Inflation-Busting Summer Getaways
by SGL Financial
Our 2 Cents – Episode #175
Inflation-Busting Summer Getaways
We’ve got another new episode of Our 2 Cents for you this week! Steve and Gabriel kick things off with traveling advice you can use this summer. Then, they share some eye-opening cost comparisons underscoring the impact of inflation on our pockets. Listen in now using a link below!
- Summer Travel Tips:
- We’ve got the best time and destinations to travel this summer to make your vacation getaways a breeze.
- Learn how to travel smart through cost-effective strategies to create an enjoyable, yet affordable trip.
- Inflation Data in Perspective:
- Recent data demonstrates that inflation rates have cooled just slightly, although still not where the Fed wants to be.
- Can you believe this fast-food giant’s price increases over the last decade? Plus, their small attempt to bring back customers.
- Understand ‘shrinkflation’ and how this country is taking a stand against such practices for the benefit of consumers.
- Can You Really Get Paid to Move?:
- Learn what a “relocation package” is and why some U.S cities are willing to pay you for moving.
- Discover what interesting incentives are involved in relocating to these smaller locations.
Request Your Free Consultation Today
847.499.3330
Podcast Transcript
Announcer: You’re listening to Our 2 Cents, with the team from SGL Financial, building wealth for life. Steve Lewit is the President of SGL financial, and Gabriel Lewit is the CEO. They’re here to discuss all the latest in financial news, trends, strategies, and more.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, welcome to Our 2 Cents. This is Gabriel Lewit and Steve Lewit here. We’re back in action here. Steve had a vacation, so we couldn’t do the-
Steve Lewit: I actually went away some place.
Gabriel Lewit: It was a real live human vacation last year.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, the first in a long-
Gabriel Lewit: Or this year.
Steve Lewit: … time. Yeah, I was saying, “What year am I in?”
Gabriel Lewit: Sorry, not last year. This year.
Steve Lewit: Did I lose a year in coming back?
Gabriel Lewit: No, I think a lost a few brain cells there on that statement.
Steve Lewit: It was a long vacation, folks, that started a year ago.
Gabriel Lewit: But my point was, we couldn’t do the show with just one cent.
Steve Lewit: Well, you could have, but it’s much more interesting-
Gabriel Lewit: Our 2 Cents with just one cent.
Steve Lewit: Definitely.
Gabriel Lewit: It wouldn’t have worked.
Steve Lewit: Definitely.
Gabriel Lewit: So, are you going to tell everybody, all of our dedicated listeners, where did you go?
Steve Lewit: I went to Spain, and I went to-
Gabriel Lewit: Ah, España.
Steve Lewit: España. I went to Málaga in Spain and Madrid, so I visited two cities. In Málaga, I was in the mountains, oh god, in the middle of nowhere with a small group of friends, which was pretty interesting. And then, a couple of days in Madrid, which was really beautiful. It’s quite a place. I like Spain.
Gabriel Lewit: What was your highlight of the trip?
Steve Lewit: The highlight of my trip, well-
Gabriel Lewit: The 20 hours of travel?
Steve Lewit: Well, I want to tell you something, folks, if you take a direct flight to Madrid, it’s eight hours, but it’s twice the price. But if you go with one stop, it’s half the price, and the trip is supposed to take 13 hours. Right? But if you miss your connection, because Air France doesn’t know what the word connection means. They don’t give you enough time. They give you an hour and a half, and it sounds like, “Oh, that’s fine,” except you get off the plane, then you have to go through customs, and they got to inspect your bags, and then you got to walk about five miles and you miss your plane.
Gabriel Lewit: Did this happen to you?
Steve Lewit: You bet. And then, coming home, you miss your connection and you’re flying home, and then there’s a thunderstorm in O’Hare, so we wind up in Indianapolis someplace. It was about 20 hours on the plane.
Gabriel Lewit: No kidding. Wow.
Steve Lewit: But Spain, fantastic. People are wonderful, lots of beautiful sights, a lot of big history.
Gabriel Lewit: So, I sidetracked you with my comment about 20 hours of traveling, but what was your favorite part, overall?
Steve Lewit: My favorite part-
Gabriel Lewit: If you were recommending to all of our listeners, “Take a trip to Spain”?
Steve Lewit: Well, you won’t go where I go. My favorite part was being in the mountains in this place that has nothing and just beauty, surrounded by natural beauty.
