EP 107: #AskHilary How to Be Responsible with Student Loans & Best Airline Rewards Programs

We’ve had plenty of questions rolling in from the ProfitBoss community, so now is a perfect opportunity to host another installment of #AskHillary! I’ll give my best thoughts on handling our parents’ money mindset, understanding the DOW Jones index, and several specific tax and retirement savings options. I will also tackle how to make the most of student loans, and how to save for life’s big adventures. Since we have adventure on our minds, I think now is a perfect opportunity to talk about Travel Rewards. With U.S. airlines expected to carry more than 600 million passengers on domestic flights this year and credit card debt levels exploding, we can expect airfare savings to be increasingly important in the months ahead. Jill Gonzales is going to fill us in on how to make smart decisions about choosing a frequent flyer program. You will learn the difference between a frequent flyer program and a rewards credit card, and then understand just how the WalletHub study was done. There is a lot of useful information in this episode, so be prepared to take notes! What You Will Learn in This Episode: To help travelers make the best decisions for their wallets, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best Frequent Flyer Programs, which ranks the 10 largest domestic airlines based on 23 key metrics, ranging from the value of a point/mile to blackout dates for rewards flights. WalletHub’s report also features a custom calculator that allows users to personalize the results based on their own budgets. You can find a few highlights from those results below. Delta SkyMiles is the best frequent flyer program for the third straight year. The average airline rewards program gives frequent flyers 12% off their airline spending. And they’re all free to join. Hawaiian Airlines offers the most rewards value to frequent flyers ($19.95 per $100 spent), with Alaska Airlines coming in a close second ($19.87 per $100 spent). Four of the 10 largest airlines are offering more rewards in 2018 than in 2017, sweetening the pot by an average of 20%. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways are the only two major airlines whose miles do not expire because of inactivity. The Frontier Airlines Credit Card and the Lufthansa Credit Card are 2018’s best airline credit cards, according to WalletHub’s editors. For the full report, including the custom calculator, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-frequent-flyer-program/25943/ Resources The Seven Stages of Money Maturity Hendershott Wealth Management, LLC and Love, your Money do not make specific investment recommendations on Love, your Money or in any public media. Any specific mentions of funds or investments are strictly for illustrative purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice or acted upon by individual investors. The opinions expressed in this episode are those of Hilary Hendershott, CFP®, MBA.