Money for the Rest of Us

What do you do if you’re salary is lower than others in your field and/or company? How do you ask for a raise if you’ve been putting up with a low pay for a long time?

I’ve been readings Suze Orman’s new book Women and Money and came across and interesting quote last night. She was talking about how women usually aren’t good about asking for raises and getting the pay they deserve. It’s especially difficult when you take a lower pay to begin with or don’t demand a higher raise and then you’re stuck. Once you’ve got that lower salary it’s hard to know how to ask for a significant pay increase.

Well, here’s what Suze suggests you say:

“I realize that I have allowed myself to be unfairly compensated in the past, but now I’d like to correct that and be paid in a way that matches both industry standards and my division’s profitability.”

(If you work for a non-profit you should probably adjust the last part of the sentence to something like “… my division’s productivity.”)

I think this is a great line because you are being upfront and stating the facts in an “I statement.” Rather than saying “you unfairly compensated me,” you say “I allowed myself to be unfairly compensated.” Similar statements, but they are received in completely different ways.

Think about using this line if you are currently being unfairly compensated .

This is the fifth post of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

There are two times in your vacation/travel planning process that you should consider your budget. First, as mentioned in the post about decision making, you should think about it before you even begin to plan your trip. The broad question to consider here is: How much can I spend? That is, how much can I afford to spend and how much am I willing to spend? (You may be able to afford to spend $10,000 but only want to spend $1,000 or you may want to spend $10,000 but can only afford $1,000.)

The second time you should think about your travel budget is after you’ve researched how much your transportation and hotel should cost. It’s hard to create a vacation budget before you do any research on the cost of transportation and hotel because these are large expenses that vary greatly depending on the time of year, etc. So, once you have found the approximate cost of these two main expenses you can get into the nitty-gritty of your budget.

Here are some categories of expenses to consider when developing your travel budget:

1. Transportation– getting there and away; including taxi to the airport
2. Lodging
3. Food– don’t forget about drinks and snacks
4. Expenses before you go (new clothes, passport, traveler’s checks, etc.)
5. Miscellaneous Expenses once you’re there (ATM fees, money changing fees)
6. Transportation while you’re there (getting around via rented car or public transit)
7. Entertainment once you’re there (tours, museum entrance fees)
8. Expenses at home while you are gone (house/pet/baby sitting, etc)
9. Incidentals when you’re there (tips, phone charges, internet charges, etc)

When creating your budget be realistic. You are not going to be able to get by spending $10 a day on food if you plan on eating at a restaurant for every meal. And, you don’t want to have a crappy vacation because you haven’t budgeted any money to get into museums.

You can create your budget with just a simple piece of paper. Or you can design your own spreadsheet. I have designed a Travel Budget Spreadsheet that you can download here. (Note that all of the categories are listed per day/person except for two. At the top of the budget you list the number of days/nights you will be gone and the number of people going on the trip. You just fill in the rest of the numbers based on your estimated expenses per day per person. I’ve designed the spreadsheet to calculate the cost of the entire trip, the cost of the trip/day, the cost of the trip/person, and the cost of the trip/person/day.)

Creating a budget for your trip may not be the most exciting thing in the world; but it’s just as important as creating a budget for your everyday life. If if you find that the estimated cost of your trip will be more than you can afford, try to come up with some other options, maybe take a trip closer to home, or think of ways you can eat more cheaply. No matter what: Don’t spend more than you can afford on a vacation. There’s no point ruining your vacation worrying about money or ruining the memory of it by having to pay it off in years to come.

I have already written about how to save money on some of the expenses listed above including how to save on Transportation and Lodging . In future posts in this series I will give ideas on how to save on other expenses.

Advertisements

Do you like a resort casino and really want to have some fun in the casino? Complete schedules of the all dependable airlines with complete information of packages and flights routes. Travelers always need to know about the new hotels. At the busiest vacation destinations, businessmen are now more interested to invest their money and building many new resorts for the visitors from the different parts of the world and because of these new hotels and resorts there are now more opportunities of the travel jobs. If some one don’t want to travel through the busses and trains across the country then go to the car rental for the easy and comfortable traveling with the family. A complete travel guide with the authentic information in order to make the holidays ever memorable for the visitors. Get the full list of the world wide flights schedules and also reserve cruises online at cheap rates. Have a great journey and enjoy your vacation.

