🤑 My Top Finds, Latest Deals, and Best Recommendations (7/19/25)
This week, we'll cover how to design a rich life at any income, what I've been up to (deals, cards, shows, etc.), bank bonuses worth $1,700+, 5,500 bonus points from shopping portals, free BJ’s Club Annual membership, newly launched "Mastercard Collection", 4 ways to earn & save on Hyatt stays this summer, new $1,500 biz card welcome bonus (no hard pull), tips to find a good doctor, and more!
🤑 How to Design & Live a Rich Life at Any Income
Want to live a rich life but your income feels like it's not enough? Learn how to spend without guilt, track the four key financial numbers that matter most, harness the power of decisiveness, and avoid the common traps that hold people back as their income grows.
🛫 Travel, Points & Miles
🛍️ Up to 5,500 Bonus Points via Shopping Portals
If you have any online shopping to do this weekend, these 3 airline shopping portals can help you maximize your rewards. The United one is the most interesting to me. Expiration dates are in parentheses.
- United Airlines: Spend $600, get 2,500 miles (8/11).
- Alaska Airlines: Spend $550, get 1,000 miles (8/4).
- Southwest Airlines: Spend $500, get 2,000 points (8/11).
🌴 4 Ways to Earn & Save on Hyatt Stays This Summer
Check out these four summer Hyatt promos:
- Up to 25% off in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Dates and promo code are in each link.
- 3x points on Latin American and Caribbean. Register by 10/14 for stays 8/1 - 10/31.
- Up to 7,770 points for stays 7/14 to 9/30 (earn 777 per stay for up to 10 nights). Must register here before 9/30.
- Up to 30,000 points for group travel reservations booked by 12/31. To be eligible, contact a Hyatt rep or submit an RFP on this page and use the code ROOMS-2025.
📆 Hyatt Launches a New Award Calendar
Finding Hyatt award availability can lead to some amazing points redemptions, but their award calendar has historically been tough to use. Fortunately, they've updated their award calendar and the new one is a big improvement. Hope this helps you book an amazing stay!
🏨 Save 20% on Last Minute Marriott Bookings
Got last minute travel plans? You can save 20% off Marriott stays if you book by tomorrow, 7/20 for stays between 7/21 and 8/10. Make sure to use the promo code QRI to become eligible.
✈️ Earn JetBlue Points or Flying Blue Miles at CVS
Here are 2 ways to earn via card-linked offers on airline shopping portal apps when you shop at CVS.
- 3x JetBlue points on $10+ purchases online and in-store.
- 25 Flying Blue miles for every $10 spent in-store through 8/24.
🤔 Is the Citi Strata Elite Card Coming Soon?
The Citi Strata Elite card was scheduled to launch in Q3 but is rumored to launch this weekend. The highlights of the card are that it'll offer 6x dining on Friday/Saturday nights, have a 100k welcome bonus, come with 4 AA Admirals Club passes and a bunch of other perks and credits. So far the most exciting thing to me is the welcome bonus, but I'll wait to see the full launch details before making any decisions.
P.S. If you're interested in Citi’s credit card lineup and ThankYou Points, listen to my deep dive on Ep #228 or read this blog post.
🌍 The Mastercard Collection: New Perks & Card
The Mastercard Collection launched as a new suite of dining, entertainment and travel perks for World, World Elite and the new World Legend cards. The most interesting perks to me are priority reservations at top restaurants and access to 190 fast-track security lanes at 30 airports, but we'll have to see how this all plays out as banks consider adding the World Legend tier to their existing/new cards.
🛋 The Latest on Amex Centurion Lounges
First, Amex launched the first Centurion Lounge in Japan at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (Terminal 3, Gate 114) and it looks beautiful. I hope we get to check it out next year when we're heading back to Japan. Amex is also introducing "Sidecar by The Centurion" at LAS next year.
Finally, listen to Ep #224 to learn how you can access the best airport lounges without needing to fly first class by using credit cards, memberships, elite status, and more.
