Completely agree.

Ric commented in one of my blog posts recently, the one I talked about not finding much value in Choice Privileges and glad to move on. Maybe a week or so ago. I replied to his comment and told him I am glad to see him around. So, he is out there and reading. But I think he may be done with blogging. Blogging is hard work man, maybe I should give up on being discovered and bought by a bigly enterprise? 🙂

About 65% of Friday’s post is in already. And still have Thursday to go. I better start shifting some content to next week as I will be hanging out in a swanky Hyatt suite and eating way too much stuff I should’t, like In-n-Out burgers.

I blogged here many times about FIRE, not a fan. Also, not a Ramit fan either.

>>>>>>>>>What all the eager FIRE disciples don’t seem to grasp is that they are the product, their clicks are what enables the bloggers to live their best lives retiring by 40.

Right on!

When I read your comment, I had just logged out of AA after doing award searching and letting some explicit words come out of my mouth. Again. I hear you but…this is what I have been doing for years, hard to break this habit.

If I was thinking “hourly rate” this blog would be dead three months into its life, like January of 2013! And I would be all over the web showing my videos from slick flights up front pumping my cc links. But I think I am different from these guys…As in, you know, it did not occur to me to deduct my tickets…now that makes it a bit easier to digest! And paying FC on Emirates would never happen, it just goes against everything about my principles. And my wife says to save the money and just buy Economy tickets, she does not approve me buying even Business Class tickets. I have become okay with buying Business Class tickets if I can score a good deal. And now that I can deduct the cost because of your suggestion, it makes it more feasible 🙂

I am still down Pat, the MS Queen, unsubscribed.

Back from PT and I basically need to strengthen so many muscles and relearn how I walk first…I have been pounding my body the same way, the wrong way and I guess it has caught up with me.

Thanks. And yes I will still be doing award searching, something will open up, I can feel it.

As to the FIRE movement, seems like there is a lot of focus on deprivation. I prefer that Ramit guy, he has more common sense, spend on what you enjoy and forget the things that don’t matter. What all the eager FIRE disciples don’t seem to grasp is that they are the product, their clicks are what enables the bloggers to live their best lives retiring by 40.

Oh and buy that ticket and stop wasting another moment of your life looking for a redemption. Sometimes points, other times they don’t, but figure your hourly rate and what would be a better use of your time. Personally I’d be looking at Emirates first out of Asia, because you know, life is too short. You could YouTube it and claim it as a business expense.

So demoralizing to my ego…Maybe I turn to YouTube. Saw a video of someone who now has $100,000 after working for 5 years and I sent the link to my son and told him “Dude, just imagine how we can take YT by storm by telling them all what you managed with my help” 🙂

Good point on the potential of sex harassment, better be careful lol.

Waking up dreading to read debate reviews and I must say I am very pleased. But, I mean, if you are still undecided what can I say?

And then stoked to read Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, if she would also endorse TBB then I can finally retire here man really having nothing else to prove.

Participated in a live YouTube thingie last night and these guys had never heard of me. I asked do you even read blogs and which ones and the responses shocked me: Some big commercial blogs were mentioned including TPG and then Danny The Deal Guru. It is wild over on YT! So many fighting for cc clicks, no wonder it is getting tougher and the banks continue to favor the big cc pumpers because there is really no way to keep so many tiny cc sellers in line! I fear for the future commercial viability of TBB, I think I sold 10 cards in a month once! I have so much to learn. Also, I am thinking of St. Kitts and the Hyatt there 🙂

Watch out for that performance review. You see a bonus, but that could be a sex harassment trap.

I always thought Mommy Points was ok, even if her idea of adventure travel was staying in Epcot an extra 30 minutes. At least she pointed her readers to better offers with no links.

And Ben was fun when he was doing mileage runs on weekends in high school.

But the thought leader needs some better thoughts. Lovely thoughts.

And isn’t it Venezualians who are eating pets?

@ DML: Yeah, I absolutely loved the one with them spiders too. Dull? Here in the comments? We need Carl to fix this!

@ Sam: Oh yeah Sam, that MMM dude. Started early like Rick and developed a following and perfected the magnificent placement of affiliate links. He tried pushing some cc aff links some time on his blog and I called him out and he came here to respond only to come to his senses that it is better to ignore me and focus on “content marketing” lol. If my blog produced $400k a year (guess it went u p from $300k) just milking the followers telling them how they can ride a bike around town lol…I would buy a Lincoln Nautilus car but I am busting my ass here and don’t make this during my lifetime, sad. But wait, I just did lease a Lincoln Nautilus car, thank God day job is fine. So much fakery online and people falling for it is stomach turning. I guess when people fall for news that Haitians are cooking your pets you know something is wrong smh.

Anyway, this is my little baby here. Fighting for every click. Keeps me out of trouble, learning a lot and enjoying the ride. I gained back that YouTube subscriber, up to 31 again. I am unstoppable now, I feel the momentum lol.

On Friday I will have a collage of two pics with some YouTubers who would not be selling plastic online if banks stopped paying them. I had Mrs. TBB put them together because I am clueless. Maybe when she quits Ford she can join TBB Enterprises, can’t wait to do a performance evaluation of her. I see bigly bonus woohoo.

Ok, time to eat some grapes I picked up at Kroger on sale using daughter’s Discover card to earn 5% because she needs all the cash back she can find as I see her Amazon orders flying to her rental place, yikes! But no worries, when she sees how little her paycheck is after dad set the 401k% contribution to 65% it will shock her.

I hope Rick is okay and aging well. Miss that guy. Never met MMM in person, which is probably a good thing. Out of all the old bloggers, the survivor must be Mommy Points still writing away at TPG (I think). And Lucky who in the span me typing this comment probably posted at least two new blog posts, what a machine! While his buddy Gary makes the National Enquirer look respectable smh.

To help get your « Interview the Old Bloggers » project started, I went back to have a look at a real financial guru: Mister Money Mustache.

MMM’s specialty is frugal living. Now where did I hear that word before? He would tell readers of his blog to buy a house near their job so they could ride a bicycle to work.

Imagine my surprise the read now that MMM is driving a Tesla.

Then I noticed his affiliate links for companies like Betterment and the usual array of credit cards. No links to Alliant’s 2.5% cash back on everything but then Alliant doesn’t pay affiliate commissions, and as that other frugal aficionado put it, it’s all about the conversions.

I also read that someone said that MMM is knocking down $400k a year. If so, that proves he was right: You can do very well by being cheap.