Disqus - Latest Comments for Less_Antman

Re: Marriott Platinum Elite Choice Benefits Include Credits, Awards and Charity Gifts

Less_Antman — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 22:09:41 -0000

I have 62 elite nights in the combined program but they tell me I don't qualify for the annual gift choice for Platinum because I haven't stayed 50 days. 18 of those days are from my credit card and are listed as "bonus nights." Do they not count toward the annual gift choice or is this just a bug from the combining of programs? I don't want to spend an hour on the phone and find out that only actual stays count for the annual gift even though I have bonus nights that already put me over 50.

Re: Taoism – Learning the Art of Non-Action

Less_Antman — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 04:41:01 -0000

I definitely agree on The Tao of Pooh. I also love The Tao Is Silent by Raymond Smullyan, which is funny and insightful and will teach you absolutely nothing.

My wife spent two straight hours tonight in our bathroom reading. I'm not sure her Kindle can be found in a state of nature, however. ;)

Re: Pick the Best Days to Fly to Europe This Summer

Less_Antman — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 21:07:31 -0000

I've always focused on Tuesday/Wednesday departures to minimize costs on trips within the US and didn't realize Thursday/Friday might be better for cash travel to Europe. This is a very interesting and useful takeaway: thanks.

Re: Wanting More From Life

Less_Antman — Fri, 22 May 2015 01:02:04 -0000

I wasn't suggesting you live on kibble and water. But is it possible that the search for "meaning" is an obstacle and not the path? You can still pursue goals in the spirit of play, as I do with the miles and points game. Anyway, I'm really enjoying your site and journey down the circular path. It really brings back memories of my own studies when I was your age. You may not find the answer you're seeking where I did, with Taoism, but I'm still interested in your reaction to it.

It sounds like you're hitting some of the good point sites (my favs are Doctor of Credit, Travel Is Free, and Frequent Miler), but make sure you've signed up for Award Wallet and have a system for tracking progress toward meeting signing bonuses. I'm not a fan of MS or churning: my libertarian instinct is to be a good customer for good companies, so I picked up the best cards from the companies with the highest ratings for customer satisfaction (Amex, Discover, Chase, Barclaycard) and plan to give them my spending business for the rest of my life. Or at least my current life. ;)

Re: Wanting More From Life

Less_Antman — Wed, 20 May 2015 09:54:03 -0000

I find both the early retirement and wish fulfillment approaches to happiness to be far too complicated and exhausting. Young children lack autonomy, mastery, and purpose, aren't financially independent, and have little capacity to fulfill their wishes, yet still manage to be happy if their basic needs are met because they aren't smart enough to complicate the matter. Same for my dogs.

Financial independence is nice and luxury travel is nice: I have nothing against goals pursued in the spirit of play. But I think the punchline to ANY "pursuit of happiness" theory is that happiness is most present when you are not pursuing something.

I can't wait for you to try a little Taoism (which IS different from Buddhism).

P.S. Don't forget to apply for the Chase Ink Plus before the 60,000 point bonus ends on Friday. ;)

Re: Which Chase Ink Card Is Right for You?

Less_Antman — Sat, 09 May 2015 05:02:08 -0000

Ink Cash provides a bonus for restaurant spending that Ink Plus does not, so there is a logical reason to want both cards in a single business.

Re: Which Chase Ink Card Is Right for You?

Less_Antman — Fri, 08 May 2015 09:34:40 -0000

Even better to earn 90,000 points by opening Ink Plus, earning the bonus, then opening Ink Cash, earning the bonus, then not renewing Ink Plus at the end of its year unless the primary rental insurance, no foreign transaction fees, or transferability are needed in that second year.

Re: Which Chase Ink Card Is Right for You?

Less_Antman — Fri, 08 May 2015 09:24:20 -0000

Yes, if you have Chase Sapphire Preferred you already have the vehicle you need to do transfers. You'd simply move your Ink Cash points to Sapphire Preferred online and be able to then get the extra value of transferring the UR points to one of the airline, hotel, or Amtrak options. It is surprising that the article didn't mention this at all. Moreover, even if you don't currently have either Sapphire Preferred or Ink Plus, you could accumulate points in the no-annual-fee Ink Cash and Freedom cards and then, when ready to do a major move, sign up for SP or IP, move the points to the new card, and do the transfer. Of course, if you want the benefits of primary car rental insurance and no foreign transaction fees, it makes sense to have one of the fee cards. I'd suggest Sapphire Preferred in that case because the primary car rental insurance applies to all rentals and not just business rentals.

