I agree that every person has differnet needs/goals....but I'll jump in and generically recommend:

1) Get a 2% cash back card (Fidelity Amex?). You can use this for all 'non-bonus" spend to know you're getting at least 2% cash.

(2 and 3 are in no particular order)

2) Crush the Chase "swing through" of the Sapphire preferred, Marriott, and all the "Inks", hopefully with the ability to legitimize a business to get the business cards as desired. (The chase points are nice in that you can combine you and your wife's account. This could easily net 200,000 UR points between you and your wife, + the Marriott points

3) Continue crushing by moving on to AMEX. Do the Starwoods, Golds, and Deltas, and, if at all possible, hit the business versions of each. This can net about 100,000 SW points, and a couple hundred thousand Delta points easily (between you and your wife, with business cards too).

4) If you're at all a fan of Hilton, you and wife can easily take them for 300,000 points combined by hitting the Citi and AMEX Hiltons (Don't forget to repeatedly signup/cancel the citi hilton to keep getting 40,000 points/hit, and, again, do the business cards if possible).


Based on 2-3K spend/month, the above will keep you entertained for quite a while, and will net a bunch of gravy...