I get several questions about how I manage to travel year-round so I wanted to share some of my secrets with you.
Enjoying my moniez during my trip to Toronto.
Below are some tips on how you can score free trips and make passive income. Passive income refers to the notion of making your money work for you while you sit back, relax and plan your next travel destination.
There are affiliate links below, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified or personally used.
1. Get a travel rewards credit card
There are countless credit cards that offer enticing travel rewards. Pick a card that best fits your situation. Some cards don’t even have an annual fee! Just make sure you pay your full balance at the end month to avoid interest.
I have never paid interest on my credit cards and managed to score free roundtrips from San Francisco to Bolivia and Singapore to Egypt, as well as book 5 star hotels for FREE. This amounts to nearly $3200 in savings in 2 years!
The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is my go-to card because you get lots of perks.
- Get an annual $300 credit for travel. This means the fee is only $150 per year.
- Earn 2x points per $1 spent on dining and travel, including expenses like food, tolls, Uber and more. Earn 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees. This is my favorite because it lets me earn points while using my card abroad without any fees.
- Chase covers your application fee for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔®. Meaning that you can avoid long TSA lines yay!
- Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance (Up To $10,000 Per Trip)
- Baggage Delay Insurance (up to $500 per trip). Use your card to buy essentials (toiletries, clothes, etc) and Chase will pay for it if your bag is delayed +6 hours.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement (up to $500 per ticket). Use your card to get a hotel and pay for meals and Chase will pay for it if your flight is delayed +12 hours.
- Primary rental car insurance can keep you from having to file a claim with your personal insurance for damages to a rental car.
Use this link to apply and receive an offer of 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s worth up to $750 toward travel! If you have any questions about the card you can comment on this post.
2. Avoid cash
If you get a credit card with cashback or travel rewards then you want to make the most of it. I never use cash unless I have to. This ensures that I always earn points (money) on my purchases. So you make money while spending money!
I looked at my bank statement to ensure I was getting fair exchange rates since I use my card abroad. The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card uses fair exchange rates. This means that if you travel to Europe, you can use your US card and pay in Euros without any fees or unfair exchange rates.
3. Invest
This may seem scary, I know, but there’s great information out there to help you invest even if you are a beginner. I’m listening to Tony Robbin’s Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook. He interviewed top experts and the ultra-rich and shares their secrets in this book. Use my link to get the audio version for free. If you still love holding books and flipping pages with your hands you can find the paperback version here.
You can use the Robinhood app to make free investments. I’ve started using this to diversify my portfolio between cryptocurrencies, my 401K plan and stocks my old company gave me under Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Wealthfront helps you save for retirement with a super low annual fee rate of 0.25%. If you use this link then your first $5,000 are managed free. That’s right – the experts will do the work for you. You must maintain this account funded to receive the benefit.
I learned about Wealthfront by listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast. Tim is the author of the 4 Hour Work Week, which has changed my life. This book inspired me to quit my corporate job and start Nomad Lyfe. You can get the book here or get the audio version here.
Checkout his podcast, too, where he frequently shares money-saving hacks and business advice.
Get your free copy here.
If you have any questions, comments or tips post them below. We’re all on this journey and learning together.
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