ATHLLC3883451744
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.540 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,
00:00:05.680 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.
00:00:08.800 | First off, happy holidays to everyone.
00:00:10.600 | And if you're new, I'm Chris Hutchins,
00:00:12.220 | and I'm excited to have you here.
00:00:14.140 | Each week, you'll normally hear me talking to an expert
00:00:16.720 | about how they became world-class
00:00:18.560 | at optimizing an aspect of their life,
00:00:20.900 | or doing a deep dive myself on a topic I've been researching,
00:00:24.240 | or maybe just answering your questions,
00:00:26.520 | which by the way, I will be doing next week,
00:00:28.400 | so please send some in.
00:00:30.200 | But given that it's the last episode of the year,
00:00:32.780 | I wanted to do something different and a little special.
00:00:35.620 | I wanna recap the 10 biggest takeaways
00:00:38.780 | and learnings I've had from the past 94 episodes,
00:00:42.960 | and the ones that I'm gonna be focusing on
00:00:44.920 | in my own life in the year ahead.
00:00:47.420 | After that, I'm gonna share some of my top hacks
00:00:49.760 | from the year, as well as my favorite credit cards
00:00:52.500 | from 2022, based on my actual spending data.
00:00:56.100 | So let's jump in right after this.
00:00:58.940 | (upbeat music)
00:01:00.440 | Okay, so I wanted to do these takeaways in order,
00:01:03.280 | but someone managed to trick Amex Travel
00:01:05.700 | into putting $5,000 of flights on my credit card,
00:01:08.980 | so I just spent the last few hours
00:01:10.900 | trying to get my funds back,
00:01:12.240 | which it turns out will be easy,
00:01:13.900 | but also to make sure the scammers return flights,
00:01:17.000 | which happened to leave tonight, are canceled.
00:01:19.500 | As all this plays out, I'll definitely share more,
00:01:21.840 | but given that I can see the full United info,
00:01:24.300 | David Weaverling and Ethan Butler,
00:01:26.080 | good luck getting back to Pittsburgh tonight,
00:01:28.000 | because your return flight was canceled.
00:01:30.960 | So while I didn't get to put these in a perfect priority,
00:01:33.420 | I did save my top two for last.
00:01:36.300 | But takeaway number one is all about time.
00:01:39.440 | I've talked to a handful of people
00:01:40.980 | about time management and productivity,
00:01:43.140 | but the story that's really stuck in my head the most
00:01:45.820 | is from Laura Vanderkam in episode seven,
00:01:48.700 | where we talked about time management.
00:01:50.900 | To illustrate the point that we should stop saying,
00:01:53.440 | "I don't have time,"
00:01:55.200 | she talked about what would happen
00:01:56.320 | if your water heater started flooding,
00:01:58.320 | and the three to four hours that would magically free up
00:02:01.080 | in your day so you could deal with the issue.
00:02:03.460 | Ever since that episode, I've been trying to catch myself
00:02:05.840 | from saying, "I don't have time,"
00:02:07.540 | and start realizing that if I don't have time,
00:02:09.880 | I'm either overcommitting
00:02:11.560 | or probably poorly prioritizing my day.
00:02:14.560 | I won't say that I've become a true expert here,
00:02:16.920 | but I'm getting a lot better,
00:02:18.480 | and I'm really excited to focus on this next year.
00:02:21.180 | A few of the things that have been helpful for me
00:02:23.020 | are doing a calendar audit,
00:02:24.560 | which involved trying to be more diligent
00:02:26.220 | about tracking what I'm doing
00:02:27.780 | so that I could really review how I spent my time.
00:02:30.560 | Even if it's just for a week,
00:02:31.980 | it is so helpful to see how you actually spend
00:02:35.020 | the 168 hours you have each week.
00:02:37.620 | The other thing I've been working on
00:02:38.860 | came from a great reminder from Brandon Turner
00:02:41.780 | in episode 82.
00:02:43.660 | He discussed how important it is
00:02:45.420 | to learn to drop the right balls and establish boundaries.
00:02:49.040 | Since then, I've been getting much better about saying no
00:02:51.920 | to meetings that I don't wanna prioritize
00:02:54.040 | and taking my time to follow up on things
00:02:56.380 | that really aren't at the top of the priority list.
00:02:59.100 | One other tactic I've been trying
00:03:00.760 | is asking people to send me questions
00:03:03.180 | instead of schedule meetings.
00:03:04.640 | And I've suggested that they use a tool called Loom
00:03:06.940 | to record the conversation.
00:03:08.740 | That way, one, I can respond asynchronously on my own time,
00:03:12.440 | and two, I can actually speed up the video to 2X.
00:03:16.280 | The third side benefit
00:03:17.660 | is that actually this forces some people to just give up
00:03:20.200 | and not actually try to schedule a meeting.
00:03:22.080 | So that's a tactic I've been using.
00:03:24.120 | I know that some of this prioritization
00:03:26.080 | means that some of you listening
00:03:27.540 | didn't get a reply to me as fast as I used to,
00:03:30.040 | but I'm working on finding a good balance
00:03:31.840 | and I still plan to reply to everyone.
00:03:34.580 | Also, I just recorded an episode a couple of days ago
00:03:37.880 | that'll come out on January 18th with Dan Martell,
00:03:40.960 | who has a book coming out called "Buy Back Your Time."
00:03:43.760 | And it gave me so many good ideas
00:03:45.600 | on how I can be more intentional
00:03:47.260 | about spending my money as a trade-off for time in 2023.
00:03:51.960 | So to summarize takeaway one is that I have plenty of time.
00:03:55.880 | I just need to get better about prioritizing it
00:03:58.060 | and saying no to things that are less important.
00:04:00.440 | Also, if you notice me mentioning
00:04:02.020 | all of the past episodes by number,
00:04:04.020 | like number seven with Laura Vanderkam,
00:04:06.220 | that's to make it really easy for you guys to go find them.
00:04:08.980 | Either by scrolling through the feed
00:04:10.480 | in the app you're listening to this podcast right now,
00:04:13.440 | or if you go to allthehacks.com/seven
00:04:16.440 | or any episode number,
00:04:17.900 | it'll take you directly to the show notes page
00:04:19.980 | for that episode and the links on that page,
00:04:22.620 | at least the ones for Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts,
00:04:25.540 | should open exactly to that episode in the player app.
00:04:28.860 | Okay, my second big takeaway is all about automating
00:04:31.960 | and simplifying your finances.
00:04:33.960 | It came up in episode 42 with Ben Carlson,
00:04:36.420 | 19 with Andy Ratcliffe,
00:04:38.220 | but the first thing I'll share
00:04:39.460 | is from Ramit Sethi in episode nine.
00:04:42.180 | He shared his money rules and I loved it.
00:04:44.840 | For him, they're things like never question spending money
00:04:47.380 | on books, appetizers, health,
00:04:49.380 | or donating to a friend's charity fundraiser,
00:04:52.300 | and always have one year of emergency funds in cash.
00:04:56.480 | The idea of coming up with a few rules
00:04:58.300 | to simplify some financial decisions is so awesome.
