Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as moderate millionaires everywhere, the arrogant Crypto bros, AI eventually eating itself, the worst air disaster, discover BKK Bangkok airport secrets, retirement planning changes, deep dive on the NASDAQ 100, WindowSwap, the most remote islands we can visit, the best photography links and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of frequent flyer miles and points at the lower half of the post. Have a great weekend!

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This blog started way back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of traveling with frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to curated posts featuring the best web content along with my commentary.

 

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BLOG HOUSEKEEPING

This is truly a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.

Back home in Ann Arbor, Michigan and dealing with snow and jet lag…

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!'” – Hunter S. Thompson

 

MUST READ GEMS

I have two must read gems for you this week: First, Tom Whitwell does this every year and I always learn from it. And I am sure you will too: 52 Things I Learned in 2025. Just a few excerpted below that surprised me the most:

First names affect how you are perceived at work. ‘Anna’ and ‘Joseph’ are consistently considered trustworthy, honest and reliable, while ‘Victoria’ and ‘Ryan’ are considered competitive, ambitious and extrovert.

51% of the animals in farms across the world are shrimp.

In 2023, Nigeria had a million more births than the whole of Europe.

Global suicide rates have declined by 29% since 2000, due to measures like pesticide bans, more responsible media reporting of suicide, mental health education in schools and improved healthcare responses.

I really liked this one as well: The 26 Most Important Ideas for 2026. I may not agree with every single one laid out by the author but I think you will agree with me that most are indeed important. Nevertheless, the well researched facts in the article appear to be a great fit for one of the three goals in my blog mission, to Educate. Actually, the first two “The end of reading” and “The triumph of streaming video” makes me wonder about the future of this blog smh. And just one chart I picked  out to show you what is happening in the AI world. Just look at how much was spent in just the 3rd Quarter of 2025 alone. This is an insane amount, to put it mildly:

 

 

PERSONAL FINANCE

Get ready for some changes starting on January 1, 2026: 3 Big Changes in Retirement Planning in 2026. If you were over 50 and were doing the catch up contributions all along, watch out:

…high-income earners (those with $150,000 or more in FICA income in the prior year) who are over 50 and investing in 401(k) or other company retirement plans must make their catch-up contributions to their plans’ Roth option (rather than traditional tax-deferred contributions) starting next year.

Also, no more $10,000 in state and local taxes cap; it is now up to $40,000. Which means some of us may itemize our deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. So, get your tax preparer all your state/local tax payments, along with your charitable donations and perhaps mortgage interest payments so they can calculate if they are higher than the standard deduction. And there are higher standard deduction amounts for people over age 65 (but they are income limited). Also, don’t be shocked if your tax preparer raises your tax prep fee as the CPA lobby is strong and takes care of its own…always.

So, you are looking at your 401(k) and you see it getting fatter. You are not the only one, it is happening a lot lately: 401(k)s Are Minting a Generation of ‘Moderate Millionaires’.

As of the third quarter, there were 654,000 401(k) millionaires at the brokerage Fidelity, the highest level in records going back to the early 2000s. Around 3.2% of more than three million accounts tracked by benefits provider Alight had balances above $1 million as of the third quarter, double the figure at the end of 2022. At T. Rowe Price, roughly 2.6% of participants had balances above $1 million, up from 1.3% at the end of 2022.

Sticking with the 401(k) theme, also not shocking: Top earners are saving more for retirement. Everyone else is saving less. I am not sure this was the intent of the original thinkers who came up with the 401(k). And yet here we are with the richer taking advantage of these plans in a devastating way. It is what it is. The article is full of interesting statistics, such as:

• For those earning $15,000 to $50,000, the retirement savings rate declined from 4.9% to 4.6% of income, less than half the savings rate for top earners. 
• For those earning $50,000 to $100,000, the savings rate fell from 9.6% to 9.3%. 

• For those earning $15,000 to $50,000, average annual contributions slipped from $1,918 in 2022 to $1,815 in 2024. 
• For those earning $50,000 to $100,000, average contributions fell from $6,814 to $6,630. 

There is a lot of bullshit in the investment advisor space. Most try to make it more complicated than it is to justify their probably unreasonably high fees. Anyway, don’t get me started. One term that always triggers me is when I see some outfits who say they follow “evidence based investing”. Which is, well, bullshit. And this article kind of gets to that because, you know, even evidence is, well, fluid: How Can Investors ‘Follow the Evidence’?

