Cleveland is a city full of opportunities and challenges. Known for its culture, strong sports professional teams, and affordable cost of living, Cleveland has a lot to offer new residents and lifetime locals alike.
That said, every city has its fair share of downsides, and Cleveland is no exception. In this article, we’ll explore seven of the most impactful pros and cons of living in Cleveland, providing a detailed look at what you can expect if you decide to call this city home.
Cleveland at a glance
Walk Score: 57| Bike Score: 52 | Transit Score: 44 Median Sale Price: $125,000 | Average Rent for 1-Bedroom Apartment: $1,536 Cleveland neighborhoods | Houses for rent in Cleveland | Apartments for rent in Cleveland | Homes for sale in Cleveland
1. Pro: Affordable cost of living
Cleveland’s cost of living is significantly lower than the national average, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious residents. Housing prices are affordable, well below the national median of $432,849. Apartments in Cleveland follow a similar trend, going for around $1,589 on average.
2. Con: Harsh winters
While not one of the coldest cities in the U.S., one of the biggest drawbacks of living in Cleveland is its long, cold, and snowy winters. Thanks to its location near Lake Erie, Cleveland experiences heavy snowfall due to lake-effect snowstorms. Temperatures can drop well below freezing, and the city’s infrastructure often struggles to manage the snow and ice that accumulate throughout the season. For those who are not fond of winter weather, this could be a major drawback, as Cleveland winters often last from November until March.
3. Pro: Strong healthcare industry
Cleveland is home to some of the best healthcare facilities in the country, with the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals leading the charge. These institutions not only provide top-notch medical care but also offer ample employment opportunities for those in the healthcare field. Whether you’re seeking treatment from world-class doctors or looking for a job in a thriving medical community, Cleveland’s healthcare industry is a draw for many.
4. Con: Declining public transportation
While Cleveland’s public transportation system used to be stellar, it has seen a decline in recent years. The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) still offers bus and train services, but the routes are often limited, and many neighborhoods are underserved. Residents who rely on public transit may find it inconvenient, particularly if they live outside the city’s core. While driving is a common solution, it does add to commuting times and traffic, especially during rush hours and winter storms.
5. Pro: Elite entertainment options
Cleveland’s culture sets the standard for large Ohio cities. The city is home to the renowned Cleveland Museum of Art, Playhouse Square (one of the largest theater districts in the country), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cleveland’s sports teams, including the Cleveland Browns (NFL), Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA), and Cleveland Guardians (MLB), have passionate fan bases, providing year-round entertainment for sports fans. Needless to say, there’s always something to do in Cleveland.
6. Con: Aging infrastructure
Like many older cities, Cleveland faces challenges with its aging infrastructure. Roads, bridges, and public buildings often require repair, leading to large-scale construction projects and delays. While the city is working to improve its infrastructure, these efforts can feel slow, and the ongoing construction can be a nuisance for locals, particularly drivers who may face detours or pothole-filled roads.
7. Pro: Thriving food scene
Cleveland’s food scene has exploded in recent years, with a variety of restaurants offering everything from fine dining to casual eats. The city is known for its ethnic diversity, with neighborhoods like Little Italy, Tremont, and Ohio City offering authentic global cuisine. From Polish pierogies to Hungarian pastries, there’s no shortage of unique dining experiences. Cleveland also has a growing craft beer scene, with local breweries, like Bookhouse Brewery, becoming popular spots for residents to kick back and stay connected.
A native of the northern suburbs of Chicago, Carson made his way to the South to attend Wofford College where he received his BA in English. After working as a copywriter for a couple of boutique marketing agencies in South Carolina, he made the move to Atlanta and quickly joined the Rent. team as a content marketing coordinator. When he’s off the clock, you can find Carson reading in a park, hunting down a great cup of coffee or hanging out with his dogs.
Before we dive into the top Columbus suburbs, let’s cover how much it costs to live in Columbus. The overall cost of living in Columbus is about 6% lower than the national average, making it an affordable option for many. Housing is a key factor, with the median sale price for a home in Columbus at $277,400, which is significantly lower than the national average of $432,657. Rent follows a similar trend, with the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Columbus at $1,393, also lower than the national average of $1,514.
While some suburbs around Columbus offer more affordable options, others can be more upscale. Here, we’ll explore a range of top suburbs, providing different lifestyle and housing opportunities depending on your budget and preferences.
If you’re looking for more specific rental insights, check out our guide on the 12 Most Expensive Neighborhoods in Columbus to Rent in 2024.
1. Dublin
Known for: Friendly community, excellent schools, and outdoor spaces
Dublin is one of the most popular suburbs of Columbus, known for its top-rated schools and well-planned communities. Located northwest of downtown Columbus, Dublin offers an array of parks and outdoor recreational areas, including the scenic Indian Run Falls and the Dublin Community Recreation Center. The city is also home to several corporate headquarters, making it a hub for business professionals. The annual Dublin Irish Festival draws visitors from all over, adding a unique cultural element to this suburb.
Population: 49,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,678 Median home sale price: $587,500 Dublin transportation scores: Walk Score 17, Bike Score 45
Apartments for rent in Dublin, OH | Houses for rent in Dublin, OH | Homes for sale in Dublin, OH
2. Westerville
Known for: Historic charm, community-oriented atmosphere, and proximity to Otterbein University
Westerville, northeast of Columbus, is known for its blend of historic charm and modern living. The downtown area is filled with unique shops, local eateries, and historic landmarks. Westerville’s community-oriented atmosphere makes it a sought-after location, and it’s home to Otterbein University, which adds a vibrant energy to the area. The Hoover Reservoir Park is a major attraction, offering boating, fishing, and hiking opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts.
Population: 40,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,349 Median home sale price: $407,000 Westerville transportation scores: Walk Score 28, Bike Score 50
Apartments for rent in Westerville, OH | Houses for rent in Westerville, OH | Homes for sale in Westerville, OH
3. New Albany
Known for: Luxury living, scenic beauty, and high-end amenities
New Albany is one of the most affluent suburbs in the Columbus metropolitan area. Located just northeast of Columbus, this suburb is known for its luxury homes, well-maintained parks, and the New Albany Country Club. New Albany offers a picturesque living environment with beautifully landscaped streets and homes, attracting professionals seeking upscale living. The area also boasts a strong arts community, with the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts hosting regular events and performances.
Population: 11,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,503 Median home sale price: $745,000 New Albany transportation scores: Walk Score 59, Bike Score 46
Apartments for rent in New Albany, OH | Houses for rent in New Albany, OH | Homes for sale in New Albany, OH
4. Grove City
Known for: Small-town feel, growing amenities, and convenient access to Columbus
Grove City is a growing suburb located southwest of Columbus. Known for its small-town charm and sense of community, Grove City has been expanding its retail and dining options to meet the needs of new residents. The town offers an array of parks, including Fryer Park, which features a pond, sports fields, and a space-themed playground. Grove City’s proximity to downtown Columbus makes it an attractive option for commuters seeking a suburban lifestyle with easy access to the city.
Population: 42,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,364 Median home sale price: $375,000 Grove City transportation scores: Walk Score 27, Bike Score 48
Apartments for rent in Grove City, OH | Houses for rent in Grove City, OH | Homes for sale in Grove City, OH
5. Upper Arlington
Known for: Quiet neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, and proximity to Ohio State University
Upper Arlington, located just west of downtown Columbus, is a well-established suburb known for its quiet, tree-lined streets and strong sense of community. The suburb offers easy access to Ohio State University, making it a popular choice for university staff and students. Upper Arlington is also home to several parks, including the Scioto River Trail, which provides scenic views of the water. With a variety of housing options, from mid-century homes to modern apartments, Upper Arlington is ideal for those looking for a peaceful yet connected lifestyle.
Population: 36,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,533 Median home sale price: $585,000 Upper Arlington transportation scores: Walk Score 45, Bike Score 49, Transit Score 26
Apartments for rent in Upper Arlington, OH | Houses for rent in Upper Arlington, OH | Homes for sale in Upper Arlington, OH
6. Powell
Known for: Scenic beauty, boutique shopping, and historic downtown
Powell is a picturesque suburb located north of Columbus, known for its boutique shopping and historic downtown district. The town’s scenic beauty is enhanced by nearby nature reserves and parks, including the Highbanks Metro Park. Powell is a perfect blend of suburban living with access to nature and city amenities. The historic downtown area offers a variety of local shops, restaurants, and seasonal events, making Powell a vibrant yet peaceful community.
Population: 13,000 Median home sale price: $608,000 Powell transportation scores: Walk Score 68, Bike Score 66
Apartments for rent in Powell, OH | Houses for rent in Powell, OH | Homes for sale in Powell, OH
Methodology: The suburbs included in this list were selected based on their overall popularity, determined by search trends and housing demand in the Columbus area. Average rent and home sale price data were sourced from Redfin and Rent.com as of October 2024. Transportation data, including Walk Scores, Bike Scores, and Transit Scores, was sourced from Walk Score.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:
Learn how presidential policies on tariffs, immigration, and prices can impact your everyday expenses like groceries and gas.
What can a president actually do to lower prices and fight inflation? Can campaign promises really impact your wallet, or are they just political hot air? Hosts Sean Pyles and Anna Helhoski discuss presidential policies and how they affect everything from the cost of gas to your grocery bill to help you understand the real impact of political decisions on your finances. They begin with a discussion of inflation, with tips and tricks on understanding how inflation is measured, what drives price hikes, and what role the president plays in influencing it.
Then, Anna talks to Derek Stimel, an associate professor of teaching economics at UC Davis, about the economic implications of tariffs and immigration policies. They discuss how tariffs raise the price of imported goods, how immigration impacts labor costs and wages, and what these political policies mean for your everyday purchases.
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Episode transcript
This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.
Sean Pyles:
What’s the first thing you do when you go to the grocery store? Do you run to the produce aisle and look for the freshest broccoli, maybe? Or conversely, are you heading for the candy section? I don’t judge. But pretty soon after that, you’re probably starting to look at prices, right? The price of, well, everything is a daily question in our lives. So it’s not surprising that prices are playing a part in this year’s presidential election.
Derek Stimel:
I just find it interesting that both presidential candidates have focused on these highly volatile markets, which we often think they really can’t do that much about, and that are often driven by these global forces basically. But both of them have focused on those as their avenues to bringing inflation down.
Sean Pyles:
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast. I’m Sean Pyles.
Anna Helhoski:
And I’m Anna Helhoski.
Sean Pyles:
And this is episode two of our Nerdy deep dive into presidential policy and personal finances. Hey Anna, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve got a presidential campaign underway.
Anna Helhoski:
Hard to miss it. Talk about drama. And every great drama has a storyline. One big part of this year’s storyline in the campaign has been prices, specifically inflation and what it’s done to our bottom lines.
Sean Pyles:
Yeah. Inflation hit a high of 9.1% back in 2022, and we’ve been paying a whole lot more for a lot of things over the last few years. And it’s not subtle, it’s very noticeable. Anna, is there anything specific that has popped up on your radar as more expensive than just a couple of years ago? Something where you said whoa, that is way more than I used to pay.
Anna Helhoski:
Yeah. So I have a bread place near me and a few years ago the prices were pretty reasonable for a big loaf of fresh bread, like $6 a loaf.
Sean Pyles:
Yeah, that’s like New York reasonable, I’ll say.
Anna Helhoski:
Yeah, exactly. No, that’s how I gauge everything. But then flour prices spiked and suddenly the price went up to nearly $10, which is way more than I’m willing to pay. What about you, Sean? Did gecko food get more expensive along with anything else?
Sean Pyles:
Since you mentioned it, crickets for my gecko Ozzy did go up about 12%. I now spend a whopping $2.25 a week for those creepy bugs for the old guy. Of course, it’s not just these one-off items, these are just the things that the two of us noticed in spades. Houses are more expensive, cars are more expensive, credit cards are more expensive. It just takes more out of your budget to buy stuff.
Anna Helhoski:
So what can a president do about it? As we heard in last week’s episode, the answer is not a lot by themselves. They often need Congress or the Fed or both, and sometimes a lot of luck to have an impact on the economy and specifically on prices. But that doesn’t stop them from making all kinds of promises about the changes they’d make if we sent them to or back to the White House. Let’s talk about what they can do in reality.
