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00:00:00.000 | A quick word from our sponsor today.

00:00:01.680 | Hello and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading

00:00:08.580 | your life, money, and travel.

00:00:10.320 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and if you're new here, I'm a diehard optimizer who

00:00:14.220 | loves doing all the research to get the best experience in life

00:00:17.940 | without an expensive price tag.

00:00:19.740 | Most weeks, I sit down with the world's best to learn the strategies, tactics,

00:00:24.980 | and frameworks that shape their success.

00:00:27.380 | But today, I'm doing another mailbag episode where I'm

00:00:30.060 | answering all your questions.

00:00:31.740 | A few months ago, I explained how I was going to cycle through the

00:00:35.000 | next three episodes like this, first focusing on credit card points and

00:00:38.760 | miles, then on money and investing, and finally on life, work, non-points

00:00:44.080 | travel, and anything else you wanted to send my way, and you guys certainly

00:00:48.480 | sent in a lot of questions, so here's how this is going to unfold.

00:00:51.920 | First, I'll cover a bunch of great travel questions about local tours,

00:00:57.080 | jet lag, cruises, travel insurance, language barriers, finding hotel rooms

00:01:02.000 | for five people, comparing French Polynesia to the Seychelles, and I'll

00:01:06.400 | also share two great hacks for airplane Wi-Fi and getting global entry appointments.

00:01:11.680 | Then I'll touch on a few follow-up questions to the recent episodes I did

00:01:15.900 | on security, about virtual credit cards, managing family information, and password

00:01:20.840 | managers that don't store data in the cloud, and for the rest, I don't really

00:01:24.720 | have a category, but I'll cover some food hacks, my favorite podcasts, how I

00:01:29.120 | take notes while listening, how I feel these days about my Peloton, cell phone

00:01:33.800 | insurance from your credit cards, virtual assistance, and how I try to avoid

00:01:38.160 | getting overwhelmed with all this optimizing.

00:01:40.600 | Now, if you're one of the dozen or so people who sent in some parenting

00:01:43.880 | questions and are thinking, "Where's my question on that list?"

00:01:46.880 | The answer is, it's not there on purpose, and that's because there's more than

00:01:50.640 | enough content to fill a whole episode, so Amy and I are going to co-host an

00:01:54.480 | episode all about the parenting hacks, tips, learnings, purchases, and more

00:01:59.360 | we've used for our two kids.

00:02:01.240 | So if you have, or one day want to have kids, then know that that's

00:02:05.000 | coming, and I hope you enjoy it.

00:02:06.640 | And if you're further along on the journey than we are, I would love it

00:02:10.520 | if you could send any thoughts, advice, or parenting hacks you have to both

00:02:14.480 | of us soon so that we can incorporate them into the episode and that

00:02:18.040 | we can use them in our lives.

00:02:19.480 | Also, in the last month, it seems that the world is really coming back

00:02:23.320 | because I've ended up going to three conferences, and then we also had a

00:02:27.120 | week where our au pair was on vacation and had no childcare, so I am still

00:02:31.240 | playing catch up, but if you've sent me an email and haven't heard back from

00:02:34.720 | me in over a month, please follow up.

00:02:36.960 | It's entirely possible that I mistakenly archived the email, and

00:02:40.480 | I'm sure I would love to respond.

00:02:42.160 | Okay, one last thing.

00:02:44.240 | I just want to address a review I got last week in the Apple

00:02:47.000 | Podcasts app from Mooper Dumpling.

00:02:49.560 | They said, "There is a lot of advertising throughout that makes it

00:02:53.560 | seem like you are more interested in making money off this program

00:02:56.680 | than for any other reason."

00:02:57.960 | Look, I can't change the perception any of you have, but I will say two things.

00:03:03.040 | First, I can tell you with certainty that the reason I'm doing this podcast is

00:03:07.960 | because I love having these conversations with guests, I love sharing that with you,

00:03:12.720 | I love doing research to do solo episodes, and I love helping you all

00:03:17.520 | upgrade and optimize your lives.

00:03:20.160 | In fact, the only reason I started working with sponsors was because

00:03:23.600 | I love doing this so much, I wanted to be able to grow it to the point

00:03:26.720 | that I could do it full-time or even hire people that could help it be even better.

00:03:31.040 | As for there being a lot of advertising, from all the research I've done and

00:03:35.760 | the conversations I've had with podcasters and networks, shows of this

00:03:39.920 | length typically have four to eight ads.

00:03:42.280 | In fact, I considered joining a big podcast network, but there

00:03:46.560 | were two big reasons I didn't.

00:03:48.480 | One, they required me to increase to 10 to 12 ads per episode,

00:03:53.080 | which I thought seemed crazy.

00:03:55.120 | And they wanted some of those ads to be programmatic, which meant I

00:03:59.520 | wouldn't have any control of the brands that were advertising on the show.

00:04:03.000 | And because I only want to work with brands that I love, or if I don't know

00:04:07.480 | them that well, I've at least done a ton of homework on them and talked

00:04:11.280 | to others who have used them, which wouldn't be possible at a network.

00:04:14.400 | And for me today means that I say no to a lot of brands, some that have

00:04:18.400 | even offered a lot of money.

00:04:19.680 | So I've capped it at four ads per episode, split across two breaks,

00:04:24.120 | except for those shorter bonus episodes, which have fewer.

00:04:27.160 | So I feel good that we're at a below average number of ads, but one

00:04:31.320 | option I've considered to mitigate breaking up the content twice would

00:04:35.320 | be to move two of those ads each episode to be pre-rolls at the very

00:04:38.960 | beginning before the episode starts.

00:04:40.800 | So you might hear me testing that in the future.

00:04:43.720 | And if you have an opinion, let me know.

00:04:46.440 | And Mooper Dumpling, if you're listening and I've convinced you at all, feel

00:04:50.400 | free to update your rating or anyone else, feel free to drop another five

00:04:55.320 | star rating or review to help balance it out.

00:04:57.600 | Okay.

00:04:58.520 | Thanks for hearing me out.

00:04:59.880 | It's well past time to get to the episode.

00:05:02.280 | So let's get started.

00:05:03.160 | Okay.

00:05:03.720 | First question.

00:05:04.560 | I love your podcast.

00:05:05.800 | Your travel hacks are my favorite.

00:05:07.200 | Can you please do an episode comparing Bora Bora and the Seychelles?

00:05:10.720 | We've been to French Polynesia, but haven't done the Seychelles.

00:05:13.520 | Would love to hear the difference.

00:05:15.440 | So I don't think I can fill an episode, but here's my take.

00:05:17.840 | Both are absolutely incredible and I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to do

00:05:22.680 | either, but there are some really big differences, first off, depending on

00:05:26.520 | where you live, one might be significantly easier to get to than the other.

00:05:30.600 | For us on the West coast, the Seychelles was a long flight to Paris and then a

00:05:36.120 | long flight to the Seychelles that actually ended up getting canceled.

00:05:39.680 | So we had to fly through Dubai.

00:05:41.960 | So we're talking a significant investment in your time just to get there.

00:05:47.960 | Whereas from San Francisco, you can fly direct to Papiete and take a

00:05:52.240 | really short flight over to Bora Bora.

00:05:54.400 | So just getting to French Polynesia is so much easier, but

00:05:59.960 | what are the main differences?

00:06:01.120 | So when it comes to beaches, the Seychelles beaches are unbelievable.

00:06:06.400 | They are the most picturesque, beautiful beaches I've seen in the entire world.

00:06:11.280 | And in Bora Bora, it's much more about the overwater bungalow.

00:06:14.440 | The water is so clear.

00:06:16.440 | It's so beautiful, but I don't actually remember spending a lot of time on them.

00:06:20.200 | And the beaches definitely aren't as beautiful and picturesque

00:06:23.320 | as they are in the Seychelles.

00:06:24.320 | Another thing, when you get to Bora Bora and keep in mind, I haven't spent a lot

00:06:29.720 | of time in the rest of French Polynesia.

00:06:31.520 | So I'm going to focus on Bora Bora.

00:06:33.200 | You arrive at the airport and from the airport, you get on a boat that's

00:06:37.680 | maybe a hundred feet from baggage claim that takes you straight to your hotel.

00:06:41.680 | So it's much more of an isolated experience.

00:06:44.800 | In fact, the first time we went, we went to the main island on Bora Bora

00:06:49.120 | and we walked around and it didn't really feel like a city center.

00:06:53.600 | It felt like there was a little store, a market, a bunch of

00:06:56.840 | diamond shops, some tourism stuff.

00:06:59.080 | A couple of restaurants, but there wasn't a lot going on.

00:07:02.120 | Whereas going downtown in the Seychelles, there was a food market.

00:07:05.680 | There was all kinds of stuff happening.

00:07:07.480 | Locals mixing with travelers.

00:07:09.600 | It was really, really interesting.

00:07:11.320 | And I felt like you could really immerse yourself in what was going on there.

00:07:15.280 | And it was just because the main island is much bigger and easier to get around.

00:07:20.320 | I felt like going to the Seychelles, you really get to experience the country more.

00:07:24.360 | Now, I'm sure if I stayed in the main island of Tahiti and I spent a bunch of

00:07:29.240 | time there, I would have a similar experience.

00:07:31.160 | So I would say, take this all with a grain of salt, but a lot of the really

00:07:36.480 | amazing five-star experiences that you'd have in the Seychelles are on the main

00:07:41.040 | island, whereas in French Polynesia, a lot of them are on Bora Bora or maybe

00:07:45.240 | on another island, so I think that you can do one place easier in the Seychelles

00:07:50.120 | and get that experience without feeling like you're hopping between islands.

