\n<\/p>\n
Happy Thanksgiving! This Turkey Day, we\u2019re giving you an encore of one of our favorite episodes on the money hacks EVERYONE should know about! This was one of our top shows of last year and will teach you how to save better, spend less, and travel for CHEAP! Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n Travel hacks, spending hacks, medical hacks<\/strong>. If there\u2019s one thing that\u00a0Chris Hutchins<\/strong>\u00a0has learned from hosting the\u00a0All the Hacks<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0podcast, it\u2019s that everything is negotiable. You can\u00a0travel to over sixty countries for\u00a0<\/strong>(almost)\u00a0free<\/strong>, outsource your cooking at a reasonable rate and even\u00a0get\u00a0<\/strong>free money<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0once forgotten. Chris should know\u2014he\u2019s done all this and more as he works to optimize every aspect of his life, both financially and personally!<\/p>\n Chris was hacking at a very young age. In high school,\u00a0he made a fake magazine<\/strong>\u00a0so he could score\u00a0free press passes to concerts<\/strong>. When he was away at boarding school, he would\u00a0buy whole pizzas and sell them by the slice<\/strong>\u00a0just to afford a few slices of his own. Then, later when he quit his job to travel the world, Chris and his partner hit over sixty countries,\u00a0using credit card points to globetrott from South Africa to Singapore!<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, as a father, Chris is more concerned about\u00a0hacking his time<\/strong>. He\u2019s got kids to take care of and doesn\u2019t want to waste a second of his day that could be spent planning for, or playing with, his children. In today\u2019s episode, you\u2019ll hear some of the\u00a0most insane life hacks<\/strong>, from\u00a0hiring a personal chef<\/strong>\u00a0for a fraction of the cost to\u00a0getting free champagne at any hotel stay<\/strong>\u00a0and even snagging twenty to\u00a0thirty percent off of your dream vacation villa<\/strong>. These hacks work (we tried them in real-time), and you may need a pen and paper to write them all down!<\/p>\n Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Chris: Scott: Chris: Scott: Mindy: Chris: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes<\/a>\u00a0by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds.\u00a0Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our\u00a0<\/i>sponsor page<\/a><\/i>!<\/i><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
Hello my dear listeners and welcome to the BiggerPockets Money podcast Thanksgiving weekend edition. Today we have a very special encore episode for you. Last year we aired an episode with Chris Hutchins from All The Hacks podcast. We talked about travel hacks, meal and grocery hacks, money investing hacks, and so much more. That episode was so popular that we are re-airing it today. On Monday, we actually have Chris coming back to the show where we discuss holiday hacks. We hope you had a safe and happy holiday and we will see you back here on Monday. Today\u2019s guest is Chris Hutchins, the host of All The Hacks podcast. Chris has an impressive resume filled with big names like Google, Grove, Milk and Wealthfront, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. But it\u2019s his ability to master ways to hack his life and come up with the easiest way to get something done that truly caught my eye. Today we\u2019re going to talk with Chris about All The Hacks. Chris, welcome to the BiggerPockets Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today.<\/p>\n
This has been a long time coming. I\u2019m so excited to be here.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s jump into a little bit of your background before we look at some of your favorite hacks. Where does your journey with money begin?<\/p>\n
My journey with money, it\u2019s one of these things where I always try to pin it down with my parents and I never get a good answer. I\u2019m like, \u201cCome on, tell me the childhood story that I could come on a podcast and be like, \u2018I had the lemonade stand and then I hired my neighbors to run it.’\u201d I don\u2019t have a perfect childhood money story. There were a bunch of random little like, \u201cOoh, I\u2019m going to create a magazine to pretend that I\u2019m in the press to go to concerts for free.\u201d But little stories.<\/p>\n
Wait, what?<\/p>\n
I wanted to go to concerts as a kid in high school, and so I just made a fake magazine and print it out on paper so that I could just go and be like, \u201cOh, I have this cool \u2018zine about music. Can I come to this concert as a press person?\u201d And it worked for shows that were like 500 people shows in a church basement kind of shows. It was not like I was going to a giant stadium concert.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s still got you free tickets into a concert. So your life hacking skills started when you were in high school,<\/p>\n
Yeah. But there\u2019s not a journey. It\u2019s just a random thing that I was like, \u201cHow do I get into this thing?\u201d Or in high school another one was I went to boarding school and there were a lot of people to go to boarding school that have a ton of money. My parents didn\u2019t give me this allowance and this credit card that allowed me to do whatever I wanted, but I loved pizza and everyone was always ordering pizza. And so what I did was I would just order Domino\u2019s Pizza and I would sell the slices at enough of a markup that I would get two slices every night. So I feel like my whole life was just like\u2026 Boarding school was a good example because everyone had their parents\u2019 credit card except me. So I had to find ways to make money and kind of keep up. And so I convinced the school to hire me to run the mail room because I was like, \u201cThen I can make some money.\u201d
I don\u2019t know. And then I could curry favors because I was like, \u201cOh, I can unlock the mail room after hours if you didn\u2019t get your package.\u201d So my life is full of these random things. But the kind of broader, bigger picture financial story kind of came after college. I took a job in investment banking and management consulting. I took two jobs because I didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do and I had two offers that started nine months after each other and I didn\u2019t have the time to figure out what career path I wanted because I was late to the game. So I was like, ask friends, \u201cWhat\u2019s the best job?\u201d And they\u2019re \u201cManagement consulting, investment banking.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ll do those.\u201d And I hated both of them. So nine months into the first one, I said, \u201cAh, I\u2019m not going to do this.\u201d
And I took the other offer that I\u2019d already accepted. I went to work there and I was like, \u201cWow, if I don\u2019t love working, what am I going to do? I have 50, 60, 70, 80 years left in my life and if I don\u2019t like working, I am screwed.\u201d So I was like, \u201cI have to save every dollar and find a way to be very optimal because otherwise I\u2019m going to be stuck doing a job I don\u2019t love.\u201d And so not knowing at the time that there was a fire movement, not knowing all of this stuff, not having read Mr. Money Mustache\u2019s blog, I was just \u201cI need to find line item by line item a way to reduce all the costs on my spending so that I can save as much money as possible so I don\u2019t have to work a job I don\u2019t love.\u201d Because my naive self was like, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve only had two jobs, but I didn\u2019t love either of them, so I must not like working. What do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n
