In general I see the miles game, and the pursuit of early retirement/financial independence as very complementary. (Obviously.) Early retirement is all about frugality. About making choices for freedom and against needless consumption. It’s about pursuing happiness. Early Retirement Dream House The miles game, on the other hand, allows one’s world not to shrink just […]
Archive | October, 2013
Low Hanging Fruit
If you’ve made the leap and are now the proud owner of six new credit cards, then what you’re likely feeling is a mixture of exhilaration at the thought of all of the miles (i.e. free travel ) you will soon own, and trepidation at all of the money that you must put on the […]
The Bookie’s Cut
When choosing an investment strategy, there’s probably nothing more important than focusing on the fees. We talked about diversification, and how it is the only “free lunch” in investing. We discussed rebalancing and how it allows you to repeatedly buy low and sell high. These aspects of asset allocation and investment behavior are incredibly important. But they’re probably […]
Confirmation
So after some honest self reflection you decided you were ready to play the miles game. You researched the best credit card offers and applied for 2 to 8 credit cards in a credit card churn. While you got for instant approvals for four cards, two approvals were pending at the time of your card […]
The Point
One could ask, why the obsession with financial independence? What’s so important about early retirement? Is work that bad? Is there some other project that needs to be attended to? This is a complicated question. But one worth thinking about. Personally, for me, the point of early retirement or financial independence is not simply freedom […]
Jedi Mind Trick
So you made the jump. You decided to perform a credit card churn. You’ve just completed six choice credit card applications and the world is your oyster. So what happens next? In all likelihood you will get some instant approvals, and some pending notices. In terms of getting your credit report checked with hard […]
On Buying Low and Selling High
Let’s say you are starting a business. An unexpected opportunity is granted to you on day one, and you are given the ability, prior to investing a cent, to choose one of two business strategies. You may either: A: Buy high, sell low Or B: Buy low, sell high. Which would you choose? The answer […]
Money For Nothing
In “To Everything: Churn, Churn, Churn,” I made the comment that spending $17,001 in 5 months was “a piece of cake.” No doubt this sounded quite callous to some. After all the head of a household making $50,000/yr in Arizona (a low-tax state,) would take home $3500 a month in pay. This would necessitate that she […]
Free Lunch
In the post entitled risky business, we discussed the concept of “Beta.” This term defines the risk, or volatility of the market Itself. And with any individual investment, it’s generally true that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Put another way “No risk: no reward.” An equally important, and less obvious point […]
To Everything: Churn Churn Churn
If you have decided that you want to take the leap and get into The Miles Game, how should you start? To begin with make sure you’ve read the post entitled “The Miles Game” to see possible reasons why you shouldn’t get started yet. If you remain undeterred, the time has come for a credit […]
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