Plaza Premium Lounge Review | YYZ Terminal 1 International

Plaza Premium Lounge | Toronto Pearson International Airport

My trip to Egypt was in economy class, so to use lounge access I utilized Priority Pass from my Canadian credit card.

Plaza Premium Lounge is located at Gate E77, Level 3, Terminal 1 Airside, International Departures. The Plaza Premium Lounge is accessible to International departure flights only.

This is my second time visiting this lounge and I found nothing noticeably changed from one year ago.

This is a not big, not small, kind of a medium-sized lounge. The inside is very bright due to glass walls, open ceiling, and frosted glass doors.

I found it not too crowded and lots of sofas in the seating area were empty. Travelers seemed to gather in the seating area in the dining section.

The food section was adequate, but nothing extraordinary. There were not too many items available. As a snack or just to have a little bite, it was OK. The drink section was OK, but again, not too many choices. There were alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. I had a little snack and coffee and didn’t find anything else to eat.

The washroom was good enough, but nothing fancy. There was a shower facility inside the washroom. It didn’t look like there was any sort of advance booking required for the shower.

Overall, I found the Plaza Premium Lounge was a lounge to visit and relax if you have free access and extra time to kill. But I wouldn’t regret not visiting if time didn’t permit me.

I was excited to try EgyptAir, although my flight was economy class. I will write about that in the next post.

Online Grocery Shopping During COVID-19 Coronavirus | Tips & Tricks

Longo's Grocery Gateway vs. Metro Online Compare | Which Online Grocery Is Better

When it comes to online grocery shopping, it works mainly two ways. You can grocery shop online directly from the grocery supermarket itself or you can go through a 3rd party provider who will let you pick items from multiple groceries and will deliver them to your doorstep for a fee.

These fees can be hefty depending on how many items you buy or how many different grocery stores or supermarkets you use to pick your items. Some of these providers are Cornershop, Easy Peasy Grocery Delivery, Inabuggy, Instacart, and many others.

I tried to buy from 2 grocery supermarkets, Longo’s and Metro, who provide online grocery services and deliver their own groceries through their own online stores Grocery Gateway and Metro Online.

Both of these online grocery stores have a $50 minimum purchase requirement and delivery fees are $10 (Grocery Gateway) and $12 (Metro).

I was able to pick my items, but there were no time slots available for delivery as far as their system allowed. Due to the COVID-19 situation, people bought and booked these slots some time ago.

Metro showed one time slot available, but when I tried to grab it, it seemed like their system was not functioning properly and I was unable to book it. You will see more in the video.

Metro’s cart didn’t show the total when I was purchasing items. It only showed the number of items instead. To see if I met the minimum, I had to click on the cart each time after adding an item, which didn’t make sense.

Grocery Gateway showed my total from any page, without clicking on the cart.

Overall, I found Longo’s Grocery gateway offered a better user-friendly layout and an overall pleasant online grocery shopping experience. Things were much more organized than Metro and everything was easier to find.

What Is a Debt Consolidation Loan and How Do You Use It

What Is Debt Consolidation?

First Published Date : November 10, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

A debt consolidation loan is a loan to consolidate all your debts into one single loan and one payment. For example, let’s say you have four credit card balances, two retail store credit card balances, and other consumer loans for which you pay several monthly payments to each of these loan providers. A debt consolidation loan would pay all these loans and you are left with one single payment – which would be a lot less headache and a better money management option to handle your daily finances.

Advantages of a Debt Consolidation Loan

Lower Monthly Payments – If you were previously making 10 payments , making one payment will likely lower your monthly payments.

One Single Monthly Payment – You will be saving time and hassle by making one payment every month instead of many payments.

Save Money on Interest – Interest charged by your loan provider will be lower than those of your credit card or store card loans, thus saving you a lot of money on interest.

Disadvantages of a Debt Consolidation Loan

Further access to credit – A consolidation loan will free up your credit or store cards and you will have access to more credit than before. If you are not able to control yourself, you will likely end up sinking yourself more into debt.

Collateral – Your financial institution may ask you to provide some sort of collateral against your consolidation loan.

A longer term – Because you are dealing with one large payment, your payment term will be longer and it will take you more years to payoff your loan in the end.  

A Few Things to Remember

– Don’t forget that not all debts are eligible for a debt consolidation loan. An example would be your existing mortgage. Your financial institution where you are obtaining this loan from will be able to tell you what types of loans are eligible and what types of loans aren’t.

