Ryan Himel

Before I start jumping into credit card recommendations, I wanted to explain what you should be looking for in a credit card. "Ryan told me to get this one", while flattering, is not an acceptable reason. Again, if your plan is not to pay the bill in full, then I'd suggest stopping here and go back to your debit card. Banks are counting on you not to pay your bill in full, which means they can charge you high interest rates, ultimately making you pay more for your expenses and negating any purpose of credit card rewards in the first place. With that in mind, this is what to consider: The annual fee I only have one card with an annual fee, and the perks make up the difference, but that is the lone exception in my wallet. I don't think any assistant really needs to spend any money out of pocket on annual fees for a credit card unless you can truly justify the perks.  Foreign exchange fees If you're going to travel abroad and are new to the credit card game, I'd ...

I internally cringe when I see someone using a debit card (you're losing the opportunity to earn free money and what happens if your card is hacked!), but for sake of transparency, I will note there are some debit cards that do give rewards if you know where to look, such as Discover which has an online checking account (1% cashback on up to $3,000 in purchases each month using your Discover Debit Card, not the credit card), but the rewards are not going to be as plentiful as credit cards, and you have fewer federal protections if there's fraud or you need to file a chargeback. None of the big four banks are going to give you rewards when you use a debit card.

While it's pretty well-known that LA can be expensive, it should be pointed out how different cities in the LA area have different sales taxes. I only learned that a few years ago. I pulled up this chart from the Ca.gov website , where you can also look up the current sales and tax rate by address , but you should be aware of what some of these rates are (as of 9/22/2023): Beverly Hills: 9.5% Burbank: 10.25% Culver City: 10.25% Glendale: 10.25% Hawthorne: 10.25% Inglewood: 10% Long Beach: 10.25% Los Angeles*: 9.5% Malibu: 10% Marina del Rey: 9.5% Pasadena: 10.25% San Gabriel: 10.25% Santa Monica: 10.25% West Hollywood: 10.25% *  includes Hollywood, North Hollywood, San Pedro, Sherman Oaks, Sun Valley, Van Nuys This shouldn't be interpreted as don't pay your taxes (since these do pay for city services you may use at some point), but be mindful of where you do your shopping and dining. There's an In-N-Out on Venice Boulevard that you'd think would be Culver City and t...

  “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” It’s an oft-repeated quote that I think we’ve heard so many times over, and I personally find it rather annoying considering our society (I’m sure this quote is so great to hear, especially when we've all been affected by the strikes, myself included). I’m of the mindset that money does help bring happiness, or at the very least a sense of stability. Even in talking with my therapist, she pointed out how there is value in certain purchases, avocado toast be damned. The way I approach money is by buying things/experiences that make me happy or contribute to my quality of life. This doesn’t mean going nuts buying everything in the candy store but giving yourself the allowance to make those purchases every so often. A few examples: I pay about $20 a month for the gym (LA Fitness, sorry Equinox). I wouldn’t call myself a gym rat or John Cena, but it’s something that helps with my overall health and stress.   I bought a new MacBook a few months ago,...

AMC has a credit card now, in case you haven’t been bombarded by multiple ads in the theater.  For me, this card gives me that indescribable feeling of when the lights begin to dim and…I realize I should’ve chosen the other movie playing next door, and I’m regretting it all. Somehow, heartbreak feels awful in a place like this, especially because I have this card. —— The main thing to note with this card is that the rewards currency is AMC Stubs points, not cash back or travel rewards. Rewards structure (provided you have an A-List membership) : 50 points per $1 spent at AMC Theatres (online, website, app) 20 points per $1 spent on dining, groceries, and gas 10 points per $1 spent on any other purchase Every 5,000 points is a $5 reward - points expire for two years, once redeemed for a reward, you have 90 days to use it. As an AMC A-List member, the only real value of the rewards for me are concessions, which I think as we all know, are overpriced since that is where theaters make ...

Hi there, for those who don’t know me, I’m Ryan. If you do know me (hi Mom and Dad), thanks for reading this far! I’m a lit assistant in LA and consider myself very knowledgeable about all things entertainment, finance, media, travel, fighting back when a company is screwing me over, and anything else that involves a deep Wikipedia dive. While I can’t wait to share all my opinions with you all (as if you already needed that), much of the reason why I’m starting this blog is because from my own conversations with friends and colleagues, personal finance is a touchy subject that deserves a lot more attention but told from a less judgmental perspective. "Stop buying avocado toast and Starbucks" is lazy advice when it comes to personal finance, and there's a difference between the occasional toast and Starbucks versus buying it on a regular basis (also, the opinion I've heard is that there are better coffees than Starbucks). We'll see how long this blog goes for, but ...