PERSONAL FINANCE, ELEVATED.
If you’re wondering if I’m still alive, I’ve been traveling through Southeast Asia for the past few weeks, and seemed to have lost track of time. What day is it again? After some social media check-ins, I’ve caught up on a couple of events that have gone down back home: New York City had an […]
Have you ever been at a group dinner where everyone except you put down a Chase Sapphire card, and wondered: what do they know that I don’t? Maybe you got your first credit card at your local bank, because you didn’t know other credit cards existed. Or like me, you were a hapless college student […]
I’ve been on a tear lately where I travel to expensive islands, get initially shell-shocked by food prices, then wonder if I’ve made a critical mistake in choosing my destination. First Maui, then New Zealand, and now it’s happened with Iceland. Within hours of landing in Iceland, I was not only freezing in my jeans, […]
When I started researching what to pack for my summer Iceland trip, it felt like I read a million blog posts and was left just as confused. The same three items kept popping up on every packing guide: hiking boots, waterproof pants, three jackets. OK, guys, but I don’t have any of that stuff. Will […]
The other day I wanted to buy $3,000 for two plane tickets from Italy to NYC. One-way plane tickets. For a 9-hour flight. That might not raise red flags for you, but I’ve never spent that much on plane tickets before. A roundtrip ticket to Asia, sure, but that’s for twice the amount of flying […]
Travel hacking is not for the faint of heart. I recently booked first-class seats using my points for “free”, but make no mistake, it definitely wasn’t free. It cost me my time. I spent at least 10 minutes every day for several weeks searching for those seats. While I think it was worth it, not […]
What happens when someone who’s “good at money” tracks their spending the old school way? With a pen and paper and not using an automated system like Mint? Inspired by the Man Repeller and Refinery29 money diaries, I thought it’d be fun to see what happens when I track my spending for a weekend. Although I’m conscious about my overall […]