Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as money as a tool, a fantastic IRA rollovers chart, US tech adoption, 113 birthday freebies, credit card signup bonuses matter, median down payments for a house in each US state, never ending ponzis and crypto scams, the latest on Putin’s war against Ukraine, beautiful and useless words, aboard the most exclusive private residential ship and of course always all of the important developments in the crazy world of miles and points and a lot more. Enjoy the weekend and get started on your taxes now!
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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 at least 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. Sometimes it is a Thursday if I am traveling. This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts. I may post on a Tuesday too going forward if I get to it.
PERSONAL FINANCE
At the end of the day, “money is a tool”. This is how this article starts: What Lies Beneath. I would have never guessed an article with such a headline will ever start out like this actually. I recently had a client meeting where near the end of it my client received a phone call that her dear sister passed away. Puts everything into perspective. I am still a bit shaken because I really felt the pain. Ok, let’s get back to what money can provide:
More Options
Financial Security
More Time
Fewer Hassles
Helping Others
Better Health
Pride
Status
Power
Retirement planning is all about providing you with more options. I am pretty much in agreement with the above. I could care less about status and power and as I get older, helping others is becoming a privilege and is much easier. And never underestimate the enhanced quality of life having financial security affords us.
This is for my readers who are looking to buy their first home: What is the Median Down Payment for a House, by U.S. State.
There is a ridiculous number of retirement accounts in the US. So many types of IRAs and acronyms that makes you wonder how powerful the financial services industry lobbying groups are. Answer: Very powerful. When the next administration contacts me to assist in deep reforms (joking here) do you know what my first action would be? Immediately abolish all names of different retirement accounts and rename them all, I don’t know, something like Individual Retirement Plan, IRP? Have a uniform maximum contribution amount and do away with all the maddening contribution restrictions. And maybe a five year phase in plan to get all the retirement plan administrators to take care of all the legal paperwork. And save us all from having to consult tables like that below.
Until that happens (joking here again), if you do have different types of retirement accounts and you want to consolidate them to make your (and family’s) life easier, this straight from the IRS may help:
CRYPTO & SCAMS
These two usually go together…
I got an email from a reader who is into bitcoin who tried to make me feel bad losing all that money on bitcoin. Dude, it is impossible to lose anything when you do not invest speculate a single dollar in this space ok? Good luck to you.
If you are Binance, how in the world you come up with such a bloody awful ad?
Here is the February 2024 Ponzi Scheme Roundup. Always a fun read to see what’s hot. Of course, lots of crypto references, naturally. The first one listed is this one: Ponzi scheme that tapped Harvard Business School network shut down. What a waste of a degree from Harvard!
“Artamonov graduated with an MBA from Harvard in 2003, and from 2021 sought investors for his Project Information Arbitrage fund, which projected returns of up to 1,000 times by claiming to be able to identify investments Berkshire Hathaway would make ahead of the market from public state insurance filings. The attorney-general said that he instead bought unrelated short-term options that rapidly lost money, and raised new funds to reimburse previous investors seeking money back while spending some of the funds on unauthorised holidays, shopping and dining.”
In case you were not aware: Chinese Gangs Use Cryptocurrencies to Launder Billions. After 15 years this remains the primary functionality of crypto smh.
GEOPOLITICS
From Foreign Affairs, this is becoming obvious, Ukraine is a big country and they are not going to lay down: A War Putin Still Can’t Win. To Thwart Russia, America Needs a Long-Term Strategy—and Ukraine Needs Long-Range Weapons.
On the second anniversary of the war, there is no clear succession of battlefield wins, or an enemy in disarray, that points the way to an inevitable triumph. But Russia does not have such a credible path either. For there can be no stable peace as long as there is a hostile Ukrainian government getting closer to the West, building up its armed forces, and strengthening its economy, as Russia works out what to do with a depopulated territory that it has helped to devastate, along with a long frontline to defend. The war will end when one side believes it is no longer worth the effort and looks to cut its losses. That decision will be the consequence not only of military factors but also of economic, social, and political ones. It is hard to see Ukraine pressing for a cease-fire as long as so much of its territory is occupied.
If you wanted to find out the answer, from BBC’s Ukrainecast: The Economic War: How Hard Are Sanctions Hitting Russia? Well, not that hard it appears.
Also, genius Putin accomplished this: Sweden officially joins NATO, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality. After Finland. Did he say he invaded Ukraine to stop NATO from expanding? LOL. He also declared 2024 the Year of the Family in Russia to address head on the severe demographic problem. Sending so many young men to their graves in a senseless war and the smart ones leaving Russia sure will solve this smh. Will someone in the Kremlin please stand up and deliver a bullet to save the country, anyone? #wishfulthinking?
