Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the Yen carry trade sinks stocks, Paris Olympics memes, Delta sues Crowdstrike, another 240k Chase points in the bank, volatility in the markets, international aviation museums, how billionaires travel, and much more and of course always all of the most important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you Friday.
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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 a curated at least weekly post of the best web content along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus.
This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
Tuesday posts will be shorter than the Friday posts. That’s the intent anyway.
PERSONAL FINANCE
We may be a little off from another market high it appears. As fear has come back with a vengeance at the markets in the past week. It happens. Actually, a lot!
There have been a couple of really good articles regarding the latest scare out there. First, this New York Times article by Ron Lieber titled: When The Stock Market Drops, Stay Calm and Do Nothing. I agree! Read the whole thing, you are welcome.
Another one is this one with fantastic graphics: Reasons To Sell. This one stood out below. If you feel scared right now, perhaps you need to revisit your asset allocation plan. Because losing sleep over your investment portfolio is not healthy and definitely not worth it.
I have been around the wealth management industry for a long time and it still amazes me how everything can turn so quickly. What was it this time? Some self proclaimed experts think the reason for the recent market movements was the yen carry trade. You may be thinking what the hell is a “carry trade”? The yen carry trade is where global investors borrow yen at low interest rates and then turn around and use the proceeds to buy stocks or bonds that offer more upside elsewhere. So, since the Bank of Japan raised interest rates last week it reduced the interest rate differential between Japan and the US. Which likely led to unwinding those trades selling US stocks and bonds out of very large hedge fund portfolios. And that may be where the panic originated. There is always something smh. Or maybe it was this:
Also, questions like “So, why do we hold bonds?” should stop for a while. Finally, never expose money you may need in the next couple of years in the markets. This cuts down a lot on the heartache which improves health. Which is priceless.
Ok, one more:
What is even worse than panicking and selling after major market drops? It’s these assholes that have been so wrong for so long coming out of the woodwork and media giving them a platform to plague us with their shit:
Let’s change some things around and temporarily replace both SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH and ODDZ AND ENDZ sections with a section about the 2024 Olympic Games.
2024 PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
Yes, I have been clicking on this frequently: MEDAL COUNT. Some notes: China has been closing the gap with the US. China, as I am typing this, still had more Gold medals! And of course I follow the medals Greece earns. Six so far. But, sadly, no Gold medals yet, one Silver and five Bronze medals. As the Greek national basketball team led by Giannis takes the Germans in a Quarterfinal game and looking for payback for that loss they inflicted on us in the last Euro championship. And we hope our long jumper dude phenomenon brings us Gold soon.
It is amazing the progress, wow! The Evolution of Olympic Performances, 1912 to 2020.
There have been many memorable moments in these Olympics. But there is only one Turkish shooter like this guy: ‘The star we didn’t know we needed’: Turkish Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikeç takes the internet by storm. While every other shooter has several lenses and ridiculous uniforms to take every advantage, this older guy just showed up with a T shirt and his other hand in his pocket and proceeded to win a silver medal!
The memes are numerous online. Two of my favorites are below:
and of course, I can’t help it, one relating to investing.
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TRAVEL
SAVE $100 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
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This will not apply to any of you. Unless you are billionaires. But it relates to how travel has changed for them. Which may eventually trickle down? The Truth About How Billionaires Travel. Apparently, villas are getting bigger and better, charter flying is changing, safaris are more exclusive, proper sailing is back, hotels are joining in and talk about a market niche!
For my aviation geek readers: 9 Best International Aviation Museums. Which one is THE must visit one?
And oh no, bring back the ramen! Turbulence takes instant noodles off Korean Air menu.
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
I only pick worthy links to share with you. As there is so much crap out there!
GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC.
I loved the aggressive response by CrowdStrike to strike (pun intended) back at Delta’s lawsuit: CrowdStrike to Delta: Stop Pointing the Finger at Us.
“Should Delta pursue this path, Delta will have to explain to the public, its shareholders, and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibility for its actions—swiftly, transparently, and constructively—while Delta did not,” wrote Michael Carlinsky, an attorney at law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
The cybersecurity company reiterated its apology to Delta for the initial disruption and said it had offered on-site assistance to Delta but was told it wasn’t needed. It said Bastian didn’t respond to outreach from CrowdStrike’s CEO. [Standard arrogance by the Delta execs, totally expected]
Some really good tips here: Ways I “self-insure” my trips (with strategic booking and credit card choices).
Southwest is changing. After its flights started showing up on Google Flights, they will now show up on Kayak too.
CREDIT CARD CORNER
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
I will indicate with NEW every new section as the rest is the same from the previous blog post and will finally roll off those parts as offers expire, thank you.
NEW: Bilt does Bilt things again. Bilt Rewards will exempt tax payments from Rent Day bonus. And still bloggers just can’t come out and say Bilt sucks!
