Tag: coronavirus

Get a Good Deal on Car Rentals

Posted in Kiplinger'sTagged , , ,

Last spring, airport rental counters were eerily quiet as pandemic-wary Americans canceled their vacations and stayed close to home. But as spring turned to summer and fall, customers started returning, looking for vehicles for road trips as well as longer-term rentals at home to avoid using public trans­portation and ride-hailing apps. Business travelers also increasingly turned to rental cars. This summer, as more people receive a vaccine and the economy reopens, air travel is likely to pick up, too. That means customers will again be lining up at airport rental car counters—and navigating a maze of prices, fees and insurance coverages.

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A Leap of Faith: How Real Estate Rookies Make it Work

Posted in REALTOR magazineTagged , , ,

Wendy Wright of Washington, D.C., was ready to take her real estate license exam last March—just as the term “novel coronavirus” was becoming part of the national conversation. After a 20-year career in IT project management, she had recently lost her job at a nonprofit because of funding cuts. Real estate offered an enticing new career path.

But the onset of the pandemic one year ago forced real estate testing centers in her area to close temporarily, requiring Wright to wait two months before she could sit for the test. Instead of just biding her time, Wright joined Katie Wethman’s real estate team at Keller Williams in Washington and began shadowing agents on socially distanced appointments with buyers and sellers. When Wright passed the exam and received her real estate license in June, she was able to hit the ground running at a time when the pandemic was turning many business practices upside down. The result: She closed 10 sales in six months.

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Socially Distant Wedding Activities

Posted in The New York TimesTagged , , ,

Weddings with packed dance floors have become a thing of the past because of the coronavirus pandemic, especially as many states continue to limit indoor occupancy. This means couples will need to find some other creative ways to keep their guests safely entertained and engaged.

Looking for some inspiration? Here are 10 fun games and activities you can incorporate into a socially distanced wedding reception.

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Smart Strategies to Tackle Your Debt

Posted in Kiplinger'sTagged , , ,

When the pandemic hit and the restaurant that Eric S. managed in Brighton, Mich., closed its doors temporarily, Eric filed for unemployment insurance benefits. When the business reopened a couple of months later and Eric returned to work, his hours were cut in half.

Although Eric and his wife managed to keep up with their mortgage payments, the couple found themselves strapped for cash and began to fall behind on their credit card bills. By September, they had accrued about $13,000 in credit card debt, and Eric’s credit score had dropped nearly 75 points, to the low 600s. “I felt like I was losing control,” he says. “It also put a lot of stress on our marriage.”

The couple sought out a credit counselor, who helped them retool their budget—getting rid of their Hulu and Netflix subscriptions alone saved them $70 a month—and begin paying down their debt. Just two months later they had shaved $3,000 off their total balance. “We’ve learned how to manage our money a lot better from this whole experience,” Eric says.

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7 Tips for Starting a New HR Job Remotely

Posted in HR magazineTagged , , ,

Byy now, millions of Americans have grown accustomed to working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. And that’s not such a bad thing.

Despite many employers’ fears that output would suffer, recent studies have found that working remotely actually makes many employees more productive and engaged.

Furthermore, in a survey by PwC, most office workers (83 percent) said they want to work from home at least one day a week, and over half of employers (55 percent) anticipate that most of their workers will do so, after COVID-19 is no longer a concern.

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Buying Wedding Insurance During the Pandemic

Posted in The New York TimesTagged , , ,

The coronavirus pandemic foiled many couple’s wedding plans this year, but at the same time, it has helped raised awareness of wedding insurance.

“When the pandemic first hit back in March, we were handling dozens of clients with cancellations, postponements, contract negotiations, relocations, and a flurry of questions from 2020 couples about how to move forward and handle their event in the safest and most reassuring way,” said Noelle Ahmad-Snedegar, who owns the Washington-based event-planning company Lily & Grayson Events.

“One question that we received many times,” she said, “and still continue to answer, is, ‘Do you think we should get wedding insurance?’”

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Wedding Canceled or Postponed? Here’s How to Get a Refund

Posted in The New York TimesTagged , , ,

Frank Dariano and Sharon Mensah had planned to marry on July 5, with 50 guests in attendance, at a resort in Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. But they canceled the wedding shortly after shelter-in-place orders were issued in San Jose, Calif., their hometown. “Our plans really went south as the pandemic started cracking down on international travel,” said Mr. Dariano, an administrative assistant at an outpatient rehabilitation center in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Things got even worse when their venue refused to refund their $8,300 deposit. “We didn’t feel it was right to lose our deposit when no services had been rendered,” said Ms. Mensah, 36, a high school therapist in Sunnyvale. When pleading with the venue led to a dead end, the couple consulted a lawyer in Canada, who reviewed their contract and negotiated with the resort for a full refund.

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Jumbo Mortgages Are in High Demand but Harder to Get Than Ever

Posted in Money magazineTagged , , ,

Mortgage lenders began to tighten their purse strings when the coronavirus crisis hit the U.S. earlier this year, raising requirements for all borrowers and for those taking out large home loans in particular.

Mortgages that are too large to be purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises that buy home loans, are known as jumbo loans. Across most of the country, a mortgage larger than $510,400 is considered non-conforming and fits in the jumbo bucket, though in some expensive markets the jumbo loan limits is as high as $765,600.

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Booking a Vacation Rental Is Complicated This Summer. Here’s How to Stay Safe and Get a Good Deal

Posted in Money magazineTagged , , ,

Usually summer is the busiest time of the year for Tiare Cowan, a longtime Airbnb host in St. Augustine, Fla. But after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic in mid-March, Cowan, who rents out two units of her family’s beach home, saw a tidal wave of cancellations.

“We lost every single reservation through June over a three-week period,” Cowan says. “It was terrible.”

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Coronavirus ‘Contact Tracer’ is One of the Most In-Demand Jobs Right Now. Here’s How to Get Hired

Posted in Money magazineTagged , ,

States across the country are hiring tens of thousands of contact tracers to stop the spread of COVID-19.

It’s important work: Contact tracers help infected Americans recall the names of everyone they’ve recently come into contact with, and then track those individuals down to avert the disease’s path of infection.

Emily Gurley, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist and the lead instructor of a free online course on the fundamentals of contact tracing, calls the people who fill these roles “part detective, part therapist, and part social worker.”

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