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Speaker 1: How's it going, buddy.

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Speaker 2: I'm fantastic doing well. I'm so good.

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Speaker 1: So listeners who have listened to the show for a

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Speaker 1: while might know, might remember that occasionally we release what

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Speaker 1: are called besty episodes. This is one such besty episode,

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Speaker 1: and there are two reasons we call them our best episodes. One,

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Speaker 1: they are some of our favorite episodes and it is

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Speaker 1: content that we think needs to get back out there

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Speaker 1: again for you to hear it. But secondly, we call

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Speaker 1: them besty episodes because you and I we're best friends,

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Speaker 1: that's right. And evidence of that is the fact that

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Speaker 1: you and I, along with our wives are currently over

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Speaker 1: in Scotland.

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Speaker 2: Well not while we're recording this in intro, but we're

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Speaker 2: going to be win this episode by the time this

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Speaker 2: episode airs exactly because we truly are best friends.

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Speaker 1: And this was a much needed international little vacation, little

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Speaker 1: trip without.

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Speaker 2: Any kids, right, And I was gonna say, with you

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Speaker 2: got four young kids, I've got three young kids. It's

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Speaker 2: really tough to make this happen. Difficult, mad props to

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Speaker 2: our parents for taking on the task of taking these

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Speaker 2: kids for a week.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's difficult because well you recently he flew out

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Speaker 1: to La. We didn't talk about whether how easy or

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Speaker 1: difficult that was flying with kids. It was actually so

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Speaker 1: much easier, not too bad. So actually because there's a

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Speaker 1: screen with unlimited content and they loved it. It helps

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Speaker 1: a lot. So it's difficult to travel when you were

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Speaker 1: you know, when you've got babies, and that's kind of

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Speaker 1: the stage of life we've been in. I mean, I,

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Speaker 1: Kate and I we haven't been out of the country

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Speaker 1: in over ten years, and so that's another reason I've

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Speaker 1: been looking forward to this.

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Speaker 2: Trip for so much.

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Speaker 1: But also having kids is not cheap, and being self employed,

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Speaker 1: we paid, we self paid having four kids. And just

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Speaker 1: so you know, I'm not trying to discourage anybody out

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Speaker 1: there who works for themselves and you're thinking about having kids.

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Speaker 1: But it's about ten grand is what we paid. So

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Speaker 1: that's pop a pop. So that's forty g's right there.

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Speaker 1: Imagine all the vacations we could have gone that instead

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Speaker 1: went towards raising a beautiful family that I love very

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Speaker 1: very much.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've got passports in hand. We're in scott and

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Speaker 2: we talked about that. Those travails too, fortunately, but.

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Speaker 1: Well, guess what, you don't have to be loaded in

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Speaker 1: order to travel. True, that's actually what we talk about

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Speaker 1: with Ryan Kelly, the Points Guy, and he talks about

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Speaker 1: how you can utilize credit cards, the benefits and the

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Speaker 1: points that they offer in order to fly in order

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Speaker 1: to travel for much, much less money.

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Speaker 2: And by the way, if you're inspired after listening to

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Speaker 2: this episode, you can go to how to money dot

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Speaker 2: com slash credit cards. Check out our tool which will

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Speaker 2: help you toggle and see which credit card is going

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Speaker 2: to be the best for you, going to give you

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Speaker 2: the most bang for your buck in regards to sign

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Speaker 2: up bonuses and recurring rewards, So be sure to check

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Speaker 2: that out. But Matt, that's enough. Let's get back to

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Speaker 2: our Scottish hiking adventure and let's play this episode of

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Speaker 2: Brian Kelly hanging out with us on how to Money.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,

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Speaker 2: and today we're talking jet setting for little to no

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Speaker 2: money with the Points Guy, Brian Kelly.

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Speaker 1: That's right. Brian Kelly is known all over the internet

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Speaker 1: as the Points Guy. It's better than Joel's nickname, which

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Speaker 1: we will not talk about it here.

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Speaker 2: Thank you appreciate that.

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Speaker 1: But even if you haven't heard of Brian himself. There's

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Speaker 1: a good chance you've been to his site, thepointsguide dot com,

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Speaker 1: just as like millions of travelers flock there to learn

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Speaker 1: how they can learn to travel on the cheat by

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Speaker 1: using credit card points. At this point, Brian, he's got

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Speaker 1: an entire staff of writers who are They're all travel experts,

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Speaker 1: from offices in Austin to New York, all the way

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Speaker 1: over to London, which of course frees Brian up to

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Speaker 1: be able to spend even more of his time traveling.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking all about that today, Brian. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for joining us on the podcast.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for having.

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Speaker 2: Me, Brian. We're glad to have you. And the thing

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Speaker 2: Matt and I do every episode is we like to

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Speaker 2: drink a craft beer because it's delicious, but we're also

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Speaker 2: saving money and investing for our future, but we splurge

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Speaker 2: on craft peer even while we're doing that. Do you

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Speaker 2: have something you spoor?

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Speaker 3: John?

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Speaker 2: I know you're you're smart with your money, You're thinking

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Speaker 2: about retirement and all that stuff, But what are you

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Speaker 2: doing right now that you just kind of Other people

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Speaker 2: might be like that's a little wasteful, man, but you're like, no,

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Speaker 2: it's worth it for me.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'll say I splurge on credit cards. You know,

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Speaker 3: sometimes people will say, oh, I just want to know

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Speaker 3: annual fee credit card, and actually those are the worst

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Speaker 3: in terms of value and benefits. So you know, I

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Speaker 3: have credit cards. I have twenty five credit cards actually,

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Speaker 3: and I pay quite a bit in annual fees, but

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Speaker 3: I get more than that backend value. So I guess

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Speaker 3: my my key message to people is don't look at

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Speaker 3: trying to skimp on credit card fees because the less

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Speaker 3: you pay, the less you get. Okay, and these days

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Speaker 3: it's not just points. You can actually get lounge access

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Speaker 3: and when airlines completely mess up and delay your flights,

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Speaker 3: having good credit cards that's actually where you're going to

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Speaker 3: get protection. You know, your credit card will cover the

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Speaker 3: cost of your hotel if you get stranded, not the airline.

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Speaker 3: I would say. The other thing I splurge on is luggage.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'm on the raaturally and so I love

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Speaker 3: Ramova luggage or Ramoa if you're if you're saying it

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Speaker 3: an American, it's and I'm six seven, so the handles

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Speaker 3: come up really high, which as a tall traveler, super key,

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Speaker 3: and it's so they're just high quality.

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Speaker 1: You know they're super expensive, but into this hunched over

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Speaker 1: with your with your roller case, feeling like totally yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's wear back and.

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Speaker 3: The wheels are amazing, and you know they're really good.

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Speaker 3: You buy cheap luggage and it's gonna throw your back out.

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Speaker 3: You know, as a tall person, I have to bend

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Speaker 3: over half the time. So investing quality luggage it'll pay

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Speaker 3: off in the end.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's interesting. So most people would see what like

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Speaker 2: a six hundred dollars annual fee on a credit card

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Speaker 2: and they would balk, and you would say, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: you got to look at the fine print. There's a

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Speaker 2: lot of value you're getting there if you use it right.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, a lot of these cards will give you, you know,

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Speaker 3: three hundred dollars and travel perks right off the bat,

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Speaker 3: like on the chase, a fire reserve. All of a

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Speaker 3: sudden you're getting tsa pre check, global entry. You start

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Speaker 3: adding up all these different perks and the cards easily

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Speaker 3: pay for themselves. Plus they give you, Like I mentioned,

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Speaker 3: what I want people to look at. Points are great,

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Speaker 3: and we can talk about points all day long, but

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Speaker 3: what people don't pay attention to enough is the perks

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Speaker 3: of their credit cards. I'm talking on these high end cards,

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Speaker 3: you know. On my Amex Platinum, I bought a Montclair jacket,

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Speaker 3: went to Iceland, lost it because we're filming, and I

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Speaker 3: left it at a place we were filming, and Amex

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Speaker 3: immediately took the two thousand dollars instantly off my account.

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Speaker 1: So that's the excess of jacket.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I probably should.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's what I hear. But hey, if you're

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Speaker 1: filming this is that was probably a business expense.

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Speaker 2: And that's it. Yeah, if your credit card backs you up,

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Speaker 2: I mean that's huge. We talked about that before too, Like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's a let's say you drop your cell phone and

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Speaker 2: you crack the screen. It's depending on which credit card

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Speaker 2: you put that cell phone on and you pay your

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Speaker 2: monthly bill with. It's like there's protection for that, Like

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Speaker 2: you're covered. You don't have to come out.

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Speaker 3: Of pocket totally. And it's stuff. You know, you lose

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Speaker 3: a pair of sunglasses, we all do that. You can

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Speaker 3: actually as long as you bought it with the ninety

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Speaker 3: days on a lot of credit cards, like they'll immediately

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Speaker 3: take it off. So I urge people to look into

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Speaker 3: the perks and you know, I'm not saying get twenty

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Speaker 3: five credit cards, but have a couple solid cards in

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Speaker 3: your pocket that give you tons of different perks, so

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Speaker 3: you're covered when traveling, when buying things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we talk about using credit cards strategically and

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Speaker 1: excited to talk more about that here in the episode. Brian,

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Speaker 1: we kind of launched into it, but actually want to

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Speaker 1: kind of step back a little bit, like talk to

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Speaker 1: us about starting the points guy. How is it that

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Speaker 1: you first got interested basically in travel to begin with?

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Speaker 3: Well, travel, I grew up one of four kids, grew

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Speaker 3: up you know, middle class, suburban Philadelphia, and in the nineties,

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Speaker 3: my dad got a job for a startup and so

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Speaker 3: he was working from home and he was not very

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Speaker 3: tech savvy, and he had to book his own travel

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Speaker 3: and he was flying from Philly to la like every

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Speaker 3: other week. And my first job was actually because I

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Speaker 3: was always the computer whiz in my house, you know,

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Speaker 3: I was twelve years old and booking all of his

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Speaker 3: travel on Travelocity, which just launched in nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 3: So that was that was my first job. I kind

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Speaker 3: of fell into travel as my dad's like travel agent.

