1971: Ask Farnoosh: Buy Gold? Save on Travel? And My Thoughts on Strangers by Belle Burden

**Farnoosh Torabi** (0:00)
So Money Episode 1971, Ask Farnoosh.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
You're listening to So Money with award-winning money guru, Farnoosh Torabi. Each day, get a 30-minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers, and from Farnoosh yourself.
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**Farnoosh Torabi** (0:32)
Welcome to So Money, everybody. It's Friday, Ask Farnoosh, April 17th, 2026 And this Friday, we're answering your questions about summer travel. Is it a wise time to book those summer airline tickets? Do we think airfare is going to be more expensive come July, August? And some of you are curious about gold with the rise in the value of this commodity. Might it be something we want to have in our investment portfolios? We've also got some news to talk about, like a surprising study I found on the number one city where retirees are flocking to. And it's not in Florida. I was shocked and also a bit delighted. But first, I want to do a catch up, a proper catch up and share our spring break shenanigans, our Torabi Duesinger spring break excursion with you. My family, we went to Los Angeles Monday through Friday this month, earlier this month. It was a whirlwind that consisted mainly of a child-friendly itinerary, as one does at my life stage. Think Disneyland, Universal Studios, and we also toured a couple of the Hollywood studios like Warner Brothers. And spring break is a lot of pressure, I think, on families because at the same time, you have this intellectual side of your brain that's like, I am not going to give in to the financial pressure and the emotional pressure, right? Because you see these families around you and you see the social media posts, people going to these all-inclusive Caribbean resorts, restored castle on the coast of Italy, and you have the FOMO. And at the same time, you're like, if I stay home, that's miserable too. Because with school-age kids, the reality is they're home all day and you're trying to do work. It's a lot. There are these sort of like spring break day camps we have, and we've tried them. But the kids come home typically exhausted, cranky, and then I'm picking up the pieces. And then when they're home, they're usually on a screen, let's be honest, while I'm trying to do a Zoom call. So it's a lot of monitoring their screen time. Anyway, all this to say, we caved last minute. And I thought if we stay within the country, it would be more economical. The flights were not inexpensive, but I think probably we did save some money on the flights. I know that on the way home, we did save some money on food on the flights. I'll tell you, stay tuned how that happened. But it was not as cheap as I was hoping, because when you're doing things like Disneyland and Universal and all the theme parks, it's like I told my husband, everything is airport pricing, right? You want water, it's $8. You want to park somewhere, that's $50 a day, right? So it was premium pricing everywhere we went. I will say, I'm very proud of myself for all of the great restaurants I booked. We went to a great Persian restaurant. We went to a great place called Firefly.
Tokyo Cube, a great sushi place. Gemma Hollywood had great pizza. Driving in LA was cruel and brutal, but unavoidable. If you're wondering Disneyland versus Universal, I would say Universal was where we got more bang for our buck. Disneyland was super crowded even though we went on a Tuesday, which was supposed to be an off day.
We bought even the express pass so that we could take the rides faster. But Disneyland puts so many restrictions even on those express passes that we honestly could only go on one ride quickly, given the fact that we were only there from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. instead of until the park closed at 11 p.m. Universal, on the other hand, we bought the express pass and we went on literally every ride we wanted and it was amazing. The rides were also, I think, better. Okay, so then the flight home, we got free snacks and free meals on the ride home and free drinks because we had a massive delay. And it was awful, guys. We got right to basically about to take off. We boarded the flight. We're about to take off and then the pilot comes on and says, we have to go back to the gate because the plane has some sort of issue, which I'm very thankful for, obviously. But man, couldn't they have figured that out before you went through the entire hassle of boarding and oh my gosh. And then we got on a new flight about three and a half hours later. Not terrible in the grand scheme of airline meltdowns, right? But I ordered a glass of wine. My kids were hungry again, so I ordered them some snack boxes and they never charged me for those orders, which I thought was weird. But then I realized sometimes airlines treat you when there's a delay like that. It's not a guarantee. US airlines aren't required to give you anything if you're stuck at the airport. But behind the scenes, crews often have the power to comp things. We got lucky because we didn't even ask and the crew was so nice to just comp us in the future, you should just ask. And I think in general, they'll be accommodating. Because in this case, it was pretty rough. It's in the airline's best interest to spread the goodwill. So that was our spring break. Glad we did it. But also need to get back to saving my money. All right, here's what's catching my eye in the news. Yahoo Finance is reporting that more retirees are seeking to settle down in, wait for it, New York City because it checks off a lot of boxes. It's a sociable city. It's walkable. And this is really important and increasingly becoming important. It's climate change resistant for now. Okay. As someone who lived in New York City, I will tell you that it's not entirely climate change resistant. We've had plenty of hurricanes and floods. But if you live in a high rise building, you're shielded from that, right? Also topping the list, Durham, North Carolina, Ann Arbor, Michigan, followed by Boston, Seattle, Washington, DC. This survey was done by Human Change and Motif's