an extra credit card hit on. From guided tours to private beach clubs, shore excursions can help make the most of your time in each port your cruise visits. You don’t need to book a shore excursion at all — you can simply get off the ship and walk around or explore on your own. But going on an excursion can certainly be a worthwhile experience.

You might have dozens, or even hundreds of options to choose from for shore activities. But all can be broken down into two general categories — those sold directly by your cruise line and those sold through local or third-party companies.

As an avid cruiser, I’ve done both and have had good and bad experiences with each option. Neither is necessarily a bad way to go. One of my favorite shore excursions I’ve ever done was a resort day pass in St. Kitts I booked through a third-party travel site. But another all-time favorite was a guided tour of top attractions in Jamaica that I booked directly through Carnival while on one of their ships.

With that in mind, here are some things you need to know about buying shore excursions from the cruise lines versus through other companies.

Cruise line shore excursions can be more expensive

Shore excursions booked directly through the cruise lines can be more expensive than comparable (or even identical) alternatives. As an example, on a future cruise booking, I can buy a shore excursion to a resort with a waterpark in the Bahamas through my cruise line. But it’s $19 cheaper per person if I book it directly through the resort itself. Booking directly or through a third party can certainly be easier on your personal finances.

Advantages of booking shore excursions through the cruise line

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are some of the biggest reasons you might want to book your shore excursions directly through your cruise line:

Variety: There are often dozens of shore excursions listed for each port through your cruise line, and it would take you hours to research so many available choices.Convenience: Shore excursions offered by the cruise line have already been researched. They are designed to fit into your time in port, and the tour operator will typically meet you right when you get off the ship and provide transportation (Note: This appears to account for the $19 difference I mentioned earlier).Peace of mind: Shore excursions sold through the cruise line are designed to get you back to the ship well before it leaves. But if something happens and you’re running late (a tour vehicle breaks down, for example), the cruise line will either get you back to the ship on time or wait for you. Anyone who has watched “pier runner” videos on TikTok or YouTube knows that the ship will not wait for people who book private tours and get delayed.Safety: Cruise lines carefully select which excursion operators they are willing to do business with. In some foreign countries visited by cruise ships, safety standards aren’t quite what they are in the United States, so booking through the cruise line ensures the tour or excursion meets its safety requirements.

The bottom line

Booking a shore excursion can be a great way to enjoy a relaxing day at a private beach, see the highlights of a destination in just a few hours, or learn about another culture. Before you decide to book a tour or activity through a local tourism company or a third-party travel agency, it’s important to understand the reasons you might want to consider booking an excursion directly from the cruise line instead.

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CDs offer a world of benefit for savers. Take this approach to make the most of them. 

There’s a reason putting money into a CD versus a savings account can be beneficial. CDs require a commitment that you’ll keep your money in the bank for a specific period of time. As such, CD rates tend to be higher than savings account rates.

Also, when you keep money in a savings account, the interest rate there can change with market conditions. When you put money into a CD, the rate you lock in is the rate you’re guaranteed for your CD’s entire term.

So, let’s say you open a 2-year CD paying 4.5% interest. Let’s say you also keep some money in a regular savings account paying 4%. A year from now, your savings account might only be paying 2%, and new 2-year CDs might only be paying 2.25%. But because you locked in a CD for a duration of two years, you’re guaranteed 4.5% interest for another 12 months as long as you leave your money where it is.

That said, if you’re going to put money into CDs, you’ll want to do two things:

Make sure your bank is FDIC-insured so you’re protected from losses in the event of a bank failure.Ladder your CDs so you have money coming due at various intervals, as doing so could help you avoid early-withdrawal penalties.

It pays to ladder your CDs

Figuring out whether your bank is FDIC-insured is easy. First of all, your bank will usually indicate whether it’s FDIC-insured on its website. And if not, you can look up your bank here.

Laddering your CDs requires a bit more time and strategy. But it’s really not a difficult thing to do.

With a CD ladder, all you’re doing is splitting your money into different CDs with different maturity dates. That way, you have money coming due at varying intervals.

Why is this important? You might think you’re okay to tie up, say, $10,000 in CDs because you don’t need that money for something specific. But what if a major home repair comes up that depletes your emergency fund and still leaves you in need of cash?

In that case, if you have to wait another year for your $10,000 to free up, you might end up resorting to debt. But if a portion of that money is about to become available, you may not land in such a jam.

To this end, what you may want to do is take the total amount of money you’re looking to put into a CD and split it into four. And then, open CDs of varying terms.

If you have $10,000, that might go as follows:

You open a $2,500 CD with a six-month termYou open a second $2,500 CD with a nine-month termYou open a third $2,500 CD with a 12-month termYou open a fourth $2,500 CD with an 18-month term

This way, you have CDs coming due at different times, giving you an opportunity to access your money.