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Speaker 3: And then one day he said, I have all these

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Speaker 3: points and frequent flyer miles if you can figure out

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Speaker 3: how to use them, like plan a trip. And so

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Speaker 3: I had just finished reading The Firm by John Grisham,

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Speaker 3: and it was half of it was based and they

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Speaker 3: came in islands, and I remember just thinking I was

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Speaker 3: I was twelve years old. So I called up the

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Speaker 3: airlines and I figured out a way. I used US

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Speaker 3: Airways miles to find my dad and three siblings. They

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Speaker 3: flew NonStop from Philly. My mom and I used as

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Speaker 3: American miles connected through Miami, and I found a house

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Speaker 3: that we rented on VRBO. So basically we got this

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Speaker 3: amazing trip for you know, cheaper than it would have

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Speaker 3: caused us to go to the Jersey Shore, which is

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Speaker 3: where everyone in Philly goes to vacation. And that's really

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Speaker 3: what set us off. So it became like a bonding

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Speaker 3: thing in the nineties with my dad and I cool.

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Speaker 2: And this was like your equivalent of getting bitten by

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Speaker 2: a radio active spider, right, a different kind of yes

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Speaker 2: that Brian had for Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And then in college, you know, I studied abroad and

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Speaker 3: with student body presidents, so all of a sudden I

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Speaker 3: got elite status and that's when I really like started

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Speaker 3: googling and I found flyer Talk, which is like the

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Speaker 3: og message boards for frequent flyers. And it was basically

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Speaker 3: my AHA moment in two thousand and four when I'm like,

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Speaker 3: wait a minute, there's thousands of people around the world

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Speaker 3: that do this frequent flyer thing too. And that's really

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Speaker 3: when I went in hardcore and started to like get

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Speaker 3: involved and understanding all the nuances of these programs and

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Speaker 3: started The Points Guy in twenty ten just as a

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Speaker 3: fun little side blog and it just kind of took

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Speaker 3: off almost immediately.

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Speaker 2: Well, and when you started the Points Guy, wasn't wasn't

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Speaker 2: kind of your initial in like individualized sort of travel

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Speaker 2: booking help out to folks who would reach out. So

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Speaker 2: now what has become this like phenomenon you've kind of

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Speaker 2: taken over the internet in terms of credit card points well,

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Speaker 2: but it was just kind of a one to one

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Speaker 2: service in the beginning, right.

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Speaker 3: Total the point when I launched The Points Guy in

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Speaker 3: April of twenty ten, it was just a shell site

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Speaker 3: that said it was a form and you could put

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Speaker 3: in your points and I would basically look at where

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Speaker 3: you wanted to go and if I could help you,

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Speaker 3: I'd charge you fifty dollars a ticket. So I was

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Speaker 3: basically a points travel agent. So I was working at

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Speaker 3: Morgan Stanley and campus recruiting. I would come home from

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Speaker 3: work and then I would go through and help people

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Speaker 3: book trips using their points. So it was just a

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Speaker 3: pure and simple side hustle. A couple months later, like

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Speaker 3: June of twenty ten, a friend said, hey, you should

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Speaker 3: be blogging because he was an SEO expert, which in

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Speaker 3: twenty ten I had no idea what SEO.

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Speaker 1: Was or a brand new thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah he but he said, I'm going to hook you

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Speaker 3: up with the word press blog. It's so easy, you

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Speaker 3: like will be able to figure it out. And he's like,

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Speaker 3: just blog once a day at the same time on

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Speaker 3: the same topic. And he's like, trust me, Google will

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Speaker 3: soon enough figure out that you're an authority and it

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Speaker 3: will become you know, it'll be your best way to

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Speaker 3: get new clients, right because people. So I started writing

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Speaker 3: articles how to use amex points to go to Europe,

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Speaker 3: how to use Chase points to go to Hawaii, and

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Speaker 3: slowly but surely, you know, and of course I was

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Speaker 3: spamming all of my friends and I was posting on

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Speaker 3: Flyer Talk with the Points Guy, the new blog for

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Speaker 3: all things travel Points every month. It just started to

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Speaker 3: double at that point. And yeah, so it wasn't until

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Speaker 3: twenty eleven where my model switched. I realized doing these

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Speaker 3: one on one consultations was a pain. You know, it

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Speaker 3: would take hours to do. Sometimes people would forget to books,

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Speaker 3: so my hours of work, I'd have to redo it.

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Speaker 3: So it was very frustrating doing like that one on

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Speaker 3: one consumer business. But I was able to flip it

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Speaker 3: on its head when affiliate marketing companies reached out to

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Speaker 3: me in early twenty eleven and they were like, hey, Brian,

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Speaker 3: you're writing about you know, the Amex Platinum and the

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Speaker 3: Chase Sapphire, but you're going directly to Chase. If you

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Speaker 3: used our links, we'll pay you per approval you get

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Speaker 3: through your site. And I started to do the math

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Speaker 3: that what they were paying, and it was like, you know,

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Speaker 3: I had fifty thousand blog readers in twenty eleven, early

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Speaker 3: twenty eleven, I'm like, if I only convert one percent

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Speaker 3: of them, this could be a massive business. And from

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Speaker 3: that point on, it just it just skyrocketed.

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Speaker 1: And that's when you quit your recruiting job. Right, that's

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Speaker 1: what that's that's when you realize the real potential that

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Speaker 1: you had before you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I got into yeah affiliate

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Speaker 3: marketing in February of twenty eleven, toyed around with it,

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Speaker 3: started to make some money, and then in April of

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Speaker 3: twenty eleven, the New York Times had written in an

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Speaker 3: article about the points Guy and it just completely and then,

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Speaker 3: unbeknownst to me, you know, with that New York Times

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Speaker 3: link to the points Guy, my SEO credibility shot up dramatically,

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Speaker 3: right because all of a sudden, Google's like, the New

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Speaker 3: York Times is writing about this site. So the points

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Speaker 3: Guy started to become like the first result. So it

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Speaker 3: was just a huge snowball effect. So yeah, I started

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Speaker 3: blogging June of twenty ten, and I quit my job

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Speaker 3: April of twenty eleven. It was that kind of wild.

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Speaker 1: And you haven't looked back since. Let's talk more recently, Brian,

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Speaker 1: specifically COVID that's obviously had a major impact on the

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Speaker 1: travel industry for you personally, did the pandemic cramp your

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Speaker 1: ability to travel?

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Speaker 3: It did in the beginning, and honestly, I went ninety

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Speaker 3: days or maybe one hundred days without traveling, which I

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Speaker 3: think was the longest period since high school. You know,

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Speaker 3: I was thirty seven years old when the pandemic hit,

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Speaker 3: and for me, that was actually I'm an optimist in life,

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Speaker 3: and that was the moment when I realized, because I

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Speaker 3: wasn't just constantly traveling and jet lag, like, what do

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Speaker 3: I really want in life? So I was able to,

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Speaker 3: you know, realize I wanted to become a dad. So

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Speaker 3: I started that process, you know, in twenty twenty of

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Speaker 3: going through surrogacy, being a gay man, pursuing that. And

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Speaker 3: I'm happy to announce that that process is about to

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Speaker 3: come to fruition as I'm on the cusp of becoming

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Speaker 3: a dad.

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Speaker 2: So hooray, that's awesome, man. We're so pup for you.

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Speaker 3: Thank you. Yeah. So that the lull that I had

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Speaker 3: in travel helped me kind of reset refocus. But I

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Speaker 3: did start traveling summer of twenty twenty, and I have

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Speaker 3: to say, you know, twenty twenty one I had some

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Speaker 3: of my most epic trips. You know, I was in Croatia,

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Speaker 3: the only EU country allowing Americans, And in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 3: I did a two week trip with friends it was incredible.

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Speaker 3: I was in Dubrovnik in August empty. I was walking

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Speaker 3: around the old town of Dubrovnik, which is normally packed

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Speaker 3: to the brim like cruise tourists, and it was just

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Speaker 3: the most epic experience. Tahiti swimming with humpback whales. It

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Speaker 3: was empty. So I actually had some really cool experiences

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Speaker 3: traveling it. Certainly, you know, I had more COVID tests

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Speaker 3: than I care to remember. I think my you know,

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Speaker 3: back in the days when they were swabbing portions of

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Speaker 3: your brain, I think lost some brain capacity. But overall,

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Speaker 3: you know, COVID I look back on it. You know,

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Speaker 3: it paused our business, but it also at the point

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Speaker 3: Sky we doubled down. We didn't lay off any employees,

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Speaker 3: and we really just focused on the information. You know,

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Speaker 3: travel changed so drastically, so quickly. We doubled down. We

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Speaker 3: had the country Reopening guide that actually ranked higher in

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Speaker 3: Google than our government websites on countries and their policies.

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Speaker 3: So I was really proud of our team that we

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Speaker 3: didn't back away from travel. We focused on science keeping

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Speaker 3: people safe, and I think that's going to have paid

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Speaker 3: off for us, because people now trust us more than

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Speaker 3: ever yeap.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, another thing that changed during COVID was credit

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Speaker 2: card companies had a difficult time, at least in those

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Speaker 2: those first few months, and they with fewer people traveling,

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Speaker 2: some of the benefits of signing up for some of

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Speaker 2: these cards just changed, right. It's like, hey, we're going

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Speaker 2: to give you this travel benefit and this lounge access

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Speaker 2: and people are like, cool, but I'm not going to

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Speaker 2: travel anytime soon. So what are maybe some of the

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Speaker 2: most striking changes you saw occur in how credit card

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Speaker 2: companies had to provide value to customers, like during during COVID.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we saw a huge amount you know, because

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Speaker 3: travel wasn't Travels like the most epic marketing tool you

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Speaker 3: can create, and frequent flyer miles are are everything. You know,

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Speaker 3: these the most unique marketing tool ever, Like get this

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Speaker 3: credit card and be able to take free trips. Like

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Speaker 3: what doesn't get your heart racing more than the notion

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Speaker 3: of like going to Hawaii for free. So we saw

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Speaker 3: the credit card companies they became much more flexible. You know.

