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Best Offer For These Business Cards

travel hacking Sep 28, 2023

If you want to earn more points to travel free, you’ve gotta check out these new card bonuses.

I just applied for one & was approved!

These are running an all-time high welcome bonus of 90,000 points for $6,000 in spend in the first 3 months.

You can redeem those 90,000 points for $900 cash OR you can use those points to redeem over $1,800 in free travel (if you have a premium Chase card like the Sapphire).

The name of the cards?

It’s 2 sister cards that are running this same bonus.

The Chase Ink Business Unlimited and Chase Ink Business Cash cards.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

I don’t have a business, so how can I get these cards?

I’d ask, are you sure you don’t have a business?

Is there anything you get paid to do on the side?

Airbnb?

Tutoring?

Weddings?

Counseling?

You may have a business in the eyes of these credit cards companies & you don’t even know it.

It’s likely a sole proprietorship. You haven’t...

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Making Offers on the MLS

flip hacking Sep 21, 2023

In our real estate investing business, we’ve bought all of our properties to flip off-market. Meaning, they were not listed on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service that real estate agents use to list properties) when we bought them.

We find these by using marketing to contact sellers & express an interest in buying their property.

Part of the reason we’ve bought all of our properties this way is because it was very difficult to find a “deal” on the MLS. Too much competition.

Well, with recent market changes & higher interest rates, many investors are beginning to find “deals” on the MLS.

What’s great about MLS “deals” is that they don’t have any marketing cost, which increases your profit.

Our team is now daily making offers on MLS properties. And the best part is that these properties are being automatically emailed to us each day.

Here’s how we’re finding good MLS deals:

  1. Have your Realtor friend set-up...
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Why You Should Own a Business

life hacking Sep 15, 2023

Do you own a business?

I’d guess that most pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders do not.

I’d like to give you 10 reasons why I think you should consider it.

  1. A business can add an additional stream of income. I’ve talked extensively in these newsletters about the importance of having multiple streams of income. I advocate having enough streams of income that if one dries up, the others can cover your basic expenses.
  2. A business can protect you if you lose your job. Jobs are not guaranteed. Most of us in ministry know this first-hand. Your church/ministry/organization may have the funds to pay you now, but they may not be able to pay you 6 months from now. Many church leaders learned this during the pandemic. Having a business allows you to be in control of at least one of your sources of income.
  3. A business can give you great flexibility. This is ideal for those of us in ministry. You can come & go as you please. And you can make extra money on the side in...
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Finding a Niche as a Real Estate Agent

agent hacking Sep 07, 2023

Chances are your market has a TON of real estate agents.

And they’re all vying for the same clients.

And many of them are working full-time at it.

How could you possibly compete?

Answer: Find a niche!

Here are a few examples:

  • One pastor I know lives in a suburb outside a large market. When he got his license, he knew it would be hard to compete in the large market. Instead, he decided to become the go-to guy in his small suburb. He’s now one of the top agents in that area & still does this on the side to support his ministry.
  • A pastor’s wife I know got her license & had trouble finding clients initially. There were so many agents in her area. She began to focus primarily on her neighborhood. Many of the other agents didn’t live in her area & so she could make an effort to just get the clients around her. Not only has she started doing that, but they’ve even referred some of their friends to her as well. She found her niche.
  • Another...
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One Deal Can Change Your Financial Life

flip hacking Sep 01, 2023

Real Estate Investing is unique in that you don’t get paid for your time, you get paid for the value you add.

You could work 100 hours and make absolutely nothing.

Or you could work 10 hours and make $25,000.

It’s all about providing value.

If, as a Realtor, you represent someone who sells a $750,000 home & you & your broker make 3% (typical commission on one side of a transaction in Texas), you’d be splitting $22,500.

If, as a Real Estate Investor, you buy a home in need or repair for $100,000 and you put $50,000 in it and sell it for $200,000, you just made $50,000.

The pay in these transactions is not based on how much time you worked. Whether it was a lot of time you spent or very little, the pay doesn’t change.

This is why doing something in real estate can be so advantageous for those of us in full-time ministry.

It can allow you to make significant money without having to spend significant time making it.

