About

Welcome to Money Metagame!

Money Metagame focuses on how to optimize your finances using retirement accounts, credit cards, gift cards, and more.  Everyone from frugal minimalists to big spenders traveling the world should be able to find value in the different financial topics this blog covers.  Taking extra vacations for pennies on the dollar and retiring decades before the traditional retirement age are possible for almost anyone and Money Metagame will dive into the details on how to make your money work for you.

As for us, my wife and I are currently pursuing financial independence, or the ability to quit our jobs and live entirely off of our investments, and are on track to get there before 40 years old!  Despite that short timeline and aggressive savings, we are still living it up in the present with plenty of travel and adventures, partially thanks to large credit card signup bonuses we take advantage of by signing up for dozens of new cards each year.  In fact, we recently started a Gap Year of no work and lots of travel that began in early 2018!  Feel free to follow our journey here on the blog and check out the many great posts and resources with more information below.  Cheers!

Where to Start?

I encourage you to check out some of the introductory posts and if you like what you see, please consider Subscribing.

Want to keep reading and get into more detail?  These are some of the best posts that have been written so far:

Want to read about some of the trips we’ve taken with points and miles and how we booked them?

Want to know more about us?  Here are some recap posts that cover our spending and financial plans:

Need even more?  Be sure to SUBSCRIBE and be the first to know about new posts and tools to help optimize your finances.  If you want to take it one step further, be sure to check out the different ways you can Support Money Metagame.

The Origin Story

From a young age, optimization and efficiency have always been at the front of my mind, and anything from homework to video games was often broken down as far as possible to find the optimal strategy for completion.  While the amount of time spent finding the optimal strategy didn’t always pay off, I really enjoyed the process of diving into a complex problem and trying to fully understanding the mechanics behind it.  I was able to put this interest in problem solving to good use throughout college which led to accepting a job offer to work as a Software Developer in a big tech company right after graduation.

After settling into a new city and starting the new job, my paychecks started to accumulate in my checking account.  I’ve never been very interested in flashy clothes, high-end restaurants, or most other things that people spend money on, so saving a good amount of my paycheck came naturally.  As I began researching the large world of personal finance that I recently became a member of, I noticed that almost everywhere I looked yielded very different advice, strategies, and opinions on how to handle your finances.  I read as much as possible on the subject in various websites, books, blogs, and forums which led to a pretty good understanding of what was going on, but it was only after discovering the ideas of financial independence and churning that I really became obsessed with my own finances.  The idea that I could retire in my 30s or take free vacations around the world without any drastic lifestyle changes really blew my mind.

As I dove into my own finances and shared my discoveries with friends and family, I realized how many common misconceptions exist in the world of personal finance and how relatively unknown some of the deeper concepts are.  So I created this blog as a way to organize my own research on the subject, educate others, and maybe make a little money on the side.