Latest news with #travelhacking
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
6 Things To Stop Buying To Make More Money, According to John Liang
In a YouTube video, John Liang, a popular personal finance YouTuber, shared six things he stopped buying to make more money and help grow his wealth. Check Out: Read More: His advice and real-life experiences with losing money these ways provide valuable lessons for anyone looking to get their finances in order. Brand-Name Clothes Liang recalled wearing brand names with big logos to try to fit in. However, he realized that spending money on brand-name clothes didn't actually translate into social status or happiness. Now, Liang said he avoids trends and instead opts for simple, durable clothing that he wears until it's worn out. Take a cue from Mark Zuckerberg's closet. Variations of his oft-worn gray T-shirt and jeans combo can be bought for an affordable price. Investing in a few quality, versatile pieces not only saves money but also reduces the mental load of daily outfit decisions. Find Out: Flights Liang has traveled extensively but admitted that early on, he wasted a lot of money paying cash for flights. He learned to leverage credit card points and airline miles to drastically reduce travel costs. For example, by earning points through rent payments or credit card spending, he cut the cost of expensive long-distance tickets from around $1,000 to just a couple hundred dollars. The points and miles game, also known as 'travel hacking,' can help you save thousands on travel expenses such as flights and hotels. However, you should avoid accumulating credit card debt, make sure you know what benefits you get for your annual fee and always pay your balance in full. Electronics Liang confessed to being a gadget enthusiast but realized that upgrading tech every year was unnecessary. He used a 4-year-old iPhone while growing his social media presence and upgraded his MacBook Pro after six years when it was barely functional. This approach saved him thousands. Over half of Americans upgrade their smartphone every two to three years, while 12% upgrade every year, according to Consumer Affairs. This is often driven by marketing rather than actual need. Unless your device is broken or severely outdated, holding on to electronics longer can save money and reduce electronic waste. And when it is time to upgrade, you can save money by buying refurbished or previous-generation models. Sales and Clearance Items Liang pointed out the danger of 'spending to save' during sales, which often leads to unnecessary purchases. Just because something is discounted doesn't mean it's a good deal if you weren't planning to buy it in the first place. The original price increases the perceived value of the item, and seeing it on sale for less encourages you to impulsively buy in order to take advantage of the 'savings.' True savings come from buying less, not buying more just because it's on sale. To avoid falling into this trap, buy only sale items that were already on your shopping list or that fulfill a genuine need. Buying in Bulk Liang grew up loving bulk shopping trips to Costco but found that as a household of two, buying in bulk often led to waste, especially with perishables. Although bulk buying can save money, it works only if you can eat everything before it goes bad. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans waste about 30% to 40% of the food supply. Buying in bulk is a smart strategy only when you have the storage space and consumption rate to match. Liang and his family still buy bulk items like toilet paper and paper towels, but shop for perishables at local grocery stores to minimize food waste. This balance helps avoid the hidden cost of spoiled food, which can negate any savings from bulk discounts. Complicated Investments This is the most impactful change Liang made. Early on, he lost thousands investing in individual stocks and got caught up investing in complicated financial products. He now advocates for simple, low-cost index fund investing, just like Warren Buffett. According to The Motley Fool, over the past 20 years, just 8.2% of actively managed large cap domestic mutual funds outperformed the S&P 500. By focusing on broad-based index funds, keeping fees low and maintaining a long-term perspective, investors can avoid the pitfalls of trying to beat the market with complicated strategies that often benefit the sellers more than the buyers. More From GOBankingRates 10 Genius Things Warren Buffett Says To Do With Your Money This article originally appeared on 6 Things To Stop Buying To Make More Money, According to John Liang
Daily Mail
26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Race Across the World winner reveals how he travelled across three continents in four days - without spending a penny