Another podcast I enjoyed: Steve Coll on Saddam Hussein.
ODDZ & ENDZ
I bet you did not know this: “The United States has more golf courses than McDonald’s locations.” If you did, I am going to quit! 🙂 Content creators online spend most of their time marketing their blogs. I spend it trying to educate you. And it shows when I look at this blog’s finances, lol.
I love learning, you may have noticed this around here? Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words. I marvel at the English language almost every other day. My favorite ones:
TRAVEL
After reading this article in The Atlantic, I am going to tip them more: Tip Your Hotel Maid.
What a work assignment to do this at the coldest place on Earth! How to fix a runaway in Antarctica.
We can dream about this I guess: ‘Scandals and secrets’: On board the world’s most exclusive private residential ship.
“There are a lot of wealthy people doing playful things, sometimes naughty things, sometimes scandalous things.” [Oh la la]
Hey, whatever you gotta do to make your blog more popular I guess: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train – I’ve travelled 310,000 miles so far. Not my thing, doing this seeing the same scenery every day, in Germany of all places.
Fuji in Japan, wow.
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
An update on my running, well, lack of running that is due to my lingering left foot issue. I saw a neurologist who thinks it is just too much strain down there and I should continue to rest it and let the body heal. Excuse me but this is what I have been doing for months now doc! Did a few blood tests to see if they had anything to do with it, all came out normal. I will continue to rest and see if it ever heals. Meanwhile I continue to lose weight which I thought it would help the foot issue but not yet? Anyway, I had a calendar reminder to enter the New York Marathon lottery and sadly I let it…go. We’ll see what happens. Running the Chicago Marathon while having this issue, in retrospect, was a very bad idea.
Have fun on your birthday: 113 Best Birthday Freebies to Take Advantage of in 2024.
Indian weddings are over the top. Especially when you can afford to pay Rhianna $7 Million to appear smh.
I loved seeing Blonde Redhead live in concert at the fantastic small El Club in Mexicantown in Detroit on February 29, 2024. I love intimate club settings instead of huge stadiums, we are all different. Anyway, I took a video and I finally uploaded it to my TBB Youtube channel, first one I uploaded there in 7 years major LOL. Maybe I start posting a few videos there again, been soooo long.
This year I am going to get back to live music, hopefully combining it with some burning of airline miles and hotel points that is. Of course having great earplugs is essential at my age. You never become a band’s true fan until you see them live. And this was so worth it. Their latest album Sit Down For Dinner is brilliant imho and their sound is so unique and intensely personal. Warning: my music taste is, well, out there. I have a few more concerts in mind and I will probably keep them to myself because you may lose all respect for me if you google the bands I see woohoo. And a few pics from the concert:
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
It was another week with more credit card offers, more devaluations and airlines keep expanding internationally and stuff like that.
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/ETC.
Usually Delta leads the industry by instituting major anti consumer initiatives accompanied by a glorious press release telling us how amazing such initiatives are for us. Unless, some other airline goes out on a limb and tries a new fee. So, American Airlines first raised bag fees and then all the others followed. Finally, Delta joined the mayhem and after reading my blog Delta management decided to stay quiet about it #notreally lol.
After a very long process it does look like that we have another bank that appears ready to compete in the travel rewards space. Well, I am not sure Wells Fargo management is going to stick with it as they have been making these moves for a while all along doubting themselves or something. I would characterize this bank’s moves to enter our space as, well, spasmic? So, here we finally go: Wells Fargo to Launch Autograph Journey Card This Week. My feelings about this card? Ummm, not bad? We’ll get more into it when it becomes available. We LOVE banks competing around here! Of course Wells Fargo can not have too much of a good thing so they are adjusting devaluing this card: Major Changes To U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Card, effective September 9. 2024.
And of course bloggers have managed to almost kill all Vacasa deals after gloriously blogging about them #rinseandrepeat. Wyndham 2024 Award Changes: Changing Tiers & Vacasa Properties.Getting More Expensive.
Previously you could get up to 2.6¢ per point on Vacasa properties, now it’s 1.8¢.
Great to see direct flights to Thailand and Malaysia are starting to come back finally. British Airways is Back: Two Asian Capitals Rejoin Route Network. US next? And here comes United Will Add Three International Destinations and Four New Flights. Marrakesh, Morocco anyone?
