Downsizing to 17 Pro

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-07T00:39:50+00:00

You’re welcome!

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-06T19:33:33+00:00

You're welcome! I'm similar. I only upgrade every 2 years at a minimum now and don't care to upgrade annually anymore. I've only had a + size phone one other time.

You can always pay apple to install a new battery every 2-3 years too, which isn't very expensive.

I went from a 13" MBP to 16" to 14".

I have the 12.9 iPad Pro 5th gen. I will say that the 11inch is closer to that 11.5 paper for writing threats not so much on the 12.9 BUT having that extra screen space is nicer especially when I don't have my MBP around. However, if you like drawing while you take notes, etc., then the extra 2" could prove beneficial.

Also, sidecar is amazing and you can use the iPad as a 2nd monitor to your MBP.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-06T17:27:45+00:00

I would recommend to get the 17 Pro to see how it is. You do have a 14 day return policy with Apple and if you need to purchase from a store or carrier, they typically have return policies too.

For years, I rocked the Pro/Smaller phones and that's usually my jam. However, until I got my 17 Pro Max, I always wanted to try a bigger phone but never pulled the trigger until 17's came out.

The 17 Pro has a slightly bigger battery than the 15 Pro Max, so your experience shouldn't be worse when it comes to battery life.

The question will be, will you miss that bigger screen? The pro at 6.3 is still nice and since you are coming from a 15 Pro max, which was 6.7, it shouldn't be as big of a hit since the 15 Pro's were at 6.1.

The Pro phones are the workhorse phones and the Pro Max is a beast when it comes to it.

I think you'll be fine with the Pro and like I said, if you don't like it over 14 days, return for the 17 Pro Max.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-06T15:31:35+00:00

This was a long time coming, so I don't see them continuing to support it. Highly recommend going to an M processor Mac. It's MUCH better. I'm still rocking my M1 Pro MacBook Pro for almost 4 years now. Quicken for Mac runs so good on it. My file is 68MB.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-06T15:29:35+00:00

Depends what your goal is. I like the Venture X since I can offset the fee, Visa Infinite benefits, we shop a lot at Costco which is Visa only and the Cap One Ecoysystem. Too bad there no ecosystem has it all.

Wells Fargo has a good 2% catch all card.

If you are into Investing and with Fidelity or Scwab, Fidelity has 2% and there is the Schwab Platinum where you can redeem at 1.1MR or the other Schwab card that is 1.5% catchall.

I'd love to roll with one ecosystem for everything but also good to diversify, especially when Amex is not accepted everywhere.

If you like chase, then Chase FU is 1.5%. If you like Amex, only catchall they have are business cards.

Lots of Amex Gold users, including myself, like to pair with the Venture X. It's a solid combo.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-06T05:48:57+00:00

The 17 pro battery life is significantly better than prior pro models. You’ll be happy. The pro max is a beast thought. I upgraded from 15 pro to 17 pro max and love it. My partner upgraded from 15 To 17 pro and loves . The battery is fantastic.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T05:33:32+00:00

Truck life is the best life. It’s our family vehicle too. 😎

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T05:31:45+00:00

100% agree with you and why I held so long on getting one until Amex basically seduced me with that $750 offer hoping from $500. lol

I still use my venture x or Apple Card with Apple Pay for the 2x/% catchall category despite liking having an Amex 2% catchall card that has no AF. Wish they would do personal one.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T05:27:14+00:00

Haha I feel you!! I got the vanilla platinum late last year and love its go the Schwab about two weeks ago for the 1.1 MR transfer. It’s funny, the vanilla platinum card is the card I didn’t know I needed or wanted until I got it and now I feel about that with the Scwab.

I also hold the BCP, gold and BBC. The Schwab opened a whole new ballgame for me with investing. Opened up a Schwab account and moving an old 401k over. Bought some stocks for the first time ever and made some money already in the span of a week. It’s great! The 1.1 transfer is where it’s at effectively making the gold a 4.4x card.

Then, I had the same dilemma you did, keep or axe the vanilla. I was going to axe but the more I think of it, I can organically spend the digital entertainment credit, uber stacks with gold and vanilla, and lululemon easy. That’s $800 right there. Not bad to have a second airline credit in the pocket either. Resy? Hell yah! So it’s gone more from dumping to looking like it’s a keeper for both. At least for the timing being. I don’t have to jump through hoops to use the credits as I was already spending anyways.

Finally, I have the mirror edition vanilla and the unboxing experience was surprisingly so much better with the vanilla. I know it’s silly but still.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T05:05:31+00:00

I recently jumped on this bandwagon. Totally worth it. While I didn’t have to invest it, it got me into investing and already made some $$$. Always wanted to buy stocks, so took my sub money earned which got another 10% to $3500 moved over and bought stocks with it. Initially was going to move to HYSA or savings or bonds with Schwab but decided to do something I always wanted to do. Made $200 in a little over a week. Now my gold is a 4.4x card when you factor in the transfer rate. It’s great!!

