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Best Buy has some gift cards on sale that may be of interest:

• Free $15 Best Buy e-Gift Card when you buy a $100 Apple Gift Card. Apple gift cards are good on everything from devices to app purchases to iCloud storage.
• Up to 20% on select gift cards (includes DoorDash, Adidas, Olive Garden/Darden Restaurants, Regal Movies, etc).
• Free $10 Best Buy e-Gift Card when you buy a $100 Google Play gift card.

The Navy Federal Flagship Rewards Card is their “premium” travel rewards card, and it has always had some nice features for those that wanted a single everyday card because it offered a boosted 3X back in travel but also a flat 2X back on everything else. In addition, the points were directly redeemable for cash (not only offsetting past travel purchases).

However, the card also had a $49 annual fee. The sign-up bonus was usually pretty good and included a free year of Amazon Prime membership ($139 value), but it only promised it for a single year. The thing was, there were scattered reports that if you kept the Flagship card linked and charged your next year of Amazon Prime on it, NavyFed would still reimburse you for that second year. But it wasn’t official, and testing it out requires paying for another annual fee, which is a bit risky.

Well, this “secret” perk is finally official! I found this out via an Instagram ad.

I checked and indeed, the application page now says that all cardholders get a “free Amazon Prime® membership (a $139 value, annually)”.

Offer applies only to Amazon® Prime Annual membership that is paid with your Visa Signature® Flagship Rewards Credit Card and posted to your account. Offer is not valid for monthly payment Prime membership options such as Prime Monthly, Prime for Young Adults, and Prime Access. Limit of one Amazon statement credit per Visa Signature® Flagship Rewards Credit Card account, per year. Please allow 6-8 weeks after the Prime Annual membership is paid for the statement credit to post to your account.

The highlights including current sign-up bonus:

• 35,000 bonus points when you spend $3,500 within the first 90 days of opening a new card. 35,000 points is worth $350.
• Free year of Amazon Prime membership. Use the card to purchase an Amazon Prime annual membership, and they’ll reimburse you ($139 value). This now works once a year.
• 3X points per net dollar spent on travel.
• 2X points per net dollar spent on everything else.
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee credit (up to $120), once every 4 years.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• $49 annual fee.

The overall catch here is that in order to apply, you must first become a NavyFed credit union member. Membership eligibility for NavyFed now goes beyond active duty members of the armed forces and DoD employees to include veterans and their immediate family members — including spouses, siblings, parents, children, grandparents and grandchildren.

A smaller catch is that each point is worth $0.01, with a minimum redemption 5,000 points = $50 statement credit. There is a max of $1,500 cash back redeemed each year this way, and you can also redeem 4,900 points to offset the $49 annual fee. Sometimes it gets annoying waiting to reach that $50 threshold. But at 2% cash back on base purchases and 3% back on travel, it’s not a horrible idea to put some purchases on this card. From the fine print:

Visa Signature Flagship cardholders can redeem points for cash (1 point is equal to $0.01). The minimum redemption level is 5,000 points for $50 cash back. The maximum level of redemption is $1,500 cash back, which is equivalent to 150,000 points. Cash back rewards will be credited to your Navy Federal savings account.

I don’t know how NavyFed mathed this one out, but if they keep this structure then this card moves solidly into the “keeper” category for those that already pay for Amazon Prime membership, as the card more than pays for itself each year at $139 vs. $49 annual fee. I also appreciate the straightforward rewards system and $120 towards Global Entry/TSA PreCheck every 4 years.

Side note: NavyFed shares their rules about credit card applications publicly as follows:

Is there a limit on the number of Navy Federal credit card accounts I can open?

Yes. Currently, Navy Federal allows each member to be a primary cardholder on up to 3 Navy Federal credit cards. In addition, we’ll approve only 1 new credit card per member within a 90-day period. This means we’ll decline your application for a new credit card if you opened a credit card within the last 90 days. Note: Home Equity Line Platinum credit cards and GO BIZ® Rewards credit cards aren’t included in this 3-card limit.

Updated new member bonuses. Wings Financial Credit Union continues to expand aggressively with a $300 checking bonus plus a doubled $100 refer-a-friend bonus for new members (along with some other promotions). Please note that each bonus has its own separate set of requirements.

Here are their official membership requirements, but anyone can join Wings Financial via partner organization (Wings Financial Foundation). When I joined, they even paid the $5 membership fee for that partner organization on my behalf. I did experience a hard credit check, which is (unfortunately) common amongst credit unions.