00:07:53.800 | That said, I don't personally remember from our trip, and maybe it's the

00:07:58.080 | time, a really distinct, unique culture in the Seychelles like I

00:08:04.040 | did going to French Polynesia.

00:08:06.680 | There is a very unique Polynesian culture that most of the hotels try to

00:08:11.560 | infuse in one of the nights of the week and the experience, and that really

00:08:15.880 | stuck with me, which is something that didn't happen in the Seychelles.

00:08:19.400 | Now, maybe that's my fault for not immersing myself in it, but it wasn't

00:08:23.000 | something that felt like it was a common thread through everything you do.

00:08:26.440 | Most of the hotels in the Seychelles, at least all of the ones that we saw and

00:08:29.880 | looked at, were just normal, kind of luxury, beautiful hotels, but there

00:08:33.800 | weren't these overwater bungalows.

00:08:35.120 | So if you're going for that experience, I think that's where you want to go.

00:08:38.400 | So ultimately for me, it comes down to if you're trying to relax and you

00:08:42.720 | don't really want to do anything other than sit at a hotel and you live on

00:08:45.920 | the West Coast or probably anywhere in the States, Bora Bora, I think is a

00:08:49.160 | much easier trip, but if you want to see something totally different and

00:08:52.720 | you're willing to take a long trip, or maybe you're based in Europe or

00:08:55.520 | Africa or Asia, the Seychelles is definitely worth checking out.

00:08:59.760 | Just know that you're not getting that overwater bungalow experience.

00:09:02.360 | If you live in that part of the world and you want to go on an overwater

00:09:05.000 | bungalow, it seems like Maldives is your place.

00:09:07.720 | I've never been, but it's certainly on my list.

00:09:10.880 | And I think something that when the kids are older or when we can escape

00:09:13.880 | for another week, we might consider it.

00:09:15.880 | But right now traveling halfway around the world just seems like a much bigger

00:09:20.280 | ordeal than it did two years ago when we didn't have kids.

00:09:23.720 | Speaking of kids, Jesse wrote in a question asking if I had any tips for

00:09:28.320 | hotels when traveling with a family of five.

00:09:31.280 | It looks like most hotels have a four-person limit on rooms, and the

00:09:34.720 | only workaround Jesse found was to book two rooms or book a two-bedroom

00:09:38.120 | suite, which can be really expensive.

00:09:40.280 | He asked, is there anything, whether it's a loyalty program or

00:09:44.880 | some deal to make that possible?

00:09:47.040 | So I thought about this a lot and I even asked a friend in the industry.

00:09:50.200 | His advice was that if your kids are under six, you can kind of just

00:09:53.480 | sneak them in and not worry about it.

00:09:54.920 | When we were in Hawaii recently, we asked the hotel to bring in a rollaway

00:09:59.600 | bed and a crib and they were willing to do both, so you could have fit two

00:10:03.960 | people on each of the two queen beds and then two kids in the rollaway and the

00:10:08.200 | crib, but the problem is that when you book online and the hotel asks, they

00:10:12.480 | won't let you book that room if you have more than four people.

00:10:15.280 | So I'd say call the hotel.

00:10:16.960 | It never hurts to call and say, "Hey, is it possible to do this?"

00:10:21.160 | Because you might get a different answer.

00:10:22.640 | Or maybe that's a great circumstance for an Airbnb because most Airbnbs

00:10:28.880 | don't have a capacity on the number of people like hotels do.

00:10:32.440 | I don't want to speak to the legality of bringing extra kids in, sneaking

00:10:36.640 | them in, but I will say that physically, I think those people will fit.

00:10:40.040 | Maybe read the reviews, maybe call the hotel and see what you can do.

00:10:43.960 | If anyone has any other tips for this question or really any of the

00:10:47.120 | questions today, send them in.

00:10:48.440 | I'd love to share them.

00:10:49.400 | Okay.

00:10:50.000 | Johnny wrote in asking for advice or hacks on deals for cruises.

00:10:54.120 | And honestly, I don't have a good answer here, but I wanted to still

00:10:57.880 | bring it up on this episode because if enough people are interested in

00:11:01.120 | cruises, I might make a whole episode on it.

00:11:03.440 | I've only been on one cruise and somehow I both liked it and haven't been on

00:11:08.000 | another, but I feel like once our kids are getting a little older, it's worth

00:11:11.800 | trying again and there is a whole range of cruises from the most crazy Disney

00:11:18.640 | family carnival kind of cruises you think of all the way to, I remember

00:11:22.760 | seeing Instagram posts from Ramit Sethi of the most beautiful luxury cruise in

00:11:28.240 | Japan that ever since I saw, I've been very interested in going on.

00:11:32.760 | So the whole topic of cruises is something that I think I'm fascinated by.

00:11:36.640 | My parents recently did this amazing wine country cruise down a river in France.

00:11:42.480 | So there's just a whole lot to this whole space that I don't know.

00:11:46.200 | So if this is an interesting topic to you and you think it's worth digging

00:11:48.920 | in, you can shoot me a quick note and I'll start doing some homework.

00:11:52.120 | Okay, Todd wrote in asking he'd love to travel to many far away locations

00:11:55.920 | away from typical tourist areas, but his concern was being stuck or

00:12:00.280 | stumped by the language barrier.

00:12:01.920 | And that's kept him from being more adventurous.

00:12:03.960 | He doesn't speak another language beyond English and wanted to know what

00:12:06.920 | I suggest or how I've dealt with this.

00:12:08.880 | So honestly, I don't really worry about it at all.

00:12:11.920 | When Amy and I were backpacking for seven and a half months, we were doing

00:12:16.280 | most of our travel by land and we ended up in some very rural places in Africa,

00:12:21.840 | in India, in Southeast Asia, and in the Middle East, and I found a few things.

00:12:27.760 | First, you can communicate a lot with very, very few, if not zero words.

00:12:34.600 | Your hand gestures, pointing pictures, like you'd be surprised.

00:12:40.120 | And in some cases, when we first got to Aleppo in Syria, um, we were lost.

00:12:46.160 | We weren't sure where we were going.

00:12:47.360 | Someone came up to us.

00:12:48.400 | They didn't speak English and they picked out their cell phone and they

00:12:50.800 | called someone who did that helped translate between the two of us so that

00:12:54.840 | the person we ran into could actually help us find where we were going.

00:12:58.560 | And they were so excited to talk to us, even though we couldn't actually

00:13:01.960 | communicate, that they insisted that we stop by their home and have a coffee

00:13:06.360 | and get to meet their family, which we did the entire time,

00:13:09.840 | not speaking the same language.

00:13:11.560 | So I think if you just embrace that the experience is something different

00:13:16.560 | than necessarily having a conversation, I think you can have an incredible

00:13:20.680 | time and there's almost always some common ground.

00:13:24.120 | I think one of the great things about the English language is that so much

00:13:27.440 | of music, so much of media and culture is done in English that even if someone

00:13:32.800 | doesn't speak it fluently, you might be able to get across a few things.

00:13:36.440 | I think the other thing that I see sometimes when we're traveling is that

00:13:40.800 | people who speak English are trying to speak English in another country, the

00:13:45.280 | same way they speak it in the States.

00:13:47.880 | You have to learn a whole different version of slower and

00:13:51.360 | kind of more simplified English.

00:13:53.200 | If you want to be really successful, having a conversation with people who

00:13:57.080 | don't speak English as their first language.

00:13:59.040 | So I would just say, learn to be very patient, learn to speak slow, learn

00:14:03.960 | to break things down in a much more simple way than using the entire

00:14:08.040 | vocabulary you might use back home.

00:14:10.120 | And I think you can go anywhere and make it work.

00:14:13.640 | Does it help to have a phone with Google Translate if you're in a bind?

00:14:17.120 | Sure.

00:14:17.620 | Does it help to learn a few phrases every time you're entering a new

00:14:20.920 | country so that you can kind of at least feel like you're making an effort also?

00:14:24.760 | Absolutely.

00:14:25.720 | I feel like I still know how to say hello and how are you and please and

00:14:30.360 | excuse me in like 10, 15 languages, even though that's the extent of

00:14:35.120 | the entire language that I know.

00:14:36.680 | So I would say, don't let this get in the way.

00:14:39.520 | If all that fails and you don't feel like that's enough, you could always

00:14:43.200 | try to hire a local translator or guide.

00:14:46.320 | I'm sure you can find someone or take a free walking tour whenever you

00:14:50.080 | get to the city and see if that person might know someone if you

00:14:53.680 | don't know how to find them online.

00:14:55.080 | I feel like there are enough options that language barrier should never be

00:14:58.960 | the reason that you don't go somewhere.

00:15:00.400 | Okay.

00:15:01.040 | Georgina wrote in about how she'd love to take a trip at the end of the year,

00:15:04.880 | but the worker who's helping take care of one of her family members recently

00:15:08.600 | left, and she wants to make sure she can find a replacement before then.

00:15:12.880 | So she didn't know whether she should buy the ticket now, wait, or consider

00:15:17.640 | cancel for any reason, travel insurance.

00:15:19.600 | So this is a tough one, but I have a few thoughts partially because we

00:15:23.600 | looked at taking this new airline zip air to get to Japan because they

00:15:28.040 | had ridiculously cheap flights from LA.

