Hi friends, today we have our first ever guest post here on Burrito Bowl Diaries! Hooray! Erica Schatte is a world traveler and renowned story teller. She's funny and real great. She's also Mrs. Burrito Bowl's sister. I've been trying to convince Erica to do a guest post for months now. She's a travel hacking aficionado and a wizard with credit cards. She will also tell you who to start on your fantasy football team. A jack of all trades this one. Erica is the person who first introduced Mrs. Burrito Bowl and myself to the idea of travel hacking and even early retirement. Thanks to her we were able to travel to Thailand on our honeymoon for nearly free. Come to think of it I should probably write an article about that. In this article she'll give an overview on how she does travels all over the world and how you can too.
Hello there! Sister-In-Law to Mr. Burrito Bowl and sister/best friend/muse/life coach/role model/idol to Mrs. Burrito Bowl here. I don’t have a cool food moniker to keep myself anonymous to the massive fan base that Mr. Burrito Bowl has built with this blog (Hi Mom!!), but since this post is largely about travel, you can call me Resting Beach Face or RBF for short.
And before you ask, YES I know it is a clever name, YES it is copyrighted and the domain is taken already (neither owned by me), and YES I totally just ripped it off for the purpose of guest posting on The Diaries.
Wait! Who are you again?
Beyond being a master of the copyright infringement arts, I, like you, am also a fan of the FIRE movement. I grew up in Montana with my little sister, Mrs. Burrito Bowl, and am exactly one year older than her. Since this is already a pretty verbose article, I will keep my mini-bio short. Below are just a few things about me:
Some things I like: travel, scuba diving, maxing out my 401K.
Some things I love: My dog Chalupa, the Pittsburgh Steelers, my boyfriend, family, and friends (Not necessarily in that order…..but maybe in that order).
Some people credit me with introducing Mr. and Mrs. Burrito Bowl to the whole notion of FIRE. It doesn’t matter who “some people” are.
Anyway, a few years ago I shared an article about Jeremy and Winnie from Go Curry Cracker with my sister. Several books, podcasts, and a new Vanguard account later, here we all are! The point is I think we can all agree that I should get a royalty cut for any income generated from this blog since I basically started it. Man, I love waking up and falling ass-backwards into side hustle money. FIRE is great!
Ok, we get it! You are hilarious, wildly intelligent, and this blog is clearly your intellectual property. But you mentioned something about travel?
Yes! Travel! Let’s get to it!
Ever since I was a kid I have loved to travel. Growing up, Mrs. Burrito Bowl and I were very fortunate to go on family trips once a year or so ranging from California, to Hawaii, to The Grand Canyon. You could say I caught the bug early and have made traveling an absolute priority in my adult life. I have been to 25 countries on five continents and am working through an ever growing list of places I want to go.
That said, one thing you learn is that the cost of travel adds up quickly. Like, a lot! So, it generally does not fit in well with the whole FIRE thing. In a world where eating out is a mortal sin, luxury travel is a death sentence!
Despite that, I refuse to spend each year saving money and just waiting to live my life. So, not only do I travel on the reg, I usually do it sipping cocktails in first class and staying in sweet hotels like overwater bungalows, all while continuing to maximize my savings and limit spending to achieve my FIRE goals.
OK, I’ll bite. How do you do it, RBF, how?
I thought you would never ask! I do it with credit cards. Lots of ‘em too!
Whaaaaat???? Are you out of your f**king mind!?!?!?!?!
Nope! Well….I mean….maybe. Nothing has been confirmed yet. But in this case no, I am not.
And, technically the answer is not necessarily credit cards but rather airline and hotel loyalty points which double as a currency you can use to book flights, hotels and redeem for other fun stuff! However, due to co-branding with credit cards such as Hilton and American Express or United Airlines and Chase credit cards, there are lots of big sign-up bonuses for these cards to incentivize people to apply for the cards and become customers of these companies. And THAT is an opportunity to bank a sh*tload of points or miles and use them to go on awesome trips without breaking the bank!
Freakin’ Sweet! What’s Next?
