The Sugar Daddy Podcast
Ready to normalize talking about money? Then welcome to The Sugar Daddy Podcast, where talking about money isn't taboo, and you can leave your past money mistakes at the door! Every episode will get you one step closer to your financial goals. Whether that is learning how to invest, budget, save, retire early or simply make better money choices, Jess & Brandon have got you covered in a way that's easy to understand. Tune in as they demystify the realm of dollars, so it all makes cents, while giving you a glimpse into their relationship with money and each other.
The Norwoods are a married, millennial couple, here to help you build wealth, so you can live the life you've always dreamed of. Brandon is an award winning licensed financial planner, and owner of Oak City Financial, with over a decade of experience and millions of dollars managed for his clients all over the United States.
New episodes published the first three Wednesdays of every month.
The Sugar Daddy Podcast
67: How to use Credit Card Points and Miles to Travel Hack with Aunt Kara
Explore the world of travel hacking, with Instagram influencer, Aunt Kara, who shares her journey of transforming everyday spending into extraordinary family vacations worth over $125,000. She discusses her strategic use of airline and hotel loyalty programs to her insights on popular travel credit cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture. Join Jess and Brandon as they discuss the importance of aligning financial goals with personal preferences, ensuring that your travel and spending choices are tailored to your unique needs. Whether planning a dream family trip to Hawaii or deciding which card will best suit your lifestyle, this episode is packed with practical insights and advice.
Watch this episode in video form on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP55O4Ku4dukHcK0kExhpcA
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Notes from the show:
Kara’s Website
Kara’s Instagram
Kara’s Facebook
Kara’s YouTube
Kara’s 90 Min YouTube Rewards Course
If you've been curious about travel hacking how to use points and miles to get those glamorous free vacations like everybody seems to be doing online these days, then this episode is for you. We have Instagram super hacker Aunt Kara with us to talk about how she's taken over $100,000 worth of family vacations all over the globe using points and miles. So if you're curious about how to earn those points and miles, how long it takes, which cards are best and generally, how to do it, this episode is for you.
Speaker 2:Hey babe. What are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite things in the world points for travel. Get me out of here as quickly as possible, and preferably with points in first class.
Speaker 2:Thank you yeah, that's definitely your love language is traveling travel is my love language.
Speaker 1:I listen, I'm the person who's Googling my next trip while on the trip, and I feel like I'm always in a better mood when I have something to look forward to, and today we are you always say you're also in a better mood when you have a margarita in hand and you don't have to clean any dishes.
Speaker 1:Yes, I don't want to do laundry. I want a Marg in my hand. I don't want to fold laundry, do the dishwasher? I don't. I want to get out of that normal day to day routine of like I mean, the kids get out of the house and what do I do? I empty the dishwasher every morning. You know like I don't want to do that, so get me on a vacation.
Speaker 1:That's what I want to do where you don't have to cook where you don't have to cook, I don't have to clean and even better if I can do it and I can use points for all the things that we spend money on all the time anyway, like, give me something for spending my money. And so today we are talking to somebody who does that way better than we do. I think we are barely scratching the surface when it comes to points and miles and all of those credit card perks, but today we have somebody with us that is going to teach us her ways, and that is Aunt Kara. Kara, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me, jessica and Brandon, it's good to be here.
Speaker 1:We are so excited. So for anybody who doesn't know, on Kara A, get up from under that rock that you're living in, because you need to know her. She is fabulous, so let's get into this bio and then we're going to get into picking her brain on how she has taken these amazing trips, on points and miles and all the things. Aunt Kara is a trusted and respected Instagram influencer, inspiring over 100,000 followers to make good decisions with their money and build wealth. She's even better known for sharing travel hacking information on how to reduce the cost of travel by earning and redeeming points and miles. Over the past 12 years, she has redeemed $125,000 worth of points toward travel for herself and her family. That is a large amount of money.
Speaker 1:Kara is not just a travel hacker extraordinaire. She is an IT professional of 30 years, a mother of two college kids, a wife of 30 years to her husband, mark. They live in the Midwest and they are 100% debt free, including mortgage, and you guys are doing all the investments in the stock market and you plan on retiring in the next two years. So congratulations for all of those things you are winning at life, kara.
Speaker 3:We're so glad to have you. I don't know. You know I mean money's a big, big piece of life. We all know that. So I feel like you could check the box that we've won on the financial front. But you know, it's been quite a journey and a lot of years to get to this point. For sure, in every aspect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you said that, because one of the things that I see repeatedly in your content is that you are reminding people. You don't just wake up with hundreds of thousands of points right, like this takes planning, it takes preparation, it takes intentionality, and the people you're seeing, who are taking these amazing trips like you, didn't just wake up with the points. You know you have to really plan for it. So definitely want to talk about that. But before we get into all of that goodness, we have to get into your first money memory. Can you share that with us?
Speaker 3:Um, so my first money memory was absolutely the first time I started babysitting and that was the first job I ever had, first real job. That I wasn't like doing something for mom and dad chores and they're throwing me a couple dollars here or there, but I began babysitting gosh when I was like in seventh grade I think I was 12 years old or something like that. They were pretty generous with their. I was getting paid more than my friends with babysitting and so I was sacrificing weekend nights on a regular basis, not spending the night with friends and things like that because I thought I'm a fool to pass up this money and I also love the family and it was nice and the concept of me being able to have my own money to make choices on how I wanted to spend it was like I love that feeling of power like that I had. I had the ability to make a choice versus all the years of my life where I said to mom and dad, like please get me those jeans.
Speaker 3:I mean when you're 12, like think about where your priorities are. You know, like it was usually something and I'm a girl, I was a girl, you know fashion and things like that and you know the ones that were just too pricey and my mom and dad were pretty frugal and it paid off for them. But I love the feeling that, like now, I have the ability to buy what I want to buy and nobody can tell me no, like if that's what I want, I have the money in my pocket now and I was a good saver. So that money was not in and out of my pocket, it was. I had big visions all the time and again the big visions might have been some name brand jeans that you know my mom wouldn't get for me, but I had goals and I got to know that rhythm of like work, sacrifice, then get what you want.