Sean Pyles:
And as we noted in the last episode, we’re not here to take sides or fan the flames of an already contentious political season. Our goal here is the same one we always have at NerdWallet, to help you, our listeners, make smart informed decisions about the stuff that impacts your finances. Sometimes that means choosing a new high-yield savings account. Other times that means voting for the candidate who you believe will help you achieve your life and financial goals.
All right, well, we want to hear what you think too, listeners. To share your thoughts around the election and your personal finances, leave us a voicemail or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-N-E-R-D. Or email a voice memo to [email protected]. So Anna, who are we hearing from today?
Anna Helhoski:
We’re talking with Derek Stimel. He’s an associate professor of teaching economics at the University of California, Davis. So not only is he an expert in macroeconomics, but he’s an expert in teaching it. He’ll help us parse what presidents can and can’t do to affect the price of all sorts of goods that we all buy. Derek Stimel, welcome to the show.
Derek Stimel:
Thanks for having me.
Anna Helhoski:
Presidential administrations tend to take the credit or get the blame for things that happen, at least when it comes to public perception. That means that the Biden-Harris administration has taken a lot of flak from the Republican Party and from many Americans for elevated prices that we’re seeing in the wake of the pandemic. And since we are just a few months away from a new administration, can you talk a little bit about how much influence presidents actually have on inflation and prices?
Derek Stimel:
Normally we don’t think of them as the major driver of inflation in the economy. Usually, it’s things like monetary policy, so interest rates, and the supply of money. Sometimes it can also be things outside of the economy, shocks as we sometimes say in economics. So things that happen globally, for example. Having said that, it’s not to say that there can’t be some causes that are driven by policy of the government. For example, in the current situation, some people do point to some government spending that took place in the aftermath of COVID and the policies surrounding that. That might’ve been some fuel for inflation. But it’s not usually the first thing we think of. In this particular situation of our recent inflation, I suspect it’s not the first number one thing causing the inflation.
Anna Helhoski:
Let’s get into some of the campaign promises that each candidate has made. Some of the promises might just be politicking, but some of it could become a reality. Start off with former President Donald Trump’s proposals. Thus far, there have been multiple reports and assessments from economists who say that his proposals, if enacted, would be inflationary. And one of the main drivers of that projected inflation is Trump’s promise to levy 10% across-the-board tariffs on all foreign goods. Can you explain how tariffs and prices interact?
Derek Stimel:
Tariffs are basically a tax on imported goods. For any tax, it’s going to have the following effects on the market, which is, the tax gets levied, let’s just say it’s the 10% just to have a number. And then the businesses basically have to, in a sense, make a decision about do we absorb this tax ourselves, do we pass it on to the customers, and if so, in what proportion? They may not pass on the full 10%, it’s unlikely they’re going to absorb the full 10% themselves. So there’s going to be a split. So in some loose setting, maybe they raise prices by 5% and they absorb 5% of it to get up to the 10, or maybe it’s 8 and 2, or 3 and 7, or what may be. But the point is that basically, it’s going to lead to higher prices on those products.
So in this particular situation, we’re talking about higher prices for imported goods. And I think as we’re all generally aware from our day-to-day shopping and if we ever look at the label of anything, we buy a lot of imported goods in the United States. So it’s not unreasonable to think that raising taxes essentially on imported goods would ultimately boost the prices of those imported goods and then on average raise our cost of living at least somewhat.
Anna Helhoski:
Now, Trump claims that his tariffs would spur American manufacturing and domestic competition for production. Is that something that does happen or would likely happen as a result of tariffs?
Derek Stimel:
So it definitely can happen that there could be some… you know, businesses have to make the best decisions based on the rules of the game as they are. Raising tariffs would definitely change the rules and businesses would likely respond to that. And so to the extent that they could and that the U.S. was a major market to them, at least some businesses would try to reallocate or relocate back into the U.S. in order to avoid this tariff, basically. But I think the question is: Would that be enough to counterbalance the effect of this higher tax across the board? I don’t have hard data on it, but the likely answer is it wouldn’t be enough. So we would still see higher prices as a result, and so we would have to deal with the consequences. But there could be some reallocation or relocation of businesses for sure.
Anna Helhoski:
Another promise Trump has made is to lower gas prices. Under his first administration, he increased oil production and then Biden went further still. So how much can a president impact gas prices?
Derek Stimel:
The gas market or the market for energy more broadly defined is very much a global market, but the U.S. is in a way in a unique position of being the center of that global market. You hear a lot about that the U.S. dollar is this global reserve currency. Oil for example is usually traded in dollars and that sort of thing. So we do have a little bit more power than some other countries. The answer would be maybe a bit different if it was us talking about Canada doing something or whatever. It is also probably true that gas prices or prices of energy in general are really often driven by these global shocks. So in this particular case, the disruptions that took place due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are really the prime mover probably of energy prices in the recent years. And it’s not clear that any president would be able to have done something about that directly. Obviously, it’s more of a geopolitical thing than an economic policy thing.
Anna Helhoski:
Switching gears again, I’m hoping you can talk a little about the connection between immigration and the prices that consumers pay for certain everyday goods and services. And note for listeners, as you may know, Trump has promised to use law enforcement and the National Guard to deport many millions of undocumented immigrants. Beyond the humanitarian implications and the logistical questions raised by this proposal, what are some of the economic implications?
Derek Stimel:
Kind of a classic way of thinking about it economically, especially when we’re talking about things like inflation, is that we think that business costs basically would drive a lot of inflation, or at least it could be a prime driver of inflation. And inside those business costs, labor costs are often a large portion of those costs. And of course, that has to do a lot with the supply of labor that’s available relative to the demand for that labor. And so we live in an aging society, the baby boomers are basically retiring. And of course, this is reducing our labor supply or at least likely to reduce our labor supply in the coming years. So what that would mean economically is that would tend to push up wages all else the same, which of course then could also push up prices. Businesses, when they face these increased labor costs, have to make a choice about how much to pass on to customers in terms of higher prices.
So with that all in mind, if you also cut off the amount of immigration into the economy, you would think that that’s likely to put further pressure on wages in the economy. It’s going to further, in a sense, reduce or at least not provide any extra slack for the supply of labor, and so that’s going to further push up wages and further push up prices overall. That’s not to say we shouldn’t think about reforming immigration in some way, shape, or form, but that’s just to say economically that if you reduce the supply of labor, the price of that labor, the wages, and all the other forms of compensation that come with it is going to go up and businesses are going to pass at least some of that on to customers in the form of higher prices.
Anna Helhoski:
And are there any specific areas of the economy that could be altered if you deport millions of people who were already in the workforce?
Derek Stimel:
There’s the initial disruption, uncertainty that would surround it, which could shake out in all sorts of ways, many of which are probably not positive. Imagine the local restaurant down the street suddenly loses half its staff. And what are they going to do? So we would expect a lot of service sector jobs to maybe be impacted by these sorts of things, a lot of things that we interact with daily. And then there’s also this issue about if you create shortages in one area, let’s say you create a shortage in one service sector, it could spill over to other unrelated service sectors as well. Maybe now the one sector has to basically go poach employees from the other one. And so maybe it starts to spill over into other areas where you wouldn’t think of, say, quote, unquote, “illegal immigrants” basically playing a role, but it actually could have this cascade to other markets.
Anna Helhoski:
More of our interview in a moment. Stay with us. I want to talk about Donald Trump’s proposal to weaken the power of the Federal Reserve by bringing the central bank under more direct control of the president. And listeners, we’ve said it before, but the Federal Reserve is nonpartisan and operates independently. That means that the president doesn’t tell the Fed what to do and the Fed doesn’t make its decisions based on politics. Derek, it seems like the separation is pretty crucial to ensuring public trust in the central bank’s ability to make decisions. But if Trump was successful in his plans to more directly influence the Fed’s activities, what are some of those economic implications?
Derek Stimel:
Stepping back for a second, we generally think that the Fed’s main role is to keep inflation, especially over the longer term, relatively low and stable. And one element that tends to be critical to that is their basically credibility to commit to that policy of keeping inflation low and doing what it takes. None of us liked in the recent years the interest rates going up, but it’s seen as this necessary thing to do to bring inflation back down to that longer-term goal. And so the concern basically is that a lot of that comes from the fact that the Fed is independent to some degree from the rest of the government. It’s important to understand that they’re not completely independent. The president plays a role in nominating people to serve in the Fed. Congress obviously has to approve these things. But this general separation of like, oh, you can’t tell us when to change interest rates or you can’t tell us we can’t do this policy and we have to do some other policy or whatever, that tends to be important as this inflation fighter credibility that the Fed has.
If that gets eroded, I think the concern would be basically that people in the economy start to not believe in the Fed as much as an inflation fighter. That lack of credibility starts to make people think, “Well, they say they want 2% inflation, but given that they’re tied to the rest of the government, I think it’s maybe going to be more like two and a half, 3%.” So expectations start to tick up on inflation. And one thing about inflation is that expectations really play an important role and they tend to be self-fulfilling. We all expect five, we’ll get five. And so basically the Fed’s independence is one of… There’s some others of course, but it’s one of the main things that’s tying down those expectations because it’s helping the Fed maintain its credibility to be there when we need them to fight inflation.
Anna Helhoski:
Well, those are the main things I want to talk about in terms of Donald Trump, but I want to switch gears and talk about Vice President Kamala Harris’s plans to battle inflation. She recently unveiled a plan to ban price gouging. So first off, what is price gouging and how have we seen it happen?
Derek Stimel:
So in economics, price gouging doesn’t really have a specific definition, to be honest with you, but the loose idea is that it’s taking, quote, unquote, for lack of a better term, “unfair advantage of a situation in order to raise prices.” Sometimes these situations are obvious, which are… There’s an earthquake that happens, let’s say, so suddenly the price of gas and water in the surrounding area is going to skyrocket. That kind of idea of taking advantage of other people’s misery and something that was really out of their control, a natural disaster, that’s really what we see as price gouging. So in this particular context, what we’re talking about with Vice President Harris is this view where, say, for example, grocery stores taking advantage of the circumstances to basically raise prices on their products in an unfair way. But it’s a bit nebulous once you start to get away from things that I think we all would agree are clearly things out of our control, like natural disasters.
Anna Helhoski:
And is there anything already in place to prevent price gouging?
Derek Stimel:
So states generally have laws that prevent price gouging in the situations we’re talking about like natural disasters, so hurricanes and floods and earthquakes, and so forth. What Vice President Harris is really talking about is basically a federal ban across the board on all forms of price gouging. At least that’s what I understand it to be. And we don’t have that. It’s not really clear what the criteria would be for that as well. So for example, if a company raises prices on its products by 5%, how do we decide if that’s just normal market forces or is it price gouging in some ways? In other words, how do we decide the fairness of it all? Generally speaking, in our economy, we let the markets work that out, and then everybody individually makes a decision about, nope, that’s too expensive, I’m not going to buy it, or I guess I’m willing to pay that price, that kind of thing.
Anna Helhoski:
So some critics of Harris’s proposal, including Donald Trump have said that this is a price control. So what is a price control? Why don’t economists like price controls and would Harris’s proposal to ban price gouging actually be a price control?
Derek Stimel:
Basically, a price control is essentially the government setting a maximum price in a marketplace. So sort of saying, “Hey, you can charge no more than X for this product.” And of course, we have price controls in the economy. The ones that people typically talk about classically are certain cities that have rent control. What people are basically saying is that this price gouging idea would in a way limit how much businesses can raise prices. And that would in a way be similar to what happens in a price control situation where the government often does cap how much a business can raise prices.
The good and bad of economics a lot of times is that there’s tradeoffs for everything. Concern would be basically that maybe grocery stores, because that’s the one that’s been central to all this argument, has really been the price of food, is that basically, maybe you wouldn’t see as many new grocery stores opening up, or at least in a lower frequency. Maybe you would start to see the quality of what’s on the shelves in the grocery stores start to decline a little bit. So on the one hand, you get the prices of the things you buy don’t go up as much maybe, but on the other hand, there’s less of them available and at least for some of them, maybe the quality of those products might go down a little bit.
Anna Helhoski:
So beyond preventing price gouging, Harris has also vowed to lower prescription drug prices and she wants to do this with price caps by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices, speeding up delivery of generic drugs, and cracking down on big pharma. So how impactful could some of these efforts be in terms of making prescription drug prices more affordable?
