What's In My Wallet - Spring 2025 (My BEST Setup So Far)

[00:01] new quarter here in April of 2025. So that means I've got a bunch of new card setup to get max value back from all my spending. So let's go ahead and jump right into what's in my wallet for the second quarter of 2025. Starting

[00:14] with one of my favorite no annual fee credit cards, which is the Chase Freedom rotating multiplier card that earns 5x points per dollar in categories that change up every 3 months. And for the period from April through June of 2025,

[00:27] Amazon and select streaming services. For me personally, that Amazon category I'll definitely be using this card the most because my wife Jackie and I just order a ton of stuff off Amazon, like pet supplies, household items, and even

[00:41] protein powder and sunflower butter that I eat because I'm allergic to peanuts Flex, you're going to be limited to earning 5x back on only the first $1,500 rotating categories each quarter. But because Jackie also has this credit

[00:56] card, we basically have an additional $1,500 of 5x spending on her card every Chase Freedom cards that work pretty Flex because they also earn 5x back in rotating categories with the same $1,500

[01:10] 5x earning limit every 3 months. So, in theory, we actually have up to $6,000 in 5x earning potential across these four cards, which is definitely more than we though select streaming services are also one of the rotating 5x categories

[01:23] here in Q2 of 2025, I'm really not going to get a ton of value from it, honestly. we have certain subscriptions set up. Right now, our largest streaming expense is around 87 bucks per month with Hulu Plus live TV, but we pay that with our

[01:36] back thanks to the digital entertainment after that, we just have a few cheap subscriptions for Netflix, Spotify, and for those platforms over to my Chase Freedom Flex, but that's only going to

[01:50] per month. So, yeah, for me, the Amazon winner this quarter here on this card. However, there is going to be another that we're going to be using a lot over the next 3 months that most people might

[02:04] not expect from me, and that is going to be the Discover it cashback card. Now, the Discover it only earns 5% cash back in rotating quarterly categories versus that the Freedom Flex earns. But right now, for the second quarter of 2025,

[02:18] Discover has grocery stores as one of its 5% categories. And groceries are spend in our budget, which is part of the reason why I'm going to be using part of the reason why this card's in my wallet is because I'm still in my first

[02:30] that means I'm still going to be eligible for their cashback matching program where Discover basically will match any cash back that I earn during this first year dollar for dollar. Now, the Discover it also has a $1,500 5%

[02:42] that I'm basically going to be eligible to earn up to $75 in cash back for Q2 if I max it out. But with the cash back match of another $75 on top of that from Discover, which I'll get at the end of the year, that's going to be up to $150

[02:56] in total that I can get back here, which effectively makes this a 10% return on grocery budget, we're going to easily spend $1,500 on groceries over the next really solid amount of cash back that we'll earn. And then after I max that

[03:10] ahead and swap in my normal grocery store card, which is going to be my MX as another card that I'll have in my wallet. Now, the MX Gold earns 4x points on groceries from US supermarkets compared to the effective 10% cashback

[03:24] my Discover it card with groceries for this quarter. And even though I can sometimes redeem the points that I earn from my MX gold for pretty high cent per like to value my flexible bank points that I earn from a card like this at 2

[03:37] that's generally going to be the average rate when I'll decide that a certain redemption is a good use of my points. And so by setting the value of my credit makes the 4x grocery category here on the gold card worth effectively 8% back.

[03:51] operations with groceries for this quarter, 10% back in value on the Discover it card is going to beat 8% back in value on the MX Gold. And so these cards in that way for the second quarter. Obviously, there's going to be

[04:05] than 2 cents per point out of my MX points. But in my opinion, setting a just going to be more realistic because getting around 2 cents per point is much maybe 4 cents per point. But like I always say, there's really no perfect

[04:20] points because there's also so much personal preference that comes into play as well. Now, in my wallet setup, the American Express Gold card is also going restaurant spending. So, this is typically going to be my dedicated

[04:32] out to a restaurant or anything like that. And then there's also a few other try to use throughout the year when it makes sense. I already use the $50 resi this year that works on restaurants that are part of the resi program. And then

[04:46] least maybe once per month on average whenever I'm out traveling. But yeah, main food spending card in my wallet setup and it's still valuable enough for more about it with the full review video I did, which I'll go ahead and link to

[05:01] about optimizing how I spend my money here in this video, I figured it's also saving my money. And to me, that means using the right high yield savings have sitting around. Not only does a high yield account give me quick access

[05:16] insured, but it also allows me to earn hundreds of dollars in interest every that traditional savings accounts offer. I've got a whole list of high yield description if you're interested in learning more about this. And as always,

[05:31] support the free content here on this channel. So, thank you to anyone who uses those links. Now, next here in my wallet, I've got my Built Mastercard watched my videos before. So, this is going to be a no annual fee card that

[05:43] allows me to earn 1x bill point per dollar on my rent payments without the rent payment that Jackie and I have might seem pretty high or even kind of have a three-bedroom place which includes this whole separate YouTube

[05:56] studio space. And for that, we pay around $3,500 per month that we're able to actually get rewards back for paying. That means we earn 3,500 super valuable bill points per month on rent, around 42,000 points per year at the moment.