I disagree with you. I think the broader story is you going back to high school, always looking for ways to figure things out instead of playing by the rules. Because the rules are you work for 40 years and then you retire at age 65 and the rules are you pay for concerts and the rules are you buy a pizza or you don\u2019t eat a pizza, you don\u2019t sell it by the slice. Why would you do that? I love that you are always looking for ways to, I don\u2019t want to say get\u2026 Well, you are looking for ways to hack your life. You\u2019re looking for ways to hack the system.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny, I was working with this woman to, I hired someone who helped me figure out what are my life principles. If I were ever going to write a book, how do I distill everything I think about the world into something that is not just a five-hour rambling story? And over the course of a month and a half, we kind of came up with what are the principles of living an optimized life, mine? And the first one is the conventional wisdom sucks, which I think is where you\u2019re going. It\u2019s always when someone says, \u201cOh, this is how it works,\u201d even when it\u2019s normally accepted, I\u2019m just like, \u201cIs it? Is there another way to do this? Maybe that\u2019s actually not correct. Maybe this other thing will work.\u201d And that\u2019s like the guiding principle. And then there\u2019s a bunch of others that we came up with after talking this and now I\u2019m like, \u201cOoh, now I have nine principles for living an optimized life.\u201d Now I got to figure out how to put more of them into prose and something that someone could read.<\/p>\n
Can you roll through a couple more of those principles please?<\/p>\n
Yeah. So the next one was question the outcome you think you want. So I think a great example of this is someone says, \u201cI need more money.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cWell, why do you need more money?\u201d \u201cOh, I need more money so I can retire early.\u201d Well, why do you want to retire early?\u201d \u201cOh, I want to retire early because I want to spend time with my family.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cWell, what if you found a way that you could find a job that gave you a little bit more time now and then you had time to spend with your family? Or hypothetically, maybe you decide you want to be a teacher and you get summers off and you spend all the summers with your kids and you don\u2019t have to\u2026\u201d So if what you really want is that you want more flexibility to spend time with your family, the only way you might get there is questioning the original outcome you thought you wanted, which was, \u201cOh, I need more money to retire early.\u201d
And so that was one. Another one I think is I really believe in structured information gathering. We have a note on this one that\u2019s come up with a catchier way to say this, but whenever I\u2019m collecting information about anything, I try to figure out how I can structure it before I do any research. So my wife and I were deciding, gosh, our daughter\u2019s two, our neighbor has a daughter and she\u2019s going to ballet class. We were like, \u201cShould we be sending our daughter to a class or something, gymnastics? I don\u2019t know.\u201d And so I was like, \u201cWell, let\u2019s figure out what all the options are.\u201d But instead of just doing casual research, I was like, \u201cLet\u2019s build a page in our notion board and let\u2019s figure out what we want to collect. How often does it run? How much does it cost? How far away is it? How old are the kids in it?\u201d
And all this stuff. And now we have this little mini database that when I go to my wife, she\u2019s like, \u201cOh, well what could she do on Wednesdays? Because she doesn\u2019t have preschool.\u201d I don\u2019t have to go back out and do all this other research. I\u2019ve already kind of collected in an optimal way. And it forces me to think about what I want to get out of learning when I\u2019m trying to do research and then I end up finding more optimal outcomes because I\u2019ve been able to collect more information in a structured way. So that\u2019s three of them.<\/p>\n
Where can people find all of the principles that you have here?<\/p>\n
Nowhere. These are fresh. So one of my jobs, actually, if you want more, email me, [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> and I can get some feedback. But the conversation I had with Sarah Stibbets, who\u2019s this person who\u2019s excellent at helping people distill their thoughts on the world into principles or a framework, we just came up with them. These are like draft form days old and I\u2019m still supposed to go and test them and see how they should be iterated. So this is not something ready for prime time, but you heard it here first.<\/p>\n
Well, for a show on hacks, we really started with the deep core fundamentals to get going here. So this is awesome. Where is a resource or what\u2019s something that we could link to in the show notes where people could learn more about this concept before we move into some of the other discussions we want to have today?<\/p>\n
The concept of coming up with these life principles?<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
I wish that I had a place, maybe I\u2019ll come up with allthehacks.com\/principles and I\u2019ll put my draft principles there. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll get it done, but I\u2019ll lease a landing page or something. If you subscribe to the newsletter I put together, I\u2019m going to write a newsletter to test this out, but it might be a couple of weeks. So I don\u2019t know, this is so fresh on the top of my mind, I don\u2019t have a place for it yet.<\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s something to consider life principles, go Google it and try to figure out ways to research if you\u2019re interested in learning more.<\/p>\n
Yeah, Ray Dalio wrote a book about life principles that I think was a little bit of inspiration of just what would mine be, but for me it\u2019s less about life and more about optimizing your life, the thing that I feel like is my thing.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think that is your thing. Let\u2019s talk about optimizing your life. What is your absolute favorite optimization under any category at all that you have ever come up with besides the free concert tickets in high school? That would\u2019ve been my favorite.<\/p>\n
No, no. Oh man, it\u2019s really, there\u2019s the obvious favorites and the kind of obscure favorite. So the obvious favorite is that my wife and I have traveled extensively on credit card points, but I feel like that\u2019s not unique enough to come out and be like, \u201cOh, my favorite life hack is earn points and take trips for free.\u201d Though-<\/p>\n
Well, it doesn\u2019t have to be some brand new thing that nobody\u2019s ever thought of. That\u2019s a really great life hack is I just spent this year $6,000 on airfare because I was going to Germany with my daughter, but she was going on a school trip and the school trip gets a huge discount and they can book whenever they want. And Lufthansa is like, \u201cYeah, you already buy like 5,000 tickets a year. So whenever,\u201d but I only buy three tickets once on Lufthansa. They\u2019re like, \u201cYou can pay full price.\u201d So if I would\u2019ve thought about it in advance, I could have gotten a Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card and started earning those points and transferred them over to Lufthansa when it was time to buy with three weeks notice, even though I knew that I was going on this trip for 18 months. So being able to travel extensively for almost nothing is a great life hack. I think that\u2019s one of the best life hacks out there. Where have you gone? What have you done?<\/p>\n
Yeah, I\u2019ve done the tally. It\u2019s probably 65, 66 countries at this point.<\/p>\n
Oh my God, okay, so that\u2019s not just to grandma\u2019s.<\/p>\n
No, no, we\u2019ve been all over. We hit a lot of places once where we took a trip, we flew one way to South Africa, we quit our jobs and we just said \u201cWe\u2019re going to figure out where we go.\u201d And we ended up mostly overland trekking from South Africa to Singapore on trains and buses and hitchhiking and all kinds of stuff, all the way up Africa through the Middle East, through India and Southeast Asia. But for us, travel was the thing that we wanted to do that wasn\u2019t in the budget. We were trying to\u2026 This was early on. My wife and I have been together since 2004, so a long time. And when we were just kind of living on our post-college budgets, we were like, \u201cWell, how do we do all the things we want to do and not run out of money?\u201d And there are ways to hack, house hacking.