Derek Stimel:
Oh, it could. Not surprisingly, the federal government via Medicare is a huge consumer in this marketplace, which basically means they have a lot of power, market power we would call. In this particular case, the technical term is monopsony power. But basically, yeah, they would have a lot of power potentially to negotiate and there would be spillover effects for people who don’t have Medicare. In terms of being able to lower, say, prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to do this giant negotiation basically with the big pharma companies, that honestly could have a big impact on those prices for sure, because Medicare is so huge.
Anna Helhoski:
Right. And you touched on housing earlier, but let’s talk a little bit about Harris’s big proposals with her plans to make housing more affordable. One that really stuck out to me is a plan to prevent corporate landlords from using price-fixing algorithms.
Derek Stimel:
This is a brave new world that we’re in, and there’s a lot of times where regulation is behind the technology, where basically a lot of these businesses… And it’s of course not just in real estate, it’s in a lot of other areas as well, in finance in particular, where they basically use these computerized algorithms to essentially search for the deals that they want to transact. Is it price-fixing or is it the fact that all of these algorithms basically tend to point in the same direction because they often use the same data in order to churn through all their calculations? It’s not clear to me, I guess, how that might be enacted and then also what the implications would be.
Anna Helhoski:
And Harris said she would support construction of 3 million new housing units in the next four years, among other plans. And fundamentally, in order to lower housing prices or rent or the supply of homes for purchase, we just need more housing. So could Harris’s proposals spur more construction? And also what can a president do to facilitate housing growth?
Derek Stimel:
So much of this is local. I mean, so much of this is red tape based on local housing boards and all these other types of things, the “not in my backyard” kind of stuff. And so it’s not really clear what anybody at a national level could really do about that kind of stuff because so much of it is all of the local political machines and so forth that basically drive all these policies. As a general idea, I think the basic point that, yes, the way you have to basically lower housing prices or at least keep them from going up as much is to supply more housing, is definitely the answer. Because the housing market in a sense is unique compared to other markets, in that the supply is basically fixed by the number of units and very, what we would say in economics, inelastic. You’re not going to really get around that unless you just simply build more.
Anna Helhoski:
Derek, are there any other proposals from either of the candidates that we’re overlooking that could contribute to lowering prices or to increasing inflation?
Derek Stimel:
I think the last thing I would mention, I guess. I know President Trump wants to increase the domestic production of natural gas and coal and all that sort of thing. And I do find it interesting that both Vice President Harris and President Trump have focused on these areas of inflation. In the case of former President Trump, it’s energy costs, and in the case of Vice President Harris, it’s basically food costs. And these are the things that are specifically excluded by the Fed when they’re looking at the longer-term measures of inflation. So I just find it interesting that both presidential candidates have focused on these highly volatile markets, which we often think they really can’t do that much about, and that are often driven by these global forces, basically. But both of them have focused on those as their avenues to bringing inflation down.
I think the very last thing I might add in, which is probably too big to really get into, is the extent that the deficit and the national debt might play in terms of inflation in other parts of the economy, especially going forward as it’s ballooned a lot. There are some theories out there, for example, that it does play a role in inflation and to the extent that the policies of the two candidates might add to the deficit, and of course, then by extension add to the debt. That could be in a way a hidden inflation factor that we tend to not focus so much on.
Anna Helhoski:
And one we’ll probably pay for in the future.
Derek Stimel:
Yeah, somebody will eventually.
Anna Helhoski:
Derek Stimel, thank you so much for joining us today.
Derek Stimel:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
Anna Helhoski:
Sean, there’s something else I want to point out that I didn’t get to in my conversation with Derek, but came from researching an article on this topic, and that’s price tolerance. Right now, people are still pretty price intolerant because so much is elevated from where we remember it being. But if prices actually did drop across the board, it would be a big problem. Economy-wide price drops really only happen when there’s a big recession. And I think Trump and Harris’s campaigns both know this. They can’t bring back pre-pandemic prices, so what they can do strategically is make promises that are most relevant to people.
Sean Pyles:
Right. And last week we talked about how one individual president can’t really transform the economy on their own. But your conversation with Derek Stimel illustrates how a president’s priorities can make a bigger impact on an issue-by-issue basis. Former President Trump is focused on lowering the price of gas. Vice President Harris wants to make housing more affordable. And we saw how President Biden was able to push for lower prices on certain drugs like insulin. Although we should note, of course, that Biden wasn’t able to do that without the help of Congress.
Anna Helhoski:
So Sean, one other thing. Maybe it’s obvious but it’s worth saying, is that while we have pointed to a lot of ways in which a president cannot really control things like pricing, the president is also the leader of his or her respective political party, and that often means that the party and its political leaders will coalesce around these policies, making them more viable.
Sean Pyles:
Yep. We’ve mentioned that the president often has to work with Congress to get bills passed that can fulfill their promises. And members of their party, while they don’t necessarily march in lockstep, they will frequently work with that president to pursue his or her economic agenda. So no, the president can’t wave a magic wand, but if their party also has control in Congress, that makes a world of difference in the ability to make those goals happen.
Anna Helhoski:
And that’s a case for making sure you’re paying attention to what candidates are saying up and down the ballot. The presidential candidates aren’t the only ones to make a difference. Do some research on your congressional candidates, and for that matter, city council and school district, because they all touch public money and that’s your money. It always helps to educate yourself on how they plan to spend it. You can find the latest money news updates in NerdWallet’s financial news hub, which we’ll link to in the show notes, or just search online for NerdWallet financial news.
Sean Pyles:
So Anna, tell us what’s coming up in episode three of the series.
Anna Helhoski:
Well, Sean, next time we’re using a word nobody likes but matters a lot to your finances: taxes. We’ll hear what the current candidates for the highest office in the land want to do with the money that comes out of your paycheck.
Amy Hanauer:
Two-thirds of the cost of making those individual tax cuts permanent would go to the richest fifth of Americans. So to the richest 20% of Americans. So just for a sense of what that will cost, in 2026 alone, that will cost more than $280 billion.
Anna Helhoski:
For now, that’s all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-N-E-R-D. You can also email us at [email protected]. And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
Sean Pyles:
This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland and Anna. I helped with editing. Rick VanderKnyff and Amanda Derengowski helped with fact-checking. Megan Maurer mixed our audio. And a big thank you to NerdWallet’s editors for all their help.
Anna Helhoski:
And here’s our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
Sean Pyles:
And with that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.
When people think of Cleveland, they often picture its bustling downtown and vibrant cultural scene, but the true essence of living in Cleveland extends beyond the urban core. The suburbs of Cleveland are diverse residential areas that offer a quieter, more relaxed lifestyle while still providing easy access to the city’s rich amenities. These Cleveland suburbs are spread across various parts of the metropolitan area, each with its own unique character and appeal.
In this ApartmentGuide article, we’ll explore some of the most notable Cleveland suburbs—from charming lakefront communities to peaceful suburban retreats—highlighting key aspects such as population, average rent, and what makes each area stand out. Whether you’re searching for the perfect apartment in Cleveland or curious about the different Cleveland neighborhoods, let’s discover the best parts of Cleveland to call home.
Cost of living in Cleveland
Before we dive into the top Cleveland suburbs, let’s cover how much it costs to live in Cleveland. The overall cost of living in Cleveland is 9% lower than the national average, making it an affordable place to call home. Housing is a key factor, with the median sale price for a home in Cleveland at $125,000, significantly lower than the national average of $432,657. Rent is closely aligned with national averages, with the cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland coming in at $1,536, just slightly above the national average of $1,514.
While some suburbs around Cleveland offer more affordable options, others can be more expensive, providing a range of lifestyle and housing opportunities depending on your budget and preferences. Here, we’ll explore a variety of top suburbs, each offering something unique for potential residents.
1. Shaker Heights
Known for: Historic homes, cultural diversity, excellent schools
Shaker Heights, located just east of downtown Cleveland, is one of the city’s most prestigious suburbs. Known for its historic architecture and tree-lined streets, Shaker Heights offers a blend of traditional elegance and modern conveniences. The city is home to excellent schools, both public and private, and has a strong sense of community. With a variety of housing options ranging from grand estates to more modest homes, Shaker Heights attracts a wide range of residents.
Population: 28,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,111 Median home sale price: $332,700 Shaker Heights transportation scores: Walk Score 45, Bike Score 45, Transit Score 47
Apartments for rent in Shaker Heights, OH | Houses for rent in Shaker Heights, OH | Homes for sale in Shaker Heights, OH
2. Lakewood
Known for: Vibrant arts scene, walkability, lakefront access
Lakewood is a lively and walkable suburb located just west of downtown Cleveland. This densely populated area is known for its vibrant arts scene, historic homes, and easy access to Lake Erie. Lakewood is perfect for those seeking a more urban lifestyle with a small-town feel. Residents enjoy access to local breweries, restaurants, and boutiques, all within a close-knit community. The housing market in Lakewood includes a variety of options, from affordable apartments to charming historic homes.
Population: 50,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,145 Median home sale price: $302,500 Lakewood transportation scores: Walk Score 70, Bike Score 64, Transit Score 41
Apartments for rent in Lakewood, OH | Houses for rent in Lakewood, OH | Homes for sale in Lakewood, OH
3. Rocky River
Known for: Scenic waterfront, excellent schools, upscale living
Rocky River is a popular suburb located along the shores of Lake Erie, just west of Cleveland. Known for its picturesque views and strong community feel, Rocky River offers a more upscale suburban lifestyle. The suburb is home to top-rated schools, numerous parks, and a variety of local shops and restaurants. Housing options include waterfront homes, modern apartments, and charming older properties, making it a desirable area for those looking for tranquility near the lake.
Population: 20,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,693 Median home sale price: $390,792 Rocky River transportation scores: Walk Score 44, Bike Score 43, Transit Score 39
Apartments for rent in Rocky River, OH | Houses for rent in Rocky River, OH | Homes for sale in Rocky River, OH
4. Westlake
Known for: Parks and green spaces, welcoming environment, suburban amenities
Westlake is located about 15 miles west of downtown Cleveland and offers a suburban lifestyle with a mix of modern and traditional amenities. Known for its parks and recreational areas, Westlake provides plenty of outdoor activities, including Crocker Park, a popular shopping and entertainment district. The housing market in Westlake features a variety of homes, from more affordable options to larger upscale properties. Westlake is ideal for those looking to enjoy suburban living while remaining close to Cleveland’s urban attractions.
Population: 34,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,599 Median home sale price: $387,500 Westlake transportation scores: Walk Score 24, Bike Score 34, Transit Score 30
Apartments for rent in Westlake, OH | Houses for rent in Westlake, OH | Homes for sale in Westlake, OH
5. Avon
Known for: Quiet suburban life, new developments, growing community
Avon is a fast-growing suburb located 20 miles west of Cleveland, offering a quiet and suburban lifestyle. The area is known for its new housing developments, excellent shopping options, and green spaces. Avon’s recent growth has attracted many individuals looking for a blend of modern living and a peaceful community atmosphere. The housing market features both new construction and established homes, offering a range of price points.
Population: 24,000 Median home sale price: $451,000 Avon transportation scores: Walk Score 14, Bike Score 29
Apartments for rent in Avon, OH | Houses for rent in Avon, OH | Homes for sale in Avon, OH
6. Hudson
Known for: Historic downtown, top-rated schools, upscale living
Hudson, located southeast of Cleveland, is a charming suburb known for its picturesque downtown area, which is filled with locally owned shops, cafes, and historic architecture. Hudson is also recognized for its highly rated schools and tight-knit community. The housing market in Hudson includes a mix of beautiful historic homes and newer developments, offering a luxurious and peaceful lifestyle just outside of Cleveland.
Population: 22,000 Median home sale price: $549,500 Hudson transportation scores: Walk Score 12, Bike Score 33
Apartments for rent in Hudson, OH | Houses for rent in Hudson, OH | Homes for sale in Hudson, OH
7. Solon
Known for: Strong economy, top-rated schools, suburban lifestyle
Solon, located in the southeastern suburbs of Cleveland, is well-regarded for its excellent public schools and thriving local economy. The city attracts many professionals working in the area’s tech and manufacturing sectors. With a suburban atmosphere and a variety of housing options, from affordable homes to more luxurious properties, Solon provides a well-rounded suburban experience.