00:15:31.160 | And the only downside was they have a fully non-refundable ticket.

00:15:36.440 | So unlike most of the U S airlines where yes, it's non-refundable,

00:15:40.840 | but you can still get a credit.

00:15:42.120 | Um, this was fully non-refundable zero back, except maybe your taxes.

00:15:46.720 | So we thought about it.

00:15:48.240 | And then we also looked at cancel for any reason, travel insurance,

00:15:51.000 | which I had never purchased before.

00:15:52.720 | What I learned is it's not that much more expensive than regular travel insurance.

00:15:57.560 | It's usually about one and a half to two times the cost of a regular

00:16:01.520 | travel insurance policy, which might be 5% of your trip and it covers

00:16:05.560 | you like it says for any reason.

00:16:07.400 | So if your flight is non-refundable and you have to cancel it, they're

00:16:10.720 | going to reimburse you, but they usually don't reimburse a hundred percent.

00:16:13.880 | It's usually around 75%.

00:16:15.600 | So there's still a cost.

00:16:17.440 | And this is where some of the data on Google flights, where they look

00:16:20.280 | at, you know, what an average fare is.

00:16:22.120 | If you figure, if you have to cancel this, you're going to end up paying

00:16:25.600 | 25% plus maybe other five to 10 for the travel policy.

00:16:29.400 | So a third of the cost, you're not going to get back.

00:16:31.440 | If it looks like the average airfare for this flight or the hotels or whatever

00:16:36.440 | it is, might end up costing two X.

00:16:38.120 | If you wait to book it, then it might be a really good deal instead of waiting.

00:16:41.080 | However, don't forget that if you book with a lot of the domestic

00:16:45.080 | US airlines and you can look into this for international airlines.

00:16:48.280 | If you have to cancel that trip, you can usually get a credit back.

00:16:51.920 | Now that credit usually only works on that airline,

00:16:55.200 | sometimes with their partners.

00:16:56.560 | So I would say if I were going that path, I'd really prioritize an

00:16:59.960 | airline that I thought I'd be able to use in the next year or two so that

00:17:02.920 | I could take advantage of that credit, not lose it, or if you're listening

00:17:06.880 | to the show and you have miles, most airlines, if you book with miles

00:17:10.840 | and cancel, you will be able to get all your miles back and maybe pay

00:17:15.120 | a award redeposit fee is what they're often called a fee to

00:17:18.840 | cancel and put those miles back.

00:17:20.240 | So I'd say the best move you can do if you have points or miles is to book

00:17:23.560 | with miles, know that if you're transferring those miles to an airline

00:17:26.720 | like Air France or Turkish Air, you're going to get those miles back in that

00:17:30.640 | program, but that doesn't mean you can't use them to book a flight on United

00:17:35.000 | or on Delta or on, you know, American, depending on who the partners are.

00:17:38.480 | So if it were me and I was in a situation where I thought there was a good

00:17:42.320 | chance, I'd have to cancel the trip.

00:17:43.800 | I'd first try to book it with miles.

00:17:45.800 | I then look at the data about what happens with the airfare.

00:17:49.720 | And I'd consider waiting if the airfare doesn't look like it usually

00:17:52.640 | gets significantly more expensive.

00:17:54.520 | One quick thought was we were just in Hawaii and it turns out that our

00:17:59.320 | flight times changed so much that we were going to get back way after

00:18:02.680 | bedtime and two days before flying home, I looked and I could cancel our

00:18:07.120 | United flight for free because of the schedule change and I booked another

00:18:10.160 | flight on Alaska that got in earlier.

00:18:12.040 | And I actually saved money because the fares were cheaper.

00:18:14.640 | So last minute isn't always more expensive, even if you're paying with

00:18:18.160 | dollars, but if you don't want to take that risk and you want to lock it in

00:18:21.960 | now, maybe there's an incredible fare.

00:18:23.880 | I would consider cancel for any reason travel insurance, but just know that

00:18:28.240 | you're not going to get back the full fare and if the airline, when you try

00:18:32.760 | to cancel offers you a credit and you take that credit, you're almost certainly

00:18:36.840 | not going to get the travel insurance to cover you.

00:18:38.800 | So I'm almost positive that you have to refuse any credits.

00:18:42.040 | The airline offers you when you cancel in order to get

00:18:44.640 | reimbursed by travel insurance.

00:18:45.800 | But obviously read the fine print, call the travel insurance company.

00:18:49.320 | I am not always the expert on every single policy.

00:18:52.000 | So I am quite comfortable right now, which is actually true almost every day.

00:18:57.520 | And that's thanks to Viori and I'm excited to be partnering

00:19:00.240 | with them for this episode.

00:19:01.480 | They make performance apparel.

00:19:03.200 | That's incredibly versatile.

00:19:04.800 | Everything is designed to work out in, but it doesn't look or feel like it at all.

00:19:09.160 | And it's so freaking comfortable.

00:19:10.880 | You will want to wear it all the time.

00:19:12.680 | Seriously, I am pretty sure it's more comfortable than whatever you're

00:19:15.760 | wearing right now, unless you're wearing Viori, in which case

00:19:18.600 | you already know what I mean.

00:19:19.720 | And it's not just for men.

00:19:21.520 | My wife is as obsessed with Viori as I am.

00:19:24.280 | My favorite is the Sunday performance joggers.

00:19:27.120 | I think I have three pairs and they are probably the most

00:19:29.840 | comfortable pants I've ever owned.

00:19:31.480 | Their products can be used for just about any activity, whether

00:19:34.840 | it's running, training, or yoga.

00:19:36.760 | They're also great for lounging, running around town, or their meta

00:19:40.080 | pants can even work for a night out.

00:19:41.960 | Honestly, I think Viori is an investment in your happiness.

00:19:45.360 | And for all the Hacks listeners, they are offering 20% off your first

00:19:49.000 | purchase, as well as free shipping and returns on U.S.

00:19:52.480 | orders over $75.

00:19:54.600 | So, you should definitely check them out at allthehacks.com/viori or

00:20:00.280 | in the link in the show notes.

00:20:01.560 | Again, go to allthehacks.com/v-u-o-r-i and get yourself some of the most

00:20:09.360 | comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet.

00:20:12.000 | In today's internet age, people's personal information is being shared

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00:20:22.760 | But you can tackle this problem thanks to Delete Me from Abine, and I am excited to

00:20:27.240 | be partnering with them for this episode.

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00:20:42.520 | at least 10 hours, I signed up for Delete Me and it was so much easier.

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00:21:04.200 | customer in their first two years.

00:21:06.080 | So if you want to get your personal information removed from search results

00:21:09.800 | on the web, go to allthehacks.com/delete-me and get 20% off a plan

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00:21:18.000 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/delete-me.

00:21:21.960 | Okay.

00:21:22.880 | While we're talking about big trips, Deidre wrote in, "I listen to the

00:21:25.920 | podcast regularly, I really enjoy it.

00:21:27.560 | We're new to credit card points and love how it opens up all these options.

00:21:31.000 | She has a big international trip coming next year.

00:21:33.520 | It's the first one, and she's crossing seven time zones and

00:21:36.920 | wanted to know my hacks for jet lag."

00:21:38.720 | So thank you so much for listening and congrats on your first international trip.

00:21:43.280 | I am so excited for you.

00:21:44.960 | You're right.

00:21:46.160 | We haven't done an episode on jet lag, but it's a great question.

00:21:48.960 | So here are some of my tips.

00:21:50.520 | I always try to get on the new time zone as much as possible, factoring in what

00:21:56.200 | I think is going to happen on the flight.

00:21:58.000 | So if we had a 10-hour flight leaving San Francisco at 4 p.m.

00:22:02.160 | to London, which is eight hours ahead and it lands at 1030 in the morning, I want

00:22:07.200 | to try to be able to sleep for about six hours on that flight so that when I land,

00:22:11.720 | I feel refreshed enough to make it through the whole day, which means I need

00:22:15.720 | to be tired when I'm getting on this flight at 4 p.m.

00:22:18.480 | So I'm going to try to go to bed super early the night before,

00:22:22.240 | maybe even two nights before.

00:22:23.640 | I'm going to force myself to wake up really early in the morning so that

00:22:26.760 | I get tired by the afternoon.

00:22:28.400 | And if your schedule permits, you could even try to completely

00:22:32.040 | switch to the time zone before.

00:22:33.640 | I know it's a little tricky when it comes to, you know, work

00:22:36.520 | schedules and light outdoors.

00:22:38.200 | But one app that I've heard so many great things about, but I haven't

00:22:41.760 | used yet, is called Time Shifter.

00:22:43.360 | So I would definitely check that app out.

00:22:45.560 | It's literally built just for this.

00:22:47.320 | You can go in and tell them your travel plans, where you're going, and they're

00:22:50.680 | going to propose a way to schedule your days in advance of that flight.

00:22:55.440 | So you can arrive and get as close as you can to that new time zone and

00:22:59.240 | avoid jet lag as much as possible.

00:23:01.120 | A few other things that I always try to do.

00:23:03.760 | I try to stay really hydrated and I try to avoid caffeine

00:23:07.600 | and alcohol on the flight.

00:23:08.760 | I know sometimes you're using all these points in your fine business class and

00:23:12.640 | they're offering you all this free champagne, and it feels crazy for

00:23:16.800 | me to sometimes just decline it.

00:23:18.800 | And look, if you're celebrating your honeymoon, go for it.