Speaker 3:Again, wouldn't advise everyone to run out and buy designer jeans at this point, but when you're 12 and that was like something you couldn't have because you were at the mercy of someone else's rules, but then you know to have that in your hands and that control and that power that was like so impactful to me and still was like my mentality. Now my priorities changed, but that's been my mentality all along. Like, save up, you know, don't pay off, right, save up up front, do not pay off. Like I wasn't asking mom and dad let me borrow it, because I think I'll babysit enough for the next few weeks to pay you back. Like never was that. It was like money upfront, save, save, save and then you get your reward. So that concept, like even when I was little, I remember feeling like this is cool, I can actually get what I want. Now.
Speaker 1:So that's my money memory. Do you feel like once you were sacrificing your weekends and your girlfriends were at their sleepovers and you were working, and now you also talked about saving the money? Do you feel like when you were working for it, it became more difficult to spend on the name brand jeans versus if your parents would have just bought it for you? Like, did you think about it longer, you know?
Speaker 3:I don't think at that age I really did Like I had my goal, like I knew ahead of time and again, I wasn't. I had something specific that motivated me to do it. So, um, no, I don't think it was hard to spend when the time came because I kept doing that. I think during a lot of my teenage years I was not investing and saving like for big stuff. When I was younger I didn't start that whole you know, cycle like or not cycle, but that that interest in doing that until after I was out of college, when I was younger, just you know, whether it was jeans or buying or buying 14 karat gold earrings or whatever, oh, I just knocked down my earring, that you know.
Speaker 3:The prize, I guess, or the reward, was different. But I don't think it was hard because I it was like my motivation, so I needed that reward and then I'd move on to the next reward. So, no, I don't think it was at that point. Now I have different things that go through my mind and I have different types of things to consider when I am going to spend a big chunk of money. But back then it was like there were really no competing priorities. I mean, you're young, you have no responsibilities, so it didn't matter, yeah that makes total sense.
Speaker 2:No, I always tell. Just one of my core like money memories was when I was 14 years old and my mom would only spend a certain amount of money on a pair of, like you know, shoes, and this was more specifically for basketball, and I wanted a pair of Jordans never had a pair of Jordans before and she was willing to spend a certain amount and the difference I had to, you know, make up for it. And that was the longest that it ever took me to actually make a decision because I was like, looking like, do I need these shoes? Maybe I could buy these other ones that aren't just as nice but maybe less expensive. I ultimately, same as you, went ahead and got the shoes, but definitely took me way longer to think about it because obviously I was using my own money and literally that has filtered into, like how I process things even now as an adult.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's harder to spend your own money than it is to spend somebody else's. Yeah, I probably overthink some parts just a little bit too much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I maybe overthink now, but not back then.
Speaker 1:Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money? Am I doing the right things with my investments? Am I on track to reach my financial goals? What could I be doing better?
Speaker 1:If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be. What are you waiting for? It's literally free and at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future. Link is in our show notes. Go, schedule your call today. So let's get into what everybody wants to learn more about, which is travel hacking points, miles. How do you get started? How do you know which cards? And I know from my research you started your social media Aunt Kara account because of the nieces and nephews that you were really just trying to help you know, become financially literate and teach them things. So can you walk us through how you went from hey, I'm going to teach my seven nieces and nephews to 105,000 followers on Instagram, and then some were. How did that happen so?
Speaker 3:I have loved talking about money like for a lot of my adulthood and personal finance and when people talk about being big readers and things like that. If it's not like a personal finance book, I'm not going to read it. That's just how I am. That's the stuff I like. I want to learn, I want to gain something, I want to be truly interested in the content and I'm not just like a casual reader of fiction and things like that.
Speaker 2:So I know you, yeah so.
Speaker 3:So I've been reading books since, like out of college. You know, my first, the first book I read around personal finance was the Millionaire Next Door, and I talk about that quite a bit on my account because I mean I read it when it was first published, because that's how old I am and I don't even know how I found out about it. Like I must have read it somewhere in a magazine or newspaper, because we obviously didn't even have internet or social media to share that. But I was fascinated and really a lot of it. My content even talks about the psychology of money and your mindset about it, like more so than the mechanics of certain ways to save and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:But my nieces and nephews have always come to me for years. Like I'm very close to them. I have been since the day they were born. They're all older than my children, so they're like kind of our first set of kids and I'm very close to my sisters and so it was like I mean, aunt Carol was there all the time. I mean I, I saw every one of them on the day they were born, like that's how you know. So they've come to me for years about money, career advice, things like that. And it's just was natural, as they got older and became adults and kind of moved on with their own lives and careers, that I needed a mechanism to reach out to them and be able to stay connected, because we weren't seeing each other as much. I wasn't going to their basketball games or tennis matches and things like that to be able to talk to them and interact. You know, it was like how do I continue to be there for you?
Speaker 3:And the Instagram account was something I told them all about before I even created the account and I said, if I create this account and I want to share and that's why I kept it at Aunt Kara too, because I know money is my passion, but I'm like I will probably throw in some other tips there here and there, and so I didn't want to make it my title be anything more than Aunt Kara, because that's what they knew me as, and you know they come to me for different things and they are all like of course I'll follow you. Yes, that makes sense and I go. You can absorb the content as you want to. I'm not going to push it in your face. You can come and reach out and read my stuff but at least, like I've got words of wisdom from my experience that I can share and advise. As I think, through your stage in life and look, you know, look back to where I was and the right way to view things and the kind of pressures and experiences I think you're going through, let me put it out there and that's what. That's what they like from me. So I said I'll leave my account open and it'll be what it is.
