2025’s Money Year in Review and Travel Card Moves To Make Now

Dec 15, 2025

Join Meghan Coyle and Sally French, travel credit card experts, as they dissect the impact of 2025’s financial events on your wallet. They evaluate whether your premium travel cards are worth the fees, discussing perks like lounge access and statement credits. Discover strategic insights into managing high-cost groceries and navigating the changing housing market. Plus, they provide tailored advice on optimizing your travel rewards cards to ensure you're not overpaying. Tune in for practical tips that can save you money and enhance your travel experiences!

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Tariffs Drove Real Inflationary Pressure

Tariffs dominated 2025 and drove uncertainty across markets and prices.
The St. Louis Fed tied tariffs to a 0.5% rise in headline PCE inflation this year.

ANECDOTE

Wig Price Hike Revealed Tariff Effects

Elizabeth noticed higher grocery and product prices and linked a wig price hike to tariffs.
She used grocery-focused cash back cards and store programs to offset costs.

ADVICE

Use Grocery Cards And Check Your Fridge

Use grocery-specific cash-back cards and store reward programs to blunt higher food costs.
Check your fridge before shopping to avoid redundant purchases and waste.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Hear how 2025 money news hit your wallet and whether your travel cards are really pulling their weight.

How did 2025’s biggest money stories actually affect your wallet? How can you decide if your pricey travel credit cards are still worth it? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola recap the year in finance news to help you understand what the stories mean for your budget, savings, and plans for 2026. They unpack top news items including tariff-driven uncertainty, a brief but historic stock market crash and subsequent rebound, stubborn home prices, softening rents, and a late-year run of Fed rate cuts. Then they provide tips and tricks on staying focused on long-term investing despite volatility, using rewards cards and store programs to fight higher grocery bills, weighing renting vs. buying when housing costs are sky-high, and making sure your cash is still earning a competitive yield as high-yield savings rates drift down.

Then, Smart Travel podcast hosts Meghan Coyle and Sally French give Elizabeth a live “credit card consult” on her stack of high-fee travel cards. They discuss how to tally up annual fees versus statement credits and perks, decide when lounge access really justifies keeping a premium card, identify weak-link airline cards that no longer match your home airport, and choose when to downgrade instead of cancel. They also dig into using grocery cards strategically, avoiding overpaying just to chase credits at specific merchants, managing the mental load of multiple “coupon book” benefits, and building a simple system to track expiring credits so your wallet — and not the card issuers — captures the most value.

Card benefits, terms and fees can change. For the most up-to-date information about cards mentioned in this episode, read our reviews:

Follow Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app: https://play.megaphone.fm/l-7v0exnsxc-kc8kejdruq

Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header

To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com.

Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices