Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as HSA secrets, Charlie Munger wants to ban crypto, meet the only human cannonballing family, Wagner mercenaries keep dying, diversify investments and miles/points, what is retirement, plenty of hiring going on, Celcius was a ponzi scheme, top 10 IRS scammers with prison sentences, how to send a loud message to Putin on February 24, 2023, stories about heroes and climbers, amazing minimalist photography, using AI for travel, the wonders of Google Street View, how to fly cheap to Europe, reverse waterfalls and the only real info you need to know to keep pace with the world of frequent flyer miles and points. Enjoy your weekend!
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PERSONAL FINANCE
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I am a big fan! 9 facts about HSAs that might surprise your clients.
1. HSAs are fully portable at any time.
2. Trustee-to-trustee transfer and rollover rules are similar to those for IRAs.
3. Account holders can make a one-time IRA-to-HSA rollover. [don’t worry about it]
4. There is no time limit on HSA reimbursements. [Huge!]
5. All future expenses are eligible, regardless of enrollment when incurred.
6. Other coverage, including spousal FSA, negates the ability to contribute to an HSA.
7. HSAs can be used to pay certain insurance premiums.
8. HSAs are not subject to probate.
9. HSAs are taxable to anyone besides a spouse who inherits them.
As I am getting older I continue to be fascinated about this retirement thing. What Is Retirement? And this is the essence of it I think:
If all this is true, what the heck is retirement? It’s personal.
Personal finance is personal! So, let’s continue going a little deeper today: Needs, Wants and why We Always Feel Unfulfilled. And I kind of feel the same with…
But at the same time I feel endlessly unfulfilled despite being someone who has all the needs he could ever dream for. That’s because, I am fairly certain I will never feel like I have enough because enough is a moving target that can never be pinned down.
And also this…
But in today’s world you see everyone’s hamster wheel because they post it on social media every day. So we’re unhappy not because we’re objectively failing to meet our needs. After all, the median person lives like a king compared to someone in the year 1920. But we’re unhappy because we constantly think we’re failing to meet our wants.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Another Federal Reserve meeting, another 0.25% rise. You should not care that much unless your outlook is next Wednesday or something.
Can you just relax with all them layoffs? Got this chart below from TKer.
CRYPTO/FTX/ELONMUSK/TWITTER
I have been saying it too but who cares? But now this guys says it and…Charlie Munger says the U.S. should follow in China’s footsteps and ban cryptocurrencies.
“A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security,”…“Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity,”…“Obviously the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening.”
And you won’t believe what two examples he mentioned next!
He listed two “interesting precedents” that may guide the U.S. into sound action. First, China has strictly prohibited services offering trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies. Second, from the early 1700s, the English Parliament banned all public trading in new common stocks and kept this ban in place for about 100 years, Munger said.
I have been screaming here that the crypto sphere has managed to attract some real scum, including this guy at Celcius Was Allegedly Propping Up Its Own Crypto Token With Customer Funds.
Pillay wrote that Celsius effectively acted as a Ponzi scheme, borrowing from an unwitting Peter to shove crypto in Paul’s pockets. Pillay wrote that since it did not make enough on its crypto deployments, it started using customer-deposited funds to buy back CEL. This, plus an ineffective tracking system, led to shortfalls in 2021. The company again used customer funds to buy stablecoins meant to plug the hole. Over four years, from 2018 to June of 2022, the company was obligated to pay $1.36 million to customers, though this was more than it generated from customer deposits. Pillay quoted Celsius’ Coin Deployment Specialist Dean Tappen who said in 2021 his title should be changed to “Ponzi consultant,” though he later tried to walk back his comment. Tappen also called Celsius’ abuse of customer funds “very Ponzi-like” back in April last year.
SCAMS
Can you imagine if your parents you look up to ever make a list like this? Top 10 IRS criminal tax cases in 2022 include reality TV stars, a celebrity attorney, and Ponzi schemes.
Topping this list is this dude, remember him?
Michael Avenatti burst onto the national scene when he represented an adult film actress in a case against the 45th president of the United States. But he had other clients, some of which he was convicted of defrauding. Avenatti was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year for cheating four of his clients out of millions of dollars and obstructing the IRS’ attempts to collect payroll taxes from his coffee business. He must also pay $10.8 million in restitution to his clients and to the IRS.