Speaker 3:And you know, other people clearly were interested in what I had to say, had questions. We had lots of good conversations, whether it was through comments or DMs, and it just really continued to evolve. The travel piece kind of snuck in there, I don't know about a year later, when once in a while I would talk about the fact that I went on a vacation but I used points and miles. People said tell me more right, people are like me, more right. People are like how's the, how does that work? And, um, I was like, okay, but I knew my message had this credit card element in it about signing up for credit cards, right, and I'd been in the personal finance space with with you know, a lot of folks that were very anti credit card with reason, and I completely agree and we can talk about that. Um, you know a lot of folks that were very anti-credit card with reason, and I completely agree and we can talk about that. You know responsible use of credit cards. But I said, if you've got the finances under control, your finances under control, and that means you are truly credit card debt free then let's talk about this whole points and miles game hobby, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 3:So that content kept picking up and more and more people were asking. Now my nieces and nephews always were texting me about it, like once they had good credit scores and good jobs and they didn't have credit card debt. I mean I've got one nephew who's like all right, I mean he'll text me, he goes, give me my next card and he's like I got a trip with blah, blah, blah, and so they're texting me about that behind the scenes. But I realized, okay, if I do this thoughtfully and educate people about this whole, you know avenue, I mean the fact that you save so much darn money and, honestly, like you know, my followers are in an age range where travel like you is huge. They love it, I love it. This is what people want to hear about.
Speaker 3:So then I picked up the travel hacking content as something that now I kind of do 50-50, personal finance and the travel but it's so fun and so exciting and just gets people all.
Speaker 3:I mean the, the feedback I get from that is so fun. Um, and the trips that people tell me they took because they learned something from me, and the fact that people would tell me I was so scared of credit cards and you helped me figure it out and we don't have any credit card debt and I realized I can pay these things off as much as I want, as frequently as I want, which is a wonderful thing, that, like, I'm not at risk of digging myself into some hole when you know all I'm doing is getting more points so I can save more money for the next vacation I take. So it's just been. That's like the evolution, it's just kind of morphed into this and again, the points and miles side of my content is like the fun, the really fun stuff. So I'm glad that people responded to it because I love to talk about it, I love to write about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean we're spending the money anyway. Right, we have to buy the toilet paper and the strawberries and the things 100%. So you might as well get something back. You know, it makes me feel better when you take that trip.
Speaker 3:People immediately associate credit cards to people buying things that they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford, and I I mean like that is obviously against everything I stand for. You know, people think credit cards go buy luxury items, go buy, go on a pay for a $10,000 vacation, like all that. And I'm like no, everything you do practically now takes credit card. You know, your cell phone bills take credit card, your internet takes credit card. Your insurance companies take credit card. Now, as long as there's not an additional fee to do that, because you never want to pay more money just to. You know, use a card and earn points and miles, because you actually don't earn any in that way. But my point is is that, yeah, you're doing groceries, gas, you're? I mean, there are some even daycares out there that take credit card and don't charge fees, which blow my mind Like that would have been a dream for me.
Speaker 1:We had one at one point, but then we switched and I instantly was like do you take credit card? And they were like no, and I was like the amount of points from that alone, I would have been swimming in points as much as we were paying in daycare with our two kids. So it's just like.
Speaker 3:Those are things that are. If you budget and you're staying within your budget, how you actually pay doesn't matter. You know, like I mean again, as long as you're not paying more. But the other key is you know you have to be disciplined, you have to know that money is in your account before you use that card. So so you're not, you know you're again not extending yourself and floating alone to yourself. If you don't have the money, don't buy it Right Like kind of thing, or don't pay with a card. So it's just those. Those characteristics have and fundamentals have to be there with people to really do this the right way, or else you're going to end up in more trouble. And all this fun of points is not worth it when you're just digging yourself into more debt and have these insane interest rates that you're paying on credit cards. I mean it's almost a crime how much they're charging.
Speaker 1:I mean, some of them are pushing 30%.
Speaker 3:Right, it's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 3:Like it is the worst debt you could possibly have.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and, like you said, it's all about personal responsibility.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Having a credit card in and of itself is not bad. What ends up happening is is that you don't have personal accountability, and that's when you get yourself in trouble. And now, like you had said, you know, obviously, if you know that you're that type of person where that can lead to that, then yeah, having a credit card is probably not a good idea. I don't like some of the you know financial literacy influencers that put out a blanket statement that credit cards are bad because it's not the case.
Speaker 3:It's like a lot of things in life, the lack of discipline.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things in life that, like it, just basically boils down to personal responsibility and using it the correct way.
Speaker 1:Right, what would you say, kara, to somebody who's like okay, I want to get started, but I don't need six or seven cards, right, like? I'm sure you have a ton of cards. We pay over $1,100 for the cards that we have in fees, right, but we use them and they come out on the plus side Right.
Speaker 1:So you have to make sure that you're maximizing, like what are you actually paying for? And you know, I think we probably have a lot of similar cards. You know some that have a lower annual cost to have the card and then some you know that the Amex Platinum goes up to $6.95. That's the most expensive one we have. But for anybody looking to get started, how would you advise them on which card to get? Like, what is that process and how do you recommend people get started?
Speaker 3:So I tell people that I think the smartest way to get started is to pick a trip. It gets back and I say it's very similar to personal finance, where you have a target goal of what you're trying to work for and work towards, because it helps direct you making the right decisions with what cards you choose. So when someone can come up with you know, I want to go to Maui, I want to go to Orlando because I want to go to Disney, whatever, I mean that they understand what they're going to use the points for before they even sign up for the card and they understand the type of brands they can use. You know, if you open it up to a place like Orlando, you can use pretty much any hotel brand in existence because they are all there.