What I’ve heard from my students...

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My Favorite Index Funds And How to Invest In Them

life hacking Aug 25, 2023

I’ve written about index funds in the past & encourage you to start with that article here: Why You Should Invest in Index Funds

That article spoke about the why.

Today, I’ll share about the how.

Of the many advantages of broad-based index funds, two stand out:

  1. You’re buying the entire market, so you win with the winners & lose with the losers & make the average market return (which is better than most fund advisors can do for you over time)
  1. The expense ratios can be very low because it’s not actively managed (and thus you’re not having to pay a significant amount for salaries, research, etc)

For long-term investments, I like to buy broad-based index funds, rather than sector-focused index funds.

Broad-based index funds are funds that buy most of the market.

Sector-based index funds are funds that buy a portion of the market.

The best broad-based index funds are the ones with the lowest fees.

Vanguard & Fidelity are two brokerages...

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Using Google Flights to Find Discounted & Mistake Fares

travel hacking Aug 18, 2023

Have you used Google Flights before?

It’s a game-changer!

In this one place you can see multiple airlines, routes & prices to the places you want to go.

And if you look closely enough, sometimes you’ll see greatly discounted or even mistake fares.

A greatly discounted fare is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a fare that the airline is offering at a big discount because of a promotion they’re running or because they’re trying to attract travelers to that route.

A mistake fare is even better but it’s more rare. It’s when an airline actually makes a mistake in its pricing of a particular route. Maybe they forgot a 0 or someone made a typo. But this is where a $2,000 ticket might sell for $200.

Google Flights can help you find both of these.

It can even notify you about various routes when the ticket prices change.

In addition to looking for these yourself, there are others out there that hunt all day long & tell you about the...

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My Daughter Helped Us Make $16,000

flip hacking Aug 04, 2023

Our real estate flipping business was originally built on direct mail & it’s still our most profitable marketing channel.

We send postcards and letters to sellers asking if they’d be interested in an offer on their home. I also have a course & coaching program where I teach others to do the same.

When sending mail, you occasionally have to change the type of mail you’re sending because what you’ve been sending isn’t performing as well as it used to.

That happened to us recently.

We had been sending out a certain postcard for several years that performed very well, but it wasn’t performing like it used to.

Around this time my 16 year old daughter was also looking to make extra money. She already did some babysitting but wanted to work in her Dad’s business if possible.

We had an idea.

Buy unique craft envelopes in bulk (birthday invitation size).

Have her handwrite the address on the envelope.

Put a real peel & stick stamp on...

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How to Fly Business Class at Over 90% Off

travel hacking Jul 28, 2023

Let’s say you booked an economy ticket overseas with points.

You’re taking your spouse on an anniversary trip and you’d love to splurge on business class, lie-down seats but there’s no way you’re going to pay over $10,000 for the seats.

Here’s a little hack you can try that recently worked for us.

Get to the airport on your day of travel much earlier than you normally would.

Instead of going to self check-in, go to the ticket counter and ask the rep if there’s any remaining business class tickets available to buy last minute.

If there are any, usually airlines are willing to apply significant discounts at this point to sell them.

Ask the agent how much the available tickets would be and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the price.

This happened to us recently on our trip back from the UK.

A one-way business class ticket would’ve been over $10,000 on this particular airline and I already had economy tickets booked for...

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Always Check Partner Airlines For Better Redemptions

travel hacking Jul 21, 2023

Most airlines are part of some kind of an alliance with other airlines.

This benefits you because you can sometimes get better airline award redemptions by booking the flight you want through the partners.

Confusing? Let me help.

I’ll give you an example from yesterday.

I was in the process of booking our flights to go skiing “free” again this Christmas on points.

The best airline to fly to this particular ski resort is American Airlines.

The problem is that their point redemptions are often not the best.

The good news is that American Airlines is in the same airline alliance as British Airways.

I looked up the flights on British Airways, and although British Airways doesn’t fly there, they showed me the same American flights (since they show partner award space) for a much better rate.

So instead of booking an American flight directly through American Airlines, I can book the same American flight through British Airways for fewer points.

Pretty cool,...

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