A former Race Across the World winner has revealed how he managed to visit three continents in just four days - all without spending a single penny. Alfie Watts, who won fourth series of the epic BBC reality show in 2024, partnered with Virgin Red to test just how far travel hacking - which involves the savvy use of loyalty points, insider tips, and strategic planning - can take travellers. Using 224,000 Virgin Points, the 22-year-old from St. Albans travelled 9,000 miles from Johannesburg to London, before ending his trip in New York City, ticking off bucket list destinations in Africa, Europe and North America in less than a week. As more young Brits adopt a 'travel hacking' mindset, Virgin Red 's latest research shows 55 per cent of Gen Z already consider themselves savvy travellers, with over 40 per cent regretting not earning points on past trips. The survey of 2,000 UK travellers also found over half (52 per cent) now plan their holidays around hacks, and 61 per cent use them to find more affordable travel options. Alfie's journey began in South Africa, where he immersed himself in the vibrant culture of Johannesburg, exploring the stylish spaces of Rosebank and 44 Stanley Street. From there, he flew overnight to London to enjoy iconic street food at Borough Market, before catching another long-haul flight to New York - all covered entirely with points. Visiting Johannesburg was a particularly meaningful experience for Watts, who has long wanted to explore South Africa. One of his highlights was seeing the FNB Stadium in person - the site of the 2010 FIFA World Cup's opening match, which he described as the moment that sparked his childhood love of football. He said: 'It was the first football event that I watched as a kid, that, like, got me into football, which is behind travel, my second passion. 'That was pretty remarkable because I got to see that in the flesh and I just think, being able to explore Johannesburg which someone has been on my list for such a long time. It was really special.' Despite the whirlwind nature of the trip, Watts said the key to making the most of his time was smart scheduling. The avid traveller revealed he made the most of every stop by cleverly using overnight flights to maximise time on the ground to explore each location. He pointed out that while back-to-back long-haul flights are always a challenge, he found the experience manageable, especially with the comfort of premium economy on the final leg to New York. The entire trip was solely covered by Virgin Red points, with Watts revealing he spent 88,000 Virgin Points on his premium economy flight from London to New York - a journey he says can cost as little as 16,500 with more flexibility. Watts commented: 'If I was more flexible with my days, I'd have got a much better deal for myself. But I thought it was important to still show how far you can get using just points because of the extensive route network.' The entire trip was solely covered by Virgin Red points, with Watts revealing he spent 88,000 Virgin Points on his premium economy flight from London to New York - a journey he says can cost as little as 16,500 with more flexibility In total, Alfie used 224,000 Virgin Points to fund the whole trip, which included his overnight stay at a Virgin hotel in New York once the challenge had come to an end In total, Alfie used 224,000 Virgin Points to fund the whole trip, which included his overnight stay at a Virgin hotel in New York once the challenge had come to an end. The value of points, which can be exchanged for flights, upgrades and hotel stays - depends on how they are redeemed, but can be worth up to 2p each when used for business or first-class Virgin Atlantic fights, and around 0.5p for economy flights. He encouraged would-be travel hackers to start off small by checking which everyday purchases and high street retailers are linked to loyalty schemes like Virgin Red. By simply linking accounts and continue regular spending habits, travellers can can collect points without purchasing a plane ticket - even common services like food delivery apps, he noted, can earn points when linked properly. Watts added: 'It can be a really difficult thing to get your head around. Hands down, best thing to do is just go to the virtual website, then see where you spend money.' 'Sign up, link your accounts, and then your Virgin points will just start dropping into your account as you spend.' On Deliveroo, for example, new customers can earn 7 points with every £1 spent, while existing customers can earn 2 points with every £1 spent. Watts also confessed he previously missed out on points by not taking travel hacking seriously - but after this challenge, he's planning to get more strategic for future trips. He said: 'You don't actually realise about how much value you're you're losing out just by just by not linking your account, so it's definitely something that I'm going to start doing. 'I am going away for three weeks, but when I get back, I'm going to properly knuckle down and start being a bit more savvy.' The BBC star is now about to set off on a trip to the US, but playfully mentioned if he could go anywhere using only Virgin Points, he'd opt for 'Virgin Atlantic Upper Class to the Maldives, followed by a premium economy trip to St Vincent and the Grenadines'. For more information on how to set up a Virgin Red account and begin earning points and rewards, visiting the website here.
