Travel with Young Kids - How?
We’ve learned a lot on our current expedition. In honor of the five years of our oldest kids, here are five “commandments” to chisel onto the itinerary of your vacation (with some fake King James English just for fun).
1. Know Thy Family
For some parents, a 12-hour flight to Japan is a serene voyage with their little angels. The rest of us are picturing an emergency landing in the Pacific to quell the inflight cage match amongst our progeny.
Trips should stretch us as a family - but they shouldn't break us. When it comes to distance and intensity, you know where that breaking point is.
No kids in this Japan picture
The same goes for when you take your trip and for how long. With school and work, use whatever unique levers you have to make as much space as you can. Have young kids? Great - pulling them for a few weeks of kindergarten shouldn’t ruin their chance at Harvard. For work, can you do it remotely? Can you aggressively hoard PTO or take unpaid time off?
What languages do you know? What friendly uncles with far off cabins do you have? Do you like urban or rural? What kind of house setup do you need?
Once you take stock of your family’s unique limitations and advantages, preferences and desires, you should have a trip that’s all your own. Maybe that’s six months in Tokyo - or maybe it’s an AirBnB two towns over. Whatever the case may be, make sure to design your trip with your family in mind.
2. Thou Shalt Travel Slowly
If you desire to travel with young kids, you need to learn to travel slowly.
Your trips are no longer jetting around as fast as you can to see the maximum number of possible things. Slow Travel means living your life in a new place and soaking that place in deeply as a family. In addition to being more rewarding (and often times significantly cheaper with weekly/monthly rates), slow travel is much easier on little people.
Slow travel can be illustrated in the difference between the two trips to Europe that I’ve taken.
Fast Trip 1 (Pre-Kids)
11 different stays across 6 countries. Many flights, much driving.
Sllloooowww Trip 2 (Mucho Kiddo)
2 Stays in 1 Country. Spread over twice as long as trip 1.
The need for bedtimes, play, and massive amounts crap don't disappear when your kids cross an ocean. Instead, these things become more important in a new place. And just think about it for a second - do you really want to be figuring out the pack-and-play, monitor, blackout shades, and nap plans in a different spot every single day?
The biggest gift you can give your kids (and yourselves) is to stay in the same place for at least a week.
For fast-traveling sightseers this is tough (for me too - right now I’m an hour away from Italy- Italy!). But for those who are disciplined enough to limit themselves, a richer experience awaits. For our France trip, that meant that we got to know the ins-and-outs of our city - from the best boulangerie in town to the guys at the local bike shop. By the end, our kids were leading us to all our favorite spots and calling it “Our French Home”. We even made some French friends and hung out with their family on the weekends! (That’s not going to happen when you’re flying around with other tourists to all the “must-see” monuments.)
To be specific, slow travel is:
Day Trips - Check out all the cool spots around your home base
Playgrounds - Prioritize kid happiness and fit the rest (cafes, pubs, museums, etc.) after
Recovery - You can have a crazy day! But then you better take it easy the next day.
3. Pay Not for Thy Flights
You thought that trip was expensive before kids? Try multiplying everything by 5. If flights are involved, I highly recommend you travel for free.
4. Thou Shalt Prep Like a Champion (Today)
If you're currently sitting on the plane wondering if you should have brought snacks and activities for your two-year-old, then let me just say… I'm glad I'm not you.
As soon as we booked the tickets (10 months in advance), my wife immediately got real intense about travel planning.
You ain’t the free-spirit solo-travelers you once were - and you need to up your planning game. So book your Airbnb and start packing.
Personal Soapbox: Hit Pause on Idealism
In "normal times" we try to be as screen-conscious, health-conscious, and every-other-kind-of-conscious as the next family. If there’s a place to bend some of those ideals (so that you can live up to others), it is on a plane, a train, or an automobile.
So for eight hours on the flight, my wife and I gave up our ideals for a “light parental Machiavellianism” - we did anything to get us to that next airport. We brought kiddie tablets. We brought their favorite snacks and treats. We did everything shy of slipping our kids the in-flight whiskey as a sleep-aid. And we made it.
5. Bring Thou Reinforcements
We brought two Grandmas to France and it's made everything from grocery shopping to bedtimes to date nights easier and more fun. Extra hands are the difference between a crazy trip and a crazy trip that approaches (though still rarely reaches) restfulness. Because in reality, there are two options for trips with young kids:
Your Family + Big Trip = Fun, enriching, and exhausting
Your Family + Big Trip + Grandma = Fun, enriching, and less exhausting
Now, if it came right down to it, I’d still travel even if we didn’t have help, but the potential gain is worth trying for. If you don’t have grandparents who are willing and able, all is not lost.
Who in your life might be a good travel buddy? A babysitter? A kid-loving friend? A preschool teacher? (seriously - we have friends who do this) Who would be fun and helpful with little ones? Could you buy (or travel-hack) someone’s tickets and lodging in exchange for a few days of childcare per week? With a little creativity, you might be surprised how doable this is.
Summary
There you have it. Henceforth, thou, thine kin, and thy quest shalt not be vanquished!
Know Your Family. Travel Slowly. Travel for Free. Prep Like a Champion. Bring Reinforcements.
In other words, Gird Thy Loins - and then have fun, you adventurous family.
You can do this!
Travel With Young Kids - Why?
So I guess we’re living in the south of France right now.
