Free Vacations

Free cruises: If you’re aged between 40 and 70 and can do some basic ballroom dancing, most cruise lines will let you go for next to nothing because the women outnumber the men so heavily. Call any of the major cruise lines.

Timeshare: If you’re prepared to sit through an hour long sales pitch with no obligation, virtually ALL timeshare resorts will give you a free ‘sample’ vacation to lure you in.

Would you like to live in France, or any other country, for business or for a long vacation? You may be able to exchange homes with a French family; they will live in your home here while you live in theirs in France. Of course, the locations, both here and there, must suit both parties, and the length of time involved must be coordinated also. But it's worth doing because it can give you a "home away from home." Contact the embassy of the country you'd like to live in and they'll probably be able to help you arrange it.

Traveling for business is good business. Whenever possible, make all your trips, even if they are really vacation trips, provably serve some aspect of your business so you can deduct the cost of them from your corporation's profits. The tax rate on corporation profits is 48%, so it makes good sense to deduct the cost of your trip from your overall profits. That could save you up to half the cost of the trip; Uncle Sam will, in effect, pay it for you!

This can be done very often if you are in business in which traveling is a necessity, such as import/export. If you are a travel agent you will often be invited by airlines, cruises, hotels and resorts to travel or stay with them as their guest; they hope, of course, you will then send your travel agency customers to them. But this can work also if you're in a business or occupation, like advertising or public relations or writing, where you can give them free publicity in return.

Or you might want to be the organizer of a charter tour. You then have an even wider choice of when and where to go, and you as the organizer travel free. You should even pick up a handsome profit besides, if you handle it right. First you must find people who want to go. Often the easiest way is to choose people who are already affiliated in some way; they work for the same company or belong to the same club or church. Then comes the choice of where to go. You might question them, giving them the choice of place or you may start to make some tentative preliminary enquiries about 3 or 4 places and have them choose one of those places. Get an advance deposit of at least 20%. You'll need this advance money to arrange the charter flight, places to stay, local transportation and sightseeing at the vacation spot, and so on. It also ensures that those who make the reservations will actually go because the deposit is not refundable (after a certain date).

A bonus for doing business in other countries

Our government wants to help you do more business overseas. Before you go, therefore, contact the Department of Commerce. They will arrange for you to meet people in each country you visit who are in your industry and related fields. The Commerce Dept. won't guarantee it, of course, but if you play your cards right, these potential business associates will wine and dine you and act as warm hosts in their native countries. It not only costs you nothing; it promotes business and lets you meet people who can really show you the best of everything in their countries.

Traveling at Government Expense

Have you ever thought of getting paid to travel--of living and working overseas? Uncle Sam now has over 230,000 of his citizens working for him abroad. And you don't have to be a scientist or technical specialist to be one of them. Persons with clerical and office skills, as well as those with administrative abilities, are needed. So are plumbers, machinists, woodworkers and painters.

American companies also send people abroad. Don't forget the huge corporations if you're thinking of a job abroad. Such companies as Citibank of New York, Johns-Manville, IBM, International Harvester, Westinghouse and many more, have Americans working for them overseas; and the pay scales in many of these companies are higher than for their workers in the same jobs at home. And there are jobs working for foreign governments or private foreign companies that often pay well and are quite interesting besides. For example, in those countries where oil is being produced in huge quantities (such as many of the Middle Eastern countries) there is a need for people with experience in this field. What's more, the general increase in wealth brought by the oil industry in those countries produces a huge growth in the construction of roads, buildings, factories, bridges, hotels and many more things. People are needed to build and operate all of these; if you've got the skills in demand, you can certainly land a job, what's more, being there at the time when things are growing may let you in on the ground floor of other moneymaking opportunities. In fact, if you're the adventurous type, you'll not only probably make more money abroad, but have a great time, too!