The Only two Annual Fee Credit Cards you will ever need!!!

What's up guys? Luke here from Luke's points and miles and today I want to talk about what I think are the only two annual fee cards you need for a premium travel setup that will perform for just about anyone without a whole lot of fuss. But first I really need to give a shout out to a fairly new creator in the space. First off, his channel is called rich with points and let me tell you his last video that I watched, I don't actually know the guy. I've never spoken to him besides a couple of back and forth comments, but he deserves this big shout out. See rich also has a website that I definitely want to plug. It's called rich with points.com and the deal here is he has a crazy awesome earnings generator program. Now I'm sure there are plenty of other things on that website, but the earnings calculator, basically you can load your wallet with the cards, enter your yearly spending and it'll calculate your earnings based on those particular cards. And yes, you can compare different wallets side by side. And in his last video he compared setups with two card issuers, verse three or four. You get the idea, but I'm going to link his video in the description below and his website because I've watched that video three times now and I can honestly say that my mind is blown. So that was my shout out for rich. Uh, thanks for doing all that work and let's move on. This is the only two annual fee credit cards I need in my wallet. See, based on my spending, these two cards form a foundation of just about everything I need. In this video I'll quickly go over the cards, no full reviews today and I'll explain why I think they are the only two annual fee cards I will probably ever need. Afterwards, I'll talk about how to build out this setup with complimentary cards and how I learned that this combo pretty much out earns any other combo I came up with and I just want to get into it. So guys, if you follow the channel, you know that I run a travel card setup as well as a secondary cashback setup. For this video, I'm only going to be talking about the travel setup and you may not be shocked with the cards I picked, but you might be interested in how they work. So using rich with points as calculator, I discovered a couple of different things. Well, I didn't really discover it. I just confirmed what rich talks about in his video that using three, four or five different ecosystems, not only dilutes the value of each card, but most of the time all those cards don't really yield much benefit. Once you calculated the annual fees and the ton of overlap. Also remember how most of us start to feel after acquiring a lot of cards that need time and effort to realize positive value from those ever growing credits. And with me, you've probably heard me say lately, just give me the points. I'll create the trip. I want my rules, my limitations. So that's the theme for my strategy right now, guys, just give me the points. I'm less interested in perks, status and credits. I just need those points. I'll create my own elite status and book my own first class or my own suite when it's appropriate for me. And I'll save tons of money on fees and time trying to work those credits. I'll also stay exactly where I want to stay and book my travel exactly how I want, whether that's direct with a hotel loyalty program or through a portal or maybe even a special hotel program. Okay, so enough of that, Luke, what are the cards? Well, this should not be much of a surprise. The first card is the chase Sapphire reserve. Like I said, I'm not reviewing these cards. I do have full reviews on these cards in my channel. If you want to check those out, the chase Sapphire reserve has a hefty $550 annual fee, but it comes with an easy to use $300 travel credit card comes with league leading travel and purchase protections, and it gives the user a 50% boost when booking travel through the chase travel portal chase. You are points can also be cashed out for 1 cents per point if that is your thing or it's appropriate for you. And that time for me, the applicable earnings are three times on dining and a very broad travel category. And I also want to mention that the card can earn five times on flights, 10 times on hotels booked within the chase travel portal. The card also comes with $300 in door dash credits that yes, can be very annoying, but I'm thinking if I can keep those monthly credits at the very minimum, they shouldn't be too hard to keep track of. Now this card does have a ton of other benefits and perks, but that is just a quick summary. And I'll talk more about it later when I sum up the whole setup. The other annual fee card for me is the capital one venture X. This card is like its partner, a visa infinite that comes with all the great travel and purchase protections, including cell phone protection. The card has a $395 annual fee, which is large, but it comes with a travel portal credit of $300 yearly. And after your first year, you can earn 10,000 venture miles as a bonus that can easily be valued at a minimum of $100. This card comes with a lot of perks and benefits and can act as your catchall card as well. Earning two times venture miles on everything. On the flip side, the card also earns five excellent flights, 10 X on hotels within the venture portal. So while these two cards do have some overlapping benefit, I want to show you why I think they are the only two annual fee cards I need. Also, while the venture X technically has a poor cash redemption, venture miles can be used to cover any travel purchases at a rate of one cents per point. So for me, that is just as good as cashing out. These two foundation cards act as my cornerstones. And what I mean by that is both ecosystems have no annual fee cards that can be used to compliment those earnings. Let's