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00:01:34.660 | Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about
00:01:41.420 | upgrading your life, money, and travel.
00:01:43.620 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I am excited you're here today for another episode
00:01:47.780 | where I get to answer all the questions you've sent in.
00:01:50.020 | And first off, thank you so much for taking the time to write them.
00:01:53.660 | I'm clearly not doing these often enough, because if I answered all the
00:01:56.780 | questions I got, we'd have a two or three hour episode.
00:01:59.700 | So I had an idea.
00:02:00.980 | Now, whenever I'm describing the show to someone, I talk about how it's about
00:02:05.180 | a third travel points and miles, about a third money, investing, and other
00:02:10.380 | personal finance topics, and about a third life, which includes health,
00:02:14.420 | work, relationships, family, and everything else.
00:02:17.180 | And I intentionally didn't make the show about any one of those specific
00:02:21.620 | topics, because I don't think most of you want a weekly
00:02:24.820 | podcast about just one of them.
00:02:26.700 | I know I really enjoyed talking about relationships on episode 43, but I just
00:02:32.260 | don't have the time or frankly, the interest to talk about relationships
00:02:36.460 | every single week.
00:02:37.820 | So I'm going to try doing a Q&A episode once a month and rotate between the
00:02:42.860 | topics of travel, money, and life each time.
00:02:46.060 | So keep your questions coming.
00:02:47.780 | As most of you who've written in know, I usually try to respond by email to
00:02:51.540 | anything that's timely or that I won't get to answer soon on an episode like
00:02:55.620 | this.
00:02:56.060 | You can send them my email, chris@allthehacks.com.
00:02:59.500 | You can DM me on social, or I just added the ability to record a voice message
00:03:04.500 | on the All The Hacks website.
00:03:05.940 | So use that if you want to hear your questions live on the next episode.
00:03:09.940 | And don't hold back on these questions.
00:03:11.940 | They can be personal.
00:03:13.180 | I'm happy to answer almost anything you want to know about my life, finances,
00:03:17.700 | credit cards, travels, or anything else.
00:03:20.540 | But today I'm going to start with talking about money.
00:03:23.140 | First, we'll get into the current market and talk about where to put cash.
00:03:26.780 | Then I'll tackle investing, questions about dollar cost averaging, tax loss
00:03:30.860 | harvesting, and backdoor Roth.
00:03:32.540 | Then we'll jump into a bit more personal finance.
00:03:35.140 | I'll talk about tracking your net worth, making a financial plan, and saving money
00:03:39.100 | on gas.
00:03:39.780 | I'll also share a few listener hacks I've used lately to save money and some great
00:03:44.860 | deals I've recently found.
00:03:46.580 | But since we're talking about investing, I have to remind you that I work at
00:03:50.860 | Wealthfront.
00:03:51.420 | All opinions expressed by me are solely my own opinions and do not reflect the
00:03:55.500 | opinion of Wealthfront.
00:03:56.460 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for
00:04:00.740 | investment decisions.
00:04:01.700 | Okay, let's jump in.
00:04:03.420 | While it didn't dominate the questions as much as I'd expected, it seems like I
00:04:09.140 | couldn't start a money episode like this without talking about the current state of
00:04:12.860 | the market.
00:04:13.700 | Now, my rule of thumb has always been that if I need money in the next 3-5 years, I
00:04:18.420 | keep it out of the market and in some type of high-yield cash account.
00:04:21.860 | So, while I would prefer the market not to crash like it did this year, I don't need
00:04:26.580 | the money I have invested for a long time, so as long as the markets continue to go up
00:04:31.020 | in the long run, which they have for the past 100+ years, I'm okay.
00:04:35.540 | Also, I certainly don't think I'm capable of timing the market, so I'm not even
00:04:40.180 | trying, and if you want to hear more on that topic, check out episode 59 with Nick
00:04:44.300 | Mejulie.
00:04:44.820 | As for what to do with the money you need in the next 3-5 years, now that we're seeing
00:04:49.260 | some pretty crazy inflation data, it's more important than ever to try to make sure
00:04:53.620 | you're not just earning the 0.01% you might get in your bank account.
00:04:57.500 | So, what options do we have?
00:04:59.220 | One of my favorites is the U.S.
00:05:00.900 | government Series I savings bonds, which are more commonly known as I-bonds.
00:05:04.700 | I discussed them a bunch in last week's episode with Jacob Goldstein, so I'll keep
00:05:08.580 | this short.
00:05:09.580 | They have a current rate of 9.62%.
00:05:12.860 | You heard that right, 9.62%.
00:05:15.820 | You do have to buy them on the terrible Treasury Direct site, your money is locked
00:05:20.340 | up for at least 12 months, and if you hold them for less than 5 years, you forfeit the
00:05:24.820 | last 3 months of interest, though at 9.62% interest, I'm not sure that matters.
00:05:30.060 | And finally, you're limited to $10,000 per person or entity per year, so if you're
00:05:35.340 | married with a revocable trust, which is our situation, that's $30,000.
00:05:39.980 | It is hard to find a return that good, but one where the only major risk is the
00:05:44.060 | financial insolvency of the U.S.
00:05:45.860 | government is like a unicorn for short-term savings, so I'm a huge fan of I-bonds
00:05:50.700 | right now.
00:05:51.220 | We should also talk about high-yield savings accounts.