– Also, you may not be eligible to obtain a debt consolidation loan if your credit score and other circumstances do not meet the requirements of your financial institutions’ eligibility criteria.

– Don’t forget to make a list of your all outstanding loans and take this list with you when you visit your financial institution.

– Don’t take your consolidation loan before checking with a few financial institutions. If you shop a few of them, you are likely to find a better rate then just taking it from the first institution you walk into.

If you can discipline yourself to not wrap yourself up with more loans, a debt consolidation loan is worth considering and it is your first step to take control of your personal finances and walking out of debt.

Waiting Too Long To Save For Retirement

The Cost of Waiting to Save

First Published Date : March 7, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

As more and more people spend more and more of their money each year instead of saving for retirement, we are seeing a growing number of people who have no money for retirement, or are putting money away too late. This is a serious problem and it means that the retirement age of 65 could be moving up to 70 as many couples have trouble quitting working and living off the meager money they have saved over the previous few years.
The longer you wait to save, the more money you are going to have to save each year. If you are a late starter for retirement, you could see large portions of your income going towards paying for your impending retirement. For example:

·    If you earn more than $100,000 and you do not save for retirement until the age of 55, you will end up paying 40 per cent of your income towards saving for retirement to catch up on what you need.

·    If you earn more than $80,000 and you do not save for retirement until the age of 55, you will need to save 37 per cent per year.

·    If you earn more than $40,000 a year and do not save for retirement until the age of 55, then you will need to put aside 27 per cent of your income to have enough money for retirement.

This is why it is so important that you start putting money away very early on because it will allow you start putting small amounts away that will grow over time. If you put $2,000 away every year in your 20s, you will have $20,000 saved by the time you are 30. If you then put $3,000 away every year in your 30s, you will have $50,000 saved by the time you are 40. At this point, you can probably start putting away more, because you will usually be making more. That means, you can put away $5,000 a year until you are 60 and you will have saved a total of $170,000 totally since you began saving money at the age of 20. That is just a quick example of how easy it is and it does not figure into the interest you gain, any investments you have and more.
Saving just a bit of money from the beginning can really help but if you don’t, you need to be prepared to sell items you don’t need, cut back on expenses and put away a large portion of your income towards saving money for retirement. You do not want to be 70 and still working because you did not save for retirement. Too many people are in that situation and you do not want to be one of them so do not let it happen to you. Begin saving now and if you don’t, make sure you put as much as you can away once you near retirement age.

NB – All figures shown above are for illustration purposes only and may not be accurate.

Do You Need A Financial Advisor When Going Through Debt Management?

Is A Financial Advisor Right For You?

When you are going through debt management, one of the things you have to look at is how your money is being spent and whether or not it could be spent in a better way. One way you can do this is to create a budget, which is free but the temptation to break your budget is always there.

When you decide to lose weight, you will go to the gym and get a personal trainer. The purpose of the personal trainer will help you lose weight, but at the same time they will help keep you on the straight and narrow, educating you in weight loss and getting fit. From that same philosophy, you can look at getting a financial advisor to help you when you are dealing with debt. A financial advisor will work like a personal trainer. The financial advisor will meet with you and help you do several things. First, and possibly most importantly, the financial advisor will educate you on your finances. They will tell you what you are spending too much money on, what you can save money on and how you can build up a savings that will pay off your debt quickly and easily.

Like a personal trainer, the financial advisor will also keep you on the straight and narrow. When you have a budget, sometimes the desire to go off budget is there but a personal financial advisor will keep that from happening. They will watch your finances and alert you when you are getting close to reaching your budget limit.

A personal financial advisor can be your best friend but you must remember that they will be costing you money. Financial advisors do not do their business for free and it may seem counter-productive to pay someone to help you save money but financial advisors can really do a lot to help you. They are trained to understand finances and debt and to help you understand them as well.

When you are looking for a financial advisor, you may want to talk to friends and family to know who they have gone through. Trusting your personal advisor is very important because that will ensure you will follow their advice. If you are going to work with a financial advisor, do your research and find out what credentials that they have. If they have good references, they may be the best help you can have when dealing with debt management.

Don’t be afraid to talk to other clients of the financial advisor to learn how the advisor does business, how helpful they are, how open they are to questions and more. Just by doing these things, you can find a financial advisor who will help you get rid of your debt, understand your finances and get back on the road to financial recovery. Sure, you pay a bit extra for a financial advisor, but it is well worth it considering how much you can save.