00:23:21.640 | But I really try to avoid those things as much as possible so I can get the

00:23:25.560 | right sleep so I can make sure to hit the ground running and not

00:23:28.280 | lose a day or two of jet lag.

00:23:30.080 | A few other things.

00:23:31.600 | When I'm in a new destination, I try to be outside as much as possible so

00:23:35.920 | I can let sunlight do its thing.

00:23:37.520 | And I really try to avoid taking a nap, even if I'm tired the first day or two.

00:23:42.640 | I remember when we got to Budapest, we thought, "Oh, what if we just

00:23:45.640 | take a one-hour nap?"

00:23:46.720 | And we laid down at like two in the afternoon and we ended up sleeping

00:23:50.200 | for six hours and it was a total mess.

00:23:52.720 | So last thing, I've heard wonders about taking melatonin and that helping

00:23:57.520 | regulate your sleep cycle and getting you back on track hasn't been something

00:24:01.240 | I've needed to try, but definitely worth considering if you're really worried.

00:24:04.320 | So once you're in your destination, Pat wrote in asking about the kind

00:24:08.280 | of food tours that I mentioned I love doing when we get to a new city.

00:24:11.880 | Something he's really excited to do when he gets to Barcelona and wanted

00:24:14.960 | to know whether I just jump into any group tour, whether I book a private

00:24:18.440 | one, and trying to figure out what's legit and what's not, what sites and

00:24:23.160 | services to check out, and how to make sure he's going to take a great tour.

00:24:26.680 | So for me, I actually like taking small group tours more than a

00:24:31.080 | private tour because I get a chance to meet people that have maybe

00:24:33.800 | been in the city for a few days.

00:24:35.280 | They have some experiences to share.

00:24:37.200 | Part of why I love traveling is meeting new people.

00:24:40.080 | Many times I've met people that are from other countries and I've learned a

00:24:43.280 | little bit about where they're from and it's sparked new ideas for future trips.

00:24:47.200 | At least 50% of the time we've done a group tour, we've actually ended up

00:24:51.200 | hanging out or having drinks with the people we've met on the tour.

00:24:54.040 | And sometimes like multiple times, some of them we've even

00:24:57.200 | stayed in touch with for years.

00:24:58.480 | But sometimes a private tour is a better fit for what we want.

00:25:02.400 | Maybe it's the schedule.

00:25:03.400 | Maybe we want to do something really different.

00:25:05.040 | Maybe we want to work a few different things in, or maybe we just

00:25:07.800 | can't find what we're looking for.

00:25:09.760 | But when we're looking for stuff, I book tours on with locals

00:25:13.280 | and had a good experience on Airbnb.

00:25:15.680 | Peak.com, I think has some tours.

00:25:17.720 | You can find them on TripAdvisor, but I just try to make

00:25:20.080 | sure I read all the reviews.

00:25:21.720 | There are private tour companies, which can be great, but

00:25:24.320 | they can also be so expensive.

00:25:26.240 | If you find someone that's a local writer, you can oftentimes email them.

00:25:31.200 | Maybe they write for a newspaper and ask them if they'd be willing to set up a

00:25:34.200 | tour, if they know anyone, or if you get to a city and you take a free walking

00:25:37.600 | tour, you can always ask that person.

00:25:39.440 | Many people in the tourism industry know a lot of the other

00:25:43.120 | people in that same industry.

00:25:44.440 | So you can kind of network your way there.

00:25:46.360 | But honestly, if I look at all the tours we've ever taken, we've

00:25:50.800 | only had one bad experience.

00:25:52.480 | And it was so easy to fix because we just bailed on the tour halfway through.

00:25:56.440 | It was a tour we booked of the Acropolis in Greece, and it ended up

00:26:00.120 | being just way too deep in history.

00:26:02.920 | And we were just not interested.

00:26:04.600 | And it was so hot that we just kind of said, "We're run out of time.

00:26:08.360 | We've got to run."

00:26:09.080 | And we called it.

00:26:09.760 | I think if I had read more reviews, I probably would have come to that

00:26:12.680 | conclusion, but we'd booked a few tours on with locals that had gone so well.

00:26:16.400 | I think I just went with it.

00:26:17.600 | But yeah, I'd say read the reviews and go in with an open mind.

00:26:20.880 | And I feel like it will be a great experience almost every time.

00:26:24.360 | Before I wrap up travel, two hacks that I love.

00:26:27.400 | So one, if you have T-Mobile, and this will work if it's a close

00:26:32.400 | family member, friend, your spouse.

00:26:34.160 | There are some airlines, Alaska being one of them, where T-Mobile

00:26:37.920 | will get you free internet, but it's almost always on mobile only.

00:26:42.800 | So if you open up on your iPhone or your Android, it'll say, "Oh, sign

00:26:45.800 | in with T-Mobile and get free internet."

00:26:47.480 | Well, if you're on your laptop, go into your browser and you can actually

00:26:51.160 | open up the developer tools on Chrome command option I, and

00:26:55.840 | you pull up this inspector.

00:26:57.000 | Unless you want to go play with HTML and CSS, you don't need to use this,

00:27:01.280 | but there's a little icon in the top left that looks like an

00:27:03.720 | iPhone on top of an iPad.

00:27:05.080 | And if you click that, it actually shows you a view of what the website

00:27:08.880 | you're looking at looks like on mobile.

00:27:10.440 | Well, what I found is that if you switch to that mobile view on your laptop,

00:27:15.120 | you'll actually refresh the page and get the mobile version of the wifi portal.

00:27:20.840 | And it'll say, if you have T-Mobile, you can log in and get free internet.

00:27:24.400 | So I have a T-Mobile line with one gig of data that is like $20 a month that

00:27:30.320 | I use for international travel and free wifi.

00:27:32.720 | So if I'm on my laptop, I do this.

00:27:34.760 | I log in with my phone number and boom, free wifi on a computer.

00:27:39.120 | It doesn't have to be on your phone.

00:27:40.400 | So I would also consider asking any friends you have that are

00:27:44.040 | close if they have T-Mobile.

00:27:45.320 | I know that when my wife's been traveling, I just give her my T-Mobile

00:27:48.240 | number and as long as I'm not flying the same day, it's really easy

00:27:51.600 | for her to use it to get wifi too.

00:27:53.280 | Thank you T-Mobile for making this possible.

00:27:55.160 | Don't delete my account.

00:27:56.440 | So that's one hack that I love.

00:27:58.960 | The other, I got a few requests in the last few months from people about what to do

00:28:03.560 | about getting a global entry appointment.

00:28:05.760 | And I didn't have a good answer until we recently tried to get a global entry

00:28:11.160 | appointment for our four month old and realized it's almost impossible in some cities.

00:28:15.880 | I went on and looked in San Francisco and it was literally, there are none.

00:28:19.400 | And I was like, wow.

00:28:20.440 | So I started looking online and someone says, keep refreshing the site for the San

00:28:24.360 | Francisco airport.

00:28:25.080 | There was a Twitter account that posts when there's an appointment.

00:28:27.720 | And then I found a site, Appointment Scanner, and it is amazing.

00:28:31.960 | You know, those times where you find a product and you're just like, this is

00:28:34.560 | exactly the product I need for this circumstance.

00:28:37.360 | So I literally signed up for Appointment Scanner and for context, it's $29.

00:28:42.360 | It's a one-time payment.

00:28:43.640 | It's not a subscription.

00:28:45.080 | You get alerts for a month.

00:28:46.360 | And within a couple hours of signing up, I already had an appointment booked for

00:28:50.920 | our daughter the next month.

00:28:52.360 | Over the course of the next few weeks, I left the appointment alerts running just

00:28:56.680 | so I could get a sense of how often things open up and it's crazy.

00:29:00.840 | I was probably getting anywhere from three to 10 alerts a day of new

00:29:05.800 | appointments and almost all of them were in the next couple of months.

00:29:08.720 | So big fan of Appointment Scanner.

00:29:11.880 | If you need a global entry appointment, they send email alerts, text message

00:29:15.360 | alerts, and I would be so surprised if you couldn't get an appointment set up

00:29:20.400 | within a couple of weeks of using the product, if not a couple of days, and

00:29:24.560 | they have a 100% money back guarantee if you don't find anything.

00:29:27.640 | So definitely check it out.

00:29:28.880 | The only catch is, at least for San Francisco, you need to be ready to book

00:29:33.320 | that appointment within like a minute.

00:29:35.160 | So if you're using a password manager, make sure your password's there.

00:29:38.880 | I would even go as far as to kind of notice, is there a time of day where

00:29:42.000 | they seem to be posting them and log in to the Trusted Traveler Program site so

00:29:46.600 | you can get ready to snag that appointment.

00:29:48.440 | But definitely check out Appointment Scanner.

00:29:50.480 | I asked them if they had a deal for listeners because I wanted to give you

00:29:53.640 | guys one, they set me up with a link.

00:29:55.760 | It'll help support the show if you sign up through there, but

00:29:58.240 | there's no special discount.

00:29:59.680 | So you can go to allthehacks.com/globalentry if you want to help us

00:30:03.520 | out, but definitely consider Appointment Scanner if you need a global entry

00:30:07.000 | appointment, it was so good.

00:30:08.680 | Moving on to security and identity protection and everything I

00:30:12.560 | talked about a few weeks ago.

00:30:13.840 | I can't believe I left something off, but thank you, Jeff, for reminding me.

00:30:17.680 | He reached out to let me know I forgot to talk about using virtual credit

00:30:21.040 | cards as a way not to spread your credit card number around the

00:30:23.800 | internet when you don't have to.