00:05:01.760 | He also has one for business class on flights over four hours
00:05:04.940 | which I think just takes away the headache
00:05:06.980 | of trying to make a decision about when to upgrade.
00:05:09.700 | Though for me, four hours or any number of hours
00:05:12.240 | is probably not worth spending the dollars
00:05:14.120 | on business class,
00:05:15.400 | but if I can do it for points, I definitely will.
00:05:18.320 | Amy and I actually had a conversation about this
00:05:20.240 | and we started putting a few rules together.
00:05:22.540 | One of the ones we have is discuss any purchase
00:05:24.920 | over $200 with each other,
00:05:26.920 | but I really wanna put together
00:05:28.300 | a more complete list next year
00:05:29.840 | that's more like the 10 rules Ramit has
00:05:32.260 | that I'll also link to in the show notes.
00:05:34.180 | Another big thing for me was trying to simplify my finances.
00:05:37.420 | For the past five to six years,
00:05:38.940 | I've been building consumer finance apps,
00:05:41.360 | which has led me to open different banking
00:05:43.520 | and investment accounts at so many different institutions.
00:05:46.560 | But I realized that having my money spread out
00:05:48.980 | across so many different places
00:05:50.820 | made the whole process of money management
00:05:52.980 | more stressful than it needed to be.
00:05:54.700 | Fortunately, my investments were easy
00:05:56.280 | because I'd already moved pretty much everything
00:05:58.200 | to Wealthfront and I have no plans to take it out
00:06:00.660 | now that I've left as an employee.
00:06:02.740 | I'm really happy to pay their nominal fee
00:06:05.120 | for software to manage my investments
00:06:07.460 | and my tax loss harvesting and rebalancing
00:06:09.620 | far more efficiently than I can.
00:06:11.720 | Not to mention the peace of mind
00:06:13.120 | of just not having to think about it.
00:06:15.460 | So going into 2023, my goal is to get as simple as I can.
00:06:19.340 | Ideally, we have just one checking account,
00:06:21.720 | one high-yield cash account, one brokerage account,
00:06:24.920 | and then hopefully we can consolidate
00:06:26.520 | all our retirement accounts into four.
00:06:28.900 | Two for each 401(k) where we roll over
00:06:31.440 | all our past employers' 401(k)s into those
00:06:34.360 | and two Roth IRAs.
00:06:36.200 | And while that might seem like a lot,
00:06:37.780 | I think at one point we had at least two dozen
00:06:40.080 | checking, savings, brokerage, and retirement accounts
00:06:42.380 | all with a balance in them.
00:06:43.800 | Then when it comes to saving each month,
00:06:45.500 | I'm really excited for the simplicity
00:06:47.500 | to make it even easier to automate.
00:06:49.800 | I spent so much time at Wealthfront
00:06:51.420 | building a product called Autopilot
00:06:53.100 | because I really think that the easiest way
00:06:54.960 | to manage your finances is to just automate things.
00:06:58.040 | With Autopilot, you can say leave this much in checking,
00:07:00.580 | keep this much in an emergency fund,
00:07:02.500 | and move any excess to a series of accounts
00:07:04.740 | that you can set caps on, like your IRA, your 529,
00:07:07.820 | or just your taxable brokerage account.
00:07:10.040 | If you want to check out Wealthfront,
00:07:11.280 | you should use my link at allthehacks.com/wealthfront.
00:07:14.540 | It'll be so nice to have everything simplified next year,
00:07:17.200 | but even nicer if we can set up those money rules
00:07:19.580 | and make our financial decision-making easier too.
00:07:22.660 | My next big learning was all about negotiating.
00:07:25.120 | Episode 17 with Kwame Christian,
00:07:27.000 | who runs the American Negotiation Institute,
00:07:29.260 | really was a masterclass in negotiation.
00:07:31.840 | So I won't recap the whole episode,
00:07:34.340 | but one big takeaway is that negotiating
00:07:36.840 | can really be thought of as all about asking
00:07:39.100 | better questions and that those better questions
00:07:41.680 | will lead to a better result.
00:07:43.180 | So before you enter any negotiation,
00:07:45.560 | take the time to ask yourself what you want and why,
00:07:49.360 | ask yourself what the other side wants and why,
00:07:51.980 | and then write down all the open-ended questions
00:07:54.400 | you could possibly ask in the conversation.
00:07:56.900 | Doing those three things is usually the best prep
00:07:59.360 | you can do for any negotiation.
00:08:01.700 | I also loved hearing Kwame's
00:08:03.540 | compassionate curiosity framework
00:08:05.500 | that he uses for every negotiation.
00:08:07.740 | It starts with acknowledging and validating
00:08:09.620 | the other side's feelings and emotions,
00:08:12.000 | then getting curious with compassion
00:08:13.920 | and asking them questions,
00:08:15.620 | which ultimately allows you to productively
00:08:17.840 | joint problem-solve to a resolution.
00:08:20.380 | Now that I'm running a business full-time,
00:08:22.180 | I imagine I'll be much more involved
00:08:24.020 | in negotiations next year,
00:08:25.260 | so I'm excited to put some of this knowledge to work.
00:08:28.260 | Though I've actually been using
00:08:29.400 | the compassionate curiosity framework
00:08:31.220 | to negotiate with my two-year-old recently,
00:08:33.480 | and I've had some decent success.
00:08:35.400 | The other really important negotiation tactic I learned
00:08:37.660 | was from Andy Ratcliffe,
00:08:39.360 | who co-founded Wealthfront and Benchmark Capital,
00:08:41.940 | which, for those who don't know,
00:08:43.540 | was probably the most successful
00:08:45.440 | venture capital firm of all time.
00:08:47.660 | And in episode 19, he shared the tactic he uses
00:08:50.420 | for every negotiation,
00:08:52.120 | which is to put the gun in the other person's hand,
00:08:55.000 | and if they fire, don't work with them.
00:08:57.580 | He explained that most people don't want to be thought of
00:09:00.220 | as taking advantage of others, and it works so well,
00:09:03.220 | and for the very small percentage of people
00:09:05.300 | that always ask for something well in excess of fair,
00:09:08.760 | you just walk away from negotiating with them.
00:09:11.480 | So hopefully some of those lessons
00:09:13.360 | can help you negotiate next year,
00:09:15.320 | though definitely go back to episode 17
00:09:17.280 | if you want to go deeper on this.
00:09:18.940 | For number four, I want to talk about regret.
00:09:21.580 | It turns out I had at least three episodes
00:09:24.040 | that either in part or in whole were about regret.
00:09:27.280 | First, I talked to Ben Nimton in episode 37
00:09:30.000 | about bucket lists,
00:09:31.540 | but his whole journey began after he learned
00:09:34.000 | that more than 75% of people at the end of their lives
00:09:37.420 | regret not living life on their own terms.
00:09:40.040 | And while we've all heard people say they have no regrets,
00:09:43.300 | I learned in an amazing conversation
00:09:45.220 | with best-selling author Dan Pink in episode 40
00:09:48.480 | that regret is one of the most instructive emotions we have.
00:09:52.180 | Naturally, every functioning person has regrets,
00:09:54.900 | and they're an essential part of our cognitive machinery.