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Speaker 3: The airlines in general were extending points expiration, extending elite status,

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Speaker 3: and also giving more ways to redeem you know on

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Speaker 3: Apple products, on door dash on streaming services. You know,

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Speaker 3: all the major credit card companies had to really rethink

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Speaker 3: the you know, because you know, twenty twenty, no one

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Speaker 3: was you know, very few people were traveling. So there

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Speaker 3: are silver linings to the pandemic, especially when it comes

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Speaker 3: to points. A lot of those mileage expiration those are

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Speaker 3: here to stay, at least for the time being. Even

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Speaker 3: being able to change your flights with more flexibility. While

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Speaker 3: the airlines have kind of tightened the rules a little

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Speaker 3: bit today, it's still way more flexible to change and

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Speaker 3: cancel tickets, and there are less fees than pre pandemics,

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Speaker 3: so consumers have one, you know, in certain ways that

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Speaker 3: travel has become more flexible, and I do think points

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Speaker 3: have become more valuable in a way that you can

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Speaker 3: cancel a points reservation today on most airlines and get

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Speaker 3: all your miles and points back free of charge, which

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Speaker 3: is pretty epic. It's like kind of being able to

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Speaker 3: book you know, refundable tickets. You know. So there were

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Speaker 3: positives that came from it. But on the flip side,

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Speaker 3: there are so many people traveling now when demands snap back,

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Speaker 3: we've seen in what we call devaluation in miles, meaning

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Speaker 3: airlines today. You know, this summer, it was four hundred thousand,

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Speaker 3: five hundred thousand miles round trip to Europe on a

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Speaker 3: lot of carriers, when back in the day you could

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Speaker 3: get those trips for one hundred thousand.

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Speaker 2: That's a lot.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a massive increase. I mean, yeah, like

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Speaker 1: we've seen inflation not only in our economy, but it

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Speaker 1: sounds like also within the points industry with these credit cards,

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Speaker 1: because of some of the incentives the credit cards were

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Speaker 1: offering their cardholders.

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Speaker 3: Right. Absolutely, So the airlines survived this pandemic because they

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Speaker 3: sold billions of dollars worth of future points and miles

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Speaker 3: to the airlines. So they also took fifty billion government

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Speaker 3: funds which helped get them through. But in general, the airlines,

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Speaker 3: some airlines, make more money selling their miles to credit

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Speaker 3: card companies and partners than they do flying airplanes. So

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Speaker 3: what that means is there's just pumped in all of

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Speaker 3: these new miles and points. And as we saw demand spike,

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Speaker 3: I mean, month over month, we were seeing twenty percent

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Speaker 3: increases in the cost of paid tickets for flights. You know,

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Speaker 3: April to May of this year, travel we all freak

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Speaker 3: out when we see eight percent year over year price

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Speaker 3: index rises. Well, we saw twenty percent month over month.

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Speaker 3: It was the largest one month increase in flight prices

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Speaker 3: in history. So yeah, so basically, and there's just not

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Speaker 3: enough capacity. The airlines can't add in new planes. There's

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Speaker 3: a backlog on planes, there's a backlog on pilots. So

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Speaker 3: what we're looking at is a travel system and it's frankly,

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Speaker 3: you know, this year we saw meltdown, you know, Europe,

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Speaker 3: the European airports couldn't handle it. Even today, Amsterdam Airport,

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00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:51,200
Speaker 3: their CEO just resigned. It's still a meltdown because they,

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Speaker 3: you know, furloughed so many employees last year, and then

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Speaker 3: these employees don't want to come back and work these

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Speaker 3: you know, at the super crowded airports, stressful jobs for

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Speaker 3: pretty low pay, so that the whole travel ecosystem is

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Speaker 3: still under a men's stress, which is why I go

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Speaker 3: back to saying these days you need to have credit

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Speaker 3: card protections and perks to help make the process a

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Speaker 3: lot more smooth.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just some of those other benefits. And so it

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Speaker 1: sounds like points are more valuable from the standpoint of

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Speaker 1: they're just a more universal tool essentially, like points are

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Speaker 1: basically just more robust, but they are maybe less valuable,

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Speaker 1: you know, like from the standpoints that a lot of

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Speaker 1: points were issued, how sticky. Essentially, is this inflation that

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Speaker 1: we've seen with credit card points, is that something that

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Speaker 1: you see coming down at all? Or is it like

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Speaker 1: once it's pegged to where it is now like we're

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Speaker 1: never going to see it kind of dropping.

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Speaker 2: I mean, yeh, should you spend your points more quickly

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Speaker 2: because they're going to be devalued more rapidly in general?

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Speaker 3: Yes, I mean so many people I know are points

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Speaker 3: orders and oh, I'm going to save these for retirement

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Speaker 3: in ten years, and I'm like, no, you know, like

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Speaker 3: use them now, save money, travel, live your life today. General,

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Speaker 3: I wouldn't say just squander them on gift cards, right

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Speaker 3: because that's a terrible use. But the joy of like

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Speaker 3: credit card points that transfer to airlines. The thing is

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Speaker 3: there's still really valuable ways to use points. I'm not

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Speaker 3: saying that they're all because what a lot of airlines

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Speaker 3: are still region based charts, So you can fly from

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Speaker 3: La to Dubai for the same price as Boston to Dubai,

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Speaker 3: And there's all sorts of nuances, and we call them

434
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,879
Speaker 3: sweet spots. So if you just google like the point

435
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,480
Speaker 3: sky and then put like how to maximize Amex points

436
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:36,919
Speaker 3: or United Airlines sweet Spot Awards. There's so many different

437
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 3: programs with nuances that you know, it takes a while

438
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 3: to learn, but you can still get extraordinary value. You

439
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,439
Speaker 3: can still get five cents per point in redemption value,

440
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 3: you know, when redeeming for Emirates First Class. It's just

441
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:51,439
Speaker 3: you may have to try a little bit harder to

442
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 3: do it, but the game still can be played. And

443
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 3: what I'll say too is, yes, the amount of miles

444
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,399
Speaker 3: needed to redeem has gone up, but also on the

445
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,880
Speaker 3: flip side of earning, there's ever been a better time

446
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,160
Speaker 3: in history to earn points, not only just big sign

447
00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,879
Speaker 3: up bonuses. You know, one hundred thousand points now is

448
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 3: like the norm, whereas a decade ago, you know, twenty

449
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,920
Speaker 3: five thousand miles was a general sign up bonus. Fifty

450
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,720
Speaker 3: thousand was good. Nowadays that's doubled, So you're earning more

451
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,960
Speaker 3: miles on getting cards. And then also on what you

452
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 3: can earn points for AMEX gold is four points per

453
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,280
Speaker 3: dollar on dining and groceries. That's pretty insane. You know,

454
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 3: Amex Platinum is five points per dollar on airfare. There's

455
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:32,640
Speaker 3: now a new credit card called built where you can

456
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 3: earn points on rent for free, no fee card. It's

457
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:39,160
Speaker 3: a master card up to fifty thousand points a year,

458
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,440
Speaker 3: and you can transfer those points to Hyatt, American United,

459
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 3: a bunch of different partners. So fifty thousand HIGHOTT points

460
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 3: is like one thousand dollars minimum in free hotels for paying,

461
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 3: you know, fifty thousand in rent. In the past, we

462
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:55,960
Speaker 3: would all pay rent directly and not earn any points.

463
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:58,680
Speaker 3: So I guess my point is that, yes, while on

464
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,920
Speaker 3: the redemption side, prices have gone up. On the earning side,

465
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:04,400
Speaker 3: if you're savvy today and have the right credit cards,

466
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 3: you are earning more points today than ever before. Yeah.

467
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:09,359
Speaker 2: Well, and I have we have so many more questions

468
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,639
Speaker 2: about kind of the logistics of earning and then spending points.

469
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 2: But I guess I want to ask you this too.

470
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 2: It seems like a lot of the rewards end up

471
00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 2: going to people who spend a lot of money on

472
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 2: credit cards. In particular, right, if you have to travel

473
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,840
Speaker 2: for work, or if you spend significantly more than the

474
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:29,119
Speaker 2: average American, it makes accruing points a little bit easier

475
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 2: or a lot easier, right, So so do you have

476
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 2: to be in that group of elite people in order

477
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 2: to win the points game?

478
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:38,879
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. But make no mistake, these are not frequent

479
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,359
Speaker 3: flyer programs. You don't need to be a flyer these days,

480
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,679
Speaker 3: but you do, you know, if you're a frequent buyer.

481
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:45,960
Speaker 3: So even if you're not a millionaire, but say you

482
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 3: run a business. You know, I know a lot of

483
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 3: interior designers who run all of their client charges at

484
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,680
Speaker 3: all of these showrooms on their personal credit cards. They

485
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 3: get reimburse and you know, they get millions of points

486
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,880
Speaker 3: a year for essentially free. Same thing with doctors and dentists.

487
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:03,760
Speaker 3: So if you're a small business owner and you can

488
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 3: figure out how to put all your online advertising, the

489
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 3: Amex Gold will give you three points per dollar on

490
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,919
Speaker 3: all online advertising. Same with the chase in card. So

491
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,680
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you're switching around and maximizing all

492
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:19,400
Speaker 3: these different categories. You can absolutely be raking it in.

493
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,639
Speaker 3: If you're not a big spender, you can still play

494
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 3: the game, but you just need to be a little

495
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,440
Speaker 3: bit more savvy. So not just getting credit cards sign

496
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 3: up bonuses, so you may need to get a couple

497
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 3: cards a year to get a couple hundred thousand points,

498
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 3: but that can be free business class to Europe. Make

499
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,400
Speaker 3: sure you do all your shopping through online shopping portals.

500
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 3: There are shopping portals that earn mileage. So always whenever

501
00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:45,919
Speaker 3: you're shopping online, never ever, ever go directly to a

502
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,399
Speaker 3: retailer's website. Always click through a mileage shopping portal. It

503
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 3: puts a cookie on your computer and then you earn

504
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 3: miles for shopping at the retailers. In addition to earning

505
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 3: miles for paying for that purchase with the points credit card,

506
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 3: we call that double dipping, you know, paying your rent

507
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,240
Speaker 3: on the bill card, et cetera. All of these things

508
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 3: can add up where you don't need to be spending

509
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:07,639
Speaker 3: tons of money, but you need to be savvy about

510
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 3: every single dollar you spend. You should be earning more

511
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 3: than one point per dollar on every single thing you spend.

512
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 3: Never use cash unless you absolutely have to.

