Top 10 Takeaways from 2024

00:00:00.000 | Over the past year, I've released over 60 episodes

00:00:03.000 | of this show packed with strategies

00:00:04.760 | to help you upgrade your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.200 | And today I'm distilling all of that

00:00:09.280 | into 10 powerful takeaways,

00:00:11.240 | the most impactful insights

00:00:13.000 | from all the research I've done myself

00:00:14.880 | and the conversations I've had

00:00:16.120 | with incredible guests in 2024.

00:00:18.720 | Whether you're looking to invest smarter,

00:00:20.360 | save more, master award travel,

00:00:22.360 | level up your credit cards,

00:00:23.800 | or build habits that stick,

00:00:25.440 | these takeaways will give you actionable ways

00:00:27.560 | to make 2025 your best year yet.

00:00:30.160 | I'm Chris Hutchins.

00:00:31.000 | If you enjoy this, please share it with a friend

00:00:33.280 | or leave a comment or review.

00:00:34.800 | And if you wanna keep upgrading your life,

00:00:36.600 | money, and travel, click follow or subscribe.

00:00:39.880 | Okay, so the first three takeaways are in money.

00:00:42.680 | And number one is that there is no one right way to invest.

00:00:46.600 | Investing is so personal

00:00:48.280 | and the right strategy depends on your situation,

00:00:51.200 | your risk tolerance, your long-term objectives,

00:00:53.400 | and a lot more.

00:00:54.680 | And so in episode 199,

00:00:56.320 | I sat down with Tad Fallows

00:00:57.760 | who started this group called Long Angle,

00:01:00.000 | which is a private network for high net worth investors.

00:01:02.760 | You should definitely check it out, longangle.com.

00:01:05.280 | And I got to attend their summit

00:01:07.440 | where we talked about the 10 lessons

00:01:09.720 | we took away from the conference.

00:01:11.320 | And it was so interesting

00:01:12.720 | that despite that there were so many people,

00:01:15.840 | so smart, focused on investing,

00:01:17.960 | there was no one right answer.

00:01:19.320 | And even in the sessions

00:01:20.560 | where different types of alternative investments

00:01:22.640 | were being presented and shared,

00:01:24.240 | there was no perfect answer between those either.

00:01:26.720 | And it wasn't just that diversification was the only answer,

00:01:29.800 | it depended on how important liquidity was to you,

00:01:32.600 | how much risk you wanted to take on,

00:01:34.480 | how interested you were in exploring the topic

00:01:37.040 | because some types of investments

00:01:38.440 | take a lot of time and energy and education.

00:01:41.160 | So that was one really big takeaway for me

00:01:43.680 | because I think I've always been hearing,

00:01:45.720 | oh, real estate's amazing, let's chase that.

00:01:47.600 | Oh, this is awesome, private credit, angel investing.

00:01:50.000 | And you could chase that strategy

00:01:51.480 | of trying to find the best thing,

00:01:53.000 | but the reality is everyone is different,

00:01:54.840 | everyone has different ideas.

00:01:56.240 | This takeaway also showed up in episode 186 a lot

00:01:59.000 | when I talked to Brian Feraldi about 25 money rules

00:02:01.720 | and when to break them.

00:02:03.040 | Because despite that there are some great rules of thumb

00:02:05.720 | that help you think about personal finance and investing,

00:02:07.920 | like you could take the rule of 110,

00:02:09.960 | where you subtract your age from 110,

00:02:11.880 | and that's a rough percentage

00:02:13.120 | of how much you should keep your portfolio in stocks.

00:02:15.640 | But that really depends on who you are.

00:02:17.640 | And in episode 189 with Karsten,

00:02:19.920 | we talked about the 4% rule

00:02:21.960 | and how yes, it's a great rule of thumb

00:02:23.600 | for how much you need to retire early.

00:02:25.880 | There are so many factors and variables

00:02:27.760 | where for you it might be the 3% rule or the 5% rule.

00:02:31.040 | We also talked about how the percentage of your portfolio

00:02:34.240 | that you want in stocks as you retire

00:02:37.120 | might be really dependent on the market situation

00:02:40.160 | at your retirement.

00:02:41.120 | And going back a little bit further than 2024

00:02:43.880 | to episode 19 with my former boss and mentor, Andy Ratcliffe,

00:02:47.800 | we talked about becoming a better investor.

00:02:49.600 | And he is not really a fan of a lot of speculative

00:02:53.280 | investments, picking stocks, investing in crypto,

00:02:56.200 | but he said, "Look, if you have to allocate 10%

00:02:58.080 | "of your portfolio to that,"

00:02:59.320 | which showed up in the Brian Feraldi episode

00:03:01.000 | as the 10% rule,

00:03:02.120 | that's okay if it allows you to kind of stick

00:03:05.640 | to the portfolio you want with the other 90%.

00:03:08.320 | And so these rules can be helpful as guidelines,

00:03:10.320 | but they really aren't definitive.

00:03:12.040 | And most of them have caveats.

00:03:13.880 | But if there is one right way to invest,

00:03:16.360 | and I know the takeaway is that there isn't,

00:03:18.320 | it's the way that you can stick with.

00:03:20.400 | The key here is consistency.

00:03:22.160 | If you can find a strategy that you can stick with

00:03:25.000 | for the long run that you're excited about,

00:03:27.000 | then maybe that is the right way,

00:03:28.360 | but that doesn't mean it's the right way for someone else.

00:03:30.800 | And when it comes to something you can stick with,

00:03:33.120 | simplicity can often be a lot better than complexity.