NEWBIES
Most of these are probably gone, check! American Airlines: 500,000 Flights For 5,000 Miles (US, Mexico, Caribbean and Central America).
You may have noticed that US Banks keep coming at us with new travel rewards credit card offers. Which is great! So, when you see a new offer with a juicy Singup Bonus, instead of looking at the annual fee and the earning structure and how it can appeal to your own personal spending patterns, maybe you should consider the Signup Bonus instead and, you know, down the road you may decide the card is not for you? #hint Some of us have been doing this for a while and we have our Keeper cards. And then still to this day we are like kids in a candystore with new flavors coming out lol. Change your mentality, who cares if the card you are looking at earns 2 points per dollar at gas stations, it doesn’t matter! 😉
MY ACTION
Son burned some Southwest points to come home for his sister’s graduation. And I did not assist at all. So kind of proud for that.
Not much action. I am going to try to put together a short trip to Philadelphia to see a client and attend a concert. I was surprised to find out that Hyatt’s footprint in the city is very small. Basically, the only option is a Hyatt Centric as the Bellevue is still under renovation. I must admit the Bellevue looks fantastic, maybe I will stay there next time. The Hyatt Centric appears very new and the location is excellent. Any Hilton or Choice options I should consider in this area?
I need to book tickets for two to get to Chicago to attend a conference in late June. I am burning two Hyatt Cat 1-4 Free Night Certs at the Thompson (which is moving to Cat 5 on March 26). We may extend our stay a night or two, I have not decided yet. I think Amtrak will come through again, I enjoy this trip and tickets are still very cheap booked in advance. I may even burn some Capital One points to zero out the cost. Because I can and I prefer to travel for free. 🙂
At some point I need to get my act together and book my trip to Greece to see my mother…
Still looking for the first credit card sale with my new credit card provider here. But a reader did use a cc referral link so more Chase points in the bank, thank you. I need to do something different here, maybe it is time to have direct affiliate credit card links in the body of the posts…after almost 13 years?
ADVANCED
Oh oh, I hope this “avenue to World of Hyatt Globalist elite status” is still here by the spring or summer, cough: You Can Now Book Rio Hotel & Casino with World of Hyatt points.
This podcast made me laugh a lot, I am not sure how I missed it. It is back from 2018 and it is across the pond so not much of it is relevant on this side of the world as far as how to achieve elite status with, please sit down, actual flying. The presenter’s accent and tone is hilarious imho. And yes I have done some of these crazy flying runs myself, including flying into Honolulu, grabbing a bag of macadamia nuts from a store in the terminal and then getting back to fly the same plane back to Detroit, oh those were the awesome Northwest Airlines Platinum days. Found here.
These remain a great deal, even after recent devaluations: With Just 8,250 Points, Book These 472 American Airlines and 72 Alaska Airlines Award Routes. I recently booked me a flight to Dallas from Detroit and now searching for a return leg (while having a United award booked just in case no award seat opens up). Over the years we have booked numerous trips Detroit to NYC LaGuardia using British Airways Avios. I think that stash is nearing its end. No problem, British Airways Avios is a transfer partner with almost (all?) US banks.
Amex continues to inflict pain to our species by doing more shutdowns, oy.
And of course, you know, Marriott Bonvoy has raised the term “Bonvoyed” to legendary status smh: When will this stop? Amex adds more restrictive Marriott card language.
You may want to bookmark this before it disappears: United’s 2024 Hidden Saver Award Chart Changes.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, (up to) 300k CAPITAL ONE Venture X Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, CHASE Southwest 30k AND Companion Pass, 60K CITI Premier, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 165K CHASE IHG One Rewards Premier, 60k CHASE Sapphire, 60K CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 60k US BANK Business Altitude and many more including many AmericanExpress cards such as Delta Airlines, Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors cards!
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 139,540 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,687,542 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.
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TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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Good morning Buzz,
Thank you for the links.
Good luck with the healing, and have a great weekend!
I hope the foot gets better. It is really hard to let go of something so important
in your life.
The Ponzi at Harvard B School is truly remarkable. It is the same type of story that the
Madoff believers told themselves. Bernie was taking advantage of the order flow through his firm to front run. The feds investigated and found no front running. They didn’t look for a Ponzi.
“Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.”
Whoa! So much good reading! Much fun! Thanks for a top notch posting, George! I only read one of the links already somewhere. I am sorry the foot thing continues and hope for the best for you!