513
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: Got it. It makes sense that you don't have to

514
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: be this massive spender. You you just got to be

515
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: smart about it, and then you can. You can wreck

516
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 1: up this and you might not acrew millions of points.

517
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: If you're just like a normal everyday American spender, but

518
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:27,400
Speaker 1: you can still play the game and win.

519
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, there's even ways you can buy points. The

520
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 3: airlines now sell frequent flyer miles at a discount. You

521
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 3: may be able to buy miles at one point five

522
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 3: cents apiece, meaning one hundred thousand points is fifteen hundred dollars,

523
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 3: and with those hundred thousand points you can fly business class,

524
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 3: you know, to Europe. That's a five thousand dollars ticket.

525
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 3: So that's like an arbitrage game. It's a little bit

526
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 3: more advanced, but like there are plenty of ways to

527
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 3: play the points game where people today you can save

528
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,479
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars buy either buying or accruing points via

529
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 3: spend and then redeeming for travel versus paying the insane

530
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:02,439
Speaker 3: fairs which we're seeing today.

531
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah, well, Brian, we're going to talk more

532
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: about how it is that you can go about racking

533
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,200
Speaker 1: up all of those points. We'll get to more questions

534
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 1: on that right after this break.

535
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 2: We're back from the break, still talking with Brian Kelly.

536
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 2: He's the points guy and everybody, most of the people

537
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:27,520
Speaker 2: listening out of money have been to his site at

538
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 2: one point or another, I'm sure to get basic information

539
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 2: to learn more about credit cards and which ones are

540
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 2: going to make the biggest difference when it comes to

541
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 2: accruing points so that you can travel for little to

542
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 2: no money. And let's talk about accumulating for just a second, Brian,

543
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 2: because I don't know, I guess some people are a

544
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 2: little somewhat more more allergic to credit cards than others.

545
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 2: Some people might say, Man, I'm okay having one or

546
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 2: two and then I can manage them. Well, but in

547
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 2: your mind, what's the optimal number of credit cards to

548
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 2: have in order to accumulate the most points?

549
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:02,879
Speaker 3: Well, I think I'll first say to win at the

550
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,400
Speaker 3: points game, you need to be disciplined. So if you

551
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 3: are going to be tempted by getting a new credit

552
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 3: card with the ten thousand dollars credit limit and you're

553
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 3: going to spend outside of your means and then get

554
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,919
Speaker 3: into debt, you will lose at this game. So in

555
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 3: that case, don't open a single new credit card right

556
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 3: stick within your means. And if you simply can't manage credit,

557
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 3: then don't play the game. You know, like their credit

558
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 3: cards work, Just try to get out of credit card debt.

559
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 3: That should be your sole focus because if you're going

560
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 3: to be paying interest, you're losing all the value of

561
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 3: the points you are losing at the game period. That

562
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:34,919
Speaker 3: being said, if you're smart with your money and you

563
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 3: can manage your bills, you're not going to spend over.

564
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 3: There's no magic number. I would say for everyone to

565
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 3: start small. So the funny thing is, once you realize

566
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 3: your fight go score, everyone should know what their fight

567
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 3: go score is. The fight go score is what banks

568
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:51,439
Speaker 3: will use to determine your interest rate on your mortgage.

569
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 3: The funny thing is people think that getting credit cards

570
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 3: will destroy their credit score off the bat. Yeah, there

571
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 3: might be a two to five point ding for what's

572
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,880
Speaker 3: called a hard inquiry into your credit, but that completely

573
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 3: gets negated because the two largest factors of your credit

574
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 3: score are paying your bills on time and two the

575
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 3: debt to credit ratio. So what this means is the

576
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 3: more credit you have available from banks. So say you

577
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 3: have four credit cards with ten thousand dollars each and

578
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,679
Speaker 3: you're using you pay them off in full every month.

579
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,920
Speaker 3: That means your available credit is huge, and so your

580
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 3: credit score will increase each month that you pay your bills.

581
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 3: On time, and that you keep your balances low. So,

582
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 3: if you're following my train of thought, if you get

583
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 3: another two credit cards and have sixty thousand in credit

584
00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 3: and you're still paying them off in full, all of

585
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 3: a sudden, your debt to credit ratio gets even lower

586
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 3: and lower, So your score goes up with the more

587
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 3: credit cards you get. Now, what I would caution people is,

588
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 3: whenever you get a new credit card, there's usually a

589
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,200
Speaker 3: To get the bonus, you have to spend a certain

590
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 3: amount of money within the first couple months. Don't bite

591
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 3: off more than you can chew. Don't go out today

592
00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 3: and get four new credit cards and then realize, oh

593
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 3: my gosh, how am I going to spend ten thousand

594
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 3: dollars this month when my budget is four So start small.

595
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 3: Pay attention to your credit score. I would note too,

596
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 3: if you're going to apply for a mortgage in the

597
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 3: near future, hold off on applying for credit cards until

598
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:18,959
Speaker 3: after your mortgage closes and it's all clear. Sometimes mortgage

599
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 3: companies will look at multiple new credit cards as a

600
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 3: red flag, meaning is this person in some sort of

601
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 3: financial distress where they're just applying for credit Because they're

602
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 3: going to apply for bankruptcy right, or they know that

603
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 3: they're going to be laid off soon, so they need

604
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 3: to do credit in general. I've always been able to

605
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 3: explain it. You know that I'm in the points game

606
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 3: and I pay them off in full every month, but

607
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 3: you know, there are risks to the game, and that's

608
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 3: why I encourage everyone to start small. But the average

609
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 3: consumer can get, you know, two new credit cards a

610
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 3: year with one hundred thousand points sign up bonuses maximize

611
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 3: their perks, and you could sustain travel just based on

612
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 3: those sign up bonuses. Are there a lot of people

613
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 3: I know with double digit credit cards? Absolutely? I know

614
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 3: someone with forty credit cards, but you know that's that's

615
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 3: a little extreme. But making several new cards a year

616
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 3: is totally fine, and you'll actually see your score go

617
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 3: up as long as you pay those bills off every month.

618
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, it makes sense. You're basically distributing that load

619
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: across multiple cards as long as you can keep up

620
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: with them. But I do appreciate that you are taking

621
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: kind of a more like sort of like a holistic,

622
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: zoomed out approach to our personal finances instead of, you know,

623
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: only focusing in on those specific points. So what does

624
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: it actually look like to maximize every dollar that you spend?

625
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 3: Right?

626
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 1: Like? Is it just look I mean researching? Is it reading?

627
00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: Do you have to set up a spreadsheet in order

628
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: to track your spending?

629
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 3: You know?

630
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: So then you know that? Okay, all, yes? Is that?

631
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 3: Yeah?

632
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 2: You said?

633
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: You said? Yeah?

634
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well well no, no, no, Actually that's funny you

635
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 3: mentioned that. Because so we have the point sky app

636
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,719
Speaker 3: which is free and basically we'll track all of your points,

637
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 3: airline miles, hotel, credit cards, watch you give you your

638
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 3: net worth in points. So I think visualizing how much

639
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 3: value you have in points is is a great starting

640
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 3: point for consumers. And then we also have a credit

641
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 3: card tool. Well we'll look at what you spend if

642
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 3: you want to share, and of course we don't sell

643
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 3: the data. We've got pretty strict we have very strict

644
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 3: security on the app. But we will actually tell you

645
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 3: how to maximize your credit card spend using all the

646
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 3: cards that you have available in all the different bonuses.

647
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 3: So basically what we'll tell you is your mister rewards, Hey,

648
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 3: you know you should have used your Gold card for

649
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 3: this catering because you want to earn four x instead

650
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 3: of using your business platinum, which earned you one. So

651
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 3: you know, we do do the math for you, and

652
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 3: you know it takes a little while to get up

653
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 3: to speed. But I'll just say this back to the

654
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 3: point of you don't. My task to everyone listening is

655
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 3: earn more than one points on every dollar spent. The

656
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 3: way I do. This is all of my everyday spend.

657
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 3: So if I'm going to go to let's just say,

658
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 3: pay for doctor's visit, there's no credit card that offers

659
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 3: doctors bonuses, you know, two X or three X, So

660
00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,560
Speaker 3: I will put everything on my Capital one venture X card.

661
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 3: That card gives me two points per dollar on everything.

662
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 3: So that's my baseline. I'm earning double points with Cap

663
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 3: one venture X and then I put my dining on

664
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 3: amex Gold for four X. You know, I put all

665
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,959
Speaker 3: my rent on Built for one X, so when I'm

666
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 3: at least earning points there, that's the one place where

667
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 3: you can't earn double points or more.

668
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's like the first credit card that's

669
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 2: allowed you to earn points for rent. Like before that,

670
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 2: it didn't exist.

671
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 3: It did not exist. You used to have to pay

672
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 3: companies three percent to process your rent, but that would

673
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 3: negate the value of any of the points so built

674
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 3: has unlocked. And plus you can use those points for

675
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 3: to pay for rent or even for a down payment

676
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 3: if you don't want travel. So and then, you know,

677
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 3: like I said, I earned most of my points through

678
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 3: the Points Guy business. You know, even though I sold

679
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 3: the Points Guy, one of the things when I sold

680
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 3: the company was that I still needed to be able

681
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 3: to use my personal cards for business expenses. So wet

682
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 3: we spend? And you know, I got to practice what

683
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 3: I preach, you know, right, can I be the Points

684
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 3: Guy if I don't have any points?

685
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: So?

686
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 3: You know, we spend millions of dollars on Google, on Facebook,

687
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 3: TikTok ads. Any business owner out there listening today, even

688
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 3: if it's a small business, make sure you're earning. You

689
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 3: can earn three points per dollar on online advertising if

690
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 3: your business does shipping. You know, so look at all

691
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:19,719
Speaker 3: what you spend your money on and see, you know,

692
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 3: just google like the Points Guy, best credit cards for gas, groceries,

693
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 3: et cetera. And then just try to align all the

694
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 3: categories where you spend a lot of money. Try to

695
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 3: find a credit card that gives more than one point

696
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 3: per dollar on spend and for everything else. You know,

697
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 3: cap one Venture or even a City Double Cash, which

698
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 3: is a two percent cash back card, is a great baseline.

699
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 3: Never earn one point if you can avoid it.

