Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as more market all-time highs, Bitcoin ETFs FAQ, grim Gaza peace prospects, new airline lounges, five investing ideas, US economy sizzling, more crazy crypto scams, living inside Myanmar, amazing photography as always, some really odd links in the Oddz and Endz section, we travel to Greece and Thailand, compare legroom in economy seats, University of Michigan football coach left us us at the top, the Detroit Lions get ready to play in San Francisco to make it to the Superbowl, new travel rewards credit card offers and a lot more. Enjoy the weekend, stay warm and go Detroit Lions!
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Welcome to my quirky original authentic blog. It all started back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to a curated weekly post of the best web content I find along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus.
This blog publishes on Fridays. This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it white it lasts. I may post on a Tuesday going forward if I get to it. Update: I will have a Tuesday post next week, thanks for the support this month.
PERSONAL FINANCE
This is good advice: 5 Simple Investing Ideas, Executed Strictly.
1. If you have freedom, you have wealth
2. Complexity doesn’t mean better returns
3. The best antidote for high-interest rates is to save more money
4. Dollar-cost averaging is the best passive investing strategy
5. Avoid what you don’t understand
Good post about where we stand on the new tax filing season about to begin. And more specifics on Michigan tax law changes as well. 3 big changes coming to 2023 Michigan income tax returns, including extra check for some.
Good reference if you wanted to refer back to the Historical Returns on Stocks, Bonds and Bills: 1928-2023.
Very interesting table found here.
Meanwhile, The U.S. economy grew at a 3.3% pace in the fourth quarter, much better than expected. Again, making experts’ predictions look ridiculous. Even people in the US are starting to feel better about everything. People looking at their 4th Quarter 2023 401k statements and hitting stock market highs daily may have something to do with it.
This New York Times article will inform you about everything regarding the new Bitcoin ETFs: Bitcoin E.T.F.s Come With Risks. Here’s What You Should Know.
It never ceases to amaze me how creative crypto scams get and the fools who fall for them. Like the morons who gave this pastor $1.3 Million and then God told him to renovate his house, buy a Rolls Royce, jewelry and designer handbags lol. But wait, he did a video admitting to it, just smh.
And catch up on all the action in the crypto space with Molly White updating us all about the new ETFs, regulation, action in the courts, bankruptcies and of course scams and grifters.
GEOPOLITICS
I think it is good that some people are not giving up: Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians Remains Possible. But I mean, come on, really? I find the author really reaching here. Key to peace is the Saudis, seriously? I hope peace comes to this land one day in my lifetime. I certainly would not take this bet. And that is just sad, so much suffering.
What happens in Myanmar does not matter that much in geopolitics. Still, reading first hand accounts from four young people there was very interesting: How to Survive a Coup.
For Myanmar’s youth, the consequences of the post-coup turmoil have been devastating. Millions refused to attend school under the military, while employment opportunities in the formal sector have severely diminished. Tens of thousands of young men and women have taken up arms, while others have been swept up in a boom in illicit economies including mining and cyber-scamming, the latter of which has exploded in autonomous militarized zones along Myanmar’s eastern border with China and Thailand since the coup, and is run by Chinese criminal networks. According to the UN, an estimated 120,000 people, both from Myanmar and abroad, have been trafficked into the industry, where they are commonly forced to assume fraudulent online identities and convince people around the world to invest in false cryptocurrency schemes. [Here we go again with crypto shit…]
ODDZ & ENDZ
Fries. In 3D. It so belongs in this section. The Fry Universe.
I had no idea! The reason little noises drive you mad is about more than sounds. Fascinating research into ‘misophonia’ – an intolerance to specific sounds – is revealing an important role for context. I thought I was the only one suffering from this condition and good to know I am not crazy lol.
Remember that incident many years ago involving a pizza delivery man with a bomb strapped around his neck who robbed a bank only to be caught and then blown to pieces? In the “metropolis” of Erie, PA? One of the most bizarre crimes ever committed on US soil. I recently discovered and watched in amazement a Netflix documentary about it: Evil Genius. Amazing the human trash involved in this smh.
Amazing photography here in the International Photography Awards, enjoy!
TRAVEL
Great to see my hometown Larissa make it into this Travel + Leisure List: 15 of the Best Towns and Cities in Greece.