The evidence about the investment decisions we should make is opaque, changeable and often conflicting. Even if we have all the relevant information to hand, it still requires us to have opinions and own them. We will never alight upon the right answer, just the one we think makes the most sense to us based on what we observe and who we are…Taking the time to assess the evidence and incorporate it into our decision making is crucial and the key underpinning of any investment process. It doesn’t, however, guarantee that it will lead to positive results – even if we do it well. We should, of course, still try, but we will need a little dose of good luck as well. All we can try to do is get the odds on our side.

Yeah, luck is under rated and having and, more importantly, sticking to an investment process is hugely important. Ok, let’s move on.

 

CRYPTO/TECH/SCAMS

I have blogged here about some mega fraudsters. And then there is Eli Weinstein who is in a different major league: Eli Weinstein’s Second Chances. Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of a fraudster. Within months, he was back in business. Someone who just could not stay away from it and deserves to be locked up for ever. Who knows, I mean, could he get pardoned one more time? And would you be shocked if he went straight back at it? If he could only use his talent for legit purposes smh. Prepare to be disgusted if you read this and realize how elaborate his schemes were. And how he fooled so many along the way, in addition to getting them to vouch that he had learned his lessons and deserved a second chance.

Still waiting for the killer app that benefits others rather than criminals in the crypto world. And now we have stablecoins, brace for eventual impact: How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions. Through layers of intermediaries, stablecoins can be moved, swapped and mixed into pools of other funds in ways that are difficult to trace, experts say.

This arrogant asshole finally got sentenced: Crypto Entrepreneur Do Kwon Gets 15-Year Prison Sentence.

He promoted TerraUSD, a so-called algorithmic stablecoin, as the future of money, and was notorious for deriding his critics in social-media posts—until the collapse of his coins triggered a daisy chain of crises that eventually ushered in what the industry calls its crypto winter. [I was around Twitter back then and I must state that “deriding his victims” is extremely understated].

This chart in the article titled: The Nasdaq 100: Booms & Busts.

In the past 31 years, gains outnumber losses by a ratio of 26 to 5. That means the Nasdaq 100 has been up in 84% of those years.

In 1 out of every 4 years, gains have been 40% or more. Nearly half of the years since 1995 have seen gains of 20% or higher.

These were the five down years since 1995:

• 2000: -36.1%
• 2001: -33.3%
• 2002: -37.4%
• 2008: -41.7%
• 2022: -32.4%

These are the annual returns since 1995:

• Nasdaq 100 +15.0%
• S&P 500 +11.1%

Can you imagine today’s youngsters buying the dip early in 2000 and keep buying it for three years? Nope. Be careful out there.

But here’s the crazy part—even the people complaining about AI are using it in their writing! [Not me in this blog, 100% human baby]

But using AI isn’t the core issue. How people use AI is. The root of this problem is that no one wants to think anymore. They want to outsource their thinking to machines. And, once you start doing that, it’s hard to stop.

Because while everyone else is having AI draft their emails, write their code, and plan their lives, those who still dare to do some of the mental work themselves will win out. [Yeah, right…while we humans give up exhausted in the process? Ok, until then…enjoy my blog and please stay human lol]

 

AI

Ok, this is kind of funny if not disturbing: Rockstar Co-Founder and Former GTA Writer Dan Houser Says AI Is ‘Like When We Fed Cows With Cows and Got Mad Cow Disease’. “AI is going to eventually eat itself.” What if…he is right?

“Some of these people trying to define the future of humanity, creativity or whatever it is, using AI, are not the most humane or creative people,” he said. “So they’re sort of saying we’re better at being human than you are. And it’s obviously not true. “That is one of the other things we’re trying to capture, that humanity is being pulled in a direction by a certain group of people who maybe aren’t fully rounded humans.”

He continued: “I think that AI is going to eventually eat itself. As far as I understand it, which is really superficial understanding, the models scour the internet for information, but the internet’s going to get more and more full of information made by the models. So it’s sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease.

“I can’t see how the information is going to get better. They’re already running out of data. It will do some tasks brilliantly but it’s not going to do every task brilliantly. It’s going to become this sort of mirror of itself. “I’m slightly obsessed by the fact that when you search for the same thing again, it doesn’t give you the same answers. And it’s wrong a lot of the time, but it says it so confidently.”

Fascinating read: ‘It’s going much too fast’: the inside story of the race to create the ultimate AI. In Silicon Valley, rival companies are spending trillions of dollars to reach a goal that could change humanity – or potentially destroy it. Exhilarating, sobering, disturbing…all at once. Hope it works out you guys…

And never forget: There is No Substitute for Thinking.