Population: 23,000 Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment: $1,527 Median home sale price: $566,000 Solon transportation scores: Walk Score 12, Bike Score 32
Apartments for rent in Solon, OH | Houses for rent in Solon, OH | Homes for sale in Solon, OH
Methodology: The suburbs included in this list were selected based on their overall popularity, determined by search trends and housing demand in the Cleveland area. Average rent and home sale price data were sourced from Redfin and Rent.com as of October 2024. Transportation data, including Walk Scores, Bike Scores, and Transit Scores, was sourced from Walk Score.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:
Learn what it truly means to work with a certified financial planner (CFP) and how personalized advice can help you set and achieve your financial goals.
What should you know before working with a certified financial planner? What strategies can help you navigate societal pressures and make personal financial choices? Host Sean Pyles talks to Magda Doemeny, a certified financial planner with NerdWallet Advisors, to discuss the power of personalized financial advice and behavioral budgeting to help you understand how to align your financial goals with your personal values. They begin with a discussion of the role of certified financial planners, including the fiduciary responsibility of CFPs, the specialized knowledge they bring to areas like estate planning, and common strategies for cutting through societal noise to focus on personal priorities. They also discuss the innovative concept of behavioral budgeting, which involves creating sustainable financial habits like limiting dining out.
NerdWallet Advisory LLC, dba NerdWallet Advisors, is an SEC-registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of NerdWallet Inc. The advice provided in this episode of Smart Money was for illustrative purposes only and not intended as financial or investment advice specific to your personal facts or circumstances.
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Episode transcript
This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.
Sean Pyles:
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius Nerds. I’m Sean Pyles. This episode, we’re going deep into financial planning, what it actually means to work with a financial planner, how working with a planner can improve your finances and why we sometimes have such a hard time changing our financial behaviors.
Over the last few months, we’ve shared a series of conversations between our listeners, a certified financial planner from the NerdWallet Advisors platform and me. In these conversations, our advisor, Magda Doemeny, has given a range of advice to our listeners. Today, we’re going to hear Magda’s philosophy around financial planning, who might benefit from working with a CFP and how people can better their finances on their own. Magda, welcome back to Smart Money.
Magda Doemeny:
Thanks, Sean.
Sean Pyles:
We’ve talked about this before, but give us that refresher. What is NerdWallet Advisors and what is your role there?
Magda Doemeny:
I’m an advisor on the NerdWallet Advisors team and we offer affordable financial planning memberships, which gives you access to a certified financial planner like myself for a low monthly cost. What we’ll do is we’ll go ahead and take a look at your financial situation and come up with a financial plan and give you some bite-sized action items for you to try and accomplish your goals. That will give you unlimited access to myself or your advisor, and we’ll check in periodically, but ultimately you can access us by scheduling a call or sending us a message at any time.
Sean Pyles:
All right, so let’s start with financial planning 101. What does it mean to be a certified financial planner? What is the financial planning process like? Give our listeners the intel.
Magda Doemeny:
The financial planning process is diverse, just like everyone’s financial situation is diverse. And so ultimately, the high-level process starts with understanding somebody’s current financial picture and their goals. You can have two people who have the exact same financial makeup and different goals and they would have wildly different advice given to them, because there are some people who want to spend the last penny on the day they die. And there are some people who want to accumulate so much wealth, they can pass it on for generations.
And so the advice you might give to somebody would look very different from that perspective. But really, what you’re trying to do is figure out what somebody is trying to accomplish with their money, whether it’s pay down debt, purchase something large like a home or a car, or make sure they can retire at a certain age, and then help them come up with the right ways to accomplish that via savings vehicles or investment vehicles or certain types of accounts that might work better for their situation.
Sean Pyles:
What sort of information do you need to take in from a client before you can really understand what they’re working with financially and how you might be able to help them?
Magda Doemeny:
The most basic part that you want to take in is their current financial picture. Probably pretty straightforward, but all of their assets. So how much money they have today and what types of accounts it’s in, how much money they’re making, if anything, and any debts that they may have, whether it’s credit card or mortgage. We want to get that full picture, but we also want to know their personal situation. We want to know if they’re married, if they have children, if they’re divorced, do they have grandchildren? And then we also want to know again, those goals related to those types of things.
So it’s a pretty robust introductory process when you’re going through this, whether it’s for the first time or just with somebody new because it’s important that we understand your full picture. And the other important aspect of this I find with many people, especially those who maybe have debt, is really understanding what money means to them and how they think about money, because that may impact how we suggest doing certain types of financial planning.
Sean Pyles:
A lot of quantitative hard numbers like what’s your budget look like? Are you saving for retirement? And then the qualitative stuff, what do you feel about money? What do you want from your money?
Magda Doemeny:
Exactly. A perfect example is that for an emergency fund, traditionally on paper we would say if you have a dual-income household, which means there are two people in your household that are earning an income, you only need three months worth of expenses in a high-yield savings account for an emergency. Why? Because the likelihood of both of you losing your job at the exact same time is fairly unlikely. And so that three months of expenses plus the secondary salary should be enough to get you through getting a job again.
However, you can sit down next to somebody who says they’re very anxious about money, they’re worried they’re going to run out of it, and they are just hoarding as much cash as they possibly can. Now while I don’t want them to have that much cash and I might tell them that we should do something with it, I might suggest they have six months worth of expenses because I know that getting three months would just cause too much anxiety and that’s not worth it.
Sean Pyles:
Okay. Now let’s talk a bit about what it means to be a certified financial planner. We talk about CFPs a lot in the personal finance space. I’ve been going through the education process to get my CFP certification, so I know a lot about this, but some people may wonder what’s the big deal? So Magda, what’s the big deal?
Magda Doemeny:
The biggest deal is that we have an obligation as fiduciaries to do right by the client.
Sean Pyles:
Fiduciary, meaning you put their interest first.
Magda Doemeny:
That’s exactly right. So we’re not intended to sell them a product or give them something that isn’t in their best interest. So that’s really important. The secondary is that we’ve gone through the training to understand the intricacies of the financial system.
The value you can find here is you can get a broad, a CFP that has a broad range of information and you can get folks who specialize in certain areas that might be niche. That can be really helpful because you know that that person has spent a good amount of their career deep diving into a specific area like maybe estate planning or something like that.
Sean Pyles:
And CFPs can also connect you with people in the state attorney to help you draft those documents. They’re really your one-stop shop for other things in the financial world, getting your estate plan set up, finding insurance that you need, et cetera.
Magda Doemeny:
Exactly. It’s another thing on the list that’s important to us is telling you what we don’t know. So it’s important that we always say, “This is outside of my scope of work, but happy to point you in the right direction of where you could get that piece of your financial picture taken care of.”
Sean Pyles:
So thinking back over your 10-plus years of being a financial planner, what do you think makes the difference between someone who is able to really benefit from your relationship, what a financial planner brings to their life, and someone who doesn’t really have a successful relationship with a financial planner, you or someone else?
Magda Doemeny:
I do think to start, it’s really important that for better or worse you jive with your financial planner. You need to make sure, kind of like a therapist, that when they’re speaking, you’re listening and they need to know that. This isn’t all about dollars and cents. Like we talked about, part of it is emotional. Money can bring out emotions in people, so you want to make sure that you are able to communicate well with your financial planner. Outside of that, I think the other really important aspect of being successful is making sure that you can commit to the process that is set forth.
A lot of financial planners are creating a plan in some capacity. The plans can look different, some can be long, some can be short and one might work better for you than the other. But when they set forth the plan, the intention is to try to take those actions and then check in regularly, whether it’s every three to six months or so to make sure that the plan can get adjusted, because life happens and things change. You may change jobs or get a pay raise or get married or what have you. And all those things impact how you might think about your finances.
Sean Pyles:
I think people may underestimate the amount of work that they have to do when it comes to working with a financial planner. They might want a planner to do all of these things for them. But I, much like therapy, see the need to actually enact uncomfortable change sometimes to get what you want out of your finances. And that can be hard for people to grapple with. But I do want to talk about some through lines in the conversations that we had with our listeners over the past few weeks. One thing that stood out to me really is how similar financial planning is to therapy.
As a somewhat broad generalization, I’ve noticed two main camps of people who go to therapy. I say as someone who’s been to therapy myself, there are clients who want a therapist just to give them permission to do what they want and justify their emotions and behaviors. And there are maybe also in the other camp clients who want to be directed and given guidance around how to change. I did see that in our conversations with listeners. Some people wanted guidance, others just wanted your stamp of approval. Is that common in financial planning relationships?
Magda Doemeny:
I do think it’s common depending on their situations. The idea of stamp of approval, those tend to be folks who are maybe underspenders and they’re sometimes so knowledgeable about their finances that it’s a hindrance to their personal life. And so they may want you to say, “Hey, loosen up a little bit. It’s okay. You can afford that thing.”
Sean Pyles:
Right. It’s like our conversation with Sean who had over a million dollars in assets and was afraid to really use it to enjoy his life.
Magda Doemeny:
Exactly, exactly. Then there are other folks who come looking for guidance, whether or not they actually, they might actually be looking for you to tell them it’s okay. And the hardest part, but also the most gratifying part of our job is being able to, in this gentlest way possible, tell them that they do have to stop doing that thing or maybe they can’t accomplish the goal the way they thought they wanted to accomplish the goal and we do need to actually change the behaviors. And so whether or not those folks are always open to coming in wanting a stamp of approval and not getting it is one thing.
But I do think making sure that you can take somebody who wants a stamp of approval and change them into somebody who can take action is really empowering and a really fun part of the job. But there are definitely people who come in here in this planning process ready to make a change. They just don’t know what to do. And that’s amazing, because their eyes are open. They’re looking for not the answers, because we’re not going to give you the answers, but looking for the structure to be able to start to make good or different financial decisions.
Sean Pyles:
They’re open to change, which is a huge thing.
Magda Doemeny:
Sean Pyles:
What you were just saying reminds me of our listener, Jim from Milwaukee, who is interested in cashing out his retirement account to move to San Diego. He seemed to want that stamp of approval from you, and you and I were both kind of turned off by the idea about him cashing out his retirement. And so you did have to do a really careful pivot of what his financial goals were and say, “Hey, how can you make some more money where you are now and fund that move in a less risky way?” So that’s an interesting part of financial planning too. It’s about exploring alternative ways to get to where they want to go. Because there are so many options available to people and they may not really even realize that.
Magda Doemeny:
I do think a lot of it is about being creative and meeting them where they are. You do have to recognize maybe where your living situation is could impact their ability to execute on something that we’re suggesting. I might say, “Hey, your rent is too high.” And they may say, “Yep, that’s as cheap as it’s going to get here.” And so you have to find a way to, is there something else we can do to have the same result, which is increase your overall savings.
Sean Pyles:
Another common theme in our conversations was the idea of external pressure that people feel about the things that they quote should be doing with their money. One listener knew that she was spending too much on discretionary purchases, but felt like it was what she should be doing to have a certain lifestyle, even though it was causing trouble for her financially.
And she could fully acknowledge that, which was so fascinating to see. How can people cut through the noise and the shoulds and find out what they really want from their money and make sure that it’s a goal that they personally truly care about, not what other people expect of them?
Magda Doemeny:
It’s hard. I think in the environment that we have today with easy ways to spend your money and seeing easy ways to know how much everyone else has and/or not has, but how they spend their money doesn’t mean they have it, I do think that is a very big challenge for a lot of people. But I think giving yourself the space a couple of times a year, maybe every six months, you could call it new and you can call it over summer. It’s something you can work with a financial planner on to sit down and really ask those questions. What are you trying to accomplish?
Because I’ve noticed when folks come in here, they have these goals, but when you sit down and you ask them, does that thing that you bought or that thing that you said you wanted, is it more important than your retirement? Most of the time, they say no. Right? And so working with somebody to help you put your goals into context can be really helpful.
But I do think it’s hard to do that alone, but you should spend every six months or at least every year thinking about, “Okay, what’s changed in my life? What are the things that I’m trying to accomplish? Do I want to get married now? Has that changed from the year before? Do I want to buy a house?” I have folks all the time say they’ve been wanting to buy a house for years, and all of a sudden they said, “You know what? I don’t want to do that anymore.”
And that’s great. If that’s the decision that you’ve come to, we can adjust your finances to move, shift your money to do something different, travel more expensively now. So I think it’s tough, but-
Sean Pyles:
I think having the dialogue with a financial planner can be really helpful, especially in the beginning because I try to keep a running almost meta-narrative of my financial decisions where I ask myself, why did I do that? Why did I buy whatever? Why did I want to go on this specific trip? Why am I saving so much for retirement when all my friends are like the world’s burning? Why bother? And getting really clear on what it means for me to be making these decisions helps me feel more confident that I’m doing the right thing for myself. But it’s hard to get to that place of having that sort of higher level conversation without some guidance, at least initially.