If you own a Honda Accord Car from ‘95, ‘96 or ‘97, you may be able to get a free inspection, free repairs, and a free oil change.
I recently got a letter from Honda informing me that my car had not yet received a free service. At first I was a little hesitant thinking it might be some sort of scam, but I called the local dealership and it was true. (And I can vouch for it because I waited to post until I went in and took advantage of the service, which I did on Monday– details below).

Here’s the scoop:

“We are sending you this notice to remind you that your vehicle is covered by an emissions warranty extension and to encourage you to take advantage of the free one-time 75,000-150,000 mile inspection and parts replacement offer detailed below…”

The letter then goes on the explain that there was an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency because some of the diagnostic systems do not comply with the Clean Air Act.

The breakdown is as follows. If your car has:

Between 50,000-75,000 miles– You get a free emissions control system inspection. All repairs and replacements on the emissions control system will be free of charge (both parts and labor).

Between 75,000-150,000 miles– You get a free emissions control inspection, free repairs and replacements on this system; and a free oil and oil filter change.

Over 150,000 miles- unfortunately you are no longer eligible under the extended warranty. (Though if you previously had work done on the emissions system you may still be able to get that reimbursed.)

If you fail a smog-test (in the future)- Take your car in and they will fix the emissions problem for free;

If you have already failed a smog-test and/or have had emissions related parts/repairs– You may be eligible for reimbursement. (Send copies of repairs orders and documentation to: American Honda Motor Co, Inc. Automobile Customer Service PO Box 2964 Torrance, CA 90509-2964.)

To take advantage of the offer you can call any local dealership (find one at Hondacars.com) and tell them that you want to come in and get the emissions warranty inspection (and free oil change) on your 95, 96, or 97 Honda Accord. If you bought your car used you may want to ask them to check your car’s VIN number to see if your car has already has had this done as the car is only eligible once. (You may also be able to register online with your VIN and look it up yourself–I believe I got this letter because I registered online to get updates.)

The Catch:
Of course, even if there’s not a catch, there’s always a catch. When I took my car in to fix one thing they found 5 other things that needed work. (I did some research on the service center before I went and so I trusted that they were telling me the truth.) In the end, this “free” oil change and inspection ended up costing me $250.

1. A break light was out: Cost $15 (I knew this and had just been putting off getting it fixed)
2. An engine mount was broken: Cost $235 (They showed me where it was broken. This sounded pretty serious so I got it repaired right away.)
3. 4, 5) They also told me that I should get my automatic steering fluid flushed and something else and something else cleaned. I don’t know anything about these things so I said I’d wait on it. (And the total cost of getting all of this done was nearly $300. None of them were urgent, just recommended.)

There’s no doubt that I could have walked out of there without paying a cent, but just be prepared that they will recommend other services to your car when you bring it in.

Advertisements

Are you looking for the information of cars? Nowadays there are many websites which are offering free information on cars. Some of these are dedicated to the information of spare parts of famous cars like BMW, ferrari, lexus and Renault. Some websites are totally focused on the information of new models of most favored cars like ford, jaguar, acura and audi. Some one need information about their suzuki and renault cars can also get information from these websites.

This is the fourth post of the “15 Tips for Cheap Travel” Series. You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

Yesterday I had my first experience with the “Digg Effect.” Early in the day my post about “How to Find Cheap Plane Tickets” made it to the front page of Reddit.com (It was as high as #4 at one point.) My site was running a little slowly, but managing. At some point in the evening (when I was in class, of course); my site went down.

When I got home from class I was checking my website and noticed that it was no longer running. I contacted my host and they informed me that they “took it down for abuse of resources.” Obviously I was extremely upset that they took it down without informing me, but at the time I was more concerned about getting it up and running again. I wondered where the sudden surge of traffic came from and quickly found out that I wound up on the front page of Digg.com sometime early last night. Of course, this is what every blogger loves and hates: a surge of new visitors, but a hosting company that can’t handle it. (Now, I thought I had systems in place for dealing with this—I had installed wp-cache, but apparently hadn’t activated it properly. Even when I did, my hosting company told me that it still wasn’t ok with the amount of traffic.) So, I set up a very very poor looking site at googlepages and redirected all the traffic from the Plane Tickets post to that site. Even though I wasn’t pleased, I left it for the evening and set up another static page this morning (which is what you will see as of the moment.)

I’m still getting a huge amount of traffic (compared to normal). I’m trying to work with my hosting company to see what they can do for me, but unfortunately they only offer email support (though I’ve pleaded and pleaded to speak with someone on the phone). So, as of today, my site will most likely be running more slowly than normal. Please bear with me in this. I will still get the next post in the series about cheap travel up by the middle of the day.

