Good one. :) ^

your math is way off!!!! there is no legit place in this world that offers 5% return per month. I think you mean 5% per year, which means $10,000 per year. Thats about the same rate of return for 240,000 miles. But it depends how you redeem it. 220,000 would get you a rtw ticket on AA for up to 50,000 miles, that alone could be worth around $20,000

How are you getting 360,000 miles a year? Isn't it 240,000 miles a year for the 200K deposit.

I agree it is way better return than most (if not all) investments where you want the principal to be liquid and not at risk.

Earn about 20k UR points a month.

About 15k through mfg spend. Not a huge amount of points but enough to get the family to Japan and another mainland (we're in Hawaii) trip once year.

Also since it's not a huge amount of points I think the risk factor is somewhat low. As many pointed out it's not a 100% risk free game we're engaging in so I only take as much risk as my stomache will allow. :)

Try being a cardinal who gets to explain visits to 114 countries, dozens of Hawaiian trips, round the world trips every other year, and a monthly commute to Florida and a monthly trip abroad. None of my brethren fly off to Monaco for the weekend or pick up Valentines Day gifts in Paris.:D

Wanna bet - the RoR is way higher. 29% a day in paper recycling (20/.69), infinite a month in electron recycling (20/0). Tax free, of course. Assumes 1k in miles equates to $20 so adjust as desired (some may argue a $5 value). Still over 5% return a day. Welcome to The New Economy aka Looking Glass World.

So, there are not 18 months in a year?

Ok, ok. Math is not my strong suit. What's 120,000 miles among friends?

Start a business. :)

As a broke college student, this thread is making me salivate.

I only hope you improve your math so you would really know how to calculate a return. Therefore you would understand better how much your nest egg would worth 10, 20 years from now based on the 5% assumption...

On top of that 5% return is quite difficult to achieve in today's 0% interest rate environment - assuming it is almost a guarantee as you think it is not unreasonable ... does that include the risk factor?

A hypothesis Pretax number because if you park the money that earn monetary interest, you are taxed on the earning.

360K pre tax, 240K after tax, at a 33% tax bracket.

Actually you can view the 360K as a pre-tax number and 240K the after tax number because a monetary earning would be taxable. And your number actually could be correct looking in this context at a 33% tax bracket. ;)

Let's keep in mind that this thread isn't about one person's mistake as to APY and MPY. To be sure, we'd all keep our money in an account offering 5% a month over an account offering 1% in AA miles.

Now, back to the actual topic of this thread. I average 30,000 UR, 8,000 BA (working towards Travel Together Ticket), and 5,000 SPG in a month by manufacturing spend. Actual spend yields roughly 5,000 in a mix of SPG and UR, depending on my mood/which card comes out of my wallet more easily.

what ia an AP account?

I'm currently doing 2 bluebirds + 4 APs a month in manuf spend. Along with some paypal goodness for the savings account. Guess I need to expand the number of bluebirds.

Mostly manufactured spend and not counting miles and points earned through travel or credit card churning signup bonuses...:

100k UR across 2xIB and 2x Ink-plus @ office stores
30k HH @ drug stores (ending soon sadly)
10k AA using Bankdirect
2k AP (Various programs)

500k-1 MM /Year through credit card churning that include wife .

Like what others said these are NOT free and it cost ALOT of time and effort (like a part time second job) and also cost some fees but its worth it if you want to travel in style and visit places you never dreamed of.

Having said that there is always a risk of being shut down/financial reviews /closure of accounts using these methods ...

Looks like your are doing 5K/per ink card at @office stories on 4 cards. How along have you been doing this? I am worried of doing more than 2K/card per month on the 2 ink cards I have. Worried about chase closing the accounts.

I’m not an expert on these things and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I didn’t see an answer to your question so here goes. Hopefully those more knowledgeable will correct my errors.

IB: Ink Bold, a Chase charge (or credit) card which earns Ultimate Rewards (UR) points which can be transferred to any of several different airline and hotel programs and also earns multiple points, 5 per dollar, at certain types of stores (office supply I believe).

OD: Office Depot, an excellent place to charge a lot of purchases on your IB card (because you will get 5 points per dollar).

GC: Gift Card(s), I believe can be purchased with a credit card and then used sometime later (helpful for meeting a time limited spend requirement for a credit card) and might also be used when a credit card is not accepted.