700
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: Fifty years from now, long after Brian Kelly's gone, there's

701
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: going to be folks who are running these charges for advertising.

702
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: They're like, who's this Brian Kelly getting.

703
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 2: Hundred years?

704
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 3: They're going to have to pry me out of my

705
00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 3: first class seat. I've got the best.

706
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it makes sense. I was going to say,

707
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 1: just focusing on some of the different spending categories where

708
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,239
Speaker 1: we naturally already spend a whole lot of money, right,

709
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,720
Speaker 1: because the idea is to not overspend, is to have

710
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 1: like you don't want to manufacturer spending for no reason.

711
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: You don't want to go into debt just because you're

712
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: trying to hit certain spend levels, just because you're trying

713
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: to hit certain certain number of points. But if you

714
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: know that, oh I do go out to eat a

715
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: whole lot, or oh I spend a lot of money

716
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 1: at the grocery store, you can search and find the

717
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 1: different credit cards out there that are offering those multiples

718
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,320
Speaker 1: where you're at least earning two x. If not four x.

719
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 2: I will say that to me seems like the easier

720
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 2: part of the equation the accumulation of points, right, because

721
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 2: there are the you can see, oh, I get six

722
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 2: exit grocery stores with the MX blue cash Preferred or whatever,

723
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 2: or I get three x, you know, spending for advertising

724
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 2: for my business. But what about what about maximizing the

725
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 2: points that you actually earn? Like, what do people need

726
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 2: to know, Brian to ensure that they're spending the points wisely?

727
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 2: Because it seems to me that that's maybe even the

728
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 2: more opaque area of credit card rewards totally right.

729
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 3: And one of my dreams in life is to create

730
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 3: you know, today, when you want to buy a ticket,

731
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 3: you can go to Google Flights or any number of

732
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 3: online travel agencies and you're gonna be able to pull

733
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 3: in most airlines and you know, compare and contrasts in

734
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 3: one browser that doesn't exist today. For rewards, you know,

735
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,040
Speaker 3: if you want to use AA miles, you go to

736
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 3: AA dot Com, Delta, et cetera. There have been some

737
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 3: apps that have tried to do this, pulling in different

738
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 3: you know, scraping availability, but in general, that's my dream

739
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 3: in life, right, is to be able to give consumers

740
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 3: the ability to price out. You know, I want to

741
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 3: go New York to Paris in June of twenty twenty three.

742
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 3: I want to see how much how many Delta miles United, Virgin,

743
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 3: et cetera. It would cost to do that today. It

744
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:47,439
Speaker 3: is pretty manual, so it does take time. I use

745
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 3: a site called expert Flyer, and this will actually not

746
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 3: for every airline, but you can set alerts. So when

747
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 3: United Airlines opens up award space on you know, Newark

748
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 3: to Tel Aviv on these dates, it'll actually email you.

749
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 3: Because the airlines open up award space constantly, it's dynamic,

750
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 3: so checking back quite a bit, you know, as annoying

751
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 3: as it is, can save you a lot of value

752
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:16,720
Speaker 3: when it's you know, redeeming. But yeah, it is tricky today.

753
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:18,319
Speaker 3: But once again I would just tell people what I

754
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,000
Speaker 3: love about freaking flyer miles is the more you mind

755
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 3: your knowledge and that currency, the more valuable those those

756
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 3: miles become. Like, understand the sweet spots. Look at what

757
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 3: your big points balances are today. If you've got a

758
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 3: million Delta miles, do research and you know, of course

759
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,440
Speaker 3: I'm going to plug the points guy. But there are

760
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:39,400
Speaker 3: tons of super valuable. There are Delta specific blogs that

761
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,359
Speaker 3: will go into all the nuances. You know, if you've

762
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 3: got United miles, learn how to use the eXplorist Perk,

763
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 3: which allows you to add in stopovers on award tickets.

764
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:50,839
Speaker 3: You know, Air Canada. I'm about to be a dad.

765
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 3: Aeroplan doesn't charge a lot for you know, infants and

766
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 3: laps on international tickets. Some airlines will charge you ten

767
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 3: percent of the full cost of ticket, just as a

768
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 3: fee at bring your baby. So Aeroplan is to go

769
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 3: to for you know, and all my friends in the

770
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 3: points where they're like, dude, you're gonna love Aeroplan because

771
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,280
Speaker 3: it'll save you so much money on those infant fees.

772
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:13,359
Speaker 3: So huh, like just taking the time, you know, sit

773
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,200
Speaker 3: down with a cup of coffee and like dig in

774
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 3: all the informations on the internet, and I trust you know,

775
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,319
Speaker 3: trust me. It takes a little while to kind of

776
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 3: climb that mountain of knowledge. But once you become even

777
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 3: an intermediate expert in in the frequent you know, the

778
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 3: programs that you have the most points in, whether Amex

779
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,720
Speaker 3: or Chase. I say, it's like doing the crossword puzzle,

780
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 3: but instead of just getting like bragging rights for wordle

781
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 3: or crossword like my bragging rights. When I can book

782
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,439
Speaker 3: a trip in first class on points at the lowest level,

783
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 3: it's like an amazing experience. It saves me thousands of dollars.

784
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,479
Speaker 3: So that's why I love the points game.

785
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a real life thing that you've got memories

786
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 1: and experiences and meals like all of these tangible benefits

787
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 1: of a hobby basically, So it definitely pays to be nerdy.

788
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: There's so much data, so.

789
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 2: Much cooler about a reward trip than even cash because

790
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 2: cash back, I don't know get it's kind of a morphase,

791
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 2: it'll fly. It's nice to get cash back, but there's

792
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 2: something about a trip to the heati that stands out

793
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,360
Speaker 2: in your mind a little differently totally.

794
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 3: And you know cash back, you're going to be getting

795
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 3: one and a half two percent back. So like you

796
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 3: spend one hundred thousand bucks, you're going to get two

797
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 3: thousand at the very high end generally, which isn't bad, right,

798
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 3: but one hundred thousand points spent, and if you're spending

799
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 3: on groceries and dining and all of a sudden, you've

800
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 3: got three hundred thousand points and you can get savor

801
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,240
Speaker 3: tickets to Tahiti and fly two people business class. Instead

802
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,760
Speaker 3: of two thousand dollars, You're getting eight thousand in value

803
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 3: from those tickets, right, So that's the joy. Like for

804
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 3: people listening and saying, why would you bother with points?

805
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 3: It's difficult because that's why because you can actually take

806
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 3: cash back, you know, as fixed whereas points. When you

807
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,800
Speaker 3: become an expert you can leverage that you can instead

808
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,359
Speaker 3: of two thousand and cash, I'm going to get eight

809
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,760
Speaker 3: thou ten thousand back in value. And that's what gets addicting.

810
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: Well, I feel that it can be more complicated. I

811
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 1: mean in particular if maybe you're newer to travel. But

812
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:01,919
Speaker 1: like one of the different I guess benefits or perks

813
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: or programs that stands out in my mind is the

814
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: Southwest Companion Pass. And I think it stands out because

815
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: it's just pretty straightforward. It's like, you spend this much,

816
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: you get the Companion Pass. It's good for the rest

817
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: of this year and next year. It seems like it's

818
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 1: a legit deal, you know, for folks who live in

819
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 1: a city that Southwest serve. Are you a fan of

820
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:19,280
Speaker 1: that program?

821
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,839
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, the south I don't fly Southwest much,

822
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,240
Speaker 3: just based on my habits, but the Southwest Companion Pass

823
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 3: is one of the best perks out there. Okay, we

824
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:29,799
Speaker 3: don't have time to go into the details today, but

825
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 3: anyone listening figure out how to get the Southwest Companion Pass.

826
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 3: You know, generally off the bat you have to take

827
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 3: a hundred flights, but there's a shortcut if you get

828
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 3: credit cards, and the credit cards sign up bonus points

829
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 3: count towards the Companion Pass, and that pass is unlimited.

830
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:46,319
Speaker 3: Unlike a lot of airline companion passes where you get

831
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 3: one free coupon, this is unlimited companions. All you pay

832
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,000
Speaker 3: is that f five dollars tsa fee every time, even

833
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 3: when you redeem points for ticket for yourself. Your companion

834
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 3: flies for free, unlimited, for the entire length that you

835
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,360
Speaker 3: have that pass. I know people who say thousands and

836
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:04,840
Speaker 3: thousands a year with it. You know, there's little nuances

837
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,760
Speaker 3: to it. The best time to get it is early

838
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 3: in the year because if you get it in January

839
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 3: or February, the Companion Pass will essentially last for two

840
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 3: years because it's through the year you qualify and the

841
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 3: full following year. So what that means is if you

842
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,759
Speaker 3: get Southwest credit cards and like November December of this year,

843
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:24,879
Speaker 3: you complete your spend in January, so that all your

844
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 3: Companion Pass qualifying points post to your account. You then

845
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,319
Speaker 3: get two years of free flights. It's pretty insane.

846
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, And is that How often are they kind of

847
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 1: sweetening the pot when it comes to some of the

848
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: bonuses they're offering for that sign up.

849
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,280
Speaker 3: Yeah. Sometimes on the credit cards they'll offer fast tracks

850
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,759
Speaker 3: to the Companion Pass alone, but yeah, generally you get

851
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 3: a Southwest, you get two Southwest credit cards and that's

852
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,080
Speaker 3: what gets you the Companion Pass. The fifty thousand point

853
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 3: sign ups, and you can get a person on a

854
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 3: business card all in one day. And there's lots of

855
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 3: you know, read blog posts on it before you go

856
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 3: out and apply, understand the nuances and the details. You

857
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,279
Speaker 3: don't want to spend too quickly on them. And then

858
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,239
Speaker 3: all of a sudden you get your points in December, right,

859
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 3: because then you just lost a year of free travel.

860
00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 3: So you want to perfectly, but that would be the worst. Yes,

861
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 3: And it's happened to people who don't realize, oh my gosh,

862
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,279
Speaker 3: my statement closed a day earlier, and I you know,

863
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 3: so always make sure it closes in January. You don't

864
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,359
Speaker 3: want to lose a year of free flights.