00:03:36.720 | And overthinking your investment decisions

00:03:38.840 | can lead you to this analysis paralysis,

00:03:41.280 | which I think we've all been in some way, shape or form.

00:03:44.280 | And so finding that perfect investment can be really tough.

00:03:46.800 | We talked about this in episode 191 with Ben Carlson,

00:03:49.400 | when we talked about 11 lessons

00:03:50.880 | that every investor needs to know,

00:03:52.520 | and thinking about simplicity.

00:03:54.280 | And then I sat down with my old co-founder, Chris Doyle,

00:03:56.840 | in episode 168,

00:03:57.960 | talking about building an investment portfolio.

00:04:00.240 | And we talked about how you personalize your portfolio.

00:04:02.400 | We went really tactical on how to do that.

00:04:04.840 | But at the end of the day, it was like,

00:04:06.840 | is 65, 35, 70, 30, 68, 72, which one's right?

00:04:11.800 | The answer is, if it's gonna delay your time

00:04:14.800 | trying to pick a number,

00:04:16.480 | then any number is fine,

00:04:18.080 | because there's that old adage of time in the market

00:04:20.320 | is better than timing the market.

00:04:21.600 | Well, time in the market is also better

00:04:23.280 | than sitting on the sidelines for years

00:04:25.360 | because you can't pick the perfect thing.

00:04:27.680 | The actual tracking error

00:04:29.120 | between a 68 and a 69% stock portfolio

00:04:32.760 | is probably very minimal,

00:04:34.080 | and won't really affect the long-term outcome.

00:04:36.560 | And if it would, who knows which one would have been better.

00:04:38.720 | So the big takeaway here

00:04:39.600 | is that there's no one size fits all approach for everyone

00:04:42.040 | when it comes to investing.

00:04:42.960 | And what works for someone else,

00:04:44.480 | who by the way, might have a different net worth,

00:04:46.280 | savings rate, level of investment experience,

00:04:48.360 | risk tolerance, it might not be right for you.

00:04:50.720 | And so take the time to figure out what suits you best,

00:04:53.400 | and then try to find a simple version of it

00:04:55.680 | that you can stick with for the long run.

00:04:57.480 | Takeaway number two is that deals can be a side hustle.

00:05:01.080 | And this one really was wild

00:05:02.360 | because I'd always thought about side hustles

00:05:04.480 | and building a business,

00:05:05.880 | like we discussed in episode 154 with Noah Kagan

00:05:08.760 | about building a company.

00:05:10.200 | You know, I've always been in the tech world,

00:05:11.800 | starting companies and raising money and that kind of stuff.

00:05:14.280 | It never really crossed my mind that a side hustle

00:05:16.680 | could actually be something different than a business

00:05:19.560 | in the traditional sense.

00:05:20.880 | So in episode 181, I sat down with Kai

00:05:23.240 | from the Daily Churn podcast,

00:05:24.680 | and we did an episode about making $3,000 a month

00:05:27.200 | from online deals.

00:05:28.280 | And it totally changed my mind,

00:05:30.040 | sent me down a hundred different rabbit holes

00:05:32.120 | that I'm not even gonna go to right now.

00:05:34.560 | But it just really opened my eyes

00:05:36.640 | that a side hustle doesn't have to be a business.

00:05:39.080 | It could just be anything that generates extra money

00:05:41.560 | or reduces your costs.

00:05:44.080 | And so whether that's opening up a bonus

00:05:47.240 | with a bank account, a credit card,

00:05:48.640 | and in episode 177,

00:05:50.080 | we went really deep on bank account and brokerage bonuses,

00:05:52.680 | whether that's finding a way to get deals on meal kits

00:05:55.200 | to reduce your grocery costs,

00:05:56.600 | whether that's finding cell phone deals

00:05:58.760 | to reduce your cell phone bill,

00:06:00.240 | whether that's doing things like buying groups or gift cards

00:06:03.280 | or buying and selling gold,

00:06:04.520 | which is something that I did an episode on 206

00:06:07.160 | with Trey from Pure.

00:06:08.440 | And so all of these different things

00:06:11.000 | can be a side hustle that can generate a lot of income.

00:06:14.160 | And from listening to Kai's podcast and a few others,

00:06:17.200 | it's incredible how much money can be generated

00:06:20.240 | in the form of savings, offers, deals, points.

00:06:23.520 | And I think Kai doing this 10, 15 hours a week

00:06:26.720 | is generating well over 30 to $40,000 a year.

00:06:30.000 | I explored a few of them again in episode 184,

00:06:33.760 | we did five tactics to save $50,000 a year.

00:06:36.720 | And I just really love this concept

00:06:39.360 | and it's really opened my eyes

00:06:40.680 | and in some ways it's taken over a lot more free time

00:06:43.000 | than maybe it should.

00:06:44.000 | And so each week if I find something new that's exciting,

00:06:47.400 | whether it's an opportunity or a deal,

00:06:49.040 | I'll put it in the newsletter

00:06:50.480 | 'cause it doesn't always make the podcast

00:06:52.480 | given how much easier it is

00:06:54.040 | to slot something in at the last minute.

00:06:55.520 | So if you're not subscribed, allthehacks.com/email,

00:06:58.360 | perfect way to find some of these cool deals

00:07:00.200 | as they come up.

00:07:01.600 | But the big takeaway here

00:07:02.600 | is that anything that generates income

00:07:04.360 | or reduces your spending

00:07:05.600 | is effectively a business or a side hustle.

00:07:08.200 | So in 2025, take a fresh look at your spending.