A few weeks ago, we bid adieu to the US and chartered a plane to the land of baguettes. After a blur of trains, exhaustion-induced naps, and a fitful night of jet lag, we woke up to soft glow of Provencal sun thawing our frozen Minnesotan bones.
For my wife and I, it’s been a breath of fresh air for our "parent-tired" souls.
Resurrecting Adventure
Personally, it’s been the synthesis of two seemingly-opposing sides of me: Adventurous Brett and Parent Brett.
For Adventurous Brett, the need for big, unique experiences lies somewhere between oxygen and food. But just as I was hitting my stride with world travel in my twenties, I kicked off my thirties by having three kids in two years (Three kids. Two years. … yep).
In the blink of an eye, I transformed from world-traveling-wannabe-real-estate-mogul to housebound-changer-of-diapers. There’s been joy these last five years but let’s just say Adventurous Brett has been on life support.
So despite the real challenges that traveling with little people presents, we decided that now was the time to emerge from the “baby years cave”, peek out through our dark-circled eyes, and see if the world was still there - even though we’ve still got three kids under age six.
For some, a big trip with young kids is obvious (“OF COURSE that's a great idea. We're on our way to Patagonia with two toddlers in tow right now!") For others, particularly parents in the throes of potty training, pre-school, and all the rest, the value may be less obvious.
Isn’t a trip with kids 10x the hassle (and cost) and 1/10th the fun?
I won’t sugarcoat it - this trip is not sipping Rosé on the beach all day while my kids fan me with cool air and appreciation. But as a man who types this sentence with hot espresso in hand and a cool Mediterranean breeze on my face, I can tell you that it's been worth it. Here’s how we thought about it.
Why We Traveled with Kids (Four Reasons)
1. This is the Time!
Two super-Grandmas overlooking the Luberon Valley
In my last post, I made the point that windows of opportunity don’t last forever.
Would it be easier to travel with older kids? Maybe. Sure, flights without tantrums and minute-by-minute-needs would be nice.
On the other hand:
How long until summer basketball and can’t-miss friend birthday parties takes over? (“I don’t WANT to go to Paris! I want to go rollerskating at Jonny’s party!”)
How long will your remote work situation last? How long will credit card companies dole out insane bonuses? How long until the next pandemic/invasion/etc/etc makes your trip impossible?
How many more years will grandparents have the ability and desire to tag along?
The trip you’ve been dreaming of for your family might be easier tomorrow - or it might not.
2. Parent Space
Life is tough. For me, my thirties have been a transition from "innocence to experience".
Hint on our town: It’s where a certain famous painter famously cut off a certain hearing organ…
Whether your life includes a year with reflux-laden twins or just surviving the isolation of a global pandemic, life puts all of us through the grinder at some point.
How do you stay positive and intentional in difficult times? How do you keep your marriage afloat when date nights have been replaced by passing screaming babies back and forth? How do you avoid the learned helplessness that threatens whenever we feel a loss of control in our lives?
A book could be written on the topic of walking well through life’s difficulties (here’s a good one).
For me, a good place to start is simply with space. When we travel we get a chance not to escape our lot in life, but to step back and evaluate what our lives have become- the good, the bad and the ugly.
As I watched the sun rise over the Rhone last week, I remembered back to those difficult early days of being a parent. I reflected on how far we'd come. I asked God what might be next - and I was open to an answer.
How do you get that kind of space to work on and not just in your life?
3. Opportunity to Grow
After 20 hours of trains, planes, and automobiles, my family was exhausted. We had arrived minutes earlier in our destination city’s train station. The last leg should have been a peaceful 20 minute walk along the river to our new home. Only it wasn't peaceful. It was raining. And it wasn't twenty minutes. Turns out with kids (especially tired, wet kids) you need to triple the Google Maps estimate.
To make it with all of our luggage, we needed our boys to not only make the 1-mile walk in the rain but also carry their suitcases while doing it. If this had been a few years ago, my boys would have simply sat down on the sidewalk and cried - and we would have been screwed.
Instead, our hardy little men recognized what we needed them to do, dug deep, and they made the walk. Through soaking rain, through up-all-night-weariness, they did it. I was amazed and I was proud.
On this trip, we’ve all been forced to be flexible, try new things, and even rely on one another. This has been a major life experience for all of us.
And with shared experiences being the glue that bonds people together, what greater gift can you give your family?
4. Beware the Coast
I'm not talking about the Cote D’Azure here.
The first chunk of life is usually where all the action happens. The nature of the school years is one of constant dynamism - a constant barrage of new friends, locations and lessons learned.
Beyond the classroom, things tend to slow down. Whether it’s marriage and kids or just the slow inevitability of age, the vigorous spontaneity of youth often gives way to an unplanned, unspoken "coast" as we float down whatever stream our twenties have brought us to.
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if there was a way to stay flexible in the face of monotony? To stay intentional even while more and more of our days give way to obligation? What if we could reverse the shrinking of our idea of “possible” - not just for us, but for our whole family?
Traveling with kids is more than just a few fun pictures next to the Eiffel Tower. Travel jars us loose from the idea that our lives are some passive tram ride (which, let’s be honest- parenting can totally lull you into). A new place is often all that we need to remember that we are active participants on the open road of existence, partnering with God to make a difference in our families and a make dent in this world with the years that we have.
Conclusion
Have I convinced you to consider the crazy idea of traveling, even and especially with those high-maintenance love sponges we call our kids?
