One of my friends is headed to Budapest, and he asked me for some advice about navigating Budapest, given that I lived there for a time during college. And my biggest recommendation is to learn these three magical phrases: 1) Jó napot kívánok 2) Beszél angolul 3) Köszönöm szépen These mean “hello”, “do you speak English”, and…
In a previous post, I talked about why travel is a good use of money, which is largely because people tend to underinvest in experiences and overinvest in material goods even though experiential purchases tend to make people happier than material purchases. Taking this another step, I’ve realized that it doesn’t really make sense for me…
(I realize that this post is mostly just preaching to the choir, but I have a future point in mind) Most of us are lucky enough to have at least some discretionary income to spend on whatever we choose. One question this leads to is what’s the best use of this discretionary spending. Should we…
Warning: #firstworldproblems (or maybe #firstclassproblems?) Nothing feels better than lounging around at home in airline pajamas and browsing Flyertalk. But one common problem people find with airline pajamas is that they’re liable to shrink. One way to avoid shrinkage is to not wash the pajamas at all, which is not particularly hygienic. Instead, I’m going…
The big dirty non-secret amongst popular travel blogs is that many of these bloggers make their money off of credit card affiliate links. So when you click on one of their credit card links, apply for the credit card, and get approved, the blogger makes money. I have no idea how much, but I’m guessing…
Assuming we’re not talking about fixed-value points currencies like those of Virgin America or Southwest, the marginal value or incremental value of a point can vary wildly. This is due to the fact that most loyalty programs have redemption levels, and if your points haven’t reached a given redemption level, they’re not really worth that…
When I write about efficiency, I often use the term “utility“, which can be thought of as a representation of your preferences or what makes you happier. And a large part of using miles and points wisely or conducting your life efficiently requires that you understand your utility function, which means that you understand what…
Traveling would probably be better for most people if all airports offered free wifi, but they don’t. For those that don’t, or those that have time restrictions on their free wifi, what’s a traveler to do? An unhelpful answer is to get lounge access, since I can’t think of a lounge that doesn’t offer free…
Conventional wisdom amongst travel blogs says that when you call to cancel a credit card, you should consolidate your credit lines (i.e. add the credit line of the card you’re canceling to one you already have) so you don’t lose the credit. The primary justification is so you can then use that credit as a…
In college, I had the wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Denmark for a semester (which was prompted by an earlier wonderful semester studying abroad in Hungary). Denmark held a lot of mystique to me before I lived there, being that it has been regularly ranked as the happiest country in the world (or at…