Magda Doemeny:
Yeah, and I do think it’s really important to not spend too much of your time comparing yourself directly to the people, whether you know them or not, because what you don’t know is what’s behind the curtain. Somebody could be living a very lavish lifestyle and be in debt up to their eyebrows, and you would have no idea. That’s not how it looks, but that could be the reality.
And so I think that’s why it’s so important to talk to somebody about it, because we can pull you out of that world and look at your world and where your income is and where your expenses are, and ask you what lifestyle you truly want to lead and figure out how we can bridge the gap between all of those things.
Sean Pyles:
All right. Well, I want to go a little bit deeper into your personal financial philosophy. From our conversations, I know that you’re really into what you call behavioral budgeting. Can you describe what that is for us?
Magda Doemeny:
Behavioral budgeting is something that’s done in conjunction with exact budgeting or traditional budgeting, as you may have it. Traditional budgeting is putting down all your expenses with the dollar amounts and setting a goal that is dollar-based. You only want to spend $500 a month eating out. That type of budgeting is really important because you do need to know the dollars in and dollars out. But I have found that sometimes if you don’t incorporate behavioral budgeting in addition to that, you tend to fall off after a period of time, because it can be a lot of work to pay attention to every dollar that’s coming in and out every month for the rest of your life. Even just saying that out loud seems daunting.
So instead, I found that behavioral budgeting can help in that you can actually create a behavior in your life that could be more permanent and acts as a budgeting tool. That would be something like you only eat out twice a week. I’m not putting a restriction on the dollar amount that you can purchase when you eat out, but I’m taking somebody whose lifestyle was three or four or who knows, and asking them to check every week that they pick just two days. It’s a short timeline.
It’s usually a lot of the behavioral goals are weekly, so you can do it in your head. You don’t need a tool, you don’t need to write it down. You can say by Sunday or Monday, I did it or I didn’t do it. And it will naturally bring down how much you’re spending, and in theory, can be permanent. You get in the habit in order to execute on dining out only twice a week. It’s not just, “Oh, I can do that.” You actually have to learn how to plan. So every Sunday, you have to figure out what you want to eat for the week.
You have to make your grocery list, you have to go to the store, and maybe you have to do some meal prep, because if you don’t do those things, you will end up eating out more than twice a week. And so eventually, it becomes a habit. Sundays are my, do not bother me from three to five P.M. because I’m executing on my plan for the week.
Sean Pyles:
I think habit is such a key word here. You have to build up the routine of doing certain things in a certain way and being more intentional about it, especially in the beginning.
Magda Doemeny:
Absolutely.
Sean Pyles:
Okay, so Magda, as you know, despite many people’s best efforts, folks can really struggle to change their financial behaviors, like overspending or not setting aside money for retirement. What do you think it really takes to change financial behaviors?
Magda Doemeny:
I do think it does take a level of, I don’t know if discipline is the right word, motivation might be it. It’s not too dissimilar from other types of goals that I think many people can relate to, whether it’s health and nutrition goals. You’re thinking you’re not healthy, so you commit to finally going to the doctor for them to decide what is it? Or you buy a gym membership or you start working with a nutritionist.
All of those are the first steps in the process, but if you’re not able to actually be determined enough to learn and execute on the step-by-step of that process, which is for the gym, you got to come every three days and you got to do these workouts or the doctor’s going to say, “Okay, well, we need you to start eating these types of foods and we need you to adjust this,” and you have to actually execute on that. Your finances are the same thing, right? Coming to a financial planner helps be the person that tells you, here are some of the next steps you need to take.
But you do have to come into it with a mentality that it might not be easy, right? It’s not you’re going to come in here and somebody’s going to say, “Just do these two things. They’re all ten-minute exercises and voila, you’re a millionaire.” It’s not like that. It’s a slowly, but surely, you’re learning more about your finances, you are learning some techniques of things you can do differently, and you’re checking in somewhat regularly to make sure that we’re still on track for those things. And so I do think the fix it quickly is just not the mentality that you can have to be successful.
Sean Pyles:
Yeah. Have realistic expectations about what it means to change.
Magda Doemeny:
Sean Pyles:
And why you’re changing.
Magda Doemeny:
Sean Pyles:
Okay. Well, I want to talk about who might not need to work with a financial planner, because as we know, CFPs typically outside of platforms like NerdWallet Advisors can be quite expensive to work with. So who do you think is fine doing it on their own, maybe working with a financial coach or someone else?
Magda Doemeny:
I do think that it will depend on what they’re looking for. CFPs, in particular, do specialize in looking at very specific aspects of financial planning. And so I do think that folks who might be in very severe debt could benefit from working with a financial coach first. That could be somebody who is helping them just really hone in on their budget and potentially looking at some alternatives to their debt management, like credit counseling or something like that.
But I do think that it’s all, in general, access to a financial planner is usually cost prohibitive, which is what’s so great about NerdWallet Advisors is that it’s a low monthly fee, and so it does give you access to, gives financial planning access to the masses really. And I do think that there are some folks who might want something a little bit more robust on investing their assets and so that, you would want to have an investment manager look at your assets.
Sean Pyles:
Okay. Well, Magda, if you could give one piece of advice, and only one, to our listeners, what would that be?
Magda Doemeny:
I think it would be to give yourself a break from the exhaustion of trying to be perfect as it relates to your finances, but also not to give up on finding a path to success for yourself. Whatever that first step might be, whether that’s reaching out to a financial planner or at minimum, getting your expenses in order so you can really look at it in the mirror and figure out where your spending is, I think you should take that next step.
Sean Pyles:
Give yourself some grace, do the work.
Magda Doemeny:
Sean Pyles:
Great. Well, Magda Doemeny from NerdWallet Advisors, thank you so much for talking with me.
Magda Doemeny:
Thank you.
Sean Pyles:
And that’s all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-N-E-R-D. You can also email us at [email protected]. Also, visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more info on this episode. And remember that you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio, to automatically download new episodes.
Here’s our brief disclaimer. I am not a financial or investment advisor. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland and myself. A special thanks to Magda Doemeny, Georgia McIntyre, and Emily Canedo. And a big thank you to NerdWallet’s editors for all their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.
NerdWallet Advisory LLC, dba NerdWallet Advisors, is an SEC-registered investment advisor, and wholly owned subsidiary of NerdWallet, Inc. The advice provided in this episode of Smart Money was for illustrative purposes only and not intended as financial or investment advice specific to your personal facts or circumstances.
Recently, Zillow began airing a commercial called “Homeowner Mates.” It depicts three women moving into a home together.
It shows their individual “BuyAbility” followed by “Your BuyAbility,” the latter of which combines the purchasing power of all three.
The three women have individual buying power of $117,000, $124,000, and $131,000, but a combined $372,000 when pooled together.
This apparently allows them to go in on that near-$400,000 home purchase, despite not being anywhere close on their own.
While having co-borrowers does indeed boost your purchasing power, the question is it a good idea when it’s a friend (or two)?
It’s Hard Enough to Buy a Home on Your Own
When I first saw this commercial, I was pretty taken aback. It felt somewhat irresponsible, and a lot related to the current housing market being unaffordable for most.
For me, that doesn’t mean forcing your way into a purchase. It might mean holding off on your homeownership goal, saving up more money, perhaps hoping for a raise, and generally getting all your ducks in a row.
Oh, and maybe lowering your maximum purchase price to something you can actually afford!
Instead, Zillow presents a solution to just find a couple close friends and buy the house today.
It pretty much ignores what happens after the dust settles and the moving boxes are unpacked.
It doesn’t get into what happens when one of the roommates wants to move out. It also seemingly glosses over who gets what room, or what happens if one of the co-owners loses their job.
Simply put, it presents a very simplistic view of homeownership, without giving us the whole picture, which could get pretty dark in a hurry.
Ultimately, it’s hard enough to be a homeowner without having to discuss all the what ifs with two other people.
It’s a big decision to buy vs. rent, and exponentially more complicated once you multiply that by three individuals.
Homes Are Too Expensive for Many Americans Right Now
Making it all much worse is this commercial only exists because homeownership has fallen financially out of reach for many Americans.
Clearly the people behind the ad got together and said what are the main pain points for prospective home buyers right now?
And they likely all agreed that it’s too expensive for most to buy a home thanks to a combination of high home prices and elevated mortgage rates.
But instead of recognizing this, they found a creative workaround to tackle the affordability piece, regardless of what the outcome might be.
Ironically, the commercial says, “That’s when buying a home got real.” When the three women pooled their incomes together to make it work.
Sadly, they probably don’t know how real is will become after living together and paying the mortgage for a year.
It’s hard enough to rent with a friend without facing all sorts of pitfalls. To buy a home with a friend and do so successfully sounds like the feat of all feats.
In other words, it probably won’t go well for most. And how do you even work out who gets what if someone wants to move out?
This all sounds so complex, yet is juxtaposed by the three women eating pizza and joking about one of them breaking the other’s vase.
My guess is that would be an afterthought once real problems reared their ugly head.
Maybe It’s Just Not the Right Time to Buy a Home…
As I wrote in my other piece, Marriage and Mortgage May Not Mix, it’s perfectly fine to rent initially, especially if your wedding date and the housing market conditions don’t exactly line up.
The same is true here. There doesn’t need to be a rush to buy, nor do you need to force the issue if it doesn’t feel quite right. Or simply doesn’t pencil.
While I am a huge advocate of homeownership and believe it brings with it a lot of positives, it’s not for everyone. Nor is it always the right time.
I’d personally never buy real estate with friends, and probably not even with family when it came down to it.
Take the time to really think it through if you’re considering this. What will it look like to own a home with your friend(s) a year from now, three years from now, or five? Will you sell at some point or rent it out?
You’re going to need a serious plan if you expect to pull something like this off. Even those who purchased a home recently on their own are feeling the heat.
Now imagine several people dealing with conflicting emotions at the same time. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 18 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on Twitter for hot takes.
Tucked in the Midwest, Cincinnati, OH, lies along the Ohio River just waiting to unveil all the unique things to do among its historic neighborhoods. Local experts share a variety of activities from cozy book nooks to creative craft bars that are guaranteed to become your top favorite spots to jazz-up your daily routine.
Whether you’re moving to a new home in Cincinnati, OH, testing out the vibe in a rental home, or looking for the perfect apartment overlooking the river, these 13 unique things to do in the Queen City are ready to wow you.
1. Start in the heart of Cincy at Fountain Square
The iconic Tyler Davidson Fountain overlooks the square and marks the beginning of several possible routes for a day of exploration. On one route in particular, you can find the newly renovated and expanded Mercantile Library that has been a central part of Walnut Street since 1840. If you’re looking for a cool story, make sure to ask them about their 10,000 year lease on the space.
2. Find new, bold flavors just minutes from downtown
The food scene is just one of the many things Cincinnati is known for, and for good reason. In the Incline District, head over to The Bold Face Dairy Bar for some soft-serve ice cream with a cult following. Located just around the corner from the Warsaw Federal Incline Theatre, their collection of fun flavors from bourbon barrel stout Flurrie, to ice cream nachos, to cup of lavender with Oreos make for the perfect post-show treat. Enjoy the ambiance of their magically-lit outdoor seating area with a bold bowl or a classic cone.
3. Back your basketball team at the Crosstown Shootout
“Nothing shouts Cincinnati quite like this,” says local children’s book author Jenn Bishop. “The annual matchup between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the Xavier Musketeers showcases one of the fiercest sports rivalries in the country, and one of the loudest crowds you will ever hear.” Keep an eye out for tickets in December for one of the most unique things to do in Cincinnati – and be sure to pick your team wisely. “Be prepared to smack-talk for as long as you live in the Queen City.”
4. Get to know your neighbors at a local bar
Everyone is welcome at The Belle and the Bear in Montgomery. Their unique neighborhood bar vibe is paired with live music, a wide selection of local beers, and great bourbon to taste. Play some pool, darts, or just enjoy the show with other Cincinnatians.
