How did Dean Martin way back in 1960 know that social media would become so popular?
It’s been two weeks of me ‘blogging, tweeting, tweaking, and Facebooking,” and let me tell you it’s exhausting.
Hitting refresh on my Facebook page just to see if my Like count has gone up has me a little worried that I may be losing it. Likewise, feeling the rush from a retweet or favorite on Twitter makes me question my sanity.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it. Perhaps the angry, old professor is warming up to social media. I’m already planning a celebration for when me and A-Rod enter the 800 Home Run Club.
Then I’ll know that “You like me, you really like me.”
We are well on our way learning how to Step 1: Enjoy #ThePointsOfLife.
As I stated in this post, the points game is only Step 1 out of 10. Now it’s time to preview Step 2 of my book, Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Mine, which tells you how to make a change to your current routine today.
Fitting that I am posting this on a Tuesday evening right before tomorrow’s workday.
Without further adieu I give you Step 2: Make Tuesday Hump Day
Although you can now overindulge on steak and wine by heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) with a stopover in Mendoza (MDZ), Enjoying your #PointsOfLife to get you there, you eventually (one week later) have to return to your cubicle where your coworkers do not care to hear about, nor can they relate to, your travel exploits. With each trip, the confines of the cubicle grow more and more intolerable. Fear not, by Step 10, your former life will provide you with comic relief.
Park Hyatt Buenos AiresComplimentary Suite UpgradeMendoza Malbec Wine CellarIndulge
Transitioning from the metaphorical chokehold of the cubicle to a life of purpose can be a daunting task. Most of us are just trying to get through the work week, praying that, one day, one of our entrepreneurial seeds will germinate. This passive strategy is not enough. Changes, no matter how small, must be made to our current routine because waiting for a better life to show up while our best years pass us by is not an option.
the confinement of the cubicle
A novel concept of my own creation is to move ‘hump day’, the day obstructing us from our weekend, from Wednesday to Tuesday. This revolutionary idea really annoyed my coworkers. I would come in to work on Tuesday saying, “Oh today is Hump Day- the weekend is right around the corner.” They would angrily protest, “Wednesday is Hump Day!” and that I could not arbitrarily change it to Tuesday. Complain as they might, I was happy on Wednesday because I had mentally overcome another work week.
The shifting of Hump Day from Wednesday to Tuesday is important for two reasons: First, it is a symbol of defiance, nonconformity, and mental tenacity. Why get sucked into the lulls of the office and resign your fate as just another employee drifting week after week, month after month, through such a bitter existence? Second, it really highlights the stupidity of today’s work environment. How silly is it that there is a ‘hump day’ in the first place and how silly is it that my coworkers were outraged that I changed it to Tuesday? The latter point is worth extra reflection.
In spite of making this adjustment, you still have to deal with the remaining days of the week. The problem with office life is that the routine is so repetitive that you unconsciously surrender to day-to-day annoyances. You accept these aggravations because of the small perks that make work marginally more tolerable.
It is critical to analyze these ‘perks’ which I have labeled as distractions in order to put them into perspective. By doing this, you can finally snap out of the tiresome cycle of making a superficial New Year’s resolution, and work for real change, change we can believe in.
Distraction 1: The Tasty Treat
Preview ended: No worries, all ten distractions will be outlined in the book.
Pre-order link coming soon.
You’ll find out your biggest problem is not bringing in the stuff…but what to do with all the fucking cash!
-Frank Lopez- Scarface
An excerpt from Everyone’s Advice Is Wrongdemonstrates how this will become your points problem:
How do you earn these points? The idea is simple and legal. You can earn points in a number of ways including flying to the four corners of the globe to gain preferred airline status, staying in a ton of hotel rooms to qualify for free suite upgrades, or, by buying one too many [Michigan] teddy bears during a 1-800-FLOWERS Valentine’s Day points promotion.If that is not economically viable, consider racking up millions of points from the comforts of being ‘in couch’. All you need is the following:
– A dial-up internet connection
– An excellent credit score Then:
– Apply for an award credit card once a quarter.
– Meet the minimum spend requirement for that card.
