Travel ain’t what it used to be. In the “olden days,” people traveled by train and arrived at magnificent train stations – just look at the architecture of Baltimore’s Penn station (built in 1911, around the time the Model-T came out). From the train you took a taxicab (horse drawn, perhaps) to your downtown hotel, and everything you needed was close by. Nowadays we arrive at airports far from the city center, and we have to be able to get around to tour, shop, or attend to business: hence, the marvel of the rent-a-car business. You can land at any city in the U.S. and within an hour drive out with a shiny new car. Wow!

But wait – it is not so simple; nothing good ever is. Navigating our complicated and constantly changing world of personal economics and shopping requires a lot of know-how. This is especially true in car rentals, where no two customers pay the same price, and where rental companies try, and often succeed, in selling you unneeded extras that can be called rip offs.

There are some new developments in income taxes this year, and some of the changes are significant. First of all, several tax deductions ended with 2013, but experts think they will be voted in retroactively to the beginning of 2014. Here are the changes:

You no longer get the exclusion for cancelled home mortgage debt. This was the provision that if a bank forgave a loan, it is income to you, but you did not have to pay taxes on it. This occurred when the real estate market went down and people renegotiated mortgages. Let’s hope this one comes back.

As I sit down to write this article, the news is that Home Depot’s computers were hacked, and very often I get strange emails from people I know, which means their computers have been hacked.

We hear a lot about hacking today. For those of you who are not sure what it means, hacking is when someone “enters” your computer, via the internet, without your even realizing it. Target was “targeted” a few months ago, which prompted credit card companies to issue new cards with different account numbers to their customers. We’ll see if the same thing occurs with Home Depot. Either way, these incidents are not likely to go away. Breeches of computer systems will continue to affect homes and businesses large and small – not to mention government databases and computers.

A year ago, I was spending over $300 per month on telephone expenses. Today, I am down to $100!

How did I do it? By testing some suggestions I made in last year’s article on phone expenses. When I wrote that article, telephone developments were already remarkable. Who could have imagined unlimited long distance 20 years ago? In those days we paid dollars for every minute. Now basic local service and unlimited long distance are cheap. So, why complain? The answer is that it could be even better, folks, a lot better!

When I started my quest, I was spending $45 for my house line, $75 for my work and fax lines, and $185 a month for six cell phone lines. Only one was a smartphone, and it had a very small data plan. Total cost: over $300 a month. My bill now, for all that, plus a generous data plan, is 66 percent less. Let’s look at the details.

A new scam is floating around, sprung from the ever-fertile minds of crooks, swindlers, and scam artists. The IRS itself is warning the public about this one, so you know it’s serious – and clever. I was going to write on a different topic this month, but when I heard that the married son of a friend of mine fell for this scam and lost $5,000 in one phone call, I thought I had better cover it.

Let’s leave finance aside for one month and talk about some summer fun. I have written in the past about the great American West. I am truly sad to hear how few people have seen our fantastic national parks. Perhaps it is because many of us do not know how to choreograph trips to these far flung paradises. I would therefore like to plan a sample getaway for you.

Many people nowadays have accumulated frequent flyer miles, which allow you to fly for free. My favorite credit card for miles is the Southwest Visa card by Chase. It gives you the greatest flexibility when it comes to booking travel. This past summer, I used some of my miles to take a wonderful vacation to Arizona. This trip is not expensive when done with these free points, and collecting enough miles to pull it off is quite manageable.