00:09:58.020 | We talked about the four kinds of regret
00:10:00.160 | and how to manage them towards your own future happiness.
00:10:03.560 | For example, one of the biggest buckets of regret
00:10:05.980 | are regrets of boldness, not taking that bold action.
00:10:09.320 | And Dan said the simple hack for preventing that
00:10:12.080 | is when you're trying to make a bold decision for yourself,
00:10:15.080 | stop framing it as what you're doing
00:10:17.160 | and ask yourself what you would advise a friend to do
00:10:19.840 | and act according to your advice.
00:10:22.180 | Finally, if you want to go deeper about regrets
00:10:24.380 | and start thinking about living a more purposeful life,
00:10:27.060 | definitely take a listen to my conversation
00:10:29.060 | with Jordan Grumman in episode 74,
00:10:31.480 | who happens to be a hospice doctor
00:10:33.640 | and personal finance writer.
00:10:35.480 | So he brought a fascinating perspective
00:10:37.520 | on how purpose, identity, and connection
00:10:40.120 | can be so much more important in life than money.
00:10:43.360 | So what does all this mean for life and 2023?
00:10:46.460 | Well, I think in the same way that I want to be intentional
00:10:48.800 | with how I spend the hours of the day,
00:10:50.760 | I want to be intentional with big things too.
00:10:53.080 | The way our family spends time together,
00:10:54.720 | the trips we take, the friends we hang out with,
00:10:56.720 | and a lot more.
00:10:57.920 | So Amy and I are really gonna spend some time
00:10:59.800 | over the next few weeks talking about what we want
00:11:02.000 | in our lives next year.
00:11:03.540 | I want to tell you all about the most amazing way
00:11:06.800 | to buy a second home.
00:11:08.200 | And I know because we actually bought one
00:11:10.200 | for 1/8th the cost.
00:11:12.080 | And don't worry, I'm not talking timeshares,
00:11:14.160 | I'm talking about Picasso,
00:11:15.840 | and I'm excited to partner with them for this episode.
00:11:18.320 | So how does it work?
00:11:19.320 | Picasso buys amazing luxury homes
00:11:21.680 | in over 40 world-class destinations,
00:11:24.160 | creates an LLC for each home,
00:11:26.160 | and you can buy as little as 1/8th of the property.
00:11:29.200 | But it doesn't stop there.
00:11:30.520 | Picasso also professionally manages the home,
00:11:33.440 | handling design, cleaning, bills, repairs, taxes, and more.
00:11:38.440 | And the scheduling system makes it fair and equitable
00:11:41.360 | for everyone to enjoy their home.
00:11:43.640 | When we found Picasso,
00:11:44.840 | it felt like it was made just for us.
00:11:47.320 | That same week, we found the perfect place in Napa,
00:11:50.440 | we toured it, and the next week we were closing.
00:11:53.360 | Since then, it's truly become our second home,
00:11:55.820 | and it's been so amazing.
00:11:57.520 | And it's true real estate ownership.
00:11:59.800 | Owners can sell at any time, set their own price,
00:12:03.160 | and tap into Picasso's active marketplace of buyers.
00:12:06.480 | In fact, on average, Picasso listings resell in 12 days
00:12:10.640 | with a 12% annualized gain.
00:12:13.000 | For a modern way to buy and own a second home,
00:12:16.240 | go to allthehacks.com/picasso,
00:12:19.320 | where our listeners will get a free Picasso Access account,
00:12:22.860 | which means you can see new listings
00:12:24.520 | before they go on the website
00:12:26.320 | and get up to $10,000 in credit towards closing costs.
00:12:30.400 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/picasso,
00:12:34.320 | P-A-C-A-S-S-O.
00:12:36.960 | I used Daffy to organize all my giving
00:12:41.000 | and charitable tax savings in one place,
00:12:43.160 | and I'm excited to be partnering with them for this episode.
00:12:46.000 | Daffy is a new modern way to give
00:12:48.240 | that makes it so much easier
00:12:49.800 | to maximize your charitable deductions,
00:12:51.840 | especially before the December 31st deadline.
00:12:55.000 | They do that by helping you set up a donor-advised fund,
00:12:57.960 | or DAF, which is a tax-advantaged account
00:13:00.640 | that lets you contribute cash or assets now,
00:13:03.760 | qualify for the tax deduction in 2022,
00:13:06.600 | and then gives you time and flexibility
00:13:08.760 | in distributing the money to the charities who need it.
00:13:11.600 | I love using Daffy because it makes it so easy
00:13:14.120 | to put money aside for charity,
00:13:15.960 | and my favorite part is that it lets you be more strategic
00:13:19.000 | with your giving and your tax planning
00:13:21.120 | by having a single source of charitable deductions.
00:13:24.000 | Plus, you don't have to deal with the hassle
00:13:26.080 | of tracking receipts from your donations.
00:13:28.520 | To make all your tax-deductible donations
00:13:30.800 | before year-end in one place,
00:13:33.000 | go to allthehacks.com/daffy.
00:13:35.880 | Plus, for a limited time, if you visit that link,
00:13:38.240 | you can get a free $25 to give to the charity of your choice.
00:13:42.160 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/D-A-F-F-Y.
00:13:47.160 | And on the topic of my relationship with Amy,
00:13:49.840 | takeaway number five is that we should all strive
00:13:52.600 | for an 80/80 marriage, at least those of us
00:13:54.720 | who are in a committed relationship.
00:13:56.680 | When I spoke with Nate and Kaylee Klemp in episode 43,
00:13:59.440 | it was fascinating to talk about how relationships
00:14:01.960 | have evolved from a traditional 80/20 relationship
00:14:05.200 | decades ago, where one partner, usually the woman,
00:14:08.080 | did all the work in the relationship and for the family,
00:14:11.200 | because the other was the breadwinner.
00:14:13.000 | As things evolved, we got to a place more like 50/50,
00:14:16.120 | which is, I think, where most of us are today.
00:14:18.160 | Well, except for maybe those
00:14:19.320 | who already listened to episode 43.
00:14:21.320 | But the challenge with 50/50 is that so many couples
00:14:24.440 | end up keeping score of who's done more dishes
00:14:26.600 | or spent more time budgeting or done more kid's bedtimes.
00:14:30.000 | And that kind of competition can be exhausting
00:14:32.840 | and certainly doesn't make for a better relationship.
00:14:35.560 | So after hundreds of interviews with couples,
00:14:38.040 | Nate and Kaylee coined the concept of an 80/80 marriage,
00:14:41.280 | where both partners assumed each other are doing the best
00:14:44.640 | and tried to pull more than 50% of the weight.
00:14:47.580 | It takes time and practice to get it to work,
00:14:50.060 | but I can say that it's certainly been a welcome change
00:14:52.420 | for our relationship.
00:14:53.760 | In fact, I recently went back and re-listened to episode 43
00:14:56.880 | so I could brush up in advance of 2023,
00:14:59.760 | because my relationship with Amy
00:15:01.240 | is something I really wanna focus on more now
00:15:03.400 | that we have two kids to manage every day as well.
00:15:06.040 | And that episode had some great tactics
00:15:08.000 | for putting the concept of an 80/80 marriage into place.
