Helping young professionals travel better – and more often!

I’ve been blogging for about 6.5 years now, and have loved almost every minute of it. I find I really enjoy writing, and it’s a great creative outlet for me. I’ve also learned that people generally appreciate reading what I write, especially when it’s on a tough topic like personal finance. I find that I have a knack for understanding and making sense of complex issues (i.e. personal finance) and can easily explain it in such a way that makes sense to others. 

One of my other great joys in life is travelling. I love to travel and have been to about 18 different countries and all over the US. I used to travel a good bit for my real job and enjoy travelling for pleasure as well. Mrs. Money and I have been fortunate enough to take a fairly large vacation every year for the past few years; St. Croix, Italy, Thailand/Vietnam and most recently London. I’ve written a few posts on the topic of travelling: How I flew first class for free, What’s in my wallet, How to save money while travelling. I’ve learned a lot in terms of booking flights and hotels and I’ve had success with reward credit cards (of course used responsibly and not carrying a balance). I thought I’d let my YoungMoneyFinance readers know a little update on a new side project I’m working on: Help Me Pick My Card. 

What it is

In addition to helping people out with their finances, I also enjoy coaching and advising on travel and reward credit card decisions as well. I’ve got quite a few credit cards myself and take a few big trips each year. A fair amount of trips have been free or partially free, using miles and points. I accumulated some points/miles from travelling from work, some from personal travel and the rest from credit cards. After helping a few friends pick a credit card (and really enjoying it), I thought there could be something there! Perhaps others could use some advice on picking the right credit card for their needs. None of the other tools I found were comprehensive, and only asked a question or two to spit out a generic recommendation, and more importantly, all of them appeared to be getting compensated by the credit card companies. That irked me a little as if I was getting credit card advice, I would want the recommendation to be unbiased, not just based on who was paying the highest commission that week. 

In addition to offering a personalized, unbiased credit card picking service, I also want to share more of my travel experiences; whether it is fun trips that I’ve taken or tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way!

What I hope to accomplish

I love travelling, and it’s where I tend to spend more of my money. My monthly budget has a bucket for “travel”, and if I’m not travelling that month, I’m saving that up for another month or an upcoming trip. I had the opportunity to travel for work for a number of years and, which allowed me to enjoy travelling (mostly to fun places here in the US) and also earn points/miles for personal trips. My goal is to help others discover, refine, or achieve their own travel goals and to do more travelling! 

Whether it’s getting advice on their next rewards credit card or reading some of my stories, I hope to help!

Why I think I’m qualified

I’ve been to 18 countries internationally, 25 US states (half down, half to go!) and 3 continents. Mrs. Money and I have been able to pull off a big trip every year we’ve been married, and are hoping that we keep that trend up with Baby Money Finance. I’ve 7 credit cards so far in life, 5 of which I still have, for various reasons. I’ve had status on 2 different airlines, and just hit lifetime Gold status on Marriott. I spend my free time perusing travel blogs to stay up to date. I like to say I’ve played the points game, and won! 

So, if you like to travel and perhaps would like to learn more about travelling better, more often, or for cheaper (or free), check out my new blog! As a starter post, you can check out How should I pick my next credit card…4 tips to think through. 

PS – I am offering help with picking a credit card on the site and if you mention “YoungMoneyFinance” as the referral, I’ll give you 25% off.