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CategoryAbout Delta Private Jets
Last week I wrote about how I would think about earning Diamond Medallion status with Delta after the changes going into effect for Medallion Qualifying Dollars in January, 2018. I
What should you do if your Vanguard 403(b) account is getting access to Admiral shares?
Workplace 403(b) retirement plans are, very roughly speaking, the non-profit and public sector’s answer to the 401(k) retirement plans offered by private companies. If your workp..
How to plan out your last 2017 US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards redemptions
I know my readers are some of the biggest fans of US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards cards, given their convenient bonus earning categories and potentially generous redemptions rat..
I am rabidly in favor of tax simplification, which is why I oppose “tax reform”
Having failed to strip health insurance from tens of millions of low-income Americans, the Republican Congress has moved on to their next project of radically reducing the taxes ..
Thinking about the 2018 changes to Delta co-branded credit card MQD waivers
I’ve been reading with interest about the recently-announced change to how Delta will handle Medallion Qualifying Dollar waivers starting with the 2019 qualification year (Januar..
Why I do my own taxes (and why you might not)
Every year around February 1, I fire up the IRS’s Free File Fillable Forms and begin the arduous process of manually inputting all my income and expenses for the year.
What to do when a Bank of America ATM eats your money orders
Automated teller machines are so fully integrated into American life that it’s sometimes difficult to remember just how marvelous the technology is. The fact that the global tele..
Support the Recovery for the US Virgin Islands
The Hurricane Season still has over a month left, but we’ve already had two rather damaging hurricanes that have caused massive damage across the Caribbean. I wrote earlier this ..
Travel hacking without manufactured spend
I was having lunch with a travel hacker in my area the other day and we got to talking about different approaches to the game.My personal approach depends almost entirely
Accelerating payments versus making good decisions
Here at Saverocity, our glorious leader Matt and I have a difference in opinion, which is always more fun than agreement, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to
Bitcoin seems fine, but there’s no reason to own any
The other day someone on Twitter linked to this very interesting essay by Marc Andreesen of Andreesen Horowitz, the prominent venture capital firm, which I highly recommend if, l..
Do this now: register for 2017 4th quarter bonus categories
It’s that time again: time to register for quarterly bonus earnings on all your credit cards, including the ones you never use.Chase FreedomContinuing a pretty great streak of bo..
The problem of class projection
A few different situations have recently set me to ruminating on a curious problem that I think doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. My working name for this problem is
Do we have a retirement savings crisis or a retirement income crisis (or neither)?
I’d like to set some facts up on the board:
In 1966, prior to the Johnson Administration’s “War on Poverty,” 28.5% of Americans over the age of 65 were living below
How much is your obsession with tax efficiency costing you?
Something that I find separates me from the classical financial independence/early retirement community is the particular obsession of that community with achieving financial ind..
Roundup of some current deals
I hope everyone had a glorious Labor Day and marched in solidarity with our worker brothers and sisters around the country and around the world. There are quite a few
Quick hit: changes to US Bank Flexpoint transfers
In the last few years US Bank has made a number of negative tweaks to the Flexperks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card. They restricted the once-generous “grocery” bonus category..
How I would requalify for World of Hyatt Globalist status
This is my second and last year of top-tier Hyatt elite status. I matched to Diamond status during their short-lived offer when the Starwood-Marriott merger was announced, then r..
Are your unredeemed points killing your game?
I haven’t written about this lately, so hopefully my long-time readers will indulge me as I dive back into what I find is one of the most under-appreciated risks of
Business is not work is not investing
One of the more curious tricks played by late capitalism on the minds of its subjects is conceptually transforming all aspects of life into different forms of capital. From this
How good are Roth IRA’s for emergency funds?
Roth IRA’s are interesting vehicles because, among other things, contributions can be withdrawn at any time penalty-free. Since contributions are capped annually but can be withd..
See how “frugal” I am
I always have a good time reading the latest explanation for how easy it is to save money if you just make a few simple sacrifices, whether it’s your daily
Sleeping the rails
As some readers may know, in a former life I worked as an English language teacher in Russia. At that time, it was typical for expats to arrive on a