00:15:11.260 | My sixth takeaway is short,
00:15:12.600 | but it's something I bring up all the time.
00:15:14.720 | And it's from an episode I've listened to multiple times.
00:15:17.120 | In fact, I've actually re-watched it on YouTube
00:15:19.800 | because I think the video adds a lot to the story.
00:15:22.680 | That's episode 46 with Vanessa Van Edwards,
00:15:25.040 | and it's all about mastering the secret language
00:15:27.560 | of charismatic communication.
00:15:29.800 | I knew the first time I heard Vanessa explain
00:15:32.160 | her formula for charisma
00:15:33.540 | that I had to bring her on the podcast.
00:15:36.000 | In the episode, she shared so many great tactics
00:15:38.840 | for implementing the right balance of warmth and competence
00:15:41.480 | that I use almost every day.
00:15:43.520 | For example, knowing that lots of emojis
00:15:45.720 | and exclamation points, both of which I use a lot,
00:15:48.120 | can drive a warmth.
00:15:49.680 | I either try to tone them down
00:15:51.560 | or maybe balance them out in an email
00:15:53.520 | where it makes sense to share some data or charts
00:15:56.040 | to increase my perceived competence.
00:15:58.720 | Anyways, I won't recap the whole episode,
00:16:00.920 | but if your life or work relies on communicating with others,
00:16:03.840 | which I'm guessing it does,
00:16:05.120 | you should definitely check it out.
00:16:06.840 | And as much as I love talking about points and miles,
00:16:09.680 | I wasn't actually sure that there would be anything
00:16:12.040 | in this episode that made it to my top 10,
00:16:14.440 | but as I reflected on the year, I was wrong.
00:16:16.800 | I've spent so much time trying to optimize
00:16:18.780 | for getting the most dollar per point value
00:16:21.040 | that I've been doing myself a huge disservice.
00:16:24.000 | In fact, while I know I'm very fortunate
00:16:26.000 | to have millions of points and miles,
00:16:28.240 | I'm actually realizing I should probably be more embarrassed
00:16:30.760 | that I'm not using them enough.
00:16:32.160 | There've been plenty of times
00:16:33.200 | that I opted to pay for flights with cash
00:16:36.480 | instead of using points
00:16:38.160 | because it wasn't the most optimal redemption,
00:16:40.520 | even if it was a good one.
00:16:42.120 | Well, in episode 89, Tiffany Funk,
00:16:44.280 | who's overseen one of the biggest travel and points sites
00:16:47.400 | on the internet for over a decade,
00:16:49.460 | really helped me put things in perspective
00:16:51.580 | and form this takeaway number seven.
00:16:54.100 | Not only did she remind me
00:16:55.860 | that you don't always need to get the perfect deal,
00:16:58.500 | but she busted a lot of myths I'd been adhering to
00:17:01.340 | about when to use your points.
00:17:03.080 | For example, it's long been talked about
00:17:05.140 | that the best use of points
00:17:06.420 | is on international business class flights,
00:17:08.840 | but she pointed out that there have been
00:17:10.100 | a lot of great domestic redemptions
00:17:12.460 | in the past few years as well.
00:17:14.220 | So needless to say, in 2023,
00:17:16.980 | I hope we start burning down our points balance
00:17:19.420 | and stop searching for the perfect deal.
00:17:21.860 | Though let's be real, that'll be very hard,
00:17:23.660 | and I'm sure I'll still be searching
00:17:25.160 | for the perfect deal too.
00:17:26.340 | I hope I can just get comfortable
00:17:27.820 | taking a less perfect deal as well.
00:17:29.720 | So stay tuned.
00:17:30.920 | Okay, number eight is a bit of a work in progress.
00:17:33.580 | In episode 85, I talked with Tiago Forte
00:17:36.300 | about building a second brain,
00:17:38.140 | and it was such a great episode
00:17:39.900 | that inspired me to change a lot of the ways
00:17:42.100 | I save and consume information.
00:17:43.900 | For example, I'm now saving so much of the content
00:17:46.500 | I find online to a read later app called Matter,
00:17:49.540 | which saves me time for three reasons.
00:17:51.900 | First, I can batch together all my information consumption.
00:17:55.520 | Second, they do a great job at text to speech,
00:17:58.060 | so I can actually listen to those long Atlantic articles
00:18:01.420 | instead of needing to read them.
00:18:03.300 | But third, and maybe most importantly,
00:18:05.660 | at least 50% of the things I save
00:18:08.100 | lose their importance by the time
00:18:09.700 | I actually come back to them,
00:18:11.200 | which means that article that might have interrupted my day
00:18:13.460 | for 10 or 15 minutes is something I never end up reading,
00:18:16.580 | which is obviously a massive time saver.
00:18:19.140 | But a read later app is just one of the ways
00:18:21.140 | I wanna get more serious
00:18:22.260 | about how I organize my digital life in 2023.
00:18:25.520 | I think with a little bit of intention and organization,
00:18:28.060 | especially when it comes to notes and tasks,
00:18:30.620 | I can really step things up next year,
00:18:32.820 | and I'm fairly certain I'll be re-listening
00:18:34.720 | to that episode in a few weeks because it was so good.
00:18:37.700 | Okay, I said I was gonna save my two favorites for last,
00:18:40.360 | and while it's really impossible to call any two lessons
00:18:43.220 | or takeaways my top two,
00:18:45.020 | as I thought about all the learnings from the past year,
00:18:47.580 | there are two that really stood out.
00:18:49.920 | First was absolutely one of my biggest takeaways,
00:18:52.460 | and it's that I need to spend more time
00:18:54.680 | focusing on net fulfillment instead of net worth.
00:18:57.900 | If you all listened to episode 91
00:18:59.700 | with Bill Perkins a few weeks ago,
00:19:01.280 | you already know what I'm talking about.
00:19:03.140 | And if you didn't, I am tempted to say,
00:19:05.380 | just stop this episode now and go listen.
00:19:08.100 | I've already re-listened to it twice
00:19:10.000 | and have lost count of the number of people
00:19:11.920 | who said it was their number one episode.
00:19:14.740 | For the past 10 years,
00:19:16.260 | I feel like I've gotten caught up
00:19:17.940 | in so many of the various aspects of the FIRE movement,
00:19:21.120 | which for those unfamiliar
00:19:22.220 | is financial independence, retire early,
00:19:24.420 | and it's led me to be very frugal and save a lot
00:19:27.460 | and focus on building my net worth.
00:19:29.580 | And I'm fortunate for all that savings,
00:19:31.800 | but I also worry that there were times,
00:19:34.020 | especially before we had kids,
00:19:35.940 | now that that chapter is closed,
00:19:37.940 | where we opted to save instead of spend money
00:19:40.700 | on things that would have had a big increase
00:19:42.880 | in our fulfillment in life
00:19:44.520 | and where the memories of that experience
00:19:46.340 | would pay dividends for years to come.
00:19:49.440 | I'm not saying anyone should be fiscally irresponsible
00:19:52.280 | or live at $0 in their bank account,
00:19:54.960 | but I just want to reframe the whole perspective
00:19:56.960 | on money and saving towards one
00:19:59.120 | where we want to find the right way
00:20:00.680 | to allocate our money across the entirety of our lives
00:20:04.160 | so that we end up at or close to zero when it's all done.
