283. How to Turn Your Bills into Free Travel with Shakeemah Smith (The Passport Abuser)

25:55But I've been here since 11 a.m. sitting in this lobby. So there are things that I look out for, but I've never had to pay a different price or it's never really been a difference in finances with my girlfriends who are not Black.

26:13Financial Feminist:Yeah. I think about even as a woman, not a woman of color, making sure that I am in situations or staying in places, especially when I'm traveling solo, that feel really safe or that somebody is looking out for me. And one of the easiest things I do is before I leave the hotel, I will literally let them know, like, hi, I expect to be back by this time. If I'm not back by this time, here's my number, call me. And I think that that's just a really nice way of checking in. I would normally do it with my family, but I might have a time difference. So that's a great way of making sure that somebody's looking out for you while you're traveling.

26:53Financial Feminist:But again, I have never had an incident. And I think that your perspective is so important because I imagine you sometimes do get treated differently as a Black woman. And I want to prove to women, though, that there are still great reasons to travel and still great reasons to travel solo. and I love that you made that list because the thing that occurred to me in my mid-20s was very similar to you people didn't have the same flexible schedule I did or people had children or people just had commitments and I found myself sitting on my hands and I was like okay I guess I'll wait and at that time I was single as well so I was like okay I don't really have anybody to travel with and it just occurred to me I was like are we gonna wait forever like am I gonna know, spend my entire life waiting for somebody to come along that I can travel with or for the absolute perfect opportunity.

27:46Financial Feminist:And I'm like, no, if I want to go, I'm going to go and I'll figure it out. Yeah. I decided a long time ago that when I was born, no one was there. I had no control over when I was born and who was there. When I die, I will have no control over what day, when that happens and who's there. So if I was born alone and I may possibly die alone, why am I so afraid to live alone? Yeah. You know, so I just decided when I die, I don't want to die with dreams because then it means like it never happened. I want to actually have the memories, you know, when I'm in heaven, I want to look down and be like, yeah, I did that to.

28:28Yeah. You know, I don't want to feel like this one gift, like it's so precious. Like life is so precious and it's so fragile. I want to leave a legacy. And the one thing that I love about you, and I, and I said this, I was talking to my mom about you actually. And my mom was like looking you up. And my mom said, you know, what I love about the work that she's doing is that the women that she's helping financially, as long as they continue to say her name and then they teach their children, Tori's, you know, literacy, she can never die because her legacy lives on. Right. You know? And so my mom was like, she's creating a legacy that is going to continue to live on because what she is doing, people will pass it down and pass it down, you know?

29:14And I just kind of thought about myself and I'm like, you know, I want to be the person in my bloodline that decided to take every chance. I don't want to leave anything, you know, on the table, you know? So I'd say live your life, ladies.

29:31Financial Feminist:Keem, there's a joke on this show of how quickly I cry in an episode. And your mama got me. That's really, really kind. And that's how I feel about you. That's why I wanted to partner with you to bring your work to our community. Why we're doing this workshop, why I'm having you on this show is because, again, you've taught me things that I didn't even know. And two, we make this out to be so complicated. And it's no different than any other concept we've talked about on this show. women go, oh, I can't pay off my debt because I'm too complicated. I can't invest in the stock market because it's too complicated.

30:03Financial Feminist:I can't actually get my budget together because it's too complicated. And to that, I always say, okay, who taught you that? Who taught you it's too complicated? A system that wants to keep you broke, a system that wants to keep you miserable, a system that is committed to making sure that you live a very small life. I want you to be growing your wealth. I want you to be paying off your debt. I want you to be traveling in a very luxurious, frequent way without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars to do it. And that's what you've shown me. That's what you show your hundreds of thousands of people.