00:05:54.540 | Given that the effective Fed funds rate is now at 1.58%, high-yield savings rates are
00:06:00.300 | rising too.
00:06:01.140 | I know the cash I have in my Wealthfront cash account is already earning 1.4%, and
00:06:06.980 | according to the FedWatch tool, which I'll link in the show notes, there's a 99.5%
00:06:11.700 | chance that the Fed rate goes up by another 0.75% by July, and an 86% chance it goes up
00:06:19.620 | by another 1.25% by the end of the year.
00:06:23.260 | If that holds true, it wouldn't surprise me if high-yield savings rates don't rise
00:06:28.500 | above 3% by the end of the year.
00:06:30.540 | And given that most of these accounts are all FDIC-insured, if rates really do get
00:06:35.220 | above 3%, I think this is going to be the best risk-adjusted place to store cash that
00:06:40.660 | you need in the next 3-5 years.
00:06:42.540 | So those are some options for cash, but let's talk a little bit about investing,
00:06:47.260 | because Sam asked what I would do with a windfall in this market, and Sachin asked
00:06:52.780 | about the best way to start dollar-cost averaging.
00:06:55.260 | So I'll start talking about a Vanguard paper that was written about 10 years ago
00:06:59.820 | on this exact topic, and I link to it in the show notes.
00:07:03.060 | Now, mathematically, if the market goes up, on average, in the long term, then the
00:07:08.700 | average daily return will be positive, and therefore, you should invest all of your
00:07:13.540 | money right away not to miss out on the returns.
00:07:15.940 | And any mathematical argument against that would probably have to assume that you can
00:07:20.820 | time the market or that markets won't go up.
00:07:23.300 | The former, I just assume you can't do, and the latter, I think you wouldn't be
00:07:27.820 | investing in the market in the first place if you didn't assume it would go up.
00:07:30.900 | So that's kind of the mathematical answer, but if you really want to answer the
00:07:35.660 | question, you need to factor in emotions, and for that, dollar-cost averaging has
00:07:40.300 | some psychological advantages you really can't ignore.
00:07:43.140 | For example, if investing everything all at once and seeing it drop 5 or 10% over
00:07:49.100 | the next few days, which has happened a few times so far this year, would make you
00:07:54.060 | miserable and worried and stressed out, then it might be worth investing that money
00:07:58.700 | over time, however, if you're going to dollar-cost average, I would strongly
00:08:03.300 | encourage you to make a plan and commit to it, because too often, I hear people say
00:08:08.140 | things like, "Now that the market is going up, I'm just going to wait for it to go
00:08:11.980 | down a little bit more before I keep investing," and I've seen people wait years
00:08:16.140 | and years and miss out.
00:08:17.260 | So in the past, I've typically done dollar-cost averaging over a shorter period
00:08:21.940 | of time, like 3 to 6 months, but given that I'm actually going to have some cash to
00:08:26.620 | invest in the next 6 months, I might as well share exactly what I plan to do.
00:08:30.540 | Well, first, I'm going to set aside all the money I need to for taxes and put that
00:08:36.180 | into a high-yield cash account.
00:08:37.460 | I think all too often, people forget that when you buy something and sell it at a
00:08:42.700 | gain, you have to pay taxes and no one's withholding that.
00:08:45.780 | I know a lot of people out there who are self-employed and used to making quarterly
00:08:50.260 | estimated payments are familiar, but for people who are used to their employers
00:08:54.420 | taking out their taxes every paycheck, sometimes you can forget that when you
00:08:58.780 | sell something at a huge gain, you owe those taxes.
00:09:01.820 | So for the leftover money, I plan to invest it in my Wealthfront account and I'll
00:09:06.420 | likely do that over a 3-month period and I'll split it 1/3 each month.
00:09:11.180 | However, knowing myself, if after that first investment, the market starts to go
00:09:17.100 | down, I'm likely going to start accelerating the rest of my investments.
00:09:21.700 | While I don't think you can time the dip, I'm not afraid to buy it if I find myself
00:09:26.540 | right in the middle of it.
00:09:27.380 | Okay, on the topic of investing, I got a few other great questions.
00:09:31.780 | But before I get into them, I want to let anyone know who doesn't already get my
00:09:35.820 | newsletter that I'm doing a two-part series right now all about investing.
00:09:40.060 | The first email last week was all about the fundamental considerations you need to
00:09:44.300 | build a foundational investment mind.
00:09:46.500 | And next week, I'll get a bit more advanced and technical about investing.
00:09:50.540 | I know you all get a lot of emails, but I only send mine every 2 weeks and in each
00:09:54.900 | one, I spend a ton of time going deep on something and share all the best deals I've
00:09:59.220 | found in the past few weeks.
00:10:00.500 | So if you're not already subscribed, you can go to allthehacks.com/email to sign up
00:10:05.740 | right now and read any of the past issues.
00:10:08.460 | Okay, the first question is about tax loss harvesting, which I know sounds boring.
00:10:13.740 | But before I get into the question, let me give a quick primer on it.
00:10:17.380 | Let's say you buy $10,000 of VTI, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF last year,
00:10:22.180 | and it's down 23%.
00:10:24.180 | If you sold it while it was down, you'd have a $2,300 loss that the IRS will
00:10:28.860 | actually let you deduct off your income up to $3,000 a year or against any other
00:10:34.500 | capital gains you have, up to the total value of those gains.
00:10:37.540 | And if you have extra losses, you can carry them over to future years.