00:20:08.320 | And this new perspective is one
00:20:09.520 | that I absolutely wasn't thinking about a few months ago.
00:20:11.980 | So what have I started doing differently?
00:20:14.460 | One, Amy and I are going to start thinking
00:20:16.420 | about what experiences we want to have
00:20:18.700 | over the next few years,
00:20:20.320 | both from the perspective
00:20:21.340 | that it's our last years in our 30s,
00:20:23.180 | but also that our kids will never be this young again.
00:20:26.140 | Two, I want to try to ensure we can harvest the dividends
00:20:29.220 | of the memories we create.
00:20:30.860 | So I'm going to be more intentional
00:20:32.260 | about trying to make sure we take photos and videos
00:20:34.780 | as we have experiences in life.
00:20:36.620 | Third, I'm really going to start making decisions
00:20:38.820 | to try to maximize fulfillment.
00:20:40.560 | We just did that with a trip to Europe,
00:20:42.760 | and while it wasn't the most perfect use of miles and points
00:20:45.680 | and there weren't any hotel deals we could book,
00:20:48.560 | we did it because we just knew it was an experience
00:20:51.000 | we wanted to have at this point in our life.
00:20:53.600 | I'm sure there are so many more ways
00:20:55.080 | this will impact me in my life,
00:20:56.520 | and I will probably re-listen to that episode
00:20:58.480 | every few months,
00:20:59.920 | but it's one of my top learnings this year.
00:21:02.200 | And if you missed it,
00:21:03.200 | definitely scroll back to episode 91
00:21:05.000 | with Bill Perkins and enjoy.
00:21:06.840 | And finally, my takeaway number 10 is all about happiness,
00:21:10.620 | and it stemmed from episode 46
00:21:13.220 | with best-selling author, Arthur Brooks.
00:21:15.860 | That episode was so good, I re-listened to it this morning,
00:21:19.380 | and I already have it queued up
00:21:20.860 | to listen again later this week,
00:21:22.900 | except I need to slow it down so I can take some notes.
00:21:26.100 | So the first part of this takeaway
00:21:28.140 | is about how to define happiness,
00:21:30.460 | but instead of restating Brooks,
00:21:31.900 | I'll just play a clip here.
00:21:33.900 | Happiness is a combination of three.
00:21:35.700 | You might say they're macronutrients.
00:21:37.620 | You need enjoyment, you need satisfaction,
00:21:40.020 | and you need purpose.
00:21:41.420 | When I meet somebody who's not happy,
00:21:43.780 | I start looking diagnostically at these three things.
00:21:46.640 | The first practical takeaway
00:21:48.260 | that comes from all this theory
00:21:50.160 | is that if somebody's like,
00:21:51.080 | "Ah, my life isn't complete.
00:21:53.180 | "Some things are good, some things aren't,
00:21:54.420 | "but I'm not really happy,"
00:21:55.480 | it means there's a lack of balance in one of these things.
00:21:59.040 | Either you don't have enough enjoyment in your life,
00:22:01.240 | or you're actually not hitting goals,
00:22:03.180 | which means you don't have satisfaction,
00:22:04.980 | or you don't have a sense of purpose
00:22:06.880 | and direction in your life.
00:22:08.060 | It's one of those three things.
00:22:09.820 | And so that's the first place to start looking
00:22:12.020 | if you feel like you're not where you wanna be
00:22:13.760 | in terms of your happiness.
00:22:15.100 | - That was such a great lesson for me,
00:22:16.980 | but just learning what happiness is isn't enough.
00:22:19.820 | We also talked about how to impact it.
00:22:21.740 | And one of the biggest learnings I had
00:22:23.340 | came from understanding
00:22:24.660 | our fluid and crystallized intelligence curves.
00:22:27.340 | And for some quick context,
00:22:28.900 | fluid intelligence is your ability
00:22:30.900 | to process new information, learn, and solve problems,
00:22:34.180 | while crystallized intelligence is your stored knowledge
00:22:36.620 | that you've accumulated over the years.
00:22:38.640 | The big takeaway was that in our 20s and 30s,
00:22:41.140 | our fluid intelligence curve is at its peak,
00:22:43.420 | and we can rely and really thrive with it.
00:22:46.600 | But as we move into our 40s and older,
00:22:49.240 | the tides start to shift,
00:22:50.660 | and our crystallized intelligence or wisdom starts to form,
00:22:54.060 | and realizing that and finding work that can harness it
00:22:57.100 | is really the key to happiness with our work
00:22:59.220 | for the next few decades.
00:23:01.080 | While it may seem obvious to some,
00:23:02.660 | it really helped me start to think about
00:23:04.460 | what I should be doing professionally
00:23:06.100 | and the next chapter of life.
00:23:07.820 | And funny enough,
00:23:08.660 | I think transitioning to all the hacks full-time
00:23:10.940 | is really a reflection of wanting to shift
00:23:13.900 | and make a jump onto that crystallized intelligence curve.
00:23:17.120 | Honestly, I could keep going on this episode.
00:23:19.200 | We talked about how journaling
00:23:20.740 | can be one of the most valuable habits
00:23:22.220 | to start doing each day,
00:23:23.520 | which is something I'm gonna try to start doing next year.
00:23:26.820 | And beyond journaling,
00:23:27.740 | we talked about the four things
00:23:29.340 | that you need to focus on each day,
00:23:31.300 | and I'll just play another clip
00:23:32.600 | instead of trying to say it myself.
00:23:34.700 | If you wanna be among the happiest people,
00:23:36.860 | they all do these things every day.
00:23:38.660 | They practice their faith or life philosophy.
00:23:41.100 | You don't have to be religious.
00:23:42.300 | You just have something bigger than you
00:23:44.540 | that zooms you out on your own life.
00:23:47.260 | Life philosophy or faith or a spiritual practice
00:23:50.100 | gives you that uniquely.
00:23:51.480 | So it's meditation or prayer or studying the Stoics,
00:23:54.700 | whatever it happens to be,
00:23:55.860 | you gotta do your thing and you gotta do it seriously.
00:23:58.380 | Second is family, the ties that bind and don't break.
00:24:01.620 | It's important that you not choose them,
00:24:03.620 | but that you have them for your happiness.
00:24:05.460 | And God knows in many cases we wouldn't choose them.
00:24:07.620 | The third is friendship.
00:24:08.820 | We have a major loneliness crisis in the United States.
00:24:11.820 | The average number of close friends
00:24:13.500 | that somebody 30 years old has
00:24:15.180 | has been cut in half in the past 20 years.
00:24:17.700 | About half of people under 30
00:24:19.140 | say that no one knows them well.
00:24:20.700 | It's horrible for every aspect of happiness.
00:24:23.820 | And part of the reason for that
00:24:24.960 | is that everybody knows how to make deal friends,
00:24:27.860 | but we know less and less how to make real friends.
00:24:30.060 | And the last is work.
00:24:31.420 | And work doesn't mean working hard all night long.
00:24:34.580 | It doesn't mean making tons of money.
00:24:36.100 | It doesn't mean having prestige.
