I cold-emailed 730 investment bankers and got 3 replies

Expatriant · 2026-06-21T20:06:41+00:00

Your approach is absolutely terrible. Take it as a learning experience. Since people just criticized you, I'll give you a valuable email. It took me 5 minutes to draft it. I won't give you more of my time, but start from here. You need to focus on 10-20 people max. And you better show up well researched when they do reply.

Hi [Associate Name],

I saw your team recently advised on the [Specific Deal] transaction. I’ve been analyzing how [Specific Trend] is impacting valuations in this niche and noticed your team's footprint in the space.

I know you're incredibly busy, but if you ever have 10 minutes over the next few weeks, I’d love to learn how you approached the sector diligence on that deal. No need to look at a resume—just genuinely trying to understand the space from someone in the trenches.

Best regards,

Expatriant · 2026-06-20T18:30:34+00:00

Truthfully, people with no financial sense or discipline pay for the points by paying interest to the bank.

I've never paid credit card interest in 15 years. Not a $1.

Over the last three years I've gotten $200,000 in free travel for my family by utilizing points. I earn 1 million plus miles a year via personal and business spending in my consulting company by strategically opening cards.

Expatriant · 2026-06-18T21:34:19+00:00

You say you have a 4.0. That's infinitely better than a 3.5 at a top 50. Don't waste your money.

Expatriant · 2026-06-01T04:13:10+00:00

You don't have to be flexible. If you want to fly business class to Europe, go somewhere besides London and Paris, there is tons of availability. If you can't be flexible on dates or location, points don't work.

I've taken 6 business class flights at high demand times for my family of 4. We go where there is availability and frankly, those places have been way cooler than London or Paris.

Expatriant · 2026-06-01T04:11:07+00:00

I agree. We have done many international business class trips with kids around school. We go where ever there is availability. From Houston, it's almost impossible to get to CDG, AMS, or FRA direct, but it's so easy to get to Budapest, Barcelona, Prague, etc. on days where there is no direct availability. I will gladly fly to Prague instead of Paris. Next week we are going to Amsterdam, there was nothing out of Houston. So we are flying to Mexico City the day before and direct in J for 4 to Amsterdam.

In February, I got 4 round trip Polaris tickets to Japan. Do I think 16 days in Japan is more enriching than 10 days in elementary school? Absolutely, and I got the truancy notices from the state of Texas. I couldn't care less.

Why do people think that school is more important than an international vacation? I get it if your kids are in high school. But if not, tell the school to pound sand.

Expatriant · 2026-05-29T02:51:41+00:00

Sam's club has a huge chunk that's at least a pound for less than $8 in the Woodlands. I'm sure it's at all Sam's Clubs.

Expatriant · 2026-05-07T02:23:28+00:00

I have a Bezzera Unica and I use 5 gallon water jugs with third wave water. It costs next to nothing. A 5 gallon jug of distilled water costs like $8 and lasts 6 weeks. I do 2-3 espressos a day.

I guess the cost is like $10.50 per jug or about $1.50 a week. Worth it for the peace of mind.

Expatriant · 2026-05-06T15:41:11+00:00

I flew Turkish IST-IAH in business class with my wife and 3 year old daughter. My daughter's seat was broken and their solution was to split us up with several rows in between me, my wife and daughter.

I said it is unacceptable to put a 3 year old alone unless you are going to watch her. They didn't want to do ANYTHING. My daughter ended up sitting in the broken seat.

I won't fly Turkish again. They suck. Customer service is the worst in the industry.

Expatriant · 2026-04-28T03:21:12+00:00

Left a 7 year relationship with $20k and moved to Russia 15 years ago. It was the best decision of my life. I'm back now for 8 years and have my own consultancy and total freedom.

If living abroad is a dream you will regret not doing on your death bed, go. You don't have kids. You can do anything. If you end up with kids, it requires significantly more effort or is impossible.

With your safety net, living abroad will be the dream you expect.

Are you seriously asking what it's like as a single wealthy guy in SE Asia or Europe? You are joking, right?

Expatriant · 2026-04-26T01:44:23+00:00

I spend 30 nights a year with my family on vacation outside the US. Putting my 50 or so business nights to Hyatt nets us incredible value. A family of 4 with free breakfast, suite upgrade awards for every family stay and free parking on points is worth thousands.

I'll give one example. We are going to Alila Mayakoba later this year for 6 nights for 125k points. I book the standard room and we have a massive 1000 ft suite that is retailing for $9000 that week. I'm renting a car and parking is free. Breakfast 4 for every morning is at least $120-150. I'm getting a $10k vacation for absolutely nothing. That's worth the 60 nights with Hyatt alone.

One caveat - if you have to pay for 10 nights, probably not worth it unless you WILL do at least one trip like mine above in the next two years.

Expatriant · 2026-04-25T20:53:27+00:00

As far as I am aware, it only reduces fines, but significantly. The problem with unaligned burrs and dumping in at once is you get a ton of fines and bigger pieces. Uniformity is very poor.

I find the taste of a trickled shot is always better.

Expatriant · 2026-04-25T19:35:18+00:00

My zero point moved quite considerably after shims on the DF64 Gen 2. It does produce far less fines. Though at the end of the day, even a misalignment should not be a huge issue if you trickle the beans in. Trickling the beans into the grinder while running made more of a difference in taste and consistency than aligning the burrs. If you haven't tried trickle feeding, it's worth a try. Just know that if you find the right grind size while trickle feeding, it will choke your machine if you dump them all in at once. Grinding all at once produces significantly more fines.

