Transcript
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If you've been curious about travel hacking how to use points and miles to get those glamorous free vacations like everybody seems to be doing online these days, then this episode is for you.
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We have Instagram super hacker Aunt Kara with us to talk about how she's taken over $100,000 worth of family vacations all over the globe using points and miles.
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So if you're curious about how to earn those points and miles, how long it takes, which cards are best and generally, how to do it, this episode is for you.
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Hey babe.
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What are we talking about today?
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today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite things in the world points for travel.
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Get me out of here as quickly as possible, and preferably with points in first class.
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Thank you yeah, that's definitely your love language is traveling travel is my love language.
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I listen, I'm the person who's Googling my next trip while on the trip, and I feel like I'm always in a better mood when I have something to look forward to, and today we are you always say you're also in a better mood when you have a margarita in hand and you don't have to clean any dishes.
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Yes, I don't want to do laundry.
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I want a Marg in my hand.
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I don't want to fold laundry, do the dishwasher?
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I don't.
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I want to get out of that normal day to day routine of like I mean, the kids get out of the house and what do I do?
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I empty the dishwasher every morning.
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You know like I don't want to do that, so get me on a vacation.
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That's what I want to do where you don't have to cook where you don't have to cook, I don't have to clean and even better if I can do it and I can use points for all the things that we spend money on all the time anyway, like, give me something for spending my money.
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And so today we are talking to somebody who does that way better than we do.
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I think we are barely scratching the surface when it comes to points and miles and all of those credit card perks, but today we have somebody with us that is going to teach us her ways, and that is Aunt Kara.
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Kara, thank you for being with us.
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Thank you for having me, jessica and Brandon, it's good to be here.
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We are so excited.
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So for anybody who doesn't know, on Kara A, get up from under that rock that you're living in, because you need to know her.
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She is fabulous, so let's get into this bio and then we're going to get into picking her brain on how she has taken these amazing trips, on points and miles and all the things.
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Aunt Kara is a trusted and respected Instagram influencer, inspiring over 100,000 followers to make good decisions with their money and build wealth.
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She's even better known for sharing travel hacking information on how to reduce the cost of travel by earning and redeeming points and miles.
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Over the past 12 years, she has redeemed $125,000 worth of points toward travel for herself and her family.
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That is a large amount of money.
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Kara is not just a travel hacker extraordinaire.
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She is an IT professional of 30 years, a mother of two college kids, a wife of 30 years to her husband, mark.
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They live in the Midwest and they are 100% debt free, including mortgage, and you guys are doing all the investments in the stock market and you plan on retiring in the next two years.
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So congratulations for all of those things you are winning at life, kara.
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We're so glad to have you.
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I don't know.
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You know I mean money's a big, big piece of life.
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We all know that.
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So I feel like you could check the box that we've won on the financial front.
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But you know, it's been quite a journey and a lot of years to get to this point.
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For sure, in every aspect.
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Yeah, I love that you said that, because one of the things that I see repeatedly in your content is that you are reminding people.
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You don't just wake up with hundreds of thousands of points right, like this takes planning, it takes preparation, it takes intentionality, and the people you're seeing, who are taking these amazing trips like you, didn't just wake up with the points.
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You know you have to really plan for it.
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So definitely want to talk about that.
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But before we get into all of that goodness, we have to get into your first money memory.
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Can you share that with us?
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Um, so my first money memory was absolutely the first time I started babysitting and that was the first job I ever had, first real job.
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That I wasn't like doing something for mom and dad chores and they're throwing me a couple dollars here or there, but I began babysitting gosh when I was like in seventh grade I think I was 12 years old or something like that.
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They were pretty generous with their.
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I was getting paid more than my friends with babysitting and so I was sacrificing weekend nights on a regular basis, not spending the night with friends and things like that because I thought I'm a fool to pass up this money and I also love the family and it was nice and the concept of me being able to have my own money to make choices on how I wanted to spend it was like I love that feeling of power like that I had.
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I had the ability to make a choice versus all the years of my life where I said to mom and dad, like please get me those jeans.
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I mean when you're 12, like think about where your priorities are.
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You know, like it was usually something and I'm a girl, I was a girl, you know fashion and things like that and you know the ones that were just too pricey and my mom and dad were pretty frugal and it paid off for them.
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But I love the feeling that, like now, I have the ability to buy what I want to buy and nobody can tell me no, like if that's what I want, I have the money in my pocket now and I was a good saver.