– Patiently wait for the points to accumulate. It’s that simple.Before you get all the points in the world appreciate that Step 3 is a preemptive measure whereby you make a commitment to not hoard your points. This is known as Churn ‘n’ Burn. Looking at your points in a pretty Excel document that you have spent too much time at work creating is worthless when all of a sudden it costs twice as much to go somewhere than it would have had you not been so emotionally attached to your points.
I too used to have this problem and would spend all my time looking at my snazzy collection of points. See Exhibit below:
pretty useless
Then this year United devalued its points requiring 42,500 more points to travel on a foreign carrier from Europe to the US! With this wake up call, I decided to burn all my United miles and booked two flights from Germany to Los Angeles all in first-class for 67,500 miles and $145.20/ticket.
Lie flat seat
Had I waited here’s what it would cost today post-devaluation!
110,000 versus 67,500
I can’t emphasize enough how useless it is to have a stockpile of points that you never use, that will go down in value, all the while you are paying annual fees for credit cards for no reason.
I have a friend that followed all the subsequent steps but has done nothing with his points.
Therefore, in order to move onto Step 4 you must promise from the outset to not be a points hoarder.
By clicking on Step 4, you are agreeing to adhere to the Churn ‘n’ Burn philosophy.
Now let’s get to the good stuff:
Right next to the organic coffee shops that line the streets and only steps away from the welcoming women of the skinny alley of the Red Light District is Amsterdam’s Chinatown. Fresh Peking Duck is on display in all the windows tempting the Pho seeker to give up his quest of finding that perfect bowl by settling for an enticing substitute.
Having made it past all the bland döner kebap shops that are an absolute waste of money and all the aforementioned distractions along the way, I find the only Vietnamese restaurant in the area. Mind you, I have been to Amsterdam many times but always neglect to take note of two things: 1) the restaurant is only open for dinner 2) where exactly the restaurant is located. I guess writing down the name would help.
Regardless, half the fun of visiting the Red Light District is navigating through landmarks that aren’t really landmarks:
“Oh I think you go over two bridges down one alley then past the first coffee shop next to the girl in the window and it should be on your left hand side. If you’ve gone past three churches, you’ve gone too far.” In this case, I believe to get to the Vietnamese restaurant you go left down the first street of Chinatown and it should be on your right hand side after the awful sushi spot.
When you do finally find the Pho restaurant take note, if you are on a stopover to another city that you still have to weave your way back through the maze, out of the District, across the street to the train station, and back to the airport, all the while trying to keep a straight face when answering questions from the customs agent regarding the overindulgence you just experienced.
As far as the pho is concerned, I worked up such an appetite trying to find the place that I really didn’t’ spend too much time savoring each spoon. Instead, I proceeded to scarf down the bowl to quell my suddenly insatiable appetite.
From what I do remember, the pho was quite good.
Because of the great adventure, Amsterdam Pho comes in at #10.
Yarra Valley: Melbourne, Australia
“If anyone orders Merlot I am leaving. I am not drinking fucking Merlot!” One quote from a movie and I never drank Merlot again.
Sideways came out in 2004 and 10 years later my wine aptitude has increased marginally yet I still do not know why I too hate Merlot. My palate has come a long way since my college days when I used to bong MD 20/20 (kiwi strawberry) but at present, I am not, nor do I want to become, a smug wine connoisseur.
However, somewhere between Miles’ expertise “A little citrus. Maybe some strawberry. Mmm. Passion fruit, mmm, and, oh, there’s just like the faintest soupçon of like, uh, asparagus, and, there’s a, just a flutter of, like a, like a nutty Edam cheese” and Jack’s ignorance, “Tastes pretty good to me,” is me.
Momentary pause to state that the similarities between Miles, the aspiring writer and alcoholic and myself are purely coincidental.
Since last August when I went to my first winery in Napa for a friend’s wedding, I have visited wineries from around the globe to drink and learn more about wine in order to give you a substantiated reason as to why you should never drink White Zin.
If you want adventure, realize that there is a world outside your own borders. Watching NatGeo and watching the Travel Channel will not satisfy your craving for exploration.
HD television isn’t real life!
So take the points you learned from Points 101 and go to the airport.
In this section, I will show that it is possible to travel and have fun while enriching your life by seeing wonders of the world. Here are two of the New 7 Wonders of Nature that I have been lucky enough to visit.