Also, if you are a couple, you only need a single fee card between the two of you since you can move points between domestic partners.

Re: Stocks for Retirement

Less_Antman — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 20:36:08 -0000

Why not simulate Nick Murray's sequence-of-returns approach? It is fundamentally close to a 90-10 stock-cash split initially. Draw from the stock portion entirely except in months when the market is more than 20% below its last peak, when the funds are drawn from cash equivalents. Most people will eventually use up the cash and have to return to stock withdrawals for the remainder of life, but how often will this result in ruin (or, in the real world, the less ominous reduction of living standards or need to annuitize or use reverse mortgages)?

It strikes me that Murray is showing a healthy respect for sequence-of-returns risk in his spigot approach. A reasonable discussion might be whether 24 months of reserves are enough to handle the bear market months that might come early enough in retirement to wreck the plan, but even a 4-year reserve is more than 80% equities. And don't forget the frequency with which the absence of an early bear market allows the stock portfolio to build an insurmountable margin of safety early on while the fixed income approach makes such a lead almost impossible to build.

Let me also add that retirement research which assumes that retirees assign zero importance to gifts and legacies for their heirs and favored charities biases analyses heavily against equities by assuming leftover wealth is irrelevant. So long as you have chosen to explain Murray's view based on his personal situation, let me add that part of his personal situation is working with retirees who love their children.

Re: 10 Reasons Why Fans Absolutely Hate and Despise the New England Patriots

Less_Antman — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 18:13:50 -0000

Mostly a great summary, but it would be more accurate to say the Patriots are constantly accused of cheating because they are hated than to say they are hated because they constantly cheat. Only the continued placement of cameras at ground level after the rules were changed to mandate they only be in the stands actually happened. Exploiting gray areas and trick plays aren't cheating. Accusations aren't proof (see the taping of Rams practices that never happened and the near-certainty at this point that neither did the intentional deflation of footballs). More importantly, note how rules violations of other teams are punished without becoming part of the team's permanent reputation. In the last 2 years alone, the piping in of crowd noise, tweeting to sidelines, stepping onto the field of play to interfere with a ball carrier, and heating of footballs during cold games were all acknowledged violations by other teams but none earned the -gate appendage. Tom Brady throws a ball away under pressure and it becomes Groundinggate.

Re: The Best Airlines to Work for, and Why It Matters

Less_Antman — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:07:09 -0000

Delta isn't really a surprise: customers generally rate the product itself highly. The contempt of people in the travel with points community is about the wretched SkyMiles program, not the airline. Same with JetBlue: people love the airline but you rarely hear a nice word about TrueBlue from points fanatics. I guess my surprise is Virgin America, given it wins most traveler polls for best North American airline. Perhaps it was too small to be included in the survey.

Re: Engineering Simulations Support Patriots' Deflate-gate Defense

Less_Antman — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 09:38:15 -0000

Actually, they weren't tested in the same conditions: the Colt balls were not used for the final 30 minutes of the half (other than a perfunctory kneeldown) and would have gotten warmer inside a bag for a half hour.

Re: What Everyone Knows about Deflate-Gate

Less_Antman — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 09:33:32 -0000

One explanation is that the Colts footballs spent the final 30 minutes before the halftime testing warm and dry inside an insulated bag while the Patriots balls were out in the rain being used during a 16-snap drive. Wouldn't a man wearing a parka be warmer than a naked one rolling around in the rain and mud? That would definitely cause a difference, as did the likely higher starting inflation. Also, to the extent Belichick's explanation is correct, the rubbing process the Patriots followed just before handing the balls to the ref for testing would have caused up to a 1 PSI drop after pre-game testing before the game even started. Just because the issue of the Colts footballs needs to be asked doesn't mean there isn't an answer.

Re: Should we view time cyclically?

Less_Antman — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 06:42:34 -0000

My life changed completely on September 12, 1990, the day I first listened to an audio version of Alan Watts' THE BOOK: ON THE TABOO AGAINST KNOWING WHO YOU ARE. His story of the universe at the very beginning was my personal AHA! moment. Of course, YMMV

Re: Should we view time cyclically?

