Oh Something New From Google! (And it involves travel)

It’s no secret that I love travel planning almost as much as traveling.  And it’s also no secret that I love apps. Plus, you may well know I’m a devoted Googlite/Googlist/Google Aficionado/Googliever aka Google lover.  So when I read this article about a new Google App for travel planning, I was like, “Awesome Sauce!” (Because I mostly speak 6 year old)

It’s called Destinations by Google.  It’s designed for use on smart phones but also works on the computer.  The good news is you most likely don’t need to download anything, especially if you have an Android phone.  But even if you pray to the Apple gods, you only need the regular Google App, which you likely already have. 

To start you open the app or simply type in the Google Search bar on your phone. Then you have a few options:

1.      You have an idea of a destination but not a specific city, type in the area + destinations.  For example: Italy destinations

2.      You know where you want to go type in city + vacation.  For example: Seattle vacation

3.      You want to go to multiple destination type in place + travel or place + vacation. For example: Ireland Travel.  (You will see travel guides for multiple cities and Google maps can give you walking, driving and public transportation directions.

I would like to go see my beloved Seahawks in person, so I can congratulate Russell Wilson on his engagement.  (Surely, he will answer the door when I come a knocking.)  I’d like to take a trip in November when school is out for two days, for goodness knows what. So I picked up my phone and typed into the Google bar: Seattle vacation.

Here’s what popped up:

I was given a quick overview of Seattle and why one might want to visit.  Below that was weather info followed by hotel and flight pricing.  I clicked through to see flight options first.  

I was able to input my November 9 – 13^th desired dates and adjusted my departure airport.  Then I was presented first with what Google determined were the best options (this appears to be based on the best priced non-stop flights).  Below that were additional options (more expensive or requiring multiple flights).  Outbound flights are displayed first, once one is selected a return flight can be selected.  Pricing stays on the screen through each selection.  Once my flights were selected, I was given a phone number and link for United, which I could use to book the flights.  In reality, I would not have clicked the link for this itinerary because one flight was on United, the other on Alaska Airlines.  In my experience its best to book directly with each airline unless you are using miles.

Next, I back tracked to get to hotels (though it would have been quicker to just Google “Seattle vacations” again.  Once I clicked through, I was shown the links to several hotel booking sites. But also the prices of several hotels, their star ratings and their photos.  I was able to adjust the travel dates to see accurate rates.  Only one problem, the hotel calendar maxes out at 6 months in the future.  So I could not put in my November travel dates.  So if I wanted to continue planning, I’d have to go back to one of the hotel booking site links instead of continuing in the Google displays. 

Lastly, I checked out the travel guides.  The original “Seattle vacation” results include photos and links to a few points of interest.  The drop down for the travel guide, displays several itineraries from which to choose.  For example, 48 hours in Seattle.  I never follow them, but I do love to view an itinerary and pick and choose what I like. 

Overall it’s a neat tool, which allows people like me to view lots of details for travel planning, all in one place.  Before, I’d go from site to site or app to app trying to piece it all together and ultimately wait to put it all together until I could do it more comfortably from my computer.  Now, I have something to do while waiting in the doctor’s office, watching swim lessons or zoning out when Hubby is watching another reality show about cars, hunting or outdoor living in some inconvenient place for no good reason!

Ummmm, wish I had a flight to catch right now.  But soon enough, I’ll be flying the friendly skies. So I better get packing or Duckie will have my head (She likes to pack as far in advance as humanly possible).  Talk soon.  - BMK

Super Sister to the Rescue!

I’m an awesome sister!  Just ask my brothers.  Or don’t because they’re brothers, so they might mislead you.  Just take my word for it.  I have evidence.

I just got off the phone with my older (like really old... 

... just kidding) brother. He called in a huff, because he’d just received an unsettling phone call. It went something like this:

Phone rings with strange or blocked number.
Brother misses call, calls back because he “always answers or calls back telemarketers to harass them.”
Fellow with Indian accent answers and says he is from IRS headquarters.

IRS: “The local office has sent you two letters to which you were unresponsive.  You are being sued by the IRS for the $1,877.00 you owe.  Do you have a criminal attorney?”

My brother (who happens to be a little lapse in his filings, begins a debate with the guy):  “What address did you send the letters to?  … That’s not my address anymore so of course I was non-responsive.”

IRS: “The letter comes from the local office, I am at headquarters ….”

The call continued in this manner until it was disconnected.

IRS Guy

I held my breath while listening to my brother’s explanation, because I knew exactly what was happening.  My brother was being targeted for identity theft.  Fortunately, he did not provide a current address, nor verify any other information.  Surely, if he was willing, the caller would have gotten him to verify his SS# too. That would be all he needed to file a tax return on behalf of my brother with the refund check electronically sent to the scammers checking account. 

When my brother finished telling the story and I confirmed that he had not given any info, I told him, the IRS will never call you.  That is the most important line of this post.  THE IRS WILL NEVER CALL YOU. 