00:07:11.440 | I know Amy and I just ran through all our expenses

00:07:13.400 | and co-pilot, we've got a nice summary for the year

00:07:15.880 | and find a few creative ways

00:07:17.560 | that you can save or earn extra cash

00:07:19.600 | because these deals,

00:07:20.840 | no matter how small they might seem individually

00:07:23.000 | can really add up to huge wins over time

00:07:25.680 | when you do a lot of them together.

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00:09:42.800 | Okay, the next three takeaways are in travel

00:09:44.980 | and number three is moving past checklist travel.

00:09:48.460 | And this one got really highlighted in episode 42

00:09:51.000 | with Lee Rowan, who's been a guest on this podcast a lot.

00:09:54.180 | He's a good friend of mine

00:09:55.600 | and we talked about how optimizing a travel experience

00:09:58.240 | or a trip doesn't mean you have to over plan

00:10:00.520 | and check all the boxes

00:10:01.960 | and how important it is to leave room for flexibility.

00:10:05.160 | This is so much more true with kids

00:10:07.040 | as I've seen the past few years.

00:10:08.760 | And so we actually went through three rules of thumb

00:10:11.040 | for creating an itinerary.

00:10:12.600 | First is just kind of managing expectations

00:10:14.960 | and trying not to overload.

00:10:16.520 | Second is to build a framework for the trip,

00:10:18.560 | maybe set up your scaffolding of a hotel and a flights

00:10:21.080 | and some key activities.

00:10:22.280 | And then three is to kind of visualize and adjust things.

00:10:24.720 | So map it out, use paper, do it digitally.

00:10:26.960 | We like to do ours in Notion

00:10:28.640 | and I share that with Amy, we kind of collaborate

00:10:30.560 | but organize everything together,

00:10:32.280 | whether you put it on a spreadsheet or a calendar

00:10:34.400 | and really just try to understand what's there,

00:10:36.400 | leaving space and looking for balance.

00:10:39.040 | And another interesting point came out of this

00:10:40.800 | and that was from Harry Mitsidis,

00:10:42.200 | the world's most traveled man.

00:10:43.560 | I think he's been to every country in the world twice.

00:10:45.520 | We talked about in episode 179,

00:10:47.200 | how your second and third trip to a destination

00:10:49.560 | is always better than the first

00:10:51.040 | because you get to experience

00:10:52.400 | and understand a place a bit deeper.

00:10:55.240 | And as much as I'm always thinking,

00:10:57.120 | oh, I would love to travel to a new place,

00:10:58.680 | I wanna see something new.

00:10:59.880 | That is an exciting part of travel,

00:11:02.000 | but there are a few countries like Japan and France

00:11:04.320 | where we've gone back over and over again.

00:11:07.080 | I can't explain how awesome it is

00:11:08.520 | to go back to see a place

00:11:09.920 | where you don't feel the pressure

00:11:11.600 | of needing to check off all these options

00:11:13.720 | of places that you have to see,

00:11:15.040 | these must-see destinations.

00:11:16.400 | And you can just really immerse yourself in the place,

00:11:18.800 | get lost roaming the streets,

00:11:20.720 | stop for a meal that you weren't planning on.

00:11:23.400 | It just makes every trip awesome.

00:11:25.040 | And I think the exciting thing is

00:11:26.560 | I'm starting to reframe my mind

00:11:28.280 | that you can just do that anywhere.

00:11:29.800 | It's okay to go to a country

00:11:32.040 | and not see all the marquee destinations.

00:11:34.560 | You can always go back.

00:11:36.120 | I was listening to an episode of the Frequent Miler podcast

00:11:38.600 | where one of the hosts was talking about

00:11:41.120 | going to Australia or New Zealand

00:11:42.920 | and how they only had a week

00:11:43.840 | and they thought it needed two.

00:11:45.400 | And they ended up deciding to take the trip anyways,

00:11:47.800 | even though it wasn't enough time

00:11:49.000 | to do all the things they wanted

00:11:50.160 | because they had this idea of if we love it so much

00:11:52.680 | and we need to see the other things, we can go back.

00:11:54.520 | And that trip was a giant unlock

00:11:56.960 | for all travel for their family

00:11:59.160 | because it opened their eyes to this concept

00:12:01.000 | of you don't need to wait

00:12:02.040 | until you have enough time to do all the things

00:12:04.400 | because you can always go back.

00:12:05.880 | And one other thing that I think really highlighted this

00:12:08.080 | was when we took our group trip to Iceland this year.

00:12:10.480 | So for anyone who doesn't know,

00:12:11.720 | we planned an All The Hacks Iceland trip.

00:12:13.720 | You can actually go on the trip this year in 2025.

00:12:16.800 | There are a few spaces left.

00:12:18.680 | If you go to allthehacks.com/iceland,

00:12:20.640 | you can learn a lot more.

00:12:22.000 | But we went on this trip

00:12:23.800 | and every single person was absolutely amazed.

00:12:26.800 | I think we got 100% five-star reviews.

00:12:29.680 | You can see some of the testimonials in the trailer

00:12:32.040 | on the page I just mentioned.

00:12:33.760 | But what was amazing is that everyone that went

00:12:36.120 | is a listener, they're a watcher,

00:12:37.360 | they're part of this community,

00:12:38.680 | and they're used to planning everything.

00:12:40.800 | But for this trip, they didn't plan anything.

00:12:43.120 | We planned the trip for them

00:12:44.720 | and it was so incredible to see people

00:12:47.080 | just get to enjoy something

00:12:49.000 | and not feel the stress of trying to make sure

00:12:51.080 | they got to see all the things.

