Going to do something different as this blog evolves to something I still don’t know what. I guess it is a work in progress. As we all are. Please do not eat too much tomorrow as you celebrate Thanksgiving. Actually, go for it, what the hell lol. Going to write the first 10 random thoughts that come to mind and would love your feedback about my blog and what to go/do next!
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Thanksgiving in the United States is my favorite holiday. I mean, what a special day to be thankful with what you have. Hopefully you spend it with people you love and the feeling is mutual. Be grateful folks. And stay healthy! And don’t watch the Detroit Lions lol.
I am going to do something I have not done yet here. I am just going to type the first ten random thoughts that come to me. And yes I am looking for a filler post. With the amount of conversions around here it should be filler a few times per month but you know I am stubborn. Or moron if you prefer! 🙂
The state of the miles and points game is abysmal. The devaluations keep coming and the restrictions by the banks are getting ridiculous. Without a deep recession in the horizon…do not expect things to get better. Amazingly, you won’t read this in the commercial blogs that exist to sell credit cards to readers who are kept in the dark. Case in point a post written by an employee of The Points Guy (with a flashy title like they all have) referring to this current state of affairs but somehow he neglected (or was likely forbidden) to post this at the TPG site and instead wrote it for Bloomberg. LOL!
In my Monday night soccer game with my “Gasping For Air” team, just when I was about to score the tying goal, the opposing goalie pushed me to the ground and I fell on my left glute/ass. I did not think too much of it at the time. But Tuesday morning it was very sore and it appears bruised. And here we go again…waiting for it to recover. To younger folks, when you cross 50 be prepared for injuries to heal MUCH slower. Is it time to hang it up so I can get that invitation to the Adult Soccer League at Wide World Sports Arena of Ann Arbor Michigan Hall of Fame and retire my jersey? I am definitely thinking about it…what would I do on Monday nights? I have been playing in this league for many years. Over 12, maybe 15. It is part of my life. Will it be harder than quitting blogging? I do not think so because I do not expect to quit running…but now I have to wait for myass to heal again.
Please do not buy Hyatt Gift Cards. There have always been numerous problems with them. Unless you are willing to go through the hassles in trying to get your money back.
I gave up the NFL almost two years ago. Having to suffer numerous humiliations watching the Detroit Lions definitely contributed to my decision. I do not miss it one beat! I will watch the Lions when they make it to playoffs and will go watch them when they make it to the Superbowl. Which is probably never lol! And I will watch the Superbowl for the commercials.
Son is home for the holidays for a whole week. Looks like we will be eating out a lot. Now that he is on his own, it is precious to have the kid back at home and all four of us be together again.
Enjoy my blog as long as you see new posts appear. It boggles my mind I have blogged for over seven years. Consistently.
I am thankful for all of you.
Recreational marijuana sales in Michigan start on December 1st. We have three stores with licenses to open that day in the city. It will be weird having the Ann Arbor Art Fair DO here next year. And the party at my house in the opening night. Maybe I should order more pizza and wings lol.
The miles and points hobby is boring me to death lately I must admit.
I burned an expiring free Amex Hilton night at the Conrad New York City Midtown, looking forward to checking it out.
Schwab buying TD Ameritrade rocked my industry this week. They custody the accounts of the clients of Registered Investment Advisors like me. I remember when I started in this business Schwab refused to work with me because I did not have $10 Million of Assets Under Management. I was like WTF, I am just starting out, you can’t be serious! So I went with the firm that eventually became TD Ameritrade. It is like Avis #2 selling out to Hertz #1. The company cultures are so different and even though I feel better after checking out Schwab at its conference earlier this month, I have nightmares of the coming transition hell we may have to undertake. And then Schwab may decide to kick us to the curb and focus on the giant firms they prefer to serve. In this business the combined firm will be HUGE. Heck, the #1 firm bought #2. Distant third is Fidelity. And then many tiny firms. And if you go to them they will likely get bought by one of the top three firms anyway. Next one it will likely be ETrade to be taken out. It is a vicious environment, the pace of change and consolidation is dizzying. Maybe I sell and become a full time blogger. Ok, that was a joke!
Finally, this is an open post, let me hear from you: Tell me one thing you would like to see in my blog. Or whatever.
And I leave you with this…
TBB
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Happy Thanksgiving George! I just started training for a 5K with my sons (ages 10 and 12). I’m doing a couch-to-5K program. Two sessions under my belt so far and no injuries yet!
Awesome, keep it up! Take it a Mile at a Time 🙂
As I now proceed to get an ice pack to heal that glute bruise so I can start running again.
Hi George. We’ve corresponded in the past and I hope you know how much I appreciate the work you do here. I wish I’d been reading your blog back when I used to actually apply for credit cards, but I’ve somehow only applied for two(!) in the three years I’ve been reading.
Originally I started reading because I enjoyed seeing someone call out all the bullshit in the travel blog space. Over time I shifted to reading in part because of that (never gets old) but also because I appreciated your summaries of things I may have missed on other points and miles blogs.
These days, though, my reason for reading is totally different. The snark is still appreciated, but honestly those other schmucks are so transparently desperate in their credit card hawking that they almost parody themselves now. And there’s so little happening in the points and miles space that I can basically subscribe to two blogs on Feedly (DoC and FM) and not miss much.
What I come to you for now is very similar to the reason I subscribe to The Browser – you have become a curator of awesome and interesting articles that occasionally touch on travel but also touch on everything else. I pay The Browser $5 a month for that subscription and it’s why I often try to donate to you via PayPal. I sometimes wonder if you couldn’t migrate this blog over to Substack, turn it into a 3x a week newsletter, and charge $3 or something a month for a subscription. Then again you’d lose the community aspect of the comments and we’d all lose out on the rare times that Ingy comes by and makes a fool of himself.
Long story short, I primarily see your blog as a way of discovering awesome links to articles I may have missed. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for all the amazing stories you’ve led me to in the past three years that I’ve been reading!
Thank you so much for your feedback Danny!
Just two cards in the past three years. Sadly, this is not too uncommon in this new era. Gone are the days when Ingy used to sell sixcardsatonce enthusiastically to irresponsible readers kept in the dark intentionally responsibly 🙂
I hear you about DoC and FM covers almost everything…
I definitely thought about going the newsletter route a la The Browser (fellow fan as well). But I do not have the vast readership base that will be needed to make of it a go I believe (but I could be wrong). Heck, I don’t think it will be more than four or five cc conversions per month. Maybe when they take my cc links away I will be forced to do something. Actually, I am shocked I still have the dinky cc links!
Funny how Ingy swore off commenting here as he started blogging again over at Pointchaser. Why make a fool of himself in two blogs I guess when he can trick some irresponsible newbies out of some Dosh referral links…until they get cc links to pump again. But he is always welcome around here 🙂 Sometimes I think I need to modify my blog mission to add “get Ingy to comment” LOL.
Thanks again for the kind words.
You could start a slack channel and make $30/ month from your subscribers.
Bronze! For Bologna Italy!! Love reading what you think and keep up the personal stuff especially! So happy for you on your running as well!!!
Thanks and take it easy on the bologna or whatever they call it in Bologna!
I will, George! Here until Sunday then off to Florence for 6 weeks. Loving every minute, pretty much!
One day in Sienna is enough.
Agreed, though someday I would love to watch the Palio. Wrong time of year for that though!
Have a very happy and delicious Thanksgiving George. As always, I continue to appreciate the insight and humor that comes with reading your blog.
As a long suffering Vikings fan, I feel your pain. Here’s to realignment that leads to the Lions and Vikes meeting in the Super Bowl one day. Would it really hurt the universe if one of those teams won?
Well, as a long suffering Vikings fan, I do have to say — at least we go to play offs once in a while and we do manage to put up a couple of non-losing records in a row. Our current QB is a Michigan product, so I guess Cheers to that!
All the best,
PedroNY
Thanks guys. Well, every Lions fan would gladly exchange records with the Vikings 🙂
Happy Holiday Season! Thank you for keeping it up for 8th year now, I do enjoy your blog.
When are you staying at the NYC Midtown Conrad?
Cheers,
PedroNY
Dec22
Happy Thanksgiving!
Danny is exactly right about the blog.
Will not mark you tardy today, will let it go due to the holiday spirit 🙂
And than you!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family George! And to the rest of my fellow TBB readers!
@Danny’s post is almost the exact same themes I would have written…so thanks for saving me the typing! 🙂
Seriously though I started reading for similar reasons – calling out the BS and con artists in our hobby/game whatever you want to call it. But the addition of such a variety of interesting posts and links is another draw that keeps me coming around…while still appreciating the P&M blog comments. So as far as feedback just keep doing what you’re doing, as often as you want to post!
Thanks. And I think this is the year UofM beats Ohio State! 🙂
TBB, what do you think of this?: I wrote to my Schwab broker and asked him for a “retention bonus” (for NOT moving my funds out). If they say NO, I will move them to whoever has the best sign-up bonus. (And it could be Ameritrade…wouldn’t THAT be ironic?)
As I see it, all these guys (Fidelity, Etrade, etc.) are basically the same now—well, I can’t speak from your persective but, for regular customers, would you agree? (Background: I basically just park my IRAs and long-term money with Schwab…hardly any trading. And ever since they stopped offering IPOs last year, I’m keen to shop around)
Yes, they are pretty much all the same now. Etrade will be consolidate with another entity soon imho.
Bluecat….what stocks do you like here? Do you use the Ramsey Contrarian Idolater Indicator? I know he sold some this week, so that means we are heading higher for sure.
As long as Trump is president the market will continue to go up. Look at the indices in EU and emerging markets, they lack Trump’s magic mojo.
S&P Index up 50% since Trump was sworn in. Man I hate the capitalists. Where is muh free money. I need Bernie or Liz in there to gimme sum free stuff.
Did you see how Miles Per Day scammed his users on that coin deal from two weeks ago?
Guy offered $250 when they are now going for $1500+ on ebay.