Please send me an email (moneyfortherestofus [at] gmail [.] com) or post a comment if you have any advice about working with hosting companies/finding new ones.  Thanks!

This is the third post of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

The second biggest expense in traveling is usually the cost of lodging. I’ve listed some options below, but there are always new and creative ways to get shelter over your head. If you’ve heard of any be sure to list them in the comments.

Where to Look for Lodging

People You Know: Do you know anyone in the area? If you do, consider the option of staying with them. Offer to take them out to dinner, bring them a gift, or do something else to show your appreciation. But, also remember the non-monetary costs of staying with someone you know: Sometimes it’s hard to live with others. Especially if you are going to be staying in that location for a long time you may want to split your time between the friend and a hotel.

Hotels : Unlike airlines which usually offer the best price on their website, the best hotel prices can often be found on other websites. Inexpensive hotels can be found on aggregators like:

• Kayak Discount Hotels
• Cheaptickets
• Sidestep

And traditional travel agencies: Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com

Hostels: If you’re traveling by yourself and you’re young (or old) hostels are one of the best places to stay. You get great rates and you can meet new people. These sites are two I’ve used that offer great searches (and user rankings) for finding the best hostels: Hostels.com and HostelWorld.com. One more tip for booking through these sites: if you find a hostel you like, go directly to the hostel’s website (or call the hostel) to avoid the (small) booking fee charged on these two sites.

Off the Beaten Path

• An option for lodging that has become increasingly popular because of the internet is “housing swaps.” You literally trade houses with another person/family during your vacation. To learn more about Housing Swaps check out these websites: HomeExchange.com and HomeXchangeVacation.com.
• The invaluable Craigslist lists a variety of vacation rental options.
• National Parks are always a great option for camping.
• And you can always rent an RV.

Consider all the costs: Another piece for comparison when looking for cheap hotels/lodging is how much “accessories” will cost you (or add to the value of your hotel). Some options for consideration:

• Tax: Different cities charge different amount for hotel taxes. If you can stay in a nearby city, consider the tax charges. For example, Washington, D.C. charges a 10% hotel tax. If you stay in nearby Virginia or Maryland (easily accessible by Metro) tax will only be 4-5%. (At $200/night for a 7 night vacation you’ll save nearly $70 on tax, and likely only spend $20 for Metro for a total savings of $50.)
• Location: Is the hotel located near where you will be visiting? Is it within walking distance? Driving distance? Near public transportation? Not only will traveling far to get to the sights of interest cost you money, but it will also cost you time. And if you don’t have a lot of time to spare, sometimes a few extra bucks a day will be worth it.
• Transportation: Will the hotel pick you up from and drop you off at the airport? Getting a hotel that will do this could save you a lot of money.
• Food: Some hotels include breakfast (or even dinner) with the price of the room. When comparing hotels see if any that you are considering offer free breakfast.
• Mini-bar/Microwave: I’m not advocating that you look for a mini-bar to spend a ridiculous amount on alcohol, but if there’s a mini-bar there’s often a fridge. When I’m traveling on a budget I’ll buy soda, yogurt, and other snacks to save on food costs. If there’s a microwave in the room it’s even better: You can save and heat up leftovers!
• Wireless: More and more hotels are offering wireless internet, but sometimes it’s at a price. If you know you’ll be needing internet access while away look for free internet access or call the hotel to find out how much they charge.
• Gym: Some people really enjoy exercising while their on vacation (others see vacation as an excuse to take a break from it). Look online for pictures of the workout room or find out if the hotel has a reciprocity deal with a nearby health club.

Remember when comparing hotels you consider the cost or savings per person. In the example I gave above in saving on taxes; if you are traveling with just two other people, the Metro costs for all 3 people would cancel out the taxes saved by staying in VA over DC.

Advertisements

The leading tour operating companies offer remarkable vacation plans which are not only full of joy but also contain lots of facilities as well. Some one wants information about flights or needs details about holiday packages every thing is provide by these companies. The travel agents also assist in planning family vacation as well as provide their customers expert advices. Additionally holiday wallpapers as well as pictures of family vacation tours are also being provided by these tour organizers for the convenience of their clients. Leading travel agents not only arrange cruises for tourists but also help in booking of ice hotel. Just logging on to the web site of any leading travel agency provides complete information about resort casino and other leading recreational places around the world. The bank along other financing companies are encouraging tourism as well through providing resort loans as well as offer cheap car rental insurance plans to people related to tourism industry.

