Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as how to stay rich, the Airbnb collapse, AI apocalypse, the best summer road trips, the 2023 drone photo awards, billion dollar heists through the US Post Office, history of stock market drawdowns, the Madoff of memorabilia, remote work is here to stay, we catch up on all the latest in Russia, Ireland’s most notorious murderer, I Spy podcast is with former spies spilling secrets, we travel to Iran, 30 movies with airplanes, techies doing LSD and magic mushrooms and a lot more today. Happy Fourth!
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PERSONAL FINANCE
A big part of becoming financially independent is…not lose! And there are many thieves out there gunning for your money! And I am constantly amazed how creative these guys can be; one of my favorite sayings is “Be careful out there!”. Anyway, I had no idea people still use so many paper checks and so little can be done by authorities. So, it is upon you to be vigilant. Heists worth billions. Also, I had no idea postal carriers were being targeted so often to steal their arrow keys. Oh wait, what is the arrow key you may ask. An arrow key is the U.S. Postal Service’s universal key that opens blue public mailboxes, parcel lockers and apartment panels.
These types of robberies only occurred 80 times in 2018, but now are almost a daily event. In fiscal 2022 and the first half of fiscal 2023, letter carriers were robbed 717 times, Postal Service statistics show. In 95% of those cases, the criminals only wanted the arrow key, according to Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association. “It’s completely out of control,” he said.
Sticking with the same theme…how to stay rich. Which is harder than getting rich! Especially with inherited wealth. So, let’s talk about the Gettys. I admit I did not know much about them…all I knew was that the main Getty was a horrible person who negotiated down the ransom for one of his sons after the kidnappers delivered one of his severed ears to him. I also knew that that particular son never got over this and had several issues and died of a drug overdose. So, when I read this article How To Stay Rich: the Gettys I was shocked! Apparently, this family is doing a splendid job and I think it is wonderful!
“You can gag on that silver spoon. Having too much money is dangerous, especially for children. More than you need is a curse . . . [but] if you have ideals, and that ideal is something bigger than you . . . then you might escape the curse. There are . . . Gettys who have dodged it, others have been clobbered.”
Most of the children and their descendents have been expected to work and make something of themselves, whether through employment, entrepreneurship, or philanthropy. And for the most part this sense of purpose has helped them overcome many of the typical challenges of inherited wealth. In fact, family members who were less productive seem to have been more likely to succumb to the family’s addiction gene. Experts suggest that the work ethic can and should start young: doing chores is a predictor of success in young adulthood, and working for pay is a good way to learn the value of money. [So, get your kids to work!]
The combination of having their own independent identities, transparency around what’s coming, allegiance to education and service, and reasonably strong, loving ties can turn a once-chaotic family’s fortunes around—the emotional, physical and psychological fortunes that shape us perhaps even more than wealth.
Very interesting thread with some excellent graphs, it starts this way: The Airbnb collapse is real.
I got the table below from one of the posts at A Wealth of Common Sense. Holding on and not selling is a super power when drawdowns come along. And they come often, it is part of investing. So, if you can’t handle the heat maybe you should tone down the risk of your investment portfolio. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, we are all different. You gotta know yourself…
REMOTE WORK
As I have been saying, the pandemic changed everything. Including of course how we work. My son is full time remote and my wife goes to the office one day a week. More workers have come back to the office but it is happening very slowly and it looks like remote work will be around for a long time. So, I found this long table very interesting: The Uneven Effect of Remote Work, in One List. At the top of the list working most from home, we have 68% of economists and market researchers, 65% of writers and authors, and 64% of software developers. It makes sense to me, I get it. At the bottom of the list working away from home, we have 2% mining machine operators, 3% of electrical power-line technicians and highway maintenance workers. And I am wondering…are they on sick leave or something? Just don’t see a mining machine operator working remotely from home lol.
SCAMS
I had never heard about the Madoff of Memorabilia. He Said He Was Going To Save A Century Of Priceless Sports Photos. He Ended Up The Madoff Of Memorabilia. Yikes. He is locked up for 12 years, so many victims he screwed! How can people do this is beyond me! Imagine getting sentenced with your three young sons looking at you being led to prison in handcuffs…just sickening. Amazing what a big operation he had, it is a long read, you have been warned.