Thank God for tourism in Greece. And it is great to see more direct flights! Flying to Greece? Here are the Non-Stop Flights from the US to Greece in 2024.
I am bookmarking this for future reference: The Best Beaches in Thailand.
Interesting: The Airlines with the Most Legroom in Economy Seats, Ranked.
SPORTS
As we expected, the University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh left to chase his dream to win a Superbowl in the NFL. Talk about leaving at the top after winning a national championship for us. So long Jim and thanks for the memories and the title.
Our Detroit Lions are just one win away from reaching the Superbowl. I can’t believe I just wrote this! We are all in disbelief and the fever is reaching unparalleled levels around here. The fans deserve it because we have stuck with the misery of this team for decades. And it’s an unbelievable orgasmic feeling and we don’t want it to end. And the touching stories: Lions fever is upon us. These are the people’s stories of heartbreak and triumph.
Remember when I linked to this story? Detroit Lions fan in hospice care dyes hair Honolulu Blue to support the team. Well, it is a small world. He is the father of a guy I met years ago at a financial industry conference who was a long time reporter at Investment News who posted about it in his Facebook page, unbelievable!
But my first love is the soccer team in my hometown in Greece. I was so happy to see that our only championship in the magical 1987/88 season was chosen as one of the top 10 most surprising league title winners of all time. Because it sure was and will most likely never experience again. I was in college in the US and I went back to be there for the last three games of the season and winning it all in dramatic fashion scoring the winning goal in the last minute of play and the massive eruption that followed is one of the happiest and proudest moments of my life.
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
I watched “American Fiction” which I found outstanding. Dealing with race, hilarious and heavy at the same time, a very intelligent film. And yes I went to see Poor Things and I got exactly what I expected by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos who again goes on a film making rampage with his camera going wild. The result is, well, wild. As is all the sex scenes in it. Just prepare if you dare lol. I predict Emma Stone wins an Oscar with her performance.
This is so hilarious: Sure, We’ve Made Some Mistakes Here at Global Fast Fashion, Inc., but Do You Want Two-Dollar Cargo Pants or Not?
We’re guilty of rampant human rights violations.
We take this one very seriously. The press is maligning us with claims that our employees are working eighteen-hour days for as little as $550 a month. You know what the press ISN’T telling you? Those same employees are treated to Jeans Fridays. EVERY FRIDAY. Never hear about that, do you? Now, are they technically required to sew the jeans first? Yes. But our motto is “Work hard, play hard!” But mostly, work hard. Let’s be real here: five-dollar rompers don’t sew themselves.
This blog started with a focus on miles and points and travel. It has evolved since then. Everything below deals with the hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles and points and maximizing your travel experiences. If you are not interested, you can stop here, thank you.
MILES & POINTS NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION
I am separating this Section this way:
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/ETC.
You can try to register for the latest IHG Rewards promo with the link found HERE.
Looking forward to them: Hyatt Issues Enormous List of New and Upcoming Hotels.
Banks keep entering the airline lounge space. And here comes Chase with a new Sapphire lounge in NYC La Guardia airport. So it joins Sapphire lounges in Hong Kong, JFK and Boston. With new ones to arrive in the future in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, San Diego, Phoenix, Washington IAD.
Let’s stick with the airport lounges. And we now have airline alliances doing this too with Oneworld opening its first lounge in Seoul’s Incheon airport.
Note the complicated access rules with both Sapphire and Oneworld lounges and wish you find no lines like them Amex Centurion lounges lol.
MY ACTION
I need to sit down this weekend and decide if I should go for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card Offering 5 Free Nights Welcome Bonus. There is a Marriott property I am targeting to stay in when we visit Machu Picchu, maybe this is the year and this is the opportunity. Because, you know, why pay for travel when you can have Chase bank pay for it? 🙂 I have tried to phase out Marriott Bonvoy in my life but this is going to be hard to ignore at this point. There are severe and very complicated conditions to be able to earn this bonus, check out the crazy table at the bottom of this post. Again, no links available to support this blog. But if you supported my blog before and you have a referral link for this offer, please email me, thank you.
The minimum spend on my wife’s latest Chase Ink Business Unlimited card is done so I expect to see another almost 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to be added to the vault. And I haven’t done any burning because I am getting ready to attack the new tax filing season. Priorities. With the miles/points addiction intact, it is so hard to quit!
