2024 finances strategy

My spending profile and interests

I like to travel, eat out, and cook at home. I own a house instead of rent. I work from home, so I don't use transit or drive often. My partner uses public transit to get to work, though his transit is subsidized through his employer. When we travel, we like to use public transportation as much as we can. We do drive maybe once or twice a week to go out to restaurants or buy groceries. I value ordering groceries or meal delivery to save myself time, though will couple grocery shopping with other activities if I happen to already be out.

When traveling, I generally want to maximize the amount of nonstop, reliable flights I can take for as little money as possible, bringing at most a personal item and carry-on bag. I will pay extra to take a nonstop flight with a reliable carrier that has other flights I can use as backups. I avoid layovers as much as I can to reduce my stress and the amount of things that can go wrong, e.g., delayed connections, lost luggage if I check a bag.

I don't mind sitting in Economy, though I am willing to spend a little extra to sit in an aisle seat if free aisle seats are taken.

I try not to check a bag to avoid fees, reduce the possibility of losing my bag, and leave the airport as quickly as I can. It's easier for me as someone generally able-bodied and with no dependents. But, if I'll be traveling for more than a week, I try to find flights that include a complimentary checked bag. Though I try to travel light, I know I can't resist buying souvenirs! and I usually prefer bringing them with me on the plane instead of going through the hassle of shipping them home separately.

I don't want to hang out at an airport for longer than I need to without stressing myself out, and I don't mind sitting in (often more spacious) public terminal areas, so lounge access is generally not that important for me; but the times where I've benefited from the free (decent) meals or video game access, I've liked that. Otherwise, if I'll be hungry, I bring my own food, or I will pay for good food at a separate airport restaurant instead of force myself to eat free garbage food at a bad lounge.

Credit Cards

Based on my profile and interests, my current set includes the following:

Card	Annual Fee	Spend Category	Points	Other Benefits
Chase Sapphire Reserve	$550	Travel Restaurants	3% Travel 3% Restaurants	No foreign transaction fee travel insurance car rental insurance Doordash DashPass until 2027 Doordash monthly credit Lyft Pink until end of 2024 Lyft monthly credit Chase Travel Portal (10x points redemption) occasional misc. shopping discounts transfer points to airlines (as miles) and hotels $100 Global Entry/4 years Lounges (Priority Pass, Sapphire Lounge) Instacart+ 1st year $300 annual travel credit
Citi Costco	$0[1]	Gas Restaurants Travel Costco	4% Gas 3% Restaurants 3% Travel 2% Costco	No foreign transaction fee
Chase United Explorer	$0[2]	United flights United incidentals	2x United flights 2x Restaurants 2x hotels	Free checked bag priority boarding 2 United Club passes/year accelerated PQP redemption 70,000 miles sign-up bonus 25% cash back on United incidentals No foreign transaection fee
Amex Blue Cash Preferred	$96	Groceries Streaming Transit	6% Groceries 6% streaming 3% Transit[3] 3% Gas
Chase Freedom Flex	$0	Restaurants Drugstores Rotating	5% Rotating 3% Restaurants 3% Drugstores	Feeds into CSR points redemption cell phone protection travel insurance
Discover It	$0	Rotating	5% Rotating
Citi Doublecash	$0	Anything	2% Anything
Instacart	$0	Rotating	5% Rotating
Instacart+ Mastercard	$0	(Nothing)	5% Instacart 2% Restaurants 2% Gas	Sign-up Bonus: $200 Sign-up Bonus: Instacart+ year No foreign transaction fees

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1. With annual Costco membership ↩︎

2. After first year, $96 ↩︎

3. Includes buses, rideshare, taxis, parking, tolls, trains, etc. ↩︎

On the CSR

This is clearly the most expensive and premium card I own, and it stands out for travel benefits. Previously, my partner was an authorized user, but we removed him because it wasn't worth the extra $75 fee given that, when he travels, he 99% of the time travels with me.

The CSR has lost popularity in the credit card travel community over time. The annual fee has gotten a lot more expensive, and benefits haven't kept up with it compared with other competitors.

