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Originally Posted by josephstern
(Post 20123659)
Before everyone gets their eyes opened on the manufactured spend thing, please realize two things:
-It's generally not free. and -It generally takes a decent amount of time. There is no free lunch. But, in general, I follow a 2-step/3-step rule. I'm also all about safety. I don't go for stuff that will raise red flags. Slow and steady is good for me. I generally won't go for a scheme that requires more than 2 steps in the physical world or 3 steps on line. This means I generally stay away from going to a store and buying physical cards to buy other cards elsewhere to put on BB and then use for spending. That's 3 steps. Even so, at this point I'm much more focused on status than sheer number of points. I've been accumulating points faster than I can use them recently, and I've burned through a decent number of points. Paying my mortgage at a 1:1 rate on a card that gets me EQM through BB is good enough for me at this point. I wish I had time to fly SQ suites for a 3-day Tokyo jaunt and stay in the Maldives three times a year, but I don't. For the time I get off, slow and steady has been working great. It's already difficult enough to explain to colleagues taking the entire family to New York, Hawaii and Europe in premium cabins in one year. |
Originally Posted by a7800
(Post 20123366)
Is Phil Mickelson a flyertalker? :p
Anyone earning more than around 47k in California is feeling the pain. |
Originally Posted by AlohaDaveKennedy
(Post 20123467)
The question is while we can join PenFed via the Internet with an opening deposit made via credit card, how much is the max deposit?:cool:
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Originally Posted by rajuabju
(Post 20124433)
lol
Anyone earning more than around 47k in California is feeling the pain. |
Originally Posted by JATR4
(Post 20122401)
BankDirect is for those who have substantial extra cash. The most popular account is Mileage Checking With Interest. Some of the particulars are:
"...Earn 1000 miles for opening a Mileage Checking Account. Earn 10,000 miles for signing up for payroll direct deposit into a Mileage Checking Account. Earn 5,000 miles for using BankDirect's bill pay service for 12 months. Earn 100 miles per month for every $1000.00 of the collected balance in your Mileage Checking Account up to the first $200,000. Earn an additional 25 miles per $1,000 in balances over $200,000, WITH NO CAP!" In other words, to earn 20k per month, you need $200,000! It is somewhat cumbersome to open an account and there is a $12 per month charge which was free until Jan of 2012. Obviously, not for everyone. |
Originally Posted by lkar
(Post 20124226)
It's already difficult enough to explain to colleagues taking the entire family to New York, Hawaii and Europe in premium cabins in one year.
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Originally Posted by MilesGator
(Post 20122166)
I'm also curious about this (and I have investigated a little on Google :D ). Not counting the initial sign up offer, you get 100 AA miles per $1000 in their checking account.
That means to get 20k AA miles/month someone has to have $200,000 sitting in a checking account. Lets say those are worth 2 cpm, that's a value of $400/month. Now lets say they get redeemed for business class, that's probably closer to 4-5 cpm(? just a guess as I haven't had the luxury of redeeming for biz/1st) so they are getting a value of $800-1000/month. If you were to park 200k in some retirement/investment account that gets 5% return (doesn't seem unreasonable to me), your value would be $10,000/month. Why is anyone parking 200k in a checking account? I love to travel, but it just doesn't seem like the smartest way to stash your money. |
Originally Posted by lkar
(Post 20123093)
If you can guarantee a 5 percent yearly return after taxes on a $200,000 investment that has zero risk whatsoever to principal and is completely liquid, please share.
I am not aware of anything close. Yes, you can possibly get better than 5 percent if you put your principal at risk. And maybe you can start to get upwards of 3 or 4 percent if you lock up your money. But if I had $200k and did not want to put it at risk, and also potentially needed it somewhere other than in a maturing-nonliquid investment, 360,000 miles a year is pretty good. 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
Originally Posted by lkar
(Post 20124226)
It's already difficult enough to explain to colleagues taking the entire family to New York, Hawaii and Europe in premium cabins in one year.
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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.
Originally Posted by babypuwet
(Post 20124614)
...there is no legit place in this world that offers 5% return per month...
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Originally Posted by ayya
(Post 20124696)
How are you getting 360,000 miles a year? Isn't it 240,000 miles a year for the 200K deposit.
Ok, ok. Math is not my strong suit. What's 120,000 miles among friends? |
Originally Posted by yoonny
(Post 20119150)
Damn, I thought I was doing well with about 15k on average. I need to work much harder. Business owners have an unfair advantage.
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As a broke college student, this thread is making me salivate.
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Originally Posted by MilesGator
(Post 20122166)
I'm also curious about this (and I have investigated a little on Google :D ). Not counting the initial sign up offer, you get 100 AA miles per $1000 in their checking account.
That means to get 20k AA miles/month someone has to have $200,000 sitting in a checking account. Lets say those are worth 2 cpm, that's a value of $400/month. Now lets say they get redeemed for business class, that's probably closer to 4-5 cpm(? just a guess as I haven't had the luxury of redeeming for biz/1st) so they are getting a value of $800-1000/month. If you were to park 200k in some retirement/investment account that gets 5% return (doesn't seem unreasonable to me), your value would be $10,000/month. Why is anyone parking 200k in a checking account? I love to travel, but it just doesn't seem like the smartest way to stash your money. 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? |
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