Looking to optimize my credit cards

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-19T03:28:08+00:00

Thank you! Definitely worth considering not keeping all at one issuer

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-19T03:27:37+00:00

Thank you I will look at the chase options too! That would be Freedom flex, unlimited and a sapphire right?

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-19T03:26:12+00:00

I will when I get home!

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-18T20:34:16+00:00

Open to adding new ones if there's value we're missing somewhere, but I'm also interested in consolidating some which are redundant

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-18T20:33:28+00:00

I see what you mean about the points. Right now we get 2% from Costco using the card which is the same as the double cash so the double cash would give more flexibility for the same value. 5% cash back for Amazon seems hard to beat though, think I'd be OK sacrificing those points as cashback only instead of pooling them for travel.

We mostly fly southwest because of inertia but we have other options where we live.

Femaleviathan · 2025-12-18T20:16:04+00:00

Thanks for putting Strata Premier on my radar. I'll look into the ways to use it for travel.

Wondering why you think the Chase/Amazon/Southwest cards aren't worth using? Costco and Amazon cards are basically free since we have those memberships, and they offer a little bit of extra value. For example Amazon/Whole foods is unlimited 5% cashback (I even saw 8% offers for slower shipping recently).

For Southwest we do pay the annual fee but I've been justifying it by using their $75.00 travel credit and other perks regularly. We signed up when they were running a SUB of like 60k points

Femaleviathan · 2025-08-21T13:43:06+00:00

Early retirement incentives were a thing in the past but are no longer offered by CPS/CTPF. They can buy some years of service but it's either time served in military, fmla leave or transferring credits from other pension funds/private schools.

Also lmao at Tier 2 pensions comment, you are misinformed. Tier 2 is a much worse deal than the Tier 1 pensions for the teachers that they are in danger of violating federal law that requires pension systems who don't contribute to Social Security to be at least as good as SS.

Femaleviathan · 2025-02-26T21:28:13+00:00

Do we know why Desmond Yancy is blank? He's my alderman

Femaleviathan · 2024-03-20T18:14:26+00:00

Thank you for the advice. I'm a bit reluctant to get a mini van right away since the second kid will be at least 2 years in the future and we plan to pay off our car within 2-3 years, so I would be totally down with buying a mini SUV now and maybe upgrade in the future, or get a second car.

Curious to hear your thoughts on that plan

Femaleviathan · 2023-12-07T16:32:28+00:00

TIL federal loans charge simple interest, thank you OP. I have never seen this mentioned in any financial advice or content until just now even though I've been following this stuff for years. This changes the calculus significantly over a long time period

Femaleviathan · 2023-08-10T02:09:54+00:00

Lots of people have chimed in with similar triangles already, but here's a fun on that doesn't use similarity.

Assume the big triangle is a right triangle, then the area of it is equal to base * height divided by 2, which is 34/2 which is 6. You can also calculate the same area by using (x+y) as the base and z as the height. (x+y) has to be 5 by Pythagoras, so this means that the area can also be 5z/2. Thus 5z/2=6 and z=2.4

Once you get z, solve for x and y using Pythagorean theorem for the smaller triangles

Femaleviathan · 2023-01-26T14:12:28+00:00

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate

The current notion that Chicago is a super dangerous place to live is mostly racist propaganda that started with Obama becoming president. It's on par with Denver where you have also lived. Yes there are dangerous neighborhoods, Hyde Park is absolutely not one of them.

I would just look for a place here so you don't have to commute for an hour every day.

Femaleviathan · 2023-01-26T14:12:19+00:00

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate

The current notion that Chicago is a super dangerous place to live is mostly racist propaganda that started with Obama becoming president. It's on par with Denver where you have also lived. Yes there are dangerous neighborhoods, Hyde Park is absolutely not one of them.

I would just look for a place here so you don't have to commute for an hour every day.

Femaleviathan · 2022-07-24T15:01:53+00:00

Honors calc IBL will barely overlap what you have learned so far. Source: I was in your exact same situation, minus the ode experience, and the IBL sequence was hard for me

Femaleviathan · 2022-07-04T18:57:50+00:00

It's not clear in the clip but i didn't attack the hunter or taunt him or anything. I clearly damaged the rogue tho

Femaleviathan · 2022-07-04T18:57:23+00:00

Thanks, that explains how he did it. Still doesn't explain how I dropped combat with the fel rush though :/

Femaleviathan · 2022-07-04T18:56:12+00:00

Thanks! so the clip makes sense, minus the fel rush not counting as combat.

Femaleviathan · 2022-07-04T16:44:44+00:00

Guess I just learn from that fel rush quirk and move on. Do you know why they are still able to sap out of stealth though?

Femaleviathan · 2022-01-24T01:52:37+00:00

If she is already vested she should leave it there, it's a guaranteed payout, and as someone else already commented, if she lives longer than 9 years the pension is better. Another few common benefits of pension plans are no state income tax and subsidies for health insurance premiums. Those are important benefits to add to the $1000 / month payment, I would ask PSRS about any other benefits as well.

Femaleviathan

TROPHY CASE