And you may not even need that money for an emergency. You may simply want some cash to join friends on an exciting trip, or you may decide you’d like to invest in conjunction with certain market conditions. If your money isn’t all tied up, those options may be available to you.

Do your best to avoid a penalty

Once you open a CD, it is possible to access your money prior to its maturity date. However, doing so usually means facing a costly penalty, the amount of which will depend on your bank and its policies.

At Capital One, for example, you’ll lose three months of interest as a penalty if you cash out a CD with a term of 12 months or less prior to maturity. For any CD with a term longer than 12 months, that penalty is six months of interest.

That interest income is money you really don’t want to lose. But if you’re careful in how you set up your CD ladder, you can certainly lower your risk.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Setting unattainable goals might make you feel like a failure. And you deserve better. Read on to see if you’re about to fall into that trap. 

The start of a new year is a popular time to establish different financial goals and priorities. And recent research from The Ascent found that 67% of Americans were making financial resolutions for the new year.

Working toward different goals is a great way to better your financial picture and give yourself something to feel good about. But if you establish goals that are unrealistic, the opposite might happen — you could end up setting yourself up to fail and be miserable. With that in mind, here are a few signs that the financial resolutions you’ve landed on aren’t really attainable.

1. They require you to give up every single purchase you enjoy

Maybe you’re intent on growing your emergency fund from $0 to $6,000 this year. That’s a great goal in theory, as you’d be well-protected from unplanned expenses or job loss.

But saving $6,000 in a single year means banking $500 every single month. If you bring home $2,500 a month and your essential expenses amount to $2,000, that means to save $500 a month, you’d have to spend nothing on leisure or extras like streaming services or the occasional takeout meal.

It’s definitely possible to cut down on those things. And if you have no cash in a savings account, then that’s frankly an important thing to do.

But telling yourself you’ll spend $0 on fun purchases this year isn’t reasonable. Instead, you can consider a compromise — aim to save $250 a month, or $3,000 a year, which still leaves you with some cash to spend on the things you love. At the same time, it gives you a $3,000 cushion.

2. To pull them off, you’ll need to work constantly

Maybe you’re aiming to buy a home this year, but to come up with the down payment, you’ll need to boost your income with $20,000 in side hustle earnings. That $20,000 may be attainable — if you’re willing to work every waking hour. But who wants to live like that?

It’s not a bad thing to put in extra time if you can boost your income and improve your financial picture. But there’s a difference between working, say, 50 hours a week instead of 40 versus working 70 hours a week. The latter might have a negative effect on your physical and mental health.

3. They’re dependent on factors outside your control

Your goal may be to get a raise in 2024. But if you’ve worked for the same company for three years and know for a fact that raises are a rare occurrence at your place of employment, then your goal may not be a great one, because it’s something you can’t control.

Sure, you can work your hardest, boost your skills, and put in extra hours to impress your boss. But that still doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be the proud recipient of a pay boost.

Instead, focus on goals that are within your power to control. For example, if you buy lunch every day and spend $10 per meal, tell yourself you’ll cut back and save $100 a month. That’s something you have the ability to do.

The point of setting financial resolutions is to feel good about your finances and yourself. Setting unrealistic goals might have the opposite effect, so aim to establish goals that are attainable and not misery-inducing.

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Both of these account types have advantages and disadvantages. Which is best for you? Read on to find out. 

Certificate of deposit (CD) yields are the highest they’ve been in years, especially on those offered through high-yield online banks. However, there are some money market accounts, or MMAs, with high yields as well. If you have extra cash on the sidelines as we head into 2024, which is the better choice for your money?

Advantages of using CDs

There are two major advantages to using CDs instead of money market accounts (or checking or savings accounts), and both have to do with yield.

First, you can typically get a significantly higher interest rate from a CD than with an MMA. As of this writing, the top yield you can find on our best 1-year CDs list is 5.55%. But the highest yield you’ll find from a full-featured money market account (more on what that is in a bit) is 4.75%.

Second, with a CD, you’ll lock in your interest rate for a specified amount of time. If you get a 1-year CD with a 5.55% APY, that’s what you’ll get paid for the entire year. On the other hand, money market interest rates can and do change regularly. If the prevailing interest rate environment starts to decline, banks might start lowering yields on savings and money market accounts.

The downside to using CDs is the time commitment. To be clear, this is why the bank is willing to pay more for CDs than savings accounts — because you agree to leave your money there for a certain amount of time. If you need to withdraw from a CD early, you can, but you’ll have to pay a penalty.

Advantages of money market accounts

On the other hand, there are some big advantages of money market accounts, which can be considered as somewhat of a hybrid between checking and savings accounts.

The most obvious advantage is flexibility. If you need to withdraw your money for a major purchase, you won’t get hit with a penalty for doing so. But there’s a lot more to consider.