AI
Very interesting link to see what all these AI experts think:
Every time I call a plumber to fix something and I get the bill…I wonder if I made the right career choice. Okay, I am kidding. Manual labor jobs will not be impacted by AI! And if you are near the top of the list…this should definitely concern you.
RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR/PUTIN/PRIGOZHIN
What the hell did just happen? The Wagner butcher I think got a little too much power in his head and decided to force some things marching all the way to outside Moscow taking over a town on the way, shooting down some planes and helicopters of his fellow country men only for Putin to come out a couple of times declaring them traitors who are going to be forgiven or something like that, the whole thing was beyond weird! At the end of the day, Putin just looked really bad and weak…I can’t see Prigozhin staying alive and just continue making statements all over social media with this message: …The Russian military launched a pointless war, ran it incompetently, and killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers unnecessarily. This will be playing out over the near future and I was expecting the Ukrainians to move faster but they seem determined to go about the counter offensive their own slow methodical way…
Anne Applebaum with Russia Slides Into Civil War. Is Putin facing his Czar Nicholas II moment?
David Remnick with Putin’s Weakness Unmasked. How Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion exposed the Russian President. David interviews Mikhail Zygar, the editor-in-chief of TVRain, the independent banned from Russia news channel and it is a must read imho.
When I asked Zygar what was the most striking aspect of the uprising, he said, “Putin is weaker. I have the feeling he is not really running the country. Certainly, not the way he once did. He is still President, but all the different clans”—the factions within the government, the military, and, most important, the security services—“now have the feeling that ‘Russia after Putin’ is getting closer. Putin is still alive. He is still there in his bunker. But there is the growing feeling that he is a lame duck, and they have to prepare for Russia after Putin.”
And finally Masha Gessen with Prigozhin Showed Russians That They Might Have a Choice.
One of the most intriguing scenes of the wild weekend was Prigozhin’s troops’ departure from Rostov. People applauded and thanked them. For what? For voicing their resentments.
I will remember this…
ODDZ & ENDZ
Stunning read: ‘Why I might have done what I did’: conversations with Ireland’s most notorious murderer. Malcolm Macarthur was the wealthy, bookish socialite who shocked Ireland with a brutal double killing in 1982, and caused a major political scandal. I tracked him down and heard, for the first time, the tale he told about himself. If only he had a job after receiving the inheritance…
His first victim was a nurse, Bridie Gargan, whom he beat to death with a hammer in the process of stealing her car. His second was a farmer, Donal Dunne, who had agreed to sell him a shotgun. Macarthur shot him in the face and left his body in a bog. Both victims were 27 years old.
I recently discovered the podcasts series I Spy. It is former spies spilling the beans so to speak. And some of these are just absolutely fascinating! Such as The Spycatcher, the guy assigned to work with and catch Robert Hanssen (the famous KGB double agent who recently died in jail), The Narc tracking down Escobar in Colombia, The Interrogator of Saddam Hussein, The Cassandra escaping Vietnam with that helicopter on the roof, The Widow Spy from the first female undercover CIA officer in Moscow, The Analyst escaping a burning Libya, The Sleeper Agent trained by the KGB sent to the US in 1978 and more.
TRAVEL
I think Michigan should rank higher than #18 but maybe I am biased. 2023’s Best & Worst States for Summer Road Trips.
Amazing tour of beautiful architecture in Iran.
Fun link for the aviation fans who read my blog: 30 Movies with Airplanes for High-Flying Entertainment.
Amazing photography! 2023 Drone Photo Awards.
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 don’t drink and I don’t smoke. And I sure don’t do drugs. But we all know that drugs are becoming more legal all around us. Including LSD and psychedelics and this article appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s front page! Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley.
Some entrepreneurs microdose to derive benefits, often in hope of alleviating anxiety or sharpening focus. Others in tech said they take full doses of a drug—using the term macrodose—as they try to reach a high that will lead to a new disruptive idea. Goldfield describes this as “ego death,” an experience when a user gets to the core of their being and “lets go.” [What!]