I hope so. But even if you are brave enough, I should tell you - there are some essentials you’ll need if you want to avoid mid-flight meltdown or regret in Rejkjavik.
That’s what we'll tackle in our next post.
Are the Big Questions Dead?
“Am I living it right?”
- John Mayer
"My purpose is whatever I make it”, "What does it matter if God is there?" "Haven't we moved beyond these old questions?"
As quickly as these sentiments have seeped into the modern psyche, it's worth noting that “the big questions” about meaning, God, and reality are still, well… big. There’s (still) a lot at stake.
It's not that everyone has always agreed on answers to huge topics like purpose and the existence of God. On these, men and women have come to all kinds of conclusions. But ever since Socrates reminded us that “the unexamined life is not worth living” thoughtful people have joined in common chorus around one big idea: the meaning of your life and nature of reality are worth figuring out.
And yet, most of us live without asking big questions. We go to church or mosque or skip religion altogether without asking “why?”. We believe what our parents asserted or we just drift with whatever our culture is pushing at the time.
It’s tempting to pass topics like meaning and God off as “esoteric”, but the reality is that these questions lie inches below the surface of our daily decisions, experiences, and longings.
Stumbling into Depth
Underneath “What should my major be?” or “Should I have kids?” lie whole root systems of assumptions which can only be probed with deeper questions.
“What is a job for?” “Why should I (or anyone) go through the risk and pain of having kids?”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Brave souls can dig one level deeper.
What is the purpose of my life?
Is there some objective meaning to my life? Or do I make it up myself?
But where would objective meaning come from? There is one candidate…
…Does God exist? What is he like? What might he want from my life?
For some of us, this just got real uncomfortable real fast. Like any good Minnesotan, I too sought to push aside “the big questions” - or at least keep them to myself.
Eventually, my Scandinavian heritage would yield to my inner engineer. In trying to be intentional with my life before I lived it, asking big questions became necessary.
I’m not trying to convince you of an answer. My contention is simply that big questions are not dead. They are worth asking.
Here are a few reasons why.
Ask Big Questions to Clarify Your Purpose
“Begin with the end in mind.” Stephen Covey's second immortal habit is as obvious as it is rare. Covey argues that no project, business, or relationship should be launched without first asking what end are we are trying to achieve, because the steps we take will follow from our purpose.
The same goes for life.
And yet, most of us spend more time planning our vacations than planning our lives. Maybe that’s because to plan our lives, we need to decide what life is - and this can be difficult and scary.
Our present culture tells us that "life is whatever we want it to be". This might be true. Or it might be a accidental byproduct of the "expressive individualism" that rules our tiny, privileged time and place.
To find out we have to ask.
2. Ask Big Questions So You Don’t Miss Out
I’ve noticed a funny theme in my bible reading lately. I’d call it “The Life within life”. It’s all over the book, but let’s just look at a couple passages that become weird when you stop to think about them.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
-Jesus, Matthew 4
Isn't life more than food and clothing?
-Jesus, Matthew 6
Wait, what? We all know people who seem to get by just fine on “bread alone”, without a care for “every word that comes from the mouth of God”. We know people who are very much “alive” with mere “food and clothing” and a full 401k, etc. These are people whose primary concern is their physical needs now and in the future. That’s normal. It’s common. It might be you.
Jesus is saying that you can be alive while at the same time missing out on Life. He’s claiming there is a deeper dimension to what life can be.
Is he right? Or is he full of it?
To find out we have to ask.
3. Ask Big Questions to Understand your Foundations
We all believe in things like free will, morality, and human rights. We can't help it. But for these features of reality to make any sense, we need God.
We’ll all take moral stances in our lifetime, both big ("Putin has no right to invade Ukraine") and small ("She has no right to treat me like this"). We'll assume people matter. We'll act like decisions are real.
Are we standing on solid ground when we do this? Or are we just being illogical robots living in cognitive dissonance?
To find out we’ll have to ask.
4. Ask Big Questions While You Can
Voyager’s iconic picture of Saturn’s rings (750 million miles away)
I just read a fascinating story about the Voyager space mission. The project stemmed from a crucial discovery by Gary Flandro in 1964. Flandro found that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune align once every 176 years, making a long-range mission possible. Also - the next alignment was in just thirteen years. NASA frantically built Voyager and launched it just in time. Any later and we’d have missed the window.
We want to believe that timing doesn't matter. That life will wait around for us and that we'll always have the opportunity.
The Voyager story teaches us that windows of discovery don’t last forever.
And that's exactly how the Bible talks about life.
The picture that emerges from the ancient book is that now is the time to figure out what life is about (e.g. here, here, here). There are consequences for the answers, both now and later. Is that right? Or a bunch of religious nonsense?
To find out we’ll have to ask.
Conclusion
Friend, I don't know where you're at on this journey. Maybe you've already reached conclusions on the big questions of God and meaning or maybe you're asking them right now. Perhaps you have asked the questions but you’ve drifted away from the answers you know to be true.
Or maybe you've lived your whole life climbing the ladder in front of you without asking if it was the right one.
Big questions can be scary. I can't say where you might end up. But you never know - until you ask.
The Bible in 1000 words (tl;dr)
For those who didn’t catch it in Sunday School…
The same people who tout the virtues of being well-read skip right past the Bible, the most popular book in human history. We’ll binge-read biographies about some hot new tech CEO while skipping the one about the most important figure in Western history: Jesus Christ.
The bible comes out with guns blazing.