Speaker 3:But maybe with the airlines, you're someone that wants to fly out of Atlanta. Delta is going to be probably something that you're going to be more interested in. Maybe if you're out of Chicago you're going to well, it has everything but United's hubs there and so maybe a United miles are more valuable to you. But you look at the brands that you could potentially use, look up how many points you need because you can do all of this. Before you even sign up for that first card, you can go on all these airline and hotel websites and search how many points is it per night, like a lot of people are like how do I judge? I'm like you can look that up yourself and you don't even have to be. You know, have any points in your loyalty account. You don't even have to have a loyalty account. It'll tell you. You know there's a toggle between cash and points. Select the points, do a dummy booking like you're going to fly there on some date and see how much it is round trip. So you are really crystal clear on what you're trying to accomplish, are really crystal clear on what you're trying to accomplish, and then again, when you're making the decisions of what to sign up for you know, maybe the credit card signup bonus is 50,000, but you know for your trip you're going to need a hundred thousand. But it sets your expectations right. So you know well, maybe I'm going to get 50% of this trip paid for, um, with points. So I need to save up the other amount with cash, cause I it's unrealistic for me to have that many points by the time I want to go. So, like, doing that diligence upfront when you're just starting out, to me is the smartest way to do it and it's also it's it's really fun because once you get a taste of it, because you know you're going to use those points and you do all the booking, so you've got it all planned out. It's so fun and feels so good. You're going to be so motivated to do it again.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of people I know that will be, like I have points here and here and I signed up for this once and I've got these points hanging out here. What should I do with them? And I'm like, oh, you kind of did it backwards, like I mean you can go through the motions of doing the research again and say we'll do any of the brands I have and any of the points I have match up to what trip I'm trying to do. But, like, sometimes people just do it blindly because they hear there's a great credit card offer and then they realize, like I don't, like if it's a you know Capital One Venture, and they look and go wait, I don't even. I can't even use any of those transfer partners, and I thought I'm supposed to transfer these points out. You know, like some of the things are mismatched and they aren't able to effectively use the points the way they want to.
Speaker 3:And and then I'm I'm like oh, you know, it's just going to have to. You know you're going to have to do some more work and figure out another type of trip or something. But that's the way I tell people is. Like, if you start with the trip, that's the best way to do it, because then you're just really focused. You're not just again signing up left and right for new card bonuses and having tons of points and being overwhelmed with like I don't even know what to do now. I don't, that's my opinion. Being overwhelmed with like I don't even know what to do now, I don't, that's, that's, that's my opinion.
Speaker 3:Now, if you are someone that says, well, I've got big expenses coming up.
Speaker 3:I can't figure out what trip I want to do yet, but I know if I route these through a credit card I can meet minimum spend quickly and I just want to do something.
Speaker 3:Then I do advise people always go with one of those flexible bank cards, like ones that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards. They earn American Express membership rewards or Capital One Venture points or Citi Thank you points Like those are the flexible points that you can use for multiple brands, whether you transfer them out or you use them within the booking portal, because then you aren't aligned with a brand that you can't use. So that's, you know, if you're in a situation because there are times right where you've got some big car expense and maybe you've saved up the money, but you're like, oh my gosh, I can almost get to minimum spend just with this one swipe, then it's like time is of the essence, so you kind of have to pull the trigger. So that's like the second alternative. But again, if you want to be thoughtful about it, I say pick your trip and then figure out what points you need and then move forward.
Speaker 2:What I like about it is that it 100% aligns with a lot of things that we talk about in this podcast. When it comes to the financial planning aspect, you start with the end goal in mind.
Speaker 2:You got to figure out what it is that you're trying to accomplish and then work backwards from there. And, how you said before, you know the person that has points on this card points in that card because they didn't go into it with a plan in place. They just kind of were just going through the actions and then now they don't necessarily maybe have a problem per se, but it's more difficult and they have to kind of start the process over again.
Speaker 1:Well, you're like piecemealing. You're like, oh, I have 12,000 points here and 60,000 points here, and then it becomes really it's confusing. You get frustrated because then you're like, oh, I can't transfer these, or I can't. So I think that you know your project, planning your trip backwards, like where do I want to go? How am I going to get there? Where do I want to stay? And we kind of stay within, like we usually do, marriott properties, we usually do Hyatt properties, so we know which two cards are going to get us those points right. We typically prefer to fly Delta. We probably should move to Atlanta for that reason alone. But you know I mean. So we have those things in mind of like, okay, these are the airlines that we like to fly, like our friends that fly out of Charlotte, they usually fly American. I try to avoid American at all costs.
Speaker 1:It's just not my airline, you know like that could change, but for today unless they want to sponsor the show right, but for today it is not my airline, you know. So you have to really think about, like, how do you like to travel? And and I think what you said about pick the trip and then pick the card and match those things up I think that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:I mean it's like anything in life, like anything that you that's of any, any sort of substance that you want to accomplish. You have to have a plan in place to do it successfully.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And then even the destination. The destination honestly matters too with um well, and when I say destination, I'll say if you're, I mean more of if you're a domestic traveler or you're an international traveler. That's true. That completely can change your strategy, because there's a lot of people who ask me, like, why don't you talk more about American Express membership rewards? Because some travel hackers just think that's the end-all, be-all points program.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, and I bet you, they travel internationally and they like to do things like business class, for, you know, first class, whatever upgrading their flights right, all the things yeah, because they have a lot of international partners and they have a lot of different offers that are more attractive to international travel, and so it's like you know that that isn't so much my thing. I'm a domestic traveler just because I am. I mean, it's just the way our family, our family's routine and things and and our schedules. So you know I'm that points program isn't exactly, you know, one that I pursue very hard. I mean I it's a great program, it's just more of I pick what's valuable to me. I don't just go for like whatever I read about is the latest and greatest thing I have to say. But what's my travel style? Where am I going? What do I need? And not just do something because it was great for someone else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hate to bring it back to financial planning again, but it's so spot on because you were saying like so spot on regards to the individuality.
Speaker 2:I think so much stuff on social media is so general when in reality, a lot of the stuff is very specific. So you know with you the travel hacking aspect do you want to travel internationally? Do you want to travel domestic? That makes a big difference in regards to how you're going to approach and the process to getting to where you want to go. And it's the same thing with you know, financial plan and the whole thing with like financial planning is like what do you want to accomplish? Not what your neighbor wants to accomplish or somebody else that's around the same age as you. What do you specifically want to do? Because that is going to make a big difference in the details that need to be put in for you to accomplish what you want to accomplish.