00:10:43.220 | It would obviously be great if you could harvest that $2,300 loss now, but I assume
00:10:47.820 | you don't want to actually get out of the market.
00:10:49.780 | Unfortunately, there's a rule called the wash/sale rule that prohibits you from
00:10:54.020 | selling an investment for a loss and replacing it with something substantially
00:10:57.700 | identical within 30 days.
00:10:59.620 | So you can't just sell VTI, capture the loss, and then buy VTI right after.
00:11:05.100 | But the trick is that you can sell VTI, take the loss in 2022, and buy another
00:11:11.900 | index fund like SCHB, which is Schwab's U.S.
00:11:15.620 | Broad Market ETF.
00:11:16.740 | They're not substantially identical, but they're almost perfectly correlated.
00:11:21.980 | So you get the same exposure to the U.S.
00:11:24.500 | markets, but you also get to take advantage of the losses this year.
00:11:28.540 | That's tax loss harvesting.
00:11:30.540 | And Derek Horsmeyer at the Wall Street Journal published an article last year
00:11:34.140 | where his research found that on average, an investor facing a capital gains tax
00:11:39.180 | rate of 25% can juice their equity portfolio's annual return by 1.1 to 1.42
00:11:46.540 | percentage points, meaning if you had an expected return of 5%, tax loss
00:11:51.500 | harvesting could increase it to 6.1 to 6.42%.
00:11:55.180 | So you can see how tax loss harvesting can be really valuable.
00:11:58.420 | And if you have a simple portfolio of a few index funds, you could easily search
00:12:02.860 | online for the tax loss harvesting pairs of other very correlated, but not
00:12:07.300 | substantially identical funds, and then sell one whenever it's down and
00:12:11.220 | replace it with the other.
00:12:12.260 | But the question I got from Phil took it one step further.
00:12:15.940 | He said, let's say I'm invested in 10 individual stocks and throughout the
00:12:21.020 | year, seven have positive returns and three have negative.
00:12:24.060 | I could definitely sell the three and harvest those losses for tax savings.
00:12:28.540 | But let's say I wanted exposure to something similar to an index fund like
00:12:32.580 | the S&P 500, if I invest in SPY, it's most likely going to have positive
00:12:37.900 | returns for the year, even though a portion of the stocks that make up the
00:12:41.860 | S&P 500 had losses.
00:12:43.580 | Is there a way to invest so that I get exposure to an index fund, but that can
00:12:49.580 | tax loss harvest from the losing stocks of that fund?
00:12:52.500 | Is that even possible since the funds are constantly rebalanced?
00:12:56.420 | That was a great question from Phil.
00:12:58.540 | And while you can't achieve what he's talking about with a mutual fund or an
00:13:02.260 | index fund, what he's asking about is called direct indexing.
00:13:06.500 | And it's where instead of buying the S&P 500 index fund, you actually buy the
00:13:12.060 | entire 500 stocks in the S&P 500.
00:13:15.580 | The only catch is that with 500 stocks, each weighted differently, it would be a
00:13:21.460 | nightmare to manage on your own.
00:13:23.220 | So I really only suggest trying to do this with a software based investing
00:13:27.220 | platform.
00:13:28.460 | Wealthfront offers it for accounts over $100,000, or you can search around the
00:13:32.540 | web and there are other investment firms that offer it.
00:13:34.900 | Another added benefit to direct indexing is that you're not paying the expense
00:13:39.940 | ratio of the index fund.
00:13:42.060 | Now, a lot of broad market US index funds have very, very low expense ratios, so
00:13:47.740 | it's not a huge benefit, but it is a benefit and worth sharing.
00:13:52.380 | There are a couple of white papers out there online if you search for direct
00:13:55.740 | indexing or stock level tax loss harvesting, where you can get a sense of
00:13:59.980 | how it works and the extra benefit.
00:14:01.820 | It is something that I personally have enabled and I think adds value over the
00:14:05.660 | long run, but you should definitely do your homework before you get started.
00:14:09.540 | And since Wealthfront has come up a lot, I just want to be clear that while I work
00:14:15.220 | at Wealthfront, they are not a sponsor of this show, this show is not part of
00:14:19.620 | Wealthfront, I'm not getting paid to talk about Wealthfront, and I don't get any
00:14:23.900 | extra time off to work on the show.
00:14:26.140 | I do, however, love the product, which is probably why I'm still working here
00:14:30.540 | almost three years later.
00:14:31.740 | And in fact, I actually spoke to at least 30 fintech companies before deciding to go
00:14:36.860 | to Wealthfront, and I ended up making that decision because I thought they had the
00:14:40.620 | best products in the market.
00:14:41.860 | In fact, I was already using the product before I started working there, and I am
00:14:46.900 | certainly going to be a user long after working there if or whenever that happens.
00:14:51.780 | So if you ever want to sign up for Wealthfront, I'd obviously love it if you
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00:17:36.700 | Okay, I got another good investing question about backdoor Roth IRAs.
00:17:42.060 | Robert wrote in asking to clarify if it's still possible to do backdoor Roth
00:17:46.100 | contributions, even if your household income exceeds all contribution limits for
00:17:50.980 | both Roth and traditional IRAs.
00:17:52.980 | Also, he and his wife have fully maxed out their 401k at work.
00:17:56.860 | Obviously, I'm not a CPA, so I'll suggest that you talk to one first, but yes, you
00:18:01.820 | are able to do backdoor Roth contributions.
