As a follow-up to my post about the Chase ecosystem, I wanted to follow-up about the AmEx ecosystem. While it is more work to redeem points for high value, AmEx offers simplicity over Chase in other ways.
And if you travel internationally a lot, AmEx points – called Membership Rewards (MRs) – transfer directly to airline partners that make for some incredible deals.
Read more to find out how to add these cards to your quiver!
Now that I have introduced the credit card game – and all of the necessary precautions about it – it’s time to dig in and start teaching how to play it. Whenever folk engage me wanting to get started, they typically ask the same first question: “if you could have one card, what would it be?”
And to that I have a consistent reply: “It’s not a single card, but a single account: Chase. Then, two Chase cards, where only one needs to be in your wallet at a time: the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Freedom Unlimited.”
“You cheated, but fine. Why both?”
Read the post to find out!
Here is a post explaining how to get out of credit card debt if you have any. To reiterate what I said in my last post: “The first rule of the credit card game is that if you ever carry a balance, no matter how small, for a single month – stop. Take all of the cards out of your wallet, put them in a drawer, and do not continue playing until you are not paying a penny in monthly interest payments.”
I say this as credit card interest rates are insanely high, and thus paying them off is incredibly challenging. So, this guide is a hack to help those that need it, and it’s required before I can get into explaining all the parts of the game. So, if you’re not ready to start playing, or if something happens mid-game and you need help with credit card debt: this post is for you!
I am starting a new series around different credit card systems here on my blog. Yes, this is still a blog about the software industry primarily. No, do not expect me to only write about one topic in any particular order; I do this in my spare time and write about what I am inspired to write about in the moment. While this post is more of an “intro post” to this new series, I need to kick off with some finance 101 before I start diving into the credit card game itself.
It was October, 2019 when I realized that I was going to change jobs (from Facebook to Zillow). I was excited, but it was bittersweet; I was working with a lot of great people, and it was going to be hard to say goodbye. On top of that, I was in the middle of a project, and I am not one to leave without having a strong transition plan. So, I pushed my start date to January 2020 so that I could have the time needed to wrap things up and leave my current teammates in a good spot. While I don’t regret this decision, it had unintended consequences that I only just learned about this week, more than two years later in February, 2022.