Within the first sentence, we are hit with some huge statements:
There is a being called God
By the end of the first chapter, it's clear that in some way, this God made us too. This powerful, worldmaking being has condescended to create partners to rule with him. He makes them like himself and places them in a garden to create, build the world, and have a tight-knit, life-giving relationship with him.
For a while, things are, well… perfect.
Then things go very wrong.
Betrayal
The humans betray God.
Just three chapters in, the whole thing starts to unravel as the first humans are deceived into rejecting God as God, forgoing his ideas about good and evil, making themselves the arbiters of right and wrong. In so doing, they knowingly disobey their maker, their friend, their God.
The humans survive... but something at the core of their being dies. From here on out they will be deeply, irreparably, broken.
These first humans must leave the garden, the fulfilling work, the knowing and being known, the very God-closeness that defined their once-beautiful existence.
Outside the Garden
Outside the garden, life goes on, along with their mission to build the world. Humans continue to bubble over with the goodness given to them at creation. They live and work and make. But there is a darkness that will haunt the human project from here on out.
Outside the garden, work is laced with misery and oppression. Relationships are fraught with brokenness and misunderstanding. People die.
And it quickly becomes clear that whatever this curse is will be passed on.
The first couple’s oldest son kills his younger brother in cold blood. The fratricidal son founds a city... with values that somehow reflect the deep brokenness of its founder.
The next thousand chapters or so document the unfolding - and unraveling - of the ongoing human project. People spread out and expand, technology progresses, culture is made, but at every turn they are dogged by the selfishness and death that the humans can't seem to shake.
Is this world starting to sound familiar?
The Central Question
Here emerges the central question of the bible:
Can what is broken be fixed?
Is there something we can do to mend our broken relationship with God? How do we fix our dying bodies and crooked souls? Can the world be made right?
Human Inability
By the end of the old testament, it's clear that humans will not be able to fix their fundamental problem. Despite God choosing a people (the Jews), giving them deep experiences of his goodness, a perfect set of moral and civil laws for the time, and even land flowing with "milk and honey", it's clear that God's chosen people are just as broken as everyone else.
When the new testament picks up, God's disobedient people have been shattered and scattered and the progress-amidst-brokenness dynamic has reached its apex. The Romans are in charge.
In many ways, the Romans personified the best and worst of what humanity could be. The same people that perfected the republic, gave us Seneca and built still-standing monuments also mastered the art of "might makes right", enslaving conquered enemies and glorifying the torture of crucifixion.
This was when God moved in to fix the problem himself.
The Hero
Jesus was different. Born into Roman-occupied Israel, it was said that he didn't sin like the rest of us. It was said that miracles followed him. It was said that somehow... he was the Son of the Creator God himself.
Jesus loved people regardless of their social status or worthiness. He loved them in spite of their sin.
If there was one group he was critical of - it was the religious establishment.
In apt irony, the confluence of the heights of human power and will - religion and state - conspired and executed the innocent embodiment of love, joy, and life. They killed Jesus.
If the story ended there, we wouldn't be talking about it. But a few days later, the same people who watched him die claimed that they saw him, that he was alive.
They claimed that he was back from the dead and that his death and resurrection had accomplished something.
The Death, The Fix
They claimed that Jesus’ death was the fix that the world had been looking for since the day we left the garden.
That when Jesus died, he had taken on himself our sin and shame, paid the penalty for it, finally bore the wrath that we deserved, and opened up a way to be with God once more.
He had opened a way back to the Garden - back to God himself - and anyone could walk through it.
The way was not a physical path. It was a path for the human soul. One need simply believe and, in a reversal of the first sin, turn from their own ways - lives defined by themselves - back to God.
He said that those who make this move of the soul would gain access into a new way of being, the way of the coming kingdom, even while the world is still broken.
A New World
Finally, Jesus made it clear that while the world itself would stay broken for some time, one day he would return and usher in a new age, an age where somehow everything would be made right. All the brokenness and ugliness would done away with - and the new world, now absent of sin and suffering and oppression would be more beautiful for having been through all the darkness that had come before it.
In Sum
There is a God who made us. We turned away from God and in so doing broke ourselves and the world. Jesus died to take the penalty that sinners deserve, to fix our biggest problem - our alienation from the one who made us. The reason we are still talking about Jesus is that he came back from the dead.
We can be reconciled to God and find a new way of living by opening our life to him and turning away from the sin that has ensnared us since our first parents (trying to be god over our life and world). Jesus will come one last time to remake the world along with those who are reconciled into his life.
That is the story of the bible. And if it’s true, that is good news.
Further Resources
Book: The Drama Of Scripture
Video: For normal, modern readers looking to understand the important (but difficult) book that is the bible, I can’t recommend The Bible Project enough. Here’s their video on this topic: “The Story of the Bible”.
In 1832, Hokusai painted his famous “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”. With each painting, he gave a fuller view of the mountain- and his own perspective. Here’s one of my “36 (or so) views of the world”. It’s an attempt to illuminate an aspect of the present by telling a story of the world through one lens. This essay covers what I think is the ultimate meta-narrative: God’s.
Free Travel FAQ
In my last post, I introduced the concept of using credit card signup bonuses to travel the world for almost nothing. If you're like me in the beginning, you've probably got some questions and concerns. Let's take a look at some common ones.
This sounds scary. Won't this ruin my credit score?
