About Harlan

Just a dude living in Memphis, traveling, and working toward financial independence.

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I freaking love feedly (a review)

by Harlan 1 Comment

<3

<3

 

In the wake of Google Reader’s demise, I scrambled, like everyone else, for a solution to find a new content aggregator for my daily blog consumption habit. In the beginning, I was hoping that Digg’s Reader would be a good replacement. It ended up being a valiant effort, but no dice. I signed up on the first day – keeping in mind that it was still very much in beta. I didn’t like how there was no unread post count, and no way to connect the desktop version with the iPhone app. I also didn’t like that my “Uncategorized” subscriptions sat on top of my categories. Small stuff I know, but Google Reader had it super figured out. Oh, and it was slow as shit. And had no search function. And just… wasn’t getting me there.

Flash forward to now. Digg Reader has added all the things I immediately wanted, and sped up the service tremendously. The app is great, and so are all the added options. But it was too little, too late. Another suitor swept in from the sidelines. Enter feedly (all lowercase).

feedly just “got it.” They seemed to really understand what a content aggregator/RSS service/blog scraper should be. In the beginning, I couldn’t stand how I had to have that stupid Chrome extension installed on both my home + work computers. Not to mention there was no app to speak of. Pffft, I thought. Fuck them. I didn’t even care that they got the unread post count right.

But then…

They made everything cloud-based. They sped it up to rival Google Reader’s speed. The app picks right back up where I left off from the desktop. They have themes! And options! And lots of other little things that make me want to use exclamation points! And from a design point of view, it’s incredibly simple and functional. It also updates automatically, just like Google Reader used to do.

When I saw they were offering a lifetime pro membership for only $99, I swiped my Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express out of my wallet so fast it burned my fingers. I could imagine so many other Brooklyn-based RSS lovers doing the same thing and I couldn’t get my card number entered fast enough. But everything went through, I got the lifetime membership, and am loving the pro version so far. Can’t wait to see what else they do with it.

Also, if you’re using a content aggregator, please consider adding this blog to it. Here’s the link to copy and paste:

http://www.outandout.net/feed/

I appreciate my readers and would love to know: do you use an RSS service? Which one?

 

New York Story

by Harlan Leave A Comment

New York Story

 

 

My new book is available in digital and paperback versions. It’s all about living and loving in the beast that is NYC. I wrote it while I was between jobs last year, and edited it in my free time. Very pleased with how it turned out, and with the response I’ve gotten so far.

For more info and to purchase, click here: New York Story

 

Financial Snapshot 8/10/13

by Harlan Leave A Comment

Screen shot 2013-08-10 at 9.04.48 PM

 

 

I use mint.com to keep track of my credit card accounts, IRAs, and student loans. My student loans are by far the bulk of my debt – about $50,000.

I currently have IRAs with two companies, Fidelity and USAA, and a brokerage account with Fidelity (the one my Fidelity Investment Rewards card plugs into). There’s about $4,000 among them.

My immediate goals are to pay down student loan debt, save up for a down payment on a house, and put the rest into an IRA until I max it out. This will definitely be a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of proposition.

My current salary is about $60,000 ($50,000 base + yearly bonus + reimbursements for healthcare).

My first Financial Snapshot. Really putting it all out there. Here goes nothin’…

Direction

by Harlan 1 Comment

I’ve decided to take this blog in an ever-so-slightly different direction.

Over the past few months, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching about what I want to be doing as far as a career path. I’m obviously hugely interested in travel, and to some extent travel writing, and that’s certainly one side of it. The other side is that I love to mine the terrain of points and miles. I’ve been getting more and and more into improving my finances – beyond just credit score.

I started investing. Slowly, at first. Now I have about $4,000 saved in IRAs and want to continue on a path that makes me financially independent. My goal is to save up $500,000 for my eventual retirement – while also paying off my student loan debt and saving up enough to buy a house in Vermont.

I’m just getting started on this new journey and want to share my thoughts here as they evolve. It’s been wonderful to document my travels and interest in points/miles, and hopefully writing about my finances will be a natural extension of that. It’s way more convoluted that any airline loyalty program, but I’ve found the best course of action is to keep it simple. And writing here will help to keep me accountable to my goals. It will involve a lot of purging, cutting out what’s unnecessary, and keeping an even close eye on my monthly budget. But I’m up for it.

Of course the travel stuff is going to stay, too. Thanks to all the supporters I’ve received so far here on Out and Out. Looking forward to interacting more with all of you.

 

Update: Blog Giveaway: 2 Admirals Club Passes

by Harlan Leave A Comment

Sooo I should’ve totally kept my word and done this when I said I would.

Without further adieu, I’ve selected Manda to receive the two Admirals Club passes.

Manda said:

I would use it on a trip home to see my folks!

Congrats, Manda, and I hope you get these in time to go see your folks. 🙂

I’ve sent an email and will move on to the next winner in case it’s too late or there’s no reply.

Thank you to all who entered.