Geography of Prosperity Index. They say more retirees are swapping scenic views for city living. Fascinating. I've always contemplated after living in the suburbs until my kids go to college and maybe boomerang a little bit and come back and live with it because this is the reality. I'm prepared for my kids to go to college and then maybe live with us again for a little bit to save some money while they're working because that's what's happening right now. That then we would move and downsize and maybe, downsize I put in air quotes because then my thought is that we could move back to the city because I love the city. I'm a city girl. I want to move back to Brooklyn or Manhattan and experience the city in a way that I never quite got to. Finally, as somebody that has savings and doesn't have little kids anymore. So this study, while it surprised me, it also really encouraged me and I never really thought about New York as like a climate resistant, but it's true and although there is this concern that my husband and I always had about New York City, which was that it's an island, right? If there's some big earthquake, we could overflood and just go underwater entirely. The tides are rising in New York, around New York City. So that is something that we think about and I know that is a risk, but we got a ways to go. Also in the news, in the New York Times, students are looking for college scholarships on social media sites. They're trusting their friends' advice more than financial advisors, that's according to a new survey. And that gets a little tricky, right? Because there are a lot of scams out there. Money deals on TikTok and Instagram, I don't have to tell you, usually, scams. But I get it, these kids are desperate to get their way into college. I was on my flight home from Los Angeles. There was a family next to me, a mom and her son, and they were visiting colleges in LA. The senior in high school who lives in Jersey, he had gotten into UCLA and USC. The mom had four kids, and she and I were talking about just how impossible these price tags are on these colleges and how they didn't get a lot of money from the state universities in California. USC, she said, which is a private college, actually did give them some money, and that he was probably going to go there. But the son was also talking to me and I was telling him, hey, you should check out Ron Lieber's book. He was just on the podcast talking about merit scholarships, and he was taking notes furiously, and poor kid, and I felt for him. I get it, these kids are trying their best to get into school, but we have to protect them, right, to make sure that they don't fall into these traps, and that they don't inadvertently harm themselves even more getting into like financial scams, trying to get into college. Some sites where you can find scholarships directly, Scholarships360, scholarships.com, FastWeb, also your local bank, Rotary Clubs, Community Foundations, your high school, your college financial aid office, employers, local businesses, these are all legit places to find and apply for scholarships. Okay, we're going to get to the mailbag in just a few moments, but first, in case you missed any of our episodes this week, on Monday, we talked about the science of attraction and why dating is still financially complicated. Our guest, Amy Chan, is a New York Times bestselling author. Her latest book is called UnSingle, How to Date Smarter and Create Love That Lasts, and we dove into modern dating, how it's complicated, what happens when you're financially independent, maybe even out earning your partner, and the old rules no longer apply. Why are some women opting out of the dating world and the relationship world altogether and they're like, I'm good, I'm good on my own. And while meanwhile, others are leaning into this rising trad wife, traditional wife movement as an antidote to burnout and girl boss culture, really interesting conversation with Amy Chan. And then on a totally different topic, Wednesday, how to start an art collection on a budget with one of my favorite art experts, Liz Lajette, she's an art gallery owner in the Midwest, and she has helped me find and discover so many wonderful pieces of art for our home. She has a new book out called Art for Everyone. It's a practical and an empowering guide to finding your style, buying art with confidence and creating a home that really reflects you. You know, art has become really accessible these days. It used to be this thing that we felt was like just for the wealthy or just for people who had access to it. And now it's highly accessible. You can find wonderful pieces of art of all shapes and sizes, of all price ranges online. And Liz talks about how to think about art not so much as an investment, but as something that really is meaningful to you. We also talk about the rise of artists as entrepreneurs and even how AI is reshaping what we value in handmade work. Really important conversation. That's episode 1970 on April 15th on Wednesday. All right, mailbag time. Everybody wants to know, Farnoosh, should I buy gold? Because the price has gone up again, rising close to record levels as headlines swirl around this potential ceasefire between the US and Iran, even as tensions remain high and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is still severely disrupted. And that's how gold behaves. It reacts to uncertainty, to geopolitical stress, to fears about inflation and global stability. One headline about peace talks, prices move. Another about conflict or supply disruption. Price of gold moves again. And so it's not a steady price point. And that's why I say gold is not a growth strategy. It doesn't pay you anything. There are no dividends with gold. There's no interest. There's no compounding that's working quietly in the background. The only way you make money is if someone else is willing to pay more for this later. And that's often driven by fear or instability in the world. Now you compare that to something like a diversified index fund, where over time, you're participating in the growth of companies, innovation, productivity. That is how real wealth over time is built. Now, to be fair, gold does have a role.