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Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as international stocks diversification, planning vacations for billionaires, the NFL Draft in Detroit, we have the highest ever 300k credit card signup bonus, the five futures of Russia, reversals in the markets happen all the time, slang and donkeys, how Hyatt bungled the Mr and Mrs Smith acquisition, Hyatt vs Hilton and much more and of course always all of the important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. Enjoy the weekend!
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I use and recommend Proton VPN <ââ REFERRAL LINK You like my blog? Send a link to someone please! No ads, no clickbait. No sponsored posts.  Welcome to my quirky original authentic blog. It all started back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to a curated at least weekly post of the best web content I find along with my commentary. Here to Educate primarily, sometimes Entertain and if I get to Inspire you, well, that is a bonus. This blog publishes on Fridays. This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts. I may post on a Tuesday tooâŚor it could be some other day. Or only Friday. It is what it is, changes are coming.  SAVE UP TO $120 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL Please join us in Bangkok on November 15th for the Extraordinary Travel Festival. This is a multi-day gathering of avid, accomplished, adventurous travelers.  Join travelers from around the world, socializing with them at group dinners and parties. Listen in over three days with over 25 amazing speakers. And you may partake in optional trips to explore the region.  Please use code TBB to save $120 on your ticket before May 1. And $100 after May 1.   Learn more about the event here â https://www.extraordinarytravelfest.com/ I am planning to attend but no arrangements have been finalized yet, maybe I will see you there!  PERSONAL FINANCE I always recommend not to look at what happens in the stock market daily. Anything can happen. And if you think you can predict what will happen in the short term, well, you are kidding yourself. As this Humble Dollar article Surprised Again shows: When it comes to financial markets, the track record of those making forecasts is not good. Thatâs why a rational approach to decision making is to avoid predictions, and instead base choices only on an assessment of where things currently stand. But even that approach can be fraught: Financial trends have a habit of reversing when least expected. Oh yes, we had reversals recently in interest rates and electric vehicles. Everyone was beating up on Toyota for not getting it; now everyone is praising it for sticking with hybrids. Will AI also be relevant here down the road by reversing its recent bubbly trends? Time always tells. The author also brings up international markets. But let me get back to that below after singling out this point by the author: Since reversals are a fact of life for investorsâand are completely unpredictable in their timing and impactâthe key, I think, is to structure your portfolio so you donât need to make changes, no matter what the market does. You can do that by building enough diversification and enough margin for error into your portfolio so that a reversal in any one corner of the market canât materially affect youâand, just as important, wonât cause you to lose any sleep. We have been blessed here in the US leading the stock markets around the world for a very long time. But to be truly diversified we must have international exposure. But what is âinternationalâ really? The way we determine international allocation is by the country each company is headquartered in. Is this really the proper way to do it? I was wondering recently how much of US companiesâ sales are outside the US. Well, we have an answer here: You donât have to look outside U.S. stocks for international exposure. The U.S. stock market includes many multinational corporations that conduct a lot of business abroad. According to FactSet, 41% of revenue generated by S&P 500 companies comes from international markets. And how about the reverse, such as how much of the revenue of the international companies is outside their own country? Here you go:   SCAMS/CRYPTO/ELON Another super arrogant asshole is going to prison for seven years: Instagram influencer Jay Mazini sentenced to seven years in prison for crypto fraud. When you read what this pos did you would realize seven years are not enough. I can not believe people still fall for Elon Muskâs shit. Anyway, here is a severe beating of the Cyberturck monstrosity. If you bought one of these please leave now. If you were thinking to buy one of themâŚwhat the hell is wrong with you? Two years ago Elon Musk bought Twitter. And destroyed our favorite online platform. And the former Twitter Director of Civic Integrity posts his final Twitter thread and takes Elon to the shed, must read imho.  GEOPOLITICS This is excellent: The Five Futures of Russia. Weâll see how it unfolds. This tweet by Illia Ponomarenko right after the House passed the bill for aid to Ukraine is perfect.  