As mentioned earlier, MMAs tend to pay lower rates than CDs, but it’s close. And for giving up a little bit of yield, you can get some very convenient perks. True money market accounts offer check-writing privileges, so you can pay for purchases directly from the account, and also typically have ATM cards linked to the account.

It’s worth noting that some MMAs don’t have these features, particularly those with titles like “money market savings” or “money market deposit” accounts (but these often pay significantly higher yields).

Which is best for you?

There’s no perfect answer, and it depends on you. If you have some cash sitting around that you know you aren’t going to need for a while, it’s tough to make the argument against CDs. However, money market accounts combine the high yields of online savings accounts with the ability to write checks and access your money through ATMs.

With all of this being said, these are very different financial accounts, and the best approach for you might be to use both of them. There’s no reason you can’t put money you won’t need for a year or more in a CD and use a money market account for money you might need sooner to get a great combination of financial flexibility and high yield.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The number of women buying houses on our own is on the rise. Learn how to make yourself a stronger home buyer. 

American women are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to our finances — yes, even in the year 2024. We earn less than men — in 2022, the Pew Research Center found that the average woman still earned just $0.82 for every $1 earned by a man. And we didn’t even have legal protection from banking and other financial discrimination on the basis of sex until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act became law in 1974.

Despite this, women are proving our mettle, and as found by the National Association of Realtors, single women were the second-largest category of home buyers in 2023. I cheered when I read this statistic, because I am gearing up to buy a house of my own (and on my own) this year. If you’re hoping to do the same, here are a few ways to lean into your financial independence and become a homeowner.

1. Get your credit score in good shape

When you’re buying on your own, your success in getting approved for a mortgage loan (and at a decent interest rate) is entirely dependent on your finances and credit profile. So lay the groundwork by ensuring your credit score and financial bona fides are in the best shape possible.

You may have access to your FICO® Score (the one used by 90% of lenders) via a credit card issuer or your bank. The generally-accepted minimum credit score to buy a home with a conventional loan is 620, but government-backed mortgage options have looser requirements. For example, you can buy with an FHA loan and just 3.5% down if you’ve got a credit score of at least 580.

Hit up AnnualCreditReport.com to get free copies of your credit report. Scan through them for errors, like delinquent accounts that were never yours. You can dispute errors with the credit bureau and have them removed, improving your credit score. It’s also worth making a renewed commitment to make on-time payments to your creditors in the months leading up to applying for a mortgage loan, as payment history is the biggest piece (35%) of the FICO® Score pie.

2. Save as much as you can

Buying alone means you’ll be funding the operation yourself. So it’s worth aiming to save as much money ahead of time as you possibly can. Remember, not only do you have to worry about making a down payment and paying closing costs to your mortgage lender, but you’ll also incur other costs when becoming a homeowner. You’ll have to pay to move, you might want to make some initial upgrades to the house you’re buying, and you may even want to paint or buy new furnishings to help make your house a home.

And leaving yourself broke in the process of buying a home is a terrible idea, because repairs and emergencies you might’ve outsourced to a landlord before will now be your responsibility. Keep your house money and emergency fund in a high-yield savings account to earn more money in the form of interest.

3. Find your home-buying team

A good real estate agent is important under many house-buying circumstances, but if you’re going it alone, having a best friend and ally in the process is absolutely crucial. Don’t be afraid to interview a few agents to find the right fit for you, and be sure to ask the right questions.

You’ll need a good mortgage lender too, and again, the best way to find the right one (and the best mortgage rate) is to apply with several and see what you’re offered. You’ll also need to choose between an online or a local lender; each comes with advantages and disadvantages. Getting that pre-approval letter is important. Sellers are likely to view you as a more serious buyer, since your finances will have already been vetted.

4. Accept help as needed

There’s such a thing as being too independent, and speaking from sad experience, it can be really detrimental to your well-being. Humans are community creatures, and even if you’re a woman determined to buy a house of your own all by yourself, you should still lean on others when it makes sense to do so.

If you have a friend who is more experienced with home buying than you are, and they offer to come with you to visit open houses or attend private showings and give you a third-party perspective, accept the help. Know a real estate agent who doesn’t live in your direct area, but is still willing to offer you general pointers? Take them up on it.

And don’t forget that going from renting to owning a house is also a big change and you may need to accept help after you buy. To use myself as an example, I haven’t had to maintain a lawn or landscaping as a renter. When I get my new home, I’ll be hiring a lawn service to handle those tasks for me, as I have no interest in doing them and would rather pay someone else. If you can swing the cost of outsourcing a home maintenance task that doesn’t appeal to you, it’s worth doing so.

If you intend to buy a house as a solo woman, good on you — striking a blow for financial independence and securing a home for yourself in the process is extremely cool. Lean on the tips above to help ensure the process is as smooth and successful as possible.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Ally is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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