I was not confident of my running lately, maybe it is the heat or the damn air from the Canada fires. But earlier this week I aced a workout running 8 straight miles at 8.52 pace (target was 9 minute per mile pace). So, that felt really good!
Thanks to two blog readers who obtained a credit card using my blog links and the four readers who bought me a coffee, your support is highly appreciated. I still enjoy writing in my blog after so many years. I think I provide a quality product here and have never veered from the mission to educate, entertain and inspire you all. This does not translate to commercial success sadly. Actually, some months it does not even cover its costs which, you know, absolutely blows! If you have any ideas about marketing/promoting my blog better (obviously I suck at it!) please let me know. I am open to anything except posting several times a day how amazing a credit card faking my enthusiasm and moronic clickbait “shocking” news and, in general, I don’t like ads and I don’t like going behind a paywall because I am a man of the people 🙂
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. If you are not interested, you can stop here, thank you.
MILES & POINTS NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION
Is it just me or is it that lately we see more hobby related articles appear in the Wall Street Journal: A Guide to Awards Travel for Brand-New Frequent Fliers. I am going to send this to my son who is currently on a business trip to Seattle and got upgraded to First Class on Alaska Airlines from Honolulu. Some good advice in it, such as:
The new crop of professionals will have to work harder than their forebears did to reach platinum perks, thanks to more tightfisted programs that often reward dollars spent over miles logged…Points don’t get you as far as they used to, veteran travelers say, and lower-level tiers are often clogged with people competing for the same seats and upgrades. [Yep…]
Credit cards co-branded with airlines come with perks like free checked bags and a bundle of sign-up bonus miles. But some veterans advise beginners against locking themselves into a relationship with one carrier in many cases. Instead, they say that getting a travel rewards card branded only by a bank—not an airline—will keep you free to apply points more places. (They won’t always come with the same access to the amenities.) [But you can be assured if there is a big sales commission attached to an airline credit card the bloggers in this space will enthusiastically sell it like it is THE best credit card to get!]
…But he wouldn’t advise playing the credit-card loyalty game—it wasn’t worth all the energy, he says. “If I spent that time actually monetizing my skills or my business, I would have been traveling better quicker,” Jauhar says. [34 year old hobbyist who used to play the game is right on! But the more you get sucked into this hobby the more you get addicted and everything makes sense to you to stay in the game]
I am ambivalent about airline frequent flyer programs ever since I gave up on elite status and became a free agent. So, when posts like that show up Why AAdvantage is my new favorite mileage program you just need to realize that blogs in this space are big businesses and it is in their best interest to keep you roped in so to speak. So, just go over the pros and cons and see if any one of them seals the deal for you. Some noticeable ones but pffft.
Burned 50,000 Hilton Honors points for the night before the Detroit Marathon at the Detroit Downtown Hilton Garden Inn. It is about 0.7 miles away from the Start line, not as ideally located at the now sold out Doubletree Suites Fort Shelby. If I see a room open up at the Doubletree I may book it (it usually goes for 80,000 Hilton points) and cancel the Hilton Garden Inn reservation. We shall see, it is a good problem to have.
Looks like we go back to New York City for Christmas. And British Airways again has award flights to NYC LaGuardia for 15,000 Avios points round trip. Wife booked herself and daughter, another 30k points burned and it feels good! I am going to hold off for a while because a short trip to Greece may happen again to see my mother…
Chase has offered the Ink Business Preferred card with a 100,000 Signup Bonus for a very long time. But it came with a $15,000 Minimum Spend in the first three months. Which was obviously very high and now it appears that the bankers realized this. So, the new offer now comes with a much lower $8,000 Minimum Spend. You can learn more about the card in this post. Look, this blog is not here to maximize credit card sales. I saw a blogger say something ridiculous as in this offer is MASSIVELY improved and this is the BEST Chase credit card. Which should make you click away from that blog because it is so patently WRONG! We have had this card in the past in my household and we did not keep it after the first year. And I highly suggest you think hard before you make this card your anchor Chase credit card so you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to travel partners (I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is THE Chase anchor card to have). And if you do, please apply with my CREDIT CARD LINKS to support the blog and stop it from dying, thanks! Or, use my REFERRAL LINK!
