Key Things That Made This Possible

• We started learning how to be financially literate (reading books about money, learning how to create + stick to a budget, etc.) to pay all of our debt as fast as possible. We also focused on building our videography business to increase our income so we had money for emergencies and for travel. Long story short, we were buried in debt about 10 years ago, being let go from my job, and only had less than $100 in our bank account. We managed to pay all of our debt the following year through hard work, and being consistent with our budgeting. I’ll create a more detailed post about our entire journey so stay tuned!

• We started our credit card points journey back in 2017 but took it a little bit seriously around 2019. We learned by then that the FASTEST way to earn points is by opening up a new credit card.

• We always plan our spending in advance and are meeting a minimum spend on a card every 2-3 months. We also are looking to optimize our spending and making sure we’re always meeting a minimum spend on a certain card.

• Being “flexible” with your travel dates is key. The best deals that we’ve found (booking first or business class flights) are less than 4 weeks (and sometimes less than 2 weeks).

• I have the website Doctor of Credit bookmarked and check that site regularly for deals. I also signed up and is paying a monthly subscription with Thrifty Traveler and Straight To The Points to get alerts for First and business class deals. I started subscribing in 2023.

• Took advantage of promotions to book flights at a discount. For example, Virgin Atlantic often has a sale where if you transfer your points (Chase, Amex, etc.), they’ll give you 30% off. This is how I booked ANA in First class for only 38,5000 points. Last year you can book ANA’s first class for 55,000 points - add the 30% discount and you only need to transfer 38,500. They raised the points needed to book the same flight but it’s still one of the best deals out there in the points world. Check this blog if you want to learn how to book this (click)!

• I also got the Southwest Companion Pass in February 2023. They had a promotion where you only need to get one card + 30,000 to get the companion pass. This helped us save a lot of money when we flew out of Reno and travel to bigger hubs like Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO).

• The “Player 2 strategy” is key to earning points faster. Whenever I get approved for a card, I always create a referral link then I’ll share that to Pao (my wife). Once she gets approved, I get extra “referral points” that ranges from 20K to 40K (it really depends on the referral bonus at the moment) per card. Learn the Player 2 Strategy in this free eGuide I created under “Chapter 9” (click)!

• Having your own business / side hustle helps. This is one the key things that made us earn a TON of points.
  
  We have 3 businesses at the moment:
  - Our first business is we do wedding videography (we’re located close to Lake Tahoe but film all over the world),
  - The second business is we do real estate investing and own a few rentals. We discovered real estate investing back in 2020 and purchased properties that needed some repairs. These repairs were close to $100,000 so we tried optimizing our spending by opening up a lot of credit cards to earn a thousands/millions of points. We did a cash out refinance after fixing up our properties and ended up getting most of our money back (google the BRRRR method to learn how this works). On another note, our goal with this real estate business is to make work “optional” or have the option to retire early within the next 3-5 years!

  - The third business is affiliate marketing through credit card signups. Since we love to travel, I figured out to start a blog (like this) and help educate people how it works + share the tips/tricks/hacks I’ve learned along the way.
  - We’re also about to start a fourth business (a video editing service for wedding videographers and content creators) so hoping to have that ready by the end of 2023! : )
  

  PRO TIP - if you have a business EIN, you can get the same business card twice with Chase! Learn how that works here (click)!
  

• One of my favorite strategies is using the Chase Ink Business Cash to earn 5x at office supply stores to buy gift cards. Learn the gift card strategy here (click)!

• I also achieve Globalist status with Hyatt and some of my favorite perks is that we get free breakfast, access to the hotel’s lounge, late checkout and the ability of our rooms getting upgraded to a “suite” (this is always subject to hotel’s availability). With these mentioned perks, we are getting SO much value out of our points and the cash price of our hotel rooms/suites are INSANE! Some of these hotel rooms like the Alila Ventana in Big Sur costs $3,500 per night.

• I am also is always on the lookout for other ways earning points besides signing up for a credit card. One great example was that Brex had an offer of 100,000 points back in 2021 if you do PayPal Merchant processing signup. My wife and I did this and got an easy 200,000 points! Another great example was an offer from Amex where if you opened a business account with them and deposited $5,000, you’ll get 60,000 Membership Rewards points! Easy 60,000 points right there!

• Lastly, we could have hit at least $400,000+ in value using points this year but we cancelled some really good deals (first/business usiness class flights and hotel reservations) because of last minute bookings with our wedding videography business. . Maybe we can beat our 2023 numbers in the future! : )