spend little, work less, experience more
2017 was the year we Warckens got super serious about investing. I wrote about the motivation for that in my New Life Resolutions post, but the abridged version is that I witnessed my stepfather dying of pancreatic cancer and to quote myself: “… nothing, and I mean nothing will inspire you to get your […]
Read MoreFor a limited time Hilton is offering free status match to their Honors program. If you have elite status with any other hotel programs you can apply for a free match on Hilton’s Status match page. Chase IHG cardmembers get automatic Platinum Elite status and the past two years we’ve both used ours to […]
Read MoreI’m a firm believer that the easiest way to save money is not by making more, but by spending less. Our biggest priority is to spend less so we can travel more, which is the driving motivation for every dollar we make, save, and spend. This is a list of our favorite ways to […]
Read MoreGreg and I love heavy pack, set up camp, snuggle all night in a cold tent backpacking, but having a roof over our heads in the backcountry is an unbelievable luxury. After we hiked the Laugavegur and Tour du Mont Blanc trails in 2016, I started researching other hut hikes around the world. And by […]
Read MoreUnless you don’t have a pulse, you probably heard the Chicago Cubs won the World Series last week. Greg and I got to go to games 4, and 6, and were incredibly, undeniably, unbelievably (I won’t say lucky because it wasn’t luck) fortunate to have seen the Cubs’ 108 year drought come to an end […]
Read MoreThose of you who know my husband know I married a diehard Cubs fan. Baseball has always been my favorite sport to watch, but I never had a favorite team, just favorite players. Jim Abbott, Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., Kenny Lofton (I told people he was my uncle, though our last names obviously […]
Read MoreI’ve written all about Southwest’s Companion Pass, and I earned mine February 2016, allowing G.Hammer to fly with me for $5.60 each way any time I fly Southwest through the end of 2017. In a nutshell, I had to earn 110,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in one year to qualify which I did by […]
Read MoreThere are a few things I’ve tried and recommended lately to get and keep a few more Warcken dollars in our Warcken wallets. 1. missingmoney.com. In October I suggested everyone check out missingmoney.com to see if any states you’ve ever lived in owe you cash money. Of course I did this myself, and found […]
Read MoreIt’s nearly the end of the year and you know what that means! Christmas? God, no, it’s time to clean up the finances! Jk, that’s been going on since January 1. This year has been full of positive changes for the Warckens, mostly wrought on by negative impacts on our lives. My stepdad died […]
Read MoreGreg and I have a lot of credit cards, and most of them have annual fees. Some are a necessary evil for benefits the cards provide, and some annual fees actually pay for themselves. Depending on the card and its benefits, we’ll call when the annual fee is due and ‘threaten to cancel’ unless […]
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