This strategy, used over time, will help your credit score. Mine has been in the 800s for years. The fear around signing up for credit cards comes from not understanding how your credit (or FICO) score is calculated. The factors that go into your score are:
On-time payment history (35%)
% of total credit used (30%)
Length of credit history (15%)
Credit mix (10%)
New credit (10%).
After getting a new card, here’s what happens:
Small dings
Credit pull. (any time you pull your credit there’s a tiny ding). Tiny impact that lasts < 1yr.
New Credit. (because you opened new credit) Minor impact as it’s only 10%. This impact goes away if you cancel card eventually.
Length of Credit History. Minimal impact that becomes negligible if you have an older card that’s been around for a few years. This impact goes away if you cancel card eventually.
Why it goes up
On-time payment history. This is the biggest contributor to your credit score so when you pay on time with a new account you are significantly helping your credit.
% of total credit used. This is the second-biggest contributor to your credit score so when you add new credit, your score goes up (as your utilization % has just gone down).
In the end, your credit should go up. This strategy isn’t much different than what “credit repair” companies do to help their clients increase their credit score.
Who should do this?
People who:
Will for sure pay off their credit cards in full and on time.
All benefits are negated if you end up paying the insane 18% interest or spending more than you otherwise would.
Have a decent credit score
The huge bonuses require an excellent score, but if that’s not you, applying to some smaller cards/bonuses will help you get there.
Can handle some details, are flexible and willing to learn
You’re adding some complexity to your big purchase and your travel. Over time, though, you’ll be able to do it without thinking.
What do I do with the card after I've got the bonus?
You may want to keep using it. For instance, I've kept my IHG card over the years despite the $49 annual fee because they shoot me a free night every year that we use as an excuse for a fancy getaway.
For other cards, you may decide that the long-term benefits aren't worth the recurring annual fee. A good time to close these accounts is 10-12 months after applying for the card.
What if I'm not that into travel?
As much as I love to travel, I get this. After having kids, our appetite for travel all but vanished. The cool thing is that the same habits that get you free travel can also simply net you cash rewards.
Those 100,000 Chase rewards points from last year are also worth $1000 cash. Of course, they could be $2500+ in travel, but if that's where life has you, feel free to take the thousand bucks!
How crazy can I go here? (How many cards can I do at the same time?)
More than you think, but not infinite. The main rule that's come out in the last few years is the Chase 5/24 Rule. Here's the rule:
To be accepted for a Chase card, you can't have opened more than five cards (from any cc company) in the last twenty-four months.
Chase cards are usually the best, so it's good to plan around this (either 2 cards/year or a big splurge and then a long break)
Can I do a card multiple times?
For Amex cards, no (1 bonus per card per lifetime). For Chase cards, yes, after about 4 years. More details here.
Can my spouse sign up for 2x the goodness?
Yes. One great benefit of being married is that all this free travel can be doubled. When you see a good bonus, you can sign your spouse up too for 2x the points.
Do you have any more examples of how you've used this strategy?
I suppose this is where I confess to my exploits to get you fired up enough to try it.
Internationally, I’ve notched free trips to Peru, India, and Europe.
My intense 2015 spreadsheet from our free-flight, mostly-free-hotel, free-rental-car trip to Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and Hungary
Domestically, I’ve logged free trips to Alaska, New York, Los Angeles (countless times), Milwaukee (countless times - kids under 2 fly free and boy did we know it), San Francisco, Denver, Florida, Charleston, and Minot.
We've used our hotel points and free nights for everything from local getaways to $600 suites in the heart of Paris.
Speaking of free lodging…
I’ve still got to pay for hotels/Airbnbs, though. Is there any way to do those for free?
After booking free flights, many will be content to pay cash for their lodging. For tightwads with remaining gusto, you may wonder: how can I get free lodging too?
There are two ways that I know:
Free Lodging Option 1: Repeat the Process with Hotel Cards
At the time of writing there's an IHG hotels card (think Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and more) that gives you 125,000 points for signup - along with a free night every year. Or there’s a Hilton card that lands you 130,000 Hilton points.
If you are able to meet the spends, this creates a powerful combo of free flights and free hotels.
Free Lodging Option 2: AirBnB Your House while you're gone
By now, most of us have stayed in an AirBnB. Have you ever considered hosting while you're gone? While you're travelling, the reality is that your house is now unused. If you have time to clean it before you go (and move out any sensitive documents, etc), you could have someone pay to stay in your house, offsetting the cost of your own stay.
This option gets interesting as you may be able to net positive income from your trip (i.e. getting paid to travel).
What is the best card for frequent traveling?
For frequent domestic travelers, the holy grail is the Southwest Companion Pass.
At the time of writing: If you get the SW personal card (40k points) and SW business card (80k points) at the same time you will have 120,000 Southwest points. In the process of meeting those spends, you will add another 6,000 points. This gets your total to over 125,000 points in a year which automatically gets you the Southwest Companion Pass for the rest of the year and the following year.
The Southwest companion pass is a reusable BOGO pass for flights. When you have the pass, every flight you book with cash or with your giant point stash nets you another free ticket.
tl;dr: For those who can meet the spends early in the year (January being the best), they essentially have free travel for two years (for two people).
And you can repeat it in two years with your spouse. And then you can do it in four years again…
Isn't travel hacking harder to do nowadays?
Anyone who's been doing this for five years or more could regale you with tales from the "glory days" (ask me about my free month in Europe some time).