00:30:25.120 | So he said that there's a lot of cards that do this now.

00:30:28.360 | He's using the X1 card and really loving that feature.

00:30:31.880 | I'm using my Adventure X card online, not just because I think it's a great card

00:30:35.920 | for earning points online at 2X points, but because Capital One has a browser

00:30:40.280 | extension, they call it Eno, and anytime you're checking out on a site, you can

00:30:44.600 | generate a virtual card number and you can set rules about when it expires.

00:30:49.320 | And then you don't have to type your number online.

00:30:51.680 | So I use that with Adventure X, it's great.

00:30:54.120 | I highly recommend anytime you're on a website that is not something you want

00:30:58.480 | to trust for anything, using a virtual card number, if you don't have a card

00:31:02.720 | that supports it, there's an awesome site called privacy.com that will make it

00:31:06.520 | really easy to generate virtual card numbers, however, you have to pay for

00:31:10.720 | everything with privacy, with a bank account instead of your credit card.

00:31:15.160 | So you're not going to earn points, you're not going to get purchase protection.

00:31:17.840 | So I would say if you have the X1 card, like Jeff, you can do that.

00:31:21.920 | If your card supports this already, you can do that.

00:31:23.880 | If not, I think this is a great use for the Venture or the Venture X card because

00:31:28.560 | the Capital One browser extension is so simple.

00:31:30.560 | My only complaint is that it hijacks command shift E, which is

00:31:34.480 | also centering text in Google Docs.

00:31:36.640 | So I can no longer use a keyboard shortcut to center text in Google Docs.

00:31:40.200 | Capital One, if you're listening, please give me an option to

00:31:42.880 | change the keyboard shortcut.

00:31:44.040 | And if you don't have the Capital One Venture X or Venture card, and you want

00:31:47.320 | to, right now, they're still doing 75,000 point signup bonus, which is worth almost

00:31:52.120 | $1,500, and you can get that at allthehacks.com/cards if you want to

00:31:56.440 | support the show, Jason wrote in talking about Trustworthy, which I've had as a

00:32:00.120 | sponsor, and he wanted to know if I could go into a bit more detail about how I use

00:32:04.240 | it and what other systems might exist to protect all of the information and make

00:32:08.960 | sure family members have access to it.

00:32:10.440 | He pointed out that $20 a month is a little expensive and wanted to know other

00:32:14.240 | options that might be better than his spreadsheet Google Doc system.

00:32:17.320 | So as far as how to make it work and how to set it up and how access

00:32:21.600 | works, it's really simple.

00:32:23.040 | And keep in mind, Trustworthy is no longer a sponsor of the show, but, you

00:32:26.520 | know, I am an investor, so I want a full disclosure, but it's really easy because

00:32:30.160 | you could just go in and add anyone in your family, and they have access, and

00:32:34.880 | you can also add anyone outside of your immediate family, and they can create an

00:32:38.640 | account that will give them the ability to get access if something ever happens

00:32:42.560 | to you, but it doesn't just give them access to everything in there.

00:32:45.480 | They're effectively emergency contacts.

00:32:47.440 | So setting up Trustworthy is super simple.

00:32:50.560 | I believe they have a free trial, so you can go test it out.

00:32:54.120 | I love it because it's just an organized way to find everything.

00:32:58.960 | So we've got, you know, tax returns.

00:33:01.440 | We've got a driver's license, insurance cards, the kind of stuff that it's just

00:33:05.160 | like, "Oh, which Dropbox folder is it in?"

00:33:07.160 | So I really like the product.

00:33:09.920 | Yes, it's not free.

00:33:11.720 | And for me as a frugal person, it's been hard, but when I find products that just

00:33:15.600 | make my life simpler and help me feel good, I've become okay with just letting

00:33:20.880 | that be an expense that's something I'm comfortable with, but if you want an

00:33:25.360 | alternative, something that you could consider is putting everything in one

00:33:28.960 | password and giving the emergency kit to your one password to the people you

00:33:33.480 | want to have access to it.

00:33:34.600 | It's not quite perfect because one, you have to give access to basically

00:33:38.600 | everything in your life to the same person, whereas on Trustworthy, you don't

00:33:42.120 | have to put everything in there if you don't want to.

00:33:44.200 | The other thing, it's not really that organized, so maybe you have to create a

00:33:47.680 | secure note in your one password and tell someone how to use it, and you have to use

00:33:51.840 | some of their information types to, you know, store information or upload files

00:33:57.080 | that might be otherwise different, but I think it could work.

00:33:59.600 | You could also put in a secure note that explains how to get through your

00:34:02.640 | Dropbox or your Google Drive, but I just found that Trustworthy laid it out

00:34:06.960 | really simply, we paid for a year, I think there's a lot of stuff they could do in

00:34:10.560 | the future and I hope they will, and I hope that maybe adds even more value and

00:34:14.160 | makes it an even easier decision for you.

00:34:16.200 | There are also a bunch of other companies that do a similar product, and I signed up

00:34:20.320 | for trials for them, I can't remember all of them, but I just felt like Trustworthy

00:34:23.920 | did it better, which is why I ended up investing in the company.

00:34:25.800 | And so, yeah, that's kind of how I've been thinking about it and why I'm willing to

00:34:31.160 | pay because I just want to be able to organize all this information, and they've

00:34:35.840 | been taking feedback really well, so there are some things that I suggested putting

00:34:39.560 | in there, like the contact info for all of the service providers, whether it's your

00:34:44.320 | cleaning person or your, you know, pest control, that's something they've recently

00:34:48.920 | added, so I just love seeing the product evolve and being kind of that central

00:34:52.960 | place to manage, not your schedule, not your family kind of day-to-day, but that

00:34:58.200 | bigger picture life organization stuff.

00:35:00.960 | And despite that they're not sponsors, it looks like if you go to allthehacks.com/

00:35:04.680 | Trustworthy, you can still get 20% off.

00:35:06.640 | So I don't know how long that will last, but it's still there right now.

00:35:09.400 | Final one on security, Joanne was confused about password managers because she

00:35:14.800 | doesn't like her information being stored in the cloud, which one password used to

00:35:18.360 | not require and now does, and wanted to know if a password-protected Excel

00:35:23.200 | spreadsheet is enough.

00:35:24.360 | She pointed out that she also travels with an encrypted flash drive.

00:35:27.680 | Look, I'm not going to say it's not a good option, right?

00:35:30.840 | I know people that store their passwords in a note on the iPhone, so putting in a

00:35:35.880 | password-protected spreadsheet, especially now that Office has real encryption, is

00:35:41.000 | better than alternatives, but I still prefer using a password manager.

00:35:45.200 | And if I wanted to keep everything local, I'd use KeePass.

00:35:48.320 | It's open source.

00:35:49.560 | I'll actually correct that.

00:35:50.840 | I'd use KeePass XC.

00:35:52.400 | KeePass is an open source password manager that stores everything locally.

00:35:55.760 | I wouldn't say the user interface is as good as 1Password or some of the other

00:35:59.960 | products out there, but it is local.

00:36:01.440 | So if that's what you want, I would definitely check it out.

00:36:03.760 | It's been forked into different versions.

00:36:06.120 | There was KeePass, then there was KeePass X, and then KeePass XC.

00:36:09.320 | From all my research and everything I know, KeePass XC has the best apps

00:36:13.960 | that are the most user-friendly, so that's what I'd be using if I really cared

00:36:17.400 | about keeping everything stored locally.

00:36:19.520 | All right, so that's security.

00:36:20.960 | I want to jump into a bunch of other topics that I'm really excited to answer.

00:36:25.240 | I really appreciate you all sending in these kind of random off-topic questions.

00:36:28.960 | They're so fun to answer, so please keep them coming.

00:36:31.440 | In the future, I don't know if I'll do travel Q&A, money Q&A, or I'll just

00:36:35.960 | kind of throw all the questions in there.

00:36:37.280 | So whether you have a question in any of those topics, send them my way.

00:36:40.720 | Chris@allthathacks.com.

00:36:42.120 | I love doing these episodes and hopefully you enjoy them too.

00:36:45.040 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.

00:36:49.560 | I get it.

00:36:50.280 | Life comes at you fast, but trust me, your friends are probably

00:36:54.560 | desperate for a good hang.

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00:39:52.160 | So first one from David is what are my favorite podcasts and why?

00:39:56.160 | So this is a hard one because I listen to a lot of podcasts, but not all of that

00:40:01.080 | podcast, right?

00:40:01.840 | I find an episode that I'm excited about.

00:40:03.480 | I listen to it, but it doesn't mean I necessarily subscribe.

00:40:05.840 | So I'll start with the podcast I listen to pretty much every episode of.

00:40:09.240 | That's All In, Animal Spirits, and My First Million.

00:40:12.760 | All In is a show, I don't even know how to explain it.

00:40:15.640 | But basically four kind of tech industry vets, and I think mostly billionaires,

00:40:20.760 | just kind of get together every week and talk about the state of the world.

00:40:25.640 | But the thing I love is that the four guys that host it have no concern saying

00:40:32.280 | things that are not mainstream opinions, not what the media is saying.

00:40:36.920 | They're saying it how they feel it is.

00:40:38.600 | And they have a perspective from the access they have to people around the

00:40:42.400 | world and information that they get that I don't that I just think is totally

00:40:46.800 | fascinating.

00:40:47.480 | So it ends up being kind of maybe one third about tech, which is the industry

00:40:52.280 | I'm in, but it's not just like nuanced details about the industry.

