Growing up in the states, a common question was to ask others what their summer travel plans were. By June, kids are done with school, weather is beautiful, and the NBA season is finally over (Dubs in 6!!). I haven’t left SF in 6 months and I’ve just spent two…

In all honesty, after 10 cards I was really happy with my setup and the system was running itself. However, I recently learned about a new product and decided to give it a chance. …

A very different post from the others. We’ve spent the past two weeks building our new MVP and I wanted to share the experience. I’ll be discussing various issues with Namecheap, Auth0, and GraphQL that you might run into when trying to incorporate everything together. I’m not going to dive…

This post has been cooking for weeks now, and I’m really excited to share. Over the holidays I put together an unbelievable combination of redemptions and fully maximized benefits across my credit cards. Day 1 I was flying roundtrip from SFO to IAD (Washington DC). The flight was paid with Chase Ultimate…

To be frank, I don’t expect this post to apply to 99% of readers, but it’s on my mind and maybe one day someone finds it helpful. At the time I started my first job, like every other company in big tech, I was enrolled in a 401K plan. It…

An expense ratio is the annual fee charged for holding a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). For actively managed funds this fee compensates fund managers for overseeing the fund’s investments. For passively managed funds/etfs this covers stuff like licensing fees. Expense ratios are expressed as a percentage of an…

The Health Savings Account What is an HSA? In 2003, the American healthcare system was changing towards consumer driven plans and many high deductible health insurance plans (HDHP) started emerging. Due to these high deductibles, there was a need for people to pay for medical expenses seamlessly, so the Bush administration created health savings…

For someone who has 10 credit cards, it’s ironic for me to say I don’t like having too many credit cards. For me to really consider a card, I need to see a long term justification, consistent year-over-year return, and something more than a just large sign up bonus. …

In the United States there are 1.1+ Billion credit cards in circulation, each with their own unique set of rewards and benefits. The reward system can be very complex, discouraging people from spending time understanding the lucrative value they have to offer. …