ODDZ & ENDZ Fantastic resource: Greenâs Dictionary of Slang. I remember when I came to the US and was learning English, the slang âwhen shit hit the fanâ always me threw me off! I had never heard of this. We all know how poachers kill elephants for their ivory tusks. But donkeys for their hide? How Chinaâs demand for donkey hide is devastating African communities. The article describes how donkeys are killed. And it will make you angry, so cruel! Amazing photography: Breaking ice, and helicopter drops: winning photos of working scientists. Credit: Emiliano Cimoli  TRAVEL Interesting list of the 15 Favorite City Hotels in the US. I always wanted to stay in the Peninsula Chicago hotel. But my âproblemâ is swimming in Hyatt points, cough. This was fun to read. We are talking a whole different world you guys. What Itâs Like to Plan Vacations for Billionaires. Can you give me some examples of what a client might ask you to do? I just did a call with a client whoâs a tech billionaire. They told me they want to go to Europe in August for nine days, just the couple, no kids. And thatâs all they said. This is pretty common. Most of my clients have unlimited money, and they want to spend it, and they have a vision for what they want, but they canât Google for it. Theyâre not sure how to find it. They want the guy thatâll open doors for them in Bordeaux so they can taste old wines. They want to go to the most incredible clifftop restaurant in Italy⌠Weâve closed down Versailles for a private candlelit dinner. Weâve closed down monuments in Turkey. Weâve done really cool parties at the pyramids. I always get a kick out of the list of what Uber passengers leave behind: The 2024 Uber Lost & Found Index. Frontal hair toupee Hot sauce and a breathalyzer I left a leaf in your car thatâs much needed Two containers with spiders in them A BeyoncĂŠ fold up fan A tray of meat pie Ceramic cat Jar of oysters A personalized blanket with a picture of me and my dog Small rat skeleton prop Greece looked surreal earlier this week: Sahara dust haze descends over Athens. And this video from Athens wow.  BUZZING A section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life and anything else that just does not fit in another section above So, I have an answer on what is wrong with my foot. The EMG (neurological) test revealed: âThere is electrodiagnostic evidence suggestive of a chronic, left, L4 and S1 radiculopathy with evidence of ongoing denervation in the left S1 myotome. Clinical and radiologic correlation is recommendedâ. Amazing how it allâŚjust manifested only at the ball of my left foot! At least I know what is the issue. I have a follow up appointment later today with the docâs physician assistant (because of course the docâs first opening was on May 30th!). Oh, I entered the lottery for the 2025 London Marathon for giggles. It is 2024 NFL Draft weekend in Detroit, welcome to Detroit Lions land! Update: Detroit sets all-time NFL draft record with 275,000 fans in attendance on first night. This city is so hungry for big time events, bring them! I have not watched a single NBA Playoffs game yet. You are probably aware of the US Post Office Informed Delivery service. You get an email every morning with scans of what the mailman will deliver in your mailbox later that day. For a long time I resisted signing up for this because, you know, yet another email and there could be hacking issues and stuff like that. I finally signed up for it and I love it. Sometimes I receive no mail at all or maybe there is only a junk mail piece so it saves me a trip to the mailbox, yes! All right, time to laugh. Remember when President Ronald Reagan replied to a kid who wrote to him âMy mother declared my bedroom a disaster areaâ. You are welcome. Other blogs try to trick you with clickbait shit and useless info. I stick to the blog mission, show this blog some love will ya? May 11, 1984 Dear Andy: Iâm sorry to be so late in answering your letter but, as you know, Iâve been in China and found your letter here upon my return. Your application for disaster relief has been duly noted but I must point out one technical problem: the authority declaring the disaster is supposed to make the request. In this case, your mother. However, setting that aside, Iâll have to point out the larger problem of available funds. This has been a year of disasters: 539 hurricanes as of May 4th and several more since, numerous floods, forest fires, drought in Texas and a number of earthquakes. What Iâm getting at is that funds are dangerously low. May I make a suggestion? This Administration, believing that government has done many things that could better be done by volunteers at the local level, has sponsored a Private Sector Initiative Program, calling upon people to practice voluntarism in the solving of a number of local problems. Your situation appears to be a natural. Iâm sure your mother was fully justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore, you are in an excellent position to launch another volunteer program to go along with the more than 3000 already underway in our nation. Congratulations. Give my best regards to your mother. Sincerely, Ronald Reagan    This blog started with a focus on miles and points and travel. It has evolved since then. Everything below deals with the hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles and points and maximizing your travel experiences. If you are not interested, you can stop here, thank you.   