00:18:04.260 | Even if your household income exceeds all contribution limits, the way it works is
00:18:09.180 | that you make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA first, which has no
00:18:14.380 | restrictions on income or other retirement contributions because the money is after
00:18:19.220 | tax and you will end up having to pay taxes on the gains.
00:18:22.780 | So practically making non-deductible contributions to a traditional IRA has very
00:18:27.740 | little benefits, except that you can roll those funds over to a Roth IRA with no
00:18:34.060 | taxes due when you roll it over, since the original contributions were not pre-tax.
00:18:38.300 | And once the funds are in a Roth IRA, you won't owe any taxes on the gains.
00:18:43.420 | However, the most important consideration is that if you already have funds in a
00:18:48.500 | traditional IRA, things can get really complicated because you can't specify
00:18:53.540 | which of the funds you want to roll over to the Roth IRA.
00:18:56.460 | So if you're in that circumstance, you should definitely talk to an accountant
00:18:59.980 | first or do some heavy reading online.
00:19:02.580 | When I first learned about the backdoor Roth, I had never made any contributions
00:19:07.180 | to a traditional IRA, so it was really easy.
00:19:10.100 | I put the max in a traditional IRA, which this year is $6,000, and then I waited a
00:19:16.100 | couple of days till everything cleared, and then I rolled it over right away to a
00:19:19.940 | Roth IRA.
00:19:20.860 | There were also a couple of years when I was working at Google that I got really
00:19:24.100 | lucky and I got to take advantage of something called the Mega Backdoor Roth.
00:19:27.980 | This is something that's pretty rare because your employer has to explicitly
00:19:31.940 | allow it in their 401(k) plan, but what it lets you do is make after-tax
00:19:37.140 | contributions to your 401(k), which you'll want to do after you make all of
00:19:42.380 | your pre-tax or Roth contributions.
00:19:44.460 | But again, like making a non-deductible after-tax contribution to your
00:19:48.780 | traditional IRA, there isn't a ton of benefit to doing this on its own because
00:19:53.780 | now you've just made contributions with less liquidity and no tax benefits,
00:19:58.300 | except, just like with the Backdoor Roth, those 401(k) plans usually let you roll
00:20:04.260 | over those contributions to Roth contributions.
00:20:07.900 | Now, why is this so exciting if you could already make a Roth contribution to your
00:20:12.020 | 401(k)?
00:20:12.980 | Well, when we often talk about the maximum contribution to a 401(k), we just
00:20:17.540 | hear the number $20,500, but that's actually the tax-advantaged contribution
00:20:23.540 | limit, so that's how much you can put in pre-tax or into a Roth 401(k).
00:20:27.580 | The actual limit for contributing to a 401(k) is $61,000.
00:20:32.660 | So if you've already maxed out your $20,500 and your plan allows you to make
00:20:39.060 | after-tax contributions and your plan allows you to roll those after-tax
00:20:44.380 | contributions over into a Roth 401(k) or out of your 401(k) into a Roth IRA, then
00:20:51.620 | you can conceivably invest about $40,000 more into your 401(k) and convert them
00:20:58.020 | into Roth investments and not owe any taxes on those investments.
00:21:02.300 | So if you have the income and the savings rate to support this, a Backdoor Roth or
00:21:07.780 | a Mega Backdoor Roth can be an amazing way to set aside money in an account where
00:21:12.500 | you won't have to pay any taxes on the gains.
00:21:14.900 | And you don't just have to put those accounts at a brokerage firm like you're
00:21:18.860 | used to, if you look online at self-directed IRAs, there are actually a
00:21:23.060 | handful of companies out there who will let you use your Roth IRA to invest in
00:21:28.180 | lots of different things, be it crypto or other illiquid assets.
00:21:32.900 | So there's really a lot of flexibility with Roth IRAs.
00:21:35.380 | And because you can choose where you invest the money, you're not going to
00:21:39.060 | find the same fees that you see in 401(k)s, which many times can be really,
00:21:44.020 | really high.
00:21:44.660 | Okay.
00:21:45.380 | I know that was a lot.
00:21:46.540 | So feel free to go online and just Google around for Backdoor Roth, Mega
00:21:50.180 | Backdoor Roth, and read a little bit more about it or send me follow-up
00:21:53.140 | questions.
00:21:53.660 | I'd love to help out.
00:21:54.700 | Okay.
00:21:55.740 | Final question on investing was from Noam, who asked me if I knew any great
00:21:59.900 | resources for sophisticated investors who want to continue learning.
00:22:03.580 | I'll give a shout out to my two favorite investing podcasts here.
00:22:07.180 | First is Animal Spirits, which is co-hosted by Ben Carlson, who I interviewed
00:22:11.420 | on episode 42, and it covers a lot of personal finance, markets, and investing
00:22:16.260 | topics.
00:22:16.860 | Second, Macro Voices.
00:22:19.300 | It's a much more technical investing podcast that's primarily for
00:22:23.380 | professional finance, high net worth individuals, and sophisticated
00:22:26.580 | investors.
00:22:27.180 | But I really love it.
00:22:28.740 | And I've learned a lot about oil, gold, inflation, and so much more.
00:22:33.260 | So definitely check those out.
00:22:34.820 | And if you have other recommendations, please send them my way and I'd love to
00:22:38.140 | share them in a future episode.
