We should invest. We really should. Compounding interest is called the eighth wonder of the world because of it’s tremendous and stealth power. A sum growing at 7% a year will double every 10 years. This means that the exponential growth of our savings into significant wealth is possible within the scale of our lifetimes. […]
Archive | September, 2014
Credit Cards, Gift Cards, Money Orders, Manufactured Spending, And The Walmartization Of America
If you’ve read more than a post or two on this site, there’s one thing that you probably know about me.I am not a Walmart fan.Before taking up the miles game, I had never actually been in a Walmart.But since then I’ve become well acquainted with it. In fact in many ways I now consider […]
Miles Safari
Reader, new friend, and fellow Portland Mustachian, Emma, asked me for some advice on getting started travel hacking. Her goal is a trip to Cape Town South Africa next spring with her significant other. I’ve never planned a trip to the continent of Africa, but I thought it would be useful to deconstruct the thinking […]
Jumping off a Cliff
I feel a little bit like a fundamentalist preacher who woke up one morning and realized he did not believe in God. Or not so much that he didn’t believe in god, more that he found he also believed in a larger, cooler, non Judeo-Christian god. Up until this point I’ve done a pretty decent […]
Amazonia Lost
And now for the cherry on top As if the dwindling of Moneypaks, and the shutdown of Loyal3 weren’t enough, we find out that the lowest of low hanging fruits has started to rot on the vine. Amazon payments checked most of the boxes for an ideal manufactured spending vehicle. It was easy, lucrative, and […]
Gristly Bits and Broken Pieces
The manufactured spending game is cyclical. For every triumphant moment there is a let down and vice versa. I’ve been riding high of late from all of the wonderful manufactured spending opportunities that opened up all at once. PayPal, green dot,ISIS Serve, loyal3. A couple months ago it was all a Walmart-less embarrassment of riches. But […]
Shrinkage
When I was a kid and I couldn’t fall sleep right away, I would imagine wonderful spaces designed to my specs. The one that I remember best was a secret door under our stairwell. It opened up into a sprawling subterranean playground accessible only by a firehouse ladder. There was a batting cage. There was […]
Breakfast in Taipei
My minivacation before my vacation was a unique opportunity offered to me by my hobby, the miles game. Without the miles game I never would’ve flown business-class to multiple cities in order to work in a bit of free traveling on my way to Japan. Without understanding the rules of routing, I would not have […]
Turning Japanese
My love affair with Japan probably started before birth. I say this because my parents are Japanophiles. So much so that growing up my father actually studied Japanese tea ceremony. (I was more than a little embarrassed once or twice as a boy when my friends would sleep over and catch glimpses of my dad […]
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