For the past year I've owned not one but two credit cards affiliated with Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the parent company of brands like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza. One of these cards is an oldie-but-goodie. Late last year was my 5th anniversary with it. Now I've held it 6 years. The other card recently hit its first anniversary. As I do ( Read more... )

Recently my Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card passed its anniversary. I've had this card, in varying forms, for now 7 years. With this anniversary came the annual fee: a whopping $450. Is it worth it to keep for another year?

First, let's check the score on the past 12 months.
Big Annual Fee, Big Benefits

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This afternoon I spent 90 minutes sitting at the tire shop to get two tires on our convertible replaced. Just four months after our last visit to the tire shop, here we are again. Two more tires have fallen victim to the pothole riddled roads in the SF Bay Area ( Read more... )

Years ago my spouse and I talked about setting a travel budget. It wasn't a budget like most people think, though. Instead of being a limit on how much we could spend it was a goal for the least we wanted to spend ( Read more... )

"That person has a high income," you might hear. "They're wealthy ( Read more... )

Our Costco Executive Member rebate check arrived this week. $51 and change. Woohoo, free money, amiright? Well, no, it's not free money. It's possibly even a loss ( Read more... )

Last week I wrote Coming Out Ahead with a 401(k) providing a simple example of how investing through a tax deferred account such as a 401(k) nets you more money than investing through a taxable account. Two things about that....

• One, it was frankly too simple as it showed an investment that grew only through capital appreciation. Fewer than 20% of ( Read more... )

As I wrote about the contribution limits for 401(k)s rising in 2023 a few weeks ago I was reminded that a lot of people don't understand the benefit of 401(k)s. I mean, I think most American adults understand it at a high level: "Investing money in a 401(k) saves on taxes, so you have more money at the end." But understanding the details of how ( Read more... )

Treasury Bills. Wow, talk about boring topics. This one's like pressing the snooze button on your alarm, right? I used to think so, too, but recently I discovered they're useful right now. As I've noted in recent blogs about buying CDs and Series I savings bonds it's important in this era of high inflation and rising interest rates to find a better ( Read more... )

The world's population will surpass 8 billion on Tuesday, 15 Nov 2022, according to a United Nations estimate (retrieved 14 Nov 2022).


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