And then he wants people to pay him $30 for the privilege of joining his Discord thus double dipping ripping them off. Dude was going postal on his blog yesterday threatening others. He deleted the posts but you can see where he did delete. He’ll probably delete that post after reading this but I already have screenshots. LOL
Guy is scum. I know his team (from when I was a contractor) at T-Mobile in Factoria and he does this during work hours on his company computer. Going to rat him out.
* I agree with Danny and everyone else about the interesting content. But I also hope that you continue to call out the bullshit in this hobby; it is just as important now than ever before, and there are decidedly less voices doing so. I think you’re right that it is going to get worse at least in the short term, and not many are going to want to confront that (although I do think longer-term the pendulum will swing back the other way, with or without an economic downturn). You’ve got a voice here, and a great comment community — I like that several times I’ve called out bloggers in the comments only to unexpectedly have them reply back.
* However, you “evolve”, I do hope that one way or another, you continue adding your voice in some fashion and that you are able to keep this community of people around that pop into the comments. If you feel the need to further cut back to something like once a week, scale back on blog expenses, or just further treat this blog like a side hobby, I wouldn’t blame you. If you wanted to experiment with other monetization strategies on the blog — ads, patreon, etc — that doesn’t seem unreasonable. And if you wanted to try to scale up like Danny suggested, treating it more like a newsletter that could be monetized — that would be work, but also not unreasonable. But regardless, I hope you’re able to “evolve” to something you’re comfortable with.
* Happy thanksgiving.
What is to call out anymore? Have you noticed any meaningful impact on the BS based on me calling it out? I think it has actually gotten worse to the point where I have deleted all of those pure bank product pushing blogs out of Feedly because it was just unbearable to take it anymore. Yeah, sometimes they appear on one of my Twitter lists and my stomach turns…but I stopped reading them. Yeah, once in a while I may lose it but for the most part I am out of that business. Or maybe I hold myself back until Ingy gets back to cc selling now that he is preparing the ground with his patented non sense 🙂
I believe the only blogger who has replied back in my comments was Dan of DansDeals. Maybe Stephan Rapid Travel Chai too but…I generally do not criticize that guy 🙂
I am learning towards really going AND sticking with the twice per week posts. And be more selective/eclectic than I am now. I think that is manageable. And when I lose the cc links it will be time to evolve again. This is always a work in progress. No idea where it is going to lead. I am still having fun, otherwise why would I still be here?
Ads: Tried them some time ago, it took years to get over 3 digits to pay out. I killed them then. Ads are miniscule for a low traffic site like mine. Not going there again.
Patreon: Not sure the set up is pretty smooth. Might as well stick with Paypal donations. Or magybe I am wrong.
The newsletter idea is possible down the road, after cc links are gone. But that kills the comments section which are valuable to us here. Even though, like Ingy says, they have nothing to do with conversions 🙂
Just read two amazing articles about cryptocrap…wow. Will likely be featured here on Friday. Maybe save on for Monday, I am not sure.
Thanks again for the kind words and valuable feedback and enjoy Thanksgiving!
Other bloggers using TBB comments have been:
Running With Miles
Head for Points
The Gate
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Hi guys,
I am on pizza 39 and want to dedicate the next one to TBB!
Be careful TBB so they don’t kick you away from your baby like they did to me.
FuckThaiFood, go for pizza and wings!
GoBigorGoHome
Schwing!
LOL
Well played and may I suggest you lay off the pizzas dude, you don’t look good. At all!
Papa John may I suggest you kick your own ass for resigning. Shaq has taken over P J’s and the pizza never tasted so good…..why do you look so wet?
EAT FRESH!
Go bananas so I can get a bagel or maybe even a sandwich!
TBB Amazon link!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WSRXMS8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07WSRXMS8&linkCode=as2&tag=trave08a-20&linkId=12fabf5aa82623a696c4a5a9d5de9a9a
I’m thankful this blog is still around. I never comment but I thought it was appropriate to do so for Thanksgiving.
Thankful u are here commenting for the first time!
The two providers that have the features I want from a Solo 401(k) are TD Ameritrade and E*Trade. Principally, Roth contributions.
I started under the assumption of TD Ameritrade in that I have an HSA with them, and that they will be rolled into Schwab should the acquisition go through and I have my main accounts with Schwab.
The TD Ameritrade website page directs to an application package of 14 separate PDF documents with no instructions even which of the many forms are applicable to set up an account. Within the forms there are no instructions or explanations so that I’ve assembled a growing list of questions I’ll have to call. One key reference on beneficiary payout says it doesn’t apply if another waiver on the form has been completed, except that doesn’t exist on the form. I reached the point of giving up.
Moving to E*Trade, there is one clear application PDF with instructions and the forms needed. Only forms that are needed are included. I am starting over with them. Plus, looks like I’ll get a $200 bonus for opening the account.
Interesting both TD and ETrade had that feature and Schwab did not. Maybe it is because they figured out they are not profitable enough as guys like you spend way too much time on the phone with their reps 🙂
I am surprised you get 14 forms and not clear instructions.
I have a client whose stock compensation is all administered at ETrade….and every time I login…I lose count of how many F words come out of my mouth.
I have not had an ETrade account in so many years after they banned me from getting a ‘number’ of bonuses 🙂
I think the service at TD will get worse now as many are working on their resumes, sad!