30:36Financial Feminist:So when I think about a woman listening, there's a woman listening in her car right now. She makes 55K a year. She has student loans. Maybe she's never even left the country. What are the first three things that that woman does this week? So the first thing that I'd say do this week is you are eating probably like every day, right? So if you hopefully, hopefully you're eating every day, right, right, right. You're eating every day. And the reason why I take it down to the basics is because people still can't wrap their heads around. You mean to tell me something simple as feeding myself, something that I have to do to survive?

31:15the airlines owe me airline miles every time I go to eat. Yes, yes, they do. It's just that it's not front page news, but they do. So the first thing that I would say do this week, you're eating every day. That's something that you cannot miss out on. If you Google airline dining program, okay, every time you go out to eat, I want you to pick from a restaurant on the airline dining portal with your favorite airline. So if your favorite airline is Delta, I want you to Google Delta Airlines dining program. And the beautiful thing about this is you do not need any type of airline card in order to get miles for taking your kids out to eat because they got a good report card or taking the kids out to eat after church.

32:00Or even if you and your girls want to go out because it's Sunday fun day and y 'all want to have a little boozy brunch, that should be airline miles, regardless of whether you were paying with a regular debit card from a Wells Fargo, or even if you were paying with a credit card, regardless of the fact you're supposed to be getting airline miles. So first thing that I want you to do is just think about the things that you're doing every day. You brush your teeth, you have to use toothpaste, you need tampons, you need shampoo. These are all the things that women actually need. But American Airlines has a partnership with CVS where they will give you three miles per dollar that you spend at CVS.

32:39So for all of the things that you need for basic hygiene from the minute that you wake up, that is supposed to be airline miles. When you turn on your light in your house, when you come in from work at night, that's airline miles. There's this company called Reliant Energy, and they are specifically in the state of Texas. So for all of the Texas girl, you started tuning in to our show today. Reliant has a partnership with Southwest Airlines where they will give you 27 ,000 rapid rewards points when you get an energy plan through Reliant. So like every single thing that you're doing as you go throughout your day is probably airline miles.

33:23Make sure that if you are listening and you don't have a credit card or you can't get a credit card, make sure you get an airline debit card. We spend so much time scrolling, right? Airlines actually have surveys that they're going to give you airline miles. So it's like, I can't say enough about like what to do, you know, but what I will say is there is a way. And if you are a person like me, who you have a city, a Amex and a chase, well, girl, pull up a chair because now I'm about to show you how to double dip and triple dip all of that. Okay. This three day challenge, like is going to be so impactful because there are so many airline miles that you're missing out on, even if you had credit card points.

34:09And I can't wait to show that with everyone.

34:11Financial Feminist:Yeah. I mean, this is why I wanted you on the specificity of like anybody in Texas. Here's another way you can get airline miles, anybody shopping at CVS. And like, this is why I love your advice. It's, it's not just like super broad or it's just like, Yeah, just, I don't know, figure out a way to travel for free. It's very specific. It's like, here are the strategies. Here's what we're going to do.

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36:11Financial Feminist:so a lot of women out there feel guilty spending money on travel when they have debt or some other financial goal what is the conversation you have with a woman who says i can't justify a vacation i have thirty thousand dollars of credit card debt or thirty thousand student loans yeah so i've traveled to japan for six dollars aruba for 15 hold on keem I just stop you. You traveled to Japan, presumably from Jersey? Yes. For$6. Three times. And I have the receipts to prove it. And I've seen the receipts. I've seen the receipts. $6. Everybody has$6. I spent$6 on a coffee yesterday. $6. Okay. And you were going to say other cities too.

37:02Financial Feminist:I just had to stop you. Japan three times for$6. Okay. Where else? Three times for$6. I went to Athens, Greece for$6. I purchased a flight to Johannesburg for$6. And guys, these were all, I cannot wait to the three day challenge because I'm a receipt queen. If I say anything, I have receipts. Okay. And the beautiful thing is when you see my receipts, they're actually not from Chase Travel Portal or Amex Travel Portal. They're actually all directly from the airlines themselves because all of your bills and your everyday purchases and your mandatory living expenses are airline miles completely outside of credit card points.