Relieved my brother said, “See!  You don’t just sit around all day doing nothing!  You are collecting valuable information!”  I collected this info from multiple news reports I’ve seen over the last few years.  IRS fraud is on the rise and will only increase as technology makes it easier for us to file our taxes electronically.  If you suspect you have been a victim of tax fraud or know you have been a victim of identity theft, the IRS has info on the steps to take at this link.  Alerts can be set up for questionable activity.

Identify theft is as popular as American sports, IMO.  I’ve been targeted before by a former neighbor’s boyfriend (my name was Kimya Morris, hers was Kim Morris and we lived in the same building).  He’d put a cell phone bill in my name and somehow my age was altered to make me about 70 years old.  It was annoying and to this day, I use my middle name when applying for credit, so the credit agencies know it’s really me.  But beyond that I continue living an on-line and in-store life that relies almost exclusively on credit cards.  Because they will refund me my money.  Debit cards don’t offer as much protection and clearly cash is just gone.  Here is a list of what protections you have for each type of card. 

In conclusion, I told my brother, what I’ve told lots of friends and family lately … “Download this app!”  J  Of course there’s an app for that!!  True Caller, a free app, allows all its users to report calls as spam.  How does this benefit you?  The app settings allow you to block calls from all numbers others have identified as telemarketers.  A few questionable calls will ring through with a special red caller ID. These are suspected as spam and you can chose to block them immediately.  Then do your part when you receive an unmarked call that turns out to be a telemarketer and help others by marking it as spam.  It takes a village!  I was getting about 5 calls per day after applying for a mortgage refinance last year.  After downloading the app, the calls decreased steadily.  Now I may get a 1-2 a week at most.

Alright, I can’t just sit around all day and blog.  That might be what people think I do! J 

Talk soon –BMK

Me, sitting around doing nothing all day

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The New Stranger Danger

Antoine Dobson famously told us to:

And while his lesson in stranger danger wasn't quite ready for Sesame Street.  The recent awful story of 13 year old Nicole Lovell's abduction and murder in Virgina, brings to the forefront the reality that kids hiding in their room on the cell phone may be just the recipe for some predators.

My Duckie is only 6 years old.  But I was happy to get her the new Kindle Fire which, unlike her old one, allows me to monitor her activity and set limits on the times of day and amount of time she can use the device.  In addition, I must approve every app before she can use it.    Although I'd love for her to Skype freely with her relatives, I'm not giving her access to that app, because I know how many weirdos have reacheed out to me via Skype.  But she's not a teenager, so its a lot easier for me to stay on top of things.

Nicole Lovell was in a Facebook Group called teens dating and flirting.  And before we are too quick to say, I would never let my kid do that, check out the Today Show segment that reveals just some of the apps that allow predators and bullies to pray on our kids.  

The segment focuses on a few of the popular apps about which we parents should be concerned:

Kik - kids/teens don't need a phone number or email address to use this app.  They just create a user name.  This means anyone can contact them and don't need to know their phone number or email address to do so. In other words this app is a no no.

Yik Yak - everyone posts anonymously and the phones GPS makes the post available to anyone within a certain radius.  (I fail to see how this is a helpful tool, for anyone but predators.) So that's a heck no.

AskFM- this is a Q&A forum has been cited as a playground for bullying.  If you kid/teen uses this app they can adjsut settings to block anonymous users. But teens asking teens for advice is a dangerous prospect to begin with (think back to the great advice you received in high school)

Whisper - this is a confessional app (aka a bad idea).  Its supposed to be for users 17 and older (sure, right!)  It exposes the location of the user.

And just when you think you have figured it all out, made sure none of these apps are on your kids phone, Silicon Valley introduces the Best Secret Folder app.  Its sole purpose is to hide content from parents.  Ok fine, maybe its sole purpose is to hide content.  But only teens and cheating spouses need to hide content so .... Anyway, if there is an app, a password or files your kid does not want you to see, he/she can hide it by using the Best Secret Folder.

So the big advice:  When I grew up it was all about stranger danger.  I remember candlelight vigils for missing kids and constant reminders not to talk to strangers; not to get into a car with a stranger; passwords to know if someone was really a friend of the family.  It was all very scary, but in comparison very low-tech.  Nicole Lovell snuck out of her window and into the arms of her predator thanks to technology.

Ay Caramba!  You parents need to figure this crap out.  Because, the clock is ticking and my Duckie is growing fast.  I'll be looking to you for advice when my time comes.

BMK's got things to do ... I gotta go... thanks for reading ... talk soon

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Death, Sex and Money and Money and Money

Death Sex and Money are supposed to be the three subjects people don’t like to talk about.  I don’t really have a problem talking about any of them.  And neither do most of my close friends.  We may open with a “TMI” introduction to allow the other person to brace themselves.  But really, what would we talk about if those things were off the table? 