The top credit card offer right now is the 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred card. This card has been at an elevated 100k Signup Bonus for a while, so going with an extra 20k points takes it to the TOP travel rewards credit card offer out there right now. And yes, it is its highest ever signup bonus. The annual fee is $95. Requires $8k minimum spend in the first three months (used to be crazy high at $15k!). It earns 3x on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines and 1x on everything else. No foreign transaction fees and primary rental car insurance. Points are worth 1.25 cents each if used in the bank’s travel portal. So, if you do the math: 120k plus 8k MINIMUM (if all spend was at unbonused 1x ) is 128k points times 1.25 cents gives us free travel worth $1,600. For an annual fee of $95. Ok, I did the math for you, come on! And of course you can transfer the points instead to airline/hotel partners (I prefer Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and sometimes Southwest, in that order) for even higher value. Very solid cell phone insurance coverage along with strong travel and purchase protections.
5 Excellent Options! What I Would Do with 130,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards
You can refer Amex cards from within your Amex account. Sometimes the referral bonus you earn referring others to Amex cards can be very lucrative. And sometimes the offers you can sign up for can also be very lucrative. And they can vary wildly! Sometimes different offers show up when you use different browsers, incognito mode, desktop or mobile browser or app, it is maddening! So, I will drop here my own personal Amex REFERRAL LINK. You can use this referral link to apply for ANY Amex card. You just click on Learn More and then click on either “Personal Cards” or “Business Cards” at the top. And act accordingly if you see a juicy offer, like a 200k Amex Business Gold!
Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below my TOP FOUR travel rewards credit cards right now. For a DETAILED explanation of the features of these cards below, please click HERE and read about them at the bottom of that page.
Temporarily, the 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred card goes right to the top.
The next offer NOW is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for free with this card!
Next we have the 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash and 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited cards.
Learn how to apply HERE to support the blog.
MY ACTION
The 120k Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the two 120k Chase Ink Business Preferred cards me and my wife got have already landed in our accounts #winning. And just like that we now have over 1 million of these points in the bank again. The third Chase Ink Business Preferred card, this one for my daughter, is arriving today and we go at it once again.
ADVANCED
Looking forward to the posts about Seychelles, here is the first one: HfP in the Seychelles: Let’s start with how to get there. I had no idea it was further than the Maldives but after taking another look at the map this sunk in.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 120k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE United Business, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards AND $250 Travel Credit, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, two 120k CHASE Southwest Business cards, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
Learn how to apply HERE to support the blog. Or email me if you have any questions about any cards, I’m happy to help, thank you!
As of today, I have burned 1,225,950 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,376,581 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol!
Remember, you are NOT allowed to ever carry a credit card balance!
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 forward it to a family member or friend. Or Buy Me a Coffee, thank you!
Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com and tell me what you like and don’t like about my blog and, more importantly, what you would like to see changed and/or what you would add or delete. All feedback is very appreciated.
George
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She sells seashells by the Seychelles?
Finally! Big trig is exposed!
Paying math teachers to push Euclid needs investigation!
Thanks for the laughter.
Good stuff again! Thanks! Man, I wish Chase wasn’t mad at me, or whatever their problem is. I finally got one Ink card a while back and since then, complete rejection.But maybe I am OK as it is getting harder to plan out travel. Health stuff has kept me home so far but finally, off to So. Cali. tomorrow for a few days.
Glad to get the blog mailing as always!
The Turkish mixed doubles partnership photo is just as good, imho! This is how Gen X teaches the next generation…https://apicms.thestar.com.my/uploads/images/2024/08/02/2837675.webp . Yes, she is wearing earphones as well, but isn’t that true for so many of the kids today? 🙂
@ Nick: It could be a song too 🙂
@ DML: As soon as I saw that, I knew it belonged here.
@ Carl: Why is Chase rejecting you? I never take a no from Chase. Daughter got rejected at age 18 for a Southwest card and made her call reconsideration and coached her how to convince the rep to approve the card…it took almost 2 hours lol. Attack the health issues.
@ MT: Yeah, certainly on the earphones…being a generational thing. Just saw them two in a TV clip being greeted back to Turkey. Same old chill dude, epic!
Have to say I slept easy when the market crashed as am only 40% equities. Figured some time ago that once you won the race why keep running. However, I was itching to make some purchases but waiting for Schwab to unrestrict our account and it’s been a nightmare drawn out procedure.
Seychelles is definitely on my list, WA has 5 giant house tortoise which is a win. However, think it’s going to be one of those places I never make as the years get away from me and we can’t do it all.
As I am nearing 60 in three years, I am going to be lowering my stocks 1% every year until then. Because, yeah, I should stop racing. I am working on my ridiculous investing amount I am setting aside and should look to chill and enjoy more of what I enjoy. I am mentally preparing more and more to pay for Business class flights in the future…and it is a really weird feeling lol.
I always thought Maldives was the most exotic and farthest place to get to…I just did not realize how even more remote Seychelles is. Maybe I should take a look at the Hyatt map.
Looks like we won’t make it to Andaz in Thailand, need to slow down and enjoy more instead of maintaining hectic travel speed mode. But I did watch a video from a YouTuber about it, it looks amazing!