So, you want to be a traveler and make the ‘Big Bucks’? The first thing to realize is that Travel Nursing isn’t the ‘cash cow’ that many think it is! Read about some of the other Travel Nursing Myths you should be aware of.
Have a clear vision of the realities
Travel nursing can be an amazing lifestyle and experience but it’s important that you go into it with a clear vision of the realities. Contracts can, and DO get canceled (I’ve had it happen). This can occur for a variety of reasons from a bad fit to the hospital suddenly being over-staffed, budget reasons, or even a manager that just doesn’t like you. Fair? No! Reality? YES!
End a contract early
In addition, emergencies arise that might require you to end a contract early. Family medical issues are the number one reason for this occurring. There is also the issue of sick time, canceled shifts due to low census, and time off between contracts. It’s important to remember that as a traveler, we don’t get sick pay or vacation pay. If you miss work due to sickness or take time off between contracts, it’s up to you to make sure you are financially prepared.
Issues with Pay
As with any company, there can also be issues with ‘pay’. (Know your company’s reputation well!). I’ve experienced hiccups with the setup of my direct deposit, which delayed my pay as well as a couple of various payroll issues where my hours didn’t get transferred correctly. Mistakes aren’t common with payroll but they do happen and when they do, you don’t want to be left without grocery or gas money until it gets fixed!
How do I determine how much I need to set aside for an emergency fund.
There is no set number or amount that would fit everyone’s situations. I always recommend that you have enough in savings to at the very minimum get you back home! Ultimately, the best scenario would be to have a buffer of 3 months worth of financial back-up in addition to what you determine it would take to get you back home. This should be an easily accessible ‘liquid’ account that you can access on short notice.
I get asked often if there are expected periods of unemployment for a traveler. As for a steady paycheck….travel positions are abundant right now, especially if you are flexible on the location. You shouldn’t have any trouble staying employed. If you are prepared for those unexpected cancellations and time off between contracts, you should be fine. I’ve personally been traveling for over 9 years and by being flexible on location, I’ve never been without a position when I wanted one. But having an emergency fund set aside in case an emergency arises or you have difficulty securing your next position is crucial.
A good place to start is
Monthly expenditures * Re-employment period (or 3 months) + expenses to return home = Baseline safety net amount Many of us have traveled without a significant financial buffer but it’s not something that I recommend. For more information on travel nursing, you may want to read through these articles on Contracts.
Travel nursing is a very demanding profession that can leave little time for anything outside of work and family responsibilities (let alone sleep!). As a result, travel RNs often find themselves scrambling when it comes to personal finances or long-term financial stability.
As precious as free time is, it’s important for travel nurses to take time out to focus on the financial component of their lives regularly, or we suffer the consequences later! To help, we’ve compiled these 3 tips for travel nurses to help manage personal finances more effectively.
Travel Nurse Personal Finances Tips
1.) Don’t do it on your own:
Use a combination of technology and a financial advisor to help get financially organized. Utilize technology to get organized and utilize the help of a financial advisor. There are numerous financial, organizational software programs available on the market. Most of these do a good job helping you to stay organized. At a minimum, you need a program where you can input all of your data and accounts. Additionally, you should have a program where you can link your accounts so that values get updated daily. This will help you see where you are in regards to having enough short-term liquidity, building adequate long-term investments, and all areas in between.
Now, technology is great, but you will also need some human interaction to help you make the right financial decisions. So be sure to team up with an advisor where technology and human touch go hand in hand. This gives you have someone to call when questions arise and someone who can coach and guide you during both good and bad economic times.
2.) Set up automatic savings plans as a financial platform
It is tough to save money consistently if there is no automatic system in place. Relying solely on having the discipline to not spend all of the money in your checking or savings account can be a difficult and stressful task. On the other hand, it’s easier to have savings automatically allocated towards different accounts every month and have the money taken straight out of your paycheck or out of your savings/checking account. By having automatic deductions in place, two things occur that will ease your mind.
First, new savings and wealth are being built. Second, it gives you the freedom to spend everything left in your checking/savings account. By doing it this way, you will have less stress around what you can afford and what you cannot spend money on, and you know that you are saving for the future.
3.) Don’t stick your head in the sand – be engaged when it comes to your money!
You shouldn’t have to meet with your advisor and talk to your advisor all the time. However, you must be aware of how, where, and why your money is invested the way it is. You must have an investment policy statement and a profile set up that fits with your investment allocations. It’s also important that it fits with your overall financial plan and risk comfort level.
Make sure you talk or meet with your advisor at least two times a year. Make sure that the advisor is aware of job & family changes in addition to any other events that might affect your overall plan.
As a general rule, you should be fully aware of why the plan is set up the way it is. Consider understanding allocations, industries, geographies, etc. This is not only true when it comes to your investments but also holds in regards to:
your insurance portfolio
your debt reduction plan
savings rate (more on this in a future article)
overall financial plan.
2016-25878 Exp. 7/18
Securities products and advisory services offered through Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS), member FINRA, SIPC. OSJ: 677 Ala Moana Blvd, Suite,720,Honolulu,HI (808-695-2100) PAS is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® (Guardian), New York, NY. CreativeNurse is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian.
In Step #14 of the travel nurse guide, we discussed knowing in advance what your bank allows and doesn’t when it comes to traveling. This is an important and often overlooked step. Now let’s take a closer look at the banking aspect of Travel Nursing.