Ha Long Bay, VietnamTable Mountain from the WaterfrontTable Mountain from belowTable Mountain post barefoot hike and World Cup Stadium down below
Step 1: Enjoy #ThePointsOfLife
You are sitting in your cubicle entranced by the Windows 98 stereogram of a lush palm tree in the foreground and sparkling blue water in the background. Hypnotized, you find yourself on the beach, mesmerized by the sight of the waves crashing, the sound of the seagulls chirping, and the warmth of the sun shining, all the while sipping a beer from the isolation of your beach chair.
“Excuse me, Excuse me”, the waiter says. Catatonic, you ignore her calls.
“Hey!” the waiter screams. Jarred from serenity, you come out of your coma to find yourself back in the office under the frosty glow of the fluorescent bulbs. Your boss is standing over you, arms crossed, glaring at you with dissatisfaction.
“I need to get out of here now,” you declare- hopefully not aloud.
Although the slogan for the iconic cerveza ad commands you to find your Eden, it falls short of telling us how to do so. We are left to figure it out on our own.
Where shall we go this time, Maui, Hawaii or maybe somewhere exotic like Playa Del Carmen, Mexico?
Cramming ourselves into coach for hours on end only to arrive at a hotel room with a view of the parking lot falls short of the peaceful getaway depicted in the advertisement. Instead, the best way of tricking ourselves into believing this is a luxury vacation is to opt for the confining all-inclusive package (because eating out every day gets expensive) then complain to the front desk about the drunk spring-breakers, in the hopes we receive an ocean-view upgrade (FYI: This works). Alternatively, we could have stayed at a 5-star resort had we chanced it by going during the discounted rainy season. Even with such meager accommodations, the trip would still set us back a few thousand dollars plus the cost of all those Long Island yard drinks from Señor Frog’sand catchy souvenir shot glasses that read, “one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.” The latter, for me, are pesos well spent.
Before you call me a jerk, let me state the following: I know that people work hard all year for the opportunity to post that filtered beach pic on Instagram. I am not trivializing their efforts but will show you a better way. This step will empower you to start Taking Control Of Your Vacation now.
TPOL’s TIP: Buy the book here.
Traveling for sporting events is one of the best reasons to travel. However, when your Detroit Lions make the Superbowl and it isn’t held in Detroit (horrible idea to have it in a cold weather city) you will find yourself scrambling for airline tickets that costs hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.
So what will you do, miss your once in a lifetime chance to see your beloved Wolverines make the Final Four?
Surely not.
Last year, Michigan came out of nowhere lead by College Player of the Year Trey Burke to make it to the Final Four in Atlanta. After putting the beat down on the Syracuse Orange, Michigan faced Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals for the championship.
Only you weren’t there to see it. Don’t end up in a road side ditch, switch to DirectTv.
Sorry, just seeing if you were reading. I looked for tickets and found a roundtrip for $800. I checked Southwest and found those prices to be crazy high as well.
Out of options, I was about to give up when I realized that I had a stash of British Avios that can be redeemed on American Airlines for next to nothing with no extra fees for last minute booking.
My ticket ended up being a manageable $5 for 2 of the legs and I came out of pocket for the others. All in all it cost $150 to get to Atlanta.
So this year, if your team is playing (meaning you are from Michigan as it will be a Umich v. MSU final) and your points are right, you too can watch Michigan redeem itself to become national champions!
Otherwise, I hope you have Comcast cable as your dish will probably not get reception in that subfrozen tundra known as the Great Lakes State.
My book shows how easy it is to travel even if you are not affluent. Even though I have tried to teach family and friends about my points hobby, it has not been warmly received by all.
Here is another excerpt from my book Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Minedescribing what may happen to you should you also engage in this points hobby:
It’s not all smooth sailing when it comes to traveling, even if by plane. Jet-setting will expose you to your fair share of haters. This is especially true if you Tweet your every move while trotting the globe (Be sure to follow @ThePointsOfLife for the latest updates.) Additionally, those same skeptics will minimize your travel accomplishments equating the use of points to the use of performance enhancing drugs. For the record, I have never doped.
Following another post showcasing my travels, a former Facebook friend of mine (#SpiteErased) commented, “Maybe you’ll get a ‘real job’ one day so that you don’t have to travel with points.”
