THE WOLF OF WALMART: my cheap vacation... and the trade that paid for it 5x over

As many of you know, last week I was on a nice little vacation with my girlfriend, Miranda.
We spent six nights in Canada, three in Toronto, and three in Montreal. Overall, it was a badass trip including a mini-trip to Niagara Falls, long train rides through the country, exceptional views of the city in Toronto, and an interesting look into the unique, historic culture of Montreal.

And through all of that, one of the very best parts was how much I actually had to spend for us to take this vacation.

This post is going to have a few recommendations for making your travel a little bit easier and cheaper, as well as a little bonus insight into my best trade to date... that happened to be placed while sitting by the pool on the top floor at the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal.

I'll start with a little breakdown of my trip costs, just to give you an idea of how much money it really wasn't, then I'll tell you how it happened.

2 Flights to Toronto from DFW (including luggage fees) - $65
3 Nights in Toronto (including 1 night at the Marriott Downtown) - $100
3 Nights in Montreal (including 1 night in a Signature King Suite @ Ritz-Carlton) - $100
2 Flights to DFW from Montreal (including luggage fees) - $65
Total was around $330.

I don't think I need to include trains, taxis, food & drinks, and miscellaneous expenses in the example, because that's really all extra and depends on how much an individual feels like spending.

So, how was I able to spend only $330 on four flights and six nights?
POINTS!
Credit cards are your friends guys. If you are able to use responsibly and make the most out of your benefits and bonuses, credit cards are an amazing tool, ESPECIALLY for travel!

I was able to use two free hotel nights with my Marriott Rewards points, which also allows for nights at any Ritz-Carlton (which are typically from $500-600 for a standard room). It is incredibly easy to book and use these free nights. With the Marriott Rewards credit card you have amazing benefits.

If you are approved and spend $3000 in 3 months, which anybody who has expenses does anyway, you will automatically receive 80,000 Marriott points. Which is enough for 8 nights at one of their lower end hotels, or 2 nights at say.. a Ritz-Carlton. This bonus is really insane as I only received 50,000 when I first got it.
With approval, and each year after, you get a free night at any of their hotels up to category 5.
You get extra points when you spend at Marriott and at restaurants.
You have NO FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEES with this card. This is huge. Foreign transaction fees on your typical credit or debit card can reach up to 4.5% of each purchase you make, which can add very fast.
It has a chip and is a Visa Signature card, meaning it is accepted nearly everywhere in the world.

Ok, enough trying to pump this credit card. It is really awesome and I'd recommend it to everybody. I'm a little sad because I have a referral link that gets me points if anybody applies, but if you go through that link you don't get the same deal... so here you go!

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottpremier/naep/8TK?CELL=6FLZ

As for the flights..

To pay the $100 in luggage fees I used an airline reimbursement from my Wells Fargo American Express World card, which didn't cost me a dime. Then, I used a Delta American Express card as well as transferring some points over from my American Express Gold card in order to use 50,000 Delta Skymiles for $800 worth of flights. I will not post a link to either of these cards as I no longer am a fan of American Express... however, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaskan Airlines, etc., all have their own card with their own bonus. Be on the lookout for new good credit card bonuses, all it takes is a quick google search!

Later, I will do a post on different types of reward and travel cards. Remember to use them properly and always spend within your means.

WHERE ELSE DID I SAVE MONEY ON THE TRIP YOU ASK?

Well...

Instead of booking a hotel, we booked highly rated AirBnB's and saved a ton of money. Great sleeping arrangements and other things you can't get in a hotel for an average of $50 per night.

Link to sign up for AirBnB www.airbnb.com/c/adube47?s=8

This is a pretty simple one, but instead of taking taxi's everywhere we just walked! It was a helluva lotta walking but the money saved and the sights seen was worth it!
But, when we HAD to take a taxi somewhere, we used Uber! Very convenient and a lot easier than dealing with some taxi drivers who wouldn't take cards..

Link for Uber! https://www.uber.com/invite/wvo8b

Granola bars!!.. and other cheap, filling, grocery store foods. We stocked up on some snacks and this allowed us to save our money for our big, fancy dinners.
Four out of five times I would just use a credit card for our purchases because of the travel benefits and protection. But, when we absolutely had to get cash out I used my Charles Schwab debit card. It has a chip so it is accepted worldwide, but the best part about banking with Schwab is the fact that SCHWAB WILL REIMBURSE EVERY SINGLE ATM CHARGE IN THE WORLD. Doesn't matter where or how many times you pull out cash, you will be reimbursed every penny at the end of the month. This right here saved us another $50. Even crazier, which I just learned during our trip, is that if you run out of funds in your checking account it will automatically pull from your linked savings or investment account with no fees as well. Pretty much just no fees all around and just an awesome travel account to have. Any questions feel free to ask about Schwab.. I will recommend them every day ten times a day.

and the trade that paid for my trip 5x over.............

I won't get into too many details as I know not everyone is into trading and investing like I am... so, if anyone has any questions about trading or investing feel free to reach out to me individually, I love chatting about it.

The summary of my trade is this:

For the past few weeks I have had a strong feeling that the markets have been artificially propped up and held up. With all of the turmoil in the global economy regarding the Greece debt crisis, China's stock market unwinding, and many other negative events, I thought our market should be seeing some kind of correction or downside as well, right?

Well, it wasn't. The S&P 500, Dow, and other main market indexes were sitting right around their all time highs and there wasn't nearly as much selling or volatility as I was expecting. It didn't feel right.

So, I bet that the market would fall.

In order to do this I bought an ETF (exchange traded fund) by the ticker symbol TVIX. Essentially, TVIX is a "stock" measures fear and volatility in the markets.. so when the markets go down and fear/volatility go up, TVIX will go up as well. Basically, it is a "stock" that does the opposite of what the stock market does, but much, much faster.. By no means is TVIX a safe investment, but I had set my risk vs. reward and I was confident that I would make profit within a few days. This started last Monday, the 17th of August.

I started the week by buying about 500 shares on Monday, then bought 1500 on Wednesday, then bought another 500 shares on Thursday. My total position in TVIX was 2500 shares with an average buy price at $6.46 (the way I think about it is every $.01 that TVIX went up or down, I gained/lost $25). So, this was a very risky trade for me seeing as how the TVIX is incredibly volatile and unpredictable.

Friday morning came and my trade was panning out... the market was down boat loads!

I sold 500 shares of TVIX at $7.47 to lock in some profits and start minimizing my risk. Over the next couple of hours I sold another 500 at $8.66, then another 500 shares at $8.60. When I got back from the pool a bit later the market was about to be closing and TVIX was over $9! I sold 500 more shares at $9.20, then my last 500 shares at $9.22 after hours as I did not want to be stressed out holding this risky "stock" over the weekend and wanted to get back to my vacation!

I horribly regret selling any of it now, as TVIX did exactly as I expected and hit a high of about $17 come this Monday, the 24th, when the market really started to unwind and the fear/volatility was up huge!

My gains are from this five day trade, which is much longer than I normally hold any stock, are posted below and are my best to this day.