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
NYT ‘Connections' Hints For Wednesday, June 11: Clues And Answers For Today's Game
Each day's game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today's Connections hints and answers, here are Tuesday's: It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: it's time for another round of Connections! For a while, I considered becoming one of those people who churns credit cards to earn tons of points toward things like vacations and other experiences. Figuring out whether all of that would be worth it for my lifestyle and circumstances would require me to do some calculations, and I just don't know if I have that in me. (I do words, not numbers!) I have a good credit score and a couple of cards for different purposes already. I've used credit card points I've earned exactly one time, to pay for a few nights in a budget hotel about six years ago. In the coming years, I'm hoping to use points to cover a business class fight or two, or at least the cost of an upgrade to that status. But I don't expect to become a full-on travel hacker. Flying is such a pain anyway, and I'd prefer to do it as little as possible. Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us. Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, June 11 are coming right up. Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find our hints Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Let's take a look at one word for each group. Today's Connections word hints are… Today's Connections groups are... Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... Right away, PARENS seemed likely to be a purple word. I just had that feeling, y'know. It matched well with ASTERISK and NUMBER, so I figured that there was some kind of typography thing going on. I remembered that DAGGER is a type of text mark as well – it looks like this †. So I had the purples sewn up. The yellows were pretty straightforward, thanks to SHOW OFF. As I thought about the shape of a FLIGHT PATH, which has to factor in the curvature of the Earth, the greens jumped out at me. That left the blues for the win. COUNT refers to Count Chocula, while Rice Krispies trio Snap, Crackle and Pop are ELVES. The LEPRECHAUN is the mascot of Lucky Charms, of course, and you may well see a ROOSTER on boxes of Kellogg's Corn Flakes. That perfect game extends my streak to 106 wins. Here's the grid: 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Thursday's game if you need them. P.S. I'm gonna offer you something a little different as a recommendation today. I have seen way, way too many video game trailers over the last week as part of an annual series of showcases that all take place around the same time. This is the one I keep thinking about more than the others. I've never seen anything quite like it. I don't particularly care much for boxing games (or boxing in general), but I am very much looking forward to playing Felt That: Boxing as soon as I can. It's a boxing game with puppets, and the trailer is designed to mimic the plot of an underdog sports movie. I really enjoyed this clip. Sure, the humor is a little puerile, but I'll forgive that for a project that immediately stood out from the dozens of other video games that were revealed in recent days: Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and others! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
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Travel + Leisure
08-05-2025
- Business
- Travel + Leisure
This Travel CEO Says Last-minute Bookings Can Be the Cheapest Way to Fly—Here's Why
From travel hacking to flying during the shoulder season, there are endless ways to save a few extra dollars when planning a vacation. One surprising trend involves booking flights a passenger never intends to board—and it has helped some travelers save thousands. Known as 'skiplagging,' the concept involves booking a flight with a connection that is cheaper than flying to a destination directly. For example, a traveler looking to get from New York City to Miami may find it more affordable to book a flight from New York City to Chicago with a layover in Miami, and then not board the second leg of the ticket. As people randomly scoured airline websites for the best skiplagging deals, start-ups such like Skiplagged have grown to help travelers find these discounts. 'Last-minute bookings are on the rise, especially among younger travelers who are waiting for price drops instead of planning in advance,' Skiplagged CEO Aktarer Zaman told Travel + Leisure. Zaman said skiplagging's growing popularity is two-fold: the pain of increasing prices on airline tickets and consumers becoming savvier about how airlines price the fares. He added that travelers who set price alerts, use tools like VPN to obscure their location, and compare prices across sites likely find better deals than booking directly with the airline. Airlines don't like skiplagging because it exposes the way they overpriced routes. The reality is that if airlines wanted to eliminate this practice, they could simply adjust their pricing to make direct flights more affordable. — Aktarer Zaman, Skiplagged CEO The amount of money that can be saved using skiplagging varies. Skiplagged told T+L that passengers recently saved $10,716 on two international tickets from Tokyo to New York City. Within the U.S., another passenger saved $4,255 on two tickets from Houston to Seattle. While skiplagging may be a unique way to book a ticket, the practice has recently faced controversy. American Airlines filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged in 2024 over its business practices and copyright infringement, and a federal jury awarded the carrier $9.4 million. 'American is pleased the jury recognized that Skiplagged infringed its valuable trademarks and awarded $9.4 million in damages for copyright infringement,' a spokesperson for American Airlines told T+L. 'This was an important next step in protecting American's intellectual property and valuable brand.' For its part, Zaman said the practice democratizes airfare pricing and allows more people to travel. 'Airlines don't like skiplagging because it exposes the way they overpriced routes,' Zaman told T+L. 'The reality is that if airlines wanted to eliminate this practice, they could simply adjust their pricing to make direct flights more affordable. Instead, they've chosen to enforce rules that benefit their bottom line while leaving consumers with fewer options.' Airlines for America, an industry group representing carriers in the United States, did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication. For travelers interested in trying the service, Skiplagged said that 99.7 percent of customers have flown without issues. However, there are limitations, like not being able to check bags to a final destination. Another potential concern is if a flight gets rebooked or switched to a direct route without the layover, passengers could find themselves on a different vacation altogether ... or may need to "skiplag" back home.
