App of the Week: Hipmunk micromanages big travel plans



Have you noticed lately that time-saving devices are taking up more and more of your time?

It's an irony of our age. At least I think it is (after a half-hour researching the term on Wikipedia, I'm still a bit fuzzy on the whole concept).

Take travel planning, for example. My family's holiday prep used to consist of nothing more than cramming everyone into a 1972 Chevy Nova with a broken air conditioner and heading south for the nearest roller coaster - feral vacations, as I now wistfully refer to them.

But at some point, our excursions got ambitious enough to require travel agents who were supposed to eliminate all the costly, time-consuming headaches.

Then years later, someone told us there was an online travel site that could eliminate all the costly, time-consuming travel agents.

Shortly after that, we found out there were at least 714 such sites. So now, just to compare airfares, we log more hours hunched over a computer than our nephews spend battling orcs in World of Warcraft.

The app

Thankfully, the smartphone app Hipmunk (free, iPhone) offers an elegant and convenient travel-planning solution for those of us who've grown frustrated by all the other elegant and convenient travel-planning solutions.

Trying to find the cheapest Dubai-to-Orlando flight with only one layover via a dozen browser windows is hard enough on a desktop monitor with a 20-inch display - anyone who attempts such a feat on a tiny smartphone screen almost always hops on an express train to dark comedy.

Hipmunk, however, allows you to seemingly bend the rules of web-surfing physics through a series of simple small-screen interfaces that lets you quickly compare various flights based on price, time or carrier.

The details

Once you key in your departure and arrival information, you then choose travel dates by tapping on a full-screen calendar (no annoying pull-down-and-scroll-for-30-seconds menus). A colour-coded grid then appears, which lines up options based on cost (by default). You can also organise the options based on departure time, travel time or "agony", which prioritises choices based on the shortest flight time, fewest layovers and best price.

Hipmunk also keeps track of your last five or so flight searches, so you can retrace your steps while burning as few thumb calories as possible.

Finally, the app directs you to either purchase the ticket on your smartphone's browser via the airline's website (good luck with that), or e-mails you a link so you can finish the ticket-buying process on your computer.

Sadly, in the end Hipmunk throws us back into harsh online-ticket-buying realities, but it at least does a good job streamlining the front-end of the travel-planning process.

For anyone who thinks the whole thing is still too much of a hassle, I know where you can get a 1972 Chevy Nova for a great price.

Have some great personal finance apps that you want to share? Write to Curt Brandao at cbrandao@thenational.ae

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5
 
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

North Pole stats

Distance covered: 160km

Temperature: -40°C

Weight of equipment: 45kg

Altitude (metres above sea level): 0

Terrain: Ice rock

South Pole stats

Distance covered: 130km

Temperature: -50°C

Weight of equipment: 50kg

Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300

Terrain: Flat ice
 

Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale

Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni

Director: Amith Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5


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