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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

FIRE Up Your Finances with Early Retirement and Credit Card Reward Tips

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Business, Education, Investing, How To

4.2 • 665 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Discover strategies for achieving early retirement with the FIRE movement and learn how to maximize your credit card rewards. How much do you have to save if you want to retire early? Can you double your credit card rewards by paying off one card with another? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss the FIRE movement and maximizing credit card rewards to help you understand how to achieve financial independence and optimize your financial strategies. They begin with a discussion of the FIRE movement, with tips and tricks on understanding different FIRE strategies (Lean FIRE, Fat FIRE, Barista FIRE), adapting financial goals to individual circumstances, and the feasibility of saving significant portions of income amidst rising living costs and inflation. Then, credit card Nerd Erin Hurd joins Sean to discuss maximizing credit card rewards. She explains the impossibility of doubling rewards by paying off one card with another, effective strategies for couples to maximize credit card points like leveraging multiple sign-up bonuses and using authorized users, and the best and worst ways to redeem credit card points, emphasizing considerations such as point expiration, the impact of inflation on point value, and the importance of having a realistic plan for point usage. You can find NerdWallet’s deep dive analysis on the current value of many top airline and hotel programs here: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airline-miles-and-hotel-points-valuations  In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: FIRE movement, financial independence, retire early, early retirement strategies, saving for retirement, credit card rewards points, maximizing credit card points, credit card strategies, signup bonuses, strategic spending, redeeming points, point expiration, inflation impact, credit card authorized users, pooling points, credit card hacks, financial freedom, meaningful work, balancing life and finances, personal freedom, cost of living, inflation, saving income, balance transfers, 0% intro apr, credit card myths, reward points, spending management, travel points, cashback, redeeming points, financial decisions, optimizing rewards, financial goals, and retirement planning. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.0

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0:10.0

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0:15.0

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0:19.0

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0:25.3

Prime Video.

0:27.1

Click or tap the banner to find out more.

0:30.2

It's another day at work, doing the best job a girl could ask for,

0:34.8

talking about money and hoping I earn enough to retire early.

0:38.3

I feel you, Elizabeth. But given the current cost of living, is early retirement still a

0:43.7

possibility? And how can people do that when it can be hard to save anything?

0:50.1

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Now this episode, we are going to answer a listener's question about how to get the most out of their credit card points. Are you better off using them to get cash back or booking airline tickets? Speaking of which, I might do that soon. And what about using them at checkout at Amazon?

1:12.6

But before we dig into that, let's chat a little bit about the fire movement, one of my

1:16.6

favorite topics, and whether it's still a thing considering how the cost of living has gone up

1:21.2

for so many, even though inflation has been cooling lately. So, Sean, you should already know I'm going

1:27.2

to be putting you in the hot seat and quizzing your CFP knowledge. So Sean, you should already know I'm going to be putting you in the hot

1:28.5

seat and quizzing your CFP knowledge. For new listeners, Sean is studying for his designation

1:33.8

and he's almost about to throw up a peace sign after his final exam. So tell us Sean, what is fire?

1:40.9

Yeah, I have just a few more months until I sit for the CFP exam, and the studying

...

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