My friend David just completed his first six card churn. Like I did six months ago, he went all in. The bluebird is coming in the mail, as are five new credit cards. He’s ready to manufacture some spend. He’s very excited. And so am I. I can’t wait until he and his wife fly […]
Archive by Author
Original MD Squared Investment Flowchart !
Aint She Purty? Made Her myself. This is the official Miles-Dividend-MD-How-to-Save Flow chart. Start at the top and see where the flow chart takes you. What could be more fun? In terms of posts that correspond to each step of the flow sheet…. Step 1: Save a healthy proportion of your take home income. Please […]
Points Landscape
There are seemingly hundreds of different flavors of miles and points. Every airline, and virtually every Hotel group has its own loyalty currency. Even some credit card companies have their own currencies. So how to categorize this United Nations of miles and points? I would argue that there are three main flavors (nationalities?) of miles […]
Making an Ass out of You and Me
One important question to address about early retirement is; What are the assumptions? When I claim that if someone with zero net worth saves 50% of her take home income over 17 years, that she will at that point be financially independent, what does this statement rest upon? One assumption is that the invested money […]
Simply Miles
One of the more frequent bits of skeptical feedback I get on my miles posts goes something like this: “I don’t think I can do that manufactured spending stuff. It’s way too complicated, and way too much work.” I heard this very statement today from heart failure specialist Alicia Ross MD. Now keep mind, this […]
The Back Door
Not to be redundant, but if you want to retire young you’ve got to save a large proportion of your income. That’s rule number one, two, and three. I shouldn’t say it like that because saving money is actually quite fun once you get started. Investing your savings is even more fun. And you will […]
Slippery Slope
I’m someone who tends to dive right in. If I’m interested in something I’m really interested, really fast. Some might term it obsessive. Some throw the term “manic” around all too loosely. But there’s no getting around the facts. That’s just the way I was built. The point being that I’ve dived right into quite […]
Raw Goods
The obvious next topic to turn to in discussing early retirement and investment theory is how to design a well balanced portfolio that will deliver us to financial independence at a ripe young (to middle) age. We’ve now covered the main building blocks for success: The crucial importance of low-cost passively managed funds, the only […]
The Icky Side Of Miles
The miles game is a wondrous thing. Travel for nearly free, by leveraging (dangerous/predatory) credit card sign up bonuses, and improve your credit score in the bargain… You had me at “free travel.” But full disclosure: it’s not all sunshine and lollipops. Nothing is without cost. One of the most distasteful aspects of this […]
Vive La Revolution!
This is my second night away from home attending Lisa Yao and Aaron Kabb’s wonderful wedding in Santa Barbara. (Mazel tov!). So please forgive me another indulgent and non-data-driven post. If you want to learn something useful tonight, best to navigate away from this page right about now. Tonight I would like to wax on […]
Recent Comments