I like to take a look at where our investement accounts are held each year around this time. Sometimes you can earn a nice bonus for transferring funds in-kind (without realizing tax consequences) by switching brokerages. Here’s a list of the best bonuses I see at each dollar level at the moment. Some of these […]
milenomics
Learn, Use, Repeat. A detailed trip into the world of Points, Miles, and Travel. How to earn more Miles and how to use those miles more effectively
Estimate Your Personal Breakage Rate
“Sam, the funniest thing happened, I was cleaning my car and I found an old unopened $500 VGC. Hilarious, right?” No. Not hilarious. Or maybe you’ve cleaned out a drawer and found a Money Order at the bottom. “Did I ever deposit this? I must have mobile deposited it.” What if you didn’t? Enter, Breakage […]
Things to keep in mind before canceling/product changing a Citi card
As I was saying one of my hopes (and fears) for 2018 relates to Citi’s ThankYou Point program: I hope they’ll re-invigorate the program but I fear they’ll walk away from it altogether. I’m actually a pretty big fan of the ThankYou Points (TYP). There are several ways to earn them and there is upside when […]
Set it and forget it: Three passive dining rewards programs
There are a ton of ways to earn rewards when dining out in addition to the rewards your credit card earns. It can be a confusing space to navigate. You need to know which programs do and don’t stack with one another. Some programs require activation on a per-restaurant visit. Some require making a reservation […]
Do’s and Don’ts: When you think your credit card *might* be shutdown
If you’ve been playing this game for a while it’s likely to have happened to you. You log in to your credit card account online and see that some or all of your rewards points have gone missing. You poke around and things don’t seem right. Your available credit has gone to $0.00 and you […]
Towards sustainability: Taking a “liquidation first” approach
One of the things people ask about the points & miles game (after wondering whether it’ll destroy their credit score) is whether it’s sustainable. By that they’re rightfully wondering whether they’ll quickly run out of credit cards to sign up for and other ways to earn miles after taking advantage of a few good offers. […]
Solving Puzzles: Five Ways to Unlock More Credit Card Signup Bonuses
Have you ever been to or heard of an escape room? There are all kinds of varieties of them I’m sure but in the one I did you enter a room with some clues and keys in plain sight. From there you have to solve those clues and use the keys to unlock things in the […]
Floors and Ceilings and Spreads (Oh My!)
This post was originally titled “Wells Fargo, You’ve Ruined Us All.” The reason being is that for a time Wells Fargo created a program SO good, so easily manipulated, and so valuable, that it actually created its own economy around it. — Robert’s been tearing it up here on Milenomics, with one excellent post after […]
Pros and Cons: Ranking the Top Flexible Points Programs in 2018
The best flexible points programs feature an ability to easily cash out your points for solid value, moderate uplift for everyday travel and jackpot-like upside when redeeming for international premium cabin flights. Success in this game means using the right tool for the right job. Things change over time so I thought it would be interesting to […]
Allow Myself To Introduce….Myself?
The biggest change around here (Next to Robert’s arrival of course) is that my travel needs and wants have changed an awful lot from the last time I checked in with readers. My needs are part of the bias I have and the lens I use to view the world of points, miles and travel. […]