37:44But if you have the credit card points, we're going to stack it, stack it, stack it, girl. You know what that song says? From the windows to the walls. You know what I mean? We're going to stack them credit card points with the airline miles and with hotel points, right? Because in the three-day challenge, I'm also going to be showing people how they can get free hotels as well, right? I went to Dubai for the weekend, three days, me and my sister, our hotel was$12. So, and I have the receipts directly from Marriott Bonvoy. So I want to show people like, hey, when it's time for you to take those kids to Orlando, or if you're a single person like me with no kids, and it's time for you to go visit your family in North Carolina for a family reunion, all of this should be free.

38:25When you want to go to Johannesburg or Bali or Paris, that should be a$5 vacation every single time. And it's not going to put you in debt. You just have to know how to flip those bills and the things that you're already spending money on. You just have to know how to convert it into airline miles and hotel points.

38:44Financial Feminist:Yeah. And I say this with all due respect, Keem. This woman is a black woman from Jersey, right? Right. Like you don't have like you don't have a degree that somebody else listening doesn't have. I don't have a degree. Somebody listening doesn't have in this. Like it's just because you have knowledge that somebody else doesn't. And that's why you're teaching this. So I think there I can already hear somebody going six dollars. It's crazy. She had to like, yeah, take out a bunch of credit cards. She had to like spend hours and hours and hours hacking the system. And no, she doesn't know anything that you don't, especially after this three-day challenge, because she's teaching you everything.

39:23Financial Feminist:So this is the DM I get all the time. It's like, well, you're a financial educator. And I'm like, I learned the same way as you're going to learn. I learned from Keem. I learned from other people to teach me step-by-step how to do this. There's not some, I don't know, secret degree you can get or secret skill that, I don't know, DNA trait that you and I have that somebody listening doesn't, like the$6 flights can be yours too. Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't wait to blow everybody away because ever since COVID, girl, everything is just so expensive. And I'm like, you know what? I don't mean to be vulgar on the show, but I consider opening my wallet the same way I would consider opening my legs.

40:07right and so a girl no i mean it's i get it it's expensive out here it's expensive out here it's expensive so just the way you would think twice before you open your legs like oh is this what i want i literally think twice before opening my wallet i have my three prongs credit card points airline miles hotel points i need at least two out of three to pull out the open up the wallet if i'm not getting at least two out of three you ain't getting my money these corporations already have millions and billions of dollars, okay? If I know that I'm supposed to get airline miles when I go to Sephora or when I go to Lululemon, I'm supposed to get three miles per dollar from American Airlines, plus I'm getting my chase points.

40:53So now that I live this lifestyle, it's not even good enough for me to just have chase points anymore. You need to give me two out of three or you don't get me. You know, I used to consider myself like energetically bougie, like where I'm like, I know if a man's energy doesn't match me, no, I'm energetically bougie, like, you know, whatever. But I'm also financially savvy and empowered. If this retailer doesn't find a way to get me some airline miles, I'll go to I'll go to the next person. So like, let's say I'm shopping at Walmart. If American Airlines, United Airlines or Delta Airlines says we don't have any reward for Walmart, we don't go to Walmart.

41:31Instead, we go to Walgreens or CVS, Right. Or if I'm looking on American Airlines website and I see, OK, they're going to give me one mile per dollar if I shop at Apple. But at Best Buy is three miles per dollar. I think I'm going to go ahead and go to Best Buy and get that MacBook, you know, because that's how I'm getting. So so literally, I just made it a point to where you want my money. You're going to have to work for it.

41:55Financial Feminist:I think that's so, so wise. Again, all of this spending that feels so expensive right now, it almost just lessens the blow a little bit. And I think about this too, when I have to spend money anywhere is it's like, okay, at least I earn credit card points and that's going to my free Hawaiian vacation. That's going to lie down flat seats to Paris for 30 bucks. And that's something that, again, doesn't completely dull the pain of an expensive situation, but it at least makes it better. You're like, okay, I'm already spending this money. I may as well get a little bit of money for it. And also, these companies need to work for my dollar because you're exactly right.