Speaker 3:Right, and I said that too. That's why I mean, there's just so many similarities with that approach and I think maybe that's why, you know, the world of personal finance has kind of intersected with travel hacking, and it's not just because you're saving money, it's not just about that aspect, it's about the fundamentals of who you are and the approach you use. Those are the things that like, when you have those characteristics, you're going to be a good fit for managing your money well and being able to strategize with your points and use you know, use those strategies effectively. I back to your point of personal finance. I was recently recently, I don't want to say attacked but criticized by several that were not longtime followers over on threads on on um threads you know meta threads and they about me talking about paying off my house early and how dumb that was.
Speaker 1:And Brandon does not believe in in house payoffs.
Speaker 3:That's okay. I personally to the point, so I'm not saying right, personally, it's not one of the people who commented no, no, no, he would never. This is the thing I mean. I'm just trying to illustrate exactly what you were saying about the fact that, like people came at me and said that's so dumb, right that's. You should not do that. You should use your money and be investing all that extra money instead.
Speaker 3:And I said, you know, not for what my goals were and not for what my circumstances were and what, personally and emotionally even, I wanted to achieve. And it didn't mean that I wasn't able to build wealth. I mean you guys know, like I mean I'm retiring in two years. It's not like I sacrificed you know all, you know everything in the world to make that happen. And now I'm broke, like, as far as you know, building wealth and I'm I've just dumped it all in my house. So it's like it's very circumstantial and individualized. It doesn't mean I'm right and someone else is wrong, or they're right and I'm wrong, whatever. So, um, we're just, you know. So, we're just, you know. There are all kinds of flavors of the best way to do things in both spaces, in points and miles, as well as personal finance.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing that I think a lot of people miss is that there is not one singular way to achieve a goal that is the only way to do it. There's so many different options depending on, like you said, I think a big one that has been lacking for many years within finance is the emotional aspect. Everyone has an emotional attachment to their money. So just because quote unquote mathematically it may not make sense to pay off your house, but the amount of emotional relief that it would give someone to have, you know, not have that debt that they're paying back, you can't put up, you can't. Technically, you really can't put a dollar sign on that.
Speaker 3:Right you know.
Speaker 2:so it really just depends on what works for you, and I think I hate when people like kind of crap on other people's ideas. We're like there's more than one way to be successful and accomplish things.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 1:And also you know we're, you know we're millennials, you're in a different generation, and so the things that you're doing versus what we're doing, what our parents experienced, who are in a different generation, right, all of those numbers, you know, matter.
Speaker 1:Like I had a conversation with my dad the other day and I was complaining to him about which camp to put the kids in and I was like well, they, you know, our daughter really likes this camp, but I think our son, who's going to be in this kind of camp for the first time, would really like this one, but it's going to be double the price. So we're looking at, you know, 300, $400 versus 600. And he literally said to me and I love my dad and if he listens to this he'll understand but he was like you know, just drink a couple less iced coffees, babe. And I was like, dad, how much iced coffee do you think that I'm drinking? We're talking about $600 worth of track out camp for one week for two of our kids. Like, have you ever paid $600 for me and my brother to go to camp? Like this is not the iced coffee problem. Okay, it's not.
Speaker 3:Right, right. So you know, yes, everybody has an opinion, though, right. Everybody, uh, huh, yeah Well when it's not their situation, they still. They still have their own opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly I do want to talk about. You know that backwards planning and you posted a lot about your trip to Hawaii that you took with your family and I mean it looked incredible.
Speaker 3:That wasn't hype. I wasn't just hyping it up because I was making some pretty social media posts. That was absolutely the best trip we have ever done on points and miles.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I've gone to Hawaii 12 times guys, so like it's not because it was Hawaii and you're supposed to think that's like a big deal, it was just everything we did, all points, the value, the people we were with the age of my kids, that was the best trip I'm, I'm I don't know why, 53.
Speaker 2:Whatever did you love it? Yeah, I did love it. I. I like the vibe of hawaii. I feel like oh, I do, even though you're in the united states, it doesn't feel like you're in the united states and there's just a completely different vibe of the way that people are there.
Speaker 3:I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2:In a very positive way.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is. It is. It's the most relaxed, happiest, best like feeling, and that's why we keep going back that my husband and I've had I mean, we it. Hawaii was our very first travel hack and it was Honolulu, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and I got that in, and this isn't even in the 125,000 points or dollars that I've done in the last 12 years. This was back in 1999 or 8. Anyway, wait, okay.
Speaker 3:Anyway, 90s, late 90s, and I traveled a lot for work. So I was a consultant, an IT consultant, and I flew out on Mondays, flew back on Fridays, every single week. It was a nightmare, but I was young and I knew it was good for my career. So, anyway, it was a good way to earn a lot of points too, and so it was the old fashioned way. It had nothing to do with credit cards and I um, I had United miles and had um Hilton honors points from all my travel and it kept me motivated too. I was like I got to hang on, I'm not going to quit because we're going to take this trip to Hawaii, we're going to make this worth, worth it.
Speaker 3:And once we went to Hawaii like, we were like, oh my gosh, I've never been sadder to leave a vacation in my life. And so we kept going back before kids and after kids, when they were babies. We did not care. Um, they, our kids have gone a ton and you know it'd been about three years since we'd been there because of COVID and everything else. We just took a break from going there and the kids activities in high school. And then, finally, when my daughter graduated and she said, yeah, let's make this her graduation trip, and I was like, yeah, this is, I'm all in with this one. So six people, we took her best friend and took my son's girlfriend of five years as well, and you know, again, they're older, 19 and 22. It was a blast, just a blast.
Speaker 1:I love that Well it looked like, and I would love for you to maybe break down how long it took you to plan for this trip and the points that you used. And you know, I think you've mentioned things that I never even considered. You know about. When I, when we use points, it's airlines and hotels, but you, I believe, did like almost like a vacation rental, right Like a condo type style looked beautiful.