865
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 2: For real, that'd be a bummer. All right, Hey, Brian,

866
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 2: we got just a few more questions to get to

867
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 2: with you, including, like where you're flying from, how does

868
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:29,880
Speaker 2: that impact your ability to get value from points? And

869
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 2: then just kind of maybe some of your idea or

870
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 2: best thoughts on travel in general as a seasoned expert.

871
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 2: We'll get to those right after this. All right, we're

872
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 2: still rolling here with Brian Kelly, who's the points guy,

873
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 2: and Brian I teached this before the break, but I

874
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 2: want to know, like, how does where you live impact

875
00:40:56,280 --> 00:41:00,919
Speaker 2: your ability to utilize miles and points? Well, because let's

876
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 2: say you live in the middle of the country. Let's

877
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 2: say you live in Iowa or Oklahoma, Like, are you

878
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 2: going to be able to get as much value from

879
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 2: playing the points game as if you like let's say

880
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 2: you live in Chicago or LA, Like, how does how

881
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,760
Speaker 2: does that impact your ability to kind of use and

882
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 2: and monetize those points?

883
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:19,880
Speaker 3: Well, well, it depends on your airport. So like, if

884
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:23,040
Speaker 3: you live in Atlanta and you want to fly NonStop places,

885
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 3: you're pretty much beholden to Delta, right, unless you're going

886
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 3: to a United hub constantly. You know, the way our

887
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:32,760
Speaker 3: aviation network is set up, it's it's hub and spoke,

888
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 3: meaning most of the major airlines have hubs or mini hubs.

889
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 3: So if you're living in a small airport, you are

890
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 3: a free agent so to speak, because you're going to

891
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 3: have to connect anyway. But these days, my you know,

892
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 3: top tip that I have is fly NonStop whenever possible,

893
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 3: right because flying connections you're just asking for delays, misconnects,

894
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:54,319
Speaker 3: losing nights where you want to go because you're stuck

895
00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 3: in airports overnight. So I think aligning your point strategy

896
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 3: to the airlines you want to fly will help dramatically.

897
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:03,880
Speaker 3: You know. Another piece on the perks front is that

898
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 3: a lot of airline credit cards, if you spend on them,

899
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,680
Speaker 3: will give you ELIT status and upgrades and better flight experience.

900
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,359
Speaker 3: So having an understanding of the airlines you want to fly,

901
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:14,160
Speaker 3: But if you're a total free agent, that gives you

902
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:17,520
Speaker 3: a lot more flexibility than you know, if you're beholden

903
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:20,239
Speaker 3: to one major airline, you know, in the city that

904
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:20,839
Speaker 3: you live in.

905
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:25,359
Speaker 1: Like us here in Atlanta, Delta, they run things they

906
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,879
Speaker 1: do basically run the show. I mean you're talking about

907
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:29,640
Speaker 1: all these different perks. You mentioned it earlier on in

908
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 1: the episode as well. Just how it's not only about

909
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,200
Speaker 1: the miles that you can accumulate, but some of these

910
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: additional parks, and you've mentioned a bunch of them. But

911
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: can you just run through a list of maybe your

912
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,800
Speaker 1: favorite perks, ones that you think folks should be considering

913
00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 1: before others.

914
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 3: Yep. So first off, I mean airports are packed, but

915
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 3: everyone listening make sure you have Global entry Global Entry.

916
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 3: It's one hundred dollars. It lasts for five years, and

917
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:54,839
Speaker 3: what global Entry gets is tsa pre check as well

918
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 3: as global entry. Global entry is when you land from

919
00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 3: abroad and you get through secure in literally five minutes,

920
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,439
Speaker 3: I mean immigration and the border, so that can save

921
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,240
Speaker 3: you hours of time. You know, the lines for immigration

922
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 3: these days are crazy. So paying one hundred dollars for

923
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,879
Speaker 3: five years to get four minutes, you know constantly, I've

924
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 3: never had to wait more than four minutes with Global Entry.

925
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 3: But it also gets you pre check, which I can't

926
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 3: believe how many people don't have pre check, and that

927
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,320
Speaker 3: is good for five years. That'll get you through security

928
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,000
Speaker 3: usually five ten minutes max going through TSA. I'd also

929
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:30,799
Speaker 3: and a lot of credit cards offer free Global Entry

930
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 3: one hundred or pre check, but always get Global Entry.

931
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,280
Speaker 3: Now you might say, oh, it's hard to get online

932
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 3: appointments for Global Entry, there's a trick to getting them.

933
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,200
Speaker 3: They're called Appointment Scanner. It's an app you can use

934
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 3: and it'll scan the Global Entry website and alert you

935
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,560
Speaker 3: when appointments in your home city open up or zoom

936
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 3: appointments open up. And almost everyone I know who's used

937
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 3: Appointment Scanner has gotten Global Entry appointments in no time.

938
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 3: I'd also recommend, especially you guys know, I'm sure living

939
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 3: in Atlanta. Clear is a lifesaver. It'll actually jump you

940
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 3: to the head of the TSA pre check line. It

941
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,160
Speaker 3: also works at a lot of stadiums, and they're going

942
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:09,840
Speaker 3: to be rolling out across the country. I hate waiting

943
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:13,120
Speaker 3: in lines, so Clear is something you know. And a

944
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 3: lot of credit cards and airline Elite status if you have,

945
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 3: will give you discounts or even free Clear and also

946
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 3: just the flight delay and protection coverage. You know when

947
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:24,320
Speaker 3: you're booking a flight, Yeah, you want to get points

948
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,960
Speaker 3: for that purchase, but also use a credit card that

949
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 3: gives you the best flight protection and the Chase Sapphire cards.

950
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,800
Speaker 3: Generally they'll reburst up to one thousand dollars in extra

951
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,759
Speaker 3: fees if your flight is delayed and you need to

952
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 3: get a rental car or hotel. So having that extra

953
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 3: coverage these days is key because the airlines don't have

954
00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 3: to cover those costs for you.

955
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: Well, how about lounge access, because I feel like that's

956
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: something you always you always hear folks talk about, and yeah,

957
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 1: you wonder is it actually worth it?

958
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 3: You know, it's a Lounges are really crowded these days,

959
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 3: so there is an issue with overcrowding, and starting in

960
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, mixedentorying lounges are making their entry rules

961
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 3: more strict so you can bring in less guests, so

962
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 3: depending you know, for families and for people who always

963
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 3: bring guests, that's that's a bummer. But you know, sometimes

964
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 3: now you have to wait to get into lounges or

965
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 3: you can't even get in at all. You know, a

966
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:17,799
Speaker 3: lot of times they'll say no more guests. I've been

967
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 3: declined from lounges. But in general they're great because airline lounges,

968
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 3: they're not just for you know, free snacks and food.

969
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 3: But when your flight's delayed and there's a or canceled

970
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 3: and there's a mile long line to get to an agent,

971
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,320
Speaker 3: you can go to the airline lounge, and those agents

972
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 3: at the front desk are among the best at the airline.

973
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 3: So you know, having the ability to pop into an

974
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:41,239
Speaker 3: airline lounge can be the difference in you getting home

975
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:43,960
Speaker 3: that night. So that's why I like airline lounges the most.

976
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 2: Okay, so all right, talk to me about this. I

977
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 2: want to hear your thoughts on on planning ahead for

978
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 2: a trip. One are you are you looking basically just

979
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,759
Speaker 2: to maximize point value. I'm guessing you're not. You're more

980
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 2: location agnostic and you're just looking for the place that's

981
00:45:58,200 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 2: going to get you the most bang for your buck.

982
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 2: I want to if that's true, and then I also

983
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 2: want to know how you plan ahead, like how you

984
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:07,400
Speaker 2: plan to maximize your time in the city or location

985
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 2: you're going to.

986
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 3: So you bring up a great point in general, with

987
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:14,719
Speaker 3: travel being so expensive, I urge people like plan your

988
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:16,959
Speaker 3: trip around where the deals are so you can save

989
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 3: more money and spend money on the actual experience versus

990
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,080
Speaker 3: the cost of travel, and that goes for whether you're

991
00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:24,440
Speaker 3: paying for a ticket. You know, Google Flights, which I

992
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,319
Speaker 3: use to sniff out cheap airfare, they actually have an

993
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 3: explore map where you can put in your home airport

994
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 3: and it'll show you. You'll put in your dates and

995
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 3: it'll show you where the cheap fares are. So if

996
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 3: you wanted to go to Aruba, but flights are over

997
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,439
Speaker 3: one thousand bucks, all of a sudden, you see Saint

998
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:42,280
Speaker 3: Thomas is three point fifty, Like, hey, try Saint Thomas

999
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 3: this year, or you know, go to Saint John. Like

1000
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 3: that's where I get my mind thinking, oh, I've actually

1001
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,360
Speaker 3: never been there and there's really good deals. But sometimes

1002
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 3: also I have friends in Europe and this summer I

1003
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 3: wanted to go visit my friend's kid who just turned one,

1004
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 3: and I'm going to go to Madrid no matter what.

1005
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:57,720
Speaker 3: I'll sit there and look at all the different currencies

1006
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 3: and try to piece that puzzle together. So I'm not

1007
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 3: always just like I have to maximize, and sometimes I'll

1008
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,560
Speaker 3: pay more just to fly NonStop. You know, I could

1009
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,319
Speaker 3: have saved half as many miles connecting a Heathrow. But

1010
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:11,439
Speaker 3: we saw this summer, you know, it's not worth the hassle, right,

1011
00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:15,280
Speaker 3: So I think with age we realize, especially with kids,

1012
00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 3: you know, like there is a huge value to time

1013
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 3: as well, and taking two stopovers to save two hundred

1014
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 3: bucks and not worth it, you know, especially when you're

1015
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,839
Speaker 3: probably going to lose your bag. So there's always a

1016
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:29,920
Speaker 3: you know, cost benefit to your time as well that

1017
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 3: I urge people to consider.

1018
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: Sure. Yeah, well, I mean speaking of kids again, you

1019
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,520
Speaker 1: know you're about to be a father. I mean I

1020
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 1: think a lot of times I'm tempted to think as

1021
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: a parent of four kids who hasn't traveled very much.

1022
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:44,239
Speaker 1: Although kind of reading up on all that you're doing,

1023
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,279
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, oh, man, we're exiting that diaper phase. I'm

1024
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 1: about to start going on some trips with my wife.