Less_Antman — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 17:03:03 -0000

In my case, the psychological impact of being in cyclical time is to see the world is a game I'm playing because sitting around waiting for eternity to end gets awfully boring.
The world MUST be cyclical: linear time is impossible as there can be no way to have gotten to the starting point.

Although the temporary implication of this view is to stop seeing myself as separate, that obviously isn't a permanent change (in a cyclical reality, how could it be?) and being the One with nothing that needs doing eventually becomes as tedious as staying in bed all the time, as nice as rest seems when you're not getting enough.

Still love the Woody Allen quip on enlightenment: Having achieved Oneness, I'm graduating and moving on to Twoness.

Set the goals and work for them in the spirit of endless play. It's the best of both worlds.

Re: Three Credit Cards for Mid-Tier Hotel Award Nights

Less_Antman — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 21:38:57 -0000

I agree with your conclusion on the best 3-card option because of the extreme difficulty in using credit cards to accumulate Starwood points, but it seems odd that you'd comment on the smallness of the Starwood brand as a reason not to pick them and then go with the even smaller Hyatt brand as the winner without offering the same note. Imagine planning a trip to Dublin and finding out there isn't a single Hyatt in the entire country!

Re: Big Bad Changes Coming for Already Mediocre Airline JetBlue [EXPIRED]

Less_Antman — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 22:28:55 -0000

Well, there's something to be said for granular pricing. I don't check bags when traveling on business without my wife and I'd rather JetBlue have a lower price for me in those cases. Also, people who use comparison sites are probably choosing JetBlue less often than they should because these sites don't include checked bag fees in the quoted price. Better for them to cut the base price and charge like the others for bags so they show up more accurately on comparison sites.

Re: Big Bad Changes Coming for Already Mediocre Airline JetBlue [EXPIRED]

Less_Antman — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 21:51:37 -0000

I'd like to think Amex's pending loss of the JetBlue card is karma. Tricking people into buying your product is a great way to make one sale in the short run and lose a lot more in the long run.

Re: Big Bad Changes Coming for Already Mediocre Airline JetBlue [EXPIRED]

Less_Antman — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:03:49 -0000

I'm not sure if you're getting my point about the card only getting you 2 points, not 8. If you book a flight on JetBlue.com and pay for it using, say, PayPal drawn from your checking account, you'll still get 6 points (3 on the base fare and 3 for using jetblue.com). If you use your JetBlue card, you get 2 more points for a total of 8. The card is only getting you 2 points. I fly them all the time and 've booked flights both with and without the card. I've earned 6 without and 8 with. The card is only giving you 2 points, not 8.

If you just go to the JetBlue website's TrueBlue page, which is for everybody, not JetBlue card users, you will see:

Earn points on flights

Earn 3 points per dollar spent.
And if you book a flight on jetblue.com,
earn double with 6 points per dollar.

Amex obviously intended people to read their carefully worded terms quickly enough to think the card is providing an 8 point benefit. Their bad, not yours. But I have the card, I've seen the points, and I know the card was only getting me 2 points. I now use my Chase Sapphire Card to pay at jetblue.com and get 6 TrueBlue points and 2 Ultimate Rewards points. I hope this more detailed explanation is convincing.

Re: Big Bad Changes Coming for Already Mediocre Airline JetBlue [EXPIRED]

Less_Antman — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 02:40:33 -0000

If you just look at general comparison sites, they no longer seem to deserve the label. But people who check bags might say so, or people who want more legroom or even a business-class seat that lies completely flat without paying the business class prices of other airlines. My wife and I just booked Mint class LAX-JFK seats for $599 each and I'm quite sure such seats would cost hundreds more on any other airline. So it isn't a totally bogus claim.

Re: Big Bad Changes Coming for Already Mediocre Airline JetBlue [EXPIRED]

Less_Antman — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 20:17:50 -0000

I have a JetBlue card and I'm pretty certain it only earns 2 points, not 8. I get 3 points for the booking itself, regardless of how I pay, 3 more points for using the jetblue.com website, regardless of how I pay, and only 2 additional points for using the JetBlue card. The card is nearly worthless other than the bonus. I could be wrong, but it is hard to imagine any credit card change that wouldn't be an improvement.

I actually love flying on JetBlue, and they do consistently rate higher than the legacy airlines in customer satisfaction surveys, but they're not a good choice for travel hackers seeking dream award travel.

