Credit Cards for Kids and Teens I wanted to get credit cards for my kids well before they were teens. There were several reasons for this: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Several years ago, Capital One reached out wanting to work with me. I ended up partnering with them… Read More
The Ultimate Pre-Travel Checklist
Your Pre-Travel Checklist If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I travel a lot. On average I fly somewhere once a month – mostly with my kids. That’s a lot of trips to coordinate, and a lot of details to think through. I’ve always used spreadsheets to track… Read More
Letting Your Kids Plan Your Travel
Family Travel Planning I have a tradition with my kids that goes back fourteen years: starting at the age of four, each of my kids gets to choose any destination in the world every year for a one-on-one trip with me. It began when my first daughter, at three, said… Read More
When to Skimp on Travel and When to Splurge
Getting Past My Backpacker Mentality I studied abroad three semesters in college, in Italy and Germany, and traveled around Europe as inexpensively as possible over weekends and breaks. I took overnight trains with my Eurail passes, never spent more than $20/night on a hostel, and rarely paid more than $10… Read More
Tips for Optimizing Your Frequent Flyer Miles
Frequent Flyer Miles My relationship with frequent flyer miles, or points, changed forever around 6pm on February 16, 1999. Up until then, I hadn’t paid much attention to my airline-based mileage accounts. I flew internationally once or twice a year, and had a mileage earning credit card, but never thought… Read More
Brand Ambassadors: What Brands and Influencers Need to Know
Brand Ambassador Definition What is a Brand Ambassador? Loosely speaking, a brand ambassador is someone who represents your company in a positive light, generating increased brand awareness and, ideally, increased revenue. With social media, brand ambassadorships have increased exponentially. However, there are many types of brand ambassadorships, and they’re not… Read More
Ten Ways to Travel for Less
Capital One Smart Money I’ve loved writing for Capital One‘s Smart Money series this year. This has included: Looking at Travel as an Investment How to Save for Travel (on Capital One’s blog) When to Skimp on Travel and When to Splurge The Ultimate Pre-Travel Checklist In those posts I… Read More
How to Save for Travel
Saving For Travel – An Introduction I wrote this post years ago for a client’s website, and it’s disappeared, so I’m reposting it here. I updated it a little. Hopefully something here helps you save for travel a little faster! Prioritizing Travel We’ve been traveling with our three kids (now… Read More
Organizing an Extended Family/Group Trip with Relatives and Friends
Note: Capital One sponsored this post to introduce its partnership with hotels.com. That partnership ended January 31, 2020, so I’m deleting some of the information about it below. But this post is still highly relevant if you’re planning a group trip with family and friends! Extended Family Vacations Summer vacations… Read More
Recreating Family Travel Memories in Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole with Kids Note: Capital One and Hotels.com sent us to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to promote their 10x miles hotel partnership – which unfortunately expired January 31, 2020. I’m therefore deleting information about the deal, but keeping this post up since we loved Jackson Hole, and everything else here… Read More