I’m thinking about monetizing the site. I’m ambivalent about adding advertising and affiliate links to my blog. But I’m strongly considering it. The main plus as I can see it is that it might bring me some more readers. I believe in my message. And I love writing. So this instinct to expand the reach […]
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As the World Churns
As a physician there’s the pervasive concept of continuing medical education. Because medicine is scientifically-based, and science is constantly evolving and changing, in order to practice current medicine you must continue to learn long after you’re done with your formal training. So we doctors peruse scientific journals, we have journal clubs, we go to societal […]
Portable Bliss
It’s no secret that I’m the tax dodgingest liberal that you’re ever going to meet. In a certain light this is hypocritical. I honestly believe in the power of government to make positive differences in it’s citizens lives. (Think the social safety net, education, antitrust enforcement, infrastructure investment, security, scientific seed money….) and yet here […]
Unloading
I had a great conversation today with Brad over at richmondsavers.com. He was kind enough to offer me some great advice on my plans to retrofit the architecture of this site. As miles game geeks are wont to do, we of course got to talking about credit card offers, and manufactured spending, and the whole […]
Fuzzy Math
Figuring out your years to retirement is quite easy if you start at zero net worth. The required calculation is well captured in this post. It becomes a bit more complicated, However, if you start from a place of debt or from a place of money already saved for retirement. Reader Ryan asked the following […]
Blue Ribbon Prize
I’ve been playing the miles game for about a year now. I’ve completed four separate card churns and have extracted terrific rewards. In the process I have saved thousands of dollars in travel, which I then dutifully invested in my retirement. I was planning my upcoming card churn today and trying to figure out which […]
Don’t Pay, Do Play
In the field of manufactured spending one of the most common metrics is “cents-per-mile-earned.” The idea here is that if you’re doing manufactured spending, there are always some costs associated with the exercise, and those costs can be quantified if you divide the total cost of the manufactured spending in cents by the total number […]
The Anatomy of a Lame Award
One of the most common metrics for determining the value of an award redemption is the so-called cents-per-mile measurement. The idea here is that the more the award would’ve cost you in cash and the less miles you need to use, the more valuable the redemption. This is why the common logic of the miles […]
Conflictualization
One of the standard first slides in medical PowerPoint presentations is the conflict of interest slide. It goes something like: I’m on the payroll of Medtronic, St. Jude, Boston scientific, Biotronik, ELA, and Biosense Webster… Please enjoy the following educational presentation on sudden cardiac death. I’ve noticed that the same goes for online travel blogs, […]
A Universe of Options
If you’re looking to open a new investment account, in order to invest all of your additional savings from your newly frugal lifestyle, there are a multitude of options. There is no chance that I could give a complete picture of all brokerage options. I’m not going to even try. What I will do is […]
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