I don’t like paying fees. I don’t like paying small fees. I ABSOLUTELY don’t love paying big fees. That said, I have found there are many cards where the annual fees are worth the slew of rewards and benefits that come with the membership. American Express Platinum is one of those, despite the outrageous, marketplace-topping
We had a lovely MLK weekend trip up in New York City and Connecticut this past weekend. While we didn’t need (or want) a car in the city itself, we did need one to visit the family in more rural Connecticut. The internet helped find a reasonably cheap booking (<$100 for a one-way, one-day rental),
“Would you like the car rental supplemental damage waiver?” — Absolutely not Read More »
The past few weeks I’ve been targeted for a few Facebook and Instagram ads. I’m a sucker for a deal, and so I like to humor what comes across because occasionally there’s something to take advantage of. Fancy marketing copy. Bold value claims. Big headlines. However, just because you can make something pretty and make
Sometimes too good to be true really is too good – Origins Card 6% Everywhere Card Read More »
It’s Mamdani’s New York now! We’re traveling up to NYC for the long weekend. Some fun with family, some free points from a Hilton timeshare presentation, a play, some good food (I already chomped a halfway decent lox-bagel this morning!) Things are expensive, but that’s no reason to sit back and stand for being scammed.
A Flat Rate Story — NYC Taxi from LGA airport scamming magically resolved… within a day Read More »
We’ve done some nice home upgrades these past few months. Newly painted walls. New wallpaper. New vacuum. New decorations in our front room. Cleaning out our utility closet. Many of these left us with some perfectly functional but used old household items and arrangements. Even more so than making money, I feel wasteful throwing away
For some strange reason, I have a lot of fun in tracking and managing finances. I was taught young to save and invest, and the flexibility that being consistent there will enable. While I’ve got some opportunities to do the investing piece better, I think I’ve got the savings part down pretty good. The biggest
401k Employer Match benefits can really, really add up Read More »
…but there’s always more to the story. I’ll keep this focused on the the cap, and avoid the challenges associated with the…politicization at play. If the question were around affordability and predatory industry behavior, there would be a wide range of other administration focus, like…not gutting the CFPB. With that said, let’s get into it.
Capping credit card interest rates at 10% sure may sound good, on the surface… Read More »
Once upon a time, Fidelity had a $100 bonus for opening an individual personal investing account and funding with $500. In late 2022, I took advantage of this, and funded a total of $1,000 ($500 in December’22, $500 in January’23). I parked almost all of this money in a S&P500 index fund (IVV) and did
The easiest $1k I’ve ever made (Fidelity brokerage & IVV S&P500 index fund) Read More »
When I saw the statement credits for this promotion last week after two months, a big smile came across my face and I chuckled audibly. There was a part of me that wasn’t expecting US Bank to fulfill correctly. And while that’s partly true (I’m missing $10 of credits for 5 transactions), it looks like
Why leave money on the table when paying the pesky utility bill? Everyone uses some combination of electricity, gas, water, and trash. For more than five years, I’ve had the luxury of a very healthy 5% discount on utilities simply for using my US Bank Cash+ card. This has added up to many, many hundreds
How about a quick and easy discount on all utilities? (US Bank Cash+ 5% category) Read More »
