The travel rewards card that has been in my wallet the longest is the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express. It is quite famous in the travel junkie circles, but not very well known otherwise. Once you understand the combination … [Read the rest]
Sometimes I get questions about dealing with student loan debt, but I no longer feel well-qualified to answer. I graduated in 2000 with roughly $30,000 in student loan debt myself, but I never participated in any government-backed repayment plan, … [Read the rest]
Here is an updated link to the Best Cash Rates for 2019. But with the growing popularity of "robo-advisors" that manage your retirement portfolio using automated software, what if there was a robo-advisor for rate chasing? That's the basic idea … [Read the rest]
Bank of America runs a program called Museums on Us which offers cardholders free admissions to 150 museums, science centers, and botanical gardens nationwide on the first full weekend of every month (Saturday and Sunday). Simply present any valid … [Read the rest]
As a follow-up to my last post on 100% stocks forever, the referenced NYT article had some neat data that I hadn't seen anywhere else. This chart shows how the overall asset allocation of IRAs held by Vanguard change according to the age of the … [Read the rest]
The BankAmericard Travel Rewards® Credit Card is my current base rewards card (after any bonus 5% cash back categories, sign-up bonus cards, etc). This is because if you give them enough assets to hold onto (admittedly not possible for everyone), you … [Read the rest]
The NY Times had a provocative two-part series on portfolio asset allocation by David A. Levine, former chief economist at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company: Why Your Portfolio Needs Plenty of Stocks, Whatever Your Age How Much of Your Nest Egg … [Read the rest]
Here's an update on one of my real estate crowdfunding experiments. In mid-April 2015, I invested $5,000 into a loan for a single family fix-and-flip in West Sacramento, California. The loan was supposed to be for 6-months (one of the main … [Read the rest]
Inside a post about what economists think about buying vs. renting a house, Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution ended with a nice sentence that I think applies to both buying and renting: One final point: behavioral economics tells us that we … [Read the rest]
Mid-Feburary is the time of year when writers everywhere tie their subject matter to Valentine's Day. Here's how mine came about. I was reading 23 Science-Backed Ways to Feel Happier at Mental Floss. #8 was "Twist the Sheets" which included the … [Read the rest]
Most travel cards offer an ongoing sign-up bonus, but it's even better when you snag them during a bump-up - this time it is the Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card from Chase. Check out the highlights below, and remember that it is free and takes … [Read the rest]
Updated May 2020. Consumers Credit Union (CCU) has a Free Rewards Checking account that offers a high interest rate between 2.09% and 4.09% APY if you meet certain requirements. As with similar accounts elsewhere, the catch is if you don't jump … [Read the rest]
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