 

 

Blog Giveaway: 2 Admirals Club Passes

by Harlan 4 Comments

I got these passes as part of the signup bonus for the Citibank AAdvantage Select American Express card, and I’d like to give them to a reader.

2 Admirals Club Passes

2 Admirals Club Passes

 

To enter:

01. Leave a comment on this post telling me when you’d use the passes.

02. Follow me on Twitter, then retweet THIS status: https://twitter.com/harlanvaughn/status/352995490054406144

 

I’ll randomly pick a winner on Thursday, July 11th at 11:59pm. Residents of US and Canada only. You must be over 18 and have same-day ticketed travel on American Airlines to use the passes.

 

A big thanks to all my readers and supporters so far! This blog is a bit new, so I want you to know I truly appreciate all of you!

One More New Credit Card: Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express

by Harlan 3 Comments

Fidelity_investment_card

This signals a shift in my spending patterns and way of thinking, for sure. I thought about this a lot and decided this would be a good decision, for now and for the future.

The Fidelity® Investment Rewards American Express® offers 2% cash back into an investment account on every purchase: no categories, no minimum spend, no signup bonus, but no annual fee. I thought about it. My average spend is about $5K a month. That’s 10,000 points or $100 in cash each month. But then that $100 will be invested and will turn around a further 6-20+% return, depending on where I invest it. In 20 years, that $100 could be worth a few thousand, which is pretty cool to think about and to behold the power of compound interest.

The reason I got this card now is because I have my travel (and all my vacation days) planned out for the next six months:

And that’s in addition to my courier work. I also have a healthy amount of Avios, AAdvantage miles, Skymiles, and Ultimate Rewards points in case I need/want to go anywhere in the months beyond January. So, I’m set with points and miles for now. But thinking further, much further, I’d like my spend to be working for me even more.

This card is quite a hybrid. It’s an Amex issued by a Bank of America subsidy and partners with Fidelity investments. Pretty cool. It gives me the benefits of Amex and the investment power at Fidelity, a company I really like. It didn’t count for or against my relationship with Chase or Barclays or Citi, which is a positve. And, I  have investments at USAA, Betterment, and MetLife, and would like to diversify even more. So I took the plunge, opened a mutual fund account, and got approved for this card. With my travel set, I can set aside some free money for my future just for using this card. That kind of blows my mind. Literally – FREE money.

With some creative manufactured spend, it truly is free, and though I’m giving up points in favor of invested cash for a while, I feel good that I took some time to make a thoughtful decision.

Anyone else have or heard of this card? Do you like it?

Booked: London on Virgin Atlantic in October

by Harlan 2 Comments

I’m a HUGE Tori Amos fan, and have been looking forward to seeing the musical she’s been working on, The Light Princess, for a while now. Well, tickets went on sale this past week and I was able to snag some good seats to both her talk beforehand and the show itself – in London. Which meant I had to get myself to London.

Luckily, ol’ Deltoid just entered into a partnership with Virgin Atlantic – and award space (in economy) is great. I had the pick of about 5 different flights each day, all at the low-level cost. There was nothing in business or Upper Class as it’s called, but that’s fine because I’d like to hoard my Skymiles to go down to Patagonia on Aerolineas Argentina in the near future anyway.

And the point – to get to London – was quickly addressed. I booked some great flights on Virgin Atlantic and cannot WAIT to see the musical. My out-of-pocket cost was 120,00 miles and $369 for two flights. Not bad for crossing the Atlantic.

Cheep! (Most of it is GB tax.)

Cheep! (Most of it is GB tax.)

This, for me, is the true value of points and miles. Being able to pop over to London for the weekend to see this show is something I’ve been looking forward to for a few years now. The day came, I bought my tickets, and I’m able to go without paying very much at all. Now we just need to find a place to stay for two nights, which should be pretty easy. Then head to JFK, enjoy the flights – and the show!

Looking forward to flying on VA metal. It’ll be my first time. Trip report and show report to follow! October 18th!

 

Booked: MEX-LIM-EZE-SCL-IPC-SCL-MEX in November

by Harlan 1 Comment

CRAY

CRAY

 

I am SO looking forward to this crazy-ass itinerary. Basically, I get to SCL for a night, fly to IPC and back on the 25th, then get chill out in SCL for another two days. Then, I head up to MEX and will hang out there for two days before returning to NYC.

It’s all on LAN, in business class, which will earn me a heap of miles and points on American.

MEX-LIM-EZE-SCL-IPC-SCL-MEX

  • 14,051 miles (plus 100% bonus)

  • 21,077 points

Only regret: just one hour in EZE. Le sigh. I really wanted to check out the Amex Centurion lounge there, but I might not have time to even leave the gate area.

But how cool is it that I get to fly to IPC twice in one year? And that this business class ticket was just a hair over $1000?

 

Can’t wait to check out Santiago, Valparaiso, and Mexico City over Thanksgiving!

First upgrades on American as a Platinum

by Harlan 1 Comment

I took two flights on American last week as part of my courier work: IND-ORD and ORD-LGA.