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So that money was not in and out of my pocket, it was.
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I had big visions all the time and again the big visions might have been some name brand jeans that you know my mom wouldn't get for me, but I had goals and I got to know that rhythm of like work, sacrifice, then get what you want.
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Again, wouldn't advise everyone to run out and buy designer jeans at this point, but when you're 12 and that was like something you couldn't have because you were at the mercy of someone else's rules, but then you know to have that in your hands and that control and that power that was like so impactful to me and still was like my mentality.
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Now my priorities changed, but that's been my mentality all along.
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Like, save up, you know, don't pay off, right, save up up front, do not pay off.
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Like I wasn't asking mom and dad let me borrow it, because I think I'll babysit enough for the next few weeks to pay you back.
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Like never was that.
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It was like money upfront, save, save, save and then you get your reward.
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So that concept, like even when I was little, I remember feeling like this is cool, I can actually get what I want.
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Now.
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So that's my money memory.
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Do you feel like once you were sacrificing your weekends and your girlfriends were at their sleepovers and you were working, and now you also talked about saving the money?
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Do you feel like when you were working for it, it became more difficult to spend on the name brand jeans versus if your parents would have just bought it for you?
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Like, did you think about it longer, you know?
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I don't think at that age I really did Like I had my goal, like I knew ahead of time and again, I wasn't.
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I had something specific that motivated me to do it.
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So, um, no, I don't think it was hard to spend when the time came because I kept doing that.
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I think during a lot of my teenage years I was not investing and saving like for big stuff.
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When I was younger I didn't start that whole you know, cycle like or not cycle, but that that interest in doing that until after I was out of college, when I was younger, just you know, whether it was jeans or buying or buying 14 karat gold earrings or whatever, oh, I just knocked down my earring, that you know.
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The prize, I guess, or the reward, was different.
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But I don't think it was hard because I it was like my motivation, so I needed that reward and then I'd move on to the next reward.
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So, no, I don't think it was at that point.
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Now I have different things that go through my mind and I have different types of things to consider when I am going to spend a big chunk of money.
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But back then it was like there were really no competing priorities.
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I mean, you're young, you have no responsibilities, so it didn't matter, yeah that makes total sense.
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No, I always tell.
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Just one of my core like money memories was when I was 14 years old and my mom would only spend a certain amount of money on a pair of, like you know, shoes, and this was more specifically for basketball, and I wanted a pair of Jordans never had a pair of Jordans before and she was willing to spend a certain amount and the difference I had to, you know, make up for it.
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And that was the longest that it ever took me to actually make a decision because I was like, looking like, do I need these shoes?
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Maybe I could buy these other ones that aren't just as nice but maybe less expensive.
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I ultimately, same as you, went ahead and got the shoes, but definitely took me way longer to think about it because obviously I was using my own money and literally that has filtered into, like how I process things even now as an adult.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It's harder to spend your own money than it is to spend somebody else's.
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Yeah, I probably overthink some parts just a little bit too much.
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Yeah, I maybe overthink now, but not back then.
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Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money?
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Am I doing the right things with my investments?
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Am I on track to reach my financial goals?
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What could I be doing better?
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If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be.
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What are you waiting for?
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It's literally free and at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future.
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Link is in our show notes.
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Go, schedule your call today.
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So let's get into what everybody wants to learn more about, which is travel hacking points, miles.
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How do you get started?
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How do you know which cards?
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And I know from my research you started your social media Aunt Kara account because of the nieces and nephews that you were really just trying to help you know, become financially literate and teach them things.
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So can you walk us through how you went from hey, I'm going to teach my seven nieces and nephews to 105,000 followers on Instagram, and then some were.
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How did that happen so?
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I have loved talking about money like for a lot of my adulthood and personal finance and when people talk about being big readers and things like that.
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If it's not like a personal finance book, I'm not going to read it.
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That's just how I am.
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That's the stuff I like.
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I want to learn, I want to gain something, I want to be truly interested in the content and I'm not just like a casual reader of fiction and things like that.
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So I know you, yeah so.
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So I've been reading books since, like out of college.
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You know, my first, the first book I read around personal finance was the Millionaire Next Door, and I talk about that quite a bit on my account because I mean I read it when it was first published, because that's how old I am and I don't even know how I found out about it.
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Like I must have read it somewhere in a magazine or newspaper, because we obviously didn't even have internet or social media to share that.