This is the second post (part b) of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just go to one website or call just one phone number and find the cheapest plane ticket? Maybe someday this will occur. For now, the best way to find a cheap plane ticket is to spend some time doing research and checking multiple websites. I’ve divided this section into “fixed vs. flexible.” (If you haven’t read the post on planning your vacation you can find it here.)

If you have Fixed Dates and a Fixed Place: (i.e. you want to go to Boston from Washington DC on July 3rd to July 10th)
When you have fixed dates and a fixed destination the best option is to use Aggregators. These sites search hundreds of sites find the cheapest flight out there. My favorites are:

• Kayak Cheap Flights
• Sidestep
• Farechase
• Mobissimo

It doesn’t hurt to also try a few traditional online travel agencies including: Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity. If you use these be sure to book through the airline’s own website though (see tip 3 below)

If you have Fixed Dates and a Fixed Place, and your dates are within the next few weeks also check Site59 which finds package deals within the next two weeks. Even if you don’t need a hotel at your destination, sometimes it finds an entire package cheaper than you can find a flight alone.

If you have Flexible Dates: (i.e. you can go anytime in July or you can leave within 1-3 days of a particular date)
If your dates are within 1-3 day spread (i.e. you can leave July 1st, 2nd, or 3rd): Use Kayak
If your dates are very flexible (i.e you can leave any time from now until July): Fare Compare, Farecast, and Travelocity — All have searches available by the month

If your Destination is Flexible: These sites find cheap airfare to many places from your originating location.

• Kayak Buzz
• Airfare Watchdog
• Farewatch
• Mobissimo
• Farecast

If you want to see a Price History: Fare Compare, Farecast, and Kayak

A really cool feature: You want to Search by Activity: Check out Mobissimo Activity Search
Mobissimo lets you search by activity. You can search for flights by region (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Carribean, Middle East/Africa) or by other activities like beaches, spas “forgotten wonders,” opera houses, wine tasting, and more. It’s truly amazing.

General tips for finding cheap flights:

1. Plan in Advance. The further out you know your travel schedule, the more time you will have to watch airfare prices.
2. Be patient, but not too patient. If you’ve been researching for a while and a good price comes up, get it immediately.
3. Buy direct from the Airline’s website (if you can). Most major airlines now guarentee the best prices on their own sites (though occassionally this isn’t the case.) There are two reasons to book directly with the airline you will be flying. First, many sites (including Orbitz and Expedia) charge an additional fee if you book through them. The major airlines don’t charge this fee. Second, and more importantly, you will get better service if something happens. Just recently my dad was returning home from a trip and his flight got canceled for no apparent reason. Even though I always tell him not to, he still books through Expedia. Well, let’s just say their customer service wasn’t up to par. Luckily the airline he was flying with was still willing to help him, but this isn’t always the case.
4. Check Southwest.com. For some reason, Southwest Airlines isn’t searched by the flight Aggregators. If you are flying somewhere that they fly to, check their website for prices.
5. Be flexible. If you are able to leave on Thursday and return on Monday you will often get better prices than if you fly Friday to Sunday.
6. Don’t listen to the people who claim they can beat the system. (And their correction) Just like the stock-market, there are all sorts of people who claim they know what they’re talking about and they’ll tell you to only buy on certain days and certain times, etc. Go with your gut. If you’ve been researching prices and you feel that you’ve gotten the best one, you probably have.
7. If the price goes down, it never hurts to ask. Sometimes you will buy a ticket and the price will drop the next day. It doesn’t hurt to call the airline and see if they’ll reduce your price. If they wont, don’t kick yourself; it happens to everyone: things go on sale just after you buy them.
8. Consider the time of day that you fly and how it will affect your total transportation cost. If you can use public transportation to get to an airport, make sure you don’t buy a ticket for 6am before the subway has opened. (Likewise, if someone can drive you, don’t buy a ticket that is right in the middle of their work day). If you hadn’t paid $20 for that taxi ride, you may have been able to purchase a better plane ticket.
9. (Update) Check out Farecast. Farecast is still in Beta and I just came across it today for the first time; but they have a cool little tool called Faregaurd. Farecast predicts whether an airfare that you are looking at (for only select cities in the next 90 days) will go up or down. They are so sure of their predictions that for $9.95 you can buy “insurance” which will protect your fare for 7 days from the day you buy Fareguard. You can find out more about how it works here. As I said, I’ve only just come across this site today, but after playing around with it for an hour I’m very impressed. I really like the arrows that it spits out to tell you whether to buy now or wait. They have nice maps and a good flexible search engine. This may be one of my new favorite travel sites!