take the CSR. For example, you can add any number of chase. You are point earning cards to help generate those points. For me, it's really just the chase in cash, but a more common example might be the freedom flex and the freedom unlimited. And I may end up using those one day, but for now I don't need them. Now for the capital one venture X, we're only adding the saver one. The saver one technically earns cash back, but if you have a ventures mile earning card, you can transfer that cash back over to points. So let me go over the role of each of these cards. And I want to remind you that this is only a four card setup, but I think you'll be shocked to see just how much it can earn, at least for my spending. Let's go over the main categories of spending that most of us have and which cards are more suited for that spend. And I will say that, that although I do value capital one miles, probably more than the average person because they do have the main transfer partners. For me, I do actually value chase. You are points a little more. So if two cards earn the same, the chase card will likely get the nod dining. For me, this will be the chase Sapphire reserve for the three X. And also all those chase food off offers. I constantly get for that card groceries. Everyone knows chase doesn't have a dedicated grocery card and that's where this saver really shines at three X points on all groceries worldwide gas, the Achilles heel of this setup, as it stands with just these four cards, I think the chase ain't cash or the venture X will be used for gas. And we'll probably get more into that in a second video, travel, transit tolls, parking and ride shares. This is the CSR again at three times airfare and hotels. Again, the chase Sapphire reserve portal redemptions, both the CSR and the venture X earn very well within their portals. And I would say I would deal with whichever offered the exact booking I wanted or the best deal price wise. Cell phone bills is going to be a judgment decision. The chase ain't cash gets five X on cell phones, but the venture X gets two times and it has cell phone protection. So depending on how you value that protection would determine which is better for you. Cable, internet and office supplies. And yes, I do shop at staples for a variety of things and that's going to be the chase ain't cash for five X on all those categories for live entertainment, like sporting events, streaming and movie theaters. I'm going to go with the saver one for three X on all those things. Keep in mind the chase ain't cash does sometimes code streaming as cable or internet and it'll actually earn five X, but you'll need to find out which ones through trial and error. Now according to my calculations using the rich with points.com website, this four card setup can generate more points than almost every other combination I could think of. Keep in mind this takes into account annual fees for which this setup does have $945 of annual fees, which I understand that is high, but so many of us in the game let those fees creep way up, especially once you start getting into American express. Another thing about this setup is each annual fee card is fairly easy for me to find a neutral balance at the end of the year. It's almost the most simple setup I can find when I factor ease of use for my player to you guys know how important that is. This setup also includes some really great travel perks like access to priority pass Plaza, premium lounges chase Sapphire lounges, maple leaf lounges and capital one lounges. And I am one of those guys that is really optimistic that chase is going to be building this lounge system out very quickly. The setup comes with primary rental car insurance access to premium hotel programs, plenty of offers and promotions, a portal boost. The only card that has to stay home when you travel overseas is probably the chase ink cash. The other cards don't have foreign transaction fees. In my opinion, this setup is great for almost anyone that actually travels, but it's great for domestic economy stuff as well as international business class. It may fall short against some of the higher end hotel cards in that respect, but it more than makes up for it with versatility and simplicity. This setup gives me access to the almighty world of Hyatt program as well as my top five partners, which are Avianca, Air France, Aeroplan, Avios and Virgin as well as many, many others. Now before you should start slapping those keys talking about the U S bank altitude reserve for all your mobile wallets, it's Luke, it's 4.5% back on everything. I would expect to get more value even from two times venture miles than I would for 4.5 cents per point back in a portal or in real time redemptions. It's just too easy for me to extract value from transfer partners and if I need that portal value, it is there on the chase side. I think the U S bar might weigh heavier in your cashback setups or if you don't travel much, this setup generates plenty of points, benefits and perks with a very manageable annual fee and relatively all in what I think is a very simple package and I think it's the future for me in this points and miles game. Will I still be getting new cards for bonuses? Come on. Of course I will, but I don't see any hotel or airline cards in my future as keepers. I also don't think I will have any American express cards in my wallet unless something changes in the future, but I'm definitely going to keep that option open. Guys, go check out the website I talked about. You'll be glad you did. And if you have any interest in any of these cards that earn transferable currencies or really any other cards, check out my super cool card link in the description below. And guys, if you have stayed all the way to the end, I want to thank you and I appreciate every single one of you.