MILES & POINTS NEWS/PROMOS/MY ACTION It was another week with a lot happening but no event jumps out to define the week. Wait! We have the unfortunate development of Hyatt surgically âenhancingâ its Mr & Mrs Smith acquisition so letâs start out with that, shall we? There was a universal judgment in the blogosphere that cried out in pain with Hyattâs announcement. A few blog posts I am linking to below. But first my commentary on it. Hyatt lost a lot of properties after letting go all the SLH hotels go to Hilton. The footprint of Mr & Mrs Smith does not come close and we were all waiting to see what we could do with our World of Hyatt points. Well, not much. No award charts will apply to these expensive properties. The words we absolutely hate in this hobby, âdynamic pricingâ, will apply and the best value we could get is at best 1.4 cents per point. And usually way less, even less than 1 cent per mile. Which is just horrible. What other hits apply? Wait, there is a long list outlined HERE, I pick the big ones: You cannot use various free-night awards. Points + Cash awards are not available at Mr & Mrs Smith, and you cannot use suite upgrade certs. There are no in-hotel benefits for World of Hyatt members for Mr & Mrs Smith stays, except Globalists are eligible for space-available upgrades at the time of checking in. [ No breakfast for Globalists, seriously?] Mr & Mrs Smith properties wonât count as Hyatt for credit card swiping purposes. [This is ridiculous imho. I hope Chase intervenes, come on!] You only earn points for the room rate if booked directly with Hyatt. Stays booked on Mr & Mrs Smithâs website are not eligible under World of Hyatt. [I am so glad I did not buy any Mr & Mrs Smith gift cards in the recent promo #winning] I guess we can celebrate that we can at least earn qualifying nights and elite bonus points smh. When you get Hyatt fan boys mad you know this was bad: Frequent Miler: Hyattâs Mr & Mrs Smith now live (details broke my heart).  GENERAL NEWS/PROMOS/NEWBIES/ETC. Great consumer friendly move: Airlines required to refund passengers for canceled, delayed flights. Good transfer bonus: American Express Transfer Bonus: 30% To Virgin Atlantic. Have an award target ready to book, I would never ever transfer any miles to an airline to book awards later. Because the airline can and will devalue its own miles currency. Pretty good comprehensive guide: Complete Guide to American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partners. This is a good comparison of Hyatt vs Hilton. Which happen to be the two hotel points currencies I am concentrating on these days as a veteran hobbyist who is aging and aiming to simplify my life.  CREDIT CARD CORNER Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your credit card clicks below, thank you! Amex is on a tear raising annual fees and minimum required spend and of course adding more coupon book benefits while taking away valuable benefits. It is also increasing signup bonuses. Recently a 250k SUB appeared on a Business Platinum card. And now 300k wow! Move Over 250k, Amex Has a New 300k Offer!! Good luck finding it though. Leave it to Delta to come up with the most cringe worthy press releases offering nothing burger âbenefitsâ. The latest one is promoting its Amex Delta Reserve cards with, please sit down, all made up with supposedly retired Boeing 747s. Like you would actually know this is true smh. Pushing a credit card with an annual fee of $650 offering only a 65,000 Skymiles signup bonus. Only Delta does this. I expect United and Bilt to compete soon again. Anyway, knock yourself out if you are in love with Delta and signup with the link in this blog post: Itâs Back! Delta Reserve Cards Made From Retired 747s. Increased chatter that higher signup bonus offers are coming for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards. To be available in branch only at first. Hopefully they soon follow to be available online. We have had the three Ink Business cards with great signup bonuses for a while. It is the 100k Chase Ink Business Preferred and the 75k Chase Ink Cash and the 75k Chase Ink Unlimited. More info on each card is below. But how do you differentiate among these three cards? Choosing Among Three Beasts: Selecting the Best Business Card. Best credit card offers STILL remain the same, see below: The TOP offer NOW is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for free with this card actually. See more below. Available HERE. The Signup Bonus for the CHASE Ink Business Cash and CHASE Ink Business Unlimited cards is now 75,000 points, available HERE. With the recent change in the 75k Chase Ink Business Cash card offer allowing us to earn the Signup Bonus over six months (instead of only three months), this card is elevated to Top #2 leaving the 75k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card at #3.  Always check my TOP THREE TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARD OFFERS RIGHT NOW below.  MY ACTION No more Barclay American Airlines Aviator card for my wife. She had to call and, you know, I feel offended when bankers donât even try to keep us as customers with any retention offer whatsoever lol. One less credit card, one less bank to deal with. Simplifying my miles/points life continues. I knocked out a United Airlines Mileage Plus Mile Play promotion that had three requirements: Enroll in emails for 300 miles, buy something in Mileage Plus shopping for 700 miles (bought paper towels at CVS.com and earned 460 miles for the purchase) and then buy any gift card in the MileagePlus X app (bought a $25 Starbucks egift card which earned 62 miles) for 700 miles. When you did all three requirements, another 1,700 United miles were earned. Everything tracked beautifully, no hassles in tracking anything to fight for missing miles, nice job. And easy. The quarterly purchase of $50 Hilton gift cards using the Amex Hilton Surpass to get the statement credit works beautifully so far. I transferred another 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt. I am getting ready to seriously look booking some stays in Thailand in November #developing.  