The World's Best Places to Retire

Top Retirement Places in the World

First Published Date: October 20, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

In searching for the best international top retirement places, I came across many reputable websites that publish their lists of annual best places to live abroad or overseas. Some of these websites are dedicated to retirement only. Some are personal finance or other types of websites, but they have a retirement section covering a variety of retirement topics. Instead of mentioning the world’s top retirement countries that change every year, I will give you a list of these sites so you can check updated lists and also try their variety of retirement articles.

International Living – International Living covers all aspects of international living such as living abroad, international real estate, travel, investments, and so on. Check their Where to Retire section for the latest best places to live list.

Top Retirements – Top Retirements provides a variety of retirement information. You will many top places to live lists on this site.

AARP – AARP is a non-profit, social organization for 50+ people. Its Best Place to Retire section has lots of best places to retire abroad articles and informative articles on individual countries.

Retiring Overseas – Although Retiring Overseas does not publish any top ten kind of lists, it has a variety of information on retiring in foreign countries.

Forbes – Financial website Forbes has a Retirement Section. However, it looks like they miscategorized these two best retirement places articles:

The Best Foreign retirement Havens and The 10 Best Retirement Havens.

Kiplinger – Personal Finance magazine Kiplinger’s Retirement section is worth checking.

If you are looking for more sources or sites, search on the Internet using these keyword phrases: “top retirement places,” “best places to retire in the world,” “retire overseas,” “retire abroad,” and so on. The Internet has made it possible to make an informed decision on picking one or a few countries across the globe without leaving the comfort of home.

5 Moves That Affect Your Credit Score

What Lowers Your Credit Score?

First Published Date: October 27, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

Credit scores are very important if you are applying for a mortgage, a loan, credit card, and so on. A lower credit score will make your interest and payments higher, thus costing you more money. There are certain things you can do to avoid factors that lower your credit score. Let’s discuss them.

Making Late Payments or Missing Payments – This factor affects your credit score the most because 35 percent of your score is based on payment history. Paying on time can make the difference between an average and an excellent credit score.

Borrowing Too Much – This is the second biggest factor that lowers your credit score. Your outstanding debt counts for 30 percent of your credit score. If you have a high ratio of credit used in relation to your available limits (credit utilization ratio), it will lower your credit score. Don’t borrow up to your limits. Keep it 25 percent or less of your available limits.

Closing Too Old Credit Card Accounts – The length of your credit history counts for 15 percent of your credit score. To keep your credit score higher, do not close accounts that are too old. It is a good idea to keep a variety of credit card accounts active, especially those which are old.

Applying Frequently – If you apply too often for credit cards or other loan accounts, it will lower your credit score. Applying too many times for credit implies that you are desperate for credit and it affects your credit score. This accounts for 10 percent of your credit score.

Not Keeping A Variety of Credit Accounts – Your credit score will be higher if you have a variety of credit accounts. Having only one type of credit account will lower your score, as keeping a variety of credit accounts for 10 percent of your credit score. Keep multiple types of credit accounts active, even if you don’t use them. For example, an investment loan account, mortgage, store credit card account, regular credit card account, and so on. Sometimes a credit issuer will close your accounts if you don’t use it for a while. To keep them active, keep a very small balance and pay the minimum every month. Or, you can charge a very small amount once in a while and pay off the balance

China’s Economy Heading for a Soft Landing

China’s Economy Will Slow Down

First Published Date : November 3, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

China’s economy, the second largest economy in the world, will grow in the future, but possibly at a much slower pace. The latest data, at least some of them, point out the slower pace compared with the robust pace in the past decades. Chinese economic growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the 3rd quarter, while the previous quarter had 9.5 percent growth.

China’s GDP increased to 10.4 percent in 2010. However, 2011 GDP growth is expected to be 9.4 percent or even below 9 percent. The Chinese manufacturing index showed positive growth last month, but employment growth failed to show any significant improvement. To offset the slower economic growth and external demand for Chinese manufacturing products, the Chinese government is planning to boost support for employment growth in the local small business and service sectors.

There are concerns in the credit market as the Chinese government’s recent tighter liquidity control showed significant sharp drop in new lending, pushing the credit costs upward. This caused profit margins to slim for the Chinese firms. Trust loans and the margin deposit went down below regular level in the last quarter.

Based on various data and analysis, the economic outlook for China is mixed at this moment. On one side, we have GDP and export figures showing an imminent economic slowdown. On the other, we have gains in local consumption and fixed-asset investments caused by minimum wage increases and other factors.

The middle class population is estimated to be approximately 250 million in China. However, their consumption level is still low when compared to other nations. However, in recent years domestic consumption has been on the rise and the Chinese government is looking to use this consumption growth to build a sustainable economic growth for years to come.

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.