00:24:37.220 | It means exactly two things.
00:24:39.020 | Earning your success,
00:24:40.100 | meaning your skills meet your passions,
00:24:41.860 | and serving other people, the people who need you.
00:24:44.140 | If you earn your success and you're serving other people,
00:24:46.900 | I don't care if you're an electrician or a librarian
00:24:49.840 | or a podcast host or a Harvard professor,
00:24:52.420 | you will be happy from your work.
00:24:53.540 | And if you don't have those things,
00:24:55.020 | you won't be happy from your work.
00:24:56.500 | Faith, family, friends, and work are the big four.
00:24:59.700 | So I could keep going,
00:25:01.020 | but instead you should just go back
00:25:03.020 | and listen to episode 47 with Arthur Brooks.
00:25:05.620 | It is chocked full of great advice and tactics
00:25:08.140 | to be happier in 2023.
00:25:10.100 | And I, for one,
00:25:10.940 | am going to be putting a lot of that into action next year.
00:25:14.300 | All right, it was so hard
00:25:15.700 | to try to narrow everything I've learned
00:25:17.180 | down to just 10 things.
00:25:18.860 | And unfortunately there were so many great things
00:25:21.040 | that didn't make the cut.
00:25:22.140 | Since I'm not working at a company anymore,
00:25:23.940 | I left off a few episodes from this list
00:25:25.980 | because they're not big takeaways for me right now.
00:25:28.900 | But if you are working for a company
00:25:30.820 | and especially in a leadership role,
00:25:32.640 | you should definitely go check out three episodes,
00:25:35.380 | number 39 with submarine commander, David Marquet,
00:25:38.820 | number 57 with Navy SEAL commander, Mike Hayes,
00:25:41.620 | and number 90 with product builder extraordinaire,
00:25:44.540 | Lenny Ruchitsky.
00:25:45.940 | But if you think that there's an important takeaway
00:25:47.820 | or lesson that I missed,
00:25:48.940 | I would love to hear from you
00:25:50.240 | because I'm always curious what you think.
00:25:52.660 | But that's enough lessons and takeaways for now.
00:25:55.020 | Let's also talk about the best hacks from 2022.
00:25:58.940 | You all know I love credit card points.
00:26:01.540 | So I'm excited to be partnering with Card Pointers today,
00:26:04.500 | which is one of my favorite tools for travel hacking.
00:26:07.120 | It's a free app that helps you manage
00:26:08.860 | all of your credit cards in one place
00:26:11.060 | and makes it easy to find the right card
00:26:13.140 | to maximize your category bonuses on every purchase.
00:26:16.780 | You can also load it on your partner's phone
00:26:18.980 | so they always know the best cards to use.
00:26:21.980 | The app automatically tracks every category bonus
00:26:24.960 | and recurring credit from over 5,000 cards.
00:26:28.360 | And they also track and help you use your Amex, Chase,
00:26:32.240 | Bank of America, or Citibank offers
00:26:34.600 | to save even more money every day.
00:26:37.080 | And with their browser extension,
00:26:38.600 | you can actually activate every single Amex and Chase offer
00:26:42.200 | in just one click.
00:26:43.800 | And because of that massive credit card database,
00:26:46.280 | you can do all of this without having to give up
00:26:48.780 | any personal or banking details.
00:26:51.320 | The app is free to download
00:26:53.100 | and many of the features are free as well.
00:26:55.520 | But if you wanna try out the pro version,
00:26:57.280 | there's a free trial.
00:26:58.600 | And if you decide you wanna sign up after the trial,
00:27:01.400 | which you probably will,
00:27:03.060 | you can go to allthehacks.com/cardpointers
00:27:07.020 | to get 20% off.
00:27:08.720 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/cardpointers.
00:27:13.720 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.
00:27:18.720 | I get it, life comes at you fast,
00:27:21.120 | but trust me, your friends are probably desperate
00:27:24.000 | for a good hang.
00:27:25.140 | So, kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.
00:27:29.220 | Just make sure you do it the easy way
00:27:31.160 | and let our sponsor Drizzly,
00:27:33.100 | the go-to app for drink delivery,
00:27:35.040 | take care of the supplies.
00:27:36.820 | All you need to come up with is the excuse to get together.
00:27:39.640 | It doesn't even have to be a good one.
00:27:41.500 | It could be your dog's birthday,
00:27:42.900 | that the sun finally came out,
00:27:44.860 | or maybe you just wanna celebrate
00:27:46.340 | that you got through another week.
00:27:48.420 | With Drizzly, you can make hosting easy
00:27:50.540 | by taking the drink run off your to-do list,
00:27:53.060 | which means you can entice your friends
00:27:54.840 | to leave their houses without ever leaving yours.
00:27:57.940 | And since I know you like a good deal,
00:27:59.580 | Drizzly compares prices on their massive selection
00:28:02.160 | of beer, wine, and spirits across multiple stores.
00:28:05.140 | So, when I really wanted to make a few cocktails
00:28:07.180 | while we were hosting family last week,
00:28:09.020 | not only could I get an Italian Amaro
00:28:11.060 | delivered in less than an hour,
00:28:12.700 | but I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store.
00:28:16.180 | So, whatever the occasion,
00:28:17.820 | download the Drizzly app or go to drizzly.com.
00:28:21.100 | That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.
00:28:25.140 | Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations.
00:28:28.360 | I just wanna thank you quick for listening to
00:28:32.260 | and supporting the show.
00:28:33.740 | Your support is what keeps this show going.
00:28:36.580 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,
00:28:39.300 | and discounts from our partners,
00:28:41.060 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.
00:28:44.620 | So, please consider supporting those who support us.
00:28:47.920 | Coming in at number one has to be the hack
00:28:49.900 | that's resulted in the most emails from you all,
00:28:52.780 | which is booking a hotel directly and emailing them
00:28:55.740 | to tell them you're excited to stay.
00:28:57.780 | Big thanks to Lee Rowan for sharing it in episode one
00:29:00.820 | and Julia Menez for sharing it
00:29:02.420 | alongside a template for doing it in episode 55.
00:29:06.520 | I've heard from over a hundred listeners
00:29:08.340 | about using this hack to get upgrades,
00:29:10.740 | bottles of wine, free food, vouchers for drinks at the bar,
00:29:14.060 | free parking, and maybe most ridiculously,
00:29:16.820 | pillows embroidered with initials on them.
00:29:19.660 | So, I hope that this hack continues to bring you
00:29:22.460 | upgrades and more in 2023.
00:29:25.260 | And if you're new and want more details about it,
00:29:27.500 | definitely go back and listen to episode one or episode 55.
00:29:31.260 | Next is probably the second most popular hack
00:29:33.580 | I've heard from listeners about,
00:29:34.860 | and that's finding free unclaimed money
00:29:37.340 | that you're owed on your state's unclaimed money website.
00:29:40.720 | I think the biggest winner was a listener
00:29:42.340 | who found over $1,000 for her and her family,
00:29:45.420 | but I've had dozens of people find over $100
00:29:48.380 | and countless people who found at least $20.
00:29:51.220 | So, if you haven't checked yourself, definitely do that.