00:22:39.500 | Okay.
00:22:40.300 | So this next question hit a sore spot for me.
00:22:43.260 | Ruth asked, "If I want someone to help me make a complete financial plan, which
00:22:47.500 | would include investing, tax strategy, and retirement planning, is there such a
00:22:52.180 | person or company?
00:22:53.460 | It seems like you have to go to your tax guy, your investment person, and a
00:22:57.300 | retirement person all separately."
00:22:59.180 | So the reason why this one made me a bit sad is that my last Startup Grove was
00:23:04.220 | built to do precisely this.
00:23:06.100 | We helped clients make a comprehensive financial plan.
00:23:09.300 | We wouldn't necessarily file their taxes or set up their estate plan.
00:23:13.460 | But we would advise on all of it.
00:23:15.220 | And our goal was to leverage software to make this process much more efficient and
00:23:20.180 | affordable than anything else out there.
00:23:22.620 | But unfortunately, it turns out most people who want to do financial planning
00:23:27.740 | don't actually want to prioritize doing it right now.
00:23:30.980 | And so it was just way too hard to acquire customers.
00:23:34.140 | We would have people sign up and say, "I really want to get started."
00:23:37.460 | And we'd say, "All right, so let's get started."
00:23:39.380 | And then months would go by before anything happened.
00:23:42.500 | So the business didn't actually work.
00:23:44.620 | However, just because it's not a good venture capital-backed software business
00:23:49.060 | doesn't mean it's not a good business.
00:23:51.100 | And there are a ton of good financial planners out there who do exactly this.
00:23:55.620 | I would say you should expect to spend about a few thousand dollars to go through
00:24:00.180 | the comprehensive financial planning process.
00:24:02.660 | And if you're looking for someone to help, I recommend finding a CFP or Certified
00:24:07.300 | Financial Planner.
00:24:08.460 | And there's a great directory of many of them at xyplanningnetwork.com.
00:24:13.540 | And I'll add that link in the show notes.
00:24:15.580 | The great thing about getting a CFP is they're almost always acting as what's
00:24:19.420 | called a fiduciary, which means they are legally required to act in your best
00:24:23.380 | interest.
00:24:23.900 | It's the best question that you should ask anyone who's helping you with your
00:24:28.100 | finances and especially your investments.
00:24:29.980 | It's just, are you a fiduciary?
00:24:32.340 | If the question is yes, that's great.
00:24:34.180 | That means they're going to help you out and be acting in your interest.
00:24:37.260 | And if the answer is anything else, like I always look out for my customers, but it
00:24:41.460 | doesn't actually include a yes, you should be concerned.
00:24:44.140 | If you want a specific recommendation for someone to work with, and I'm not getting
00:24:48.860 | paid for this, I'm a bit partial to a guy named George Gallet at Wealth Foundry.
00:24:53.580 | I'll link to it in the show notes.
00:24:55.260 | He was one of the top financial planners at Grove and he left to start his own firm.
00:25:00.460 | He's a CFP who also has his master's in taxation.
00:25:03.740 | I think he's definitely worth having an intro call with.
00:25:06.460 | If it sounds like it'd be a good fit and make sure to say hi for me, because I
00:25:10.340 | think he's fantastic.
00:25:11.580 | Okay.
00:25:12.660 | Next question is about tracking all of your finances.
00:25:15.500 | Hrishi asked specifically about whether there was a tool to track crypto
00:25:20.340 | investments across multiple apps and wallets, but I want to expand that to
00:25:24.140 | tracking all of my accounts, including crypto.
00:25:26.780 | The unfortunate news is that there isn't a perfect solution.
00:25:30.580 | I could spend a whole episode talking about why account linking between different
00:25:35.140 | apps is so broken.
00:25:36.500 | And between my colleague, Ben and I, if we don't have a lot of gray hairs yet, at
00:25:41.140 | least half of all the ones we do, you can probably attribute to working with
00:25:45.500 | account linking providers and fixing all the issues that come up with it.
00:25:48.940 | So I've tried everything out there from what I helped build at Wealthfront to
00:25:54.220 | Mint, to Personal Capital, to the premium app, Kubera, to the crypto focused asset
00:25:59.420 | dash, and ultimately there's no perfect solution for everything.
00:26:02.980 | And it really depends on what you need.
00:26:05.580 | I'm less focused on budgeting and more focused on seeing my net worth across all
00:26:10.620 | my banking and investment accounts, including my home and my mortgage.
00:26:14.540 | And for that, I think Wealthfront is the best and I use it to model out my future
00:26:19.140 | net worth, factoring in retirement and my kids' college educations.
00:26:22.940 | However, I haven't found a tool that does that and crypto, so I also use asset dash
00:26:29.260 | to track my wallets and NFTs and I add them manually to Wealthfront.
00:26:33.900 | Unfortunately, no one seems to support BlockFi either, so I have to manually add
00:26:38.540 | that as well and update those balances when they change.
00:26:41.620 | I used to keep a spreadsheet to do more analysis for everything, but I realized I
00:26:46.980 | wasn't actually getting any real value from all that tracking, so I just stopped.
00:26:51.620 | And it's so much easier.
00:26:53.820 | And if you're listening and there's an app or a service or a tool that you think
00:26:57.580 | does this better, definitely reach out and let me know.
00:27:00.380 | And if you're really the kind of person that loves tracking this in Google
00:27:03.580 | Sheets, one app you should check out is called Tiller.