Gabriel Lewit: So, the beautiful mountains of Spain.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, but if I were going just for a vacation, I would go to Madrid, for sure. Definitely. And then, I wasn’t in Barcelona, but you’d want to go to Madrid and Barcelona, two great, great cities.
Gabriel Lewit: Excellent. Well, we thought we would talk about, with Steve’s inspiring recount of his Spain trip under our belts here, a little bit about planning for a summer travel trip, for a vacation.
Steve Lewit: I want to insert one thing. I don’t know if you’re planning on talking about it, but eventually, we’re going to need, what’s that called? A something ID.
Gabriel Lewit: Real ID.
Steve Lewit: A Real ID. Yeah. So, if you’re going overseas, what I would suggest is you apply for global entry. So global entry costs you a few bucks, but when I got off the plane here, I went through customs in five minutes. Where everybody else was standing in line, waiting for-
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, no. That’s sounds like a good idea.
Steve Lewit: Global entry. And I think that will serve as a Real ID, too. I’m not sure about that.
Gabriel Lewit: Interesting. Yeah, so if you’re planning some trips this summer, we wanted to give you a couple tips. Obviously, you may have already got something planned with yourself or your family members. If not, it’s not too late. We’re going to give you some ideas and tips here, both financially and just some interesting spots around the world that you may want to consider. If you have already planned trips, maybe you’ll plan another one. Who knows? I also recently took a trip this last weekend. I was in Louisville.
Steve Lewit: Louisville.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, people pronounce it a variety of different ways, I’ve found.
Steve Lewit: I thought it was Louisville.
Gabriel Lewit: There’s Louisville, there’s Louisville, there’s Louisville.
Steve Lewit: Louisville.
Gabriel Lewit: Louisville. So, lots of different places, sorry, pronunciations of Louisville, Kentucky.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Spain is just Spain.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, yeah. Now, it’s interesting because we’re going to also talk about inflation here today, and I was at a work conference for a day, and then happened to be there was a PGA championship in Louisville, Kentucky, as well.
Steve Lewit: Just happened to be there.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, of course.
Steve Lewit: Coincidentally.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m not actually a big golf fan, so I did not go there for the PGA event, but I did go. We did go, me and Steve Thomas, our operations manager here, because he is a big golf fan, so we decided to check it out. I have never seen more crowds of people in my entire life than at this PGA championship.
Steve Lewit: It was mob… I bet there are 100,000 people there.
Gabriel Lewit: Hundreds of thousands of people, and no wonder inflation’s still going up, because the mad rush of people. When we were leaving this event, we were just there for one day, some people stay the entire time, it’s pretty interesting, but they have this massive, massive… what’s it called? Souvenir tent. I mean, it was like a souvenir building.
Steve Lewit: Like a store.
Gabriel Lewit: Store that they set up there, like a mall. Just a massive store. It was like rabid animals, all the people just running through this place to buy very expensive merchandise.
Steve Lewit: Autographed shirts, autographed shoes-
Gabriel Lewit: I mean, so people are just dropping hundreds and hundreds of dollars on this golf gear and on the tickets and on the parking and on the Ubers. So yeah, people are very much traveling. They’re spending. We talked to people that were flying in from all over the country.
Steve Lewit: All over the world. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: The world. Just to see this PGA championship. So yeah, very interesting. And when we talk about inflation here, inflation is cooling, but it’s clear that people are still in a spending mode, from my opinion, just what I saw there.
Steve Lewit: Well, definitely spending is up, and what spending does is drive prices up, and especially at an event like that, where they’re gouging the prices because they know you’re emotionally involved. You have to have your, I don’t know, Jordan Spieth t-shirt or whatever it is.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I saw just a hat, it was Valhalla Golf Course, a hat, $49. I’m like, “I don’t know.” I don’t buy hats that often, but it sounded like a lot of money to me for a hat.
Steve Lewit: No, compare that to the natural beauty of a retreat place high in the mountains in fresh air, hearing the birds, tweeting along-
Gabriel Lewit: Tweeping?
Steve Lewit: … and the wind blowing through your-
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Was this a writing retreat? I see you’re using your vocabulary.
Steve Lewit: Well, it kind of was.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. All right. So, let’s dive into our tips here. So, this one, we pulled some information from a Kiplinger letter. Sometimes we have all sorts of sources of interesting information for you, our valued listener. So, Kiplinger here thinks that the overall travel volume this summer will break records with over 4.7 billion people expected to travel this year. And, of course, with much of that crush in the summer.
