I’ve mentioned a few times that we bought our house with only 10% down and are currently paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) on a monthly basis. The PMI was necessary to get the loan because we didn’t have the standard 20% down payment required to get a traditional, non-PMI insured, mortgage loan. One of our major […]
Author: Noah
Starting Out The New Year With a Mattress Run – IHG Accelerate 2016
IHG has consistently been doing targeted hotel promotions over the past year or so of varying qualities, but I always register to see whether or not it’s worth pursuing. The latest IHG promotion is Accelerate 2016 and takes place from the beginning of the year until the end of April. Registering only takes a minute […]
Approved For The Chase Ink Plus and More
I recently returned from a whirlwind trip back home for the holidays that was both fun and exhausting. About half-way through the trip I received an awesome email from Chase stating I was approved for the Chase Ink Plus credit card! I’ve applied for and failed to get this card twice in the past, as […]
Our Side Gig Successes In 2015 – Churning, Arbitrage, and More
As 2015 winds to a close, it’s a good time to look back over the year and see how we did financially compared to our goals. Back in 2014, we discovered the idea of financial independence and decided to set ourselves up with a lifestyle that balances maximizing life in the present and setting ourselves […]
Schedule Your Global Entry Interview Sooner
Recently, I walked through my personal experience applying for, interviewing, and finally getting approved for Global Entry. Becky and I didn’t end up applying at the same time because we wanted to use the Global Entry fee reimbursement benefit from a credit card to cover the $100 application fee and only had one card that […]
Earn Hotel Nights With Pen and Paper: IHG Priceless Surprises
Intercontinental Hotels Group (or IHG) often has at least one promotion going on at any given time and their most recent one is a bit different than usual. About a year ago, I took advantage of IHG’s “Into the Nights” promotion in order to earn free hotel nights that we later used to save a ton […]
Using British Avios to Book 2 Flights to Hawaii for 50k Miles and $22.40
There are two sides to travel hacking with points and miles, earning the points and then actually booking travel with those points. Both sides have their own world of respective methods and tricks to maximize your return, but are largely independent of each other except for the point and mile currencies that tie them together. […]
Optimizing Taxes Over A Lifetime
One of the largest expenses most people will face in their life is taxes and for the most part, there just isn’t any way around it. After all, the old saying claims the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Fortunately, the taxes that must be paid over the course of a lifetime […]
Maximize the 5x Ebay Bucks Promo for Profit and Over 19k miles
Ebay frequently offers bonus ebay bucks promotions and while they are targeted, it’s extremely common to get them if you have an open ebay account and allow them to send you emails. Yesterday, ebay sent out a 5x ebay bucks offer for 48 hours only (ends today [11/24/15] at midnight) which brings the return up […]
Global Entry: Easiest Interview of My Life
A few months ago, I applied for the Citi Prestige card which inspired this post about my changing travel strategy and my first “premium” credit card. Despite the card having a large $450 annual fee, I think it’s one of the best signup offers currently available if you’re able to take advantage of the benefits. […]