His comment is significant for two reasons:
On the one hand, these words are misguided because they fail to take into account the reason you accumulate points in the first place- to break the monotony of Cubicle-ism. Partaking in a travel adventure to some remote locale creates a sharp contrast between your daily life at home and valiant explorations abroad. Travelling opens your eyes to new possibilities, bolstering your drive to succeed. Such radical departures from the norm are out of the question given typical budget constraints. The liberation from, not assimilation to, your regimented routine, i.e., the ‘real job’, is the reason you take that trip today. Do not wait for all the pieces to come together perfectly before starting your life.
Look familiar?When coffee doesn’t workVersusCows on the beach in Goa, IndiaBuggies in Buzios, Brazil
On the other hand, the words ring true. Living a life of temporary opulence does not mean you have been granted full-time access to the first-class lounge of life. Although you will be able to fly around the world for virtually nothing by using points, wouldn’t you rather charter your own Gulfstream G650? Similarly, you will be able to stay at an amazing 7-star resort for free, but wouldn’t you rather rent your own mansion style villa? #Points is merely the appetizer of the mouth-watering entrée that awaits you if you stay hungry. Do not overlook this is only Step 1 out of 10.
Hvar, CroatiaMahe, Seychelles
Well maybe the 7 star hotel is not that bad compared to my dorm in the infamous Red Light District in Amsterdam:
Burj Al Arab, Dubai
But you get the point . . .
So what’s your credit score and what does it mean?
Hopefully it corresponds with the JAL airline type I took from San Diego to Tokyo using points.
Boeing 787 Dreamlinerno window shades needed
As a rule of thumb a credit score of 730 from all 3 bureaus is needed before you begin the points game. If you are short of this threshold then I would focus on reviewing my credit reports to find out why your credit scores are low. Do you have derogatory marks e.g., accounts in collections, late payments etc? Is your debt to credit limit very high. I already discussed in Step 1 that those who have credit card debt should also not enter the arena of points. If not then the Dreamliner of flying around the world for pennies on the dollar is well within your grasp.
JAL dinner
What is a FICO score? Honestly, nobody really knows. It is a mythical number that somehow tells lenders if you are credit worthy. Here is the actual breakdown of how it is determined, sorry if it bores you.
Basically, if you do not have derogatory marks, and you do not have a lot of debt you should have a high credit score. (A more technical explanation can be found by going to the FICO website.) I say should because a recent 60 Minutes story revealed that millions of Americans have errors on their credit reports and that some lending agencies use different metrics to gauge your creditworthiness beyond your personal FICO score.
Assuming you have cleared all hurdles up to this point regarding your credit score, there is one more question I must ask before you find yourself staying at the top floor of the Conrad Tokyo.
Are you planning on buying a house within the next two years?
Castle in Bratislava, Slovakia
If the answer is maybe, then count yourself out of the points game yet again. Having a few points to go travelling is not worth a higher interest rate on a mortgage. Let’s try to keep things in perspective. The reason, per the graph above, inquiries on your credit report lower your credit score. It tells lenders that you are borrowing and increases your rate of default. Inquiries last on your credit report for two years so those looking to buy a house should have as few inquiries as possible (unless you are buying that house for straight cash!)
So who’s left standing? Those of you who are and be honest with yourself because I will not be held responsible for your irresponsibility can enter the fun world of churning points.
The Fall Collection
It’s been two weeks of me ‘blogging, tweeting, tweaking, and Facebooking,” and let me tell you it’s exhausting.
Hitting refresh on my Facebook page just to see if my Like count has gone up has me a little worried that I may be losing it. Likewise, feeling the rush from a retweet or favorite on Twitter makes me question my sanity.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it. Perhaps the angry, old professor is warming up to social media. I’m already planning a celebration for when me and A-Rod enter the 800 Home Run Club.
Then I’ll know that “You like me, you really like me.”
![You’re Nobody until Someone Likes You [On Facebook]](https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/hf3012.jpg "You’re Nobody until Someone Likes You [On Facebook]")
Preview ended: No worries, all ten distractions will be outlined in the book.
Pre-order link coming soon.