And here we go with another roundup: January 2023 Ponzi Scheme Roundup. I shake my head when I look at these every month. And this one took the cake: “The charges related to wildly exaggerated advertisements for the investment scheme on TikTok and other social media platforms. The company claimed that investors could earn up to 15 million baht in 3 months from an investment of 6,000 baht.” I have seen some really mega shitty stuff on TikTok. Sometimes I wonder if my next act will be to work for the regulators busting some of these scammers… Ok, not going there but still, you get my point!
UKRAINE RUSSIA WAR
Can you imagine this happening here? Like, a private company CEO goes to prisons and gets convicts to go to war and if they survive for six months they are free to go…Only in Russia: A Russian graveyard reveals Wagner’s prisoner army. Some really classy guys mentioned here smh…
Best of Web: Some great ideas to go all in helping Ukraine and stand against Russia, all to be announced on February 24, 2023 to send a very loud message to Putin: How to Get a Breakthrough in Ukraine. From a former ambassador to Russia. I hope they listen…
ODDZ & ENDZ
Best of Web: What a fun article and what a career to be shot out of cannons! The First Family of Human Cannonballing. David and Jeannie Smith gave up their day jobs for a life of daredevil stunts —with six children in tow. Five decades, thousands of cannon shots and multiple Guinness World Records later, this stupendous family business is still defying gravity and all other expectations.
I had never heard of this! An obituary for the man who saved North Carolina from nuclear disaster. Dr. Jack ReVelle disarmed two hydrogen bombs that accidentally fell near Goldsboro during the Cold War. But a military career of cleaning up nuclear accidents may have cut his life short. What a hero! I wish Netflix would do shows on guys like this instead of serial murderers and scammers! (HT: Peter)
This guy is making some waves, maybe not all positive. The Controversial King of Hardcore Climbing. After scaling the 14 meanest mountains on earth in record time, Nepali-born Nims Purja emerged as a powerful champion of the country’s Sherpa guides. He’s also become the first celebrity mountaineer of the social media age—and the most controversial figure in the global climbing community. I guess social media has come in this space too…
These are amazing! MINIMALIST PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2022.
TRAVEL
This is so much fun to play with! Wonders of Street View. Hit Random and sit back…
Meet the newest AI thingie, this one related to vacation & travel: Vacay Chatbot. Has ways to go but maybe it is good for an initial scan of, say, a destination or something…Play with it and report back, thanks!
There are plenty of airlines now to get us across the pond, of course you won’t see travel rewards sales blogs operations pounding the pavement about them: 4 Cheap European Airlines That U.S. Travelers Should Know About. They are: Play, French Bee, Norse Atlantic, Fly Atlantic.
Wow, never seen anything like this! Photographer Captures Rare Drone Footage of ‘Reverse Waterfall’ in Utah.
MILES & POINTS NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION
These make a lot of sense for newbies: Why You Need to Diversify Your Points & Miles Earnings in 2023. Of course you should prioritize the more flexible bank points programs and it is nice to have your points spread out so you can pick the best part of each program. Of course having them spread out takes a mental toll and of course blogs won’t tell you that when they primarily make money selling travel rewards credit cards!
I did not expect this ratio! New Points Exchange Option – Radisson Rewards America and Choice Privileges (2:1).
Attention: New IHG and United Credit Card Offers – Up to 175,000 Points. The 175k offer is great and I mention it below. All the United credit card offers SUB offers went down it appears. Nice table laying out the old vs new offers for six total IHG and United cards. I do not have direct affiliate links, you can find them HERE. And contact me for a United referral link if you don’t see it, thank you.
IHG has an excellent elite status challenge! Register by April 30, 2023, to earn Elite status in less time.
• Stay 5 nights within 90 days of registration to earn Platinum Elite status
through December 2024
• Stay 2 nights to earn Gold Elite status until December 2024
If your employer makes you stay in Best Westerns, REGISTER for its latest promo to earn 5,000 Best Western Rewards bonus points.
Interesting and welcome addition to spend Choice Privileges points with this Sweet Spot Rewards opportunity. Reminds me of the old IHG Rewards Pointbreaks, miss that excitement spending just 5,000 IHG points for Intercontinental stays! Other than a few desirable locations near national parks, I am not sure I am that excited to spend “starting at 10,000 points” at a Sleep Inn at De Pere, Wisconcin you guys.