00:29:53.980 | And if you're with friends or family
00:29:55.460 | for the last few days of the year,
00:29:57.140 | and you can look them up and surprise them
00:29:58.980 | at dinner with free money,
00:30:00.500 | then surely that would make a great holiday gift for them.
00:30:03.860 | So, two more travel hacks that have been awesome.
00:30:06.380 | One, taking the main photo from a vacation rental
00:30:09.420 | on Airbnb or VRBO and doing a reverse image search
00:30:12.940 | to find it on other and probably more cheaper sites.
00:30:16.340 | This one is great.
00:30:17.300 | I did use this tactic in Paris and found an alternative site
00:30:20.860 | to book a place we were considering for 20% less.
00:30:24.500 | Big shout out to Lee Rowan
00:30:25.700 | for sharing that all the way back in episode one,
00:30:28.080 | which is still the all-time most popular episode
00:30:31.060 | in this podcast and definitely worth a listen
00:30:33.600 | if you like travel hacks.
00:30:35.140 | Two, for rental cars,
00:30:36.820 | AutoSlash has saved me
00:30:38.220 | and countless listeners hundreds of dollars.
00:30:41.060 | I actually interviewed the CEO, Jonathan, in episode 66,
00:30:44.380 | and I think it was effectively a masterclass
00:30:46.740 | on getting deals on car rentals.
00:30:48.660 | So, before you book your next rental car,
00:30:50.660 | or even if you already made a reservation,
00:30:53.100 | at a minimum, check out AutoSlash,
00:30:54.900 | but probably go back and listen to all of episode 66.
00:30:58.280 | Okay, this next hack is one I used earlier today,
00:31:01.700 | and it's a trick I learned from Nir Eyal in episode 25,
00:31:05.220 | where we talked about distraction
00:31:06.820 | and how you can become indistractable.
00:31:09.620 | For me, it was a hack for saying no
00:31:11.200 | to delicious, unhealthy food in the house.
00:31:13.980 | The trick is not to say no,
00:31:15.860 | but to give yourself permission to have it in five minutes.
00:31:19.420 | By then, you've almost always moved on to something else
00:31:22.600 | and have lost your craving,
00:31:24.580 | and this morning, it resulted in me eating
00:31:26.980 | at least one or two less molasses cookies,
00:31:29.460 | which I will call a win.
00:31:30.860 | Continuing on the health side are two hacks from my episode
00:31:33.940 | with the host of the Healthier Together podcast, Liz Moody.
00:31:37.100 | First is taping your mouth shut at night.
00:31:39.860 | It sounded crazy to me and probably took six months
00:31:42.900 | to actually try it, but I am sold.
00:31:45.620 | The team at Hostage Tape sent me their mouth tape
00:31:48.260 | a few weeks ago, and I've been using it almost every night.
00:31:52.340 | I feel like I breathe better
00:31:53.660 | and my mouth doesn't get as dry at night.
00:31:56.500 | The second is cold showers.
00:31:58.420 | I did it for 30 days straight,
00:32:00.100 | but I will be honest, I haven't been as consistent since.
00:32:03.180 | However, I wanna get this trend back up again in 2023,
00:32:06.860 | because when you start your day with a cold shower
00:32:08.940 | or a cold plunge, I just feel like anything else
00:32:12.020 | that comes your way is so much more manageable.
00:32:15.140 | Another hack on the health side is that you should never pay
00:32:17.660 | the first healthcare bill you get,
00:32:19.420 | and that's for so many reasons that I learned
00:32:21.560 | when I fractured my foot and got shingles
00:32:23.980 | all in a few months.
00:32:25.860 | Thanks to reporter Marshall Allen,
00:32:27.620 | who actually wrote the book on fighting back
00:32:29.640 | against medical bills and winning,
00:32:31.300 | who joined me on episode 34,
00:32:33.300 | I was armed with the knowledge I needed
00:32:35.060 | to save thousands of dollars.
00:32:37.180 | I was amazed at the inaccuracies
00:32:39.220 | of some of these medical bills
00:32:40.460 | that I took the time to review.
00:32:42.540 | It was crazy that just by pushing back,
00:32:45.100 | I got my insurance to cover bills
00:32:46.900 | that they wouldn't cover at first.
00:32:48.580 | And the most wild thing was that some of the bills
00:32:51.300 | you get in the mail aren't actually bills.
00:32:53.780 | I'm not kidding.
00:32:54.620 | It is perfectly legal for someone to send you a letter
00:32:57.360 | that looks like a bill, but it's actually just a request
00:33:00.740 | that if you wanna pay them the extra
00:33:02.500 | beyond what your insurance company has paid them, you can.
00:33:05.740 | That happened for me with a $300 medical boot
00:33:08.640 | that my insurance only covered for $75,
00:33:11.420 | and the letter I received made it seem
00:33:13.280 | like I owed the difference,
00:33:14.740 | but the reality was I didn't owe anything at all.
00:33:16.940 | It is all a total racket, and if you wanna learn more
00:33:20.040 | or get help fighting back on any of your medical bills,
00:33:23.220 | either check out episode 34
00:33:25.020 | or just reach out directly to Marshall Allen.
00:33:27.420 | He loves helping people in these situations.
00:33:29.980 | So not quite health-related,
00:33:31.580 | but definitely a brain hack is for remembering things.
00:33:35.140 | If you already know how to build a memory palace,
00:33:37.140 | then you can skip ahead a few seconds,
00:33:38.940 | but it was so fascinating to talk
00:33:40.820 | to two-time world memory champion Johannes Malo
00:33:43.500 | in episode 30 about the tactics he uses
00:33:46.060 | to memorize everything from lists to names to numbers,
00:33:49.660 | and they're all skills he taught himself later in life,
00:33:52.340 | so you can easily pick them up too.
00:33:54.820 | That episode was so fun and a bit interactive,
00:33:57.460 | so I hope you enjoy it.
00:33:59.300 | And finally, my last hack to share today
00:34:01.800 | is a fun one from Nick Gray,
00:34:03.860 | and it's to stop inviting people over for dinner
00:34:06.540 | and start hosting cocktail parties.
00:34:08.980 | It's so much easier.
00:34:10.580 | You don't need food.
00:34:11.700 | You can put a two-hour hard stop on the event
00:34:14.040 | and kick people out.
00:34:15.100 | It lets you spend time with more people in a shorter window,
00:34:17.880 | and all around is just more fun.
00:34:20.460 | While my All the Hacks event in San Francisco
00:34:22.580 | probably bent the rules for an easy cocktail party,
00:34:25.340 | it was so fun, and I look forward to doing more events
00:34:28.340 | and cocktail parties in 2023,
00:34:30.780 | so definitely check out episode 68 with Nick Gray
00:34:33.740 | to hear about his formula for the perfect cocktail party.
00:34:36.900 | All right, there were obviously so many more hacks
00:34:39.620 | than I included above, so if you want more,
00:34:42.060 | there's almost a hundred episodes of the show
00:34:44.260 | to go listen to and a few dozen newsletters
00:34:46.540 | that you can check out at allthehacks.com/email.
00:34:50.500 | But to wrap up this episode,
00:34:52.140 | I wanted to run through my top credit cards for 2022.
