We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaina Pallasigui. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaina below.
Jaina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?
I teach people how to leverage their business expenses and real estate portfolios to earn tons of points and miles to travel hack. As someone who has a full-time W2 working in a hospital (I manage the tobacco cessation department to help thousands of people quit smoking annually) and real estate businesses, I understand how crucial it is to take vacations to avoid burnout and be rewarded for milestones.
But the way I approach vacations is unique – I integrate vacations which I get for NEARLY free into my businesses and lifestyle! And this is possible through travel hacking and creating systems for my businesses. Many people feel like they don’t have the time or the money to take vacations. But learning how to use the best credit cards to earn points and miles, in additional to “buying back your time” through the use of effective systems/operations and international virtual assistances CREATES the time and possibility to travel the world for next to no cost.
This is why I teach business owners and real estate investors how to use their regular expenses to travel hack.
Jaina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
For past 13 years, I’ve work a full-time W2 in public health, where I manage a countywide quit smoking program that has helped over 20,000 people quit smoking.
I got into teaching people how to use business expenses and real estate to travel hack in 2021. 2021 is when I got my first rental property in Indiana, and started my first business with a business partner, which was initially to do Airbnb arbitrage, but we eventually pivoted into cohosting Airbnbs (which is basically property management for short and mid-term rentals). We wanted to leverage capital for our startup costs so we joined a program that teaches business owners how to get 0% APR credit cards for business funding, and also using points earned from travel hacking. From that program, I dove deep into learning how to use points and miles and because I’m a real estate investor, I discovered how the real estate and travel hacking combo goes hand in hand. I’ve talked about this topic in over 10 podcast and regularly redeem $50,000+ in travel annually from this strategy.
My services – I help business owners and real estate investors leverage their regular business and real estate expenses to earn tons of points and miles to travel the world for next to no cost. I do this by offering different services, from credit card audits and strategies, to step-by-step coaching calls for using points to book dream destinations.
The problem I’m solving is showing clients how to transform their expenses into an ASSET. I helped them improve their bottom line by using points, instead of money, to book business trips or leisure vacations. As a result I save them tens of thousands of dollars annually by showing how to properly use points and miles .
What sets me apart from others is that no one is really teaching real estate investors, specifically, how to travel hack by leveraging their portfolio and expenses. So it’s very niche, but also applies to business owners in general because of the high operations costs of businesses and real estate.
What I’m most proud of learning a new skill that completely unlocked huge opportunities for me – that is being able to travel luxuriously for pennies on the dollar. I grew up in a blue collar family and only dreamed of being able to sit in business class during a flight “one day.” And now, fly business class to new countries each year – and doing so without spending more money – this literally has changed my life. Then the cherry on top is using my communication and public speaking skills from my W2 to effectively teach other people how to do the same thing. Many people have thanked me for saving them thousands of dollars on dream getaways they never thought was possible.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I teach people how to leverage business credit cards with 0% APR as funding to start new businesses.
With my first business, Airbnb cohosting, my business partner and I joined a coaching program that taught business owners how to get 0% APR business credit cards as business funding. After that program, I joined a company called Freedom Funders for 1.5 years as a Business Funding Advisor, and we help business owners get access to over $1 million in business funding each quarter through 0% APR business credit cards and business lines of credit.
With this knowledge, I now regularly rely of business credit cards for 0% APR capital for startup costs and pay these costs back over time with the rental income of my properties or revenue from businesses. This has opened doors for me to leverage the bank’s money to scale my business without having to dip into my own savings.
What’s even better is that there are certain business credit cards that also earn points and miles. So not only am I getting tens of thousands of dollars in 0% APR funding….I’m also getting nearly free business class flights and luxury hotels as well!
This strategy is a HUGELY underrated form of startup capital that is possible even for a new business or withOUT a LLC/business entity.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was the misconception that “lots of money is bad and rich people are evil.”
Growing up in a blue color household with only my father working in the navy, and my mother stayed home to care for us 3 children while my dad was at sea for 6 months at a time had it’s unique tales about money. Basically, I was taught to always save every penny, and don’t spend any money – major scarcity mindset. And for some reason it was also instilled in me that people with a lot of money were bad people – although looking back, I’m sure this is more political than it was about anything else.
Of course, I could not blame them for having this mindset. They are immigrants to this country trying their best to survive and make a good life for their children. They didn’t have the opportunity to know how money can be used for good.
It was only in my early 30’s did I take my financial literacy seriously. After all I was decently “comfortable” adopting the Boomer-prescribed career route of going to college and getting a job – which I did though a BS from UCLA and Master in Public Health from Cal State Long Beach.
Specifically, it was during COVID when the market crashed and I felt a sudden urged to learn about stocks and to increase my financial education to take advantage of this event. From there, I started learning/investing in stocks, maxing out my 401k, even dabbled with cryptocurrency, and eventually went in on real estate investing.
I learned that saving my money is only losing money to interest and instead, I need to invest my money and MAKE more of it, not save more of it. Also, obviously not all “rich people are bad.” In fact, many wealthy people use their wealth to help others and money enhances who you are. So if you’re a good person, it empowers you to be an even better person.
Now, my perception of money is completely different. And I’m hoping to instill this in my future kids.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Jaina_Anne