Steve Lewit: That’s a lot of peeps.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s a lot of peeps. Okay? 4.7 billion. So, no wonder things are crowded. People are still, of course, they called it revenge travel after COVID. Right? Trying to get your revenge and having no travel by doing extra travel. Apparently, Kiplinger thinks that’s over, and this is just regular travel.
Steve Lewit: This is regular travel. They’ve got that out of their system.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, exactly. But things are more mob than they’ve ever been, so I think if you’re planning traveling for this summer, you may want to account for that, in what you do.
Steve Lewit: And guys, don’t travel, if you can avoid it, on any of the holiday weekends. It is madness, it is madness. Now, when I travel, I try to fly out on Monday, not on the weekend, because it’s crazy on the weekend. And even Monday is a… Flying on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is your best bet for flying.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, Kiplinger here says that they expect domestic airfare to be in line with 2023, which is interesting. Not a huge amount of inflation there. I can attest to that. When I booked the flight to Louisville, it was actually surprisingly cheap compared to what I was expecting it to be.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, well we-
Gabriel Lewit: And I was like, “That’s not bad-
Steve Lewit: Well, we just-
Gabriel Lewit: … that’s not bad.”
Steve Lewit: … booked tickets out to Salt Lake City and I was surprised it wasn’t that bad either.
Gabriel Lewit: No.
Steve Lewit: So, there’s some good deals out there, but on the big days, airlines are just like everybody else. If there’s a big demand, they’re going to keep the prices high and pay through the nose.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. So where are people traveling to this summer? In the U.S., the top spots, according to Kiplinger here, is New York City, your hometown.
Steve Lewit: My hometown.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, Los-
Steve Lewit: Always. I don’t know why people are traveling to Los Angeles.
Gabriel Lewit: Los Angeles is a-
Steve Lewit: Why? Why?
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know. And followed by Seattle, Orlando, and Las Vegas.
Steve Lewit: That was a very uninteresting answer, “I don’t know.”
Gabriel Lewit: I do not know why. I do not know. It’s the City of Angels. Right? Isn’t that the nickname?
Steve Lewit: You could guess something.
Gabriel Lewit: You could view the Hollywood sign, which you see in every movie.
Steve Lewit: Instead of just wiping that off, “I don’t know.”
Gabriel Lewit: It will be less hot in California in the summer than Las Vegas.
Steve Lewit: L.A. is just… why would anyone want to go there? I don’t know.
Gabriel Lewit: You could spot a celebrity.
Steve Lewit: Maybe.
Gabriel Lewit: Many, many reasons.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I guess.
Gabriel Lewit: I did just have a client come back from Las Vegas, so yes, it seems to be a popular spot-
Steve Lewit: Vegas-
Gabriel Lewit: … for folks.
Steve Lewit: … for sure.
Gabriel Lewit: Yep. Okay, now the most popular international destinations.
Steve Lewit: Spain.
Gabriel Lewit: Cancun, Mexico.
Steve Lewit: Not Spain.
Gabriel Lewit: London.
Steve Lewit: Not Spain.
Gabriel Lewit: Followed by Rome, Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, wasn’t expecting that one, and Paris.
Steve Lewit: Paris. Yay, Paris. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, Paris. Okay. Also busy, Auckland, New Zealand. Okay?
Steve Lewit: Why?
Gabriel Lewit: Hong Kong.
Steve Lewit: Why?
Gabriel Lewit: Osaka, Japan and Hanoi and Da Nang, Vietnam.
Steve Lewit: Now, can I ask you a question, Gabriel? If you and your wife are sitting down and say, “Where should we go?” Would you say, “You know, I was thinking about Auckland, New Zealand.”
Gabriel Lewit: Or Hanoi, Vietnam. Yes.
Steve Lewit: That’s the kind of trip for people-
Gabriel Lewit: I’ve got a client going to Thailand this summer.
Steve Lewit: My brother went to some place like Hanoi or somewhere, but they’ve done a lot of traveling. You see, people that do a lot of traveling can go to these foreign places that very few people go to.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, yeah.
Steve Lewit: But the typical places are, as you said, Mexico, Cancun, Paris, Spain wasn’t on the list.
Gabriel Lewit: It was not on the list.
Steve Lewit: I’m trying to get it on the list.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, producer Gabby, who I think we’ve introduced on the show, but she and producer Katie are our main quarterbacks of getting us organized for the show.
Steve Lewit: Good luck with that.
Gabriel Lewit: Can you pull up the… there’s the Summer Olympics-
Steve Lewit: July?
Gabriel Lewit: … is this summer.