🤑 Latest Deals
🏦 Bank Bonuses Worth $1,700+
Bank bonuses are a great way to maximize your savings, so here are 3 ways to do it.
- Up to $655 from SoFi: Earn $325 when you open a new SoFi Checking and Savings account using this link and set up a qualifying direct deposit. Plus, earn $300 when you use Rakuten to open the account, and get an additional $30 here if you don't already have a Rakuten account.
- $400 from Wells Fargo: For new customers who open an Everyday Checking account before 8/19. To qualify, you need to make $3,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 90 days of account opening.
- Up to $300 from Bask Bank: When you open a new Bask Interest Checking Account before 8/29 and complete the required activities, including an automated deposit and electronic Bask Bill Center payments.
- $400 from Maspeth Federal Savings: When you open an MFS checking and savings account using the code NEW400PROMO and have 3 qualifying direct deposits of $300. This offer is only valid for New York residents.
🛒 Free BJ’s Club Annual Membership
BJ's Wholesale Club has a summer deal where new members can receive a free one-year membership to either their Club Card or Club+ Card. You pay either $15 or $40 for each membership tier and get that same amount back in BJ’s Rewards.
💰 Increased Ramp Welcome Bonus: $1,500
A few weeks ago I shared a welcome bonus for the Ramp business card, which has now been increased from $1,000 to $1,500. To earn the bonus, you need to spend $1,000 and make the first payment within 90 days. Plus, your business is required to have $25,000 in a connected bank account. I just did this and it worked with my credit frozen, so I assume Ramp doesn't do a hard pull or report to credit bureaus.
📱50% + $10 Off Mint Mobile's Unlimited Plan
Mint Mobile is currently offering their 12-month unlimited plan for $15 per month, which is 50% less than the usual rate. Plus, get $10 back if you use TopCashback to purchase the plan.
🕵️ Great Finds
🩺 How to Find a Good Doctor
Finding a good primary care physician isn't easy, so I love this article by Peter Attia that acts as a guide to help you look for the right one. He has a list of 10 questions to ask your doctor and figure out if they can actually become a proactive advocate for your health and well-being. Shoutout to subscriber Corey for sharing!
👨👩👧👦 Tips for Your First Trip to Europe with Kids
If you're visiting Europe with young kids for the first time this summer, here are 17 tips to plan a successful trip. Learn to choose kid-friendly destinations and accommodations, pack smart, balance sightseeing with downtime, and so much more. My favorite tip is to get the kids involved in the planning process :)
📋 My Past Week
I wanted to test out sharing what I've been up to the past week. This would include everything from deals I took advantage of, shows/movies I watched, cards I opened, trips I booked and more.
- Every day I've been catching up on Ryan Trahan's 50 States in 50 Days YouTube fundraiser. He's so fun to watch on YouTube and it's crazy that he's already raised over $6 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- We took a local long weekend getaway to Carmel Valley Ranch, where we were able to book a ~$1,200 suite for 45k Hyatt points per night + a Suite Upgrade Award. Full trip report coming soon!
- I opened my first Ramp account to take advantage of the $1,500 welcome bonus I discussed above.
- Started doing some reading into why the new Invest America accounts might be pretty compelling, even if your Children aren't eligible for the free $1,000. This thread is a good read.
- I've been spending a lot of time building an app with Replit that lets us collect Amex referral links from our members. It's amazing what I've been able to create without having to write any code. The tool can monitor links, confirm with stripe that users have active subscriptions, send emails when links go down and more. The best part is that we've now had members earn over 100k bonus points from their referrals that are linked from our Best Card Offers page.
This section is a bit of an experiment, so email me at podcast@chrishutchins.com to let me know if you want me to keep it up.
Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Hi, I'm Chris Hutchins 👋
Founder / Host
I love sharing my quest to optimize and upgrade my life. Previously I was Head of New Product Strategy at Wealthfront, co-founder and CEO of Grove (acquired by Wealthfront), co-founder of Milk (acquired by Google) and a Partner at GV, where I focused on seed and early stage investments.
💰 Earn More Points in Multiplayer Mode