Now, before we get into the details, you have probably inferred that the remainder of this post will have something to do with credit cards and signing up for them. Congratulations, that is a very astute observation! That said, the rest of this post is not for everyone.
There are some basic rules surrounding your ability to get approved for said credit cards as well as your ability to refrain from spending money like a total ass-clown once you have a line of credit at your disposal. So, to see if you are eligible to read the rest of this post, I have devised the following quiz to see which option best describes you:
- Hey, my credit score is so low that I received mail from mastercard telling me I had been Pre-DECLINED for a new card. So how does this whole travel thing work?
- Wow, this sounds awesome but I am still drowning in debt and haven’t really made any progress on spending less and saving more. I bet right now is a great time to shift gears and prioritize travel over FIRE!
- OMG, I just got approved for multiple new credit cards with huge spending limits. I better drastically increase my spending and max these cards out to accrue a ton of miles. I just hope I can spend ENOUGH money!
If you read any of the above examples and thought “Hey! That sounds just like ME….Has RBF met me before? How does she know me so well?” then DO NOT CONTINUE READING!!!! This post is NOT for you. Click HERE or HERE or HERE to learn how to make some progress in your personal finance world and then revisit this post later.
If, however, you’ve got your spending in check, you’re all about those index funds, credit score is decent or better, and you’re interested in fitting travel into your FIRE lifestyle, then you have officially passed the test and you may read on!
OK, RBF, I passed your little test. Whatchu got for me?
In my years of traveling, I have learned to value loyalty programs for hotels and airlines as well as credit card rewards. Nothing beats a new travel card with a huge sign up bonus if you can meet the minimum spend requirements to hit the bonus points! And just to get this out there, loyalty reward programs are obscenely profitable for the companies driving them so there are lots of bonuses constantly out there for eligible people.
As an example, my boyfriend and I flew first class to Asia to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Burrito Bowl in Thailand a couple years ago. I had signed up for the co-branded Delta American Express Platinum and Gold cards while they had accelerated sign up bonuses of 70,000 and 60,000 miles, respectively.
That gave us just enough miles to book Delta One lie flat beds in first class for the 13 hour flight across the Pacific. We enjoyed filet mignon, champagne, and most importantly, a six hour nap in a fully flat bed complete with Westin heavenly bedding. That flight cost us $5.60 per person out of pocket. Yes, you read that correctly: FIVE DOLLARS AND SIXTY CENTS PER PERSON FOR FIRST CLASS!
And in case you are wondering what that looks like from a savings perspective, that same flight and class of service in dollars is priced at $8,720.90 per person. I’m just gonna leave that right there and let that sink in a little.
Ok, I am sold on the savings, but WTF are you doing to your credit score????
Excellent question! Brace yourself…..I am HELPING it!!!
Look, you shouldn’t really be all that concerned with your credit score because you’re a total FIRE ninja and really do not plan on taking loans out since you limit spending and stock up on cash…..or do we need to revisit the ass-clown quiz from earlier?
But I get it. Credit can be a powerful tool to help you navigate the financial world and let’s face it: You do not know what will happen in the future or what events may lead you to need credit for something, if all else fails. So, you want to be in a position to get it if needed. All the more reason to sign up for credit cards and boost your score!
Wait….Having MORE credit cards will BOOST my score?
Why yes it will. Look, debunking the credit card and credit score myth(s) will take too long for this post, so let’s just start with the basics.
Credit scores are based on the following factors:
- 35% of the score is based on payment history and timeliness
- 30% is based on total debt / amount owed
- 15% is the length of time you’ve had debt / credit
- 10% is new credit
- 10% is type of debt (loans, credit cards)
Over two thirds of your score is based on how much credit you have and if you pay on time. Translation being, if you have a bunch of credit cards totaling a whole bunch of credit, as long as you don’t continuously carry a balance and you pay on time, your score will get better and better.
Disclaimer: Yes, there is a little more to it than that. If Mr. Burrito Bowl lets me guest post again, I will get into the details on those things. In the meantime, click HERE to read a more detailed account of what it all means.
