Why Travel Solo?

Going Solo Travel

There is some amount of surprise – possibly even suspicion – that emerges when one tells co-workers and even friends that they are going to be holidaying on their own. The responses tend to vary between pity and unconvincing encouragement of the “good for you” variety. This is clearly misguided in the extreme, because traveling alone can be the very best way to holiday. Rather than thinly veiled pity and other even less wholesome emotions, the correct response to someone holidaying on their own really should be envy – because it means you get the holiday you want with no compromises. Never mind trying to find a break for two, four or more – the solo break is the way to go for the unmarried traveler.

The first thing that a solo break has over traveling with people is the freedom it gives you. If you have always wanted to go to a specific location but have never been able to persuade anyone to go with you, stop trying! They clearly don’t get it, and if they came along then you would spend more time trying to convince them that the city is awesome than enjoying it yourself. By going on your own you can set out an itinerary which fully suits you. Eat in the restaurants you want to eat in, catch the shows you wanted to catch and do all this when you want to. You’re traveling on your own, so you can go according to your own whim and enjoy the ride all the more.

The second point is connected to the first. Simply put, sometimes on holiday you have an instinctive desire to go to a specific place – and this instinct can arrive at the shortest notice. By traveling alone, if you have this kind of whim, you can set off and enjoy yourself without having to convince your companion(s) of the brilliance of your idea. Often when you have discussion about what you want to do, you find yourself sitting there two hours later, only knowing what you don’t want to do. This way, you can have the thought one moment, and be in the cab the next. Surely this beats deciding everything by committee? If you want to change your mind at a moment’s notice, you can. It can make the holiday perfect.

There are also other reasons for going solo. Among these, there is the fact that, if you go somewhere with a different language, the chances that your traveling partner will speak it as well as you do are remote. You will find yourself translating for them, and bound to them in situations where you would prefer a bit of space. And then there is also the fact that may just clinch it – going on holiday solo makes the group holidays better, because it allows you to discover a new place at your own pace and then introduce friends or family on a return trip – where you will be the perfect tour guide. This is really the best way to travel!

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Travelnowsimply.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on July 10, 2009.

Canada’s Best Top Favourite Credit Cards

Canada’s Top Favourite Credit Cards

Canada’s top favourite credit card is not issued by TD or CIBC. According to a report published by J.D. Power, President’s Choice Financial credit cards by Loblaw Company ranks Number 1 for customer satisfaction and is the most favoured credit card in Canada.

This is no surprise, as the general population is looking for credit cards that are easy to understand and easy to accumulate and redeem rewards points.

The top credit card rankings out of 1000 are:  

PC Financial 788
American Express 780
Canadian Tire 774
Capital One 764

The least favourite credit cards are:

CIBC 741
MBNA 741
TD 739

The J.D. Power report is based on 6,000+ responses and looked at customers’ satisfaction based on rewards, benefits, communication, terms, customer interaction, key moments, and so on. The report also revealed that 48 percent of Canadians switched their primary credit cards last year for better perks.

Remember, a card being on the top favourite or best credit card lists does not mean it’s best for you as well. You should always pick your best or favourite credit cards based on your own lifestyle, needs, and spending habits. You can access information provided on my website or YouTube Channel to research and find your own best credit cards by visiting the links below:

www.ahmeddawn.com

www.youtube.com/adawn

Why Buy International Real Estate Abroad

Options for buying a retirement home abroad

For a long time in the past when people went abroad all they had in mind was simply going out to spoil themselves vacationing from the familiar environment and all they brought back was a few mementos and probably a camera full of pictures they clicked away. However things are turning different today, what with the prospects of acquiring property abroad and settling there, especially after one has retired. Many folks who faced an uncertain future due to the cost of property at home are discovering they can actually acquire high end properties such as condos and villas abroad at what would sound like a good bargain at home.

Many people are now in the acquisition frenzy because of the many stories they have heard from others who have successfully bought real estate abroad. The current economic crisis has not made things better, what the depreciating value of most people’s lifetime savings. The cash people thought would go along way in taking them through retirement is slipping through their fingers. Whereas it would cost you hundreds of thousand of dollars to try and invest locally, things are looking very positive abroad and it is now a race against time as most savers try and get a piece of the cake.

To give you an idea of how sweet things are, consider that for example, a resident of Florida who wants to escape to someplace out of the country but not to far from home would consider settling in Mexico. Whereas they would require a minimum of $100,000 in Florida itself or $150,000 to buy a small apartment in New York city, going down to Mexico they would most likely acquire a beautiful condo with a beachfront for as little as $50,000 which means they will still have enough change to help them settle down for many days to come. Apart from the low prices they will have escaped to a quite and secure place to enjoy their sunset years.