I’m completely unfamiliar with Amazon Payment (?AP).

BTW, I’ve found that I can learn a great deal by Googling things and adding “Flyertalk” in the search field. For example “Amazon Payment Flyertalk” or “Bluebird Flyertalk”.

BREAK

Re: BankDirect, there are some long threads on the American Airlines forum all about BankDirect. I recall reading on one of those threads a year or 2 ago about folks who had significantly more than $200,000 on deposit with BankDirect. Suggest Google “BankDirect Flyertalk”.

Hope this helps.

Nevermind

For me, approximately $6,000 in travel expenses (for work) per month (airfare, cars, hotels).

$1,000 for other expenses (personal expenses like groceries, dining out, etc).

About few months ,the reason I'am doing that amount is the nearest OD stores are about 60 miles away ,so I visit them on a weekend and buy about 2-3 k per card twice a month ,I also take advantage of staples,Officemax promotions on the lower denominations Visa/Mastercard GC that they run from time to time but liquidating them are PIA,although I use them for everyday spend .

Yes the risk is there ,but I put other spend as well on the Ink cards not just office stores ,so do what you feel comfortable with.

AKA the Jungle, Jungleland

So I gotta "KIVA" the Pentagon with lots of little amounts? How is their creditwortiness? I trust my KIVA investments in Paraguay, but the Pentagon is backed by the good faith of the United States. Ain't that the deadbeat country with the runaway spending or am I thinking Greece?:D

Get a Chase credit card. How about that free Amtrak one for starters? Then you can really get an education.:cool:

As a point-earning website, I was referring to 5% in points/cash. $200k can be leveraged to earn greater than 5% in a year in points.

...or cash with a Chase cash back card (magic card tricks involving bank deposits)

Even with the ridiculous taxes on "the rich" (of whom, many are not actually rich) 70 degree Sundays in January are hard to give up :)

try the cost of living in Hawaii.:p
(not that I live there, but been looking at the stats--they will really set someone off to say 'holy manoly')


........and back to the topic at hand (time for the popcorn).

It appears many like the sign up bonuses, many like the VR's and various ways of spending, and many use both. Some of the numbers are real eyeopeners.

nevermind.

Leave your ridiculous politics to other sites. I dont't care how much you make or what you think of Raegan. I just want info on maximizing my points so I can take my family to Hawaii in style.

Geez - let's hope they spell his name, Reagan, right when his dollar coin comes out. Else staff at the mint will have to steal the misprints like the last time around.:p

average monthly points
 

85k in last 2 months,
No flying, cc bonus rewards and 3k in normal monthly bills.

In past month, i got 8k miles to meet 8k spending requirement of amex plat 100k and citi aax2 50k x2. 7k was manufactured.

Not counting signup bonuses, I would guess that I get about 7-8K/mo in manufactured points, $2-3K in legitimate charges, and 6K for actual flying and the multiplier bonuses associated with charging the tickets on CSP at the UR mall.

It's not worth starting a separate thread over, but I'd be curious to know how people's significant other participates, or doesn't. I have the best possible situation - Mrs. Redtop doesn't get involved, puts no restrictions on me, she just uses whatever credit card(s) I tell her to, and doesn't even care to know what cards I have applied for in her name. I make it easy in return by not switching cards on her more than every 6-12 months, and taking care of minimum spending without her. I'm sure some people's SO has the opposite attitude, an absolute ban on extra applications in their name. I'm lucky in this regard, but I guess she's lucky also that she gets all the travel benefits with none of the work.

That's the way it works here as well. I have found this thread inspiring as well. As a person that has not been participating in manufactured spending, I fell I need to make the time to read up on all the possibilities.

bonus and spending
 

60,000 in bonuses, 5,000 in spending on 4 cards so far.
I haven't left the ground.

acummulating
 

Pretty good for a rookie +
us Canadians
don't have the cards or awesome bonuses like our US neighbours.

Starwoods is great 40k in 1 month not including further reward of 15k each for spending 5k.
20k double Sign up till april 2013, then 15k after 5k spending'.
MC world elite - 20k bonus + 4 priority club lounge passes per year.

You probably want to change that last part soon!

I'm sure everyone's average is gonna change since OD stopped carrying $500 gift cards :-(