42:37Financial Feminist:These are multi-billion, if not trillion-dollar companies. The least thing that they can do is work a little bit. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I treat retailers like I treat men. You know, like, oh, well, you're going to have to work a little harder if you want. You know, like, I have to be like that with my money. And because I've been so stern, like, I've been so disciplined with myself. Like, oh, OK, if I'm going to order Uber Eats, I better be getting some Marriott Bonvoy points. Like, I've been so stern with how I live my life. It has to give me two out of the three. I think that's really smart.

43:17Financial Feminist:OK, Keem, we're going to do a rapid fire. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. Country that surprised you the most? Kuwait. Tell me, I'm screwing up the rapid fire, but tell me why. So many people told me don't go to Kuwait, you know, desert storm, you know, don't go there. It's so unsafe. I met these two girls in Italy and they told me that they were from Kuwait. And I said, oh, you know, is it safe to go to Kuwait, you know, because it's so close to Iraq, you know? And they were like, no, desert storm was 1995. honey, read a book, like come, come out to Kuwait. And, um, three weeks later I was in Kuwait and I had the most beautiful time in Kuwait ever.

43:59And I felt so safe. I felt so safe. And I was like, wow, like this is just definitely one of those underrated countries.

44:08Financial Feminist:Yeah. The one thing you always pack. A carbon monoxide detector in my luggage, because there have been so many times, girl, Girl, there have been so many times where I go onto Google, click travel, and just look at the news articles that pop up. And it seems like every few months, it's like three Belize tourists died in hotel due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Two couples died the same weekend at a sandals resort in the Bahamas. Sandals is expensive. I treated my mom and dad to sandals before my dad died. It was like their 35th wedding anniversary. and it cost me like, I would say like, I think it was like$6 ,000.

44:53And this was like back in like 2019 or 20. Yeah. So it's more expensive. Very expensive back then. Um, and I, I really wanted to do this with them because my parents, they had never been anywhere, you know, they had six, but they just never been anywhere. So I was like, I'm doing this for them. And, um, even with like as expensive as sandals are, if the listeners just Google carbon monoxide detector deaths at sandals in the Bahamas, like just put it up on Google and they'll see it. And if you just go onto Google and put Taurus died on vacation carbon monoxide, you'll see a bunch of different articles that pop up, Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, Bahamas, whatever.

45:32And so I said, you know what, as a female solo traveler, I have to realize that safety isn't always a physical imminent threat that I can see. It might be this odorless thing going around that I don't even know about. And so I always pack a carbon monoxide detector and a door jammer, just in case somebody gets the wrong key, whatever. But rapid fire, I would say carbon monoxide detector.

45:57Financial Feminist:That's insane. And you've given me another thing to be anxious about. Thank you. Wow. OK, I'm making a Google after this. OK. Worst travel disaster. Worst travel disaster ever was in St. Kitts. And out of all 93 countries that I've been to solo, I've only had one bad experience out of 93 countries. I guess my grandmother's prayers in the blood of Jesus is working because I just never had any problems 100 countries in. It was country 63 for me. And I got to St. Kitts at the airport. The guy said, give me 10 US dollars for a Ziploc bag or we're throwing everything away. And this is country 63 for me.

46:42And I said, well, everything is under 3.4 ounces. And I have it says it all at the bottom of the jar. so I'm not really sure why I have to give you to it seems scammish like why do I have to give you ten dollars for a ziploc bag when all of my stuff is under 3.4 ounces and he said listen if you don't give me the ten dollars for a ziploc bag I'm throwing everything in here away I said well you still haven't explained to me why if it's under the 3.4 ounces do I actually need the ziploc bag and he just took all of my makeup and threw it away right in front of me. PCA serum is like$150 a bottle. And I had like three different bottles.

