We bring you a Capital One Bank miles guide, visit stunning Iran and Havasupai Falls, tackle the hardest problem in finance, legacy airlines keep expanding, read an Antarctica trip report, meet an old man living on a cruise ship, learn how desperate Venezuelans cope with the catastrophe their country is experiencing and way much more for freeeeee.
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
Support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS & clicking our REFERRAL LINKS
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
These “miles” suck but just in case you were interested: Capital One “Rewards miles” Complete Guide.
Looks like United is expanding very well internationally: United Airlines to Add Multiple New International Routes from San Francisco. It should lead to some nice award space finds…theoretically at least. Wait, here comes AA too: American Airlines to add 18 routes, including new flights to Glacier National Park.
DansDeals is doing a trip report to Antarctica. You learn about Orthodox Jews and kosher stuff is a bonus. Looking forward to the next installment when they actually get to Antarctica. Meanwhile, here is Part Two.
We all learned about that Christian missionary moron who tried to visit North Sentinel island and was killed. But did you know about her? 27 Years Ago A Woman Contacted The Tribe That Killed John Chau, And Her Encounter Was Completely Different. Amazing pictures and nice video in the end too.
What a sweet story about a 94 year old man: Captain Of His Destiny: The Man Who Has Lived On A Cruise Ship For 13 Years.
Amazing twitter thread about what it is like living in Venezuela and leaving it to make ends meet.
Your personal finance fix of the day: The Hardest Problem in Finance. Author takes a shot against the FIRE folks/bloggers encouraging readers to retire young. If there was a simple way to fix this retirement distribution income problem…we would have solved it by now! So, best way to attack it is find a job you love doing every single day and keep socking money away to get to a point where you won’t need to worry whether you are spending too much again! A surprising revelation in the article was that the author does not maximize his 401(k) contribution. Which I find simply unacceptable. We have done this EVERY year since we started working and I do not allow clients to not do this!
It is probably true: 13 amazing sights that prove Iran is a stunning destination. One day I will continue my trip reports from my October 2016 trip. Je suis the slowest trip report writer on the planet!
Drew of Travel Is Free is back with a nice travel post: Havasupai Falls: The Best Waterfalls I’ve Seen.
What a great infographic: Visualizing How Much Countries Spend on R&D. If this is too hard to read…check out the two tables in the link.
When you run out of schemes how to sell plastic, wow:
Bitcoin Value Is Evaporating. That’s Why I Collect Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Pay for First Class Flights! – Million Mile Secrets
Drew seems to be coming back? [The Only] Flying Blue Award Chart.
Found out that TPG Inc has 50 staff. You add rent, marketing expenses, etc…and these guys either lose a lot of money or they are selling gazillions of credit cards!
I ran outside yesterday. And I had a PR time. The reason was because I was freeeezing and I just wanted to get warm and get through with it lol. I also had romaine lettuce in my lettuce. That is just living dangerously, what can I say!
And I leave you with this: I want to be part of the team you guys!
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
Follow TBB on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2.
You can subscribe to TBB below, winners only!
Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Good morning!
Here for my daily shot of sanity.
Richard Kerr over at TPG:
“We need to do everything we can to educate and equip our readers, which (in turn) allows each of you to make informed decisions that are in your best interest.”
Now how PATHETIC is that? Do these guys get brainwashed after the first paycheck over there or what? This is the outfit that still pumps the 25k Amex Gold card and has never ever said a bad word about a card they did not sell. Oh wait, they never published a link to a card that does not compensate them.
At least that farting Fan writes less…
WTG on that running, Buzz!
Have a good weekend all!
This ridiculous guy…
Soul Plane Actor Sues Airline After Getting His Pinky Stuck in an Armrest. Firefighters Had to Be Called – View From The Wing
So tired of this FIRE baloney. The FIRE guys are mostly doctors, lawyers and engineering, who all have a side hustle after they “retire”. All they’ve done is swap one job for another – betcha they spend more time working in “retirement” flogging their side gigs than they did at their real jobs. Several of them had generous parents who “helped” them with things like home down payments, paying for tuition to top-tier universities or lived at home and had few expenses. How many truck drivers, cashiers, coal miners do you read about retiring early?
What FIRE guys really show is the importance of STEM degrees that lead to a career. If I had the power, I’d ban Liberal Arts “education” unless someone already has a STEM degree (or a generous trust fund). Millions of kids are told they need a college degree to get a job. But who’s hiring Liberal Arts majors? Nobody. That’s why there’s so many who can’t pay off their college loans – their degrees are worthless, but nobody tells them that until they try and find a real job.
Secret sauce in the FIRE department: 6 figure salary, ideally in 2 player mode. Unless you live in the Bay area or NYC, and work for 20-40 years, you’ll be fine. Don’t get sick and don’t have too many kids.
I am with you Paul and ABC.
Liberal arts degrees are not worthless. Considering the alternative…as in, no degree at all! And I know several who have gotten jobs and some darn good ones. Other than that, I am in all agreement with both of you!
Yeah, some of the recent articles I’ve seen show how ridiculous the adoption of the FIRE terminology has gotten. I mean, I get it if you want to say, “Screw it! I ain’t workin’ for the man any more.” Great! Go for it! But if you only have enough savings that a 4% annual draw leaves you with below the poverty line of income, you are not financially independent. Sure, you might be happy with your alternate lifestyle. But FI? No way.
These FIRE bloggers are doing a lot of harm telling readers how to FIRE themselves…while they pound the pavement to market their blogs to get that passive income coming in, what a bunch of crap!
Hey guys, I could be rolling around the neighborhood with my bike if my blog brought in 300k per year.
Actually, thanks for the #4 conversion you guys. Oh, my Amazon link has been dead for days, come on! Something I am not doing right with my blog…obviously lol.
Buzz-
I’m behind in the news.
I just caught up with the interview in which Melania Trump said that she supports women who bring sexual harassment claims, but she think they need to have some hard evidence.
As the Pope said, “Who am I to judge?”.
She is something else.
Did you catch Conway last night at CNN? How can you even reason with these people? Not a witch hunt but when that term is thrown out I am thinking WITCH!!!
WTF was with Michael Cohen’s sports coat color? Purple??? What is this, the disco days? That guy sure does not look good lately.
It will be funny to see if Flynn gets jail time and as he walks out someone plays him chanting “Lock her up!”.
And it looks even Christie does not want the Chief of Staff job….
Two more years of this man
In other news, so how does Amex send the free night award when you hit the annual spend on the Amex Hilton Business card?
Sunday post is already scheduled!
https://slate.com/technology/2018/12/love-sex-robots-conference-bannon-academic-research.html
Bringing you the latest…
Phucking Bannon ruined it, sad!
Good luck, George, on your congressional attempt.
It is true. I will be running for Congress in 2020, and I will win. Stay tuned.
— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) December 14, 2018
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/papadopoulos-already-confident-about-congressional-bid-i-will-win
This George guy
#wow
Executive News Director?
Head slapping now.
What?
Driving to enemy territory today. Columbus. To see client. And heading straight to yet another holiday party when I get back.
You all behave here.
Phucking Amazon link has been dead for days, sad!
Stuck in 4 cc conversions for this month…
Thinking to join Mile Nerd in retirement soon 🙂