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60K CITI Premier, 40k CAPITAL ONE VentureOne Rewards, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 140K CHASE IHG Rewards Premier (with $100 Statement Credit), 60k CHASE Sapphire, 60k US BANK Business Altitude, 60k and 30% off on three Personal CHASE Southwest cards and many more, including many AmericanExpress cards such as Delta Airlines, Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors cards! Please check out my Affiliate links. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you?
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 741,000 miles/points year to date in 2023 and have 4,219,837 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.
BEGINNERS
The Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Credit Cards, Points & Miles
BASICS: This travel hacking hobby is mostly about getting the fat Signup Bonus of travel rewards credit cards while of course NEVER EVER carrying a balance. Banks have a marketing budget and are willing to give us many THOUSANDS of miles/points to travel mostly for free hoping to hook us to then charge confiscatory 20%+ interest rates on our balances. The poor souls who fall for their marketing paying these ludicrous interest rates end up subsidizing us responsible consumers who enjoy taking advantage of, cough, such bank marketing budgets! Some of us have been doing this for thirty years creating amazing travel memories…Feel free to ask me questions or post them in the comments, we were all newbies once!
BASICS: Prefer credit cards from the proprietary points programs of banks, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Network, Capital One Rewards Miles because they are a lot more flexible and are not devalued as frequently. Over pure airline and hotel travel rewards credit cards. Pure cash back credit cards may work for you best and they are getting more valuable as airline and hotel loyalty programs keep getting devalued. Sometimes, a pure no annual fee 2% cash back card works best for simplicity!
Credit Card Recommendation Flowchart: March 2023
TOP TRAVEL REWARDS SIGNUP BONUS CARDS
Master Guide to Credit Card Applications: All the Rules You Need to Know, Bank by Bank
How to Sign up for Chase Ink Cards
The Capital One Venture X card offers a 75,000 point Signup Bonus after a minimum spend of $4k in the first three months. If you like simplicity and looking for one (premium) card, I highly recommend this card (and yes, I have it myself!). It has an annual fee of $395 but it comes with a VERY easy $300 statement credit for travel booked on its excellent travel portal, essentially turning it into a $95 annual fee card. But wait…there is more! On each card anniversary you earn 10,000 points essentially making it FREE! Every dollar of spend earns 2 points and flights booked on the travel portal earn 5 points per dollar. You get access to Capital One and Plaza Premium airport lounges and a Priority Pass Select lounge membership and, this is important, you can add FOUR authorized users FOR FREE who can also have their own Priority Pass Select airline lounge membership. You can transfer your Capital One points to up to 18 Transfer Partners. No foreign transaction fees. Free Hertz President’s Circle rental car top elite status. Cell phone protection and PRIMARY rental car coverage. Awesome seats at baseball stadiums for just 5k points each. And lots more. Available with my Credit Card Links, thank you for your support!
Get 75K Miles, Lounge Access & More with the Capital One Venture X Card
Other worthy credit card deals going on currently:
REFERRAL LINK: Chase Ink Business Preferred/Ink Cash/Ink Unlimited/Ink Premier
REFERRAL LINK: New Offers for United Credit Cards, Earn Up to 80,000 MileagePlus Miles
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.
Greetings from Wisconsin! It’s turned out to be a great place for a family vacation. Back to Charlotte soon. We had a 3.5 hour mechanical delay on the way over and didn’t arrive at our hotel until 1 am local time (2 am EST) but aside from that the trip has been thoroughly enjoyable. I’ll make it to Michigan one of these days, I still haven’t forgotten about Traverse City.
re airbnb–remember this post from TiF?
https://travelisfree.com/how-to-make-money-on-airbnb-short-term-rentals/
I wonder how he’s doing with that operation, and I’m not saying that in a sarcastic/rhetorical way, as his post was actually pretty sensible and well thought-out.