Steve Lewit: July, August.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, the Summer Olympic Games are coming up. They are the, what’s that? Triple X… Is that the 33? I can’t read that from here. 33, I think, Summer Olympics. They are in Paris 2024, of course, and they start on July 26 of this summer. So, if you have an interest in seeing the Summer Olympics, now you know, if you didn’t already, and be prepared for many, many crowds.
Steve Lewit: Well, again, if you’re flying international, you want to know where the Olympics are… don’t fly to Paris.
Gabriel Lewit: During that time, if you’re not thinking about going to the Olympics. Yes.
Steve Lewit: And the other thing you’ve got to follow is where Taylor Swift is doing her tour, because she creates traffic jams.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, she does. Okay.
Steve Lewit: And so, if you’re not a Swiftie, just check it out. Where is she? And don’t go there.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, now being the financial people we are if Kiplinger tells us if you want to go somewhere where the dollar will go further look at Southeast Asia and Japan. Okay, that’s according to Kiplinger. And last but not least, be prepared for delays and high gas prices, as always in the summertime.
Steve Lewit: Well, I don’t know about the high gas prices, but I can tell you all about delays.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, I know you can, I know you can. Well, and as far as just general financial planning tips, you and I talk about this a lot, but don’t overspend. Try not to overspend excessively and put your retirement in jeopardy if you don’t otherwise have the money. There are many great local trips you can do that might cost you less.
In fact, we’re going to give you some options here in just a moment. I’m going to circle back to places that will actually pay you, not so much to visit, but to move and maybe you want to visit them to see if it’s a place you would want to move to, and then they will pay you money to move to their small towns.
Steve Lewit: Well, here’s the thing. I’ve talked to a lot of clients about travel, and they say, “When are the prices going to come down?” And folks, we’ve had some very bad inflation years and prices went up, and inflation is down now around 3.4%, which is-
Gabriel Lewit: Producer Gabby, what do we have here? We’ve got that data for you.
Steve Lewit: 3.4%, I think.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, 3.4% down from 3.5%.
Steve Lewit: Well, but two years ago it was 9%, so prices jump, and everyone thinks when inflation goes away, it gets down to that 2%, that prices will come down, but they don’t.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, inflation being 2% means they’ll still go up.
Steve Lewit: They’ll go up to 2%. It doesn’t mean they’re going to go down to what they were three years ago, and you’ve got to realize that and start planning to have these higher-
Gabriel Lewit: Travel budgets.
Steve Lewit: … everyday expenses, because if you’re waiting for the prices to come down, you’ll be waiting an awfully long time.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, if anybody out there would like a list of things to budget for when you plan your travel, we have a handy list for you. We’d be happy to send that to you. You can just email us, info@sglfinancial.com, any point in time, and we will send you that checklist or budgeting spreadsheet, some stuff to help you get organized financially for a fun summer vacation of travel.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, good stuff.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. So now, speaking of inflation, we mentioned that it’s come down a little bit here, but a recent article caught my eye. It was about McDonald’s prices, and it was just about a week ago, and I thought it would help to showcase the impact of inflation. Now, obviously, inflation’s one of our themes for this year. We are keeping an eye on it for you.
It’s something that’s driving the economy, it’s something that’s driving the Federal Reserve’s response to interest rates. It has a lot of impact on the market and on many things, so it’s something we’re going to keep talking about this year, because it’s one of our themes. And to illustrate that point, what’s better than checking on your local McDonald’s prices?
Steve Lewit: My favorite fast food.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, you used to eat at McDonald’s-
Steve Lewit: I did.
Gabriel Lewit: … every single day for like-
Steve Lewit: No, not every-
Gabriel Lewit: … five years.
Steve Lewit: … day. But I did make it a habit, and it was really the-
Gabriel Lewit: Every time I would get in the car, “Where we going?” “McDonald’s.”
Steve Lewit: Well, they had this great salad. The chicken was okay, but the salad was really good. It actually had real… not fake lettuce or anything. It was really, really good, but they got rid of the salads, they got rid of the chicken, and now all you have is hamburgers.
Gabriel Lewit: Can I tell you something, though?
Steve Lewit: What?
Gabriel Lewit: I’m going to share this list of-
Steve Lewit: The fries are the best.
Gabriel Lewit: Ironically enough, I think when you and I used to go to McDonald’s a lot during this kick of yours, it was around 2014, probably about 10 years ago, because I distinctly remember the prices that I’m going to share with you here. Because in 2014 a McChicken was a one dollar… remember they had a dollar menu at McDonald’s?
