Credit Cards
Credit cards are vastly used in US, and they give many
benefits to card owners.
Sign-up bonus: It requires card owner to finish a total
transaction amount to get this bonus. For example, the Chase Freedom credit
card provide a $150 bonus if new card owner spends $500+ in first three months.
The equivalent annual return is 120% (150/500 * 4). The zero annual fee makes
holding this card no future cost. Similar cards include Chase freedom, Chase
freedom unlimited, Discover, American Express Blue cash, etc.
Free night: IHG credit card provides one free night in the
world with an annual fee of $49. IHG hotels normally charge $100+ for one
night. It is equal to paying $49 for one night per year. So, it worth long term
ownership since I travel more than once a year. In addition, IHG card also provides
sign-up bonus of several free nights. There are similar cards like Hyatt and
Marriot.
My Cards:
Card
|
Benefit
|
Discover
|
5% cash back on selected categories, Sign up bonus of $50
|
Chase Freedom
|
5% cash back on selected categories, Sign up bonus of $150
|
Citi Double Cash
|
2% cash back on each transaction
|
Amex Everyday
|
15000 points sign up bonus
|
Hyatt
|
One free night per year, 40000 points sign up bonus, $75
annual fee.
|
Amazon (Prime)
|
3%(5%) amazon cash back, $50 sign up bonus
|
Potential Cards to apply: IHG Card, Amex Blue Cash Everyday,
Chase Freedom Unlimited, Capital One Quicksilver
Bank Account
Opening bank accounts also provides sign up bonus. There are
two considerations: 1) How much deposit needed to get the bonus; 2) How much
cost to waive the future monthly fee.
Potential accounts to apply: No, I have had four checking
accounts. Citi priority is not a good choice for me, since the large amount of
deposit to get sign up bonus and fee waive.
Account
|
Benefit
|
US Bank
|
Sign up bonus of $200
|
Chase
|
Sign up bonus of $350
|
Bank of America
|
No
|
Discover
|
Free checks, free ATM
|
Writing blog
I am currently writing articles on structured finance each
month, and I will write about modeling credit risk and how to find jobs in
fixed income.
Motivation: I started to write blogs because I want to build
a reputation in quantitative finance and also organize my thoughts.
Long term: Need to consider how much time am I willing to
invest and whether it is an interesting area worth my time.
Bottom line: It is a good way to organize my knowledge and
thoughts, and it is also a showcase of my expertise. Making money may not be
the main target.
Online Places
|
Content
|
LinkedIn/Blog
|
CLO, Book review, Libor, Financial Risk
|
Twitter
|
CLO, MBS, Leveraged Loan, Links to Blog
|
Potential next step: Develop training videos on Fixed
income/Structured Product; Publicize my written summaries.
Freelance
Data analysis with R or Excel may make some money for me,
but I never paid much attention to this area. The reason is that I have some
concern about over use of my time.
Computer skill storage
|
R, Matlab, C++, Python, Excel
|
Potential next steps: Know more about these tasks.
Passion
Highest passion on finding credit cards, least on thinking
how to be a freelancer. Why? Because credit card is easy to compare, but being
a freelancer is much more difficult and full of unknowns.
Limit
|
Potential
|
Progress
|
|
Credit card
|
High
|
Low
|
High
|
Bank account
|
Very high
|
Very low
|
Medium
|
Freelance
|
Medium
|
Medium - High
|
Initial
|
Blog
|
Medium
|
Medium - High
|
Some experience
|
Next Step
I may spend more time on being a freelancer and Blogger,
since they have more potential to earn a bigger money.
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