5. Enjoy a classic Cincy breakfast and more at any time of day
Sacred Beast Diner is nestled between easy access shopping and parking in Cincinnati’s historic art district just steps away from Washington Park and Music Hall. Their all-day breakfast menu includes Cincinnati’s famous Goetta breakfast sausage, as well as strong classic cocktails and European-style café drinks. Enjoy their modern spin on classic diner fare and vintage tunes spun from the original reel to reel player.
6. Capture the moment with Olga Polo Photography
Tucked away in Montgomery, you’ll find Olga Polo Photography. Olga has a talent for capturing your most precious moments with a perfect blend of artistry and warmth. Whether you’re marking a big milestone or just want some stunning photos to cherish, Olga Polo Photography is one of Cincy’s hidden gems for making genuine, timeless memories.
7. Bring the secrets of craft cocktails home
If you’ve ever wanted to host the perfect cocktail party, start with a private cocktail class led by professional bartenders at Homemakers Bar. In addition to their seasonal flavors and welcoming bar scene, their classes offer an interactive and fun way to learn the best bartending secrets. Whether you’re a casual visitor or a cocktail enthusiast, you’ll find a memorable and personalized experience in this stand-out cocktail destination.
8. Grab a scoop made from scratch
Hello Honey has been making small batch artisanal ice cream in the heart of downtown Cincinnati since 2012. Their delicious scoops made with real ingredients rotate flavors seasonally, keeping it fresh all year round. With three different neighborhood locations, this spot is a staple of the Queen City’s ice cream scene.
9. Shop local at a community farmers’ market
“We’re all about family, community, friendships, local small businesses, and of course, food,” shares the team at the Montgomery Farmers’ Market. Every Saturday morning from May through October, enjoy their local, farm-fresh produce, artisan crafted food, live music, and activities for the kids right in your neighborhood.
10. Take a tropical-inspired tour on the Ohio River
Soak up some island vibes on a private party boat cruise with SS Tiki Tours. Hulaing up the Ohio River while taking in breathtaking views of the Cincy skyline is perhaps one of the most unique things to do in the city.
11. Cozy up with coffee, cocktails, and live music
The Härth Room is a can’t-miss if you’re looking for cozy comfort and unbeatable ambiance. Located on historic 4th Street in downtown Cincinnati, their speakeasy vibe features live jazz performances every night for you to enjoy while sipping on a Prohibition-era classic or a late night latte.
12. Discover a book-lover’s paradise
“Household Books is a new type of bookstore for people who love the old type of bookstore,” shares Bobby of the Household Books team. With a carefully curated collection of used and rare books, you’re bound to find some new treasures to add to your collection in their shelves. They also host a variety of engaging events from literary themed dinners to poetry readings that makes this bookstore a cultural hub for book lovers.
13. Stay or Dine in Over The Rhine
If you’re looking for a unique thing to do in the OTR area, the Symphony Hotel & Vivaldis Restaurant is sure to make your evening one to remember. Located between Music Hall and the FCC soccer stadium, their nine composer-themed rooms, delicious homemade Italian food, and live music every night make for an unforgettable stop on your Queen City journey.
Unique things to do in Cincinnati: Final thoughts on these special spots
Life in Cincinnati is vibrant and exciting, full of culture, community, and unique things to do. While not typically the first place you would think of for an adventure, a world of surprises lie within the Queen City if you look close enough. Before long, you’ll see why Cincinnati is such a good place to live.
While not a typical top-of-mind destination, Cincinnati, OH, has a number of hidden gems just waiting to be discovered. Nestled on the bank of the Ohio River and a stone’s throw from Kentucky, the Queen City has so much to offer its residents and visitors. If you’re making the move to a new home in Cincinnati, OH, passing through Ohio in a rental home, or trying to find the perfect apartment in the city, you’re bound to find a new favorite hang-out in this list of 12 hidden gems in Cincinnati.
1. Take in the innovation and variety of a Somerset cocktail
Truly a unique venue, Somerset cocktail bar and lounge in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood hosts three distinct spaces in one: a cozy, library-like lounge, a glass-roofed conservatory, and a lush exotic garden. Enjoy one of their in-house crafted cocktails like their award-winning Ube Margarita while connecting with new friends and relaxing in whichever space fits your evening’s vibe.
Image courtesy of The Heritage Village Museum
2. Travel back in time at a living history museum
The Heritage Village Museum is the perfect place to immerse yourself in Cincy history. The museum is made up of 13 historic buildings, each with its own story and significance. With a number of tours and seasonal events to choose from, there is something for every visitor to enjoy throughout the year.
3. Fuel up for the day at TAG’s Cafe
Just 20 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, TAG’s Cafe features a full espresso bar alongside homemade breakfast, baked goods, lunch offerings, and more. Get your day started right with in-house dining or take it to go while you explore the city.
4. Stock your shelves at an independent bookstore
Among the beautiful buildings in the historic Columbia Tusculum neighborhood, you can find Bookery Cincy, an independent, book-lover-owned bookstore bringing the simple joy of reading to the city. This hidden gem of Cincinnati provides a welcoming spot for young and old readers alike to find their newest page-turner.
5. Grab a cone of small-batch, hand-scooped ice cream
“Cincinnati has a flourishing ice cream scene with lots of delicious options, and we are proud to be a part of that scene,” says Nate Henderson, co-owner of Gold Spoon Creamery. They pride themselves in making everything in-house and having something for everyone, including vegan and gluten-free options. Their love for Cincy’s rich history in art deco design shines through in their thoughtfully designed shop at Summit Park in Blue Ash.
6. Explore the variety of outdoor adventures in Cincy’s backyard
“One of the greatest things about Cincinnati is that we have a wonderful downtown city center, but drive 20 minutes and you can be transported to a whole different place,” says Amy, owner of Sweet Things Photography. “Our park system can’t be beat. Whether it’s Eden, Ault, or any of the other sprawling parks around the city, take some time to pack a picnic, walk your dogs, or play with your kids while soaking in the gorgeous surroundings.”
7. Taste a local beer from MadTree Brewing
No matter what your vibe is, MadTree Brewing has you covered. Spend an afternoon hanging out with friends at their award-winning Oakley Taproom and outdoor beer garden, or unwind with a seasonal menu in their beautiful Alcove restaurant in the heart of OTR.
8. This hidden gem will make any day a Saturday
Children’s book author Kristy High recommends adding Saturday Morning Vibes Cereal Bar to your Cincinnati bucket list of unique things to do. “This amazing spot has cartoons, video games, and a variety of over 70 cereal mixes to enjoy,” says Kristy. “They even host storytimes for the kids, author events, and other community driven projects.”
9. Indulge in the simple joy of bubble tea
Whether you are a tea enthusiast searching for the perfect afternoon pick me up or a casual wanderer drawn in by the pastel-painted storefront, Boba Angel is ready to welcome you in with their variety of creamy drinks crafted with care. Enjoy a classic milk tea or a more adventurous concoction, like their lavender matcha with honey-soaked boba, in this cozy community hub in the heart of Cincinnati.
10. Find a meal for everyone at Ruth’s
Ruth’s Parkside Cafe in the legendary Northside community offers great dining in a fun, eclectic atmosphere. “Food unites us all,” shares Rob from the Ruth’s team, who affirms that there’s something for everyone at the Ruth’s dinner table. Whether you’re looking for a plant-based meal, or you’re more of a carnivore, there are a number of fantastic options on their versatile menu.
11. Thrift some used books to support the local library
The Friends of the Public Library of Cincinnati share their Used Book Warehouse, a true hidden gem and book lovers’ paradise just north of Cincinnati proper. Proceeds from purchases from their massive collection of used books, music, movies, puzzles, and more support the nationally-ranked Cincinnati Public Library system.
12. Tap into Over-The-Rhine history at The Lackman
Once owned by brewer Herman Lackman, this turn-of-the-century Cincinnati bar joins historic charm with vibrant nightlife, a perfect gathering spot for locals who appreciate both the old and the new. Sip local brews and rare bourbon at The Lackman in the heart of the Over-The-Rhine district.
Hidden gems of Cincinnati: Why the Queen City should be at the top of your list
There is no doubt that these 12 hidden gems will help you get to know Cincinnati and make it your home in no time. Sometimes, the most wonderful adventures await in places we least expect to find them. With cozy spots to grab a drink and relax, history embedded in every community, and unique places to explore, life in Cincinnati is truly a hidden gem worth exploring.
As the days grow shorter and the crispness of autumn begins to weave its way into the air, the transition from summer to fall offers a perfect opportunity to embrace change and refresh our routines. The shift in seasons brings not just a change in weather, but also a chance to adjust our wardrobes, our home decor, and our lifestyles to align with the cozy comforts of fall. From practicing self-care to incorporating seasonal produce into your meals, transitioning into fall at home can enhance your well-being and invigorate your spirit.
Whether you’re buying a home in Portland, OR, renting in Coeur d’Alene, ID, or checking out an apartment in Boston, MA, we’ll explore practical tips and creative ideas to help you make the most of this seasonal shift.
1. Help the kids transition
Helping kids transition into fall at home involves introducing them to the joys of the new season in fun and engaging ways. Emphasizing the excitement of seasonal changes, such as the upcoming holidays and cooler weather adventures, can make the shift feel more enjoyable and less abrupt for them to work through the new weather and season.
“Transitioning from summer to fall can come with challenges, especially as children shift from endless hours of unstructured play and creativity to more rigid, scheduled days of school and sports. As a therapist and mom of three, I am right alongside you as we ride the somewhat choppy waves of the change of seasons,” states Christina Furnival, mental health therapist and author of the award-winning social-emotional book series, Capable Kiddos.
She continues by sharing her advice for assisting loved ones with this potentially difficult period. “Maintaining rituals and traditions, such as a weekly game night, Taco Tuesdays, or devoted one-on-one time, can provide a sense of stability and normalcy amidst the chaos,” says Furnival.
The mental health therapist also recommends reading stories set in autumn, planning fun activities like apple picking, or working together to create a recipe for the world’s best hot cocoa.
2. Be consistent with workouts
Maintaining a workout routine in colder weather is crucial for maintaining optimal health throughout the year. Exercising in the cold not only helps keep your energy levels up but also strengthens your immune system and boosts your mood.
One creative idea to assist with staying on track with your workouts is to convert a garage or bonus room into a home gym. Creating a gym at home offers convenient access to exercise, making it easier to maintain a consistent workout routine. It eliminates barriers like traveling in the cold and crowded spaces, allowing for a more personalized fitness experience.
“To ease the transition into the cold months, we keep our morning OrangeTheory workouts consistent to stay energized and motivated. It always lifts our mood to spend time outside, so we do our best to gear up and embrace the elements to continue hiking whenever we can and enjoy the fall foliage and golden larches.” shares The Egresis’ Katie Egresi, a Pacific Northwest photographer and blogger.
3. Embrace the cold
To aid in your transition into fall at home, it’s important to welcome outdoor activities even as the weather turns brisk and cold. The crisp, cool air makes a morning hike or brisk jog more refreshing, while the golden and red foliage creates a stunning backdrop for outdoor explorations. Layer up in cozy sweaters and scarves to fully enjoy the season’s charm and let the chill in the air energize your senses.
Aaryn Boldt from She Walks on Dirt shares her input on how she continues hiking even once the snow starts falling, “The best way I’ve learned to cope with the colder months is to find hikes and destinations that are meant for snow, fall leaves, and moody foggy mornings.
Not much can compare to the beauty of a cold morning, bundled in my favorite warm gear with the view of a snow-covered mountain and a hot chocolate in hand.”
For wilderness thrill-seekers, finding activities that match the excitement of summer can be a challenge. Adam Wise, CEO of GeerGarage, an outdoor gear-sharing marketplace in Seattle, WA, recommends switching out summer sports for those better suited for winter. “Make it a seamless transition with your outdoor activities from paddle boarding and backpacking to snowshoeing and skiing. Snowshoeing allows for effortless exploration of snow-covered landscapes, while skiing offers the exhilaration of gliding down snowy slopes.”
Embracing the cold of fall and winter offers a unique chance to experience the outdoors with a refreshing twist. The crisp air and vibrant autumn landscapes make outdoor activities especially invigorating, proving that colder weather can enhance your enjoyment of nature.
4. Bring the outdoors in
Creating a cozy area in your living space can help with transitioning into fall at home. Whether it’s transforming your backyard into a welcoming indoor-outdoor living area or incorporating fall foliage indoors, making your home inviting is beneficial.
