Archive | January, 2014

Balancing Act

For the time being capitalism is where it’s at. I’ve already waxed poetic about my outsized admiration for capitalism. But there are couple of points that I’d like to make. 1. Capitalism is but the blink of an eye relative to human history. It’s only logical to suppose that this too shall pass. Whether it […]

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The Great Debate.

I’ve already touched on this subject, but questions remain. In my post the point, I explained why even someone (like me ) who loves their job is well served by pursuing the early retirement goal. And in carpe diem, I pointed out that saving for retirement is not really a sacrifice at all. But I’ve […]

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Ticket to Ride

Traveling can be a very expensive endeavor. Once you are off of your home turf there are truly so many avoidable ways to blow your money on poor value. Flights, hotel rooms, rental cars, and eating out; each offers myriad possibilities for waste. The solution to the flight piece is travel hacking and collecting miles. […]

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Experts Agree

Sometimes while eating lunch, I will turn on the television in the doctors dining room in my hospital and watch CNBC. I basically just want to know how well the markets are doing that day. Owning stock is fun and watching The funds I’ve invested in go up and down is not unlike the thrill […]

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Tribalism

Since I started publishing my own musings on this blog, one thing that has increasingly struck me, is that I may just be preaching to the choir. When reading comments on posts that I’ve written, I’ve detected a pattern. People who are already savers, are often attracted to the ideas of early retirement theory. Likewise, […]

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A Card up your Sleeve

We’ve already discussed the value of hotel credit cards. As I mentioned, however, my hotel strategy, to this point, has not been to include hotel cards in my credit card churns. But obviously I still need a place to stay when I go on vacation. So what has my strategy been? I’ve focused on value […]

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An Embarrassment of Riches

Spending and saving are not mutually exclusive. We all spend money, and most of us save it too. I, for one, do not believe in some Platonic ratio of saving to spending. If there were such a ratio, (say a perfect 65% savings rate,) then it would be easy to tell someone if they were […]

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Plus One

We’ve already talked about the magic of the classic six card churn. How this simple maneuver can be your ticket to international travel or luxury hotels for nearly free. If you’ve thought it through and you’re deciding that you want to go ahead and take the leap of faith, one thing you might also consider […]

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Split Personality

You may have noticed that I’m not exactly ideologically consistent. In some posts you will find me waxing poetic about global warming, avoiding prejudice, income inequality, progressive taxation and the need for more upward mobility built into the structure of our society. Why don’t we just call this character, “Gand-me.” Gand-Me at your service… In […]

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The Other Half

I got a very interesting response in the comments section of my post “philosophy of miles.” Reader Mark shared his perspective on the miles game as a working-class individual living in a rural area who endeavors to collect miles as well. He expressed frustration with the lack of a working-class perspective in the blogosphere, and […]

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