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: And the McChicken was like the best item on there, and I would sometimes buy that when you and I would go.
Steve Lewit: Yep, you did.
Gabriel Lewit: And you get a medium fry for $1.59, and it says here you get… Oh, I didn’t get the McDoubles, but you get a McDouble for $1.19. This was all the 2014 costs, folks. A McChicken was one dollar. Man, you could come out of there with a medium drink, a McChicken, and a medium fries for four bucks.
Steve Lewit: You bet, and that was very important for part of the population of America that is tight on money, to have that option of getting fairly good food, I mean, it’s still fast food, but you have that option of going in for four, five bucks, I can eat a meal.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, well-
Steve Lewit: Now, compare that to today.
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s compare that to today. So, the number one increased item since 2014, now, I don’t know if you guys like McDonald’s or not, or maybe you’ve noticed this, if you have noticed these trends, we’d love to hear from you, get your thoughts. Some of the comments on this article were hilarious, people just kind of ripping into McDonald’s and these prices. But the McChicken is now $2.99. Now, if you have inflation of, call it, 3% a year for 10 years, Mr. Lewit, would a $1 McChicken cost $2.99?
Steve Lewit: No way. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Normal inflation would be like a dollar to $1.40 maybe, over that kind of time-
Steve Lewit: It’s like a-
Gabriel Lewit: … frame, right?
Steve Lewit: … 14% inflation or something like that.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, so that’s 199% increase over 10 years.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it’s insane.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. The medium fries went from $1.59 to $3.79.
Steve Lewit: They’re good, but not that good.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. You’ve got a quarter pounder with cheese meal, okay?
Steve Lewit: I’m getting hungry.
Gabriel Lewit: Fries, burger, drink. Used to be $5.39. Very reasonable price, in my opinion, back in 2014. Go for $5.40, get a meal. It is now $11.99 for McDonald’s.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, and it’s like what do people do that have tight budgets, marginal income earners-
Gabriel Lewit: Well-
Steve Lewit: … lower income, what do they do to feed themselves?
Gabriel Lewit: … it’s not even just that. I mean, do you really want to pay $12 for McDonald’s food? You can go a lot of places and get stuff for about $12. Now, this was a sad one for me, because I’m a big Oreo fan, but the Oreo McFlurry is up $2.10, from $2.39 to $4.49.
Steve Lewit: Five dollars, four and a half bucks for an Oreo flurry.
Gabriel Lewit: McFlurry.
Steve Lewit: McFlurry.
Gabriel Lewit: Which is like watered-down milk with Oreos.
Steve Lewit: With sugar-
Gabriel Lewit: Frozen milk with Oreos.
Steve Lewit: … with sugar.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh my goodness. So, this is the challenge. And the other challenge, too, is something even more devious called shrinkflation, which I think we’ve-
Steve Lewit: I love it. We mentioned this a while ago.
Gabriel Lewit: I think we talked about this.
Steve Lewit: We did.
Gabriel Lewit: But yeah, it’s one of those things where you’ve got to be careful, because not only are some of these prices higher, some of the ounces of chicken, this doesn’t tell us in this article, but I would not even be surprised if some of these same fries, the mediums, are probably what used to be the smalls. Right? And the larges… everything is smaller than-
Steve Lewit: So, the price went up and the amount of food you get went down.
Gabriel Lewit: Went down simultaneously.
Steve Lewit: Simultaneously, right.
Gabriel Lewit: Which is even more of a sneaky way of paying for inflation.
Steve Lewit: Well, shrinkflation drives me crazy because, look, they serve peanuts on the plane, right? So, I open the bag of peanuts, and there’s like five peanuts in there. It’s like, “Where did they all go?”
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well-
Steve Lewit: The bag was the same size.
Gabriel Lewit: We’ve got another article, and speaking of France and Paris and the Olympics, the good news is, if you go there, France is putting in a rule where companies have to label the product if they shrinkflate it.
Steve Lewit: I love it. Right?
Gabriel Lewit: Right? In fact, in this article, it’s giving an example of a company that did not change the size of their chocolate bars and labeled it, “Now, a bigger size.”
Steve Lewit: You pay more for the bigger size that’s the-
Gabriel Lewit: How is that fair-
Steve Lewit: No, that’s not-
Gabriel Lewit: … to poor people out there? Right? Trying to-
Steve Lewit: It’s not fair to anybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Girl Scout Cookies have less cookies.