An excerpt from Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong demonstrates how this will become your points problem:
How do you earn these points? The idea is simple and legal. You can earn points in a number of ways including flying to the four corners of the globe to gain preferred airline status, staying in a ton of hotel rooms to qualify for free suite upgrades, or, by buying one too many [Michigan] teddy bears during a 1-800-FLOWERS Valentine’s Day points promotion.
If that is not economically viable, consider racking up millions of points from the comforts of being ‘in couch’.
All you need is the following:
– A dial-up internet connection
– An excellent credit score
Then:
– Apply for an award credit card once a quarter.
– Meet the minimum spend requirement for that card.
– Patiently wait for the points to accumulate.
It’s that simple.
Before you get all the points in the world appreciate that Step 3 is a preemptive measure whereby you make a commitment to not hoard your points. This is known as Churn ‘n’ Burn. Looking at your points in a pretty Excel document that you have spent too much time at work creating is worthless when all of a sudden it costs twice as much to go somewhere than it would have had you not been so emotionally attached to your points.
I too used to have this problem and would spend all my time looking at my snazzy collection of points. See Exhibit below:
An excerpt from Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong demonstrates how this will become your points problem:
How do you earn these points? The idea is simple and legal. You can earn points in a number of ways including flying to the four corners of the globe to gain preferred airline status, staying in a ton of hotel rooms to qualify for free suite upgrades, or, by buying one too many [Michigan] teddy bears during a 1-800-FLOWERS Valentine’s Day points promotion.
If that is not economically viable, consider racking up millions of points from the comforts of being ‘in couch’.
All you need is the following:
– A dial-up internet connection
– An excellent credit score
Then:
– Apply for an award credit card once a quarter.
– Meet the minimum spend requirement for that card.
– Patiently wait for the points to accumulate.
It’s that simple.
Before you get all the points in the world appreciate that Step 3 is a preemptive measure whereby you make a commitment to not hoard your points. This is known as Churn ‘n’ Burn. Looking at your points in a pretty Excel document that you have spent too much time at work creating is worthless when all of a sudden it costs twice as much to go somewhere than it would have had you not been so emotionally attached to your points.
I too used to have this problem and would spend all my time looking at my snazzy collection of points. See Exhibit below:
Having made it past all the bland döner kebap shops that are an absolute waste of money and all the aforementioned distractions along the way, I find the only Vietnamese restaurant in the area. Mind you, I have been to Amsterdam many times but always neglect to take note of two things: 1) the restaurant is only open for dinner 2) where exactly the restaurant is located. I guess writing down the name would help.
Regardless, half the fun of visiting the Red Light District is navigating through landmarks that aren’t really landmarks:
“Oh I think you go over two bridges down one alley then past the first coffee shop next to the girl in the window and it should be on your left hand side. If you’ve gone past three churches, you’ve gone too far.” In this case, I believe to get to the Vietnamese restaurant you go left down the first street of Chinatown and it should be on your right hand side after the awful sushi spot.
When you do finally find the Pho restaurant take note, if you are on a stopover to another city that you still have to weave your way back through the maze, out of the District, across the street to the train station, and back to the airport, all the while trying to keep a straight face when answering questions from the customs agent regarding the overindulgence you just experienced.
As far as the pho is concerned, I worked up such an appetite trying to find the place that I really didn’t’ spend too much time savoring each spoon. Instead, I proceeded to scarf down the bowl to quell my suddenly insatiable appetite.
From what I do remember, the pho was quite good.
Because of the great adventure, Amsterdam Pho comes in at #10.
So this year, if your team is playing (meaning you are from Michigan as it will be a Umich v. MSU final) and your points are right, you too can watch Michigan redeem itself to become national champions!
Otherwise, I hope you have Comcast cable as your dish will probably not get reception in that subfrozen tundra known as the Great Lakes State.
Basically, if you do not have derogatory marks, and you do not have a lot of debt you should have a high credit score. (A more technical explanation can be found by going to the FICO website.) I say should because a recent 60 Minutes story revealed that millions of Americans have errors on their credit reports and that some lending agencies use different metrics to gauge your creditworthiness beyond your personal FICO score.
Assuming you have cleared all hurdles up to this point regarding your credit score, there is one more question I must ask before you find yourself staying at the top floor of the Conrad Tokyo.
Are you planning on buying a house within the next two years?
