Reading Time: < 1 minute The stock market has been in a roller coaster recently, amid corona virus scare. When the city of Wuhan was shut on Jan 23, the us market barely budged and it actually went up for a while. Then things changed on the us side. First is the outbreak in Korea and Italy: then followed by
Reading Time: < 1 minute Amex: Amex Offers has a Quiktrip in store (order via QT app) off $5 offer, can be used twice. And the Amex offer appears only available via the Amex app too. So basically you should install the Amex app, check if there are offers, add them if yes. Then install the QT app. The food
Reading Time: < 1 minute Dumb mistakes using airline miles 1) Let it expire; 2) Spend it on hotels, 3) Let myself be the redeemer instead of my old daughter Serenity. Later found out I cannot add my younger daughter (<2) as lap child (the mile redeemed ticket does not have that privilege).
Reading Time: 2 minutes Recently I started to realize buring (use) rewards points efficiently is as important as earning, if not more. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Hyatt I made a small mistake about a month ago when I transferred some Chase UR points to Hyatt. The impetus for doing that was I needed to book 3 nights of hotel at
Reading Time: 2 minutes I decided to switch my wireless carrier again, from H2O wireless to Ting. I stayed with H2O for over a year, mostly satisfied, except recently I started using its per minute data, which seems burn my money quickly. I heard about Ting from friend before, but I forgot to do the referral. 🙁 Anyway I
Reading Time: 2 minutes 十几年前我回国在上海一般就住一个如家或锦江之星，挑一个离地铁比较近的酒店，这样上班办事都比较方便。那时候没有小孩，旅馆主要就是睡个觉，干净清爽就可以了。快进几年，有了两个小孩，住的酒店要求也稍有提高。托酒店信用卡促销的福，攒了些点数或是free nights, 我也升级了住的旅馆。在上海常住的旅馆有，徐家汇的万丽酒店（courtyard Shanghai xujiahui), 她家所在的楼叫西藏大厦，出租车司机如不清楚可提这个名字。另一家是浦东的喜来登福朋酒店（four points by Sheraton, Shanghai pudong, 又叫由由酒店，楼的名字），注意她家旁边有喜来登酒店（Sheraton Shanghai pudong, 5 star vs four points 4 star), 不要搞错。这两家的房间起价大概是800人民币左右。 最近一次有幸住了回陆家嘴的柏悦酒店（park hyatt），这个标价是大概300多美金，我用的是hyatt卡的开卡free nights. 看了下用chase ultimate rewards points 的话是2万点一晚。小孩很喜欢，因为有一些没见过的features. 我的头被淋浴喷头砸了一下。Uncle Major 进大观园。:-) 在美国最近住Hampton inn 比较多。还是觉得Hampton inn 接地气一些。这家Hilton 系列的中档酒店设计简单，实用，且包早餐。一般我这样小兵级别的人出差就住它家。对有小孩的家庭包早餐是一个挺有用的feature. Other hotels have similar feature include Hilton garden inn, holiday inn express and clarion. Last but
Reading Time: 1 minute Courtyard in Xujiahui (formerly Tibet hotel, as you can see the rooftop design, tripAdvisor, marriott website). Good location and friendly people. I recall the first time I visited (2011), I used my Marriott rewards and silver status, the front desk especially got the leader over and greet. I suspect at that time, perhaps there were
Reading Time: < 1 minute I’d read this one first, because it explains the technology and the players. Gizmodo (Adam Clark Estes 5/04/15 3:41pm): Every Major Airline’s Wifi Service, Explained and Ranked Some background why Gogo is the dominant player at this time. Bloomberg (Sam Grobart | August 26, 2015): Why Gogo’s Infuriatingly Expensive, Slow Internet Still Owns the Skies
Reading Time: 3 minutes (Update 02-23-2016) Got the refund from Uncle Sam. From filing to receive refund only takes 7 days via turbo tax web version. Now I am waiting till 4/15 for the state because I owe money to show me state 🙂 (Update 02-16-2016) I filed the tax last night, since I got almost all the forms
Reading Time: < 1 minute This is an email I received recently, it notified me that my former employer withdrew the unvested petition of 401k from my account. You may think it’s bad. But I still think it’s a good deal because I contributed about $17,365 of my own money bewteen 2008/11 and 2010/02. The money doubled in about 6
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