I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve had plenty of episodes on that. There\u2019s ways to eat for cheaper, but travel was this thing where it\u2019s like there\u2019s not really a way to get a flight to Europe or to Asia for $7 unless you play the Points of Miles game, which is why I think that became this one huge item on our budget that the only way to get rid of was either to not do it, which we didn\u2019t think was what we wanted or to play the game. And so that one for us has let us take, I don\u2019t know, all kinds of things we\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve been to so many places. Japan is awesome. Namibia was one of our favorites. Thailand, the whole Southeast Asia circuit was amazing and so cheap. So it\u2019s like once you get there, if you can use your points to just cross the ocean and land there, then all of a sudden it\u2019s really cheap.
So I think most of our travel has optimized around going to places that once you\u2019re there where it\u2019s not as easy to use points and miles, it\u2019s a lot less expensive. So my wife and I have never been to the UK. We\u2019ve never\u2026 A lot of these mainstream, I was joking with my wife, we\u2019ve been to all over the world, but she\u2019s never been to London. And I\u2019ve only been because I went once as a small kid, but we haven\u2019t gone to the expensive places. Japan aside, we\u2019ve been to Japan a few times, because it\u2019s just our favorite place.<\/p>\n
Can you tell us what you did to earn all of those points, how you optimized them and what if anything is available today? I know that the reward systems change and so that many of the hacks you probably used are not available and then there are new ones that have taken their place.<\/p>\n
So I think the biggest thing is there\u2019s two main ways to earn points. One is just make sure that every time you\u2019re spending money on a monthly basis, you\u2019re putting it on a card that optimizes where you spend money. So if all your money\u2019s being spent on groceries, the Amex Gold card gets four points per dollar on groceries, the Amex platinum card, which someone might be like, \u201cOoh, that\u2019s even better.\u201d It gets one point on groceries. So there\u2019s not a one size fits all solution for everyone. And so I always say, \u201cLook at where you spend the bulk of your money. If it\u2019s travel and dining, Chase Sapphire, Preferred Reserve, great options.\u201d It kind of depends. If you spend all your money at Home Depot, there\u2019s not a great option. So you might get a card like the Capital One Venture or Venture X that just earns two points on everything.
So that\u2019s one. And then the other is that credit card issuers, banks give massive bonuses to try to lure new customers to use their products. And so if you sign up for a credit card, you can get anywhere from, if you\u2019re picking the right opportunities, let\u2019s say anything, 75 to 150,000 miles or points to open a new card and spend some number of thousands of dollars in 90 days. And so a lot of my points have come from that. Just, \u201cOh, there\u2019s a new card, it\u2019s got 100,000 point signup bonus, let\u2019s sign up for that one.\u201d And I\u2019ll say before going any deeper on this, no amount of points is worth paying interest on any of these cards. So if anyone listening right now is like, \u201cI need to pay off my credit card bills,\u201d do that first. This is not going to outweigh the 17, 25% APRs at all. So if that\u2019s the circumstance you\u2019re in, this is not the game for you yet, but I promise there\u2019s another episode of this wonderful podcast that will help you think about how to save and pay off debt.<\/p>\n
So I have one little tip about your credit cards. You just said that the Amex Gold gives you four points for groceries, so now I need to go get one of those, but you can have more than one card at a time. And what you should do is if you can\u2019t remember, especially if you have 50 different credit cards in your wallet, write on the top of the credit card, what you\u2019re using it for. I have a card that has an address on it because it\u2019s for that house. That is the only thing I use that card for is to put purchases for that house on that card.
I don\u2019t want to mistakenly use it for another house or another project, so I don\u2019t, and I\u2019m going to get this Amex Gold and write groceries on there because I want to make sure I use it for groceries. I\u2019ve got a Costco card that\u2019s I think three or four points per dollar for gas when you\u2019re at Costco. So write on these cards so you\u2019re using them in the most optimal way. But what I do is I have a hotel points card, I have Costco card, and I think we have a Southwest card as well just because that\u2019s where we travel the most. So we are constantly earning points for these things that we are using anyway.<\/p>\n
Yeah, And I\u2019ll say with the advent of Apple Pay, I feel like I\u2019m not carrying all these cards around anymore. So I\u2019m going to give a plug for an app that\u2019s really fantastic called CardPointers. And it\u2019s basically load all the cards you have in. The one great thing that I know anyone that cares about information security or privacy, this is not an app where you go link your accounts and they pull down all your spending data and you have to share your passwords. This is just, I have these cards and they\u2019ll just say, \u201cOkay, here\u2019s the card of your arsenal of cards that is best for each category.\u201d It works really well. If you\u2019re trying to do this with a partner that\u2019s maybe not as excited as you are, you say, \u201cHey, let me just load this up. And then you have an app,\u201d they can open the app and it\u2019s just a crib sheet for what to use, where.<\/p>\n
Probably helps with categorizing expenses as well because they\u2019re all the same buckets of spending that are going on one card.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think if you go to allthehacks.com\/deals, there\u2019s a CardPointers deal there if you sign up for pro. But it\u2019s a great app, I use it, I pay for it. I think it\u2019s an easy way to\u2026 And I helped set it up for my mom once I was like, \u201cHey, you have three cards.\u201d Here are the settings for you.<\/p>\n
Okay, this is obviously the best hack is the travel hacking. What\u2019s the most unusual hack that you love?<\/p>\n
I think one that it seems so obvious, but somehow it just never came to me. And I\u2019ve shared this with you before we recorded. I know you love it. We were trying to go through this process after we had a child. We were like, \u201cGosh, we don\u2019t have time.\u201d We used to have all this free time, then you have one kid and then you have less free time, but there\u2019s only one kid, so one of you can slip away. And then we had two kids and we\u2019re like, \u201cNow we have no time because when we\u2019re not working, we have to be on the kids. And so what are we going to do?\u201d And we started going through what are all the things in our life that take time that we could outsource? And there are the obvious ones. You\u2019d probably all either have or know someone that has someone to could help clean your house or you could drop off your laundry to get it washed and these things.
And we had someone help clean the house, but we did our own laundry. I think my wife would never want someone else deciding what gets dried, what doesn\u2019t, never in a million years. And then someone I don\u2019t remember who was like, \u201cWell, what if you outsource your meals?\u201d And I was like, \u201cWell, we\u2019re not going to outsource to a chef. We\u2019re not the kind of people that have the money to just have some chefs come over and cook us fancy dinners.\u201d And someone had told me, \u201cOh no, no, no. There\u2019s people that\u2019ll just prep meals for the week. You send them five recipes, they\u2019ll go to the grocery store, they\u2019ll make them, put them in Tupperware and drop them off at your house.\u201d And I was like, \u201cReally?\u201d So I made an ad on Craigslist and I\u2019ll even send you guys a link if you want to put it in the show notes of here\u2019s the ad I made.