00:27:06.580 | I'll link to it in the show notes.
00:27:08.140 | And it basically lets you link all of your accounts and import all that
00:27:12.220 | data directly into a Google Sheet.
00:27:14.420 | So if that's you, definitely check that out.
00:27:16.940 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.
00:27:21.780 | I get it.
00:27:22.540 | Life comes at you fast, but trust me, your friends are probably
00:27:26.780 | desperate for a good hang.
00:27:28.340 | So kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.
00:27:32.140 | Just make sure you do it the easy way and let our sponsor Drizly, the go-to app for
00:27:37.500 | drink delivery, take care of the supplies.
00:27:39.580 | All you need to come up with is the excuse to get together.
00:27:42.620 | It doesn't even have to be a good one.
00:27:44.460 | It could be your dog's birthday, that the sun finally came out, or maybe you just
00:27:48.860 | want to celebrate that you got through another week.
00:27:51.380 | With Drizly, you can make hosting easy by taking the drink run off your to-do list,
00:27:56.260 | which means you can entice your friends to leave their houses
00:27:59.060 | without ever leaving yours.
00:28:00.940 | And since I know you like a good deal, Drizly compares prices on their massive
00:28:04.860 | selection of beer, wine, and spirits across multiple stores.
00:28:08.100 | So when I really wanted to make a few cocktails while we were hosting family
00:28:11.460 | last week, not only could I get an Italian Amaro delivered in less than an hour, but
00:28:16.060 | I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store.
00:28:19.100 | So whatever the occasion, download the Drizly app or go to drizly.com.
00:28:24.300 | That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.
00:28:28.020 | Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations.
00:28:31.380 | I just want to thank you quick for listening to and supporting the show.
00:28:36.660 | Your support is what keeps this show going.
00:28:39.500 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals, and discounts from our partners, you can go to
00:28:44.900 | allthehacks.com/deals, so please consider supporting those who support us.
00:28:50.900 | Okay.
00:28:52.340 | Moving to something else, I want to talk about spending money on gas.
00:28:55.380 | This one is fun, but I should caveat that while the only gas power vehicle I have is
00:29:00.660 | a Vespa with a two gallon tank, I am well aware of how high gas prices are right now.
00:29:05.780 | And in fact, I don't think I've seen anything under $6 a gallon in the Bay Area.
00:29:09.740 | So when another Chris wrote in asking for hacks on saving money on gas, I wanted to
00:29:14.780 | pull all my favorites together because it wasn't that long ago that I didn't have a
00:29:18.460 | Tesla and I was spending money at the pump.
00:29:21.620 | So number one, does it make sense to take the cash discount when you're buying gas?
00:29:26.460 | Most of the time, it's around 10 cents a gallon, and I used to think that that was
00:29:30.340 | worth considering.
00:29:31.340 | But when you look at $6 a gallon gas, it works out to less than 2% of a discount.
00:29:37.100 | So I would much rather prioritize getting rewards on a credit card.
00:29:40.100 | But so many people ask, what is the best card for gas?
00:29:43.980 | And I'll give you two options.
00:29:45.460 | So my favorite card for gas is the Citi Premier because you get three X points on
00:29:50.380 | gas and Citi has 14 airline and two hotel transfer partners.
00:29:55.100 | So the points can be really valuable.
00:29:57.060 | But it's not just three X on gas.
00:29:59.300 | You get three X on restaurants, airlines, hotels and groceries.
00:30:03.660 | It's one of the best lineups out there, and it only has a $95 annual fee.
00:30:08.700 | And best of all, it currently has the highest signup bonus the card has ever seen at
00:30:14.180 | 80,000 points for spending 4,000 in the first three months.
00:30:18.500 | The points guy value Citi points at 1.8 cents, which makes that signup bonus worth
00:30:23.300 | $1,440.
00:30:25.340 | So if you want to learn more about that card or just sign up, go to allthehacks.com/citi
00:30:31.180 | or you can find it at the top of allthehacks.com/cards, where I link to all my
00:30:36.540 | favorite cards and the top signup bonuses right now.
00:30:39.180 | However, if you already have a Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex card, this Q3, July to
00:30:45.660 | September, you can get 5% back or if you have a Chase Sapphire card, that's actually
00:30:50.740 | five X points on the first $1,500 you spend on gas.
00:30:54.700 | You just need to enroll at chasebonus.com.
00:30:57.740 | OK, number two, aside from just optimizing your card spending, I'm a huge fan of Gas
00:31:03.300 | Buddy. And every time I rent a car, I have the app pulled up.
00:31:06.460 | It's crazy how you can find massive differences in gas prices without having to go
00:31:11.740 | too far out of your way, especially when you're returning a rental car.
00:31:15.220 | And by the way, we're going to be having some amazing rental car hacks on next week's
00:31:19.100 | episode. Number three, there are a lot of fuel reward programs out there, and if you
00:31:25.140 | can find one at a station where you don't have to pay a premium, then I'm all for it.
00:31:29.700 | I know for myself, I bought a ton of gas at Safeway and Costco in the past.
00:31:34.060 | Number four, finally, I definitely recommend considering an electric vehicle.
00:31:39.380 | I know it's not a quick fix, but some electric companies like PG&E out in
00:31:44.300 | California have special rate plans if you have an EV, which actually make our entire
00:31:50.020 | energy costs so much cheaper.