$300 Checking Bonus

• Join Wings and open a new checking account by 12/31/25.
• One offer per person; valid for U.S. residents only. Must be 18 years or older.
• Must use promo code WINGS25 at account opening.
• Within 60 days of account opening, have recurring Qualified Direct Deposit(s) totaling at least $3,000 to earn the $300 bonus.
• Complete at least 5 net PIN or signature-based debit card or credit card transactions over $25 each on your Wings Visa Debit Card.
• Enroll in Wings digital banking.
• Enroll in eDocuments. You must do this manually after logging into your account online, and they will send you an e-mail confirmation afterward. Enrollment in eDocuments must also be active on the Bonus Payout Date.

$100 Refer-a-Friend Checking bonus

• Register your information at member’s referral link (that’s mine). I have already registered on my end, and successfully referred members in the past. This form is independent of the $300 bonus above and does not require a promo code, and was stackable for me. I recommend you register your information at this link first, and then open the accounts with the proper promo code from above added.
• Become a Wings Financial member and open a Share Savings Account (minimum balance of $5.00 required)
• Open a new Wings Checking account (First Class or High-Yield).
• Enroll in eDocuments. You must do this manually, and they will send you an e-mail confirmation afterward.
• Complete one (1) direct deposit of $1,000 or more into new checking account OR complete five (5) debit card purchase transactions of $25+ each. (ATM transactions excluded.)
• Both referring and referred parties will receive a $100 Visa Reward card mailed to them upon completion. Wings has fulfilled this referral bonus as promised for me in the past, stacking with the new checking bonus.

Deal is back again through 11/22. Get a $10 Target GiftCard with $100 Apple Gift Card purchase. A simple deal if you plan to buy any Apple products/services in the future (and have a free Target Circle membership). While supplies last. Stack with the 5% back via Target REDCard, or your usual rewards credit card.

This time, the gift card deal also includes other options like Disney, Roblox, Starbucks, Google Play, Doordash, Razer, Nintendo, Uber, and Xbox.

Apple gift cards are now good for everything from iPhones to Apple Watches to music to iCloud storage subscriptions. The code just adds to the balance in your Apple account. I accumulate them over time like an old-fashioned layaway plan and I feel that getting 10% to 15% off a new iPhone or Apple Watch even when you buy on release day is pretty good.

Best Buy is not matching this deal right now, but they have some other promo where you get a EA SPORTS FC bonus with Apple gift card purchase. Gift cards at Best Buy.

Warren Buffett will step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025, which also means he will no longer write the Annual Shareholder Letter and take questions at the Annual Shareholder’s Meeting which have become so famous. Instead, he is transitioning to an annual “Thanksgiving Letter”, of which the first one just came out. I am happy that he has found another way to communicate with Berkshire Shareholders.

As always, I recommend reading it directly as his writing style is unique and also (relatively) concise. Mostly, the highlights below are a personal exercise to process and help internalize the wisdom shared.

In the first part of the letter, he reminisces about his long life and shows gratitude for the many lucky events that broke his way, starting with an emergency appendectomy as a child.

As he has reminded us in past letters, nearly everyone reading his writing has had multiple lucky breaks already. Buffett notes that he was “born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America.” Think about each of those individually. We have no control over them. Imagine being born with an incurable genetic disease or in a struggling country constantly ravaged by war.

In the second part, he talks about accelerating his charitable giving plans so that his children can put it to good use. I always find it interesting how Buffett hasn’t been more active at directing his enormous donations towards specific purposes, even though it’s also a way of “investing” his money. I wonder if it is because it’s so hard to measure the true impact of giving. There is no clear, numerical scorecard like share price or annualized return.

In the third part, he addresses the future of Berkshire Hathaway. From what I can see, Buffett has done a careful and thorough job of making sure his life’s “painting” is in good hands. Greg Abel looks to have all the right talents and skills to be the new boss. Ajit Jain and the rest look to be good fits and not in search of fame or power.

As a company, Berkshire remains designed to provide a very high chance of solid returns, a low chance of amazingly-high returns, and the lowest-possible chance of disaster (if BRK falls, nothing else is standing either). I plan to hold my Berkshire shares through this transition, and I hope the culture remains.

Finally, he concludes with some timeless life advice: don’t dwell on your mistakes, keep trying to improve yourself, be kind to others.