00:40:55.600 | Sometimes it's broader things about the trends that are happening in those

00:40:59.520 | companies, the types of benefits they're offering, the hiring plans, the layoffs,

00:41:03.640 | things like VR and whether that's actually a thing and where it's going.

00:41:06.760 | But it's also a lot about markets and the economy and what's going on.

00:41:12.320 | About things that I won't say politics, but there is a tone of politics, but

00:41:17.800 | presenting both sides.

00:41:19.440 | And I don't know.

00:41:20.480 | I just think it's a really good podcast that exposes me to perspectives that I

00:41:24.960 | don't find I get in other places.

00:41:26.720 | I also listen to the Wednesday episodes of Animal Spirits every week.

00:41:30.360 | I think Michael and Ben do a really great job of two things.

00:41:33.760 | The primary thing being kind of commentary on the current market.

00:41:38.000 | You know, what's going on, what's happening, why it's happening, their

00:41:41.920 | perspective being in this every day.

00:41:43.880 | But then they also at the end give recommendations on TV shows and movies.

00:41:48.000 | And I just, I think we, our tastes overlap.

00:41:50.800 | I've had Ben from the show on all the hacks.

00:41:54.040 | He's a friend of mine, but I think it's a really great show.

00:41:56.760 | And I was listening before we even got connected.

00:41:58.680 | Finally, I really enjoy listening to My First Million.

00:42:01.880 | I just think it's kind of inspiration for the entrepreneurial side of my brain.

00:42:05.640 | And I'm constantly hearing about new business ideas I hadn't thought about.

00:42:09.200 | And it just, even if I'm not going to build those specific businesses, it

00:42:12.800 | pushes me to think in different ways.

00:42:14.880 | And the banter between Sean and Sam is great.

00:42:18.440 | So highly recommend that as well.

00:42:20.400 | Then a lot of the other shows I like are either kind of current world

00:42:25.760 | situation dependent or kind of mood dependent.

00:42:29.080 | If I need a laugh, I love listening to SmartLists.

00:42:32.040 | I think it's one of the funniest podcasts out there.

00:42:34.440 | I don't really even care who the guests are.

00:42:36.720 | The banter and the, you know, heckling between each other is just next level.

00:42:42.120 | So love that podcast.

00:42:44.040 | If I feel like I really want to get into what's going on in the world on topics,

00:42:48.440 | I love PBS NewsHour, you know, I know it's a show and it, but it's also

00:42:52.320 | available in podcast form and I love the daily, but I wouldn't say I listen

00:42:55.840 | to each one every single time.

00:42:57.520 | It's just when there's a topic going on in the world, like, you know, the

00:43:01.040 | beginning of some major global event, I like to get brushed up there, especially

00:43:05.320 | when it comes to elections and politics.

00:43:07.960 | I think PBS NewsHour does a better job than most outlets of trying to be impartial.

00:43:13.400 | I know it's very hard for almost anyone to do these days.

00:43:16.040 | I think they do a better job than many.

00:43:17.760 | When I'm trying to really dive into the markets, investing, what's happening,

00:43:21.520 | trends like what's happening when, you know, oil futures were basically going

00:43:26.280 | crazy, I love the podcast Macro Voices.

00:43:28.760 | It is a very deep nerdy dive into the investment world, but I love it.

00:43:34.080 | When I just want an interview to go really deep on a person, I love the

00:43:37.000 | interviews, Rich Roll does and Tim Ferriss does, and then there's a really

00:43:41.000 | fascinating show I'll recommend called How to Take Over the World that a guy

00:43:44.640 | named Ben Wilson, who's recently become a friend, runs where she basically

00:43:49.880 | synthesizes all the information out there about historical figures, great

00:43:54.440 | leaders and thinkers, and he tells their story in a way that I think is so

00:43:58.680 | fascinating.

00:43:59.360 | So definitely recommend checking that show out.

00:44:02.000 | The Thomas Edison episode was really, really great.

00:44:05.320 | When I'm trying to think about money and I just want to kind of learn a little

00:44:08.320 | bit about how people are thinking, Ramit Sethi, another guest of the show, does

00:44:13.000 | a podcast called I Will Teach You to Be Rich, which is just something that, you

00:44:17.000 | know, I think about podcast formats sometimes and how so many are similar.

00:44:21.480 | And his show is very different.

00:44:23.360 | He does an anonymous conversation with couples about money that really just

00:44:28.960 | shines a light in an area that is very rarely seen in public.

00:44:32.880 | So if you're really trying to think about money issues with your spouse or just

00:44:36.720 | want to understand how people think about money, I'd definitely check that out.

00:44:40.280 | And then as a new creator, I've really, really started enjoying the Colin and

00:44:44.880 | Samir show.

00:44:45.760 | You can watch it on YouTube or as a podcast, but they just have these really

00:44:49.960 | incredible interviews with other creators.

00:44:52.440 | They just did two, one with Mr.

00:44:54.360 | Beast, one with Hasan Minhaj, and they were just so fascinating.

00:44:58.280 | Look, if you're not a creator, it might not be fascinating, but David, you asked

00:45:01.200 | what my favorite podcasts are, so I'm throwing it out there.

00:45:03.440 | There are probably another dozen or two dozen podcasts that I've listened to a

00:45:07.600 | handful of episodes on and I follow, but I'm actually a pretty big podcast

00:45:12.160 | searcher, so if I'm looking for a topic or I'm looking to listen to an interview

00:45:15.800 | of someone, I'll just search Spotify, which I think has the best search of all

00:45:20.000 | podcast apps, and I'll find an episode and listen to it.

00:45:22.600 | And if I enjoy it, you know, I might check out some other episodes from that

00:45:25.560 | podcaster, but not necessarily feel like I have to listen to every episode.

00:45:28.400 | So I do have my podcasts that I love and I listen to every episode of, and

00:45:32.280 | then some that just come and go.

00:45:33.520 | But a follow-up, though completely unrelated from Gavin, was if I knew any

00:45:37.240 | software or tips to help bookmark and save information via podcasts.

00:45:40.880 | So he pointed out that he ends up stopping this show and taking notes on his phone,

00:45:45.400 | but didn't know if there was a way to make this more seamless.

00:45:47.600 | So I'll link to one article that I found that I thought was kind of interesting

00:45:51.480 | in the show notes about how to do this.

00:45:53.680 | But I would say there's not a perfect answer here.

00:45:56.440 | I remember back in college, Microsoft Word for Mac had this amazing feature

00:46:02.400 | where you could hit record on your computer and take notes, and every time

00:46:07.840 | you typed a word, it would link that word to the timestamp in the audio.

00:46:11.920 | I would love it if one of the podcast apps out there would let me take notes

00:46:16.680 | as I'm listening and link those notes to the timestamp so that I could go back

00:46:21.000 | and find that part of the episode.

00:46:23.480 | If that exists and I couldn't find it in the research for this

00:46:26.240 | question, please let me know.

00:46:27.720 | Some of the things that I've tried that I think are helpful.

00:46:30.000 | One, if I'm listening to a show and I want to take notes, I'll carry a notebook.

00:46:33.840 | I find that if I write things down in pen and paper, it helps me remember it.

00:46:37.560 | And I can quickly just jot down the timestamp.

00:46:39.920 | If I'm listening in Spotify, I can share the episode and you can

00:46:43.920 | actually share it with the timestamp.

00:46:46.040 | So I can share that or save that in a note on Apple Notes and come back to it.

00:46:50.920 | Or if you're in Overcast, you can share it.

00:46:52.760 | You can create a clip depending on whether you really want to clip

00:46:55.560 | something, or you just want to remember this timestamp or an even simpler

00:46:59.480 | solution, you can just take a screenshot with a timestamp using this new feature

00:47:03.720 | on iOS 16, which I love, which is copy and delete.

00:47:06.520 | So you take a screenshot, you can go in, you can close out, you can delete it.

00:47:10.320 | So it doesn't save your camera roll, but copy it before, and then just go

00:47:13.320 | paste it in notes and add something or email it to yourself.

00:47:16.240 | So I don't think this is perfectly solved.

00:47:19.040 | That's why I try my best to go in and create show notes.

00:47:22.720 | That'll make it easy for you to go back and find the different segments of the

00:47:25.760 | podcast, find the links of the things we're talking about, I've thought about

00:47:29.800 | transcripts, you know, it costs money to get someone to go and make that transcript.

00:47:33.320 | If that's something that you guys would get a lot of value out of, let me know.

00:47:36.960 | And I'll consider getting someone to help create transcripts for the episode

00:47:40.920 | and put those up on the website as well.

00:47:42.320 | Okay.

00:47:42.880 | A few more.

00:47:43.480 | Ruth has said she'd heard me talking about the Peloton on a podcast and

00:47:47.480 | wanted to know if I still liked it.

00:47:49.080 | She's considering whether she does kind of the DIY version or the Peloton or

00:47:54.000 | an NYX fitness bike, and she's not sure which path to go.

00:47:57.480 | I wrote an article many years ago, I called a $2,000 discount on a Peloton

00:48:02.920 | where I shared how I built a DIY Peloton.

00:48:05.800 | It's still up at chrishutchens.com.

00:48:07.880 | And, you know, for a year or two, we had the Peloton experience, or at

00:48:13.560 | least what I at the time thought was the Peloton experience for a much

00:48:16.880 | less expensive price, we bought a few hundred dollar bike, we attached

00:48:20.120 | some sensors that connected over Bluetooth to an iPad, and we paid the

00:48:23.920 | monthly fee to use the Peloton classes.

