Personal finance is one big optimization problem that I’m constantly running through my head in order to think up new tricks that can save or earn me more money. This is what I refer to as the “Money Metagame” which inspired the name of this blog. How much I spend is one of the components I have the […]
Category: Churning
The Value of an American Express Credit Card
When signing up for credit cards, the time comes a year after each application that you need to evaluate the value of a card to determine whether or not you want to keep it and pay an annual fee. I started churning credit cards just under a year ago, so I’ll be asking myself the […]
2015 Mid-Year Churning Report Card
Having recently passed the half-way mark in the year, it’s a good time to look back and see what’s happened so far this year. My fiance and I started signing up for credit cards just under a year ago to start earning hundreds of thousands of miles and points to start traveling the world for little […]
20k Spending Challenge Update 3: Spending Complete and Over $11k Sold
We’re now at the half way point of the 90-day $20,000 Spending Challenge. If you haven’t been following along, myself and several other bloggers decided to try our hand at reselling $20k worth of either gift cards or merchandise. The challenge was inspired by the $20k minimum spend requirement on the Amex Business Platinum card […]
New Credit Cards! Another Alaska Card, My SPG Mistake, and Hyatt
I recently added a couple more credit cards to my collection and it’s a couple firsts for me! Not only did I get two cards on the same day for the first time, but I also got my first true duplicate card. Becky also got a new card recently and ended up with the highest limit […]
Churning, Earning, and Burning: Balancing The Equation
There are a ton of ways to earn miles and points that will heavily reduce your travel costs, but that’s only half of the equation. After signing up for credit cards, shopping through portals, and going out of your way to a restaurant that participates in the rewards network, you’ve probably accumulated a bunch of […]
The Sallie Mae Mastercard: The Best Everyday Spending Card You’ve Never Heard Of
My fiance Becky and I sign up for a lot of credit cards and balance all of our spending between them to maximize our rewards. Most spending goes on the latest card we obtained to meet the minimum spend requirement, while specific categories like groceries, restaurants, and travel all have a respective card that we use […]
20k Spending Challenge Update 2: $11k Spent, $5.6k Sold, and 11% Profit So Far
I’m back from my week long vacation and despite a week of no spending at all (towards this challenge at least…), I’m still well on pace to complete the challenge. If you want more details about the $20k spending challenge, check out my original post on the matter and my first update. One of my personal […]
Snippets: New Accounts, Gift Card Deals, and A $20k Challenge Correction
I’ve got a few different things I want to talk about, but each item doesn’t justify it’s own post so I’m cramming them all into one. I’m not sure if I’ll make this a regular thing or not, but welcome to the first edition of Snippets. This post will talk about a new credit that […]
20k Spending Challenge Update 1: $4,625 Spent After 2 Weeks
If you haven’t heard, I recently set out on a $20,000 spending challenge inspired by the $20k minimum spending requirement on the Amex Business Platinum. The goal of the challenge is to put gift card churning up against merchandise reselling to see what kind of profits and time investment come with each. I officially “started” the challenge […]