Steve Lewit: They do.
Gabriel Lewit: This is an abomination.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, the Girl Scouts should-
Gabriel Lewit: This is no good.
Steve Lewit: … ashamed of themselves.
Gabriel Lewit: Right? This is not okay.
Steve Lewit: This is very bad, very bad.
Gabriel Lewit: So yeah, product transparency. Write to your local senators, folks. Tell them, “We demand no shrinkflation.” Hidden tricks and games, all about the profitability. Okay?
Steve Lewit: Yep, all about the money.
Gabriel Lewit: It is, indeed. It is, indeed. All right, well, that was mostly what I wanted to say about inflation. Oh, yeah, McDonald’s did say, because people are very unhappy with McDonald’s right now, so to try to get some market share back, apparently, they are now considering re-bringing back a $5 meal deal.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it’ll have half a bun, half a burger-
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t see how, if it’s $12, how are they-
Steve Lewit: … and two fries.
Gabriel Lewit: How are they going to magically get it back down to $5? Okay, I don’t know. You tell me that one.
Steve Lewit: That’s America, man. That’s what this country is built on. What’ll happen is somebody will start a new fad that will come in underneath McDonald’s and draw customers away.
Gabriel Lewit: Probably.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. But in the meantime, inflation, folks, is a big deal. Like Gabriel said, it is coming down. It’s still higher than we want it to be, so don’t expect the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates or anything like that this year, as far as I’m concerned.
Gabriel Lewit: You don’t think so?
Steve Lewit: Nope.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, it could be people used to think the interest rate environment was going to begin to decrease here in Q2, maybe Q3, but it does appear that’s going to be pushed back. Yep.
Steve Lewit: Yup, yup.
Gabriel Lewit: Yup, yup. Okay.
Steve Lewit: Yup, yup.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, let’s assume-
Steve Lewit: Surely.
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s assume that you are, maybe, thinking fiscally conservative, right? You’re trying to save some money, you’re worried about inflation, maybe you’re trying to stretch your retirement dollars further and you’re thinking about where to travel this year. Well, I’ve got the perfect solution for you.
Steve Lewit: You’re really on travel today.
Gabriel Lewit: I told you, that was our theme for today. Okay?
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: There are cities that will pay you up to $15,000 to move there.
Steve Lewit: Okay. I like it.
Gabriel Lewit: All right.
Steve Lewit: I think that’s a great idea. How long do you have to stay?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, and this is why this ties together. I’m just going to read the intro paragraph for you here, from the article.
Steve Lewit: I could work this deal.
Gabriel Lewit: It says, “Life in the United States is pretty expensive these days.” I would agree. “Between seemingly eternal inflation, high interest rates, and the exorbitant costs of healthcare, many Americans are looking for ways to keep more hard-earned dollars in their bank account.”
Steve Lewit: Like it.
Gabriel Lewit: “One option gaining traction, relocation packages offered by some smaller U.S. cities and towns to attract new residents.”
Steve Lewit: Like it. Okay.
Gabriel Lewit: All right.
Steve Lewit: I like it.
Gabriel Lewit: So, let’s say you’re able to work remotely, many people still are, and you don’t have any particular destination in mind, you could hop around to some of these towns here that we’ll share with you and put some extra money in your pocket.
Steve Lewit: But what I want to know is can you go from town to town, like move every year?
Gabriel Lewit: Game the system?
Steve Lewit: Game the system.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, I’m not sure. That’s a good question. Okay.
Steve Lewit: Where are these places?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, let’s jump in.
Steve Lewit: Where are they?
Gabriel Lewit: Now, here’s the trick, right? If you like the idea of this, maybe you pick one of these… I would say, before you move there, maybe you take a short trip.
Steve Lewit: But where is there? Come on.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: Tulsa.
Steve Lewit: That’s in Oklahoma.
Gabriel Lewit: That one didn’t do it for you?
Steve Lewit: No, I’m trying to picture Oklahoma on a map.
Gabriel Lewit: I think it’s the panhandle, right? Is Oklahoma the-
Steve Lewit: Oklahoma’s-
Gabriel Lewit: … panhandle?
Steve Lewit: … just above something.
Gabriel Lewit: Can you do a map of the U.S. here?
Steve Lewit: Is it just above Texas? It’s a very popular state.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it’s the panhandle. Yeah.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Oh, it’s the panhandle. You’re right.
Gabriel Lewit: Right above Texas.
Steve Lewit: Right above Texas.
Gabriel Lewit: We were both right.