In the future, I may or may not downgrade the CSR to a Chase Sapphire Preferred. Currently I do benefit from DoorDash, occasionally Lyft, and occasionally Priority Pass lounge access or airport restaurant credit. Priority Pass has worsened over the years: there are fewer Priority Pass lounges, and the ones that exist that I've visited are often more crowded and not that good quality compared to just hanging out in the public terminal lounges. Restaurant access has also diminished, and the last one we went to was awful in quality. However, recently Sapphire Lounges are popping up, including at one of my home airports; and I have lucked out a few times with good PP lounges that weren't crowded.

Given that I now have the United Explorer card, a big chunk of my expenses will no longer go to the CSR – namely, United purchases. So, I'll have to assess as my annual renewal for the CSR comes up next year.

On the United Explorer card

This is one of my newer cards. I realized over the years that I use United a lot and have been generally happy with them: one of my home airports is a United hub, they have pretty good airplane seats and service, their website is easy to use, I can cancel flights with them and get credit back to keep my schedule flexible, and their major presence in the U.S. and internationally provides many redundancies and high reliability.

Though I usually don't need a checked bag (which this card provides), I love that, with this card, I'll be able to now buy "Basic Economy" (scoff at this business idea, but still, it's here), while getting priority boarding (includes carry-on!) and a checked bag if I need.

While I'm still willing to use any (good) airline for the right price and itinerary, I'll more consciously gravitate towards United because of the benefits of this new card. I always thought getting "status" with an airline was always out of reach for me, but maybe that can change... In any case, I'm willing to try out this card for at least a year, given the annual fee is waived the first year. How awesome! 🎉

On the Costco card

I only go to the Costco brick-and-mortar store no more than a hanf

On churning

I'm not into credit card churning, so far. It seems like a lot of hassle and potentially dangerous to my credit score or reputation with financial institutions if done wrong.

But, I am interested in maximizing cash back and benefits from cards I open and intend to keep open for as long as they are useful.

I close cards that are no longer useful, even ones that have no annual fee and are just sitting in my drawer. While they positively contribute to my overall credit limit and sometimes average credit line lifespan, I don't like the idea of having more of my information and credit "available" for an attacker to possibly take advantage of; and I also don't like maintaining things (even minimally) that I don't need.

That said, I will probably close the Instacart+ card after I've had it for a year. I primarily got it for the SUP (Sign-up Bonus).

Debit Cards

We use one of the many national banks that has a good brick-and-mortar presence in our area – the same one that funds our mortgage. They reimburse us for using ATMs outside their network.

This bank has been good, except that there are foreign transaction fees for when we want to withdraw money internationally.

For international usage, I found out that Charles Schwab and Capital One have checking accounts that have no or very small foreign transaction fees, along with reimbursement for using out-of-network ATMs. So I recently opened an account with one of them for that.

Savings

There are several online banks that have high yield savings accounts (HYSA) – at least 4%. We've been using one of those for years. We may need to start branching out to another bank to diversify as our savings have built up in that one bank – or maybe that just means we need to deposit more money in our brokerage accounts!

I've also thought about whether to open an account at a federal credit union. There are many available where we live – it's just a matter of comparing and figuring out which we're eligible for.

Health Savings Account

I've been fortunate to have a couple of employers, including my current one, provide access to an HSA. I've built a modest nest egg in this kind of account over the past ~6 years, and will keep doing so as long as I can.

Retirement accounts

My partner has access to non-profit versions (including an extra fancy one recently, after getting promoted to senior staff at his organization), and I have access to "regular" ones, including a Roth 401K. I've had ~6 employers so far in my career, and I've managed to consolidate my many retirement accounts to just span ~3 different financial institutions – one including my current employer's.

Before our incomes exceeded the max allowed for Roth contributions several years ago, I had made a Roth IRA and contributed as much as I could to it. It's now just accruing from investments there.

Brokerage accounts

My partner and I share one with one of the low cost brokerage institutions. I also have a separate one from a past employer that has my long-ago vested shares from that company. I then have one more with my current employer for unvested and vested shares.