“Bringing nature into your workspace or home can be a great way to reduce stress and enjoy the transition of the seasons. Easy ways to do this include displaying flowers, decorating with pumpkins or fall leaves, or even just changing your background on your digital devices to a nature scene,” suggests Aimee Frazier, MA, Professional Counselor Associate at Portland Hiking Therapy. “While you may be tempted to hide away indoors, making an intentional effort to support your sense of well-being through connection with nature is well worth it.”
Bringing the outdoors inside during cold weather can create a cozy and refreshing atmosphere while you enjoy the comfort of your home. This approach not only brightens up your indoor space but also keeps you connected to the changing seasons even when it’s chilly outside.
5. Look after yourself
Taking care of yourself during the cold fall and winter months is essential for maintaining both physical and mental well-being. Prioritizing self-care during these months not only enhances your overall health but also fosters resilience and a positive outlook, making it easier to enjoy and navigate the chilly seasons.
Add in self-care practices
As the days shorten and the cold sets in, it’s natural to experience changes in your mood and energy levels. Adding in intentional self-care practices can help you stay in tune with your body and mind.
“In addition to seeking therapy options, finding time to carve out space for self-care practices like meditation, maintaining a routine, and connecting with your community can help you embrace the colder months while staying grounded during the transition,” advises Elizabeth Thompson, community and social media manager at Open Path Psychotherapy Collective.
Prioritize personal time
“The fall and winter months are a great time to make yourself a priority and focus on your mental health,” states Deidre Johnson, founder of Moms Blog Too. “While it can sometimes be very busy with work and kids, try to take that walk around the neighborhood and soak up those rays of sunshine and the fall foliage. Or challenge yourself to finally go to the gym and try that class you never thought you could do.”
The darker, colder days can be draining, but taking time for yourself is sure to aid in recharging your energy, reduce stress, and help with that transition into fall at home. This break not only allows you to focus on your own needs and interests but also ensures you’re better equipped to support and engage with your children more effectively.
6. Engage in rest
As fall approaches, embracing rest becomes especially inviting. The shift in seasons brings a natural slow-down, offering a perfect opportunity to unwind and recharge. Prioritizing restful activities helps adapt to the changing season.
Patricia Burgin, MA, Master Certified Coach at Coachable, recommends creating a restful spirit by starting the habit of taking a full week to do one thing at a time. Examples of this might include watching a movie without multitasking or enjoying a meal without distractions from your phone.
7. Adjust your skincare routine
As cold weather gets closer, it’s essential to adjust your skincare routine to accommodate the changing weather. The cooler, drier air can deplete your skin’s natural moisture and increase sensitivity.
“Now that summer has begun to close up shop, fortify your skin for the chilly days ahead by pivoting your skincare routine toward more deeply hydrating masks and moisturizers,” proposes Savannah, esthetician mentor at The Portland Girl Team. “Treat your sun-crisped skin to antioxidant-rich ingredients (oh hello, vitamin C) to help stimulate collagen production and reduce the appearance of wrinkles and pigmentation.”
She adds, “And don’t forget to wear your sunscreen. Yes—even during the winter.”
8. Take care of your mental health
With fall just around the corner, taking care of your mental health becomes even more important due to the potential for seasonal shifts in mood and energy levels. The shorter days and colder weather can contribute to feelings of isolation or seasonal affective disorder (SAD), making it crucial to prioritize mental wellness to help with the transition into fall at home.
“To help mitigate seasonal affective disorder, increase your exposure to natural light and consider light therapy or vitamin D supplements,” Rexford Nickerson, leadership and life coach shares.
Nickerson also suggests introducing warmer lighting and seasonal decor, such as fall candles or throws, to create a cozier, more uplifting atmosphere, which can help combat mood dips.
9. Let go like the leaves
Just as leaves gently fall from trees in autumn, letting go of past burdens and old habits can make room for new growth and fresh perspectives. Embracing this season of release allows you to shed what no longer serves you and move forward with a renewed sense of clarity and purpose.
Danica Kustok M.C.L.C., holistic wellness coach and founder of Sandstone Healing states, “As we transition from the warmth of our long summer days, begin by simply noticing what’s happening both in and around you. As the leaves change and fall, use this time to let go of what’s no longer needed in your life.”
By reflecting and letting go, you align with the natural cycle of transformation and renewal. This process of releasing the past helps you grow personally, making it easier to welcome new experiences and start fresh with a lighter, more open heart.
Embracing a seamless transition into fall at home
As the vibrant days of summer gently give way to the crisp weather of fall, embracing the transition can be both exciting and refreshing. By adopting these tips, you can make the change feel seamless and enjoyable. With a little preparation and a positive mindset, you can fully enjoy the rich, colorful tapestry that fall has to offer, ensuring a soft breakup from one season and embracing the next.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:
Get expert tips on how to pack for travel efficiently and effectively, including clever ways to save on baggage fees.
How can you keep luggage costs down during holiday travel? What are the best strategies for managing carry-on luggage, especially for international trips? Hosts Sean Pyles and Meghan Coyle discuss efficient luggage management to help you understand how to save money on baggage fees. They begin with a discussion of minimizing luggage costs, with tips and tricks on rolling clothes, borrowing essentials from family members, and sticking to a carry-on bag. Then, travel writer Jessie Beck joins Meghan to discuss effective packing techniques, including the benefits of using smaller bags to prevent overpacking, creating a versatile travel capsule wardrobe, and dealing with potential issues like gate-checked bags and delayed luggage. They also cover the importance of miniaturizing items such as wallets, using airline apps and AirTags to track luggage, and understanding airline compensation policies for delayed bags.
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Episode transcript
This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.
Sean Pyles:
Are you really bringing all that? Do you need everything in that bag? Are you sure? Couldn’t you do with just one pair of shoes instead of, oh, six? Well, if not, you’re probably going to pay a pretty penny for luggage when you’re traveling over the holidays. We’ve got some timely advice for keeping those costs down.
Jessie Beck:
Once you add on the cost of paying to have a carry-on bag on that basic economy ticket, you might as well just get an economy ticket and be able to be a little bit more flexible. I think that’s the most important thing for me. If I did have to make a last minute change, I can do that penalty-free.
Sean Pyles:
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast. I’m Sean Pyles.
Meghan Coyle:
I’m Meghan Coyle.
Sean Pyles:
This is episode three of our nerdy deep dive into holiday travel and the costs therein. Meghan, I know there are plenty of folks out there who are strict carry-on only travelers, and I am one of them. I’ve not checked a bag in over a decade.
Meghan Coyle:
Wow! You’re one of them. Okay. There’s a lot to be said for that strategy, as long as you can live with fewer choices. There’s a whole cottage industry around figuring out the best ways to stuff small suitcases and even wear multiple articles and layers of clothing on the plane, so they’re not even in a bag.
Sean Pyles:
I have not gone that far yet. I mostly try to roll my clothes as tightly as possible, so I can still have options while fitting everything in my carry-on. There are multiple reasons to restrict yourself like this, though. One is that your luggage will never be lost.
Meghan Coyle:
Oh, man. Remember that period a couple years back, when people were losing their luggage all over European airports?
Sean Pyles:
Yeah. What a nightmare. When you go carry-on, there’s no losing your bag, no worrying about stuff getting stolen out of it. Another benefit to carry-on only is that you don’t have to pay luxurious fees to check your bags. You could put a kid or two through college for what it costs to have your bag fly in the cargo hold. I exaggerate a little bit, of course. But honestly, the fees are pretty bad when you add them on top of airfare.
Meghan Coyle:
And choosing your seat, and your airplane snacks.
Sean Pyles:
Yeah. I’m carry-on only for two main reasons. The first is that I am impatient. I do not want to wait at baggage claim to collect my suitcase after I’ve spent however many hours traveling. And two, I try to be in control of my own destiny as much as possible. Handing off my bag to some airline and hoping it gets to my final destination is just not how I roll. And yes, that’s a suitcase pun.
Meghan Coyle:
I’m also a carry-on type of person most of the time. I hate waiting at the luggage carousel after a flight. I want to be at my destination already. Sean, not everyone can smoosh everything into a bag that fits in the overhead bin or under their seat. Especially in the winter, and that includes holiday travel. If you’re going anywhere with a possibility of snow, ice, frigid temperatures, you’ve got to have the boots, you’ve got to have the sweaters, you’ve got to have the puffer coats. Or if you’re escaping to the tropics, I don’t know, maybe you need 40 sets of swimsuits. Whatever the reason, if you’re a bag checker, we’ve got some tips for you to try to bring the cost down.
Sean Pyles:
All right. Well, we want to hear what you think too, listeners. To share your ideas and experiences around holiday travel with us, the good, the bad, and the insanity, leave us a voicemail or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. Or email a voice memo to [email protected]. Meghan, who’s talking luggage with us today?
Meghan Coyle:
Our guest today is Jessie Beck. She’s a San Francisco-based travel writer for Afar, a travel magazine, and she’s done plenty of packing and unpacking in her career. She’ll share her knowledge of all things baggage.
Sean Pyles:
That’s coming up in a moment. Stay with us.
Meghan Coyle:
Jessie Beck, welcome to Smart Money.
Jessie Beck:
Hi, Meghan. Thank you for having me.
Meghan Coyle:
Tell us, what are your travel plans this year for the holidays?
Jessie Beck:
Oh, that’s a good question. For Thanksgiving, my husband and I are going back to the East Coast to visit family. But for Christmas, we’re taking advantage of the fact that we both have a lot of time PTO around that time, so we’re going to go to Japan. See the family another time, when it’s warmer.
Meghan Coyle:
Oh my goodness, that sounds incredible. Have you been to Japan before?
Jessie Beck:
Actually, we’re going back to a hotel that we stayed in in February 2020, right when the pandemic was starting in Japan. Really excited to go back and say hello again.
Meghan Coyle:
Well, let’s get right into it. How much luggage are you taking with you for each of those trips?
Jessie Beck:
I am a pretty avid carry-on only packer. Actually, that last trip I took to Japan in the winter to ski season, I only did with a 40-liter backpack and a small purse as my personal items.
Meghan Coyle:
Okay. How many coats were you wearing on the airplane?
Jessie Beck:
One very large coat, and I was very hot.
Meghan Coyle:
Are you going to do the carry-on only for both your domestic trip and your international trip?
Jessie Beck:
Yes, definitely. I think it’s almost a little easier when you’re traveling to visit family, because I’ve got a sister-in-law I can borrow clothes from. They’ll have extra hats and mittens, and all those kinds of things. If you forget your toothpaste, family will step in. Sports or ski trips can be a little bit trickier to stick to the carry-on luggage.
Meghan Coyle:
Tell us exactly what kind of bag you’re using for these carry-on only trips.
Jessie Beck:
I’ve always wondered how big the backpack cohort is, in terms of luggage enthusiasts. I’ve always used a travel backpack. I really love how much easier it is to move around the world with a backpack. I know some people will disagree with me because they’re heavy, and all that stuff.
Meghan Coyle:
For people who don’t normally travel with backpacks, can you tell us what is the difference between a travel-specific backpack and just the backpack you use to carry your laptop, or to go to school or work?
Jessie Beck:
Oh my gosh. This is so embarrassing, but when I first started traveling a lot in college and right after, I was using this massive hiking backpack that I just found in my parents’ garage. It was way too big. But it was also really difficult to get access to anything within the bag, because a traditional hiking backpack is top-loading, so you’ll usually see the opening of the backpack at the top of it. Maybe you’ll have a zipper at the bottom, to be able to access things at the bottom of the backpack.
But a lot of travel-specific backpacks will have a clamshell opening. They’re opening a little bit more similarly to a suitcase, and that makes it a lot easier to open your bag and see everything that’s inside it without having to take all the stuff that’s on the top out. A lot of them will also have some additional pockets and organizational features. Some of them will also design with carry-on restrictions in mind, so they’re really trying to keep it under that 40-liter limit.
Meghan Coyle:
Yeah. One of the features I really like about my travel backpack, I have one from Dagne Dover, is that it has the sleeve on the back of it so that it can very snugly fit over your carry-on rolling suitcase, if you decide to do both backpack and suitcase. I really love that feature.<br>Let’s get back to your travels. How much is that going to cost you to travel backpack-only?