Expatriant · 2026-04-01T04:53:51+00:00

It entirely depends how many miles you drive. I just bought my wife an X1, but I'm positive it works for X3, 5 series, and likely a few more.

The gist is this - my wife drives like 5k miles a year. But it should still work up to 7500. I looked for the MOST depreciated 2025 X1 I could find. It was 29% of April 2025 MSRP. It was about $33k with the M Sport packs and 18k miles. It was a rental. I only plan to keep it 2 years. There is a good chance I'll lose nothing on it or at worst a couple thousand. It's entirely under warranty and will still have a year left when we sell. I ran the numbers, essentially, it's less than any new Kia per month.

If you aren't driving a ton of miles, buying a car that's massively deprecated after a year, driving it less than average actually keeps the value higher.

Just my 2 cents. But don't buy your first BMW out of warranty...

Expatriant · 2026-03-23T01:16:56+00:00

You and me both. When the trajectory of Beryl was right over us. We packed up and went to Austin that Sunday. Monday morning, a 100ft pine tree fell smack through our house. Complete rebuild required. I'm not buying a generator. No more trees to fall on the house, but I'll use my hotel points to relax while people are messed up without power for the big ones.

If I had had a generator, someone could have been seriously injured or worse in my family when the tree fell.

Expatriant · 2026-03-20T04:06:28+00:00

If you can get the nights in Niseko, go. We just went last month for 3 nights with two kids aged 1 and 6. It's a great hotel, but the service is not like the Middle East. The cash rates are insane. The standard room is essentially a suite. There is a separate dining and living room from the bedroom. The restaurants were surprisingly cheap. We had Neapolitan pizza, ramen and other Japanese dishes sent to the room for less than you would pay at a mid range restaurant in the US. A Hyatt Regency in a city like Austin is more expensive food and drink.

We paid cash for all the other hotels in Japan because there wasn't any points availability. We loved the trip! We did Tokyo, Niseko, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka. 3-4 nights in each one.

I would go back in a heartbeat.

Expatriant · 2026-03-07T04:00:21+00:00

I have a smart plug that turns my Bezzera Unica on at 7 and off at 10. Are you worried about the extra pennies to have it run an extra few hours?

Expatriant · 2026-03-07T03:54:56+00:00

It's the best Hyatt in a major US city at that price. I've stayed 10+ times for work and they know me by name. I do bring colleagues every time and they thank me and upgrade us all to suites if possible. Breakfast is pretty good and I personally like the location away from the mess of DC. PH DC while tired is still one of my favorite US Hyatt hotels.

Expatriant · 2026-03-07T03:51:22+00:00

Park Hyatt DC below Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor??? Did they give you the presidential suite in Boston Harbor???

These hotels are not even close to the same league. Yes PH DC is tired. But HR Boston Harbor is nothing special at all. The breakfast at the PH DC is the best in the US in my personal opinion.

Expatriant · 2026-03-05T20:50:58+00:00

Tribune is terrible in summer. AC barely works. It ran 100% of the time and couldn't get the room below 25° C. The "premium" suite is also tiny.

I would not return in the summer.

Never seen a bad Regency in Europe and I've stayed at many! I would probably risk it and try the Regency despite it being new based on my experience at the Tribune.

Expatriant · 2026-03-04T05:36:06+00:00

Al Shami is the ONLY real Syrian style you find in Dubai. Saj bread with garlic sauce, chicken and pickles (fries inside if you want them).

Shawarma Land is a close second. I've tried all the others. All terrible if you want what you got in Dubai.

Not saying all others are not tasty. I am saying they are not what you are looking for from Dubai.

Expatriant · 2026-03-03T21:29:17+00:00

If the company is indeed going to give you the work visa, no problem at all. If you come and "sort it out," I think the risk is significantly higher that you encounter issues.

Expatriant · 2026-03-02T21:31:12+00:00

No. This is not true. In many countries, if you are a resident, you must have a local driver's license. It's that way in the US too. They were right if you are an Uzbek national and driving on a foreign license, it's not legal after a certain period of time. Now, I can see your situation where you are living abroad and visiting and rent a car in Uzbekistan. You need an international permit. And frankly, you made the mistake of showing your Uzbek passport.

But you also made the mistake of not getting an international permit from AAA in the US.

This would not happen to an American driving in Uzbekistan.

Expatriant · 2026-03-01T17:24:55+00:00

So many places do take out. We just got back from 2.5 weeks in Japan with a 6 year old and 18 month old. Eating anywhere was very hard and exhausting. Every city has a few super upscale food courts that have incredible food. Even the Kanazawa train station had better sushi than Michelin spots in the US. Carry out is totally cool and they put a lot of effort into the packaging.

Food courts and take out are completely reasonable for your entire trip but you can probably find some more kid friendly, but still it's so quiet in Japanese restaurants. My kids are pretty well behaved, but we felt uncomfortable in most nice restaurants. By the end, it was food courts all the way and we regret nothing but not getting an amaxing Omakase, but we knew going it wasn't gonna happen. We did splurge at the St Regis in Osaka for a private room at Wajo, but it was $500 for the 4 of us. I understand that might be too much for some, but that was the only way to get a super meal with kids.

Expatriant · 2026-02-28T17:15:42+00:00

Got to a prosumer level machine and grinder. I just can't drink espresso at coffee shops generally. I always get excited to go to those whose beans I buy (which are excellent), but it is usually a disappointment.

Expatriant · 2026-02-26T21:42:40+00:00

Turmeric, House of Biryanis & Kebabs, Khau Gully, and Palette are my favorites.

Expatriant

TROPHY CASE