If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a little while, you may have noticed that the pace of recent articles has slowed to a standstill. I want to reassure you that this is not (only) because I now spend my days recumbent on my couch eating bonbons. Blog? What Blog? (I’ve actually been […]
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Last stop…Redemption
So if you follow the simple A to B to C of the miles game, you will end up a few months later with a shockingly large and diverse collection of miles and points. After earning, It’s time for burning At that point if you keep up with the serial card applications, and manufactured spending […]
Age Before Beauty
This blogging is a personal thing. Now I believe that the value of investing preferentially in your own freedom and getting great deals on travel are near universal truths, but the fact remains that this is a blog from a very specific perspective. My own. And I happen to be a middle-aged family man who […]
Full Circle
It was a little less than a year ago that I began playing the miles game. It was probably just about a year ago that I spent just under $8000 on plane tickets for my family of five to fly to Japan. So it felt pretty good yesterday to complete the booking of our trip […]
Booking Up
Perhaps I am just a freak. Maybe all this early retirement stuff is just a post facto attribution as I try to justify my own neuroses. Perhaps there are just different breeds of people. Some who enjoy spending, and some who don’t. And I belong to that second strange herd. In any case I spent […]
Shelter From the Storm
One area that I’ve not focused much attention on, is that of hotel credit card sign-up bonuses. The reason for this is simple; up to this point I have been solely focused on airline miles, and flexible points that will cover airfare. I have exactly no hotel cobranded cards in my wallet. (Unless you count […]
Crisis of Faith
You may have picked up that I’m pretty bullish on this whole early retirement/travel hacking combo. How could I not be? I get to selfishly travel like a rockstar, build up my financial reserves, and gamble (with the odds in my favor!), all with the righteous feeling that comes from the knowledge that I am […]
Cold Comfort
Luxury is a two-edged sword. On one hand we crave it. The most expertly prepared food. Elite wines. Performance cars. Soft hotel feather beds. Pampering vacations. On the other hand luxury can be a bit of a golden cage. Once the best is tasted, the ordinary can become unpalatable. Our world can shrink. One runs […]
The Anatomy of a Lame Award
One of the most common metrics for determining the value of an award redemption is the so-called cents-per-mile measurement. The idea here is that the more the award would’ve cost you in cash and the less miles you need to use, the more valuable the redemption. This is why the common logic of the miles […]
Fossil Fuel
Short post tonight: I’ve been burning the midnight oil this week doing late cases at the hospital. But the show must go on…. One of the quirks about using miles is the all-important fuel surcharge. This is one of the most crucial factors in determining the absolute value of any specific airline currency. And one […]
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