Travel nurse banking should be a non-issue, right? Wrong. There are multiple potential complications for the travel nurse when it comes to banking.
You should consult with you bank before you leave home and cover these basic questions:
Is there a local branch at my assignment location?
Does the bank offer online check deposit?
Will I incur ATM fees and are they refundable?
Are my withdraw limits something that I can live with?
How do I resolve Fraud Alerts/blocks on my account?
If my bank cards are lost or stolen, what information will I need to obtain a new card?
Does your bank offer free online bill pay?
It doesn’t happen often but what happens if your company didn’t get your direct deposit set up on time for your first paycheck and you are issued a paper check? Receiving a paper check and having no local branch can be frustrating. This issue has been resolved in most cases by the mobile apps that are now available for check deposit. Find out if your bank offers this as an option.
There isn’t a local branch or ATM. How do you handle the ATM fees? ATM fees can add up quickly. Some banks will refund these as a curtosey to customers on a monthly basis. If your bank doesn’t refund these fees, there are other options. Most department stores ie Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. will allow cash back with no ATM fee with a purchase. This option however depends on you making a purchase in order to avoid bank fees.
I recommend talking to your bank about their ATM policies and considering if the cost is avoidable. Your bank may have ‘partner’ banks in the area that you are unaware of. If your bank doesn’t offer a way to avoid these fees, figure out in advance how you will deal with withdraws. There are several options available:
– Budget and plan your weekly expenses so you only have one ATM withdraw weekly.
– Assess you need for additional cash EVERY time you make an ATM purchase and have an opportunity for a fee-free cash withdraw.
– Find a different bank option that will allow no ATM fees
Do you know what your daily withdraw and purchase limits are? If your wallet is lost or stolen you will want to minimize the potential amounts that would be available to a thief. If your bank has automatically set your withdraw and purchase limits, they may be well above what you even need. Find out what the limits are and determine if they can be lowered. If you rarely make a purchase above $500, there is no need to have your purchase limit set at $1500. If your maximum cash withdraw is never above $200 then change this as well.
When I initially called my bank to have my limits lowered they were floored. They couldn’t understand why I wanted my limit lower and not higher. I live pretty frugally day to day and the limits were way over what I would ever need on a routine basis. I explained to the bank that if my wallet was stolen I would rather the thief only be able to hit my account for $500 instead of $1500 and they began to see my logic.
What happens if I lower my ATM/Withdraw limits and need to make a purchase or withdraw that is over my pre-set limit?
If you have analyzed your spending habits thouroughly and have set an appropriate limit, this should happen only rarely. This is very easy to adjust while on the road. Simply phone your bank and ask for a one-time withdraw or purchase. The bank should be able to set this up right away and you’ll be on your way to big spending.
In addition to minimizing your potential losses if your bank cards are stolen, having a lower limit will cause you to contemplate any large purchases. It’s a great way to curb any impulse spending.
Have you ever been standing at the check-out line with a full basket of groceries only to have the teller inform you that your card was denied? As a service to it’s customers, banks will place automatic holds on your account for any suspicious activities. It can be frustrating if this happens but it’s important to remember that this is for your protection. Help the bank help you by communicating with them. How were they to know that you were going to be living in Seattle for 3 months? If you have never had transactions from the opposite coast and suddenly you have 10 of them, this will set off a fraud alert and lock you out of your account until it’s resolved.
This has happened to me and beyond the annoyance of having to figure out why, it was the pure embarassment of the situation that stands out in my memory. You can’t totally prevent this from ever happening but you can reduce the potential. All it takes is a simple call to your bank and inform them that you will be traveling. They will need the dates of travel as well as the locations. Don’t forget to include any surrounding states or areas that you think you might want to explore while on contract.
What do I need to know if my wallet is stolen while on contract? I’ve had my wallet stolen only once while on contract. I happy that it was only once but it was a near nightmare to deal with. Along with the fear that goes with any theft, there was a myraid of things that were just difficult to deal with gettiing replaced while away from home.
Banks will NOT mail your new bank card to any address other than your primary address listed on your account. This is important to know especially if you only have one bank. My first recommendation is to always have two banks and have them linked together. If your ATM card is lost or stolen, you can easily transfer money to the alternate bank and at least be able to buy gas and groceries until you receive the new card.
Have a back-up credit card or savings account in case of emergency with enough available balance to cover anything unexpected.
NEVER keep all of your cards in the same place. Having two accounts will do you no good if they are both lost or stolen.
Depending on how you have set up your mail, it could take a week or two to receive your new bank card in the mail. What would you do if you couldn’t access your account?
You should always have important banking phone numbers available. It’s a good idea to make a paper or digital copy of the front/back of all of your credit cards and save in a secure location in case of theft/loss.
Is online bill pay an option? The advantages of online bill pay for the traveler are tremdous. I have utilized online bill pay for several years now and can’t imagine going back to paper bills. As travelers, receiving mail can be timely. By the time you have received a bill it may be just days to a due date. If your like me and don’t read your mail quickly, you could easily be facing paying something late.
There are many options available for online bill pay. From fully automated scheduling to single payments. Once you have set up the online bill pay schedule that you are comfortable with, it can nearly eliminate not only the paper piles but also the monthly headaches.
Are there other questions that you have regarding banking while on contract? Do you have tips to add to the list above?
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