When I first started drinking the credit card Kool-aid, my score was around 720 or so. Pretty decent, could be better. After getting going with it, my score rose to about 750 and now is in the low 800’s. I currently have 14 open credit card accounts and just was approved for two more cards totaling 140,000 in credit card bonus points once I hit minimum spend. Boo-Yah!
There is that “Minimum Spend” term again. How do you get the bonus without spending like a total ass-clown?
Ah yes, the minimum spend. So, as I mentioned earlier a lot of travel cards will offer a huge accelerated points bonus if you get the card and spend X dollars in X months. I got into this a few years ago and have seen sign up bonuses typically range from around 50,000 points/miles to upwards of 100,000. Often the minimum spend required to get that huge bonus ranges from $2,000-$5,000 in credit card spending over 3-4 months. It varies from card to card and bonus to bonus. It usually pans out to having to spend about $1,000 per month for three months on the card.
Now, most people usually have to spend at least $1,000 per month just to live life between rent and food and what not, so the short answer here is to use the credit card to pay for those things, then PAY IT OFF IMMEDIATELY, and you’ll get your bonus.
But, that may not be the case for everyone. Additionally, if you are like me, you might see more than one simultaneous sign up bonus that you want, so you apply for multiple cards and are now on the hook to spend a few thousand dollars a month to get the bonus. Since you passed the quiz from earlier and do not want to spend money like a total ass-clown, you have to figure out a strategy to spend the money without really increasing your spending. I will detail some strategies in a future post covering this.
Ok, I am glad I stuck out this exhaustingly long article for all these deeply valuable travel insights. Anything else?
I know, I know! I am bringing it home here, I promise!
What you decide to get in return for credit card points, miles, hotels is entirely up to you! Ultimately, in my opinion, there are two types of award travelers: The people who travel for volume and the people who travel for value.
A Volume Traveler gets their value from getting as many (almost) free trips and hotel stays as possible out of their award points. They are less concerned with class of service or how many stars the hotel is rated, but they will stretch those points into as many trips as possible.
A Value Traveler is willing to spend more points on a single trip to experience a once in a lifetime flight or hotel that they would normally never pay cash for, due to its prohibitive price.
I fall under the Value Traveler label. I mentioned flying to Asia in lie flat Delta One first class. That cost us ~75,000 miles per person. We could have easily flown coach and only paid 30,000 miles per person and then we would have had a bank of points left over to use for other trips.
But, I will likely never be able to stomach paying $8,000 to fly somewhere, so I am willing to throw more miles at it and enjoy the 13 hour flight rather than stuffing myself in a middle seat next to the lavatory. Plus, champagne and a lie flat bed at 30,000 feet do NOT suck! But, it really is up to you to maximize what you get out of your travel awards.
At the end of the day, working towards financial independence is an awesome goal and will set you free way earlier than most people you will ever know. But, that doesn’t mean the accumulation phase has to be a decade plugging away in the salt mines before you get to enjoy frivolous luxuries like a vacation. Award travel is a great way to still feed that wanderlust without completely derailing your FIRE plans.
If you are interested in learning more about award travel, there are a lot of blogs and websites dedicated to it. Mr. Burrito Bowl and I do not have any affiliation with the below sites, I am just sharing with you the resources I have come to use. If Mr. Burrito Bowl lets me post to his blog again, I will get into some details on different award programs, bonuses to look for, how to value points, etc. In the meantime, here are some links that should should help out:
www.thepointsguy.com – good for anyone just getting into the award game
www.awardwallet.com – it’s like mint.com or personal capital but for your loyalty programs
For Volume Travelers:
For Value Travelers:
Thanks for reading!
Thank you Erica, AKA Resting Beach Face. She will definitely be back to go over some of her hacks in depth. I have a list of travel topics I'm hoping she'll write about. If you enjoyed this article please share it and let us know in the comments!
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This is a great article! Very well written, informative, and fun to read, and I hope RBF comes back for more! I mean, Mr Burrito Bowl is great and all, but wow! Good stuff!