This is a game that's always changing and it has gotten marginally more difficult. But if I can still get a family of five to the south of France and back for nearly free in 2022, I'd say it's still a game worth playing.
Where can I learn more
This is just an intro post to an entire world of free travel. For more, check out:
(why are they always guys? What about points girls?!)
How do I parlay my big expense into free travel and help support this blog?
Just use the links on my credit card page. One card signup funds this blog for three months.
You Can Travel for Free
Learn how to play a new game…
This is a brief intermission from the “Faith in the 21st Century” series we’ve been working through. We’ll be back in the deep end soon, but for now, it’s time to travel!
Back in 2012 some friends invited me on an epic trip to Peru. I wanted to go so badly, BUT the $1300 plane ticket (plus everything else) was just too much for my starting salary. With a stack of loans taller than the Andes, I was so sad that I wouldn’t be able to make the trip. Except…
I went anyways.
The key was not “YOLOing” my way into debt, but rather in stumbling upon a strategy that enabled me to be “young, wild, and free” without going broke.
Mystery booth
Before a work flight, I noticed a credit card booth at the airport with a sign that read: "Earn 50,000 bonus miles upon signup". At the time, I ignored it (sounded too scammy).
It was only when faced with my Peru FOMO that I remembered that booth. After a simple search on the airline's website, I learned that 50,000 miles was enough for a round-trip to Cusco, Peru on those exact dates. So… I signed up for the card.
The crazy idea worked. I scaled the Andes, volunteered with a non-profit, and even rode a scooter through the Amazon. I deepened friendships and gained perspective on big decisions (I was married a year after the trip, for one).
Best of all, I did the three week trip to Peru for very little money, with no negative consequences on my finances.
Rinse and Repeat
Emboldened by my South American experience, I repeated the process. Over the last ten years, I've gone everywhere from India to Alaska. In a few months, we’ll be in France.
The thing is… I still haven't bought a plane ticket (with money).
What does this mean for you?
I’m not sure if your hobby is golf, poker, or underwater basket-weaving - but let me share another game with you. This game has rules, details, and strategy too - but it rewards you with free travel for life.
Here’s how you play.
How to Travel For Free
o. Cue: Big Upcoming Purchase
In the free travel game, you get huge miles when you spend a certain amount on a new card (e.g. $2000 in 3 months). Therefore, the process kicks off when you know you’re about to spend a big chunk of money. Rather than putting that new Peloton (or medical bill or whatever) on your standard old 1% back card, you instead get a new card(s) with a juicy signup bonus and put the big purchase on that.
For example, my big purchase last year was finishing my basement. By putting Home Depot purchases (and even my drywaller) on new cards, I realized that I could probably do a pretty big trip.
1.Pick a Destination
When you know you’ve got a purchase coming, you should pick a destination, preferably one that makes your heart beat a little faster :)
For my example, I recognized that with the size of my big purchase I could get ambitious. I asked myself: could I get my whole family to the French Riviera?
2. Create a Card Plan
Now that you’ve identified a purchase and picked a destination, we need to map a “credit card route” to get there.
Figure out your Airline Options
First, we’ll figure out how many “miles” it will take to get to your destination. Just go to a few airline sites, check “book with points”, and write down what you find. For example, here’s a 17,500 mile trip to Los Angeles.
This is Delta. Feel free to check out American, United, or any other airline that goes to your destination.
Card Options
Second, let’s brainstorm some card possibilities to earn those miles (if you’re confused, the next picture should make it clear.) To find the best card bonuses, search Google, check out my credit card page or play with the Mad Fientist’s tool.
You should now have airline options and corresponding credit card options. Now let’s play the matching game.
Here is a real-number example for an LA trip (with a box around the combo I would choose):
Lots of options, but I’d go United - and bring two friends! (50k covers 3 United tix!)
Black-Belt Example: Five to the South of France
For our upcoming France trip, the best airline option was Air France at a steep 300,000 Air France miles.
Thankfully, Chase and American Express were foaming at the mouth for new customers in early 2021 - and their points transfer to Air France. We obtained the needed miles with just three cards.
Me: Chase Sapphire (100k), My wife: Chase Sapphire (100k) and Amex Platinum (125k)
3. Apply, Spend, and Book
Ok, by now you’ve got a purchase, a destination, an airline to get you there, and a credit card (or five) to get you the needed airline points. Congrats! You’ve done the hard work. Now, it’s simply time to execute the plan.
Go ahead and apply for the cards. Don’t be nervous - we'll talk about credit scores and all that in the FAQ. You’ll be accepted on the spot or you can call them if you need to.
When the card arrives, activate it and make your big purchase! (Sign up for autopay too so you don’t forget.)
Once you’ve spent the $, your bonus should show up in your account in a few weeks.
Now go ahead and book your trip with the miles!
Oh yeah, and last step: Go!!!
Conclusion
Travel can be fun, restful, or even life-changing.
In the past, world travel required significant costs, and therefore trade-offs, with other financial goals. Today, that’s different.
Eager credit card companies have made a way for organized middle-class Americans to see the world.
If you are new to free travel, I know you've got questions. Click on the left for some answers. Click on the right to try it out (and support the blog at the same time)!
Where are you headed next?!
or to grab a card…
The Making of Everything
"The first question that should rightly be asked is, "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
-Gottfried Leibniz
Before you read this essay, pause. Breathe. Look at your hand as it touches your computer or phone. Feel your arms and legs. Look around the room to see light as it hits your surroundings.