I got five or seven people wrote back, and I think I did the math about half the cost if I were to order DoorDash for dinners. For about half of what DoorDash would cost, someone went to the grocery store, bought all the ingredients, cooked meals and dropped them off twice a week so that we had each time two days of enough food for two dinners and leftovers for lunches. And so basically it was this woman who was just like, \u201cI like to cook.\u201d She was not a professionally trained chef. She\u2019s just like, \u201cI like to cook and I can follow directions in a recipe.\u201d And sometimes she\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I have some ideas. Can I try this recipe?\u201d And it was the best thing ever. So for six months, and my wife and I love to cook, but for six months we just didn\u2019t have the time and we were just trying to get into the right routine and we didn\u2019t have to think about it and it was the best thing ever.<\/p>\n
That is my favorite hack because I\u2019ve never heard it before, first of all. The travel points, I love that. But like you said, that\u2019s not a new hack. This I\u2019ve never heard before and I absolutely love that because it can be so hard to find the time to cook sometimes. You\u2019re like, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t want to go out to dinner,\u201d but you kind of, that\u2019s the only option. Or DoorDash, which is also very expensive, or we\u2019ve had meal plans that sponsor the show, those are awesome, but if you haven\u2019t already ordered those, what are you going to eat tonight?<\/p>\n
Or you have to cook them. If you have meals delivered, even if they chop up the ingredients for you and get it all ready, you still need time This, it\u2019s take something out of the fridge, put it in the oven for 15 minutes and you don\u2019t have to sit and watch the oven cook. You could step away. And so that was just amazing. And then we started thinking, \u201cGosh, are there other things?\u201d And unfortunately we couldn\u2019t find any other huge unlocks in our life. Though I\u2019m now thinking, I\u2019ve never been one to hire a virtual assistant. But what we\u2019ve been doing is cataloging various tasks that could make sense for an online virtual assistant and one that sounds so silly, but takes 20, 30 minutes is now we\u2019re cooking and we have this app called Paprika, which is a recipe manager app and a meal planning app.
Because my wife and I were like, \u201cGosh, we kind of miss cooking, let\u2019s bring that back.\u201d And we might go back and forth, cook for six months, go back. And I was like, \u201cWe have all these recipes. I just need someone to go through all the recipes and put them all in a list and then just add them to our Amazon Fresh cart.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI wonder if that\u2019s a task for a virtual assistant or these sites like Fancy Hands where you buy five 15 minute tasks a month or something for $20.\u201d
So that\u2019s something we\u2019re going to experiment with next is are there little kind of research driven tasks like, \u201cOh, we need to get our dog vaccinated. We haven\u2019t found a vet. Can you just call around and find a vet that can get him in this week?\u201d Little tasks like that, maybe they take you 15, 20 minutes, but those things add up. And at the end of the day, if you spent 15 minutes, three times, you almost spent a whole hour of your day doing these things that you could have spent, I don\u2019t know, working, reading out with your kids, relaxing, sleeping. So for me, I\u2019m trying to find these things. I\u2019m trying to catalog them so that I can really feel like I have something to fill the time. If I had five tasks a month, I don\u2019t want to fill them all.<\/p>\n
Okay. The most surprising thing that you just said is that you have not yet hired a virtual assistant.<\/p>\n
Is that something you guys both do and I\u2019m just late to the game?<\/p>\n
No, no. I am just way behind you. We have virtual assistants at BiggerPockets, but I don\u2019t have one for my personal life.<\/p>\n
I have experimented with personal assistants in the past, including back in college a few times.<\/p>\n
What was the funnest one that you had your virtual assistant do Scott?<\/p>\n
I had the virtual assistant call my mom for me and hear about her day. That didn\u2019t go over too well. I don\u2019t advise that one.<\/p>\n
But now that you could break it up into I only need an hour, I\u2019m looking at Fancy Hands and it\u2019s like three requests a month, five requests a month. You don\u2019t need to go hire a full-time assistant. And you could have people do everything from research to scheduling things. I could have done when I described earlier, trying to research all the classes that our daughter could go to, that probably took me 45 minutes, but I could have found someone that could do that. So I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m starting to think about whether I\u2019m going to have enough tasks that it would make sense. So outsourcing things. I like to calendar audit, so where am I spending my time? Am I spending a lot of time on things that someone else could do that would give me more leverage on my time to do the things that I\u2019m uniquely capable of doing? Ideally that could earn money so that I could make up for the fact that I just hired someone to do these other things.<\/p>\n
I think the framework here is whether or not you articulate it like this. You have a very clear understanding of the value of your time and these things are below that threshold in value and these things are above it. And I am generally at max capacity, therefore if I have a good handle on that, everything below the threshold needs to get outsourced in some way to somebody else. And if you can do that, that\u2019s great. And for those listening, a great tool for that is if you earn $100,000 a year, then you can compute the value of your time at $50 per hour. That\u2019s all pre-tax. It might be a little less than that after tax, but that\u2019s a great way to compute. That\u2019s 2000 hours per year at $50 an hour gets you to $100,000 in annual income. So if you\u2019re doing tasks that are $10 an hour or $15 an hour like going to the store or shopping and cooking perhaps, then that may be a good arbitrage it was for Chris, otherwise you\u2019ll need to do that and that number should move over time.<\/p>\n
So I really struggled with that. I was like, \u201cWell, but it\u2019s not like my employer is going to give me more money if I work a little more.\u201d So the thing that I finally did was I signed up to be a Lyft driver and I did one ride and I was like, \u201cOh.\u201d My wife had worked at Lyft. So I was like, \u201cOh, this is kind of fun. I get to go do the thing the company you work at.\u201d So I gave a ride and I was like, \u201cOh, now at any point in time I could open an app and flip a switch and start making in the Bay Area right now I think it\u2019s like $30 an hour or something.\u201d So now I struggled with could I really value my time at $50 an hour because if I don\u2019t spend this hour researching activities for my daughter, I\u2019m not actually going to make $50.