Steve Lewit: We were both right.
Gabriel Lewit: Look at that.
Steve Lewit: Geniuses.
Gabriel Lewit: We know our geography.
Steve Lewit: Geniuses here.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, so-
Steve Lewit: No, I’m not going to Tulsa.
Gabriel Lewit: The program aims to have 4,000 members take part in this deal by 2027.
Steve Lewit: 4,000 people.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, yeah. And you must relocate to Tulsa within 12 months of approval and be at least 18 years old. Here’s what you do if you have a-
Steve Lewit: Or you send-
Gabriel Lewit: … son-
Steve Lewit: … your kid out there.
Gabriel Lewit: … or daughter living in your house-
Steve Lewit: I love it.
Gabriel Lewit: … you want to get them out of town, send them to Oklahoma.
Steve Lewit: Send them to Oklahoma. You’re-
Gabriel Lewit: You could even keep the $15,000.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, you’re on your own in Tulsa, kid. Okay, go to work.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Okay, here we’ve got another one. This one might be more your style, Steve. West Virginia.
Steve Lewit: West Virginia?
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: Now, I know Virginia’s over there. West-
Gabriel Lewit: It’s west of regular Virginia.
Steve Lewit: Well, what town is in West Virginia?
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s see here. There are some different communities. It does not say. Hold on, hold on. Greenbrier Valley, New River Gorge, and there might be some others here. But if you like rugged landscapes and zip lining and rock climbing and outdoorsy perks, West Virginia might be for you, and you can put $12,000 in your pocket.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. For outdoorsy people, that sounds great.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, yeah.
Steve Lewit: Worth $12,000.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. What’s see what else we got on the list.
Steve Lewit: All right.
Gabriel Lewit: We’ve got Indiana. So maybe if you’re here in Illinois and you just want to move close enough to still see your family and friends, you can-
Steve Lewit: Where in Indiana?
Gabriel Lewit: Noblesville.
Steve Lewit: Noblesville, Indiana.
Gabriel Lewit: Suburb of Indianapolis.
Steve Lewit: Oh, that place.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, no. Here’s what’s-
Steve Lewit: Noblesville, Indiana.
Gabriel Lewit: Here’s what you get. It gets better. You get a $5,000 relocation grant, a season of free golf at two courses, and coffee with the mayor.
Steve Lewit: Wow.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s a package worth an equivalent of $15,000.
Steve Lewit: I’ve always wanted to meet the mayor of Noblesville.
Gabriel Lewit: Noblesville. Yeah, and there’s an incentive that includes $5,000 more in cash, museum passes, and a one-year membership to the oldest urban old-growth forest in the U.S.
Steve Lewit: I’m getting excited. I can feel the enthusiasm bubbling in my veins.
Gabriel Lewit: I’m having a lot of fun-
Steve Lewit: It’s great.
Gabriel Lewit: … with this. I hope you folks are having fun with this, too. Okay, okay. It gets better. We’ve got Topeka, Kansas.
Steve Lewit: I don’t think anyone’s going to listen to this podcast after the next one.
Gabriel Lewit: I’ve said this before. We try to have fun, we try to keep things interesting, not everything is nitty-gritty financial retirement planning. Okay? But yeah, you’ve got Topeka, Kansas. Kentucky. I was just there. I don’t have any clue where Mayfield and Graves County is, but you do get other perks like 50% off after school childcare, lunch with the mayor, one up coffee. Okay? And hold on-
Steve Lewit: Why am I laughing out loud here?
Gabriel Lewit: … a free monthly delivery of eggs.
Steve Lewit: This is ridiculous.
Gabriel Lewit: You get a free monthly delivery of eggs.
Steve Lewit: How desperate are these people to get somebody to live in their town?
Gabriel Lewit: I am moving there for the free eggs-
Steve Lewit: Definitely.
Gabriel Lewit: … every month.
Steve Lewit: Are they free-range, though?
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know. Yeah, okay.
Steve Lewit: If they’re free-range eggs, I’m coming.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh, and by the way, you get extra money if you bring your spouse. How does that even work?
Steve Lewit: Oh, you can go without your spouse?
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, apparently you can go without your spouse.
Steve Lewit: You can have a commuting relationship.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. All right. There’s The Shoals of Alabama. Okay, yep.
Steve Lewit: Where’s that? Alabama’s way down south, right?
Gabriel Lewit: You can get Rochester, New York.
Steve Lewit: Rochester’s actually a pretty neat town.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, that’s not a bad one.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it’s a pretty neat town.