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But I was fascinated and really a lot of it.
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My content even talks about the psychology of money and your mindset about it, like more so than the mechanics of certain ways to save and stuff like that.
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But my nieces and nephews have always come to me for years.
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Like I'm very close to them.
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I have been since the day they were born.
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They're all older than my children, so they're like kind of our first set of kids and I'm very close to my sisters and so it was like I mean, aunt Carol was there all the time.
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I mean I, I saw every one of them on the day they were born, like that's how you know.
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So they've come to me for years about money, career advice, things like that.
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And it's just was natural, as they got older and became adults and kind of moved on with their own lives and careers, that I needed a mechanism to reach out to them and be able to stay connected, because we weren't seeing each other as much.
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I wasn't going to their basketball games or tennis matches and things like that to be able to talk to them and interact.
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You know, it was like how do I continue to be there for you?
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And the Instagram account was something I told them all about before I even created the account and I said, if I create this account and I want to share and that's why I kept it at Aunt Kara too, because I know money is my passion, but I'm like I will probably throw in some other tips there here and there, and so I didn't want to make it my title be anything more than Aunt Kara, because that's what they knew me as, and you know they come to me for different things and they are all like of course I'll follow you.
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Yes, that makes sense and I go.
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You can absorb the content as you want to.
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I'm not going to push it in your face.
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You can come and reach out and read my stuff but at least, like I've got words of wisdom from my experience that I can share and advise.
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As I think, through your stage in life and look, you know, look back to where I was and the right way to view things and the kind of pressures and experiences I think you're going through, let me put it out there and that's what.
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That's what they like from me.
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So I said I'll leave my account open and it'll be what it is.
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And you know, other people clearly were interested in what I had to say, had questions.
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We had lots of good conversations, whether it was through comments or DMs, and it just really continued to evolve.
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The travel piece kind of snuck in there, I don't know about a year later, when once in a while I would talk about the fact that I went on a vacation but I used points and miles.
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People said tell me more right, people are like me, more right.
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People are like how's the, how does that work?
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And, um, I was like, okay, but I knew my message had this credit card element in it about signing up for credit cards, right, and I'd been in the personal finance space with with you know, a lot of folks that were very anti credit card with reason, and I completely agree and we can talk about that.
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Um, you know a lot of folks that were very anti-credit card with reason, and I completely agree and we can talk about that.
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You know responsible use of credit cards.
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But I said, if you've got the finances under control, your finances under control, and that means you are truly credit card debt free then let's talk about this whole points and miles game hobby, whatever you want to call it.
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So that content kept picking up and more and more people were asking.
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Now my nieces and nephews always were texting me about it, like once they had good credit scores and good jobs and they didn't have credit card debt.
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I mean I've got one nephew who's like all right, I mean he'll text me, he goes, give me my next card and he's like I got a trip with blah, blah, blah, and so they're texting me about that behind the scenes.
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But I realized, okay, if I do this thoughtfully and educate people about this whole, you know avenue, I mean the fact that you save so much darn money and, honestly, like you know, my followers are in an age range where travel like you is huge.
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They love it, I love it.
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This is what people want to hear about.
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So then I picked up the travel hacking content as something that now I kind of do 50-50, personal finance and the travel but it's so fun and so exciting and just gets people all.
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I mean the, the feedback I get from that is so fun.
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Um, and the trips that people tell me they took because they learned something from me, and the fact that people would tell me I was so scared of credit cards and you helped me figure it out and we don't have any credit card debt and I realized I can pay these things off as much as I want, as frequently as I want, which is a wonderful thing, that, like, I'm not at risk of digging myself into some hole when you know all I'm doing is getting more points so I can save more money for the next vacation I take.
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So it's just been.
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That's like the evolution, it's just kind of morphed into this and again, the points and miles side of my content is like the fun, the really fun stuff.
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So I'm glad that people responded to it because I love to talk about it, I love to write about it.
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Yeah Well, I mean we're spending the money anyway.
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Right, we have to buy the toilet paper and the strawberries and the things 100%.
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So you might as well get something back.
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You know, it makes me feel better when you take that trip.
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People immediately associate credit cards to people buying things that they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford, and I I mean like that is obviously against everything I stand for.
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You know, people think credit cards go buy luxury items, go buy, go on a pay for a $10,000 vacation, like all that.
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And I'm like no, everything you do practically now takes credit card.
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You know, your cell phone bills take credit card, your internet takes credit card.