Now I sign up for Lyft and now I know if I want to make $30 in the next hour, I have a way to do it. And that immediately made me think, \u201cOkay, every hour I\u2019m not turning this on, I\u2019m foregoing $30 an hour, which means that I should be able to spend $30 an hour for someone else to do something.\u201d So for me, it needed that one extra step of actually creating a simple way to show myself that I could go make that money at an hourly rate, even though that might be lower than my hourly rate at my job, it at least put a floor that was like, \u201cIf I\u2019m just hanging out doing nothing, I know that I could be making $30 an hour.\u201d And so that changed everything for me. And now I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, if it\u2019s not worth $30 an hour to pay someone, then why am I not out there earning that $30 an hour?\u201d So that helped me get comfortable.<\/p>\n
Love it. You just take that a step further and go to the marginal value of the addition of the next hour worked. So you\u2019re an economist.<\/p>\n
I try. And I would just want to loop back quick because I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to get back to travel, but there are a couple cool fun travel hacks I want to throw in there. One of my favorites is when you book a hotel, book it directly with the hotel. And here\u2019s the reason. So hotels are still in the hospitality business and they love building relationships with customers because the loyal repeat business is what drives a lot of revenue for them. And if you book on Expedia, Travelocity, they kind of don\u2019t really get that opportunity because the channel between the consumer is with Expedia, Travelocity. So you book directly with the hotel, you get their email either on their website or call the front desk and email them and just say, \u201cHey, here\u2019s my confirmation number. I\u2019m coming on this day. I\u2019m really excited to stay with you.\u201d
If you\u2019re celebrating anything, let them know. Then a few days before reply and just say, \u201cHey, just want to follow up. We\u2019re still on track to be here in a couple of days, really excited.\u201d I have gotten hundreds of emails, Twitter messages, Instagram foot posts of people who\u2019ve gotten upgrades, gift baskets, wine, free cocktails at the bar, their parking comped, free breakfast all the way to my favorite, which was their initials embroidered on the pillow in the room, all for sending an email. So if you want a hack that\u2019ll get you something for nothing, it\u2019s just send the email to the hotel and see what happens. I\u2019m not going to promise it\u2019ll work every time, but if it\u2019s the kind of hotel that has room service and could deliver chocolate covered strawberries or a bottle of wine to your room, I think it\u2019ll probably work If I had to peg it 40, 50% of the time.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n
And you could hire a VA to do that for you.<\/p>\n
I probably could have, yeah. I\u2019ll add it to the list of tasks. Every time I book a hotel for the confirmation, have that person go and send that. Yeah, so I\u2019m a big nerd on the travel hacking I think is the core. I always tell people the podcast, All The Hacks, it\u2019s like one third all about travel, one third about money and one third about life and life is career. It could be hosting cocktail parties, it could be anything you do, but the travel side is where I think I find all these kind of weird crazy things.<\/p>\n
Chris, these are fantastic. Let\u2019s fly through a bunch more of these tips. What else you got for hotels or other travel tips?<\/p>\n
Okay, I got a couple cool travel ones. One, if you\u2019re booking a villa or a house, you\u2019re looking on Airbnb. If it\u2019s in another country, sometimes this works in the US but really great in Mexico and overseas. Take the image that best represents the property, save it to your computer, go to Google image search and upload it. And chances are there\u2019s probably three or four other websites that are a broker for booking that same property. So you might find some local version of Airbnb in Mexico, there\u2019s a site called Cabo Villas, which is great for booking villas in Cabo. You might find that property somewhere else and it can be 20, 30% cheaper. You might even find a website that the owner themselves has set up so there\u2019s no extra commission going to the booking agency and you could save even more. So that\u2019s one.
If you\u2019re flying international, don\u2019t always look from where you live to where you\u2019re going when you\u2019re searching for flights. First off, I do all my flight searching on Google Flights. I think it\u2019s the best tool. You don\u2019t book there, you go book on the airlines website. But Google Flights is where I start when I\u2019m using dollars to book a flight. If you\u2019re using points, it\u2019s a whole different ballgame. But if you\u2019re using dollars Google Flights, you could put open-ended things like San Francisco up to one stop, go anywhere and look at a map in July for one week trips. You could do all this crazy stuff. But if you were trying to get from where I live, San Francisco to Santorini in Greece, there\u2019s like three airlines that fly all the legs necessary to get you there. But if you say I want to go from San Francisco to Athens, there\u2019s probably 15 airlines that can get you to Athens and the flight from Athens to Santorini is like $50.
So if you\u2019re looking to go anywhere that\u2019s a little bit off the beaten path. It\u2019s not a major city, maybe it\u2019s an island, maybe it\u2019s a small town. Just try to buy your ticket to the closest destination. People call these positioning flights, get yourself really close to where you want to go and then just do that last leg separately. Because the way all these flight searches work is they\u2019re all looking for some carrier and their partners that will get you the entire way there. Very few of them will pair up in the US like a Southwest flight with a Lufthansa flight. You\u2019ve probably never seen that happen. So if you were in Germany trying to do this and you\u2019re like, \u201cI want to get to Seattle,\u201d it\u2019s like we\u2019re only looking at places that United and Lufthansa work together because they\u2019re partners. So that\u2019s one.
I love if you\u2019re booking car rentals, Autoslash is this great website where you can go in and just say, \u201cHere\u2019s where I\u2019m booking.\u201d And even if you\u2019ve already booked separately, they\u2019ll just continually monitor for you. And if they find a cheaper price, they\u2019ll say, \u201cHey, we found a lower price.\u201d And because almost all car rentals you can just cancel the reservation and book it again. They really help with that. And then if you\u2019re not booking with a credit card that has all the travel benefits, delayed bags, lost bags, trip delay, cancellation, evacuation stuff, make sure you do that and then just stay on top of if you have something come up, make sure you cancel it. If you have something come up, there\u2019s a little tiny hack that doesn\u2019t always work. But if you need to cancel a flight, if you know you\u2019re not going to take that flight, I always wait until 12 hours before to cancel it because every now and then there\u2019s a schedule change or a delay or something and then you get to cancel it for free.
A lot of the airlines now will let you cancel for free, but you get credit. But we were in Hawaii and we kind of wanted to come back a day early and so we booked a Southwest flight the day early, but we didn\u2019t cancel our other flight until we were ready to leave. And sure enough they changed the flight and they were like, \u201cHey, if you need to cancel at no cost, you can.\u201d Because they pushed it back by four hours. So I always wait to cancel flights. Look, I probably have 15 episodes on travel hacking, so we could probably do the next three hours on this. I\u2019ve got\u2026 Go check out more there, but I don\u2019t know. Those are some of my favorite travel hacks.<\/p>\n
That was fantastic. What\u2019s another category of hacks outside of travel that you have?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll call this spending money. It\u2019s pretty broad but I\u2019ll put it in the money category. There are a few ones that I love here. So one Amazon Smile, it\u2019s like this site where you could basically, if you buy everything through Amazon Smile, it\u2019s basically you get to buy the same stuff that\u2019s on Amazon except Amazon will donate 1% to charity. So that\u2019s a cool one. Help other people.