00:12:52.480 | And so it was just really awesome.

00:12:54.560 | So whether you hire a guide,

00:12:56.240 | whether you just give up on needing to see everything,

00:12:58.880 | or whether you join us on this trip in Iceland this year,

00:13:01.680 | there are a lot of different ways to embody

00:13:04.040 | this type of travel that isn't just all about

00:13:06.960 | checking off all the boxes.

00:13:08.440 | So if you have big plans this year,

00:13:10.200 | try to make it more about creating meaningful,

00:13:12.080 | enjoyable experiences, maybe at a slower pace than normal,

00:13:15.440 | whether it's a weekend getaway or a big trip abroad.

00:13:17.880 | Okay, takeaway number four,

00:13:19.640 | award travel is still the best deal in travel.

00:13:22.560 | So I have countless experiences myself,

00:13:24.400 | including the summer trip to Europe,

00:13:26.240 | where we saved over $20,000

00:13:29.000 | booking things with points and miles,

00:13:31.040 | primarily at a hotel that's incredible called Caprocot,

00:13:34.640 | where we use Hilton points.

00:13:35.880 | We used Hyatt points at the Paris Madeleine Hotel.

00:13:38.200 | And then we got an incredible deal

00:13:39.480 | on business class flights in United and Air France.

00:13:42.120 | We actually documented how we did all of that in episode 192.

00:13:45.280 | And so I still think that the best way to travel

00:13:47.600 | is to use points and miles.

00:13:49.120 | And if you're just a little bit flexible,

00:13:51.200 | you unlock this outsized massive return.

00:13:54.080 | And we talked all about it in episode 175

00:13:56.280 | with Nick from The Frequent Miler

00:13:57.880 | about how to get the most value.

00:13:59.760 | And flexibility doesn't have to mean just one thing

00:14:02.400 | that you're not flexible in.

00:14:03.600 | So a lot of times people say,

00:14:04.520 | "Well, I'm not flexible on dates."

00:14:06.580 | Well, maybe you're flexible with where you go.

00:14:08.440 | Maybe you're flexible with how far out

00:14:10.300 | or how close to leaving you book.

00:14:12.040 | Maybe you're flexible with how many stops.

00:14:13.640 | There are a lot of different ways to be flexible

00:14:15.780 | and you don't have to be flexible on all of them

00:14:17.980 | to get a great deal.

00:14:19.200 | And so I think this actually has gotten even easier

00:14:21.760 | and better in 2024 and hopefully 2025,

00:14:24.640 | it just keeps getting better

00:14:25.960 | because there are so many incredible tools

00:14:28.320 | that we didn't have three, four years ago

00:14:30.600 | for doing all of these searches for award flights.

00:14:33.120 | So it's never been easier.

00:14:34.520 | In episode 166 and 167 with Greg from The Frequent Miler,

00:14:37.960 | we actually went through all the flight search tools

00:14:39.920 | and the hotel search tools.

00:14:41.160 | And we even talked about award booking services.

00:14:43.380 | If you don't wanna do all this yourself,

00:14:44.920 | you can just hire companies for 100 to $200 a passenger

00:14:48.600 | and they'll just do all the searching for you.

00:14:50.360 | And if they're able to take points

00:14:51.920 | that you would have otherwise used for a $5,000 flight

00:14:54.960 | and get you a $20,000 flight,

00:14:57.040 | well then yeah, it's probably worth that $200 cost

00:14:59.200 | if you weren't gonna do it yourself otherwise.

00:15:00.880 | And so if you have just a little flexibility,

00:15:02.960 | the big takeaway is that using points and miles

00:15:05.600 | to book flights and hotels is really the best deal on travel.

00:15:08.720 | And I hope you get to put that to use

00:15:10.320 | for some amazing trips this year in 2025.

00:15:13.320 | I know we absolutely will.

00:15:15.040 | Takeaway number five, cashback can be better than points.

00:15:18.360 | Now, this might seem completely contradictory

00:15:20.720 | to what I just said about award travel.

00:15:23.160 | But 2024 was the year that I really processed and understood

00:15:27.280 | that you can disassociate earning points

00:15:29.760 | from redeeming points

00:15:31.400 | because points are constantly on sale.

00:15:33.860 | So you could completely focus on cashback

00:15:36.360 | and then use the cashback you earned to buy points.

00:15:39.920 | So I talked a lot about this in episode 170

00:15:43.160 | where I talked about cashback versus points.

00:15:45.580 | And I did a little bit of analysis

00:15:47.400 | for this episode right now

00:15:49.160 | where I looked at some of the most popular transfer partners

00:15:52.080 | where I'm often taking my points from banks

00:15:55.720 | and transferring them to airlines or hotel groups.

00:15:57.520 | And so Aeroplan, Hyatt, Alaska, Avianca, Air France,

00:16:01.640 | they're all ones that I've used in the recent past.

00:16:04.320 | And I looked at how often those points went on sale.

00:16:08.040 | And for that set of just five,

00:16:10.560 | and there are lots of other hotels and airlines

00:16:13.100 | that have points that go on sale,

00:16:14.720 | there were eight, four, eight, 12, and six sales

00:16:17.880 | across all of them accordingly,

00:16:19.000 | which means anywhere from once a quarter to once a month,

00:16:23.400 | these points are going on sale.

00:16:24.920 | And they go on sale for anywhere from a low price of 1.07

00:16:29.320 | or 1.1 cents on Aeroplan and Avianca.

00:16:32.600 | In the middle, you've got Air France,

00:16:34.040 | which on sale is 1.53 cents.

