Financial & Travel Musings

Whilst most people will tell you that cards are the way to go, there’s something to be said for having some cash with you too.

As far as cash goes, it’s sometimes handy to take around $100 in US dollars or perhaps 100€ in euro as both currencies are accepted in a lot of places outside their home country. Don’t take anything larger than a 20 as you will, of course, receive change in the local currency and may not want to be stuck with lots of it.

If you’re going to a country which doesn’t use those currencies the best one depends on where you’re going eg US$ are more useful in South America than Euro, but in many former European colonies in Africa the reverse applies.

What about the local currency? If you’re going to a civilised country, it’s usually best to wait ’til you get there and withdraw it from an ATM in the airport. In most other cases you can find that you either can’t get it or there are severe limitations on how much you can get. For example, when I went to India the maximum you were allowed to take in local currency was £5 ($10) which simply wasn’t worth bothering about.

The cost to you is around 7% for amounts of around the $100/€100 if neither are the currency in your own country (don’t believe those “no commission” signs: the actual charge even in those places is around 7%). If you’re going to a fairly civilised country, it’s best to wait ’til you get there as it’s almost always cheaper to withdraw cash in local currency from an ATM than it is to get foreign currency abroad.

If you’ve some foreign currency left over at the end of your trip many places these days advertise that they’ll buy it back off you commission free. That does NOT mean that they won’t be charging you and in fact it usually costs around 3% to 5% to do this. Therefore, if you’re intending to go back to the same country the following year, just keep the cash and definitely do that if you’ve picked up the $100/100€ that we recommended earlier.

Downsides? well, travel insurance rarely covers cash so if it’s stolen, it’s gone. Also, if the country you’re going to doesn’t use the currency you’ve taken then you can pay considerable amounts in commission and other charges to change your money into the local currency. Worth noting is that not all banks offer foreign exchange services.

I’m going to work my way through the various ways you can take money abroad over the next week or so which’ll cover travellers cheques (travelers checks), credit/charge cards, debit cards, cash cards and prepaid cards.

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It’s fascinating the way that children take the building blocks that they have and construct language in sometimes quite unexpected ways.

For instance, our eldest was 2 when we moved here and refers to my mum as “Granda’s Nanny” whereas the youngest was born here and calls her “Nanny at the airport” because he’s so used to seeing her as we arrive or leave.

Or, what about that final remnant of the inflections of Old English, that is the confusing difference between first and third person terms eg “I was” but “You were”? Has anyone succeeded in teaching their children the latter without being forced into saying “You was”? One wonders whether that distinction will disappear over the next century as has that between “I shall” and “You will” over the last century.

In our case we have quite an interesting perspective on “mother tongue” as with Wendy being from Australia and me being from Northern Ireland, it’s obvious which of us they’ve picked up various words from. In practical terms, the youngest effectively has a “father tongue” rather than a mother tongue as I’ve been around a lot more in the critical first couple of years. Having said that, both of them recount fairy tales with my accent as I’m the one that’s been reading them the bedtime stories.

What we’re wondering at the moment is what might be the effect on their accent if we move to an English speaking area?

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That’s quite a common question that pops up on searches on my more travel related blog yet it’s one that’s very difficult to answer as so much depends on the interests of whoever is asking the question.

Firstly, it depends on the length of vacation time that you have. Typically in America that will be from one day through to two or perhaps three weeks whilst in Europe it can usually be up to five or even six weeks.

This gives rise to five basic types of holiday that you can take:

1. Daytrips.

2. The short break consisting of anything from a few days up to about a week.

3. Normal holidays, usually 10 to 14 days.

4. Extended holidays of three to six or seven weeks.

5. The “big trip” of several months to a year or more.

Obviously daytrips are normally limited to within a few hours drive of your own home although in Europe there are daytrips to other countries too. Both are limited though: in the first case simply by the distance and in the second by whatever the holiday companies are offering.

Big trips are also limited to some extent as most people going on them need to watch their budget which usually means that places in the Far East feature prominently.

So, the question largely applied to holidays from two to seven weeks.

For a two week trip, you can go anywhere in the world so you need to consider your own interests and those of your family. Do the little guys just want to go on the beach with their bucket and spade? If they do, then perhaps the best spots are around the French, Italian and Spanish coastlines. There they’ll have the sand but if you choose your spot, you’ll also have culture and nightlife too.

Towards the longer end of the timescale, New England is great and very compact so suitable for small children as you don’t need long drives to get anywhere. Also excellent is Florida which is very much a family resort all over.

If you’re looking for something different, try the Far East. Malaysia and Thailand are brilliant. India is very different though sometimes difficult to reach economically. For all of these locations, the best option is to take them in as part of a round the world trip (you need a minimum of four weeks to make that truly economical).

Where would YOU go and why?

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