[06:08] love having transfer partners like Hyatt and Alaska Airlines with Built along we do plan to buy a house later on this year, so earning points on rent is an end sometime soon for us, but Built has teased that they plan to offer some

[06:22] sort of a way to earn points on mortgage payments later on in 2025. So, we'll see to take advantage of that. Also, one other requirement here to earn points have to make sure I'm using this card at least five times each statement period.

[06:36] up subscription services to get charged on the first day of the month to my requirement. Paying for subscriptions on the first day of the month allows us to promotion where we're able to earn double points on that spend. However,

[06:49] now going over to my Chase Freedom Flex for this quarter. I'm just going to go ahead and go back to how I originally used my Built Mastercard, which was just swipe it anytime I go to a local coffee shop, which Jackie and I do at least

[07:02] that is that the Built Mastercard also earns 3x points per dollar on dining, So yeah, this is going to basically be my rent and my coffee card for the rest of Q2 2025. Now after that, another card that's sort of been a staple in my

[07:16] the City Custom Cash. And this one is just the gas credit card that we use to The way that works is that the custom cash earns 5% back or really 5x city eligible spend category each billing cycle. And gas stations is one of those

[07:31] 10 eligible categories for this. So, we just only use this card to pay for gas. And that makes this our highest area spend by default. We then take the and then combine them with the City Strata Premiere that I have as well. So,

[07:43] transfer them out to travel transfer partners. And what's really cool right now is that as I'm making this video, City just announced a 30% transfer bonus to try to take advantage of with all the points that I've saved up from my custom

[07:57] cash. Now, that bonus expires on May 17th, 2025 for anyone that's watching you want to stay uptodate on any transfer bonuses like this, so that way ahead and subscribe down below to our free newsletter where we just keep track

[08:10] of these transfer bonuses in every email that we send to you. We also go over a of miles inside of that newsletter. And then we cover a bunch of other personal about as well. So again, the link to that is going to be down below in the

[08:23] subscribe button to this YouTube channel if you haven't clicked that already 80% of you who watch our videos here are here for the catch-all credit card inside of my wallet, I'm going to be

[08:36] going back over to the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, which earns 1.5x Chase kind of go back and forth between using this card versus the Capital 1 Venture X card that we have, which earns 2x back on everything, as my catch-all option.

[08:49] with the Chase Freedom Unlimited here for this quarter in 2025 is pretty much some more of our Chase points for a trip out to Napa Valley later this quarter. lower on Chase points again, we're going to go ahead and prioritize earning more

[09:03] of those here with the Freedom Unlimited card for other future Hiatt transfers. Now on that Nappa trip, we're going to be staying at the Aila Napa Valley High hotel when we stayed there a few years back. And for anyone that's curious, our

[09:15] three night stay would have normally cost us around $5,700, but we were able to transfer and redeem 130,000 points from Chase and built points instead to get a redemption of around 4.38 cents per point, which is honestly really

[09:28] great value for a hotel stay. Now, Alas are more of a luxury hotel brand with inflated cash prices, which also inflates the scent per point value here. great redemption for us right now because we also have top tier high

[09:41] us to save at least some money on breakfast at this property, which is here can get a bit pricey. However, to help sort of offset some of the other up having at the Ola, I'm also going to have my Chase World of Hyatt credit card

[09:55] option for us to have because we can earn up to 9x total Hyatt points per which includes restaurants that are operated by Hyatt. We're actually also property this quarter down in the Bahamas. So, this card could be a really

[10:10] well. But, I am going to have to do a bit more research to see exactly what trigger that elevated height multiplier around that property if I use this card. that, then go ahead and comment down below. Now, because I've got a couple of

[10:25] ahead and have my Chase Sapphire Reserve card with me inside my wallet for random back. But I'm also going to have this card so that me and Jackie can get into in my home airport in Philadelphia before we fly out for some of these

[10:40] the other month kind of right after it opened. And I really like the fact that I can bring Jackie as a guest for free versus the no free guest policy that MX one they have in Philly as well. So for this quarter, I'm just going to go ahead

[10:54] card behind and out of my wallet setup. Besides the occasional use of maybe some go ahead and use the Sapphire Reserve for renting a car when we fly into San quarter. And what's great is that the CSR comes with primary car rental

[11:09] worry about buying any extra coverage like that for the car rental company expenses, that's where I'm just going to be using the Chase Inc. Unlimited card as my catch-all option over there to earn 1.5x Chase points per dollar on all

[11:23] could go with a different 2x catch all business card like the MX Blue Business again, with the goal in mind of just earning more Chase points for high transfers in 2026, the Inc. Unlimited is just going to be the easier option to

[11:36] use. I also carry a Charles Schwab Platinum debit card with me inside my really just a free debit card that I get with my no fee Schwab investor checking pretty much just because it gives me unlimited ATM rebates for cash

[11:50] great feature to have that I've used both here in the US as well as in other whenever I need it without worrying about ATM fees. But I only keep a few hundred inside that account at any one time because like I said earlier, I just

[12:04] yield savings account. So, if you want to learn more about which high yield ones out there on the market right now in 2025, then make sure to go ahead and check out this video over here on the screen next. But as always, thanks so

[12:18] much for watching and I'll see you in the next