When this happens always expect Delta to take something away…soon. American Express Delta Cards New Benefit – ‘TakeOff 15’ (15% Off Award Flights). No big deal, still prefer the proprietary bank points credit cards than the pure airline or hotel cards…
Here is another travel fintech company: StayWithPoints and a review of the site. Let me know when it is out of beta…
BUZZING
A section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life and anything else that just does not fit in another section above.
AI is becoming a thing. And you know it when an anonymous writer posts an article in Futurism titled ” I Work for CNET’s Parent Company. Its AI-Generated Articles Disgust Me. “The sea is up to our knees, and it’ll keep rising.” I mean, do you really need to pay someone to write the top 7 reasons everyone loves the ___________ (credit card with the highest commission today?) huh?
Warning: Do not offer your 83 year old frail mother dim sum when she is just not used to so many different dishes. Her stomach could not handle it and it was a very bad night two nights ago. But we got through it and she appears to be recovering.
Daughter enjoyed flying Lufthansa to Paris and is about to start her epic adventure living there for a semester abroad. For 33,000 United miles of course.
I have not had time to burn any miles and points lately, too busy taking care of mother and tax season…
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 90k CHASE Ink Cash, 90k CHASE Ink Unlimited, 75k Capital One Venture X, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 60k CHASE World of Hyatt Visa, 20k CHASE Freedom Flex, 175k IHG Rewards Premier and many more, including many AmericanExpress cards, including Delta, Marriott and Hilton cards! Please check out my Affiliate links. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you?
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! SKIP if you are not into it!
As of today, I have burned 25,000 miles/points year to date in 2023 and have 4,532,123 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
Thanks to US banks, very lucrative travel rewards credit card offers come and go all the time. This section will act as a reference point on the best CURRENT offers. I will designate new material preceded by NEW.
BEGINNERS
The Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Credit Cards, Points & Miles
BASICS: This travel hacking hobby is mostly about getting the fat Signup Bonus of travel rewards credit cards while of course NEVER EVER carrying a balance. Banks have a marketing budget and are willing to give us many THOUSANDS of miles/points to travel mostly for free hoping to hook us to charge 20%+ interest rates on our balances. The poor souls who fall for their marketing paying these ludicrous interest rates end up subsidizing us responsible consumers who enjoy taking advantage of, cough, such bank marketing budgets! Some of us have been doing this for thirty years creating amazing travel memories…Feel free to ask me questions or post them in the comments.
BASICS: Prefer credit cards from the proprietary points programs of banks, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Network, Capital One Rewards Miles because they are a lot more flexible and are not devalued as frequently. Over pure airline and hotel travel rewards credit cards. Pure cash back credit cards may work for you best and they are getting more valuable as airline and hotel loyalty programs keep getting devalued. Sometimes, a pure no annual fee 2% cash back card works best for simplicity!
TOP TRAVEL REWARDS SIGNUP BONUS CARDS
Master Guide to Credit Card Applications: All the Rules You Need to Know, Bank by Bank
How to Sign up for Chase Ink Cards
The Chase 5/24 Rule: Everything You Need to Know
By far, the best BANG you can get these days! These two NO ANNUAL FEE Chase Business cards are now offering an amazing 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, the Chase Ink Business Cash and the Chase Business Ink Unlimited! Bottom line, I think these are the BEST business travel rewards cards out there right now! The 90k Signup Bonus can be earned after $6k of spend on the cards in the first three months. I am not going to make a fool of myself with recurring “69 reasons I love these two cards”, this is not a sales maximization blog ok? You can click to find out more about them and you can apply HERE to support this blog, thank you.
Chase Ink Cash vs Ink Unlimited: Which Offers the Best Return For Your Business?