47:24Cause like one is for the under eye cream. One is for the hyaluronic acid, like, you know, whatever he just threw everything away, like right there on the spot. And he was like, now move. He literally, his words to me were literally like, and go. And I was like, I am never, ever coming back to St. Kitts. And I posted about my experience on Instagram and I literally had 128 women reach out to me. I saved all of their comments to a Google drive doc and I sent it to the tourism authority. And I said, Hey, I went forward with my story online. And here is 128 other people who responded to me and said that they had the exact same experience.

48:08And so it wasn't just me. This is something that you guys just do. I saved it as a highlight on my Instagram so that way everybody could like see how they do. And I got an email from them apologizing, but I would never, ever, ever step foot back in St. Kitts. And I know that some people say you cannot blame the whole country for the people at the airport right and that's true but let's also consider people who work at the airport live there right it's not like these people are flying in from another country to work like like if this is the interaction that you're getting at the airport don't these people live here that's such a bummer and it is like

48:53Financial Feminist:Like, you know, it is such a reflection of like, I think about all the time if somebody's visiting Seattle, how do I show them the best time possible? Because I want them to go home and go, everybody in Seattle is so nice just because they went met one nice person. And it's the same thing on the flip side with you. You meet one not so nice person and you're like, well, this ruined my trip. So I have such empathy for that. And I also love that you were a petty bitch because I would have done the same thing. Okay. best flight deal you've ever found? Um, well I get credit card, like, like, like, do you mean like, I mean, maybe it's the$6 to Japan, but give me like your best stats.

49:37Yeah. Um, so I'm able to fly out all the time for no more than$5. So that's like an everyday occurrence for me. So if a friend says, Hey, do you want to have lunch in Paris this weekend? I'm like, yeah, I'll get a$5. I can be there this weekend. No problem. So this is a lifestyle for me. And that's the thing, right? Like I want to show women around the world, like, Hey, listen, girl, you don't have to dip in your back pocket or have even a travel budget where you're putting a hundred dollars in from every paycheck to travel and go to all of your bucket list destinations. This is just a matter of making a few lifestyle changes.

50:17Financial Feminist:Yeah, that's huge. Most underrated destination for a solo trip, a first solo trip? Antigua and Barbuda. I mean, you live there now, right? I live there now, yeah. I'm in Jersey now because I'm with my mom more now that my dad has passed. But in 2020, I moved to Antigua and Barbuda. I didn't know a soul there, didn't have any friends there. I went there and I got off the plane and like something in my body just said welcome home And I had never felt like that ever like ever and so I was like, you know what I love this place I stayed for a week and I just something inside of me felt like I was home I don't know what it was.

51:01I can't explain it. It was just a feeling And um from there I went home. I paid off all my credit cards and I quit my job and I moved back to Antigua and I signed my lease. And I have been there up until September of 2025. My mom reached out to me and she said, Hey, I think your dad is going to go. And he stopped talking and he stopped eating. So I think it's going to happen. I want you to come back home. And so I've been here in New Jersey since September of 2025. But yeah, I've been living in Antigua and Barbuda full time and absolutely love it. It's so safe. Like you'll be so fine. I absolutely love it.

51:43I definitely recommend for our first solo trip.

51:45Financial Feminist:That's fantastic. That's a place I haven't been. So I'm adding it to my list. Okay. So now you got to come. You got to come. I'm gonna pick you up from the airport. Incredible. You got to show me around. I'm going to show you around. So my last question for you, there is a woman listening right now who wants to travel so deeply. Maybe she's traveled a bit. Maybe she's never traveled at all, but she's convinced that it's not for her because it's, I'm in a financial situation where I can't travel. She thinks she needs to pay off her debt first. She thinks she needs to save first. She thinks she needs to get her life together first.