00:16:36.320 | And then on the higher end, Alaska and Hyatt

00:16:38.600 | went on sale for 1.74 and 1.92 cents.

00:16:42.160 | So anywhere from one to two cents,

00:16:44.480 | you can get most point currencies on sale.

00:16:47.900 | Now, if you're not getting them on sale,

00:16:49.480 | usually it's anywhere from two to three cents.

00:16:52.160 | But that means that if you take a card

00:16:53.700 | like the new US Bank Smartly card that earns 4%,

00:16:56.640 | as long as you have $100,000 parked at some account there,

00:17:00.020 | stocks or cash,

00:17:01.680 | you could effectively kind of roll

00:17:03.240 | your own transfer partners by taking the cash back

00:17:06.200 | and buying points on sale.

00:17:07.480 | Or you could buy points not on sale

00:17:08.920 | and then compare the points being on sale

00:17:11.440 | to the kind of equivalent of transfer bonuses.

00:17:13.480 | And kind of, it's a fun comparison,

00:17:15.560 | which I'm actually gonna do an entire episode on this

00:17:18.200 | because I went through and priced out

00:17:20.280 | all the sales from last year.

00:17:22.160 | I looked at all the transfer bonuses.

00:17:23.960 | And so I've got a lot of interesting things to share.

00:17:25.800 | But just high level,

00:17:27.140 | if you're comparing a card that earns 1.5 or 2X points,

00:17:31.000 | you know, the venture card,

00:17:32.180 | or there's a lot of cards out there that are in that range.

00:17:34.080 | You're kind of everything else card.

00:17:35.840 | And you compare that to a card that earns 4% back,

00:17:38.580 | you could have your pick of pretty much every point

00:17:40.740 | I just mentioned when it's on sale.

00:17:42.240 | Because if points cost anywhere from one to two cents,

00:17:45.080 | and you've got four cents to play with,

00:17:47.120 | you can get two to four points for every four cents you earn.

00:17:50.920 | And so you're actually coming out way ahead.

00:17:52.920 | On top of that,

00:17:53.760 | let's say there isn't any award availability

00:17:55.560 | and you have to just buy your ticket.

00:17:56.960 | I know for those of us with a big pile of points,

00:17:59.220 | sometimes it can feel stressful to think,

00:18:00.760 | gosh, I have all these points accumulated

00:18:02.160 | and I've got to buy this ticket.

00:18:03.480 | What are these points for?

00:18:04.520 | That's a great argument for cash back

00:18:06.640 | and using that cash to buy points.

00:18:08.640 | Doesn't come with some cons,

00:18:10.220 | which is that travel just doesn't feel free.

00:18:12.320 | Like it actually, to me,

00:18:13.600 | when you earn these points that aren't denominated in

00:18:16.000 | dollars and you can't convert it easily,

00:18:18.160 | it makes travel feel free and that's awesome.

00:18:21.080 | Even though I know there's this opportunity cost,

00:18:23.080 | it just doesn't feel as free.

00:18:24.760 | And then the other challenge is,

00:18:26.160 | you have to buy these points when they're on sale

00:18:28.160 | for this to be an incredible deal.

00:18:29.720 | Although it's not the worst deal

00:18:31.040 | if you don't buy them on sale

00:18:32.320 | and that'll break all that down.

00:18:33.880 | And so this is something that I just went really deep on

00:18:36.240 | and it's kind of changing my mentality

00:18:38.240 | on how I want to use my cards.

00:18:39.640 | And sometimes I'm getting a better ROI using a points card.

00:18:42.040 | Sometimes it's cash back.

00:18:43.440 | But if you'd asked me in 2023,

00:18:45.460 | whether I'd be spending a ton of money

00:18:47.440 | on cash back cards in 2024,

00:18:49.320 | I would have told you you were crazy.

00:18:50.720 | And that's really been a big shift for me.

00:18:53.120 | I actually built this tool

00:18:54.280 | at allthehacks.com/cardtool,

00:18:56.440 | where I spent, I don't know, 20, 30 hours

00:18:58.960 | building out a model in Google Sheets

00:19:00.900 | to be able to optimize all your card usage.

00:19:02.880 | So check that out if you're interested.

00:19:04.520 | But the big takeaway is that this year,

00:19:06.840 | I want you to consider whether cash back is a better fit

00:19:09.920 | for some areas of your spending.

00:19:12.080 | And I know for me,

00:19:14.600 | anytime I'm able to get 4% or more cash back,

00:19:17.760 | I kind of lean that direction.

00:19:19.780 | But if I'm gonna earn 1% or 2% cash back,

00:19:21.680 | absolutely, I'm almost always going for points.

00:19:23.920 | So it's a little bit of a balance.

00:19:25.560 | If you're working on a welcome bonus,

00:19:27.120 | it's probably gonna blow any cash back rate

00:19:29.120 | out of the water.

00:19:30.200 | But it's just something

00:19:31.200 | that I've really been starting to think more about,

00:19:33.440 | especially as I see all these points go on sale.

00:19:35.480 | This episode is brought to you by Superhuman.

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00:21:50.440 | Okay, the last set of takeaways

00:21:51.880 | really spread all areas of life.

00:21:54.040 | And number six is a big one for me,

00:21:56.320 | which is spend time with the right people

00:21:59.180 | in the right way.

00:22:00.400 | And as we discussed last week in the annual review episode,

00:22:03.260 | we talked about people that are boat anchors in your life

00:22:05.300 | and bring you down,

00:22:06.140 | and it just really highlights how important it is

00:22:08.920 | to spend time with the right people.

00:22:10.520 | Time is such a limited resource.

