I write about a lot of different things: leadership, faith (especially Sabbath, worship, and discipleship), and family. But I also enjoy writing about finance.

I write about finances because, frankly, I enjoy it. I enjoy learning about personal finances and how to best save, spend, and invest my money. Finances are like one of those “choose your own adventure” books where you can make bad choices, good choices, and great choices, but each choice leads you down a particular path.

I also enjoy thinking about money theologically; after all, Jesus talked a LOT about money. I also have a core conviction that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1) and that money can either enslave us or be a means of God’s freedom.

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With that in mind, I’m writing this more from the enjoyment-side than the theological-side (though I believe everything is theological). And I recognize that I write this article from a place of privilege and that many people don’t have the luxury to view finances from an “enjoyment-side” of things.

But I’ve stumbled across something that I think is fun and exciting and want to share it with you. It’s called “travel rewards.”

But first, a disclaimer. This isn’t financial advice or travel advice or life advice of any kind. Go elsewhere for those things. This isn’t even advice. It’s just me sharing something I’ve learned as an invitation for you to learn about it as well, if you’d like.

Through the ChooseFI podcast, I learned about this thing called “travel rewards.” (And if you’re interested in what I’m about to say, you should 100% check out what they have to say about travel rewards here.)

Basically, if you’re a responsible user of credit cards (paying the full balance of your cards on time and in full), have a relatively high credit score, and are willing and able to stack some of your regular purchases into a period of a few months, you can travel for free or nearly-free.

My wife and I just did this.

About a month ago, we went to a conference in Texas. Our flight, hotel, and car rental would normally have cost us $1,287 (we would have chosen much cheaper options if we were paying out of pocket). Instead, we paid $22.40 (fees for the airlines).

This is because over the last few years, we have each gotten two different travel rewards credit cards (specifically, the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Citi Strata Premier Card). With each of these cards, they offered a Sign-Up Bonus if you spend a few thousand dollars in the first few months (the terms are specific about how much money in how much time).

Between our regular spending and good timing (during a kitchen renovation, before travel, Christmas expenses, etc.), we were able to easily hit these “minimum spends,” as they’re called. Then we got large bonuses of the credit cards’ rewards points, which we were able to transfer to a variety of hotel, car rental, and airline rewards programs.

As of the writing of this article (6/13/25), you can sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and, if you spend $5,000 in 3 months, you’ll get a bonus 60,000 points (for reference, our $1250+ trip was 96,910 points… and frankly, it wasn’t even what’s considered a great redemption for travel points).

The rabbit hole of travel rewards is a deep one, with many nuances and hacks and ways to get incredible redemptions. I feel like I’m only an inch into the rabbit hole and yet I’ve still been able to get incredibly cheap travel from my everyday spending.

By far, my favorite card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred but I also really like the Citi card. If you’re interested in the Chase Sapphire Preferred, I’d appreciate you using my signup link to apply for it (full disclose I’ll get 10,000 bonus points if you sign up using my link).

If you’re interested, take a look at ChooseFI’s information on Travel Rewards. Also, 10xTravel and The Points Guy are helpful resources.

Hope I’ve introduced you to something new that you’ll enjoy as much as I do!

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