00:31:52.020 | So it's a double win.
00:31:53.420 | On the topic of money, I want to share two great money hacks that I've gotten from
00:31:58.700 | listeners, and I've actually used both myself in the past few months.
00:32:02.300 | The first is an example of stacking deals for a purchase I made that was inspired by a
00:32:07.700 | bunch of tips I got from Mike.
00:32:09.340 | So if you're listening, thank you so much.
00:32:12.140 | It was for a purchase at Lowe's, but if you don't live near one, it's a Home Depot
00:32:15.900 | competitor, and the principles of this deal can apply to so many other retailers.
00:32:20.180 | So we're remodeling our bathroom in our house, and I really wanted to put a nice
00:32:25.140 | Japanese toilet in the bathroom.
00:32:27.060 | And if you know what I mean, you totally get it.
00:32:29.580 | And if not, I am so excited for you to have that experience someday in the future.
00:32:33.780 | Anyways, the purchase was going to come out to a thousand and sixty dollars, and
00:32:38.420 | obviously I wanted the best deal.
00:32:41.180 | So first, I went to LowesCouponCode.com, which I found searching online, and I
00:32:46.660 | bought a 10% off coupon for $1.99.
00:32:49.380 | They also had Home Depot, Crate and Barrel, and all kinds of other coupons.
00:32:53.500 | Then I went over to Cashback Monitor to see who offered the most cash back at Lowe's.
00:32:58.740 | Turns out this time it was RetailMeNot with 3% back.
00:33:02.540 | So I clicked the Lowe's link from their site.
00:33:04.660 | And then finally, I searched for the item and added it to my cart.
00:33:08.780 | I applied the coupon, brought the total down to $953.87.
00:33:12.900 | So I didn't stop there.
00:33:14.740 | I went to Amazon and I bought $950 of Lowe's e-gift cards, which get delivered
00:33:21.100 | immediately and can actually be used in-store as well.
00:33:24.220 | Now in Q2, the Chase Freedom bonus was 5x at Amazon, but otherwise I would have used
00:33:31.420 | my Amazon Prime Visa for 5% cash back, which is fantastic because stores like
00:33:36.780 | Home Depot and Lowe's almost never get a bonus on spending.
00:33:40.220 | So a few minutes later, when the email comes in, I put the gift cards on the
00:33:44.780 | Lowe's site and bring the final balance down to $3.87, which I put on my Capital
00:33:50.220 | One Venture X.
00:33:51.100 | Now you can actually buy a Lowe's gift card on Amazon for the exact amount you
00:33:55.700 | need, but I wanted to leave a little balance because you're actually covered
00:34:00.020 | for purchase protection and extended warranties on credit cards if you have
00:34:04.460 | at least some of the purchase on your card.
00:34:07.140 | Then I just checked out, I was done, and the whole process probably
00:34:11.060 | only took 10 minutes tops.
00:34:12.620 | But the result, if I had put the whole purchase just on my Venture X, I would
00:34:17.100 | have paid $1059.85, but after the coupon and cash back, I ended up only paying
00:34:23.140 | $923.82 for $130 savings, which is about 12%.
00:34:28.420 | And because of the 5x at Amazon, I'll earn an extra 2,600 points.
00:34:33.660 | And that doesn't include any of the satisfaction I got for getting a great
00:34:37.380 | deal.
00:34:37.820 | Not bad for a few minutes of work, but just to be clear, if this was a 10, 20,
00:34:43.260 | 100, or even $200 purchase, I probably wouldn't have put in as much work.
00:34:47.540 | The other hack I got was from JB.
00:34:50.980 | He had heard me talking about how it can be a huge pain to use up any of those
00:34:56.020 | Visa or Amex gift cards that someone gives you as a gift, and he shared that
00:35:00.060 | you can actually add any amount from a card to your Amazon gift card balance.
00:35:05.100 | So I've had this Amex gift card sitting in a drawer for a few years with less
00:35:10.540 | than $5 on it because I couldn't bring myself to throw it out.
00:35:13.940 | I also didn't have any purchase that was like $4.70, but in just a few seconds, I
00:35:20.580 | pulled up on Amazon, added the exact balance to my account, and I could throw
00:35:24.820 | the card away.
00:35:25.620 | Thank you so much, JB.
00:35:28.460 | Okay, in the spirit of sharing deals, there are a bunch of free premium
00:35:32.660 | subscriptions, statuses, and perks you can get right now just by being a member of
00:35:37.780 | certain cards or services.
00:35:39.740 | So I want to make sure I share them all so you can sign up if you're eligible.
00:35:43.660 | I know I've already signed up for a few, and I'll put the links to anything you
00:35:48.340 | need in the show notes so you don't have to go searching for them.
00:35:51.820 | So first, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you're eligible for a free one
00:35:56.620 | year Grubhub Plus membership, which gets you $0 delivery fees.
00:36:00.420 | I love this deal because I have the Amex Gold, which has a $10 monthly credit
00:36:05.660 | eligible for Grubhub.
00:36:07.060 | Huge shout out to all the Hacks listener, Austin, who emailed me and happens to be
00:36:12.180 | the PM on this deal.
00:36:13.820 | Next, if you have Disney Plus, which includes those of you like me who get it
00:36:18.860 | for free with their Verizon plan, you can get six months of free Uber One, which
00:36:24.500 | also gets you $0 delivery fees on Uber Eats and 5-10% off eligible Uber rides
00:36:30.260 | and Uber Eats orders.