00:22:12.960 | Sahil had this great blog post

00:22:14.680 | where he showed all these charts

00:22:16.080 | about how we spend time and how that changes.

00:22:18.200 | And if you look at the time you spend with family,

00:22:20.720 | by the time you hit your mid-20s, that's kind of gone.

00:22:24.040 | If you look at time you spend with friends,

00:22:25.880 | surprisingly, it also diminishes usually as you have kids.

00:22:29.420 | Time with your partner is actually relatively consistent,

00:22:32.500 | but your time with children chart

00:22:34.020 | was the really interesting one,

00:22:35.380 | where it peaks for most people in their mid to late 30s,

00:22:39.140 | and then it kind of falls off a cliff.

00:22:40.700 | And the amount of time you spend with your kids

00:22:42.380 | really goes down, which makes sense.

00:22:44.420 | You know, we probably can all imagine

00:22:45.860 | how much less time we spent with our parents

00:22:47.700 | as we went to college, as we moved out on our own,

00:22:50.540 | but it really just got me thinking about how to spend time

00:22:53.540 | and making sure it's with the people you want,

00:22:55.880 | people that bring your spirits up,

00:22:57.400 | people that don't drag you down.

00:22:59.280 | And that just became a big priority for me,

00:23:01.540 | being intentional with time and who we spend it with.

00:23:04.040 | So the summary is to be mindful

00:23:05.880 | of who you spend your time with this year

00:23:07.560 | and prioritize relationships that energize you

00:23:10.080 | and distance yourself from negativity.

00:23:12.280 | And how do you have time for that

00:23:13.720 | is where our next takeaway, number seven, comes in,

00:23:16.160 | which is you can make time in your life.

00:23:18.120 | And there are lots of different ways to do this.

00:23:20.040 | I actually had a whole episode with John and Jake,

00:23:21.580 | number 185, they actually have a four-step framework

00:23:24.000 | how to do this that's in that episode.

00:23:26.040 | Another amazing way to do it is to buy time

00:23:28.740 | through delegation and outsourcing.

00:23:30.680 | And so if you go way back to episode 98,

00:23:32.200 | which technically wasn't last year,

00:23:33.680 | I talked to Dan Martell about buying back your time.

00:23:36.040 | But then last year, I did talk to Sam Korkos

00:23:38.280 | about scaling yourself through delegation,

00:23:40.080 | assistance, and automation.

00:23:41.920 | And that was just such an impactful conversation

00:23:44.680 | that really helped me level up

00:23:46.400 | the way we think about outsourcing in our lives.

00:23:49.780 | And so I think a lot of people here know that we use Oceans

00:23:52.720 | and that's how I found our incredible team member, Pasany,

00:23:55.720 | who has added so much value to work and life.

00:23:58.280 | I actually wrote a whole guide to delegation.

00:24:00.040 | I'll put a link to it in the show notes.

00:24:01.560 | And if you're interested in Oceans,

00:24:02.960 | there's also a deal in that guide and in the show notes.

00:24:05.600 | Another option here is a company called Faye, findfaye.com.

00:24:09.000 | And I don't have any affiliation

00:24:10.120 | other than I tried to hire one of the co-founders

00:24:12.160 | a long time ago, but they basically pair you up

00:24:13.920 | with a part-time family advisor who takes your to-do lists

00:24:17.560 | and all the projects and tasks you have and takes them off.

00:24:19.940 | So it's like a part-time virtual assistant

00:24:22.180 | focused on families.

00:24:23.620 | And with all these AI and language model tools coming out,

00:24:26.820 | I think it's gonna be even easier and even cheaper

00:24:29.860 | to delegate and outsource so many different projects

00:24:32.580 | and tasks in the future, whether they're research-based,

00:24:35.140 | they're work-based, they're errand-based.

00:24:37.700 | One little simple thing that I think isn't used

00:24:40.140 | as much as I thought was just using Uber for deliveries.

00:24:44.620 | And so I remember there was a restaurant

00:24:46.140 | we really wanted to order food from

00:24:47.840 | and it was only available for pickup.

00:24:49.760 | And I looked and sure enough, you could order it for pickup

00:24:53.040 | and then order an Uber to go pick it up.

00:24:54.720 | And the cost of that Uber was like 12 or $13,

00:24:57.360 | but the restaurant was like 20 minutes away.

00:24:59.160 | So from a value of your time perspective,

00:25:01.400 | if you have to drive to that restaurant and back,

00:25:03.000 | it was a great deal,

00:25:04.360 | even if you factor in whatever tip you're offering.

00:25:06.600 | And so I just encourage people to think about their time

00:25:08.840 | and find ways to spend it more intentionally.

00:25:11.960 | But also when you're in the middle of that time,

00:25:13.600 | when you've found the right people,

00:25:14.680 | when you've made time for them,

00:25:16.480 | I think a really important thing is also use that time

00:25:19.520 | to be present, reduce the distractions.

00:25:22.260 | Talked about that with Nate Klemp,

00:25:23.580 | talked about that with Sahil,

00:25:24.700 | talked about that with Dr. Aditi,

00:25:26.300 | and really use that time

00:25:27.680 | to have more meaningful interactions.

00:25:29.580 | If it's at work, maybe you wanna have interactions

00:25:32.160 | that embrace the spirit of radical candor,

00:25:34.300 | which we talked about in episode 169.

00:25:36.300 | And so the takeaway is to take the time that you've made

00:25:38.860 | and then go spend it with the people you care about it

00:25:41.140 | and really be present and enjoy that time

00:25:43.320 | and make the most of it and build

00:25:44.780 | more meaningful relationships with those people.

