u/AverageOk8514

Ive been the legend level for years, the app shows me I get 15% bonus on recharge, but I just noticed that I have not been getting the 15% bonus.. I assume it because I usually recharged on a day with 1/2 price games, with a gift card, or with some local coupon promotion, but not sure. I recharged with a staff at the desk every time, not from the app. I still have like $100 worth of DB gc that I bought on sale for $90. I’m wondering what should I do in order to maximize coins and get the 15% bonus? I assume buying the most $ option and add supercharge is way to go, should I use my gc, or use credit card, does it matter, what if they still don’t give me the 15% as always?

I have had the IHG select card for ages, it’s been great, $49 AF is well worth the free night yearly. Also the 10% rebate on points redemption is great but I’ve seen others able to stack the 4th night free on award nights, which the free AF card has, can I apply for the free Travelers card while keeping the Select card? Some said Chase only allows 1 personal IHG card…but i couldn’t find it on Chase’s site

I’ve never got around to use the credits.. I’ve been reading that people found ways to “use” it by booking and canceling, without clawbacks. It’s a few weeks left in June to use the first $200, I have no travel plans in the near future…. anyone got tips how to use it otherwise? Can I book an eligible stay far out like December, and then cancel it next month, will I still get the credit? Not sure how to make them charge the room now

Have a small in-ground pool. Planning to travel July and August. I haven’t opened the pool yet, if I open it now I probably have 3 weeks (minus the colder days) to use it before closing it again. Maybe it makes more sense to leave it closed for this year and open next year, is it an option though, like do I have to open it anyway, shock and clean it, rebalance chemicals, add algaecide?

Never had this before or maybe just didn’t notice it. I bought some SHAK shares 2 weeks ago, it went down so I sold half of it about a week ago, and then it kept going down so I just sold the rest today, both at loss, all my other trades are either space or AI, I didn’t buy anymore since I first bought it, but somehow it flags my SHAK loss as wash sales, like that’s the one and only food/restaurant stock I have, why would it be a wash sales and disallowed my short term loss? How do I get back that loss?

All the day traders out there, assuming no worked income otherwise, given the current high mortgage rate like over 7%. When buying a first home, is it better to wait till you got enough $ to pay full price or still get a mortgage? Say for example if the house is 500k, and say by year end if I have made 500k in stocks and crypto(big assumption I know). In such case is it better to cash out the position and buy the house up front? Obviously capital gain tax is a huge factor here.

Things to consider:

1. capital gains taxes are high, Fed and state taxes plus NII 3.8% can easily rob like 35-40% out of the gains, so I will have to make like 800k+ in order to get 500k after tax.

2)buying outright obviously saves mortgage interests, and also de-risk the market risk in case a bubble or big crash happens. It’s as if I got a risk free investment that pays 7% to myself, am I thinking it right?

3. if going through mortgage route, would the rates be worse without fixed, worked/earned income? Like they see you’re just day trading and make some $ that way(or loss). I heard others say if you have a position equal to or more than the value of the loan, you can easily get a mortgage that way but I’m concerned about the rates being higher, how much higher would that be roughly?

4)mortgage route has double tax benefits, obviously avoiding a big sudden gain now, and also the interest paid is tax deductible (true benefits is lesser the base amount of standard deduction)

Anything else I missed?

I made a terrible mistake of applying the Alaska CC AND purchasing tons of miles right before COVID. It used to be Alaska miles obviously, and it was like 50k miles business class on Cathay from US to HKG, or 70k miles for first class, which was insane value, not to mention Starlux business used to be like 60k miles range between Asia and LAX/SFO. Needless to say all my travels were canceled or stopped due to COVID and was stuck with all these cash paid miles…. I just checked and it’s like all 250k miles for business class between US and Asia for almost year round. Have they devalued so much that nobody bothers anymore? American miles and UA miles are still quite usable comparatively. Anyone got good value award options for ATMOS now?