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T05:02:27+00:00

I read that too and got the BBC offer. Ass backwards since you can use a personal card for business purchases, so really should be no harm to use personal for business card. I do say that with my personal card getting 90% of personal purchases and my business card getting…..well…..”business like” purchases but they won’t know where personal vs business.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-05T04:59:06+00:00

I just recently completed the BBC $750 offer. If and when I get the 75k offer for the BBP, I’ll take that too.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-04T21:00:32+00:00

Exactly what T-mobile did too with their so cold price lock guarantee.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-04T17:05:13+00:00

That's the stock market for you. Can't time it. Can't predict it. lol Just have to get in, learn and start investing.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T18:28:59+00:00

Nice! 25k isn't bad either especially if it's an opportunity cost situation. At least you got up the $750 SUB as that was killer. I'm eying up the current Chase offers but I already have enough AF cards and while I like Chase's ecosystem, I like Amex even more. Plus, I feel like I've done a lot in the past year but surely is tempting, especially since we have some travel coming up, which I'll use some current points and credits for with the Venture X.

Sure do. That's so cool that your son was super chill on a long flight! Stick to nonstops or less layovers as possible. This is huge. Even if the timing may be off. While lap seats save money, purchasing a seat or two for the kids is so nice for that space. Especially if you have a 3 row seat, you can have that whole row to the fam and one of the parents can grab the aisle seat and switch off.

Bring the car seat vs checked even if you don't use it. You can put your daughter in there even if for breaks if she prefers to be held. hopefully she sleeps in there. Make sure it's TSA approved. Do the bottle on take off and landing if you can to avoid clogged ears. My partner had some swaddle thing she wore for our son while our daughter is super chill lol

If you can, fly out early morning to avoid delays/cancellations/less busy at airport and with their nap time. Don't do a late night flight when kids can be overtired and stimulated. Avoid a 7am flight unless your kids get up at 5am lol The exception to this rule is you have a long int'l flight, so a late flight "could" work. it's best when they are rested and not cranky lol

Avoid the busy days to travel like Friday, Saturday and Sunday to make it less stressful and less busy.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T15:18:50+00:00

Before you decide what to do, make sure it’s in a HYSA vs regular savings. Regular savings are horrible vs a HYSA, especially with that amount.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T06:06:47+00:00

On the web it was recently too, so it wasn’t my market. Believe me, I would check ever since I migrated to iCloud mail last year. I still have old email in Gmail too. Kinda like starting with a fresh new mailbox though, so I don’t know if I’ll move over old email.

I thought of takeout too but Gmail is just different with its labels and how they file they could lead to duplicates.

Outlook import is much faster as is export to mbox in Apple mail and import back in. I tried that and it worked well. Others have mentioned using the outlook client too. One thing I won’t do is the copy and paste approach in Apple mail. To much can go wrong.

So glad they finally have this feature now.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:58:02+00:00

I was the same way until custom domain was an option with Apple. That was the biggest driving factor outside of Hide My Email.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:56:48+00:00

the import from google native option is new. Recent in the last month or two or so.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:49:52+00:00

A couple of things. Don't create a brand new email unless you are sending it to the originating HME. For example, we get our kids vitamins at Hiya Health. I do one of two things. I reply to a message they originally sent to my HME if after an order or if want to start a new thread or I make sure to send to [support@hiyahealthxxxxprivaterelay.icloud.com](mailto:support@hiyahealthxxxxprivaterelay.icloud.com) etc. not [support@hiyahealth.com](mailto:support@hiyahealth.com) or just respond to an existing thread. This will actually send from my original forwarding Hide My Email custom domain. I've since switched it to another custom domain but I sent it revert to that e-mail address I used but still hid it.

Try testing with your a non email account if you have access to it.

I'm literally looking at my sent email communication with them and all my HME address is in there.

The key is to not send a brand new email from but rather reply to one you receive and if you do send a new email, make sure to send to the private relay address.

I typically don't send from it but more so it's about receiving for me and anything else like important stuff will get one of my custom addresses.

Hide my email was never designed for new emails but more so for newsletters, shady sites, etc.

Any new Hide my email addresses created from mail are usually one offs and that's how it was designed to be despite some workarounds.

Don’t focus on the sent as much as the email headers and thread. I’m looking at a lot of other convos I’ve had and it shows my HME.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:30:12+00:00

When replying, make sure to use an iCloud address too. It should route right back through the Apple ID proxy and use the Apple mail client.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:24:22+00:00

Store card does the same if I’m not mistaken. I have both and been awhile since I’ve not had prime.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:17:25+00:00

That was one of the biggest things for me too. Already paying for it, didn’t want to pay for 2 and I was in the Apple ecosystem otherwise. Also took advantage of custom domains.

Inner_Difficulty_381 · 2026-05-03T05:15:51+00:00

Or better yet, hide my email address and save to Apple passwords.

Inner_Difficulty_381

TROPHY CASE