Speaker 1:So those are those aspects that we haven't even you know, we haven't scratched the surface there, so would love to know how you planned this massive, amazing family trip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um. So def, I um started in two years in advance. So we went in June and June so it was probably in the spring ish of 2022 that I got my game plan together and I was researching, obviously with six people, like were we going to do multiple hotel rooms? Which programs could we use points for to do condos instead, like what are some of the best avenues to do that? And that was going to be. I knew that would be my biggest challenge, right, like flights are flights and we had some flexibility in dates so we could try to like not fly during peak days and things to try to like, you know, not go have to have too many points for that or excessive points. So when I learned and I talked about this for years now about um using Wyndham rewards for the Casa condos or it's basically condos or houses it's basically a competitor to Airbnb or VRBO it's very, very small compared to them, but they're out there and I started researching like where are these properties? And they are everywhere. I didn't really know a whole lot about them and the redemption rate until this spring, because this spring they increased it. They did this like kind of flat model that just seemed too good to be true, but it was true that it would take 15,000 points to get a one bedroom place. If you wanted a two bedroom, 30,000, three bedroom, 45,000 points. And I'm like that is amazing because the value of some of these places was, you know, hundreds and hundreds, right, and so, like, the value then of your points was really high per point. So then I was like, okay, let me look at the properties in Hawaii and there were a good amount to choose from, like, and we kind of had the flexibility, like I'm like, oh, if we did a two bedroom, somebody can just sleep on the pullout. And, like you know, we're just I can get creative with this and we'll see how we can do.
Speaker 3:Um, so I was on a mission to get Wyndham rewards, and to get Wyndham rewards, um, they have a couple good bank flexible bank cards that transfer to Wyndham rewards and, and it's venture and city, so or capital one in city, so the venture card and the city now it's called Strata Premier those points transfer one-to-one over to Wyndham. So I definitely was on the lookout for the high signups, but I needed to make it happen, though sooner rather than later, because the clock is ticking and it won't wait for you and I can't sign up for too many cards at the same time. But what's wonderful is when you've got a friend or a spouse or a partner, you both can do it and you can double the fun with earning those points. And with programs like Venture you can actually merge your points before you transfer them over to a Wyndham. So I was on a mission those were the cards I was targeting Venture for both of us.
Speaker 3:We only got one city and I do now have the Wyndham business earner card as well. So we had cards to work with and accumulate this nice pile of points. And it took well. I here's what was my deadline. I knew I couldn't book the property until 11 months out, so I knew I had a year. That's another, I mean thing too, the planning aspect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started, you know, two years in advance, because you have to take the time to actually sign up for cards, keep accumulating the points, but then when you're ready to book, they've all got to be in your account. Well, I knew I had up to that date of the next year to have enough points to like. When the calendar opened I was right there and my points were ready. So that's how I did that room or the condo, and it's a process in itself. That could be a whole nother podcast on how you book. You have to call in because I wish that was all online and it's not. You have to call in and you need to have a backup plan if your place isn't available on points when you call in, and it's just. That is a process. But again, like I knew, I knew it was worth it because if we could get this and we ended up with a three bedroom condo, that was amazing, amazing, amazing For all of us. It was going to be so comfortable and so beautiful. It was ocean view I mean, it was nuts and the fact that, like I, was flexible with dates too when I booked that is a key thing with travel hacking that that made it very doable for us too.
Speaker 3:And then the flight stuff. You know you've got a lot of options with airlines going to Hawaii. So I'm a Southwest Airlines nut. I am very open about that, because it's a good airline out of the Midwest. It's a good airline out of the Midwest. They are so good, it's so easy to redeem their points. They also have the companion passes that no other airline has, where it's an unlimited pass and that means that you can get someone and pay, no, like someone travels with you and you don't have to redeem any points for them. So we had two passes and I'm like this would be crazy to try to go with any other airline because, like, we're already going to have two flights for free out of the gate and no pun intended, and then also have you know, the ability with all their Southwest business cards and their personal cards. We can figure out how to make this happen and get those points.
Speaker 2:I thought the first time you flew Southwest was not too long ago.
Speaker 1:No, it was when I took that girl's trip to Texas and I was like, what are our seats? And they were like we don't have assigned seats and I was like I don't know what words just came out of your mouth. I don't understand what's happening.
Speaker 3:You're talking another language to me? Yes, but you know I got used to it, did you have?
Speaker 1:anxiety about that. A hundred percent, that does not work with my OCD type A personality. I mean I get it now, but like it's not my preferred way, I need a seat number, you know they're changing now.
Speaker 3:New announcements, right? So I guess you weren't alone. I have. We fly Southwest. If you go out on my page and look at my travel log of what are all the trips I've hacked over those 12 years, you'll be like Lord, when she, when did she not fly Southwest?
Speaker 1:But if it makes sense, I mean we have our own Southwest hub here and it I mean it's great. We've I mean the times that I have flown Southwest. It's been a good experience.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know? I mean I used to like it because I'm if I get on there sooner, I'm not a small person, so I'm not going to be the first person that people want to sit next to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're not going to pick your row. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with the small kids, like we flew them when we just went to in March, not just, but in March we did a Disney cruise and you know they have the family boarding, so we all got to sit together. The kids had a blast. It was fine. But would I fly from here to Hawaii?
Speaker 2:I don't know Well now you can maybe with them, changing the seating thing.
Speaker 1:So I think, I probably, I mean I think, they're going to yeah, it's sometime next year that they're starting. Yeah, I think people either had like, oh, it doesn't matter, I don't care. Or had really strong feelings Like I've never met anybody. That was like in the middle. I think it was like, oh, the open seating is great. Or people would be like, oh, this is awful and I think we just loved it. I know we're like we loved it.
