We live in a consumer society. It is difficult to stay out of debt and live on a budget. What if you have a small income and many expenses? How do you make your income stretch as far as you can? How can you consolidate debt so it’s not overtaking your expenses? We will explore […]

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When you have debt, specifically credit card debt, you’re likely paying high interest. Obviously that’s not a secret because it’s how credit card companies make their money. If you’re trying to pay off debt, however, that’s some of the first debt you should try to pay off. Once again, not a secret since paying high […]

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For me, there is really no greater feeling than traveling for free.  I tell people the places we’ve stayed and the flights we’ve taken, all for next to nothing and I’m pretty sure a majority of them think I’m full of it.  But I always tell people that you should give every single thing in […]

The post How We’re Travel Hacking Our Way to Peru in April 2015 appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

As someone who’s applied and been approved for over 30 cards over the past five years, I’ve seen some pretty great offers come and go.  In fact, I still remember the first offer that got me started on this miles, points and credit card journey that I’m now on. I was sitting at work casually […]

The post 140,000 Points From The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card From Chase & Unboxing Video appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

Today I’m featuring a question I received via e-mail a few weeks ago.  Reader RB would love to go visit her boyfriend in North Carolina but she’s a starving student.  So how can she use miles and points to make it all the way from Cali to North Carolina for free?! I was hoping to […]

The post Reader Question: How To Use Points & Miles To Get To North Carolina appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

This is part two of our two part series about my latest credit card App O Rama and how I netted 250,000 points and $200.  Part 1 covered preparation and strategy for an App O Rama of this kind of magnitude and today we’ll talk about how the application process and spending works. I ended up deciding […]

The post My Latest Credit Card App O Rama Nets 250,000 Points and $200: Applying and Spending appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

This is part 1 of a two article series about my latest credit card App O Rama and how I netted 240,000 points and $200.  Part 2 on Friday will talk about which cards I applied for, how many points I ended up with (it’s a lot!) and how I met $20k in spending in […]

The post My Latest Credit Card App O Rama: Preparation and Strategy appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

Even though the merger between US Airways and American Airlines has been going pretty smoothly, I’ve actually been more concerned about how the merger between the two frequent flyer programs will work.  Working in the aerospace industry, I think less competition is a bad thing for consumers but at this point, there’s not a whole […]

The post Get the 2014 US Airways Mastercard Before It Goes Away appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

Normally, I won’t even consider a credit card sign up bonus offer unless it’s in the 40,000-50,000 point range.  On average, 1 point is worth at least 1 cent so if you can score 50,000 points that means you just earned yourself $500.  I make good money at my day job but I still know […]

The post How I Got $1750 From the SPG Amex Card 30k Offer appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

Most of the credit card articles on this site have to do with the points and miles you can accumulate by signing up for various cards and spending on daily purchases.  But one of the first things I recommend to someone struggling with their spending is to get rid of their cards and start paying […]

The post Do You Pay With Cash or Credit Cards? appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

Editor’s Note: Here’s a Saturday bonus article since I didn’t technically write an article yesterday ?? Most of the time when I get mail from Citi it’s junk mail like offers for balance transfers, adding an authorized user or those paper checks. Does anyone actually use those stupid checks that probably charge 30% interest? I […]

The post Increase Your Citi Credit Card Limits appeared first on Personal Finance Tips.

(Editor’s Note:  I wrote this article a couple weeks ago and since then CVS has instituted a new policy that requires cash to pay for Vanilla Reloads.  Sadly, it looks like this deal is now dead unless you can find VR’s somewhere else) According to my credit card statements, I spend a lot of money. […]

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