For the person who is a little adventurous another unique location to consider would be Nicaragua which is nestled quietly at the heart of Central America. This is a country that has left behind a long dark history of civil wars and is now a fast developing third world country but with all the trappings of the first world. For a long time people consider Costa Rica to be the only place you could settle in the region but now they are knowing better. You will enjoy getting a nice villa with its own large compound, fro those who love space for anything between $50,000 and $100,000 on the very higher side. The cost of living is nothing to compare with many places in the Americas.

But if your idea of a real escape is far away in Europe you may want to consider the emerging property market of Eastern Europe. For prices that you will consider a real throw away when you compare with the rest of Western Europe you will grab for yourself a first class condo or even a serene waterfront villa. As the rest of the continent struggles to grab the little remaining space, here you will acquire large swathes of beach property for as little as $40,000 and that is just the beginning of the good news.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Dec 5, 2009.

Learning: The Never Ending Journey

Education – Not a Duty, More a Worthwhile Pursuit

Many of us, while at school, required every parental trick in the book just to get us to attend. There are many reasons why we often do not want to go to school – from simple, innocent ones like just wanting to stay in bed or have a day at home to more worrying ones like bullying at school or difficulties with the work. Either way, it is a rare child indeed who goes from day one of their schooling to the final day of high school without having a single day where they just didn’t want to go. The first rung of the education ladder where it becomes a true case of self-motivation for many is when college comes around – and for some people th  at day never comes.

Some of us never go to college or university. Sometimes that is through choice, and sometimes it is a matter of circumstances dictating that we cannot go. There is no reason that a person who has not been to college should not go on to thrive in the workplace anyway. If you have skills that are not particularly suited to the more academic field then there is no harm to proceeding in a world that does not require a college diploma. The trick is to know where your talents lie and play to that. However, education is not limited to your childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. You can take up a course of learning at any time.

If you are often complaining of feeling bored or unfulfilled, the reasons for going into some kind of education are all the greater. It does not even have to be for any loftier reason than for your own enjoyment. Learning something just for the sake of it is a real kick in itself. In fact, looking at things from the point of view of an adult who has been through the school system and didn’t much care for it can remind you of the value of knowledge. Many of us didn’t want to go to school because we didn’t see the point of it. Often a child will not, because they lack the overall sense of perspective that a few decades on this earth provide. You may not have wanted to go to school, you may have played truant a few times or played the sick note more than once, and that’s fine. It is when you are an adult that you begin to wish you had paid a bit more attention.

More than anything, learning something new is innately thrilling. It challenges your perceptions, it increases your understanding of the world and it gives you the chance to build your mind. Being a student again, and actually being there because you want to be, allows you to approach things with an open mind and be a more receptive learner. Back at school, you will have had a million other things you would rather have been doing, and you were still trying to make sense of the world. Having that bit more experience allows you to see education for what it is – fun and worthwhile.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on April 9, 2009.

Why Canada Is The Place To Be Right Now

Best Place Canada

As things stand today, there are few parts of the globe that have not been touched by the problems in financial markets – problems which began in earnest over a year ago now and have been worsening ever since. The situation right now seems to point to a global recession which will only begin to lift during the latter part of next year. While playing the blame game is certainly not going to help anyone, there is a lot of blame flying around anyway, most of which is being aimed at the most acquisitive economies, and a large amount of that is directed squarely at the United States. Conversely, experts seem to have mostly good things to say about Canada.

There is little doubt that part of the reason for this is the proximity with the United States, which allows a side-by-side comparison between neighbours. While the crisis itself has been attributed to the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis in the US – although this is only part of the story, and the sub-prime market’s collapse was more catalyst than cause – the global nature of the markets ensures that when one economy takes a blow, the businesses which have investments in that economy suffer also. Hence, it was not just US banks that suffered in the light of the credit crisis, and when the problems precipitated a comparatively small gust of wind, those businesses which were not built on the strongest of foundations began to collapse.

The credit crisis, therefore, may have been catalyzed by what was happening in the US, but it immediately affected banks in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan (which was already having problems) and beyond. To date it has even caused governments to be recalled, including that of Iceland, which had been surfing a wave of financial well-being. Canada itself has been far from untouched, but the current suffering here has been more of an inevitable outcome of global problems than a headlong plunge precipitated by failure to plan. While other countries pretty much dived head first into the cracks, Canada was slowly sucked towards them before sliding over the edge. Therefore, when the markets begin their definitive improvement, Canada will be one of the first countries to climb out of the mess.

There are so many stereotypes about supposed national tendencies, and some of the more unkind ones seem to imply that Canada is a country where nothing much happens, and what does happen is not that exciting. Anyone living here can see how inaccurate that is. The upside, however, of that stereotype is that Canada tends to find itself in better shape than others having refused to gamble away everything it owns.

Things right now are shaky – not just in Canada, but in most of the world – but this does mean that if you have cash to invest, prices now are at their lowest in some time and may not have far to fall. And once the economic indicators dictate that we are on the way to recovery, watch those numbers climb. Much better to watch it from Canada than anywhere else.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Apr 10, 2009.