Well I have no intention of finding out!  Its tax season so let’s talk about money.  I like it, I’d like more of it, and it makes me sad to not have enough of it.  So I met with a new accountant this week to figure out how to stop paying my old accountant an absurd amount of money for the privilege of allowing me to give a lot of money to the government. 

It turns out the way my businesses (LLCs) are structured allowed the previous accountant to charge me high fees to file separate forms for each company when the same info could be included in my person return because the business are all owned by me and hubby.  I’m now deep in to New Jersey Treasury online bureaucracy (this is how they have managed to make doing business online as complex and frustrating as going to any government office to accomplish anything) in order to change the tax filing structure of the companies.  This small, but time consuming change, could potentially save me $4000 or more per year.   

Why am I telling you this?  Because if we don’t talk about money, there are plenty of people happy to take it off our hands.  Just as I feel women should talk to other women about women’s health and child-bearing issues – so we can stop thinking we are “not normal.”  The same is true for money.  There are so many ways to get, earn, save and invest money.  Everything isn’t for everybody, but knowledge is power.

I’m annoyingly detailed in the tracking of expenses.  I’ve used Quicken and occasionally, QuickBooks, for at least 16 years.  When I worked in an office, I always had a file draw for my bills and a spreadsheet on the computer to track my monthly budget.  Those habits really benefit me now when tracking the expenses/income on multiple properties means saving the cost of paying a bookkeeper and also knowing where my money goes.  I also get to see what’s working and what’s not working, and prepare for the unexpected, which I can expect to happen often.

Another way I make money work for me is using credit cards for points not credit.  There is a rare occasion where I may have to put a large expense on the business credit card and leave it there for a few months (for example the huge plumbing job at Villa Pompano which replaced all the underground piping).  But for personal expenses credit cards are just a way to make money/value.  The two best benefits of credit cards are frequent flyer points or cash back.  I don’t do cash back, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t.  I just like to travel and having points pile up makes heart happy.

But tracking points is a whole game in and of itself.  And there are people who do it very well.  It involves changing cards annually, if necessary; taking advantage of bonus deals; and even taking a useless trip just to get an astronomical amount of points.  I’ve not taken the deep dive into all of this, but I do stay informed by reading The Points Guy .  He and others like him do a good job of letting us know how we can use credit cards and airline rules to get the biggest bang for our buck.  Other sites will help you choose the best credit cards for you (say you prefer cash back instead of points, you want to make sure you get more cash back than you pay in annual fees). 

Look under that tree, I earned a lot of points this Christmas!

Busy Mom Kimya (BMK), like you, doesn’t have all the time in the world to spend on this one aspect of life.  But, I do deem it worth my weekly attention.  So once a week (it’s on my calendar), I download all my transactions from the bank and credit cards and categorize them in Quicken.  This also allows me to catch errors (banks, credit card companies, and vendors make mistakes).  And because Momma loves and app, I use a few of those to help me out as well:

Quicken App – allegedly this app will sync with the Quicken software on my computer.  It did for one day 4 years ago.  Then I got an error message and since then it doesn’t sync.  So, I don’t bother.

Chase – why wouldn’t you have the app for your bank on your phone?  Not only can you see what’s going on in bank land, but you can deposit checks and send money to friends and family in a snap.  If I actually walk into a bank it’s because I have a desire to slam my head into a wall.

American Express – I should use this app more and I expect they will give me more reason to soon.  Right now I use it just to check on charges.  But Amex has lots of double and triple point promotions.  The promotions aren’t automatically applied to your account you have to enroll in each one.  So doing that in the app would be great.

Key Ring – all my store loyalty cards are loaded in here, so as to keep my key ring empty and mostly unnecessary. It also stores and syncs (with a person of your choosing) grocery/shopping lists.  And it shows you current coupons and circulars for those stores.

Amazon – I use this to scan everything (not produce) I’m thinking of buying.  Amazon isn’t always cheaper.  But when it is and I can wait two days.  I just one click and order.

Freshbooks – a website and app, allows consultants to track billable hours and anyone to track mileage.  You can have multiple clients and projects and select which items should be added to the invoices you can generate from the website. 

Starbucks – you knew this was coming.  I think I mostly go to Starbucks so I can use my app.  Hubby goes for the coffee.  The app is just so friggen genius.  Yes I can pay with the app.  But that’s not the revolutionary part.  It’s that I pay with my Starbucks card in the app, which unlike most gift cards has a built rewards system.  So every time I buy something, I’m on my way to earning a free drink or treat.  But wait, the app is all like, let me help you some more.  Place your order via the apps mobile order function and your drink will be waiting for you.  Thank you technology.  And the marketing devil that Starbucks is, they are constantly offering bonus points for buying what they want you to buy or clicking where they want you to click and so earning a free drink that you didn’t need, but now want is super-duper easy!

That’s all for now.

BMK’s got things to do … thanks for reading … talk soon