00:25:46.780 | Okay, takeaway number eight is that prioritizing your health

00:25:49.580 | is easier than you think.

00:25:51.180 | And in the last takeaway,

00:25:52.020 | we talked about how to make time in your day,

00:25:53.780 | but if you wanna take a longer term approach to making time,

00:25:56.860 | it would just be to live longer, increase your longevity.

00:25:59.580 | And I'm increasingly finding my health

00:26:01.880 | to be one of the most important things

00:26:03.480 | to spend the time I have on.

00:26:05.500 | And so it's no surprise, we did an episode on sleep,

00:26:07.980 | on longevity, on breathing,

00:26:10.260 | on metabolic health and on nutrition.

00:26:12.780 | And one of the common recurring themes

00:26:14.680 | across all of these episodes was three foundations,

00:26:17.880 | sleep, food, and exercise.

00:26:19.960 | And I'm not gonna go through all three of them,

00:26:22.360 | but I just wanna share how good it feels

00:26:24.200 | to really start taking these things more seriously.

00:26:26.960 | Any one of them you can tackle,

00:26:28.280 | whichever one is the most important to you.

00:26:30.040 | And if you wanna get started,

00:26:31.080 | one way to start thinking about health

00:26:32.880 | is maybe just do some diagnostics,

00:26:35.080 | whether that's a blood panel, whether that's a DEXA scan,

00:26:37.840 | whether it's checking your VO2 max,

00:26:39.720 | figure out which area of your health

00:26:41.060 | you wanna have the biggest impact on

00:26:42.660 | and start there.

00:26:43.620 | And once you've identified that thing

00:26:44.800 | that matters the most, you can go deeper.

00:26:46.320 | You could do a lot more extensive blood panel.

00:26:48.600 | You can work with a doctor specifically on those things.

00:26:51.480 | And so last year for me, it was all about cholesterol

00:26:53.640 | and really dialing those numbers in

00:26:55.800 | to a point where right now,

00:26:57.080 | I don't feel like I'm gonna have to worry

00:26:59.320 | about heart disease.

00:27:00.520 | And it's not really gonna be an issue for me

00:27:02.580 | for the rest of my life because I have it under control.

00:27:05.120 | And Amy, I know she feels incredible right now

00:27:07.880 | that she took this huge step

00:27:09.820 | of doing a preventative double mastectomy

00:27:12.320 | after learning she carried the BRCA2 gene.

00:27:14.340 | And I actually shared a lot more detail

00:27:15.840 | about that process in episode 175

00:27:18.520 | because it was a major surgery,

00:27:20.400 | but I'm so proud of her for doing it.

00:27:22.280 | And I know she feels so great about her health.

00:27:24.680 | And so the takeaway,

00:27:25.700 | your health is your foundation for everything else.

00:27:28.600 | Take inventory, address whatever matters the most for you.

00:27:32.040 | It's amazing how little simple things,

00:27:34.000 | whether it's diet to the way you breathe

00:27:35.800 | can actually have really big impacts on your health.

00:27:38.040 | All right, takeaway number nine

00:27:39.160 | is that the key to good communication is listening.

00:27:42.440 | And this one's hard for me,

00:27:43.480 | and it's really counterintuitive.

00:27:45.120 | And you'd think that if you wanna be the best communicator,

00:27:47.360 | you really need to learn to speak better.

00:27:49.380 | But it seems every person I talk to

00:27:51.200 | has told me that's wrong.

00:27:52.920 | I had a great conversation with Charles Duhigg

00:27:55.600 | in episode 159 about becoming a super communicator.

00:27:58.600 | And he effectively said that effective communication

00:28:00.840 | all starts with good listening.

00:28:02.760 | And while it wasn't last year,

00:28:04.440 | I go back to a really early episode,

00:28:06.280 | number 17 with Kwame Christian about negotiating.

00:28:09.080 | And I remember how we talked about then

00:28:10.640 | how important it is to listen as part of negotiating.

00:28:13.620 | But I think I was thinking about it too narrowly back then.

00:28:15.500 | It was like, oh, it's just about negotiating,

00:28:17.120 | but it's really about all types of communication.

00:28:19.240 | We even talked about in episode 162,

00:28:21.200 | Dan Pink came on to talk about persuasion.

00:28:23.840 | And he talked about how listening

00:28:25.160 | can be a really persuasive tool.

00:28:26.760 | Talk less, listen more.

00:28:28.060 | It's just something that I'm always working on

00:28:30.600 | and trying to do better.

00:28:32.000 | And this also made me think about the conversation I had

00:28:34.120 | with my mentor, Andy Ratcliffe.

00:28:35.880 | It was in episode 174.

00:28:37.700 | But he highlighted that one of the things

00:28:39.360 | he looks for in people is a learn-it-all mindset

00:28:42.280 | instead of a know-it-all mindset.

00:28:43.680 | And he's said that in meetings and conversations,

00:28:46.280 | he always sees people getting drawn

00:28:48.360 | towards people who absorb more

00:28:50.280 | and don't dominate conversations.

00:28:52.080 | And so I think applying this takeaway,

00:28:54.360 | this idea of listening more throughout your life in 2025

00:28:58.720 | will pay so many dividends.

00:29:00.640 | And one of the things that's actually helped me

00:29:01.880 | think about being a better listener in the coming year

00:29:04.760 | is these three levels of listening

00:29:06.360 | that we talked about in episode 190.

00:29:08.100 | You go from me listening to you listening to us listening

00:29:11.180 | and the impact kind of being aware

00:29:13.700 | of those types of listening can have.