The Capital One Venture X card offers a 75,000 point Signup Bonus after a minimum spend of $4k in the first three months. If you like simplicity and looking for one (premium) card, I highly recommend this card (and yes, I have it myself!). It has an annual fee of $395 but it comes with a VERY easy $300 statement credit for travel booked on its excellent travel portal, essentially turning it into a $95 annual fee card. But wait…there is more! On each card anniversary you earn 10,000 points essentially making it FREE! Every dollar of spend earns 2 points and flights booked on the travel portal earn 5 points per dollar. You get access to Capital One and Plaza Premium airport lounges and a Priority Pass Select lounge membership and, this is important, you can add FOUR authorized users FOR FREE who can also have their own Priority Pass Select airline lounge membership. You can transfer your Capital One points to up to 18 Transfer Partners. No foreign transaction fees. Free Hertz President’s Circle rental car top elite status. Cell phone protection and PRIMARY rental car coverage. Awesome seats at baseball stadiums for just 5k points each. And lots more. Available with my Credit Card Links, thank you for your support!
7 Sweet Spots to Use 75K Capital One Venture Miles
7 Underrated Benefits of the Capital One Venture X Card
NEW: Chase IHG Rewards Premier Card 175,000 Points Signup Bonus. After only $3,000 in spend in the first three months. Not free, you gotta pay the annual fee of $99. Free night up to 40,000 points per night starting with the second year of holding the card. Automatic Platinum status (which is not a big deal) while you hold the card. Card earns 26x per dollar spent on IHG properties, 5x on travel/dining/gas and 3x everywhere else. Fourth reward night free on stays of 4 or more nights. Under Category/Hotels HERE, thank you.
NEW: Six new higher offers for the consumer and business Delta Gold, Platinum and Reserve cards. I do not recommend Delta Skymiles, especially with so many better and more flexible points choices out there. Unless you know what you are doing and you can swing more of them because they work for you. Or you can jump on the Delta Flash Sales right away…Available HERE.
Remember, you are NOT allowed to ever carry a credit card balance if you ever get a credit card here!
Let me leave you with this…
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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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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.
The reverse waterfall video is literally incredible until it is explained! Wow.
For someone thinking of going to Chile and Scotland on Delta One the 15% discount is a big deal!
Thanks for the great links!
How in the world are there so many people that believe the crazy earnings they are told about by these Crypto/Ponzi scammers anyhow?? I am all for forbidding any and all crypto stuff, it is just a scam as far as I am concerned!
Lots of good stuff here to keep me educated and entertained today and tomorrow.
As far as retirement, I think it is what you make of it. I am usually just as busy as I was when I had my job, I just am busy doing stuff for me and by me at the speed I want to. It’s pretty good!
Thanks, for the posting, George!
PS: Silver! For the Pacific Northwest!
A moment of silence please: my unicorn MS method no longer allows Visa credit cards, so it’s MasterCard only for now. No sympathy needed for me, as it’s been a good run, I just needed to vent.
And regarding the two nuclear bombs dropped on North Carolina: you’ve heard of it before, even if you don’t remember. I initially thought “haven’t I read that on TBB before?” but it turns out I actually commented on it.
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/bear-markets-fastest-growing-jobs-best-hiking-trails-running-interrupted/#comment-423969
Hi everyone,
I said to relax about layoffs and posted a pic showing a lot of hiring. It was BEFORE today’s astonishingly strong job report…for the record 🙂
@ DML: Of course it is a big deal with 15% off because the gross amount of Skymiles needed is too high 🙂
@ Carl: >>>>>>>As far as retirement, I think it is what you make of it. I think you nailed it.
@ Nick: I meant about the dude going in 🙂 All unicorns eventually die…if MMS was still around…you know 😉
Guys, seven days straight blog income is zilch….and I updated the post to say I post on Tuesdays too…and feel like a loser already lol.
Going out for a short run…wind chill is like Siberia…wish me luck.
I kinda miss the MMS days. Good times.
I’m surprise Bankrate doesn’t just write it off as a loss (and link it to TPG) similar to what happened to FTG? Is there still a market where one can sell a “blog”?
In Feedly, I see an update once a month with “The best credit card offers for ____ month”…so maybe SEO still brings in enough dough?
I miss Emily #notreally
Did you not get my IHG Premier referral?
Showed up today, you were first, thank you.
Where are they (MMS). ? I know they got divorced, but just disappeared? Any news?
She was dating another Indian guy, had a baby or two with him, not sure if they got married or if they are still together. Other than that, I have heard absolutely nothing.
Also, the Milevalue dude…ran for office I’m Hawaii I heard…did not win….silence.
A “Where are they now?” Article abt former bloggers would be great but I ain’t got time for dat