Mummy & Moose
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See the World Without Going Broke – How to Save for a Year of Travelling

With coronavirus restrictions all but lifted and the UK more or less back to normal, travel is back on the menu. Pre-pandemic, travel industry expenditure in the UK had increased by 7% to a staggering £62 billion – a number set to be beaten in the coming years. For many, major plans for long-term travelling were postponed indefinitely. But as countries began to open back up to international visitors one by one, it’s time to get planning again. Here’s how to fund a year of adventure without going broke!

Full Time Employment

First things first, you will want to make sure you have secured full time employment for your year of preparation. Pulling together the funds for travel alone will be difficult if you do not have regular work lined up – your existing commitments to rent, bills and sustaining yourself will always come first, meaning you will need a bare minimum regular wage to keep up with your travel budget.

Start Saving

Next is to start saving money from your work. This sounds easy from the off, but requires a lot more thought than it may at first seem. Draw up a holistic budget for your living situation, including your income and any outgoings, from rent and utilities to weekly averages for food and leisure expenditure. Find out what you have left monthly after each payslip; this is the most you can save monthly without cutting into your living expenses. Once you have settled on a minimum monthly figure to save, do some digging to find an easy-access savings account with the best available interest rate, and set up a direct debit for the amount you want to save from your current account to your savings account.

Investments

Savings accounts have become notoriously toothless in recent years, with inflation stagnating and interest rates remaining low. As such, you may want to find a way to get greater returns from your savings, especially if you aren’t going to be touching them. One great way to do this is by investing your savings on the stock market. An investment fund is the safest way to do this, whereby a broker takes your money and invests it across a portfolio of companies it believes will grow steadily. There is always an element of risk, but the returns can average 5% – a significant amount, especially if you’re after having as much money as possible ahead of your year-long trip.

Trading

Even greater returns than investments can be found, however, by having more of an active hand in investing your money. With research, patience and attention to detail, you can follow the stock market yourself, and trade stocks to generate bigger profits than passive investment funds. Trading platforms like Metatrader 5 allow you to continue to trade from anywhere, meaning you could feasibly earn money even while you travel!

Secondary Work

If you still have time to spare in your day, you can opt for a more sure-fire way of generating additional income for your travels, and take on a second job. You could go freelance, and provide the same services you do in your day job ad-hoc to new clients via online freelancer platforms; you could pick up a bar job to work the evenings after your day job; or you could even pick up cash-in-hand labouring work on weekends – the options are endless.

Is There Still a Gender Bias with Car Insurance?

This is a collaborative post

Historically if you were a female driver, you could expect to pay less in car insurance than your male counterparts. This was seen as something of a bonus because insuring your car was, and still is, massively expensive and something we have to do but probably with bad grace. Things have got so expensive that one million drivers are risking prosecution by taking to the roads without insurance. Now, this is not recommended at all, but we do understand the desire to bring down the cost where possible. So, is it true that women get a better deal today?

woman driving a car

Fewer Accidents

The reason women had access to lower premiums was based on statistical evidence that proved female drivers have fewer accidents than men. It really was that simple. Data collected showed that 73% of road traffic deaths were male, which is nearly three quarters, but why is there such a difference. One of the reasons is because men actually drive more, over 80% of men hold a driving licence compared to only 67% of women and men have an average mileage of over 4000 miles a year whereas women only rack up just over 2200 miles. With more men on the roads, it makes sense that they are statistically ranking higher in accidents but is this fair?

Road Attitudes

Well, on top of this studies were carried out as to the attitude of drivers, and again there was a definite gender split. When asked to rate driving ability men almost always say they are better than average, whereas women do not. Women express more concern about family and loved ones being killed in a crash which in turn seems to make them more considered drivers. When asked to rate speed limits men almost all say speed limits are too low whereas women conversely suggest they are too high. So, there does seem to be differences in how we consider safety on the road. Finally, and contentiously it is said you can tell the gender of a driver by watching the vehicle with men tending to have more aggressive behaviour such as sudden acceleration and breaking. 

Law Changes

However, today there is no reason to think that women get cheaper car insurance. Gender cannot be used as part of the premium calculation, age and experience can be but not gender. This was a change that was enforced in 2012 by the European Court of Justice, which means that technically two identical applications with only gender as the difference would equate to identical premiums. Some people feel that there is still a difference, but this is hard to prove, it was thought to be £300 or more in favour of women and now it seems that men may pay £50 more but with so many factors in the algorithm it is hard to prove. When the UK leaves the EU, there is a chance this directive would be scrapped, but no one can say for sure at this stage. For now, there is no difference in premiums for male or female drivers.

7 Worst Home Improvement Decisions

Home improvement shows will often have you believing that the money you spend on DIY projects will be returned to you in the form of a higher sale price when you come to sell your home. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way. Here’s a list of the worst home improvement decisions you could make in terms of their return.

Luxury Bathrooms

According to experts and real estate agents, bathrooms never help you get more from your house as you sell them. Upgrading bathrooms is necessary but the upgradation must not be expensive. There is no need to invest a lot of money just in bathrooms to make them look like luxury bathrooms.

Swimming Pool

Everyone loves to have a perfectly designed swimming pool with some cool and innovative design ideas. Nowadays, pools have become of great significance because people want to enjoy with their friends, colleagues and do parties. However, their improvement should be justified. You should be careful while spending your money in swimming pool renovation.

Wall to Wall Carpeting

Everyone who buys a new house or gets it on rent tries to have everything in order. This includes carpets and floors as well. When you are renovating your house, try to choose some decent laminate flooring and carpet colors that look appealing and may give a great look to the rooms. Moreover, you should not extend the carpets to the wall corners or even sometimes people believe wall to wall carpeting. This may prove expensive.

Upgrading Kitchens

High-end upgradation of kitchens yields no particular results except the aesthetic views. Kitchen, bathrooms and or master bathroom are the areas with least interaction of the visitors and even residents. These areas need upgradation but it must not be expensive. You can choose some nice colors, wallpapers, themes and ideas for the kitchen in order to upgrade in the minimum amount and investment.

High-End Landscaping

Landscaping is an integral part of home renovation. They make a house look more attractive and appealing. Whenever you do any renovation work, calculate its impacts on the property value. As you may need to sell or rent out the house any moment, you should consider this aspect. High-end landscaping seems to be a bad option and may destroy the beauty and aesthetic value of the whole building.

Quirky Decoration

This refers to the personalized decoration of the house. We understand that every person who owns a house has a particular choice when it comes to house decoration. But that doesn’t mean it should be weird or strange. There is always the element of selling the house so such designs and ideas are not practical. If you do such decorations, you may lose the real value of your house when it is to be sold.

Detailed Maintenance

Home improvement is all about smart tweaks instead of detailed renovation and maintenance. Many people, having enough money, make the mistake of doing detailed renovations where they replace old items with new ones. This is good if you want to keep the house for next five or more years. But it may prove expensive if you have to sell the house at any moment. So be careful and always try your best to do the smart maintenance instead of detailed and expensive renovation works.