I think that if you have a family and you look at the cost of buying memberships to zoos and museums, it\u2019s because most of them are all nonprofits. When you join the membership to the zoo or the museum, it\u2019s a tax deductible donation to a charity. And if you factor that in most zoos and museums, and we\u2019re talking like science museum or history museum or art museum, most of them end up costing about 25% more and sometimes even as little as less when you factor in the tax deduction. So we had family in town for Thanksgiving a year ago and we all wanted to go to the Oakland Zoo and to get a membership to the Oakland Zoo that included four guests and kids was the exact same price after you factored in the tax deduction as just buying all the tickets. So we just got the membership to the zoo and then for the next year we\u2019ve been able to go to the zoo for free.<\/p>\n
I do want to tag onto your zoo tip with my museum tip that I think I got from Jillian Johnsrud from Montana Money Adventures. Your Nature and Science Museum membership is good at something like 360 science and nature museums around the country that are more than 90 miles outside of your home museum. So we are close to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. So any museum within a 90 mile radius, my membership wouldn\u2019t get me into, but there\u2019s a list of more than 360, I\u2019m on their website right now. There\u2019s a list of more than 360 science centers and museums that you can get into with your museum pass. And I think actually somebody up in Oregon told me this as well. There\u2019s a Portland Museum that\u2019s pretty interesting. So it doesn\u2019t work with zoos I don\u2019t think, but it works with science museums all around the country.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another version of that that a lot of zoos have. So if you have a science museum, you might be able to go to the science museums. If you\u2019re in a zoo one, you might be able to go to the zoo ones or there\u2019s actually a museum in the Bay Area called CuriOdyssey, like half zoo, half science, and I think they\u2019re in both. So we have a membership there. Yeah, it\u2019s wild. And I don\u2019t know, the kids love it. So it\u2019s like anytime you\u2019re traveling you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, what\u2019s the free museum we can go spend the afternoon in because we made one time, one-time donation in the last year at our local one?\u201d
The other fun one Library Extension, you installed this browser extension and when you\u2019re browsing Amazon, it\u2019ll just tell you whether your local library has the book that you\u2019re looking at, either available in digital download right away format or check out at the library. So you\u2019re looking at a library, you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m about to buy this book.\u201d Or you\u2019re looking at Amazon, you\u2019re about to buy a book. It\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I could just literally download the Kindle version of this book right now for free from my local library.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ooh that\u2019s a good tip.<\/p>\n
Unclaimed money, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve talked about this a lot, but there\u2019s a website for every state where you can just go search whether there\u2019s money owed to you. So that\u2019s probably the version one of it. Go see if anyone owes you money. I just cashed a check for $1. So sometimes you get a check in the mail that might not be worth your time to cash it. But on the flip side, that website\u2019s also a place where people can go find your address because they just need your name and your city and it confirms your address. So I like to clear all my unclaimed money out, but I also, anytime I\u2019m going to a friend\u2019s house for dinner or something, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, I got your address, I got your name.\u201d I go look them up and I show up to dinner and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, I brought a bottle of wine. But I also found that Verizon owes you $35. So if you want to go to this website, you can get a free $35.\u201d And so that\u2019s my party hack is bringing unclaimed money.<\/p>\n
What is this website?<\/p>\n
So every state has a website where you can go search a database of unclaimed money or unclaimed property. So California has one that I\u2019ve gone to because I live here and you can search by last name and city and find out whether you have unclaimed money anywhere. So while I get through any other ones, go look and see if you find any unclaimed money we could have a live report.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I\u2019m doing this right now.<\/p>\n
I found $1,000 once. I don\u2019t remember what it was for, but I was like, \u201cHow do I not remember $1,000? It was really crazy.<\/p>\n
By the way, no one knows me money.<\/p>\n
So one of the reasons, I don\u2019t know if this was your case, Mindy, but one of the reasons a lot of people have unclaimed money is you go to the hospital, and this is something I learned, I did a whole episode on this if it\u2019s interesting about paying your medical bills. And there\u2019s these crazy things that happen where your insurance might only cover a certain amount and so they\u2019re only allowed to bill you for that amount, but it\u2019s legal for these companies to send you the bill for the rest. So I fractured my foot and they gave me a walking boot and it was like the cheapest crappiest walking boot you get at the hospital relative to the really nice one on Amazon for $50. And I got a bill in the mail for $350 and I was like, \u201cI could buy a better version of this or $50. This is crazy.\u201d
And I had been in touch with this person who eventually came on the podcast, Marshall Allen who wrote this book, Never Pay The First Bill. And I reached out to him and he was like, \u201coh, well here\u2019s what can happen. Your insurance might\u2019ve only covered $50, so it was a $400 boot and they can make up whatever price they want. \u2018This is a 400 boot.\u2019 Insurance says, \u2018No, no, no, we\u2019re only paying 50.\u2019 It\u2019s legal for them to send you a letter that says, \u2018Hey, the rest of this boot was $350 that your insurance didn\u2019t cover.’\u201d Now what they don\u2019t make clear is that the letter actually says, \u201cIf you out of the goodness of your heart want to pay the rest of the $350, you are welcome to, but you are under no legal obligation to.\u201d The letter shows up. It looks like a bill. That\u2019s like \u201cYour insurance didn\u2019t cover the rest you owe $350.