00:48:26.680 | And I could get some of the data on cadence and speed, but not everything.

00:48:30.200 | And I felt really great.

00:48:31.600 | And then a friend of mine was moving and didn't want to move his Peloton

00:48:35.680 | and I bought it from him.

00:48:37.000 | And I realized that the DIY version just didn't come close to the experience.

00:48:43.320 | And at least for me, there's one really big component of the Peloton

00:48:47.400 | product that keeps me coming back.

00:48:50.000 | And that is that you can race against yourself and others.

00:48:53.280 | So for my personality, and this is why I don't really like SoulCycle, I am

00:48:57.480 | so motivated by trying to beat some record that I've set or a friend's

00:49:02.840 | set that I push myself harder every subsequent ride on the Peloton because

00:49:08.400 | I want to do better than I did last time.

00:49:10.120 | So for me, the DIY solution didn't provide that and ultimately meant it

00:49:15.600 | was like, it didn't have the thing that pushed me to work harder.

00:49:18.400 | So I would never go back to the DIY solution, but if you're on a tight

00:49:22.560 | budget or that feature doesn't matter to you, or if you can motivate yourself

00:49:25.800 | in a way that I can't, then that's great.

00:49:27.440 | You don't need it.

00:49:28.000 | But for me, I love it.

00:49:29.360 | And you know, I don't think I'd do it any other way.

00:49:31.440 | Okay.

00:49:31.800 | Angela wrote in saying, I need hacks for food, planning what to eat,

00:49:36.240 | buying food, coordinating meals.

00:49:38.440 | You know, it's something that happens three times a day, every day.

00:49:41.520 | And the overhead is just a lot.

00:49:43.360 | And so she wanted to know my ideas.

00:49:45.600 | So I would say, I haven't nailed this, but I have tried a few things

00:49:50.320 | that I think would be helpful to share.

00:49:51.520 | My first recommendation every time here is meal prep, which is very, very

00:49:57.320 | different than hiring a chef, which can be super expensive, but hiring

00:50:01.720 | someone local who can prep meals and drop them off and you can reheat them.

00:50:06.680 | If you can't find someone searching online, you can post an ad on

00:50:10.040 | Craigslist, which I've done.

00:50:11.400 | I'll even link to the actual ad I posted, which resulted in me finding

00:50:15.560 | someone that for, I'd say about halfway between the cost of groceries and the

00:50:20.120 | cost of ordering carry out every night, you could get someone cooking to the

00:50:24.640 | dietary restrictions and you know, diet needs you have every night of the week,

00:50:30.040 | usually once or twice a week so that it's not dropping food off every single

00:50:34.520 | day and putting that food in the fridge and you have it on hand and you save so

00:50:38.800 | much time, my wife and I actually like to cook.

00:50:40.880 | So we go back and forth.

00:50:41.880 | We kind of go in phases of, okay, we're doing meal prep.

00:50:44.040 | Okay.

00:50:44.480 | We're going to take a break from meal prep when we're not doing meal

00:50:47.400 | prep and we're actually buying groceries ourselves, shopping

00:50:50.160 | ourselves, cooking ourselves.

00:50:51.520 | I love the paprika app.

00:50:53.840 | I know it's an expensive app.

00:50:55.800 | I know you have to pay for it on each platform you use it on, but I think

00:50:59.680 | it's so good and it's worth it for us.

00:51:01.800 | It has three main functions.

00:51:03.080 | One, it is our database of recipes.

00:51:04.920 | Anytime we find a recipe anywhere on the internet, we use their bookmark

00:51:08.040 | extension and we save the recipe and paprika that we have it.

00:51:10.680 | Two, it is a meal planner.

00:51:12.160 | So we throw those recipes and we say, we're going to make this one on Tuesday.

00:51:15.000 | We're going to make this one on Wednesday.

00:51:16.080 | We're going to make this one on Friday.

00:51:17.320 | And we do all of that every week so that we can plan out what we're having.

00:51:21.040 | And then third, it's a grocery list organizer.

00:51:23.640 | So you can take all those recipes that you have planned for the week,

00:51:26.440 | add them all to a grocery list, uncheck the ones you already have in your

00:51:30.000 | pantry, and it does an okay job of trying to remember which things you've bought.

00:51:34.240 | You might, you know, by, by default, unchecking or checking boxes, but I

00:51:38.040 | think you still have to review it all.

00:51:39.240 | And we use this app every week and it's so, so, so good.

00:51:42.560 | I'm sure there are other apps that do the same thing.

00:51:44.960 | And so you don't have to spend the money on paprika.

00:51:47.200 | I just think a friend of mine recommended it once.

00:51:49.440 | Thank you, Phil Toronto.

00:51:50.680 | And you know, it's just, I love it.

00:51:53.320 | So a couple of things that make it really easy.

00:51:55.960 | We found like 20 recipes.

00:51:58.480 | We've rated them all five stars in the app, put them in a

00:52:00.880 | folder to make life easier.

00:52:02.960 | We just, every week, those recipes make up three to four of the meals a week.

00:52:07.600 | So yes, each week we'll try one recipe that's new, but we'll also just

00:52:11.720 | rotate through the 20 that we really like.

00:52:13.920 | We know we're healthy.

00:52:15.040 | We know how to cook.

00:52:16.240 | We have almost all the kind of basic spice level ingredients for, and it just

00:52:21.040 | makes the overhead of cooking so much easier because we're not trying to come

00:52:24.600 | up with five new meals every single week.

00:52:26.800 | We're like, here's our database.

00:52:28.240 | We're going to pull from this.

00:52:29.200 | That covers 80% of the meals and we'll add one new one.

00:52:32.080 | Maybe we'll add none or maybe one week we'll be really inspired, but that's

00:52:35.560 | really helped us, you know, make that machine move faster.

00:52:38.760 | And then I just bite the bullet and we pay for groceries to be delivered.

00:52:42.640 | Either often on Amazon fresh, sometimes if we're looking for things that aren't

00:52:47.600 | there with Whole Foods delivery, and that makes it a lot faster to get groceries

00:52:52.240 | because I can go order those groceries at 1030 at night before I go to bed instead

00:52:57.480 | of needing to drive to the grocery store.

00:52:59.040 | That said our two-year-old really loves riding in carts at grocery stores.

00:53:03.440 | So if it's an activity for your kids, then, you know, now we've been doing some

00:53:07.160 | of our grocery shopping like that, but if not, if she's not in the mood to go to

00:53:10.520 | the grocery store, I'm not either.

00:53:12.000 | I'll order online.

00:53:13.000 | The one thing that I think Amazon does better than every other grocery

00:53:16.840 | delivery service is I don't think they've ever not had something.

00:53:19.960 | They keep track of what's in stock and what's in their inventory.

00:53:22.720 | Cause they're not actually running a store.

00:53:24.680 | And so you're not missing an ingredient.

00:53:27.520 | Every time I've ordered from Instacart, I've had at least one thing missing

00:53:31.440 | Whole Foods, it's like 50, 50, whether something's missing, they at least do a

00:53:35.280 | good job on Whole Foods delivery, messaging you saying we're out of this.

00:53:38.720 | Do you want something else?

00:53:39.680 | But you know, if you're making a recipe and there's a core ingredient that's left

00:53:43.360 | off, well, you can't make the recipe anymore.

00:53:44.880 | So that's why I love Amazon fresh because they just seem to get it right every time.

00:53:49.240 | Okay, a couple last ones.

00:53:51.160 | Jason wrote in asking whether I'd ever used a virtual assistant.

00:53:55.600 | Feels like he's so busy managing life and considering one after

00:53:59.160 | he read the four hour work week.

00:54:00.480 | But the time getting it set up and answering questions may not be worth it.

00:54:04.600 | So I kind of agree with you in that it feels like it hasn't been worth it.

00:54:09.240 | I've tried it in the past.

00:54:10.680 | I just couldn't make it work.

00:54:12.000 | And then a few weeks ago, Nick Gray, who's been on this show, posted a tweet

00:54:16.840 | thread about how he uses not one, but two virtual assistants, outlined all

00:54:21.240 | kinds of tasks he gives them and how he does it, he wrote a blog post about it

00:54:24.840 | also, and I'm ready to give it a try again.

00:54:27.560 | So I'll try to give an update if and when I do it and how it goes.

00:54:31.960 | But until then, in the show notes, I'll link out to Nick's post, which I thought

00:54:36.160 | was incredible, and hopefully that helps you think about how you

00:54:39.080 | might use a virtual assistant.

00:54:40.400 | He lists all these tasks that kind of inspired me to think about doing this.

00:54:43.640 | Things like scheduling appointments, running through all of his emails and

00:54:47.040 | unsubscribing, creating a budget template and categorizing expenses, ordering

00:54:52.240 | lunch, little graphic design tasks, adding photos to a blog post.

00:54:56.400 | So I'm excited to give this a try.

00:54:58.640 | It's going to be necessary to help scale the podcast.

00:55:01.240 | So stay tuned.

00:55:02.600 | So this next one's not as much a question as some advice from Phil about getting

00:55:07.280 | cell phone insurance free from your credit card.

00:55:09.240 | So he does it with the Amex Platinum and says it saved him so much money,

00:55:13.320 | especially over the cost of getting it from Apple or his carrier.

00:55:17.000 | And it actually covered his entire annual fee by using it.