Sponsors
Looking for cheap holidays? Check out our huge of bargain last minute holidays to destinations throughout Europe, Egypt, the Caribbean and more!

Advertisements

cheap flight guide for the travelers in order to provide them full and authentic information about the luxury travel and if some one is confused about your reservations then browse the travel website and find out the full schedules of the world wide flghts. On the travel web site you will find the full information about the london hotels which is an ideal place to enjoy your excited holiday. Online travel web sites enable the travelers to find their ideal and cool destinations for to enjoy their holidays. Most of the hotels managements around the world also manage the cruises for their clients in order to fully facilitate their customers and clients from the different parts of the world. In the all parts of the world, travel guides are offering their service for the travelers. Download excellent holiday image form the internet and select a wonderful holiday destination. Read the terms and conditions online about the resort loans.

This is the second post of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

Finding a cheap ticket is a lot like getting rich: It doesn’t just happen over night. The best way to get the cheapest ticket possible is to plan well in advance (more than a month if you’ll be flying), do some research, and buy at the right time.

In the first post of this series we talked about the decision making process in planning a trip and determining what’s fixed and what’s flexible. This post is going to be structured around: Is your mode of transportation flexible?
Mode of Transportation
There are a good number of ways to transport yourself– walking, biking, driving, flying, busing, training, boating, etc. I’m going to focus on four: Driving, Busing, Training, and Flying. If you can take all of these modes of transport to your vacation spot, get a cost estimate for each one. Also, be sure to consider the amount of time it will take to get to the destination.

Driving: This is a do-it-yourself approach. To figure out how much it will cost you to drive to a destination consider:

• the number of miles
• your car’s mileage/gallon
• the current cost of gas
• car maintenance
• cost of meals on the road
• cost of lodging if you will have to stay over night

For a quick look at what it will cost you for just the mileage be sure to check out AAA’s Fuel Cost Calculator. When doing a cost comparison for driving compared to other modes of transportation, be sure that you account for round trip and the cost per person (divide your estimate cost by the number of people in your party.) A few tips to cut down on driving costs:

• pack food and drink
• check your tire’s pressure
• stay with friends along the way
• make mix cd’s or bring books on tape (check them out from your library before the trip)
• use cruise control to drive the speed limit.

Bus: The bus is often a more cost effective method than driving if you are traveling by yourself or just with one other person. Unfortunately, there are fewer options for traveling around the US by bus than there are in other parts in the world. The primary US option is Greyhound. If you live on the East coast you may be aware of the infamous “Chinatown bus services“. (Including Vamoose, Apex, and Fung Wah.) I have plenty of friends who have ridden the buses and found them to be nice enough, though with the safety record of these companies it may be wiser to pay a few more dollars and ride Greyhound. Go to any of the websites to get price quotes.
Train: Like the bus system, there are few options for taking a train in the US. The primary service is Amtrak. If you don’t like to fly, taking a train is easier for long trips than the bus.

Plane: Luckily, we do have a huge number of options for airlines in the US. Because we have so many options (and the tips were getting lengthy), I devoted a separate post to Finding Cheap Plane Tickets.

Advertisements

There is a direct relation between vacation and world travel. The tourism industry is not only promoting the resorts business but also providing serious boost to the constructions of mega hotels. If some one selects specific beach resorts as its vacation spot the travel agents guide completely about the condition over there. More over these guides facilitate the tourists through offering them holiday wallpapers and complete assistance in car rental. Managing bus travel as well as completing formalities for truck rental to the tourist’s desired destination is being offering by the leading travel agencies as well. Additionally they present souvenirs to their clients as holiday gift which reminds them of their sweet vacations.

Yesterday I wrote about being treated differently because you are young and the economic consequences for companies who treat their young customers differently than their older ones. Not only do the offenders lose out when they discriminate, but as young people know, they too lose when they are treated differently because of their age.