Your body, your thoughts, you are here on a giant ball we call earth, spinning out into an incomprehensibly large span of cold, heat, light, and matter that makes up the known universe.
Where did all this come from? Why is there anything at all?
You wouldn't be the first to ask. The question was first penned by the Greeks, but my suspicion is that it's been asked by thoughtful people since the dawn of human history.
Let's think about it.
Does the Universe get a Pass?
First, can we assume that everything (including the universe) has some sort of reason or cause for its existence? It seems far more likely than not. Everything in our experience has a cause. We exist and we have parents to thank. The trees in your yard are a result of seeds, water, sunshine and time. Science itself proceeds under the assumption that things are the way they are for a reason - and we can inquire what that reason is. Even those old sparring partners, Ken Ham and Bill Nye, can at least agree there are causes for the things we find in the world and we can know something about those causes.
Universe:
Is the universe itself exempt? Or would something that big, that all-encompassing cry out for a reason even more? The converse - that things exist without reason or cause and we shouldn’t ask why they exist - strikes me as a little absurd… and at least unlivable in the real world.
The universe must have a cause just like anything else - and Plato and Aristotle agree (phew).
This leads to a second question - what would cause a universe to come into being?
Making a Universe
Whatever made the universe is powerful beyond our wildest imagination. The hubble deep field tells us there are roughly 125 billion galaxies - and those are just the ones we can observe. What kind of power could make these?
Second, the cause would have to exist outside of space and time as neither space nor time (by definition) existed before the creation of the universe.
This seems to be consistent with modern physics, which tells us that it wasn't just matter that was created in the beginning but also space, time, and the laws of physics themselves.
In short, if the universe had a cause, the cause would be mind-bendingly powerful, eternal, uncaused, and immaterial (and possibly personal).
So what does all of this mean?
Let’s dust off our thinking muscles and turn those little paragraphs above into premises. Smash them together you’ve got yourself an argument (the cosmological argument to be exact - you philosopher, you).
The Argument
The summary would look something like this:
Everything that exists has a cause
If the universe has a cause, that cause would be powerful beyond imagination, eternal, uncaused, immaterial, (and possibly personal)
The universe exists
The necessary conclusion of this argument is that the cause of the universe is a powerful, eternal, uncaused, immaterial, (and possibly personal) entity. We haven’t “proved” the God of the bible by any means, but we’re getting warmer.
You might like that conclusion or you might not. The conclusion follows from the premises and from my seat, to deny the premises is to land in some weird places (philosophically and practically).
You might have questions - objections, even. To summarize a few objections in a borderline-offensively short way, I’ll just give some quick thoughts on these.
Why does God get a pass on being eternal and uncaused and not the universe?
If you were paying attention, premise 2 (the one about uncaused, eternal, etc.) wasn't put there because we need to exempt God but because that's the sort of cause a finite universe would require.
What about the multiverse?
A few issues with multiverse theory, not the least of which is that we’d now have to explain multiple universes.
What about Quantum Theory?
I love quantum theory, and I hope to dive in someday with the blog. For our purposes here, if you’re banking on quantum fluctuations to create everything from Andromeda to Dr. Seuss, my first question would be where the energy-dense quantum vacuum came from (along with the laws to govern it)?
Conclusion
For me, the cosmological argument has always been persuasive at a gut level. To say that there is no reason for the existence of the universe seems as unlikely as it is unsatisfying.
I wouldn’t call this a “proof”. I don't really believe in proofs, especially for God. To me, it’s just another pointer.
Over the years, thinkers have found ways to try and wiggle out of the conclusion (see Hume for old objections, Krauss for new ones). You'll have to judge if they've been able to do so.
For this armchair philosopher, if it's good enough for Aristotle (and Aquinas and Anselm and Descartes and Leibniz), then just maybe it's good enough for me. Or as Glen Scrivener put it recently:
“Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.”
History’s Greatest Linchpin
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
-The Bible
The Only Question That Matters
If you want to disprove Christianity, don't go to the age of the earth, evolution, or weird stuff in the bible- go to the resurrection. It's Christianity's self-described linchpin.
But in 2022, how much can we know about something that happened two millenia ago? Turns out, a lot. The resurrection story isn't just unique in what it claims, but also in its early and prolific historic documentation of those claims. No one’s asking you to “just have faith." You’re going to need your brain for this one.
It turns out you don't need to believe the bible is an inspired book to believe in the resurrection. Feel free to treat the bible like any skeptical scholar would treat it - as a historical document with numerous claims of varying reliability.
So which biblical and extra-biblical claims are well-founded historically and relevant to the all-important "back from the dead” question? Here are the cliff-notes, an honorary degree in resurrection studies from Average Joe University. Turns out there are a few basic facts that scholars of various theological (and a-theological) viewpoints agree on.
The Facts
Here are some largely agreed upon facts from New Testament Studies:
1) That Jesus died by crucifixion;
2) That very soon afterwards, his followers had real experiences that they thought were actual appearances of the risen Jesus;
3) That their lives were transformed as a result, even to the point of being willing to die specifically for their faith in the resurrection message;
4) That these things were taught very early, soon after the crucifixion;
- Gary Habermas,“Minimal Facts on the Resurrection”
There’s nothing explicitly supernatural here. Some scholars might disagree with one or two, but they fight an uphill battle in opposing the established consensus view on each one.
The million dollar question, then, is what story best makes sense of these facts?