Jessie Beck:
For just the luggage, I will not be spending anything to bring a bag with me on either flight. I’ve noticed, and this is purely anecdotal, I almost never have my bag gate-checked when I’m wearing a backpack. If there’s any other backpackers out there who have had a different experience, I would love to know. But I am operating under this theory that backpack people don’t get gate-checked as often as suitcase people. Not only am I not spending any money, but I generally keep my luggage with me.
Meghan Coyle:
For people who are going to take a carry-on bag or checked baggage, how much would you say they need to budget for bags if they’re traveling for the holidays this year?
Jessie Beck:
In terms of price for checking a bag?
Meghan Coyle:
Yeah. Or even bringing a carry-on, in some cases.
Jessie Beck:
That’s true. Some airlines are now charging for carry-on bags. I always do that calculation as I’m booking the ticket. For example, I’ve tried basic economy a total of one time.
Meghan Coyle:
Jessie Beck:
I was like, “Okay, I’m a light packer. I can do this. Personal item only, visiting a friend in Chicago in the summer, easy. No problem. Got it.” But I think for most scenarios beyond that, the things you’re losing by going from an economy ticket to a basic economy ticket don’t make that savings worth it, especially if you want to bring a carry-on bag. Once you add on the cost of paying to have a carry-on bag on that basic economy ticket, you might as well just get an economy ticket and be able to be a little bit more flexible. I think that’s the most important thing for me. If I did have to make a last-minute change, I can do that penalty-free, whereas you can’t do that with a basic economy ticket.
It definitely varies by airline. You’re probably going to end up spending somewhere between 30 and 50 each way. Definitely do that calculation and that math before you book your ticket, because if you’re traveling with a bunch of luggage, basic economy is not the way to go.
Meghan Coyle:
I totally agree. It makes it hard to compare prices when you’re looking at basic economy, versus economy, versus budget airlines. There’s so much you have to add up before you make your choice, based on price.
Jessie Beck:
I wish Google Flights had an easy feature where you could add all of that up to the total price of your ticket so you could see the actual cost of what your ticket’s going to be. But in short of that, a simple spreadsheet works. I’m super nerdy, I love a spreadsheet.
Meghan Coyle:
Same, same.
Jessie Beck:
Meghan Coyle:
Tell us what has happened to bag prices this year. If people haven’t traveled since the last holiday season, they might be a little surprised when they do go to check out and see the bag fees.
Jessie Beck:
I’m going to be totally honest, I haven’t been keeping tabs too much on this specific story because I am such a carry-on only packer. Though, one change that I was really excited to see is some airlines are now considering sporting equipment, like bikes, as just a regular bag, whereas previously they were not. That’s something I encountered recently this summer, when I was traveling with a bike. I had traveled with a bike previously on United Airlines, and they were charging me $200 each way to fly with this bike. I was like, “That is ridiculous.”
Meghan Coyle:
Yeah. That could be more than the ticket in some cases, I would imagine.
Jessie Beck:
For domestic, at least, I switched to Alaska Airlines when I was traveling with a bike because they always treated bikes as regular luggage, so as long as it stayed under 50 pounds. But recently, United changed their rules as well, so they, too, are now qualifying a bike as regular luggage. That’s probably the one change I’ve been paying attention to the most because that’s pretty much the only time I ever check a bag, is with a bike.
Meghan Coyle:
One story I’ve been following this year was bag fees not only went up across several airlines, and it’s a pretty nominal amount. Delta, United, American, Alaska, all of those airlines raised their bag fees by $5, in some cases $10. There’s a difference between if you check your bag before you get to the airport, when you’re booking your ticket, or if you wait until you’re literally at that kiosk checking in and you add a bag there. But the one that interested me the most was that JetBlue even added peak and off-peak pricing to their bags. Get this. They basically published a set of dates for peak pricing for your bags, where your bags will cost $5 to $10 more than their normal pricing. Of course, the peak pricing is during the holidays.
Jessie Beck:
Meghan Coyle:
If there is a way to, like you said, visit your family and borrow some toothpaste, I would say if you’re flying JetBlue, this might be a good time to try it out. What are some other ways to save on bag prices?
Jessie Beck:
You brought up one good point, which is that some airlines will charge you more if you’re paying at the airport versus paying for your checked bag in advance. Again, not a ton of money. No one’s going to hate on saving $5 or $10. Credit cards are another good way to save on checked baggage fees. If you have airline-branded credit cards, then you can check that bag for free. That’s a good option if you travel often. If you’re only traveling once or twice a year, I don’t know if an airline-branded credit card is really the best option. But if you are traveling frequently and you have that, that’s something to look into. Or if you’re traveling with other people, try to consolidate so you’re only checking one bag between the two of you, or something. There’s a bunch of ways to get creative and just minimize how much you’re bringing or checking with the airlines.
Meghan Coyle:
It has so many benefits beyond just saving money. If you have just one bag to worry about, it brings you so much peace of mind in other ways of traveling as well. Tell us a little bit about your travel history and when this idea of being team carry-on only really started to resonate with you.
Jessie Beck:
It’s been a process. I started by reducing from that 65-liter, to buying a 45-liter backpack. I traveled with that for quite a while. Including when I was in the Peace Corps, that’s the main luggage that I brought with me, along with a day bag. Then in my two years in the Peace Corps, I actually tried to minimize even further. Mostly because, in the country where I was at, Madagascar, you’re mostly traveling by bus. If your luggage cannot fit in your lap or under the seat in front of you on those buses, it goes above the bus. Which normally, wouldn’t sound like such a bad idea, except it’s not covered. If it rains, your luggage gets wet. I ended up with a soggy bag full of clothes and was like, “I’m never doing this again. I’m just going to bring two outfits next time I travel, because they’re going to stay dry.”
Meghan Coyle:
Oh my goodness.
Jessie Beck:
I’m never putting anything on the roof.
Meghan Coyle:
Yeah. Oh, what a bummer to have soggy luggage.
Jessie Beck:
Meghan Coyle:
What is your packing strategy, then? To be able to fit everything in such a small bag?
Jessie Beck:
It can be intimidating to try and go from a lot of luggage to a very small amount. Just start small, try to reduce what you’re carrying by maybe 10 liters, five liters. Some of the strategies that I’ve found really effective. The first one is get a smaller bag. We all have this case where, if our bag is bigger and we have extra space, we’re going to fill it. I was traveling with a friend to Portland over the weekend, and she had exactly that scenario. She packed everything she needed for the weekend. Then she said she had half of her bag empty, so she decided to just start throwing in some extra sneakers and some extra towels and all these things that she didn’t really need, just because she had the space. I think that’s a really good forcing function, is get a smaller bag. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to pack those things you don’t really need in the first place. That can be a really helpful place to start.
Meghan Coyle:
It’s like when you have a smaller dinner plate and you don’t fill your plate as much.
Jessie Beck:
Meghan Coyle:
Because there’s just less space for it.
Jessie Beck:
Yes, so true. I think there’s probably some psychological reasoning for all of this. But yeah, definitely noticed it works.
Meghan Coyle:
What else are you doing? What is a must pack for you, in terms of your carry-on?
Jessie Beck:
The other two things I do. One, I miniaturize or bring a travel-sized version of everything. I’ve even taken my giant wallet and gotten a super small travel-friendly wallet. It seems like a small thing to just go to a smaller wallet. But when you do that across a bunch of different items, you can get from a medium-sized bag to a small bag worth of things. The other thing I do is I do a travel capsule wardrobe. This is taking that capsule wardrobe approach, but travelizing it. So instead of 30 items of clothing for your full season, which is what a lot of capsule wardrobe enthusiasts will recommend, I’m focusing more on 10 to 12 items of clothing. Plus your PJs, underwear, and no more than two pairs of shoes. I think that’s a big one, too.
Meghan Coyle:
Oh, the shoes take up so much space.
Jessie Beck:
Meghan Coyle:
It’s so hard to choose just two shoes.
Jessie Beck:
I know. It really is.
Meghan Coyle:
Let’s get to what happens if your bag does get gate-checked, you get separated from your bag somehow. Are there any things you do to give yourself some peace of mind so you know you’ll get your bag back or be able to locate it?
Jessie Beck:
The number one thing, always download the airline app. Even if it’s an airline that you don’t fly very frequently, always, always, always download that app before you go. They can provide a lot of information and services just through that app on your phone. A lot of airlines will allow you to track the status of your bag through their app. Whenever the barcode on that tag is being scanned on your luggage, it’s going to update in that app. It’s going to tell you where it is. If you have a connection, it’ll tell you if your bag made the flight with you.
Another thing that other people like to do is putting an AirTag or something similar in their luggage, just to be able to see that location. I do that with my bikes, just because those are really expensive and I want to make sure that they’re not getting lost somewhere. That’s definitely a nice way to keep peace of mind with your luggage.
Meghan Coyle:
What are some airline policies around compensation for delayed or lost bags? Just in case something does happen to it, what should customers know about getting some sort of reimbursement for that?
Jessie Beck:
I know there’s more than one, but definitely Alaska Airlines. Then I think it’s Delta. Both of them will compensate you if your bag is late. I think a lot of people don’t know this, which is a super nice tip to keep in mind. If it takes more than 20 minutes to get to the carousel, you can write in and get some miles as compensation for that bag being late. I forget what Delta’s policy is.
Meghan Coyle:
I think it’s 2,500 miles if your bag doesn’t show up in 20 minutes. So yeah, very similar.
Jessie Beck:
Exactly. That’s a decent amount of miles just for being like, “My bag was 10 minutes late.” And it takes you a couple minutes to write in and say, “Hey, my bag was late. Can you compensate me?” I think a lot of people don’t take advantage of that.
Meghan Coyle:
I agree. It just takes that one extra step of looking up the online form. But then, it’s an easy way to get miles. At least you got a little something for waiting at baggage claim for so long. One other tip I always like to remind people is that your travel credit card might always have some lost luggage or delayed luggage reimbursement. This doesn’t really help in the moment when it’s happening and you’re like, “Where’s my bag?” But it could help you get reimbursement for anything new you had to buy. If they actually did lose your luggage, you might be able to get reimbursed for any valuables in your bag. Something to keep in mind is that you should try to book your travel with a travel credit card that has those kinds of protections if you have one.
Jessie Beck:
Yeah. That’s a really good one to keep in mind.
Meghan Coyle:
Jessie Beck, thank you so much for helping us out today.
Jessie Beck:
Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. It was great speaking with you.
Sean Pyles:
Jessie’s experience of downsizing her packing is something that I can really relate to. I will admit that I am a recovering over-packer. Historically, I’ve tried to cram as much as possible into my suitcase. But over the past year or two, I’ve gotten much better at selecting just a couple of staples that I can mix-and-match. I may have fewer options on the whole, but it helps me get creative. I’m basically doing a less intentional version of that whole capsule wardrobe thing that you and Jessie talked about. I found that my suitcase is lighter, which makes traveling easier. And I also just have more room for souvenirs from my travels.
Meghan Coyle:
I think the real lesson here is that you do have options. You can take little baby steps to become someone who travels light. Sometimes, you just have to make those decisions based on who you are. Some people are fine wearing the same clothes day in and day out for a week-long holiday stay. Others want a new outfit every day plus room for shopping. We say you do you. But definitely look into some of the ways to cut down on those baggage fees through credit card benefits or other means.
Sean Pyles:
Agreed. As long as you’re prepared for the possibility that your luggage could end up hanging out somewhere in an airport, or even in another country without you, well, then it’s up to you to take that risk. Me? No giant suitcases, no problems. And then I have more money to spend on margaritas.
Meghan Coyle:
Luggage fees versus margaritas, is that what this has come to? I’ll join you.
Sean Pyles:
Meghan, tell us what’s coming up in episode four of the series.
Meghan Coyle:
Next time, we’re going to focus on people traveling internationally, either for holidays or any upcoming trip abroad, and what you should know about traveling with your debit and credit cards. Plus, how to save on getting local currency.
Craig Joseph:
As long as there’s a mobile signal, you can now use a card in a lot of situations where you previously couldn’t. That means you don’t have to carry as much cash, which is obviously safer, and credit card purchase protections cover you from fraud, in case you swipe the card in the wrong place.
Meghan Coyle:
For now, that’s all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at [email protected]. And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio, to automatically download new episodes.
Sean Pyles:
This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland. I helped with editing. Claire Tsosie helped with fact checking. And a big thank you to NerdWallet’s editors for all their help.
Meghan Coyle:
Here’s our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
Sean Pyles:
With that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.