So over the course of getting shingles, I went to emergency room twice because I had no idea what was going on and it was excruciatingly painful and I got all these medical bills that my insurance covered most of, and people were just like, \u201cOh, do you want to pay the extra fee? The doctor at the insurance\u2026 Even though the ER was in network, the doctor wasn\u2019t. And so if you want to pay this extra you can.\u201d And through a series of following his book and playing through these tactics, I ended up owing nothing extra, but I got bills for hundreds and thousands of dollars and one of them I thought was legitimate and I paid $52 and they gave it back to me once the insurance company finally settled it all. But a lot of people, if you have gone and paid these and your insurance company eventually settles it all, that\u2019s where you might be owed money because the hospital might be like, \u201cOh, we couldn\u2019t find them.\u201d And eventually they have to hand that money over to the state and then the state holds onto it.<\/p>\n
Well, I just checked all three states that I have lived in recently and nobody owes me money anymore.<\/p>\n
That was a great tip about the health bills. That\u2019s awesome. I had no idea that that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n
Yeah. On the health side, never pay the first bill. Marshall Allen wrote the book, I\u2019m not going to coin the phrase. But if you get a bill from a medical provider, there are 10 steps you can follow. I did a whole episode, we walked through all of it. There\u2019s a book. Do not pay the first bill you get. There\u2019s 10 reasons that we don\u2019t have time to get into about how you could argue not paying that bill, getting your insurance company to cover it. There\u2019s some laws in different states about not being able to charge you for out-of-network things at an in-network facility that just changed. So that was a great one. On the health side I learned this trick when I was working at Google, just hide the unhealthy things at your house if you feel like you have to have them. Google basically at one point was like, \u201cWell, we don\u2019t want to get rid of the M&M\u2019s because people like M&M\u2019s and we don\u2019t want get rid of the Coke because there are people that really want this and we don\u2019t want them to be mad.\u201d
But they would black out the fridge, the section of the fridge would blacked out with the cokes behind it. And then above that where there\u2019s waters and other things, it was not blacked out. And then the jars on the counter with healthier snacks were clear glass and the other ones were completely blacked out. And they found that they just massively reduced the amount of unhealthy snacks and drinks people were consuming without having to remove them. So if you have unhealthy snacks at home, you don\u2019t have to get rid of them though that\u2019s probably the best move. You could also just obfuscate the cover of them and hide them in less convenient places. Or my favorite on there is just give yourself five minutes every time. So if you see this cookie and you\u2019re like, \u201cI really want that cookie.\u201d Just say, \u201cYou know what? I can have the cookie in five minutes.\u201d
Don\u2019t tell yourself you can\u2019t have it. Now you\u2019re depriving yourself and that\u2019s depressing. But if you tell yourself you can have it in five minutes, you feel really good about walking away in five minutes you can eat it, but 90% of the time in that five minutes you\u2019ve gone and done something else and forgotten about it.<\/p>\n
Love it. By the way, [inaudible 00:41:46] me and Mindy are continuing to giving you updates. My wife is owed between 11 and $49. You are welcome as a dinner guest. Anytime, Chris.<\/p>\n
Look at that. I hope it\u2019s on the 49 side.<\/p>\n
Yeah, no bottle of wine necessary.<\/p>\n
Great. I want an update what it was.<\/p>\n
Yeah, we\u2019ll have to figure it out later.<\/p>\n
Back to the spending. This kind of goes in line with kind of my shopping strategy. If I\u2019m buying something online, a lot of people know that you can go to Rakuten and you can sign up and get cashback and there\u2019s a bunch of other sites to do that. I love Cashback Monitor because it basically says, \u201cHere\u2019s all the cashback websites that you could get.\u201d So the way it would work is you want to buy something on a website, you go see if they have the ability to click a link on one of these shopping portal sites and then you earn cash back, or a lot of the credit card companies. So Chase has a portal, you buy it through their portal, you earn one or 2% back in points. So that\u2019s like level one. I kind of go a little crazier sometimes. So if I\u2019m trying to buy something, I will go as far as to see if I can find or even buy coupons.
So there\u2019s this website that\u2019s like, I think it\u2019s savendeals.com, I think. I\u2019ll double check, but I buy Home Depot and Lowe\u2019s gift cards online. And so you can basically go to this website and you pay, they have Crate & Barrel coupon. Oh, I bought it for Crate & Barrel. This couch in the background. I got 10 or 20% off by buying a Crate & Barrel gift card on the internet. And so I\u2019ll always look to see if there\u2019s a way that I can find coupons or buy coupons because if you\u2019re buying a couch, spending $4 to get a coupon that saves you 15% is totally worth it. And then if that doesn\u2019t work, I will go and buy gift cards for the retailer, but I\u2019ll do it wherever I get the most points. So for example, if I needed to buy, we just renovated a bathroom, so we need to buy a toilet.
And I really wanted to splurge for little Japanese toilet built-in toilet seat, heated seats, all the good stuff. And so we wanted it at Lowe\u2019s and I was like, \u201cOkay, I need to buy this.\u201d So I bought a Lowe\u2019s coupon that brought the price down by 10 or 15%. And then I was like, \u201cWell, how do I get the rest of it?\u201d So I went to the grocery store where I get four points per dollar on my Amex Gold card and I bought Lowe\u2019s gift cards because if I use my credit card at Lowe\u2019s, I\u2019m just going to get one or two points per dollar. But if I use my card at the grocery store, I\u2019m getting four. And then so I\u2019m getting the four points on the gift cards. So then I buy the toilet with the, I plugged in the coupon, I went through the shopping portal link to get one or 2% back.
I\u2019m paying with gift cards that I got four points per dollar for. And at the grocery store, you usually don\u2019t get variable amount gift cards. And so that brought it down to there\u2019s still $75 or $80. Then you can go to Amazon and you could buy a gift card to the exact amount you need. It gets delivered and fulfilled instantly. I got the Amazon credit card for 5% back on Amazon. So all in, I think it was like 25% off by stacking cashback portals, buying coupons online and then using the right gift card. And then if you can\u2019t find a coupon online, my hack there is just pop up the live chat on any website and just ask for a discount.
Like 50% of the time I just say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m shopping on your site. I really would love these floor mats. We got a new car, there\u2019s another format that\u2019s a little less expensive, but I love yours. What can you do?\u201d And I\u2019ve gotten, \u201cHey, here\u2019s a gift card.\u201d Or \u201cHey, refresh your cart by clicking this link and you\u2019ll see that I\u2019ve discounted your price.\u201d Or one time someone\u2019s like, \u201cI can\u2019t do you anything. But if you search social media for someone\u2019s referral link, you\u2019ll get 20% off.\u201d So I go to search.twitter.com and I\u2019m like \u201cReferral name of company,\u201d and I find someone who has inevitably posted their referral link on the internet. So anytime I\u2019m buying something online that\u2019s over, I don\u2019t know, $50 or something where this is worth the effort, I try to stack as many of the things as I can to earn as much back or get as much of a deal as I can.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m just speechless at all the ways that you can\u2026 I thought I was frugal.<\/p>\n
Yeah, this is pretty impressive.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m screwing up left and right compared to you.<\/p>\n
Look, you can go off the deep end here. I could do this when I\u2019m like, I need to buy a hammer and how can I get my $11 hammer down to $9 and spend 45 minutes saving $2? And honestly, I think maybe the satisfaction I get from saving that $2 is probably worth an amount equivalent to 30 or 45 minutes. But now that I\u2019ve two kids, maybe that\u2019s gone down. So I will say you can go too far. I think a good example of this is I realized when part of this unclaimed money thing, I was like, \u201cGosh, my information\u2019s on the internet. We have kids, I have podcasts. I don\u2019t really need the whole world knowing where I live.\u201d And if you Google yourself, you\u2019ll find, \u201cOh wow.\u201d Your address and your phone number and your email address are probably available on the public internet for anyone to find.
