If you still haven’t booked your holiday travel plans, take note: Prices tend to rise the closer you get to the days you’re looking to travel. 

To afford holiday trips, about 50% of respondents are cutting back on other expenses while 49% are picking up discounts and deals, according to the 2024 Holiday Travel Outlook by Hopper, a travel site.

Some last-minute holiday travelers are leaning into so-called “Travel Tuesday” — or the Tuesday after Cyber Monday and Black Friday — which falls on Dec. 3 this year.

Search interest for Travel Tuesday rose more than 500% from 2021 to 2023, according to a recent report by McKinsey and Company.

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There’s a reason why shoppers are searching for the term.

Last year, 83% more deals were offered on Travel Tuesday versus Cyber Monday and 92% more than Black Friday, according to Hopper data.

Yet, there may be some limitations on the deals available, experts say.

“The challenge for a lot of people is, ‘Do I wait?'” said Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet. 

For travelers who are set on specific days and places to visit, the answer might be “no.”

“While airlines and online travel agencies are going to offer flight deals on Travel Tuesday, there is no reason to wait,” said Phil Dengler, co-founder of The Vacationer, a travel platform.

How much you benefit from potential discounts on Travel Tuesday will depend on your flexibility, experts say. 

“If you have zero flexibility,” said Hayley Berg, economist at Hopper, then “if you see a good deal before Travel Deal Tuesday, feel free to book it.” 

The number of older Americans who report losing more than $100,000 to fraud in a given year has more than tripled since 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a trend that experts say represents a grave and growing threat to older adults’ financial security.

In 2023, about 4,600 adults age 60 and older reported being defrauded of a six-figure sum, according to a report the FTC issued in October. That’s up from about 1,300 in 2020.

Such thefts can be especially devastating to older adults, who have less opportunity to earn back what they’ve lost, greatly impacting their quality of life in old age, experts said.

“It’s life altering,” said John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy group.

Aside from the financial blow, victims also bear the emotional “trauma of knowing they have to live rest of their life in poverty,” Breyault said.

Consumers overall lost $10 billion to scams in 2023, a record high, according to the FTC.

The figure is also $1 billion more than the fraud loss reported in 2022, despite the number of fraud reports being roughly the same, at about 2.6 million, the FTC said.

“Scammers are really getting more sophisticated, better at what they do and the technology they’re using seems to allow them to target victims with ever more precision,” Breyault said.

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Adults age 60 and older reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud last year, up from $1.6 billion in 2022, the FTC said.

The true scope of losses by older adults was likely significantly higher — around $62 billion in 2023 — after accounting for underreporting, the FTC said. Many Americans may not report these crimes to the police or other sources partly due to embarrassment about having been duped or because they assumed nothing could be done, according to a 2023 Gallup News poll.

Older adults were 60% more likely than younger ones to report losses exceeding $100,000 last year, according to the FTC. Criminals commonly stole such vast sums from older adults via romance scams, investment frauds and imposter scams, the FTC said.

Imposter scams often involved fraudsters impersonating friends and family or agents from technology firms like Microsoft, sweepstakes and lottery companies like Publishers Clearing House, institutions like banks and government agencies like the Social Security Administration, the FTC said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also detailed a stark increase in internet crime defrauding older Americans in recent years. The average victim in that age group lost more than $34,000 in 2023, the FBI reported.

Investment scams, especially those involving fake cryptocurrency investment opportunities, accounted for the largest reported losses among all older adults in 2023: $538 million, up 34% from 2022, the FTC said.

“We’d all like to believe we could spot an online scam a mile away,” the National Council of Aging wrote this year. “But the truth is that con artists and cybercriminals are getting craftier and more sophisticated by the day.”

That said, would-be victims can protect themselves by recognizing three common tactics used by scammers, Breyault said:

1. Sense of urgency

Criminals often try to create a “heightened state of emotional urgency,” Breyault said.

This psychological tactic pushes victims to act impulsively, rushing them into making decisions or providing sensitive information without thinking, according to NCOA.

“Fraudsters may say an offer is good for a limited time only, a product is about to run out, or that you must make a payment immediately to prevent negative consequences,” NCOA said.

2. Social isolation

Scammers try to prevent consumers from talking to a third party. For example, they might say, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Don’t go to the cops. This is an investment no one knows about so don’t tell anyone about this. It’s our little secret,” Breyault said.