My daughter is planning some trips. She managed to find some very cheap tickets on Spirit to Florida and back from Puerto Rico. So, I guess we have to thank the US Department of Justice for killing the merger with JetBlue? Ok, don’t respond to this. And in the summer she is traveling to Asia with four friends and they start in Japan. So, they all bought a round trip ticket to Tokyo. On Delta on specific flights all together. So, I guess no opportunity to burn some miles.
I am learning more about Alaska Airlines MVP Gold elite status. Why? Because son is one of them and want to make sure he maximizes it. Because, this is what we do in this hobby. I also sent him this Alaska Airlines Ad on SNL, lol.
ADVANCED
Hilarious: The 2024 Hater’s Guide to Credit Cards. Must click.
Sapphire Preferred. You live in fear of Hyatt being discontinued as a Chase partner. You have no idea how to use the $50 portal credit without overpaying by a similar sum. You have Instacart+ and Peloton credits but will never use either. You have excellent travel protection but frequently consider putting travel expenses on other cards with better earn rates. You literally cry when someone mentions “buying groceries in-person.” You contemplate switching to the AMEX Gold a few times per year.
Ink [Anything]. You have absolutely no loyalty to anything in life. You churn through credit card issuers like you move through relationships. You outright lie about your revenue or income to the bank. You don’t wonder whether or not personal spend can go on business cards — you’re certain that it may. You get, like, three of these per year for your “resale business.” You tell literally everyone about the Chase 5/24 rule. You are a member of r/churning.
MILES & POINTS
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 27,829 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,477,643 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.
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:
Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoy it please pass it on to a family member or friend. Or Buy Me a Coffee, thank you!
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.
Gold!
A friend of mine is a Chargers fan and he’s pretty excited about Harbaugh. Meanwhile I don’t know what to think about Dave Canales but even if I did have an opinion I have decided not to get excited or optimistic about the Panthers. We’re the New Lions.
How’s that leg/foot injury?
Tell the people of southeast asia the civil war in Burma doesn’t matter much. It’s gone on longer than either of the ‘hot spots’ currently going on but probably receives 1/20th of the attention.
Let’s hold off a little bit longer on them Lions becoming the New Lions ok? 🙂
Don’t know anything about this Dave Canales.
Left foot is still the same, that weird numbing feeling. Taking 600 mg of Motrin every day now to see if it makes any difference. Seeing foot doc when he can, he just had knee surgery. Listening to my body says to keep resting it and praying one day in the future gets back to old shape. Doing that Chicago Marathon was a big mistake but I got the medal to show for it, so it is what it is and just blows.
@ bob: Correct. I usually reserve the “Geopolitics” section for issues that matter to the whole earth…”geo”. It has been going on for a long time there and you hardly see any reporting on it. Because it does not matter for the earth. And it is just sad. I wish them peace like Israel/Palestine…I am just not seeing it anytime soon. I hope I am wrong.
Good morning!
The “hater’s guide” is terrific!
The Capital One lounge at Dulles is so nice that I’m moving the default airport from DCA to IAD. When I was in school my teachers talked about the difference between insurance and pre-payment, as in dental “insurance” is really prepayment since it only covers predictable expenses. The Venture X card is a prepayment instrument since it is really easy to get back the $395 annual fee.
I need to visit that lounge!
@DML Good to know about the Cap 1 lounge at IAD. That’s my usual destination/departure for any east coast action. Mainly because my Daughter and family live about 15 minutes from Dulles! Many (Many!) years ago I used to fly in and out of DCA before it remodeled. Loved the old airport but now it has no soul.
George, keep listening to your foot. When it is time to run again you will, I am sure of it! That’s actually not a lot of Motrin so you could likely bump it up some if it seems to help.
Thanks for lots of good reading as usual! Much appreciated!
No leg room on Delta? Bilt, don’t under how this can be a $3B company.
“The CEO of @DanaFarber Cancer Institute (Laurie H. Glimcher ) currently implicated in allegations of widespread sloppiness and misconduct doubled her salary in 2022 to $4 million.” Think about next time you donate money. Make sure every $$$$ goes towards research.
Anybody need an A380? It could be yours for just $25 million!
Sorry, forgot the link:
https://twitter.com/pitdesi/status/1750938115223486737