Man, credit cards…. Turned down the last two times, one of them an Ink card. Wanted the business Cash because before I got the unlimited (Asked for the wrong one, too back then) Now it is no, you have all the cards you need. Bummer. Then BofA who I have two cards with shot me down on a new Alaska card (Biz). Guess I have cycled through those too many times. But one day soon, I’ll give another shot because why not, right?
Just last night learned a friend of mine’s mom got burned bad by ol’ Bernie Madoff, back in the day. Ruined a relationship too. That guy really hurt a lot of folks. There are SO many scammers out there nowadays.
Take care, rest the foot, have some fun, and enjoy the weekend!
Lol at that last meme… I’m not touching crypto. I like Taleb’s term “lindy” to describe things which have stood the test of time and crypto is not lindy. I acknowledge that it *might* turn out to be a spectacular success but that’s not the way I’m betting. BTC enthusiasts complain about fiat currencies but you know what? BTC is a fiat currency. It only has value because BTC owners say it does. Maybe they’ll continue to believe that for centuries, even millennia… but again, that’s not the way I’m betting.
@ David: I owe you an email. Thanks for the kind words.
@ DML: I am not in pain, just a persistent bunch of weird feelings and sensations down there. Just so weird. The pain is inside mostly. I am just no longer a runner taking my time to recover so slooooowly. I can walk and bike and that is enough for now. Yeah, that Harvard dude and all the greedy suckers falling for his BS.
@ Carl: Yeah, a lot of that happening from the banks. So, why aren’t bloggers quitting elsewhere. I bet you they sell more than one in a month smh. Just kind of demoralizing when I think of “making” it a s blogger. I don’t need the money, it is just ego at this point. Especially when I see the ghost writer these mega bloggers hire so they “can write their own content” smh.
https://twitter.com/FlyerTalkerinA2/status/1766149998243098785
@ Nick: I agree with you on the crypto. I am still waiting for that one non scammy application to arrive 15+ year later. And, isn’t fiat Blackrock? Lol.
I updated the TBB Miles & Points Resources page here:
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/blog-reviews/blogs-i-like/
with the brand new Reddit Credit Card Recommendation Flowchart March 2024 Edition:
https://m16p-churning.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Card+Recommendation+Flowchart+Latest.html
Train tickets for Chicago trip booked. Added one more night in Chicago at the Hyatt Centric with Hyatt points of course.
Philadelphia trip done. British Airways Avios flying American just 16,500 miles. Two nights at the Hyatt Centric on points of course. A mile from concert venue, ticket booked.
Keep rolling/TBBing.
Maybe time to stop flogging the running dream and move on before you do yourself some serious damage. After all it was quite an achievement that you did start running as a mature runner and get a few marathons under your belt. Choose to pursue another option that is kinder to your body.
Good job on those Hyatt bookings, that’s more nights towards your 60 and meaning come October you will be agonising about whether to go for top status. Resistance is futile, start on the task now.
The running dream is on pause. Six marathon medals secured. Still want 10, I am stubborn, you may have noticed 🙂
Yeah, you know, I could have looked at Hilton or others…but had that Globalist thingie always in the back of my mind. Still looks I won’t get even close this year. Hoping a good promo comes along the way and sure don’t bank on it.
#Developing
Found an interesting travel substack for you… here’s his walk through Phoenix. He didn’t like it:
https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/walking-phoenix
It was 25 years ago but I didn’t care for Phoenix when I was there… the whole place felt some combination of soulless and sketchy. No offense to any Phoenix natives reading, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
I do remember seeing that post. At some point along the way I stopped reading though…Just felt he was out to get Phoenix or something.
I have a story about Phoenix. At a conference years ago. At the conference center. All day inside with aircon. And then during a break I opened a door outside just to get some fresh air…and that hot air just hit me. Felt like a nuclear wave or something, wow.
Drove around later and yes there are some bad parts in town. But others felt way better. I think the writer just decided to take a stroll in the bad parts of town. Sad story about the fentanyl dude. I advise him to give the other parts of town a chance 🙂
SHOCKING NEWS: This site is no longer a virgin! As far as credit cards sold in it with the new provider. Ok, Tuesday post is coming then. Thank you!
State of the Union Cold Open – SNL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfLpuLdF8Q
Hey TBB, is Katie your type?
I saw that and my response is:
Absolutely not!
I frequently stay at that Centric in downtown Philly because I have work sites in Dover and Bordentown, NJ and it’s halfway between them and makes a good base location – it’s in a nice area, they have a parking garage, there are a bunch of pubs/restaurants and shopping in Rittenhouse Square which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel.
Great, thanks for letting me know. I had no idea about the area it was in.