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Your insurance companies take credit card.
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Now, as long as there's not an additional fee to do that, because you never want to pay more money just to.
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You know, use a card and earn points and miles, because you actually don't earn any in that way.
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But my point is is that, yeah, you're doing groceries, gas, you're?
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I mean, there are some even daycares out there that take credit card and don't charge fees, which blow my mind Like that would have been a dream for me.
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We had one at one point, but then we switched and I instantly was like do you take credit card?
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And they were like no, and I was like the amount of points from that alone, I would have been swimming in points as much as we were paying in daycare with our two kids.
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So it's just like.
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Those are things that are.
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If you budget and you're staying within your budget, how you actually pay doesn't matter.
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You know, like I mean again, as long as you're not paying more.
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But the other key is you know you have to be disciplined, you have to know that money is in your account before you use that card.
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So so you're not, you know you're again not extending yourself and floating alone to yourself.
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If you don't have the money, don't buy it Right Like kind of thing, or don't pay with a card.
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So it's just those.
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Those characteristics have and fundamentals have to be there with people to really do this the right way, or else you're going to end up in more trouble.
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And all this fun of points is not worth it when you're just digging yourself into more debt and have these insane interest rates that you're paying on credit cards.
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I mean it's almost a crime how much they're charging.
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I mean, some of them are pushing 30%.
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Right, it's insane.
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Yeah, yeah, it's wild.
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Like it is the worst debt you could possibly have.
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Oh yeah, and, like you said, it's all about personal responsibility.
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Right.
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Having a credit card in and of itself is not bad.
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What ends up happening is is that you don't have personal accountability, and that's when you get yourself in trouble.
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And now, like you had said, you know, obviously, if you know that you're that type of person where that can lead to that, then yeah, having a credit card is probably not a good idea.
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I don't like some of the you know financial literacy influencers that put out a blanket statement that credit cards are bad because it's not the case.
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It's like a lot of things in life, the lack of discipline.
00:20:00.913 --> 00:20:06.740
There's a lot of things in life that, like it, just basically boils down to personal responsibility and using it the correct way.
00:20:07.221 --> 00:20:13.964
Right, what would you say, kara, to somebody who's like okay, I want to get started, but I don't need six or seven cards, right, like?
00:20:13.964 --> 00:20:15.728
I'm sure you have a ton of cards.
00:20:15.728 --> 00:20:23.740
We pay over $1,100 for the cards that we have in fees, right, but we use them and they come out on the plus side Right.
00:20:27.384 --> 00:20:29.528
So you have to make sure that you're maximizing, like what are you actually paying for?
00:20:29.528 --> 00:20:31.310
And you know, I think we probably have a lot of similar cards.
00:20:31.310 --> 00:20:40.656
You know some that have a lower annual cost to have the card and then some you know that the Amex Platinum goes up to $6.95.
00:20:40.656 --> 00:20:42.048
That's the most expensive one we have.
00:20:42.048 --> 00:20:49.351
But for anybody looking to get started, how would you advise them on which card to get?
00:20:49.351 --> 00:20:52.857
Like, what is that process and how do you recommend people get started?
00:20:53.744 --> 00:20:59.679
So I tell people that I think the smartest way to get started is to pick a trip.
00:20:59.679 --> 00:21:15.266
It gets back and I say it's very similar to personal finance, where you have a target goal of what you're trying to work for and work towards, because it helps direct you making the right decisions with what cards you choose.
00:21:15.266 --> 00:21:33.294
So when someone can come up with you know, I want to go to Maui, I want to go to Orlando because I want to go to Disney, whatever, I mean that they understand what they're going to use the points for before they even sign up for the card and they understand the type of brands they can use.
00:21:33.294 --> 00:21:40.534
You know, if you open it up to a place like Orlando, you can use pretty much any hotel brand in existence because they are all there.
00:21:41.075 --> 00:21:45.160
But maybe with the airlines, you're someone that wants to fly out of Atlanta.
00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:51.593
Delta is going to be probably something that you're going to be more interested in.
00:21:51.593 --> 00:21:57.335
Maybe if you're out of Chicago you're going to well, it has everything but United's hubs there and so maybe a United miles are more valuable to you.
00:21:57.335 --> 00:22:05.614
But you look at the brands that you could potentially use, look up how many points you need because you can do all of this.