Gabriel Lewit: Rochester, New York.
Steve Lewit: It used to be God awful and it’s really come a long way.
Gabriel Lewit: There is Alaska, if you are really interested in moving away from your family, you’ve got Alaska that will pay you some money to move there. And let’s see what else we got here, Michigan. Michigan.
Steve Lewit: Where?
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s see. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. Oh, it’s for college scholarships. Okay, that’s a little different. That’s a little different. All right. So those are your choices.
Steve Lewit: You know, Gabriel, that was-
Gabriel Lewit: Those are your choices.
Steve Lewit: … one of the more exciting slots that we have done in a long time.
Gabriel Lewit: Where would you pick? Where would you pick?
Steve Lewit: Nowhere. I don’t want to move anywhere, to these places.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Let’s say you were going to witness relocation, this is kind of like a get to know Steve session, you’re going into witness relocation, and you got to pick one of these towns and you’ll even get all the perks that they give you.
Steve Lewit: I get coffee with the mayor.
Gabriel Lewit: Which one would you pick?
Steve Lewit: Do I get lunch with the mayor?
Gabriel Lewit: That’s a different town.
Steve Lewit: Oh, that’s a different-
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah.
Steve Lewit: I have to pick off this list?
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, you got to pick off this list.
Steve Lewit: Oh my god.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, let me repeat. You’ve got Tulsa, Oklahoma, West Virginia-
Steve Lewit: No.
Gabriel Lewit: … Indiana, Noblesville-
Steve Lewit: No.
Gabriel Lewit: … coffee with the mayor. You’ve got-
Steve Lewit: No way.
Gabriel Lewit: … Topeka, Kansas.
Steve Lewit: Maybe.
Gabriel Lewit: Kentucky. That gets you free eggs and the lunch with the mayor.
Steve Lewit: Oh my gosh.
Gabriel Lewit: And you’ve got Rochester or The Shoals of Alabama.
Steve Lewit: I’d go to Rochester.
Gabriel Lewit: Rochester, New York?
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay.
Steve Lewit: Do I get lunch or do I get-
Gabriel Lewit: No.
Steve Lewit: No?
Gabriel Lewit: No, you get nothing.
Steve Lewit: Do I get a dozen potatoes a week or something like that?
Gabriel Lewit: You get nothing.
Steve Lewit: I don’t get anything?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, no, you got some money.
Steve Lewit: How much money do I get?
Gabriel Lewit: Rochester got you-
Steve Lewit: Rochester.
Gabriel Lewit: … $10,000.
Steve Lewit: $10,000 from Rochester, folks, it’s a deal.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, okay.
Steve Lewit: It’s a deal.
Gabriel Lewit: So also, $9,000 more if you buy a home.
Steve Lewit: And if I bring my wife, they give you $5,000. They give you less.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Well, we hope you had a good time, folks, talking a little bit about travel, vacation. We would love to hear and see pictures of your travel destinations this summer if you-
Steve Lewit: Yeah, that’d be really neat.
Gabriel Lewit: If you have any interest in sharing that with us, we’d love to see it. You can email us, info@sglfinancial.com. And, of course, if you have questions about your financial planning or if you’re worried about how inflation’s impacting your retirement budget or any other parts about your finances that we can assist you with, give us a call, 847-499-3330.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, and that’s especially so, folks, if you’re thinking of traveling and wondering, “Can we afford that trip?” or you’re saying, “No, we can’t. We should do that other trip,” come in and check that out with us, because a lot of folks think they can’t afford what they actually can afford. A lot of people overspend, I understand that, but a lot of you all out there have this idea that it’s kind of like a non-abundance idea that you can’t afford to spend when you actually can. So come in and check that out with us, so you can just have a phenomenal summer.
Gabriel Lewit: In Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Steve Lewit: I’ll see you-
Gabriel Lewit: I’m just kidding.
Steve Lewit: I’m going to make up a song, “I’ll See You in Tulsa.”
Gabriel Lewit: There you go. All right, our friends, have a wonderful day. We will talk to you on the next show.
Steve Lewit: Stay well, everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Bye-bye.
Steve Lewit: Bye.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Our 2 Cents with Steve and Gabriel Lewit. For any questions about your finances, give SGL a call at 847-499-3330 or visit us on the web at sglfinancial.com, and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.
Prerecorded Voice: Investment Advisory Services are offered through SGL Financial LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Insurance and other financial products are offered separately through individually licensed and appointed agents.