1025
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 1: But do you think that sometimes folks overdo it, you know,

1026
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,680
Speaker 1: if all they're doing is focusing on their travel. Yeah, Like,

1027
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 1: how far is too far when it comes to the

1028
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:00,239
Speaker 1: just the habits and the behaviors of folks and the

1029
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:02,840
Speaker 1: value that they're actually able to get out of their travel.

1030
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,279
Speaker 3: Well, I think travel is a personal decision. I know

1031
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:08,960
Speaker 3: so many people and I haven't had a kid yet,

1032
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,040
Speaker 3: and I'm going to wait to meet my son and

1033
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,919
Speaker 3: understand him before kind of dragging him around the world.

1034
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:16,320
Speaker 3: And I hope you know. My understanding is if the

1035
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:20,080
Speaker 3: earlier you start, the more accustomed they become. Not every

1036
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 3: kid is on a plane. So I'm a believer in,

1037
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 3: you know, just doing what makes you happy in life.

1038
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 3: And if you don't want to travel, then don't you know,

1039
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,360
Speaker 3: like I don't feel like you have to travel to

1040
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 3: become this enlightened person. I do think travel in general

1041
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 3: makes us better, but you know, in life, just like,

1042
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 3: do what makes you happy. But also don't assume you

1043
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 3: can't do something because there's a narrative around it, right,

1044
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:45,760
Speaker 3: Like I know so many of my fellow travel blogger

1045
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:47,759
Speaker 3: friends who have had kids in the last year, their

1046
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 3: kids are traveling around the world, And I love this quote.

1047
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 3: It's like, why are you going to take your baby

1048
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 3: on a trip? They're not going to remember it? And

1049
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,319
Speaker 3: the answer is because I will, you know, like, I'm

1050
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,600
Speaker 3: going to travel with my kid and I'm going to

1051
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 3: have amazing memories and that's what matters. So yeah, that's

1052
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:06,759
Speaker 3: my outlook on it. Ask me in a year when

1053
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:08,359
Speaker 3: I under my.

1054
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 2: Belt exactly, I can't I can't wait to check back

1055
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 2: in a year or two from now and just kind

1056
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 2: of see where your baby boy has gone, and just

1057
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:17,120
Speaker 2: kind of the adventures you've been on and how that's

1058
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:20,000
Speaker 2: how that's you know, gone for you and your your

1059
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,359
Speaker 2: little family. But I guess I want to know too,

1060
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 2: do you ever get tired of travel? Is there ever

1061
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:26,520
Speaker 2: any point where you're like, was the COVID break kind

1062
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 2: of welcomed or were you like itching to get back

1063
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:30,719
Speaker 2: out there. I mean, it sounds like it's something that

1064
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 2: you've loved since you were a kid.

1065
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:32,680
Speaker 1: So I don't know.

1066
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 2: Maybe you're the kind of person will never get tired

1067
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:35,000
Speaker 2: of traveling.

1068
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 3: No, travel definitely tires me out. I think, what's you know,

1069
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 3: the business travel, you know, the leaving at six am,

1070
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 3: coming back at night, Like that's what really exhausted me.

1071
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 3: And luckily now, you know, at the point Sky and

1072
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:50,120
Speaker 3: our parent company read Ventures were very virtual, we do

1073
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 3: meet in person. But I think, uh, that travel was

1074
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 3: exhausting to me when you'd be like I need to

1075
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:57,800
Speaker 3: be at a meeting in London on a Monday, Austin

1076
00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:00,520
Speaker 3: on a Thursday, Charlotte Tuesday, and then all of a

1077
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:02,640
Speaker 3: sudden and then you're trying to factor in your own

1078
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 3: personal travel. That's when you you know it can definitely

1079
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 3: exhaust you. I was out of shape. You know. There

1080
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:10,759
Speaker 3: are definitely downsides, you know, mental health, personal health side

1081
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 3: to traveling too much. I had a great break during

1082
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:14,640
Speaker 3: the pandemic and then all of a sudden, I see

1083
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:17,239
Speaker 3: myself now, you know, I have to tell myself just

1084
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:19,880
Speaker 3: because you can doesn't mean you should. And that's a

1085
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:22,200
Speaker 3: downside too. Once you have tons of points and then

1086
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I want to use them. I want

1087
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,920
Speaker 3: to use them. Sometimes you'll book trips where you're like, Okay,

1088
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,359
Speaker 3: just because I can go on this trip doesn't mean

1089
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:32,640
Speaker 3: I should. Right, there are downsides to it. So, you know,

1090
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 3: I think everything in life, we all have to find

1091
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 3: our own personal balance. But yeah, for sure, there can

1092
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:39,360
Speaker 3: definitely be a thing that's too much travel.

1093
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,719
Speaker 1: It makes sense just because you can doesn't mean you

1094
00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:44,800
Speaker 1: should be doing it. I think those are some wise

1095
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 1: words to part with. So obviously we're going to point

1096
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:49,360
Speaker 1: folks to the to the website at the pointskuy dot com.

1097
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: What other resources should folks look up? Where else can

1098
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,920
Speaker 1: folks learn more about you? And just to find additional

1099
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 1: value from what it is y'all. Are y'all are putting

1100
00:50:56,719 --> 00:50:57,040
Speaker 1: out there?

1101
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:01,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, well go download the free The Points app. It's

1102
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,399
Speaker 3: available now for free and app stores in the US.

1103
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 3: We're gonna be rolling it out internationally. And also my

1104
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:11,840
Speaker 3: personal travel so my baby Travels is at Brian Kelly

1105
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 3: on Instagram, and I have a weekly newsletter where I

1106
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 3: highlight what's going on in my world my thoughts on life.

1107
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 3: So if you just google The Point Sky Weekly Newsletter

1108
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 3: by Brian Kelly, sign up for that. I always give

1109
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,239
Speaker 3: my tips and personal hacks in that. So thank you

1110
00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:30,879
Speaker 3: both for having me today. This has been a lot

1111
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:31,240
Speaker 3: of fun.

1112
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 2: Wow, Brian, it's been a blast. Thanks for all the information.

1113
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 2: And hey, we wish you and you're almost newborn son

1114
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:40,040
Speaker 2: just like the best of luck, and I hope it's awesome.

1115
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much. I'm excited for it.

1116
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 1: Man, that was a fantastic conversation. And Brian said this

1117
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:48,520
Speaker 1: earlier on in the episode, but he talked about how

1118
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: travel how it's basically like the ultimate marketing tool that

1119
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:54,719
Speaker 1: credit cards have. And I can personally attest to that

1120
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:56,600
Speaker 1: because even though I mean, I do have a trip

1121
00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:58,799
Speaker 1: in mind that Kate and I might be taken here

1122
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:00,600
Speaker 1: pretty soon. But I do know if we're going to

1123
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: be flying or not. But when you read backing out

1124
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:03,680
Speaker 1: on those trips, you just need to make it happen.

1125
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: You got to commit. I don't. We don't know where

1126
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 1: we're going to go yet. We're looking for deals on destinations.

1127
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:11,800
Speaker 1: But when you read and talk about and are researching

1128
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: about travel, man, you just want to travel, you know,

1129
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:16,239
Speaker 1: like you catch the bug. And I'm sure a lot

1130
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 1: of folks who are listening to Brian talk about some

1131
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: of the different locations he's been, some of the different

1132
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 1: perks you get, some of the other advantages, the additional

1133
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:26,800
Speaker 1: benefits that you get from really playing the game well

1134
00:52:27,080 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 1: working the system. It's contagious. Yeah, and that's something that

1135
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:33,200
Speaker 1: I am on a little travel high right now, even

1136
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:35,000
Speaker 1: after just talking here for a short period of time

1137
00:52:35,040 --> 00:52:37,280
Speaker 1: with Brian. But yeah, what was your your big takeaway

1138
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 1: from our conversation.

1139
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 2: I'm on big takeaway with day Then I should take

1140
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 2: a trip and really soon, and then once we like

1141
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:44,239
Speaker 2: hit pause on this recording that I should just, like,

1142
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:46,760
Speaker 2: I don't know, go google flights, pull them up, assess

1143
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 2: how many well I should assess how many miles I

1144
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:50,400
Speaker 2: got and where they can do the most do the

1145
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 2: most damage. But I think the biggest takeaway I had

1146
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:54,680
Speaker 2: from this combo, and there was just a lot of

1147
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,080
Speaker 2: great info, was that annual fees are worth the splurge.

1148
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 2: And I think that's it's brilliant. I think you and

1149
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:03,840
Speaker 2: I were averse to fees. We don't like fees. We

1150
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 2: don't want to pay fees for almost anything in our lives,

1151
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 2: and annual fees. You might see that and you'd be like,

1152
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:11,040
Speaker 2: that's just another fee, But the reality is the perks

1153
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,359
Speaker 2: you can get in exchange for that annual fee are

1154
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 2: sometimes monstrous, and not just from a sign up bonus perspective,

1155
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 2: because sometimes the cards that have the best sign up

1156
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 2: bonuses come with annual fees, but also from the secondhand

1157
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,520
Speaker 2: perks that credit card companies offer, the benefits that you

1158
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 2: can get that enable you to get free stuff or

1159
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:37,239
Speaker 2: access to awesome things airport lounges or global entry, like

1160
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 2: just all these additional free travel credits that you don't

1161
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:43,399
Speaker 2: think about. All you see is the headline annual fee number,

1162
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:45,319
Speaker 2: and you're like, Nope, not doing it. Hate fees.

1163
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:46,759
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend that kind of money on it.

1164
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 2: That would be potentially short sighted depending on how you

1165
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 2: spend money, And so it's worth at least assessing am

1166
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:53,840
Speaker 2: I going to get enough value to make up for

1167
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:56,799
Speaker 2: this fee on a yearly basis? And if not, then

1168
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:58,359
Speaker 2: that card doesn't make sense for you. Or if you're

1169
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:01,759
Speaker 2: like airport lounges who cares like that, doesn't that perk

1170
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:04,560
Speaker 2: means is it brings zero dollars worth of value to

1171
00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 2: my life? Well then don't you know, maybe that's not

1172
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:09,240
Speaker 2: the credit card for you. But don't I would say,

1173
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:11,759
Speaker 2: just knee jerk walk away from a credit card just

1174
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 2: because it has an annual fee, because you might find

1175
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:16,040
Speaker 2: that it more than pays for itself in the perks

1176
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:16,359
Speaker 2: you get.

