Go Curry Cracker Asset Allocation 2021

by | Apr 19, 2021 | Finances | 14 comments

We have been living off our portfolio for over 8 years now, since late 2012.

For the 1st 6 years I made only minor adjustments – annual rebalancing, minimizing long-term taxes with capital gain harvests and Roth conversions, and adding the occasional small chunk of fresh capital as blog income allowed.

But after ~7 years of the stock market trending upward and the conscious decision to spend more, in early 2019 we took some money off the table (sold stocks / bought bonds.) When literally everything went to hell due to COVID-19, we sold most of those bonds to buy stock and increase our cash cushion.

Now, this is what our portfolio looks like in 2021.

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Award Travel Series: Getting to Hawaii for Free with Ultimate Rewards

by | Apr 12, 2021 | Award Travel Series | 14 comments

Advertiser Disclosure: This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CardRatings.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

We’ve beat the drum of transferable currencies and how powerful credit card welcome bonuses can be. Maybe you were even enticed by the recent highest-ever Welcome Bonus for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (80,000 points after $4,000 spend in 3 months, a $1,000+ value. $95 annual fee.) Now it’s time to put that hard work to use by making a redemption using those points, and what better destination than Hawaii?
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Award Travel Series: Meeting Minimum Spend Requirements

by | Mar 22, 2021 | Award Travel Series | 26 comments

Advertiser Disclosure: This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CardRatings.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities

If you’ve been following along thus far, you have probably opened a credit card or two after reading about all the benefits and free travel that come along with them. As soon as you’re notified that you’ve been approved for the account, the clock starts on what is the determining factor in whether or not you will earn the welcome bonus: meeting a minimum spend requirement.

Today, I’ll explain several ways to meet these requirements and ensure you get the points you need for that sweet redemption.
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Double Double

by | Mar 14, 2021 | Finances | 44 comments

Classic Double Double (photo from In-N-Out Burger)

Every time we are in California I have to make a stop at In-N-Out Burger for a Double Double (protein style.)

Even after that time I threw up a Double Double and chocolate milkshake out my nose, I still love them. (Can’t say the same for Jack Daniels…)

Similarly, every time I enter my tax preparation state I have to check on our investment portfolio…

I can say without a doubt, the only thing better than Double Beef is Double Dollars.

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