52:19Financial Feminist:What do you want to say to her? Well, the beautiful thing is there's not much guilt associated if the flight is$5, right? And so you don't have to worry about travel is so expensive for me because the things that you're already doing equal travel. And that's what we're going to talk about in the three-day challenge. And I will add to that of truly all the cliches are true. Like, why not you? Why not you? There are so many opportunities for you, even if it's just traveling inside the U.S. or inside North America. there are so many incredible experiences that you can have that are not going to break the bank, that are not going to put you in debt, that are not going to add more stress to your life.

53:07Financial Feminist:In fact, this thing, this travel experience, this trip might be literally the thing that actually changes your life, that eases your stress, that brings you back to yourself, and also shows you that you can do this thing that you think is complicated. You can learn how to travel for under$10. You can learn how to be comfortable in your own skin if you want to travel alone. So I'm just so excited to host this with you. We've never done anything like this. And it's because, again, since I met you in 2022, I was like, oh, I want to learn from her. So I imagine our millions of people in our audience want to learn from you too.

53:42So I will shamelessly

53:44Financial Feminist:plug, if you go to herfirst100k.com slash FFpod, we have all of the resources there. I expect to see every single one of you listening or watching there. But Keem, anything else you want to plug? Yeah. So first thing, I want people to go back and not only listen to this podcast over and over again, but make sure you share this episode with everybody because I am a person who I don't do fluff. Give me actionable steps to see if this can work for me. I'm that girl, right? I'm like, cut the fat from the meat and just give it right to me give it to me like straight you know and one of the things that I will say is if you go back and listen to this podcast like I have dropped like name drop things that you can actually head over to google and say oh you know what this is legit so if you've been listening to this podcast and you go back and replay it and you see like oh wow there is a way that my bills are actually attached to my favorite airline then you definitely want to purchase a ticket to the VIP challenge for the three-day challenge.

54:48That's the first thing. Second thing, because I want to touch on something that you just mentioned, who you are on the other side of one piece of action can totally transform your life. I never thought that I would be a multimillionaire. I never thought that I would be teaching people how to flip their bills into boarding passes. I never thought that I would have 12 ,000 women that I've helped ace their first solo trip and learn how to travel for free. And all of that started with one choice, one choice. I'm going to take my first solo trip. So even though I couldn't see that I would have a bunch of clients someday and I would learn how to flip my bills into boarding, all of that was way down the line, right?

55:35But it all started with one trip. And so when I consider how far I've come, this wasn't supposed to be a business. I was working for my job for 15 years, right? So why would I leave my job? I'm into my pension. Life is good. I own my house. Like this was just supposed to be something fun that I wanted to take a solo trip. Then from there, so many women reached out to me and boom, here comes all of these wonderful things. But it started with just one decision. So definitely consider who you are on the other side of just making this one decision to take one hour out of your day for three days to come to this Build Supporting Passes challenge.

56:21Financial Feminist:I couldn't have said it better. I'm so excited for you. So excited for us to pour into everybody that's going to show up. And thank you for being here. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, produced by Her First 100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirsthunderk.com slash sspod.

56:59Financial Feminist:If you love Financial Feminist and you're listening, so I hope you do, we've got something to take your learning even deeper from the podcast, especially if you've ever felt like personal finance is a confusing maze. My book, Financial Feminist, Overcome the Patriarchy's Bullshit to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love is out now. It is a New York Times bestseller that has sold nearly 300 ,000 copies, and it is not just another financial guide. It's everything you need to get better with money step by step, but through the signature feminist lens that you know and love here at Her First 100K.

57:25Financial Feminist:There is so much in the book that we've never discussed on the podcast. There are homework assignments, there are deep dive lessons, and there's even more information that you've never heard of here on the show. You can get a copy of Financial Feminist wherever you get your books. And if you are listening on Spotify right now and are a premium member, you can get the audiobook read by me for free. You can get signed copies and learn where it's sold at herfirst100k.com slash ffpod.