We don’t need blind faith - we need (our inner) Sherlock Holmes. We need to construct hypotheses, test and eliminate, and choose the best one. Over the years, many have done just that.
Sherlocking the Resurrection
We should prefer natural theories over supernatural ones. So over the centuries, naturalistic reconstructions (accounts without God or the supernatural) have been put forth to account for these facts. They fall into four buckets:
Legend creation: The story was changed / embellished over time.
Mass hallucination: Disciples only thought they saw Jesus back from the dead.
Jesus didn't really die: It just looked like he did. This is actually the Muslim take, FYI
Conspiracy Theory: Disciples stole Jesus’ body and lied about it.
To be “blogpost-level-concise”, these theories all suffer from fatal flaws.
Legend creation: There just wasn't enough time that passed for legends to develop.
Mass Hallucination: While hallucination is very much a thing, mass hallucination is not.
Not really dead: Roman soldiers were experts on human death. Also, crucified people left in a cold dark tomb don't recover without medical help. Here’s a dramatic youtube refutation of this view.
Conspiracy: Grief-stricken, disillusioned groups of fisherman and tax collectors don't come up with paradigm-shifting religious ideas, pull off the greatest conspiracy of all time, and then die for ideas they know are false.
An Inconvenient Truth
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
– Sherlock Holmes
Of course, there is a theory that makes perfect sense of these facts, but the theory comes loaded with implications for the universe… and our lives. And we don't always like that.
Most of us would rather suppress the truths that are too uncomfortable to handle, particularly those about God.
The theory that makes sense of the facts is that Jesus died and then came back from the dead.
If that is the case, his life and teaching deserve a closer look.
Conclusion
At the beginning of my search, I thought I needed to figure out if I believed in God first, and then peruse the entire canon of world religions, painstakingly working through Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, the bible, the problem of evil and suffering, and all the rest.
For me, it ended up working backwards. In zooming in on the resurrection of Jesus, I came to believe that Jesus had really died and had really come back from the dead.
The implications of that one conclusion informed many of the other questions I had. The existence of God, the afterlife, and the truth status of other philosophies and religions all found their answer in who Jesus was - the resurrected Son of God.
The answer gave me some rope to keep believing when I came across difficult things in the Bible or the world that I didn’t like or understand. Most importantly, it made me want to listen to what the guy said.
Of course, this is just my take on the all-important question. We must all answer the question Jesus asked Peter all those years ago.
Who do you say that I am?
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Popular: Case for Christ (it’s also a movie now, apparently)
Academic (long): The Resurrection of the Son of God
A Shortcut for the Spiritual Search
"But what about you? Who do you say I am?"
-Jesus
Jesus said he’s the way, the truth, and the life. For me, he was the shortcut too.
After my summer of doubt, I was consumed by a question: How do you go about figuring out which religion or philosophy is true when there are so many out there?
It had dawned on me that the menu of religious and philosophical options is less like Chipotle (“black or pinto?”) and more like a Chinese restaurant (“I'll take #17 and my wife will have… #46?”).
Faith options come in endless flavors - eastern and western, new and old, secular and theistic. When forming a worldview, where do you even begin?
Turns out, you should start with Jesus.
I know what you're thinking: "Ok, Mr. Biased Now-Christian. Of course you want us to start there."
Sure, I'm biased towards Christianity for reasons we’ll get to below. But I'm also biased toward efficiency - and if you can make your mind up on Jesus, you narrow your search considerably.
It's like an old game from millenial past…
Playing Guess Who with Jesus
"Does the person have glasses?"
"Yes"
[flips down all but 3 people]
I'm looking at you, in the second row, Joe…
Mathematicians know that in “Guess Who?” better questions lead to faster answers. For spiritual seekers, “deconstructers”, and doubters, the same principle holds true.
In “Worldview Guess Who”, “Who is Jesus?” is the most strategic question you can ask. Why is that?
Jesus the founder of the world’s most popular religion - in looking into him, you’re starting with the most worshiped person in human history.
His claims are unique among major religious figures. Buddha, Muhammad, and Moses never claimed to be God.
You’re killing multiple birds with one stone. Because of his incredible claims, other religions are forced to make a call on who he was, either explicitly (e.g. Islam) or implicitly (e.g. atheism, Judaism). In studying Jesus, you’re actually sifting through multiple major religions at the same time.
Making up your mind on who Jesus is (either way) will clear out a huge chunk of the board.
If Jesus is no one of significance, didn't exist, or is just a good moral teacher, you can cross out the worlds' two most popular religions in one go (Islam and Christianity). If he's just a prophet, get out the burka because you, my friend, are now a Muslim. If, however, he is more than that - say, the Son of God, then we’ll need to take a look at his life and teachings.
“Ok” you’re saying. “Start with Jesus. But isn't the Jesus question intertwined with other contestable questions like biblical inspiration and if there is even a God to begin with?”
Not for our purposes. While existence and inspiration are big issues, let’s bypass all of that. If we can make a call on if the guy really died and came back from the dead, we’ll have the most important piece of data available. The implications to that answer will tell us a whole host of things about the existence of God and the truth status of the most popular religions in world history.
To summarize, for spiritual seekers:
Jesus is the shortcut
His resurrection is the shortcut to the shortcut.
But surely, I wouldn’t introduce such a big topic in the medium of a blogpost? Oh shoot- turns out I did.
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Who do you say that he is?
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