1177
00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:18,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't want to be myopic when it comes

1178
00:54:18,320 --> 00:54:20,920
Speaker 1: to the fees that you should be willing to spend

1179
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:23,239
Speaker 1: if you're gonna gain that value. And I think folks

1180
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:25,640
Speaker 1: might have the tendency to see themselves on one side

1181
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:27,319
Speaker 1: of the aisle or the other right Like you might

1182
00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:30,359
Speaker 1: be like Joel and say I'm never ever gonna pay

1183
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:31,600
Speaker 1: fees for the rest of my life, And you also

1184
00:54:31,680 --> 00:54:33,440
Speaker 1: might be on the other side of the aisle, on

1185
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:35,279
Speaker 1: the other end of the spectrum where you're saying, well, no,

1186
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: of course you're gonna get value, but maybe there might

1187
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:40,360
Speaker 1: be years where you don't get that value. And so

1188
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:42,799
Speaker 1: I think it could pay to be a little more

1189
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:45,680
Speaker 1: strategic with the fees that you pay. If you know,

1190
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,480
Speaker 1: for instance, that man, starting next year, we're gonna be

1191
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:50,279
Speaker 1: doing a lot of travel for the next two or

1192
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 1: three years, well, guess what, that might be the perfect

1193
00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 1: time to either take advantage of like the Southwest Companion

1194
00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 1: Pass or signing up for the AMEX Gold Platinum, some

1195
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:01,719
Speaker 1: of these travel centric cards that allow you to gain

1196
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:04,399
Speaker 1: a lot of benefits and pay for that fee for

1197
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,200
Speaker 1: just a few years, and then after that you could

1198
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:08,920
Speaker 1: either downgrade to a card that doesn't have an anual fee,

1199
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:11,560
Speaker 1: or potentially even cancel it all together if that's not

1200
00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:13,920
Speaker 1: something that is bringing you additional value.

1201
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:17,279
Speaker 2: But so bither way, the Southwest card is great for

1202
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:21,200
Speaker 2: domestic travel in particular because, yeah, Southwest doesn't really travel

1203
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:24,040
Speaker 2: to many international locations, although they do have a couple

1204
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 2: they have a couple, yeah, and typically what South America, Mexico, right,

1205
00:55:27,239 --> 00:55:29,640
Speaker 2: but there's not much in the way of Europe. And

1206
00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 2: so if you're thinking, all right, I kind of want

1207
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:33,400
Speaker 2: to stay in the general vicinity. I don't want any

1208
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:36,239
Speaker 2: of those ten to fifteen hour flights. That's not really

1209
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:38,080
Speaker 2: in my future. Maybe because you do have young kids

1210
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:42,719
Speaker 2: or whatever. That the Southwest card, if Southwest flies from

1211
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 2: the airport that's closest to you, that can be the

1212
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:46,720
Speaker 2: best card for a lot of people.

1213
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:47,399
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah.

1214
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 2: Oh, and by the way, we have to quickly mention

1215
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,920
Speaker 2: that we have a new article on our site telling

1216
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:57,080
Speaker 2: people which are the best travel cards out there. Will

1217
00:55:57,120 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 2: link to that one in the show notes. But if

1218
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 2: you're curious about sign up bonus, the secondary benefits, and

1219
00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 2: just the rewards that you're gonna get based on some

1220
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:07,399
Speaker 2: of these different cards. If this conbo with Brian got

1221
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:09,360
Speaker 2: you excited to sign up for something, you get the

1222
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 2: ball rolling. Well, that article about travel rewards for newbies.

1223
00:56:12,719 --> 00:56:14,160
Speaker 2: Will have that up on our site and in the

1224
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:16,080
Speaker 2: show notes, Yes we will.

1225
00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 1: But as far as my big takeaway, so towards the

1226
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,760
Speaker 1: beginning of the episode, he talked about how his friend

1227
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 1: who was really into SEO search engine optimization back in

1228
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: the day, he told Brian, he said, hey, start writing

1229
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:30,839
Speaker 1: about travel, right about it every single day, and over

1230
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:33,840
Speaker 1: time you will be rewarded for all of your hard work.

1231
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 1: I couldn't help, of course, but to think of investing.

1232
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:39,920
Speaker 1: Not everybody may be into travel, and so at the

1233
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:42,319
Speaker 1: very least maybe you can have an investing takeaway. You

1234
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:44,279
Speaker 1: may not think that the two hundred dollars you're putting

1235
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:46,959
Speaker 1: away every month within a roth iray, that that's gonna

1236
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 1: amount to much of anything, but guess what month after

1237
00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:51,680
Speaker 1: a month of doing that, year after year, you're gonna

1238
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 1: see that balance swell, and you're gonna see the returns

1239
00:56:55,320 --> 00:56:57,960
Speaker 1: on that amount compound, and years from now you have

1240
00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 1: a very good chance of becoming a millionaire just on

1241
00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:02,799
Speaker 1: the money that you've been able to invest within just

1242
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:05,719
Speaker 1: your rough ire just to one account, just exactly a

1243
00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:07,880
Speaker 1: millionaire over three decades. And so just I don't know,

1244
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:10,920
Speaker 1: just like that plugging away at just it's a very

1245
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,480
Speaker 1: disciplined approach to how he first got his business started,

1246
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 1: and we need to take that same attitude and apply

1247
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,080
Speaker 1: it to how we invest. It's not all sexy, it's

1248
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,440
Speaker 1: not all you know, buying the dip and do that.

1249
00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:25,080
Speaker 1: Sometimes we have to plug away at something without the

1250
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:27,400
Speaker 1: expectation that we're going to see immediate returns. That we're

1251
00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:29,160
Speaker 1: going to see something that's going to really wow us.

1252
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:31,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it can seem like from the outside that

1253
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 2: Brian Kelly is this overnight success story, but when you

1254
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:36,240
Speaker 2: dig into the history and you learn that he started

1255
00:57:36,280 --> 00:57:38,320
Speaker 2: at age twelve, that he was nerding out on that

1256
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 2: stuff when most people were I don't know, throwing the

1257
00:57:41,440 --> 00:57:44,800
Speaker 2: football with their friends or whatever, that he was nerding

1258
00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:47,480
Speaker 2: out on points, or that he was had a demanding

1259
00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:50,280
Speaker 2: day job and he was side hustling doing this for

1260
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 2: fifty bucks a pop because he just loved points travel

1261
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:54,800
Speaker 2: that much.

1262
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 1: That's how you do it.

1263
00:57:56,120 --> 00:57:57,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's it's one of those and you kind of

1264
00:57:57,960 --> 00:57:59,640
Speaker 2: hear that and you're like, oh, okay, all right, wait this.

1265
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 2: There's a lot more involved in this than just starting

1266
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 2: a site and that hoping that you know, Google throws

1267
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:07,480
Speaker 2: a lot of traffic your way. There's a lot more

1268
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,040
Speaker 2: intentionality on the front end and a lot more time

1269
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:12,320
Speaker 2: that goes into learning the ins and outs and then

1270
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:14,520
Speaker 2: working your butt off to get there. So I'm crazy

1271
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 2: impressed with what Brian's been able to accomplish, and it's

1272
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 2: really cool to see how many people he's been able

1273
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:22,439
Speaker 2: to help travel for little to no money, and Matt,

1274
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 2: hopefully we can we can apply some of these tactics

1275
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:26,600
Speaker 2: to our own lives. So you and I, as our

1276
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:28,920
Speaker 2: kids get older, as we feel more comfortable getting out there,

1277
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:32,439
Speaker 2: maybe taking our kids on some crazy trips, hopefully doing

1278
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:33,880
Speaker 2: it for almost no money.

1279
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:37,000
Speaker 1: That's right, and real quick, let's introduce share the beer

1280
00:58:37,040 --> 00:58:39,160
Speaker 1: that you and I enjoyed during this episode, which was

1281
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:43,000
Speaker 1: Elephants on Parade. This is a beer by Bosque Brewing Company.

1282
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:44,440
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts on this one, Bud?

1283
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know me, I like raspberry beers and

1284
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:47,120
Speaker 2: this was.

1285
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,840
Speaker 1: With raspberry and colored with a Sandia sunset. Yeah, don't

1286
00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:52,200
Speaker 1: know what that is. I don't know what that is either,

1287
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 1: but that's a regional thing. Maybe.

1288
00:58:53,560 --> 00:58:55,919
Speaker 2: Well, this is a new Mexico beer from our friend Bob,

1289
00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:58,400
Speaker 2: who we see at fin Con every year, and so yeah,

1290
00:58:58,440 --> 00:59:00,520
Speaker 2: he and his wife brought us like a caselow to beers.

1291
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 2: So thank you guys so much for donating beers the show.

1292
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 2: We appreciate it. And I've never had anything by Boss

1293
00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:10,240
Speaker 2: Brewing before. Again, raspberry beers one of my favorite genres.

1294
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:13,040
Speaker 2: I just love fruited beers and raspberries in particular. This

1295
00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:17,240
Speaker 2: beer is like nice, light refreshing with that robust raspberry flavor.

1296
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna say I dig it man, I'm say

1297
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:20,040
Speaker 2: this is right up my alley.

1298
00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:22,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's on that it's a wheed ale, so it

1299
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:23,960
Speaker 1: kind of it definitely has that weedy what I like

1300
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:27,480
Speaker 1: to call captain crunch backbone where it tastes like, actually,

1301
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:30,440
Speaker 1: this is this beer's a lot like crunchberries. So you're

1302
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,320
Speaker 1: a fan of Captain crunch Crunchberries. Check out Elephants on

1303
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:36,080
Speaker 1: Parade by bossqu Brewing. A big thanks to Bob and

1304
00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: his wife for donating this one to the show. No doubt,

1305
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:40,520
Speaker 1: but Joel, that's gonna be it for this one, buddy.

1306
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 1: We will link to any of the different resources we

1307
00:59:42,600 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: mentioned up on our website at Howtomoney dot com. And

1308
00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:46,520
Speaker 1: until next time

1309
00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:49,520
Speaker 2: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,