👋 Hi Reader,

Happy Saturday! Here’s a sneak peek of today’s newsletter:

💸 Earn $8,000+ from 12 bank bonuses
💳 Increased signup bonus on 2 hotel cards
🏆 My top takeaways from 2024
🔗 $450+ savings with card-linked offers
🏨 Up to 30k bonus points at World Of Hyatt
🍽️ Free $10 Uber cash + 20% off Costco orders
🫀 Free cholesterol screening kit and more!

I really hope you enjoy reading, and please don't forget to forward this to someone who might enjoy it too! (And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here). Thanks so much!

Chris

🏆 My Top 10 Takeaways from 2024

Here are my top 10 takeaways from doing 60+ episodes in 2024. They cover optimizing investments, mastering travel, cultivating habits, improving health and relationships, and more.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📖 Read the post

💰 Start the Year with a Smarter Tax Strategy

Today’s newsletter is brought you by… Gelt

Taxes are a cornerstone of building wealth and now is the perfect time to switch to Gelt, the ultimate modern CPA. With Gelt you get:

Personalized guidance and support to lower future liabilities.
Proactive strategies for deductions, credits, and growth.
A tax management platform keeping you in control

Working with Gelt has been a game-changer for us. They completely revamped both our personal and business tax strategies, making sure we didn’t miss out on deductions, credits, or savings opportunities. From optimizing retirement plans to leveraging PTET and QBI, they tailored everything to our needs—and the savings were real.

(Join Gelt before January 31 to get an accurate calculation of your taxes due before the April 15 deadline)

🤑 Latest Deals

🏨 Increased Offers on 2 Great Hotel Cards

One of my favorite hotel chains has increased offers on their personal and business cards, and while the offers might not be as many points as other cards, I’ve found their points can be as much as 2-3 times more valuable than many other hotel programs. These cards are also great because you can earn elite status with spend and the business card now comes with a free night certificate.

To check out all the latest card offers, check out my cards page.

💸 12 Bank Bonuses Worth $8,000+

On Ep #184, I shared how you could be earning a lot through bank and brokerage bonuses, so here are some you can leverage to maximize your savings.

$2,500 from Wells Fargo: Open or upgrade to a Premier Checking account at a branch using a bonus offer code (get one here) before 4/16. Deposit and maintain $250,000 in qualifying linked balances for 90 days.
Up to $1,500 from Citi: Deposit New-to-Citibank Funds into your new eligible checking account within 45 days and maintain your balance for an additional 45 days.
Up to $900 bonus from a Popular Bank*: Open an eligible checking and savings account before 4/16. Set up a direct deposit to the checking account and deposit a total of $15,000 into the savings account within 30 days, then maintain the balance for 90 days.
Up to $750 from TD Bank: Open a new robo-advisor account with TD Automated Investing account before 4/30 and complete the required activities.
Up to $540 from U.S. Bank: Open a new U.S. Bank Smartly® Checking account with a deposit of $25 within 30 days and complete the required activities to receive up to $450. Plus, earn 80k Swagbucks worth $80 when you use this link to open the U.S. Bank account (+ get a $10 bonus here if you don’t have a Swagbucks account).
$525 from Wells Fargo: Open an eligible savings account before 2/25 and deposit $25,000 within 30 days and maintain the balance for 90 days.
$400 from M&T Bank: This easy bonus just requires opening an checking account and making $500+ of direct deposits in the first 90 days.
$330-$400 from Chime: Get up to $400 when opening a new Chime account through Swagbucks or MyPoints and making at least two direct deposits of $200 or more.
$325 from Citi: Open a new checking account and make at least 2 Enhanced Direct Deposits (EDDs) totaling $3,000 within 90 calendar days.
$100 from a Popular Bank*: When you open a qualifying College Checking account and complete qualifying transactions.
3% IRA boost + unlimited 2% match from Robinhood: Gold members get a 3% IRA boost (up to $420) by maxing out 2024 contributions by 4/15, plus contributions for 2025. Non-Gold members receive a 1% match. Transfer an IRA or old 401(k) by 4/30 for 2% unlimited match potential.
Ski freebies from Charles Schwab: Get up to 6 ski lift tickets, a pair of Oakley Snow Goggles, and a $300 Amazon.com gift card when you make a qualifying deposit before 2/28.

*For compliance reasons, we can’t include the names of all cards/banks in this email.

💳 Card-Linked Offers Worth $450+ in Savings

Here are some of the card-linked offers I found recently:

Southwest: 10% off $50+ (max $40)
JetBlue: $25 off $300+
Lyft: $15 Off $50
Grand Hyatt: $50 off $250+
AT&T Wireless: $50 off $65
Viator: $20 off $200
Marriott: 5,000 points for $2000+
Norwegian Cruise Line: $200 off $1,000+
Pepper (Gift Card Deals App): $30 off $75+
Also, new users get $20 off $200 with referral (mine is 612342)

Note: Some offers are targeted, so you may not see all the deals. To automate these card-linked offers, check out CardPointers Pro and get 30% off here.

🍽️ Uber Eats: Free $10 + 20% Off First Costco Order

Link your Costco membership in the Uber Eats app to get $10 in Uber Cash plus 20% off your first $50+ Costco order through Uber Eats (valid for 14 days, max savings $70). New Costco members can also receive up to a $40 digital Costco gift card by signing up via Groupon before 3/31.

🎯 $20 Off Target + Free Circle Membership

If you’re a Target Circle member, you can get $20 off $120 online or in store before 11:59pm (PT) today. And some Target members might be able to get a free Target Circle 360 membership when they spend $199.

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

🛍️ 5,200 Points from Wyndham and Alaska Shopping

There are two shopping portal bonuses going on right now:

Wyndham: Earn up to 4,000 bonus points through 1/31.
Alaska: Earn up to 1,200 bonus points through 1/24.

🏨 Up to 30k Bonus Hyatt Points

World of Hyatt’s Bonus Journeys promo is offering 2-3x points for qualifying stays between 1/27 and 3/8 (registration required). Earn 3x points (up to 10k) at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House and 2x points (up to 20k) at other Hyatt properties.

🚕 Earn Delta SkyMiles with Uber (Coming Soon)

Delta's new partnership with Uber will replace its 8-year partnership with Lyft, and you'll be able to earn Delta SkyMiles when taking certain types of Uber rides. The program is set to launch in spring 2025, but you can join this waitlist to be notified when it does.

💰 Points & Miles on Sale

While I wouldn’t recommend buying points speculatively, if you’re familiar with these programs or have a specific redemption in mind, these bonuses could offer great value. Expiration dates in parentheses.

Alaska Mileage Plan: 1.85¢ each with a 60% bonus (2/21)
Lifemiles: 1.27¢ each with a 160% bonus (1/31)
Southwest Rapid Rewards: 1.5¢ each with a 50% bonus (2/23)
United MileagePlus: 1.88¢ each with a 100% bonus (1/31)
Choice Privileges: 0.74¢ each with a 40% bonus (2/6)

🕵️ Great Finds

🫀 Free At-Home Cholesterol Screening Kit

Heart disease is the leaning cause of death in the US and my history of high cholesterol led me to doing a free call with the Family Heart Foundation earlier this month (highly recommended). Screening is probably one of the best ways to help mitigate the risk of a heart attack and stroke and it was really cool to learn that the organization offers free cholesterol screening, including LDL-C and Lp(a) tests.

📺 Show Recommendation: Day of the Jackal

I really enjoyed this modern reimagining of the classic spy thriller based on the Frederick Forsyth novel. The first season is available on Peacock, and I'm already excited for Season 2.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!