00:36:31.340 | This one also pairs well with the Amex Gold and also the Platinum, because both
00:36:36.420 | of those cards give you an Uber credit each month that I end up using almost
00:36:40.300 | exclusively on Uber Eats.
00:36:41.900 | You just need to sign up by August 17th.
00:36:44.820 | Okay, if you have a Capital One card, this one is pretty amazing, and I'm 100%
00:36:50.260 | going to be using it.
00:36:51.620 | Cardholders get a free six-month membership to The Cultivist, which I'd
00:36:55.940 | never heard of before, but it gives you and three guests free access to over 100
00:37:01.980 | museums around the world.
00:37:03.420 | But they're not just random museums.
00:37:05.580 | They include the Louvre in Paris, the MoMA in the Guggenheim in New York, the
00:37:09.580 | Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and a lot more.
00:37:12.580 | But after the six months free, you'll start paying $40 a month, so make sure to
00:37:17.460 | set a reminder to cancel.
00:37:19.020 | And also, the offer is available through June 2024, so I'd wait to sign up until
00:37:24.140 | you're sure you're ready to use it.
00:37:25.500 | The last two are for Chase cardholders.
00:37:27.980 | First, you can get free Instacart Plus, which gives you $0 delivery fees, lower
00:37:33.180 | service fees, and 5% back on pickup.
00:37:35.740 | The length of the free membership depends on your card.
00:37:39.060 | Sapphire Reserve gets 12 months, Sapphire Preferred gets six months, and Freedom,
00:37:44.300 | Freedom Flex, and Freedom Unlimited all get three months free.
00:37:48.060 | Next, if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can get three months of free
00:37:52.380 | Marriott Gold status, which is their second elite tier, and offers you 2 p.m.
00:37:57.180 | late checkout, 25% bonus points, upgrades to non-suite rooms, and a welcome gift of
00:38:03.460 | bonus points at check-in.
00:38:04.740 | While three months isn't that much, if you can complete three stays within three
00:38:09.380 | months of registering, which you have to do by the end of September, you'll keep
00:38:13.460 | that status through February 2024.
00:38:15.980 | But if you have an Amex Platinum, you already get Marriott Gold for free, so
00:38:20.220 | this probably won't be very interesting to you.
00:38:22.220 | I hope at least one of those deals helps you save money or get a cool upgrade.
00:38:27.620 | The only other big deal I wanted to share this week was the Citi Premier card
00:38:31.340 | because it has a huge sign-up bonus, but I already talked about it earlier in this
00:38:35.540 | episode, so don't forget to check that out or visit allthehacks.com/citi if
00:38:40.300 | you're interested.
00:38:41.980 | Also, I want to give a big shout-out to Stephanie, who used the hotel email hack
00:38:46.500 | we discussed in Episode 1 and that Julia Menez shared a template for in Episode
00:38:50.940 | 55 to score big on a recent trip to Santa Cruz.
00:38:54.820 | With just one single email, she got hooked up with free parking, an upgrade to a
00:39:00.860 | room with an amazing view, three coupons for a free breakfast, a voucher for food
00:39:06.060 | and drink at the bar, and two craft cocktails delivered to her room.
00:39:10.300 | If you're not using that hack for your next hotel stay, you absolutely should.
00:39:14.180 | So way to go, Stephanie.
00:39:15.620 | Also, thank you to everyone listening, writing in, reading the newsletter,
00:39:19.820 | subscribing on YouTube, and just supporting the show in general.
00:39:23.220 | It means so much to me, and I'm so excited to keep helping you all upgrade
00:39:27.380 | your lives, money, and travel over the years to come.
00:39:30.860 | As always, if there's a topic you want me to cover or a guest you want to hear on
00:39:34.780 | this show, please let me know.
00:39:36.940 | And I do have one favor to ask you all, and it'll only take you a
00:39:40.700 | minute and doesn't cost a thing.
00:39:42.420 | I'm up for the People's Choice Podcast Awards, and I really think I have
00:39:46.140 | a shot at winning with your help.
00:39:47.580 | The site is a bit of a pain because you have to create an account,
00:39:50.620 | but it's really quick after that.
00:39:52.460 | You can get there by going to allthehacks.com/vote, and you can vote for all
00:39:57.420 | the hacks in the People's Choice Award and the Education category.
00:40:01.420 | As silly as it may sound, being an award-winning podcast really helps with
00:40:05.740 | recruiting the best guests for the show.
00:40:07.700 | So thank you so much in advance for your help.
00:40:10.420 | And that wraps up this mailbag episode, or should it be a Q&A or an AMA?
00:40:15.980 | I'm not sure, but I really enjoy doing them.
00:40:18.540 | So please keep those questions coming.
00:40:20.580 | The next two I'll do will be on travel points, miles, and everything else from
00:40:25.380 | life to work to relationships and everything in between.
00:40:28.300 | You can send any and all questions to me, chris@allthehacks.com, or DM me on
00:40:33.900 | Instagram or Twitter, my next episode will be a huge deep dive on everything
00:40:38.300 | you could ever want to know about saving money on rental cars.
00:40:41.220 | So I'll see you next week.
00:40:43.340 | Bye.
00:40:44.060 | Bye.
00:40:44.060 | Bye.
00:40:49.060 | [BLANK_AUDIO]