00:29:15.580 | And one fun tip for trying to get better at this

00:29:18.700 | is when you're sitting in a conversation with anyone,

00:29:21.420 | ask open-ended questions

00:29:23.380 | to really foster a deep connection

00:29:25.060 | and give yourself an opportunity to listen better.

00:29:26.980 | Ask someone a question about their childhood,

00:29:28.620 | about an experience they have, a place they've been,

00:29:30.700 | where they can spend a lot of time answering,

00:29:32.520 | usually on a topic they're excited about.

00:29:34.220 | And so in the year ahead,

00:29:35.420 | try to practice really active listening

00:29:37.560 | in all of your conversations,

00:29:38.820 | whether it's with partners, kids, co-workers,

00:29:41.020 | or even strangers, and see how it impacts your relationships.

00:29:44.300 | Okay, final takeaway, number 10,

00:29:46.320 | building good habits takes time,

00:29:48.460 | but it's absolutely worth it.

00:29:50.120 | And one of the most important habits I built last year

00:29:52.140 | was waking up early.

00:29:53.300 | And I've never really been a morning person.

00:29:55.220 | I've always been a little bit more of a stay up late

00:29:57.420 | and get stuff done.

00:29:58.380 | And I was able to create this uninterrupted time

00:30:00.260 | in my schedule, anywhere from one to two hours,

00:30:02.460 | depending on when I woke up, when the kids woke up.

00:30:04.660 | And I've used that time for exercise, for work,

00:30:07.060 | for cold plunges, and a lot more, and it feels easy now.

00:30:10.620 | And the trick for me was that it wasn't about

00:30:13.060 | when I woke up, it was about when I went to bed.

00:30:14.860 | And so I made my habit at night.

00:30:17.180 | So in episode 159, Charles Duhigg,

00:30:18.980 | who kind of wrote the book about habits,

00:30:21.240 | talked about this three-stage cycle

00:30:23.740 | and how you can repeat it to really build new behavior.

00:30:26.680 | So you start with a cue and the signal

00:30:28.400 | that triggers your brain to act,

00:30:29.820 | and you look at the automatic action

00:30:31.620 | and how the behavior comes from the cue,

00:30:34.020 | and then think of a reward

00:30:35.300 | to reinforce the behavior you want.

00:30:37.340 | And so as silly as this sounds, for Amy and I,

00:30:39.860 | we had this reward that I didn't even realize was happening,

00:30:42.380 | which was as soon as we got to bed,

00:30:44.940 | we'd watch a show for half an hour before we go to sleep.

00:30:47.620 | And to everyone who says that's not the best path for sleep,

00:30:50.220 | yes, I get it, but it's what happened.

00:30:52.300 | And it really worked well for this habit

00:30:54.700 | because that was our reward.

00:30:56.880 | So the cue was that our girls fell asleep

00:30:58.980 | and the automatic action was, okay, girls are asleep,

00:31:01.060 | let's get in bed.

00:31:01.980 | And the reward was we got to watch a show together

00:31:03.860 | and that was really fun.

00:31:04.740 | And so we did that.

00:31:06.060 | And now we're regularly and consistently waking up

00:31:09.300 | anywhere from five to six in the morning.

00:31:12.340 | And we have a lot of time on our hands

00:31:14.420 | in that morning window that we use way more productively

00:31:17.260 | than the extra one or two hours

00:31:18.740 | we were using at night before.

00:31:20.780 | And so a few tactics to support this.

00:31:22.300 | What I really like is just focus on keystone habits

00:31:24.820 | that can create this kind of chain reaction

00:31:27.400 | of other behaviors.

00:31:28.840 | So for example, waking up early

00:31:30.860 | might create this chain reaction that you go exercise.

00:31:33.940 | In fact, exercise can be a keystone habit

00:31:36.020 | that might inspire healthier eating or more confidence,

00:31:38.900 | which can affect your work or your life, your relationships.

00:31:41.900 | So that keystone habit idea is really great.

00:31:44.140 | And because habits like this take time,

00:31:46.300 | I would encourage you to try something

00:31:48.220 | that Sahil Bloom suggested,

00:31:49.740 | which is this 30 for 30 approach,

00:31:51.500 | which is commit for 30 days

00:31:54.060 | and 30 minutes for those 30 consecutive days

00:31:56.820 | and see what happens after that.

00:31:58.460 | For me, once I've done something for about a month,

00:32:01.600 | it no longer feels as hard as it did in the first place.

00:32:04.880 | So the takeaway, building good habits

00:32:06.320 | can be challenging at first,

00:32:07.520 | but the results are totally worth it.

00:32:09.060 | So start small, focus on keystone habits

00:32:11.600 | because they create a ripple effect in your life.

00:32:13.880 | And let's try to commit all of us

00:32:16.000 | to building some better habits in the year ahead.

00:32:18.260 | Okay, that is it for this episode.

00:32:20.200 | It was so hard to narrow down so many conversations

00:32:23.120 | and episodes into just 10 takeaways,

00:32:25.460 | but it was actually a really amazing process for me.

00:32:27.640 | I learned so much doing it.

00:32:29.200 | I really hope it's helpful for you as well.

00:32:31.460 | If you had any other big takeaways from the show

00:32:34.140 | from the past year, I would love to hear them.

00:32:37.200 | Please send me an email, podcast@allthehacks.com

00:32:40.280 | or leave a comment or review

00:32:41.840 | wherever you're listening to this now.

00:32:44.160 | That is it for this week.

00:32:45.800 | I will see you next week.

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