“If you’re unsure about the person you’re talking to or what you’re being told, ask a friend or family member for advice before taking any further steps,” NCOA said. “Sending a quick screenshot of a text, or simply walking through the scenario with someone you trust, can often help you see things more clearly.”

3. Unusual ways to pay

Criminals often ask victims to make a payment by buying gift cards, sending a wire transfer, going to a bitcoin ATM, or sending money through a peer-to-peer transaction on a platform like Zelle or Venmo, for example, Breyault said.

Consumers generally don’t have recourse to be refunded money in such circumstances, he said.

While there are “legitimate” uses for such payment methods, they often appear “unusual” in the context of a fraud: For example, why would a loved one who claims to need cash ask you to send money via a bitcoin ATM? Breyault said.

“When you do buy products online, make sure you only use a payment option that offers reimbursement for authorized payments (such as most major credit cards),” NCOA wrote. “Using a form of direct payment, such as a payment app, is essentially the same as sending cash. You may not be able to receive a refund.”

John Healy began investing in exchange-traded funds when he was about 18 years old.

Back then, Healy said he worked as a security guard in a beach club earning an hourly wage of “$12 a pop” and relied on message boards on the internet to figure out what to buy or sell.

Today, Healy is a 25-year-old law clerk in New York City with a financial planner guiding his investments.

What hasn’t changed? His interest in baskets of securities designed to closely track an index.

“ETFs are still a vehicle for me to get action in the stock market,” Healy said.

He’s not alone. Young investors are tapping into exchange-traded funds at high rates.

According to an annual report by Nasdaq, millennials and Gen Zers are the two most likely generational groups to have ETF holdings in their retirement accounts, at 81% and 75%, respectively. 

The survey polled 2,000 U.S. retail ETF investors in March. The report defines millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z as those from 1997 to 2021.

The trend been growing for the past three years, or since Nasdaq has been conducting the report, said Alison Hennessy, head of exchange-traded product listings at Nasdaq.

“The continued growth of retail investors investing in ETFs is certainly not going away,” she said. 

ETFs listed in the U.S. hit a record-breaking $900 billion in inflows and about 600 ETF launches this year, according to ETF.com.

The investment vehicle has been growing in popularity among investors in general in part due to the lower associated costs, tax benefits and accessibility compared to mutual funds, experts say.

“What really attracts investors to the ETF structure in general is, they’re easier to buy and sell directly on a brokerage account,” Hennessy said. 

The same can’t be said for a mutual fund, experts say. 

If you’re an active investor, you have the ability to make intra-day trades with an ETF, whereas a mutual fund won’t actually process your buy or sell order until after market close, explained Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.

Meanwhile, associated fees with ETFs tend to be much lower compared to mutual funds and other index funds.

Index ETFs have a 0.44% average annual fee, half the 0.88% fee for index mutual funds, according to Morningstar. Similarly, active ETFs carry a 0.63% average fee, versus 1.02% for actively managed mutual funds, Morningstar data shows.

And ETFs do not typically trigger capital gains taxes, Lucas said.

“That’s what makes them so tax efficient,” he said. “For younger investors, you know really what you’re getting and there’s no surprises.” 

When Healy began investing as a teenager, he was mostly driven to do so by his parents, who instilled in him the value of saving and investing his money, Healy said.

“Now I’m living on my own, and I have my own personal finances to worry about,” he said.

Gen Z investors who are starting out need to keep in mind two elements, according to experts.

1. Research what your exposure could be

There are more than 3,800 U.S.- listed ETFs available in the market now, and a perk to consider is their transparency, said Hennessy. 

“The vast majority of ETFs are disclosing their holdings,” or what’s held in their portfolio, she said. 

To find out what sectors, companies, industries or risks you may be exposed to, look up the information on the ETF issuer’s website, Hennessy said.

For example, say a fund’s name includes the term “international.” You may want to know what countries or classifications the fund focuses on. 

“You have the ability to really drill down and look at the exact holdings in the fund,” Hennessy said.

2. Take note of ‘wash sale rules’

Be mindful about so-called “wash sale rules,” Lucas said. 

The IRS guidelines essentially blocks you from writing off a loss if you repurchase the same or an identical security within a 30-day window before or after the sale, he explained. 

If you sell an ETF at a loss, and you buy it back or a similar one within that time period, you cannot get the benefit of the tax loss. 

It can be easier to get around wash sale rules with an ETF compared to mutual funds, but you need to be careful how you handle it, experts say.

“That loss that you would of taken just gets added to your cost basis to potentially take later,” Lucas said.