P.S. Their frequent flyer program does deserve credit for making all seats on all flights available with no hassles. For people who mainly want free domestic award travel there is something to be said for that.

Re: Are we too obsessed with progress?

Less_Antman — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:00:00 -0000

Thanks, I think that article does a very good job of summarizing Watts' views,, although there is nothing quite like reading Watts directly and enjoying the spiritual entertainment for oneself.

Re: Are we too obsessed with progress?

Less_Antman — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 19:45:33 -0000

Another very interesting post. I don't think I've made any real progress in my spiritual life for a quarter of a century and I'm happy as can be. I sometimes describe myself as a Taoist, which I define as a Buddhist who is too lazy to meditate. I will sometimes meditate just because I feel like it at the moment (I mainly use a simple mantra), but even setting the goal of enlightenment seems to me to add pressure and unhappiness and to be a form of grasping. I was quite impressed by the writings of Alan Watts when he suggested that Zen Buddhism involves driving you nuts trying to achieve the goal of enlightenment until you get so frustrated that you give up completely and, in that moment, achieve it, because the ultimate enlightenment is accepting that there was never a problem in the first place and the world simply goes on and on with no purpose and no need for one.

I like a sports metaphor (possible not even a metaphor). I am a baseball fan, spent all year counting my team's wins (progress toward the goal of the best record in baseball in 2014) and just attended two playoff games in which our team lost in extra innings and appears about to be swept out of the post-season. I was mock-miserable at the losses because I have a lot of emotional energy invested in rooting for my team to win and advance to the next round, but in the back of my mind I always know it is a game and that their victory or loss is not important. Still, we should play the game of goal setting and achievement (or failure) because eternity could get really boring if all you do is sit there contemplating emptiness forever. Even the Dalai Lama has the goal of a Free Tibet toward which he hopes to make progress.

My approach is to set goals, but in the spirit of a game, and show good sportsmanship whether winning or losing. I personally find life joyful when I treat all success and failure as temporary and, in the ultimate scheme of things, meaningless, and see the universe as an eternal mind (or energy) finding something to do to pass the time.

I think progress is a dangerous goal, except in very small increments (so that success can be celebrated every day rather than deferred for years or, possible, for a lifetime). Process might be better. We might not even be competent to set those goals toward which we then measure progress. What I'm doing for a living today wasn't even on my radar screen growing up, attending college, and early in my career, even though it seems today to be what I was "made for" to my clients and myself.

A long way of saying that I believe you are absolutely right in questioning an obsession with progress.

Re: Your Cravings are Making You Miserable

Less_Antman — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 19:40:34 -0000

Long-time practitioners of Buddhist meditation often speak with great amusement about the incessant nature of the monkey mind in the midst of all their attempts to quiet it. So perhaps you don't suck at meditation at all. Personally, I enjoy the comedy of feeling I'm making progress and then realizing that I just spent my entire meditation session thinking about what a good job I've done of transcending the self.

I'm not at all sure that there is a particular technique needed in meditation. I'm beginning to wonder if it is a matter of spending a few minutes each day paying attention to the mind, whether that means focusing on breathing, thinking of a mantra, chanting a phrase, or just watching the thoughts come and go, so that you're paying attention the next time your mind accidentally comes to rest for a few moments (before the inevitable restart). The occasional moments when I'm fully alert yet have a quiet mind are so inspiring that I don't mind their rarity. After years and years and years, no lights, no visions, no cosmic consciousness, but a realization of how simple it is to be happy. Not easy, but simple.

I've never been inspired by the goal of transcending the self. I'd rather look at the universe as a magical game that comes and goes, much in the spirit of the late Alan Watts. Or to paraphrase Woody Allen, once I achieve oneness, I hope to graduate and move on to twoness.

Re: Islam: Day 27 – My workplace ethical dilemma

Less_Antman — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 06:28:33 -0000

Yes, I read Cal Newport, although I've been taking his advice since before he was born. ;) I see his writings as a splendid modern expression of Stoicism, and also see the idea of doing your best at the task you've been given in the other ancient traditions (e.g., the Biblical parable of the talents). Martin Luther King's fabulous "street sweeper" speech from the 1960s is an inspiring expression of the same idea.

There is a tipping point, absolutely, just as there are times when a libertarian supports the use of violence. But the standard should be high and the evidence strong. When in doubt, stick it out. Only you can decide when you've done your best to make it work.