00:55:19.720 | And so I did a little bit of research to try to make sure I'm brushed up on the

00:55:23.440 | latest cell phone insurance coverages.

00:55:25.360 | And actually, thank you so much, Phil, for writing this because I'd been using

00:55:29.560 | the Ink Business Preferred because of its coverage up to a thousand dollars a

00:55:33.600 | claim, which has now been reduced to 600.

00:55:36.560 | So it's time for me to make a change.

00:55:38.080 | So thank you.

00:55:38.880 | And here's, here's the scoop.

00:55:40.360 | So basically, there are a handful of cards, Amex Platinum, Capital One Venture

00:55:45.640 | X, Chase Freedom Flex, Ink Business Preferred, and Bilt.

00:55:49.040 | There are others, but those are kind of the most common points cards that all

00:55:53.040 | offer some form of cell phone protection.

00:55:55.400 | Meaning, as long as you pay your cell phone bill on the card and a phone on that

00:56:01.800 | plan gets damaged, breaks, they will cover you.

00:56:05.080 | They all have a deductible.

00:56:07.120 | Bilt's is 25, Platinum Venture X and Freedom Flex are 50, and

00:56:11.000 | the Ink Business Preferred is a hundred.

00:56:12.400 | They all have a cap on the claim.

00:56:14.720 | All of them are $800 cap on the claim, except the Ink Business Preferred is now

00:56:18.680 | 600, and then they all have a limit on how often you can use them.

00:56:21.960 | For some, it's two times a year.

00:56:23.680 | Some it's three times a year.

00:56:24.920 | Some it's, you know, a thousand dollars a year.

00:56:27.160 | And, and they'll cover your phone if something happens.

00:56:29.880 | Now, if your damage happens in the first 90 days, I'd highly encourage you to use

00:56:34.280 | the purchase protection you have to cover your phone because it usually

00:56:37.960 | has a higher cap and no deductible.

00:56:39.720 | But if something happens after 90 days and you pay your cell phone on your card,

00:56:43.920 | this is a great option if you break your phone, crack your screen or anything.

00:56:47.440 | However, recently I noticed that carriers, at least Verizon in my case,

00:56:52.520 | offers a $10 a month per line discount to pay with a debit card or the Verizon

00:56:58.240 | credit card, which from my quick looking doesn't make sense to get, which means

00:57:03.480 | that I'm effectively paying Verizon $50 a month to be able to get this insurance

00:57:08.480 | policy.

00:57:09.000 | So I did some quick math and I was like, okay, I'm paying $50 a month.

00:57:12.120 | And, and technically two of those lines are my sister's not mine

00:57:15.200 | because we have a family plan.

00:57:16.320 | So I'm paying $30 a month to be able to have insurance on three phones.

00:57:21.160 | And if any of those, something happens to any of those phones, obviously

00:57:24.720 | I can cover it with a deductible with, you know, in this case with my credit

00:57:28.760 | card, but is it actually worth it to just pay on my debit card, make the $30 a

00:57:34.520 | month.

00:57:34.880 | So I did the math and I said, okay, $30 a month times 12 months, I'm making $360 a

00:57:41.120 | year.

00:57:41.560 | It kind of means that if you get a cracked screen once a year, it's a wash.

00:57:45.200 | If you break your phone or you damage it beyond a screen, it's a better deal.

00:57:49.240 | And if you never crack your screen, then it's, it's actually probably better for

00:57:53.160 | you to just make the $10 per month per line and pay out of pocket for your phone.

00:57:58.320 | So I think it's a personal decision for you.

00:58:00.560 | And if your carrier doesn't charge you to pay with a credit card, then it's a

00:58:03.440 | no brainer.

00:58:03.960 | Definitely put it on a card that gives you cell phone insurance.

00:58:07.080 | But for me now, I'm actually wondering if it makes sense because I don't break my

00:58:10.920 | phone that often.

00:58:11.680 | And you know, if it's within the first 90 days, you can use your purchase

00:58:15.160 | protection.

00:58:15.680 | So I'm actually thinking it might make more sense to switch to paying my cell

00:58:19.440 | phone plan with a debit card and just keep the $10 a month per line and know

00:58:25.280 | that I'm going to have to pay out of pocket if something happens, but thank

00:58:28.160 | you Phil for bringing this up, not only because it helped me realize I'm using

00:58:31.560 | the wrong card and gave me a reason to kind of think about what the decision

00:58:35.360 | I'm making, but because I think a lot of you out there are probably in a

00:58:37.840 | situation where you might have a card that includes cell phone coverage and

00:58:40.800 | you might not be using it to pay your cell phone bill.

00:58:42.880 | So hopefully this can help out.

00:58:44.120 | Finally, very fitting last question came in on Instagram.

00:58:48.920 | How do I not get overwhelmed trying to optimize everything?

00:58:52.480 | So I don't have a great answer here and it's something I want to think about

00:58:55.960 | and maybe cover again in the future as I've put more time into it.

00:58:59.480 | For me, I really enjoy this, so it doesn't feel overwhelming to go deep

00:59:03.960 | on a topic that I'm interested in, but it does take a lot of time

00:59:07.440 | and that time comes at an expense.

00:59:09.160 | So one of the things I've been working on is just trying to find stopping

00:59:13.720 | points where I'm just, this is optimized enough, so it's, we've narrowed

00:59:17.680 | it down to three great hotels, stop, pick one, move on, you know, I'm

00:59:20.760 | trying to figure out how to get a good deal, but I'm at the point that I'm

00:59:24.720 | not likely to save any more than extra $5, stop, move on, so I've come up

00:59:28.880 | with thresholds where it's, if, if the purchase is under a hundred dollars,

00:59:32.040 | I might spend a few minutes finding a coupon code, good.

00:59:34.840 | I'm not going to go crazy, but if it's a thousand dollars, I'm going to

00:59:37.520 | spend a lot more time to try to find a coupon, see if I buy one

00:59:40.200 | on Craigslist and all that.

00:59:41.480 | So I just come up with these stopping points that, you know, I'm, I'm at the

00:59:44.720 | right point and then I have someone, which is my wife in almost all cases

00:59:48.480 | where I'm like, Hey, should we keep going?

00:59:50.440 | And it's so much easier for her to be like, no, stop.

00:59:53.400 | And by the way, the same thing works in reverse.

00:59:55.200 | There was a point where I remember when we were trying to introduce

00:59:58.200 | our first daughter to solid foods, my wife was doing all of this research,

01:00:01.600 | trying to find and create meal plans.

01:00:03.440 | And she was like, gosh, I feel like this is overwhelming.

01:00:06.160 | I was like, was there any other way?

01:00:07.480 | She's like, well, there's this service.

01:00:08.920 | They come with a meal plan.

01:00:10.640 | I think it's called solid starts and it was fantastic.

01:00:13.000 | Full endorsement here.

01:00:14.320 | And she was like, well, they have a meal plan, but you have to pay for it.

01:00:17.120 | I can't remember how much it was, but it was under a hundred dollars.

01:00:19.920 | And I was like, you've spent hours.

01:00:21.280 | You could keep spending hours.

01:00:22.600 | I think it's just worth it.

01:00:23.480 | And it's funny how if I were in the same situation, she was, it would

01:00:27.520 | have been so easy for her to tell me to stop, pay the a hundred dollars and be done.

01:00:30.720 | And, but in the moment, it's so much harder.

01:00:33.680 | So if I'm ever feeling like I'm going too far, I just check in with her and

01:00:38.520 | she often puts me on the right path and I do the same thing.

01:00:41.240 | So that's one tip I have, but I will spend a little bit more time

01:00:45.360 | thinking about this because I think it's an important question.

01:00:47.880 | But if you enjoy it, you know, maybe it's not as overwhelming as it would be

01:00:53.080 | if it was something you found stressful.

01:00:54.680 | So if that's your case, I would say pick the areas in life where

01:00:58.480 | it's more enjoyable and focus your optimization energy there.

01:01:01.960 | Okay.

01:01:02.640 | That is it for this mailbag question.

01:01:04.960 | Thank you so much to everyone who sent questions in.

01:01:08.240 | I got a bunch of other questions that are related to travel points, miles, money

01:01:12.000 | that I didn't tackle today, and I'm going to tackle soon, you know, I've

01:01:15.400 | actually even been thinking about a format that my first million uses where

01:01:18.800 | they take one question every Friday and they tackle that as like a bonus episode.

01:01:22.360 | So a lot of ideas on what I can be doing here.

01:01:25.080 | I'm excited to keep helping answer questions, sharing more information.

01:01:29.000 | Thank you so much for listening and sending things in.

01:01:31.480 | If you have questions, please send them in.

01:01:33.520 | I love doing this.

01:01:34.520 | Chris@allthehacks.com or feel free to DM me, Instagram, Twitter,

01:01:38.720 | wherever you can find me.

01:01:39.880 | Any channel works.

01:01:41.400 | I think that's all I have.

01:01:42.640 | So thank you so much again for listening and I'll see you next week.

01:01:45.560 | I really hope you enjoyed this episode.

01:01:48.800 | Thank you so much for listening.

01:01:50.200 | If you haven't already left a rating and a review for the show in Apple

01:01:53.840 | podcasts or Spotify, I would really appreciate it.

01:01:56.840 | And if you have any feedback on the show questions for me, or just want to say

01:02:00.400 | hi, I'm Chris@allthehacks.com or @hutchins on Twitter, that's it for this week.

01:02:06.200 | I'll see you next week.

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