Speaker 3:Actually we did. But we would also sometimes buy like the early bird because we weren't paying for the ticket, cause we're using points Like if we had to pay an extra 50 bucks to do like the early check-in thing where we, you know, be towards group A or at the beginning of group B. So we never like ran into, we just we've never had any problems, even when the kids were little like I didn't panic about not having a seat by them. I'm like it'll be fine, we'll, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:No, I love that. I love it. Were you going to ask something? Okay, what? Um, if I know you have a lot of favorite cards and cards that you talk about, but if for anybody listening and again we're gonna, we're gonna encourage people to work backwards. Look at the trip where do you want to stay, how do you want to get there right and then start looking at some travel partners? But is there a good beginner card that you do recommend for people that doesn't have a crazy high annual fee and that has those flexible points where you can use them for miles or hotel Like where would you tell people to look to get started there?
Speaker 3:So the top two cards and and you're going to see this from everyone, but I mean this is my honest opinion too it is both the Chase Sapphire preferred card and the Capital One Venture card. Now, people always put the Chase Sapphire ahead, and when they have their increased signup bonuses, I mean I always you know, and it only comes around like once a year I say, you know, go for it, go for it when it's like the 75,000 points for signup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:I'm like go for it, Pick that over, venture in a heartbeat. But the great thing about Capital One Venture that Sapphire doesn't give you. There's two things. One you've got that 2x earning rate for anything. So you get two points per dollar, which is worth 2%. You know that's two cents and it's for anything you ever route through that card. So if you don't have some big portfolio of cards and you want to keep it simple, I mean, there's nothing simpler than knowing I'm getting two points for every dollar I spend. Whether I'm spending it to fix my car, I'm spending it when I go out to eat, I'm spending it on whatever gas, groceries, all that stuff I'm getting 2x right. So, Sapphire, it's more variable depending on what you're using it for. Sapphire, you're going to get one point per dollar on many things except for, like, dining, online, groceries and travel. So it kind of depends on where your spend is too. But if you want to keep it as simple as possible, the venture is so straightforward Like you can't get any more straightforward.
Speaker 3:The thing that people like the Sapphire, though, for more so than venture, are the transfer partners, because Chase has those great, great transfer partners that everybody loves, like Hyatt and Marriott and Southwest and United, Like those are the big ones. I mean there's several more. So when people are like, yeah, but I need points for United or I need points for Hyatt, then they go to the Southwest route. So I have both cards, love them both. I use them differently depending on what kind of points I'm trying to earn and what I'm spending my money on.
Speaker 3:I talked about that recently in my whole strategy, because I have plenty of cards to choose from your points out. You can redeem those points for any type of travel, for any brand of travel, because you can use those points as a statement credit towards any transaction that codes as travel. So that means if you go book Carnival Cruise and you use your venture card to do it, you can redeem those points towards that transaction and reduce the cost of that cruise, which is something that's harder to just do in a straightforward manner with some of the chase cards. So you've got that aspect of. I mean it'll even do it for Uber rides, for rental cars, and some people say they don't want to use the travel portal.
Speaker 1:So Chase, lets you-. I do not like travel portal, I don't like them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, chase lets you book things like that through their travel portal. But Venture, you can either use the Capital One travel portal or you just say forget it, I'm booking straight through the airline, I'm booking straight through the hotel, the rental car company, I don't want to go third party, and you can still apply your points towards that transaction. That's a beautiful thing. It makes people feel a lot better and I can tell you, I'm like you. I don't love booking through the portal. I do book rental car. I never have any problem booking rental cars through portals. I've done it through chase, um, but I don't ever want to book an airline through a travel portal, because it's so high.
Speaker 3:There's such high probability now that something's going to happen, whether it's delayed. Changed your plans, change and going through a third party is a nightmare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always book direct when it comes to that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've redeemed those venture points myself for, um, my husband and I had to do a trip and Delta was the only direct route to place we don't usually fly to and I'm like, well, I don't have any Delta SkyMiles because it's just not one of my things. And I, yeah, and I was like OK, I'm just going to book direct, I'm just going to have to use venture miles and book directly through Delta. So you know three hundred dollars aMiles and book directly through Delta. So you know $300 a ticket, book directly through Deltacom. And then, as soon as those transactions posted, I put 60,000 VentureMiles towards those transactions to wipe it off my statement and I was just like, okay, that was easy, and if we have any changes and everything, I just still deal straight with Delta and I don't have to go through Capital One.
Speaker 3:So that's why those cards like and I tell people ventures, I use Venture more than I use Sapphire, but it's because you can use it for so many different things. There's so many categories where there aren't really good point multipliers, like you know. Like I said, I don't know, we've got five cars in our family because of our kids, so we always have car expenses and that's a key one that like get the venture out, you know. And or an insurance thing where again we'd get one me wrong. I mean that Chase Sapphire card is an absolute gem and I still have mine and use it all the time, especially for dining.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and I think too. So I did recently start a spreadsheet with you know what are the cards, how much is it costing, when do they renew, who are the partners and it's. You know, I could make the spreadsheet way crazier than it is, but I just needed a quick, like reference guide of, okay, which which partners. You know how many points am I getting? But I have, you know, I have girlfriends who you know. I know when they, when we go to dinner, they're going to pull out the you know the rose gold American express, cause they're getting five times the points.
Speaker 1:But then, when we go to the gas station they're going to pull out the blue, whatever cart. I don't have the mental capacity to do that. Now, that is, I think, the perfect way to be like oh, gas goes here, groceries go here, dining goes here, movie theater goes here. I don't have the mental, I cannot. I am too tired, I am too overloaded. So what you were saying about the venture card, where it's like I get two points for everything, that's nice and easy. Right it's. If you don't want to keep the crazy spreadsheet or put a sticky note on each card that says use this one for gas, use this one for groceries, that's a great way to start, because it can feel really overwhelming of which card to use where. And then you also don't want to get into a space where you have all these cards, you're paying the annual fees and you're not actually getting the benefits Right, and so you don't want to miss out on Then you're just wasting money.
Speaker 1:Then you're literally wasting money.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you keep a?
Speaker 1:spreadsheet. How are you managing?