00:34:55.940 | I looked at my spending summary for the year,
00:34:57.720 | and it was really dominated by four cards
00:34:59.980 | that have become my main four for non-business expenses.
00:35:03.740 | First is the Amex Gold, which is my dining/grocery card,
00:35:07.060 | which happens to be a lot of my credit card spending
00:35:09.380 | this year, and I'd say it was pretty optimal using it
00:35:12.620 | because 98% of the points I earned on that card
00:35:15.880 | were in those 4X bonus point categories.
00:35:18.660 | Obviously, I'd love to have it at 100, but 98's pretty good.
00:35:21.920 | Next up is the Chase Sapphire Reserve,
00:35:24.080 | which is my primary travel card,
00:35:26.260 | but also gets used for dining when I forget to bring my Amex
00:35:29.300 | or in the rare case Amex isn't accepted.
00:35:32.220 | And I did slightly worse here,
00:35:34.100 | only getting 92% of my spending in the bonus category,
00:35:37.180 | so need to work on that a little.
00:35:38.980 | The reserve annual fee is 550 versus the preferred at 95,
00:35:43.300 | but if you deduct 300 for the easy-to-use travel credit,
00:35:46.900 | then at 250, you're paying an extra $155 for the reserve.
00:35:51.200 | So if you value chase points at one and a half cents,
00:35:53.980 | then you probably need to be spending at least $10,000
00:35:56.740 | on travel to make it worth earning three points on travel
00:36:00.300 | instead of 2X on the preferred.
00:36:02.460 | For me, the trip to Paris and London at the end of the year
00:36:05.180 | put me just over that threshold, but it was close.
00:36:07.900 | Third up is the Chase Amazon Prime Visa.
00:36:10.580 | I don't even wanna think about how much we spent on Amazon
00:36:12.880 | and Amazon Fresh this year, but I can tell you
00:36:15.480 | that the 5% back was definitely enough
00:36:17.940 | to make it worth having this no annual fee card.
00:36:20.260 | Not to mention that for this one,
00:36:21.780 | we hit 100% on keeping spend
00:36:24.300 | only to the 5% back categories,
00:36:26.820 | but that's easy because it's all on Amazon.
00:36:29.500 | Now, I'm not usually a cash back person,
00:36:31.980 | but when it's 5% cash back versus 2X points,
00:36:34.780 | I'll take the 5% all day as long as the spending is enough,
00:36:38.500 | which unfortunately was definitely the case
00:36:40.520 | for Amazon this year.
00:36:42.060 | There are a handful of other cards
00:36:43.420 | that offer similar cash back on other categories,
00:36:46.020 | but they're usually either categories
00:36:47.460 | like travel, dining, or groceries,
00:36:49.180 | where I can get three to four points,
00:36:51.180 | or categories like gas or streaming service,
00:36:53.620 | where I just don't spend enough to make it worth the effort.
00:36:56.480 | And finally, what probably should have been the first,
00:36:59.280 | but is easier to explain at the end,
00:37:01.100 | is the Capital One Venture X,
00:37:02.840 | which is the de facto card for everything
00:37:05.020 | not in one of the categories I mentioned above.
00:37:07.620 | And it happens to be the only card
00:37:09.160 | I actually carry everywhere,
00:37:11.060 | if you don't include Apple Pay,
00:37:12.480 | which lets me carry all the cards.
00:37:14.380 | Building up some Capital One points
00:37:15.920 | was certainly beneficial because I was able to use them
00:37:18.620 | to transfer to Turkish Air and get an amazing deal
00:37:21.380 | back home from London this year.
00:37:23.660 | Also, Amy and I actually both opened up a Venture X
00:37:26.360 | this year to get the signup bonus,
00:37:28.020 | and we were trying to decide whether we keep it open.
00:37:30.460 | While the $395 annual fee is steep,
00:37:33.340 | if you just look at the $300 travel credit
00:37:35.860 | and the 10,000 point annual bonus,
00:37:38.140 | it's kind of a wash, so it's probably worth keeping open,
00:37:41.800 | but the travel credit does require booking in the portal,
00:37:44.940 | so it's a little bit of work.
00:37:46.580 | That said, as I was recording this,
00:37:48.460 | I realized that to avoid the annual fee,
00:37:50.940 | you either need to downgrade before the fee posts,
00:37:53.660 | which is too late for us,
00:37:55.260 | or cancel a card without downgrading,
00:37:57.540 | which I don't wanna do.
00:37:58.700 | So I actually think we'll probably just keep it open
00:38:00.580 | for another year, which is fine, giving the credits.
00:38:03.640 | So those are my top four cards this year.
00:38:06.560 | I still use the Amex Platinum for booking flights,
00:38:09.620 | Bonvoy and Hilton cards if we stay at those hotels,
00:38:12.620 | and my Chase Freedom if any of our spend
00:38:14.860 | falls in one of their quarterly 5X point categories,
00:38:17.900 | but those are all such a tiny fraction of our spend
00:38:20.060 | that I didn't include them.
00:38:21.540 | And on the business side, the majority of my spend
00:38:24.420 | is either on the Chase Inc Business Preferred
00:38:26.540 | for business travel or the Capital One Spark Cash Plus card,
00:38:30.780 | which while it's marketed as a 2% cash back card,
00:38:34.060 | is actually a 2X points card
00:38:36.020 | if you also have a miles earning card with Capital One.
00:38:39.380 | And if you're interested in any of those cards,
00:38:41.940 | or really any cards at all,
00:38:43.700 | please consider signing up for them at allthehacks.com/cards
00:38:48.180 | where every signup helps me and the show out.
00:38:50.780 | Assuming it's the same offer you find elsewhere online,
00:38:53.420 | it shouldn't cost you a thing.
00:38:55.260 | That said, one, please do not sign up for a card
00:38:58.420 | just to help me out.
00:38:59.620 | It's only if you're already signing up.
00:39:01.940 | And two, if you do find a better bonus somewhere,
00:39:04.700 | which while rare, may happen if you have a targeted mailer
00:39:07.740 | or referral offer, by all means,
00:39:10.180 | optimize for getting the most points you can.
00:39:13.100 | (upbeat music)
00:39:14.580 | That is it for this final episode of 2022.
00:39:17.420 | I cannot believe how far all the hacks has come this year.
00:39:20.940 | And even more, I can't believe that it's now my full-time job.
00:39:25.060 | It is such an honor and a privilege
00:39:26.980 | to get to do this for you all each week.
00:39:28.900 | So thank you so much for listening
00:39:30.980 | and supporting me and the show.
00:39:33.020 | I hope your 2022 comes to an incredible end.
00:39:36.180 | And I am so excited for everything that lies ahead in 2023.
00:39:40.300 | Happy New Year to you and all of your families.
00:39:43.100 | I will see you next week.
00:39:45.060 | Oh, and if you wanna help push a bad review
00:39:47.180 | further down the list,
00:39:48.260 | I would love a quick positive review on Apple Podcasts.
00:39:52.460 | Thanks so much.
00:39:53.300 | (upbeat music)
00:39:55.880 | (birds chirping)
00:39:58.620 | [BLANK_AUDIO]