I’ve said on many occasions that I’m not a fan of Manufactured Spend (MS). It is a means to an end. Certainly, there is some fun in cracking a system or finding a new pathway, but that is not an exclusively MS related activity. I see MS as a job, sure it can pay relatively […]
Archives for March 2015
Social Engineering 101 Frame and Posture
Social Engineering or ‘people skills’ is the key to opening many doors in life. It is a jedi like trick that involves conveying the message that you are someone important enough to have people help and support you. The DYKWIA mindset is a tool in this, but often deployed without grace and therefore fails. This […]
5 steps to setting up a second Twitter Account
Clearly, this topic isn’t covered enough since my feed is overwhelmed with people tweeting for free crap via #hashtag promotions. Amex Sync is likely the overall winner in most annoying, but @Clubcarlson does a fine job of giving away points every now and then that encourage people to beg for them at least 5-10 times […]
App o Rama help (Reader Question)
Man I wish I was The Points Guy when I get emails like this, I could clean up! Heck, I could stop making up fake emails too! So the question today comes from Reader A. Here’s the message in verbatim: Hello Matt, Seriously in love with your network, your personal finance views, and the forum. […]
UPDATED: Will the Chase Sapphire Preferred really cover your car rental?
Final update.. 3/27It seems that Chase is telling me the agent I spoke with doesn’t know what they are talking about and that I am covered. My claim has not yet been processed so I don’t really know if this will be the case, but I can say the entire process is confusing and does […]
Thoughts on Killing a $25K MS Deal
I raised this question in the forum recently when a deal came across my table from a very nice member of the MS community. He had just found something that was somewhat new, and pushed through his first trial payment. I decided to try this myself too, as it was a simple $18K transaction (random […]
Giveaway – One used Amenity Kit
I made it home! And my bags arrived at around 2am (sorry delivery driver, but I am not answering your calls at that time of the night). I had to spend the night in a holiday Inn near Atlanta airport without bags. I made a bad decision in SNA airport when I agreed to help […]
My #travelcon Presentation
Note that I have changed the hashtag…. I had a great time in OC for TravelCon. And somehow finding myself in debt to Tahsir again as he hooked me up with some tickets to the UFC. I attended with Dan who won a raffle for the prize and we had a blast that evening.My presentation […]
Trapped in ATL – my decision making process
Last night I was stranded in ATL, and after doing ‘the right thing’ and checking my bag from SNA to free up cabin space found myself with no change of clothes, no replacement contact lenses (I wear dailies) no toiletries etc… it was just me, my giant can headphones and my technology (Mac, Nexus 7, […]