Speaker 3:all this. Yeah, and I do have a reference guide, by the way, a free one out there. Make sure to link it. Yeah, yeah, um, that has a lot of those things that talks about that. That has the different Alliance partners. It has the different um transfer partners for each, uh, flexible reward program. Yeah, it has a lot of different the the average value of a point in, like membership rewards versus all the sky miles, or whatever. Um, I've got a big chart of that too.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, well, I'll share my spreadsheet. Yes, please.
Speaker 3:But, um, I, I mean I, so I have, I have a spreadsheet, but I don't know, I don't do, I'm not as methodical as um, I think some people are about some of it, you know. I mean, again, now I'm at the point where if a new trip comes up, you know, I just I assess where I am, but I kind of just I kind of can just remember it. I don't know, I'm just getting it's, it's, it's become much easier, it's becoming in your DNA now. Yes, it's like I don't, I, you know, I can't say I know down to the very point. You know our last number of how many points I have in every account. But I have some kind of general sense. Yes, so I don't do a spreadsheet right now. I'm just going to be honest with you. But back in the day, I can tell you, 10 years ago, I did a hundred percent, I did, yeah, I charted it and I would update it like every month. Oh yeah, I'm not doing that. Yeah, no, I was, I, yeah, I was hardcore, but now it's just.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of it memorized, yeah. Second nature.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, when you do it enough, what would you leave our audience with? Um, if there's anybody listening, who's you know? Barely scratching the surface, hasn't gotten started. Maybe is coming from a place of you know credit card. My parents told me credit cards are bad. Never get one, but I know I can handle it. Where. What would you say to them, or what advice would you leave them with? Right?
Speaker 3:I would say budget comes first. And if you are comfortable budgeting and you are sticking to your budget within reason, right, we all, you know, don't quite hit it every month, but don't go crazy. Just look at credit cards as a tool, not some additional complex financial strategy, but just more of a. You know, it's just a mechanism of payment that shouldn't alter anything you're doing with the budget that you have. And if you are in a situation where you think you could potentially not be able to reconcile, like how much, why is my checking account balance so big right now? But wait, I've been using my card a lot this month. You can pay on that, pay on those cards as much as you want throughout the month.
Speaker 3:And I know there are some people who make every payday their credit card payoff day. Like they get the money out of their account long before the bill is actually due and they have a rhythm and a system of doing that, so their checking balance isn't so out of whack. And then they get you know that they think they have more money than they do. And then that credit card bill comes at the end of the month and they're like, oh man, I can't even pay that, Like what happened to all my money in my checking. So if you get a system down where you can marry up your credit card usage with your budget and stay in line with that, it's not as difficult as you think. It's just really a method of payment.
Speaker 3:And there's a million other good credit card perks, beyond just the points and miles, with insurance, with extended warranty, having a paper trail of something of a transaction you did that something could have happened with. I mean credit cards protect you. You know people talk a lot about fraud and don't get me wrong, there's identity fraud and things like that. But if it's as simple as someone gets a hold of your number and uses it for something that you didn't, you know, charge to it, you're protected. Like those things get cleared up that's that's known. Like those things can get, like it isn't. It isn't, as it provides more good than if you, you know, lost your a hundred dollar bill out of your pocket on the street Right and you have no way to trace it and get it back and know that someone else used that a hundred dollar bill and not you, and you're out a hundred bucks whatever. It's also more sorry. It's also more of an.
Speaker 2:It's also more of an incentive for the credit card company, because the credit card company is essentially loaning you money. So someone that steals your identity, uh, get your card number and makes a purchase that you didn't make, the credit card companies lost their money. Technically, you haven't lost your money. So they have every incentive to go get video and everything of that nature to figure out who it was that did it, so that they can recoup their money.
Speaker 2:As compared to, like, if you use your debit card, that's your money, it's gone and you might get it back, but it's going to take a lot longer right, yeah, yeah, even even travel protection.
Speaker 1:we never add travel protection anymore because we put it on our credit credit cards and those come with really great travel protection.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, same with like rental cars for sure. Yeah, I never get the extra stuff. The card, I use it. You know that chase preferred card is a great one for that. Um, I'm always using that as my, as my card that I provide them with rental cars to get that extra protection. Yeah, and perks with status and things like that that you can get with some of those airline and hotel cards. Like that you get an extra little upgrade if there's something available, or maybe you get a reduced rate on your on your point redemption or whatever the perk is to, like there's just some. Or get an annual free night with a lot of the hotel cards. Like it can be a wonderful thing that it's not even just about the points. So I just like credit cards. I love having electronic records of everything I'm doing and and not wondering where did that? Where did that a hundred dollars go? Why don't I have it in my pocket anymore? Did I lose it? Did I spend it Right?
Speaker 3:Like that's that that's good for me, right Like that's that that's good for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no. There's so many perks, kara, where can people find you?
Speaker 3:So um I'm on Instagram. Um, it's aunt dot Kara and I have no other Instagram account for all those imposters out there.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm also on thread. You've made it yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm on threads as well. I do have a Facebook page, but basically it's a replication of my Instagram. So if you don't have Instagram and you only have Facebook, you can see all my posts out through Facebook. But, um, but that, um, instagram is really my primary point of of communication. Um, so that's that's the best way to find me. I have a website as well. That's under a a re, a redesign, aunt Caracom. But, but Instagram's like my, my heart right there, perfect.
Speaker 1:We will make sure to link all of the places, and I know you've got free guides and video tutorials and um great assets and resources to get people started, so we'll make sure to put all of that in the show notes. Thank you for sharing your point. Hacking mile, hacking travel, hacking expertise with us today. This has been such a fun conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me Thank you Don't forget.
Speaker 1:Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid Until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. We are so glad to have you as part of our Sugar Daddy community. If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the sugar daddy podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past the sugar segments at the sugar daddy podcast at gmailcom or leave us a voicemail through our Instagram.
Speaker 2:Our content is intended to be used, and must be used, for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment, based upon your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a licensed professional in connection with or independently research and verify any information you find in our podcast and wish to rely upon, whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise.