00:22:05.614 --> 00:22:15.615
Before you even sign up for that first card, you can go on all these airline and hotel websites and search how many points is it per night, like a lot of people are like how do I judge?
00:22:15.615 --> 00:22:18.387
I'm like you can look that up yourself and you don't even have to be.
00:22:18.387 --> 00:22:21.457
You know, have any points in your loyalty account.
00:22:21.457 --> 00:22:23.452
You don't even have to have a loyalty account.
00:22:23.452 --> 00:22:24.247
It'll tell you.
00:22:24.247 --> 00:22:26.575
You know there's a toggle between cash and points.
00:22:26.575 --> 00:22:34.959
Select the points, do a dummy booking like you're going to fly there on some date and see how much it is round trip.
00:22:34.959 --> 00:22:49.097
So you are really crystal clear on what you're trying to accomplish, are really crystal clear on what you're trying to accomplish, and then again, when you're making the decisions of what to sign up for you know, maybe the credit card signup bonus is 50,000, but you know for your trip you're going to need a hundred thousand.
00:22:49.097 --> 00:22:50.786
But it sets your expectations right.
00:22:50.786 --> 00:22:57.305
So you know well, maybe I'm going to get 50% of this trip paid for, um, with points.
00:22:57.305 --> 00:23:04.674
So I need to save up the other amount with cash, cause I it's unrealistic for me to have that many points by the time I want to go.
00:23:04.674 --> 00:23:21.515
So, like, doing that diligence upfront when you're just starting out, to me is the smartest way to do it and it's also it's it's really fun because once you get a taste of it, because you know you're going to use those points and you do all the booking, so you've got it all planned out.
00:23:21.515 --> 00:23:24.573
It's so fun and feels so good.
00:23:24.573 --> 00:23:26.692
You're going to be so motivated to do it again.
00:23:27.045 --> 00:23:33.634
There's a lot of people I know that will be, like I have points here and here and I signed up for this once and I've got these points hanging out here.
00:23:33.634 --> 00:23:35.230
What should I do with them?
00:23:35.230 --> 00:23:48.088
And I'm like, oh, you kind of did it backwards, like I mean you can go through the motions of doing the research again and say we'll do any of the brands I have and any of the points I have match up to what trip I'm trying to do.
00:23:48.088 --> 00:24:01.599
But, like, sometimes people just do it blindly because they hear there's a great credit card offer and then they realize, like I don't, like if it's a you know Capital One Venture, and they look and go wait, I don't even.
00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:08.212
I can't even use any of those transfer partners, and I thought I'm supposed to transfer these points out.
00:24:08.212 --> 00:24:13.488
You know, like some of the things are mismatched and they aren't able to effectively use the points the way they want to.
00:24:13.588 --> 00:24:18.156
And and then I'm I'm like oh, you know, it's just going to have to.
00:24:18.156 --> 00:24:22.424
You know you're going to have to do some more work and figure out another type of trip or something.
00:24:22.424 --> 00:24:24.329
But that's the way I tell people is.
00:24:24.329 --> 00:24:29.491
Like, if you start with the trip, that's the best way to do it, because then you're just really focused.
00:24:29.491 --> 00:24:38.219
You're not just again signing up left and right for new card bonuses and having tons of points and being overwhelmed with like I don't even know what to do now.
00:24:38.219 --> 00:24:39.474
I don't, that's my opinion.
00:24:39.474 --> 00:24:42.383
Being overwhelmed with like I don't even know what to do now, I don't, that's, that's, that's my opinion.
00:24:42.442 --> 00:24:46.996
Now, if you are someone that says, well, I've got big expenses coming up.
00:24:47.036 --> 00:24:53.531
I can't figure out what trip I want to do yet, but I know if I route these through a credit card I can meet minimum spend quickly and I just want to do something.
00:24:54.012 --> 00:25:01.597
Then I do advise people always go with one of those flexible bank cards, like ones that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards.
00:25:01.597 --> 00:25:21.078
They earn American Express membership rewards or Capital One Venture points or Citi Thank you points Like those are the flexible points that you can use for multiple brands, whether you transfer them out or you use them within the booking portal, because then you aren't aligned with a brand that you can't use.
00:25:21.078 --> 00:25:37.612
So that's, you know, if you're in a situation because there are times right where you've got some big car expense and maybe you've saved up the money, but you're like, oh my gosh, I can almost get to minimum spend just with this one swipe, then it's like time is of the essence, so you kind of have to pull the trigger.