ADVANCED United is becoming like Delta, just doing things like this because they can smh: Massive United MileagePlus Devaluation for First Class Partner Awards. Lufthansa First: From 121,000 miles to 140,000-154,000 miles ANA First: From 121,000 miles to 242,000 miles [Mega WTF!] Also, speaking of companies doing things because they can, brace for more coming at us from Amex CEO: More Card âRefreshesâ (& Fee Hikes) Are Coming Soon. I have a feeling the Amex Gold refresh will take it to la la land territory. I have a feeling Mark will not be invited to the next bigly wine and dine offered to bloggers by the Bilt marketing execs lol FYI: Bilt Rewards Has A Refer A Friend Problem. Maybe this explains why I never got any credit for a blog reader who applied and got the Bilt card with my links smh.   MILES & POINTS HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture Rewards, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 175k CHASE IHG Premier Business, 80k CHASE Southwest Performance Business, 60K CITI Premier, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 60k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 60K CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more! Available HERE:  This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990âs! SKIP if you are not into it! As of today, I have burned 346,808 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,589,087 miles/points in the bank. Some do drugs, I do miles lol! Thanks to US banks, very lucrative travel rewards credit card offers come and go all the time. This section will act as a reference point on the best CURRENT offers. I will designate new material preceded by NEW.  TBBâs Miles & Points RESOURCES Page Credit Card Recommendation Flowchart  TOP THREE TRAVEL REWARDS CREDIT CARD OFFERS RIGHT NOW  The Capital One Venture X card offers a 75,000 point Signup Bonus after a minimum spend of $4k in the first three months. If you like simplicity and looking for one (premium) card, I highly recommend this card (and yes, I have it myself!). It has an annual fee of $395 but it comes with an easy $300 statement credit for travel booked on its excellent travel portal, essentially turning it into a $95 annual fee card. But waitâŚthere is more! On each card anniversary you earn 10,000 points essentially making it FREE! Every dollar of spend earns 2 points and flights booked on the travel portal earn 5 points per dollar. You get access to Capital One and Plaza Premium airport lounges and a Priority Pass Select lounge membership and, this is important, you can add FOUR authorized users FOR FREE who can also have their own Priority Pass Select airline lounge membership and, this is BIG, they can bring in unlimited guests with their FREE Priority Pass card! You can transfer your Capital One points to up to 18 Transfer Partners. No foreign transaction fees. Free Hertz Presidentâs Circle rental car top elite status. Cell phone protection and PRIMARY rental car coverage. Awesome seats at baseball stadiums for just 5k points each. And lots more. Available with my Credit Card Links, thank you for your support!  Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card 75,000 Bonus Miles REFERRAL LINK  The Chase Ink Business Cash and Chase Ink Business Unlimited card offers are back down to a 75,000 Signup Bonus! These are NO ANNUAL fee cards. The Ink Business Cash earns 5% on office supply stores and internet/cable/phone services and 2% on gas and restaurants. Why donât you go to Office Depot and buy gift cards of the stores you usually buy from, hello 5% Amazon! The Ink Business Unlimited works differently, it just earns 1.5% on everythingâŚso if you were going to use a card to earn 1% why donât you pull this one out instead? Bottom line, I think these are still the BEST business travel rewards cards out there right now! The 75k Signup Bonus can be earned after $6k of spend on the cards in the first three months. Still true for the Ink Business Unlimited card but not for the Ink Business Cash card which now offers the 75k Signup Bonus in two stages (and a 10% relationship bonus if you have a Chase business checking account) after $6k spend in the first six months. You can apply HERE to support this blog, thank you.  Chase Launches Tiered Chase Ink Cash Sign Up + Relationship Bonus  Remember, you are NOT allowed to ever carry a credit card balance if you ever get a credit card here!  Let me leave you with this: Searching for that 300k Amex Platinum card offer lol Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is. Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoy it please pass it on to a family member or friend. Or Buy Me a Coffee, thank you! TBB travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com You can receive each blog post by entering your email address below and then clicking on Subscribe below, no spam ever!: (function() { window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || { listeners: [], forms: { on: function(evt, cb) { window.mc4wp.listeners.push( { event : evt, callback: cb } ); } } } })(); Leave this field empty if you're human: This site may receive compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. Travel Blogger Buzz and Your Best Credit Cards may receive a commission from card issuers. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not necessarily include all financial companies or all available financial offers. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the authorâs alone. This was published by TravelBloggerBuzz, to read the complete post please visit https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/international-stocks-diversification-vacations-for-billionaires/.