What interesting links today! It never occurred to me that newspapers would sell their photo archives! Of course looking at the Don Larsen photo of the last pitch of the perfect game of the world series the same day at the newest perfect game by a New York Yankees’ pitcher was really something!
I *finally* took a cross country flight without have to spend an overnight because of a missed flight. Of course I cheated and got a direct flight from Dulles to Seattle and then a little
hop to Vancouver. Delta’s club in Seattle might be the best one in the system. SFO is certainly competitive.
Thanks!
The TBB team is going out to see Indiana Jones…
Behave yourselves, will be back. Oh, the Arnold show on Netflix is really good by the way. Will respond when I have time, thank you.
Greetings from Malta where it’s hot and dry. HR is a fab hotel, though not in a location I would return to, I’m about 30 years too old I think. However who can refuse using points vs spending $250+ a night. AirBnB, no tears from me. Glad to see them tank. We had too many stays where the photographs had been enhanced beyond belief and the 5 star BS reviews. At least in a hotel you get a crappy room you complain to reception and it gets switched. And who wants to go on vacation and clean before you leave then pay another $300 for cleaning?
@ Nick: How was the air in cheeseland? It was horrible here Thursday and Friday, much better today Saturday. Also, I was reading the Greek press and I was shocked to read that smoke from the Canadian fires reached Greece too! I do remember that TIF post! I don’t think much was done with them after that…
@ DML: Newspapers were in the big hurt for so long, talk about an industry just almost wiped out from the Internet. We may check out the Delta lounge in Seattle in August, thanks.
@ Vicky: For some reason, Malta never attracted me. Good to know about the HR there. I have the same feelings about Airbnb…I think my total stays in them can be counted in one hand. Maybe I look seriously at them when my points balance goes poof, may be a while.
Indiana Jones: Enjoyable movie, fast paced, great action. Then again, what else did you expect? Harrison Ford looked good at his age and at some point during the movie he said “Everything hurts” and you can see heads nodding from older people in the theater lol.
Got one cc sale to sneak in on June 30 and some coffees, thank you.
Air is much better today.
Kids are in Michigan up north with friends at lakes. They’ll be back. Oh, I need to call Capital One, those Detroit Tigers baseball tickets I bought with Capital One points still do not show up in my MLB account!
You all have a Happy Fourth, this blog lives on….barely but still alive!
Indiana Jones, it’s a pass for me. Waiting for the Oppenheimer release.
How do you best find awards on AA’s homepage that can be booked on Avios? On United, X awards are mostly available on partners. And Delta can now readily be search on Virgin Atlantic’s beta version. But what about AA’s partners? Do you use Qantas?
The Oppenheimer trailer sure looks amazing.
I go periodically on the BA site to see DTW-LGA on AA availability, it comes suddenly bigly. It is weird how they go about it…
I have a Qantas account, I opened so I can use its award search engine. But I just never fell in love with it and now hardly ever use it. Regarding Delta and Virgin Atlantic, I am out. I need to use up my remaining United miles. Aeroplan does not show some United availability it appears which sucks.
Wisconsin air was pretty hazy through Thursday. Much better Friday.
Se the new Indiana Jones movie cost $325 MM to make, plus another $100 for marketing, which means it’ll need to gross ~$800 MM in the theaters just to break even. Opening weekend looks like $60 MM domestic… It could be one of the biggest bombs of all time, financially speaking.
I just don’t see this movie making even close to that much, it’s not that good, sad!
Points and miles drama!
https://liveandletsfly.com/the-chicago-seminars-civil-war/
Mini me copying his idols Gary and Ben again…Always looking for clickbait $ clicks And controversy sells!
In the old days I would have a long post about all this drama. Now, we should not give a shit about it. Just business men doing marketing cultivating relationships with newbies who click on their cc affiliate links. And a few old timers who go for the social aspects. Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific killed their miles too…zzzzzzzz
Pretty good BBC podcast about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. I know, the world has moved on…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ng7c
The inverted yield curve called and wondered where the recession is.
My link tomorrow will end the Covid origin “controversy” #dreaming
I am sure the crazies will bitch about how Biden is manipulating the economy numbers zzzzz….We are seeing things that rewrite economics books every other month it appears.