Here are 5 ways that I’ve found that work well to prevent age discrimination (and essentially appear older than you are):

1. Use the Phone. When you call people they can’t (usually) tell your age. If you speak well (see tip 5) the person you are talking to will assume that you are older than you are.
2. Email. Like with the phone, the customer service representative has no idea if you’re 14 or 84. Moreover, I like this method because you can present all of the facts and requests before you get a response. On the phone, after you complain the customer service person will likely offer a “solution” before you can, but in email you can say “…and your company overcharged me for x,y, and z. I request that you remove these charges and credit my account with an additional $10 for the inconvenience this has caused me.” (You’d be surprised how many times this actually works.
3. Dress Nicely. Unfortunately, to be treated the same as a 40-year-old in jeans, you have to wear black pants. Look professional and you will get treated like a professional and not a twenty-something. (I personally hate doing this more than anything. Shouldn’t people treat me the same whether I’m in sweat pants or a skirt suit?)
4. Tip well. I try to always tip 20% (unless the service is absolutely horrid). Sometimes this means over-tipping, but I’m entirely convinced that if all twenty-somethings tipped really well, service people would start treating us better.
5. Choose your words wisely. When you are speaking don’t use words such as um, like, and slang. Keep your voice calm, yet be firm. Be clear in what you’re asking for.

I’m sure this list is not complete, so if you have any more ideas, pass them on.

Day-to-day we all are blatantly or unintentionally judged or discriminated against for various reasons. But there is one form of discrimination that makes me angrier than all others: ageism.

I hate it when people treat me poorly because of my age. Yes, part of the reason I hate it is because I don’t like being treated unfairly; but there is a bigger reason why I despise ageism.

It just doesn’t make sense to treat young people poorly! It doesn’t make sense socially; we should treat everyone equally. And it doesn’t make sense economically.

Young people may not make a lot of money right now. But they control more money than any other group. What do I mean by saying that they control more money than any other group? Well, they have some spending power now, AND they control all of their future spending power. And what we experience right now, when we’re twenty-something, will influence us 30, 40, 50 years from now.

When I experience great customer service I remember it. For instance, when I was around 16 I was going to the mall and my mom asked me to get some links removed from a watch for my brother. The first jeweler I went to looked me up and down and said snidely, “We only do that if you purchased the watch here.” But, the second jeweler I went to said “We’d be happy to do that for you.” And, they didn’t even charge me for the service. I still remember that jeweler and I think of them whenever I consider buying jewelery.

Likewise, there are companies and restaurants that have treated me so poorly I will never go back. In DC there is an extremely nice restaurant called 1789 which we once ate at for a special occasion. The waiter did the absolute minimum he had to do to take or order and plop our food in front of us (all the while waiting hand and foot on the older couple at the next table.) A certain airline (American, if you must know) has also treated me extremely poorly– never via email or on the phone, only to my face. I wonder why…

Places that treat me differently because I am young lose not only my business in the recent future, but for the next 70 years (or however long I live.)

Let’s just think about this for a minute. I spend approximately $2000 on plane tickets a year. Assuming I live until I’m 80, I still have 57 more years to buy plane tickets. For me alone, assuming that my amount of travel doesn’t change, that plane ticket prices don’t change, and not accounting for inflation: American Airlines has lost $112,000 because they treated me poorly. But, it’s not just about me. I will someday have an impact on tickets my spouse, children, friends, and business buy. Conservatively, in today’s dollars; American Airlines probably will lose over a half a million dollars in revenue from treating me poorly (on several occassions) because I am young.

Now, let’s assume that American Airlines was also ageist against other young customers and lost those young peoples’ business because of it. According to US census data from the year 2000 there are 20.5 million people in my 5-year age group (that of 15-19 years old at the time the 2000 census was taken. Today those people would be 22-26 years old.) Let’s just say that 1/10 of 1 percent (.001) were also discriminated against by American Airlines (that’s 20,500 people). Assuming they too have $500,000 worth of spending power on plane tickets over the course of their lifetimes, we have a grand total of 10 Billion 250 Million Dollars (that’s 10,250,000,000) that one company lost because they didn’t treat their young customers the same way they treated their older customers.

Quite honestly, I didn’t even expect the number to be that high. We are only looking a very small number of people in a very narrow age range. But, it just goes to show how dumb it is to treat young people differently.

The moral of this story is: if anything, treat young people better than old people! We twenty-somethings have more money to spend than any of your other current customers.

(This post was originally titled “Ageism, Twenty-Somethings, and 10 Billion Dollars.” Then as I was writing, I thought about the one sector that figured this all out a long time ago. And boy did they profit from it….)