And so I was like, \u201cI got to get rid of this.\u201d So I started doing some research and there\u2019s like 600 data brokers who sell your personal information to each other and publish it all over the web. And I was like, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m not going to pay a service to go do this.\u201d And then I was like, \u201cLet\u2019s go find the 600 data brokers, go to each of their websites, request them, remove my information,\u201d and five hours into it, I was like, \u201cWhat am I doing?\u201d And so I found this company DeleteMe. I went and signed up and for $100 they contact all 600 data brokers and have them all remove all of your personal information off the internet everywhere. And now I challenge you to find my personal address or phone number on the internet because it\u2019s been scrubbed.
And then in true optimization fashion, I went one step further and I emailed them. I was like, \u201cHey guys, I love your product. I just used it. I got rid of all my information. I have this podcast. I want to talk about it. Do you guys want to be a sponsor of the podcast?\u201d So now they\u2019re a sponsor, allthehacks.com\/deleteme get 20% off. But I thought that half of my sponsors ended up coming from me just finding a product I love and reaching out to them and saying, \u201cI love your product. Can I talk about it to my audience?\u201d
And most of those products are ways to optimize your life in some way, shape, or form. And so there\u2019s a great example of figure out how long something\u2019s going to take. Find out if it\u2019s going to be worth your time and whether there\u2019s a service that\u2019ll do it. So my wife got caught in this trap once we have small children and she was thinking, \u201cOh, it\u2019s time to start feeding our children food.\u201d And we were like, \u201cWhat are we going to cut it in? What are we going to serve them? How do they get a variety of foods?\u201d
And she was doing all this research and I was like, \u201cGosh, wouldn\u2019t it be great if someone just made a meal plan for the first 100 days your kid eats and it just has all the ideas of everything there.\u201d And she\u2019s like, \u201cOh, I found one on the internet, but it\u2019s $30 or something.\u201d And I was like, \u201cYou just spent the last seven hours.\u201d I was like, \u201cCan we just pay the $30?\u201d So I think we went, this swings both directions. It\u2019s not optimal now. It\u2019s so optimal. And now we\u2019re finding that middle ground where it\u2019s like, \u201cYou know what? This is either worth our time or at the end of the day, the incremental value from picking the best of the three incredible hotels we could stay at in our budget is just not worth it. All three are going to be fine. Pull the trigger.\u201d
And that\u2019s where we balance each other out because we can both find ourselves going down rabbit holes, but if you just kind of think, \u201cOkay, let me bounce this off my wife,\u201d and she\u2019s like, \u201cYeah, stop. Pick any of the three. It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d For food I\u2019m always the optimal person. Like \u201cWhat\u2019s the best thing on the menu?\u201d Someone told me, he\u2019s like, \u201cNarrow it down to two.\u201d I don\u2019t wear a watch, but conceptually, \u201cPretend you wear a watch, narrow it down to two, call one, right, call the other left. Look where the second hand is and pick it.\u201d Don\u2019t try to get to that last level, that Pareto 80-20 rule. Don\u2019t feel like you have to optimize the last little bit unless it\u2019s a huge thing. If it\u2019s like buying a house, yeah, figure out how to optimize it because it\u2019s a massive purchase. But if it\u2019s what you\u2019re going to have for lunch, maybe don\u2019t spend 30 minutes reading Yelp reviews, trying to get the most optimal thing because you\u2019re probably not even going to remember what it was three weeks from now.<\/p>\n
I ask the waiter, \u201cWhat would you choose the bison burger or the chicken sandwich?\u201d And he\u2019ll be like, \u201cOh, the chicken sandwich is great. The bison burger is dry.\u201d Great. That made my decision.<\/p>\n
We did that one time and I asked this waiter, I was like, \u201cHow\u2019s the beet salad?\u201d And he goes, \u201cOh, I hate beets.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOh, okay.\u201d That\u2019s kind of scarred me from like, \u201cWell, what is this person\u2019s personal view on certain types of foods?\u201d You ask that sandwich to a vegan and they\u2019re like, \u201cBoth of these are terrible.\u201d But that is my go-to by the way. But I\u2019ve been scarred a little by people who have strong opinions about certain foods.<\/p>\n
Well, Chris, this has been fantastic. You are a gold mine of information about a large number of little ways to stack enormous savings and save yourself a lot of time as well. This is really impressive. What\u2019s the best way for people to learn more about you and go deep into the rabbit hole of these little tips and tricks?<\/p>\n
Yeah, if you\u2019re listening to this podcast, you\u2019re probably in a podcast app, so you could probably search for All The Hacks. That\u2019s my show. It\u2019s also at allthehacks.com. We have a newsletter and a podcast each week, and my goal is to help you upgrade and optimize your life, your money, and your travel. And if you want to get in touch, you can find me on social media. You can email me, [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. I love to hear from people and I hope I can help you save money, live a happier, healthier, wealthier life and feel like you got a little back the next time you\u2019re trying to buy something or take an adventure.<\/p>\n
Nice. That\u2019s awesome. And I\u2019ll tell you what, I\u2019m definitely going to sign up immediately following this recording. This was great.<\/p>\n
Yeah, this was an awesome show, Chris. I knew about Autoslash and that\u2019s the only one that I already knew. Everything else was brand new information and I\u2019m super excited to listen to your show every week that it comes out. I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, and we will talk to you soon.<\/p>\n
Thanks for having me. This is fun.<\/p>\n
All right, Scott, that was Chris Hutchins from All The Hacks podcasts, and that was fantastic. We didn\u2019t share this during the recording, but our producer was sitting in on this episode and she found $183 on unclaimed money just from listening to Chris. So she\u2019s going to invite Chris over to her house for dinner too. Nice job, Kaylin.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that was really cool. All of us found money, I think, or for either us or our significant others within a few minutes on the search. The unclaimed property thing is legit. Do encourage you, if you\u2019re going to follow that tip to Google your state\u2019s website, yourstate.gov, and follow their link to the unclaimed property because there are some sketchy sites out there. But if you do that, you may find you are owed some money.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s a great tip. I thought this was a lot of fun and you could make money just by listening to this episode. That\u2019s a bonus. Scott, you ready to go?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n
That wraps up this episode of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. He is Scott Trench, and I am Mindy Jensen saying Take Care Polar Bear.<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed today\u2019s episode, please give us a five star review on Spotify or Apple. And if you\u2019re looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel at youtube.com\/biggerpocketsmoney.<\/p>\n
BiggerPockets money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by Kaylin Bennett, editing by Exodus Media. Copywriting by Nate Weintraub. Lastly, a big thank you to the BiggerPockets team for making this show possible.<\/p>\n