It was booked into K class, which doesn’t earn complimentary upgrades. I arrived at IND a little early and asked to get on the next flight. The agent re-booked me into Y class (as a full fare) for the entire trip back and took four upgrade “stickers” out of my AAdvantage account.

Whatever about the stickers. I knew she was wrong, but loved being re-booked into a higher fare bucket.

Then when I got to ORD, I was actually supposed to fly back to EWR, which I despise. I noticed a shit ton of flights headed for LGA and asked if I could do to SDC onto the next LGA flight. The agent rebooked me (staying in the Y fare bucket), and my upgrade cleared instantly. I flew first class on both segments with instant upgrades both times. Easy peezy (and to LGA).

I knew they should’ve used three upgrade stickers instead of four. I called the Platinum desk, they answered on the first ring, and gave me back two certs instead of just one – for the trouble – although flying in first was really no trouble at all. I took the certs and enjoyed the upgrades.

All-in-all, loving American’s service. They seem more willing to do more “behind the scenes” stuff for higher tiers than Delta will, and with no cost. Delta is all about the nickeling and dime-ing these days.

Content to stay with American.

Although, I must say, Delta makes it so freaking easy to earn MQMs with credit card spend. Especially with the newest offer to get 20K MQMS with the Platinum Biz card. Damn, that’s nearly Silver right there. But oh well, can’t win ’em all, right? At least American lets you qualify on points instead of just miles – which might end up being my saving grace if LAN keeps pumping out these cheap deals to South America.

 

$55 Dollar Cologne for $20 (Staples Continued)

by Harlan 1 Comment

Yeah! It really happened! It amused me.

My Staples drama has been well-documented. But then, a funny thing happened. I got 5% cash-back rewards from my $500 free after rebate purchase.

 

$25 - for free!

$25 – for free!

 

Staples gave me $25 to play with – for free!

So what did I do? Bought a $50 e-gift card to Sephora, right on Staples.com. The card came in my email pretty quickly. The cologne I wanted was $55, but this certificate brought that down, right away, to $30. A pretty nice discount.

Sephora gift card on Staples.com

Sephora gift card on Staples.com

 

So about that other $10 off? I clicked through 2 portals: the AAdvantage portal to buy the gift card from Staples, and the Ultimate Rewards portal to buy the cologne from Sephora.

Staples: $50 x 2 points/dollar = 100 points (worth $2)

Sephora: $55 x 8 points/dollar = 440 points (worth $8)

The points posted, and the cologne shipped free. It smelled all the better knowing I’d gotten it for a smooth $20. Can’t beat that with a stick.

 

Moral of the story: always hop on that free-after-rebate stuff from Staples. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Pretty awesome stuff.

Trip Report: LAN Flight 841 SCL-IPC Premium Business Class

by Harlan 3 Comments

Also see:

As soon as I landed in Santiago, I only had 15 minutes to connect to the Easter Island flight. Shit! Luckily, all planes were being held because of intense fog on the ground at SCL. I ran through immigration and customs like a madman, and thank god SCL is a small airport. I got my passport stamped, paid the stupid reciprocity fee of $160 and sped along to the gate, where my friend Chris was waiting to board (he landed in Santiago the previous evening).

After the lovely flight down from Miami, I settled in to seat 3A still catching my breath. The lady in seat 3C had just experienced the same mad dash, and we got to talking about our plans on Easter Island. She ended up being awesome! We spent most of the trip hanging out. So funny how stuff like that happens.

Anyway, this flight was nearly identical to the previous one: same hard product, very similar menu and service, although a smaller amenity kit with just socks, eye mask, and shoe/laundry bag.

The flight was a hair over five hours, and I spent most of it watching “Life of Pi” which is about 2 and a half hours. So that, getting into airspace, and landing, was pretty much the whole flight. The movie was so good. Dear god. I cried like a little bitch at the end when the tiger walked into the jungle… My seatmate was asleep by this point. Good thing she didn’t see me dabbing the tears out of my eyes.

2013-05-19 12.19.24

Middle. Of. Nowhere.

 

Right after the movie, we started descending and I got my first glimpse of Easter Island. I got a feeling of such complete happiness and gratitude that it shook me to my core. Easter Island is a place I’ve always wanted to visit and it was this flight that made that dream a reality.

Stepping out of the plane was surreal. My first impression was that it was much hillier and lusher than I’d expected. I thought it would be more… barren.

My ride to Easter Island

My ride to Easter Island

 

Freshly arrived at IPC

Freshly arrived at IPC after 20 hours of travel

 

Since this was sort of a “test” of American’s international partners, I’d say the LAN business class hard product really impressed me. The food was so-so, but not a deal breaker at all. I’m really looking forward to having more reference points as this was my first international biz class experience (!). I will say already, though, that I LOVED the lie-flat seats and can see why the other bloggers bitch about the angled seats so much.

Next up, gratuitous pics of a (surprisingly) tropical island!