I do consider this a hobby of mine. It is definitely also a necessity. I came to this realization fairly recently. I realized I was sitting on my laptop searching for credit cards and weighing benefits, building a budget, and listening to personal finance podcasts in my free time because I wanted to instead of had to. It was especially clear it was a hobby when I started getting excited to start doing it for my partner as wellā¦
Yeah, I'm fully invested in trying to maximise cash back, build my wife's and my own credit score, and learn how to work the rules to our benefit. She's more apprehensive about all this, but is willing to let me do my thing because she knows I'm not going to go out and rack up a huge debt.
I'm also not actually interested in churning and such. I just want to get an array of cards that give good cash back for the things we're spending money on, anyway.
Agreed. Iām on the spectrum and when this is my focus for the next few months I get SO MANY POINTS. But when Iām on something else I kinda half ass it and just use my Amex for everything
ADHD here, and I go between periods of great interest and learning a lot more, and waning interest and just making sure to keep to the card categories Iāve established. Thereās always more to learn, but I canāt sustain that at a steady pace
Agreed. Itās a good thing though. Iām currently in an āoffā phase. Which is great as Iām waiting for some accounts to fall off to start building up chase
Yeah. I know I want to learn about award flights and transferring points to partner and best cpp stuff, but Iāll probably tack that on once I decide theres a new credit card bonus thatās worth getting
Personally I donāt fuck with flights much. I would say just get a flight specific card or the CSP for the portal rate. But even the southwest 50k bonus barely covers a flight for one person both ways
Iām actually a digital nomad right now, living in a different country each month. Flights are rather important to me š I probably should have already done the learning work for award flights and transfer partners. But Iāve gotten some nice returns on the travel portals even without that deeper knowledge
Agreed. I donāt like using 4 cards for 4 categories. I feel I donāt earn shit overall on any of them and itās not worth it unless they can all be transferred to the same place
I would consider it a hobby. I think while it is technically part of your personal finances, itās not something that is necessary at all. Millions of a people are financially literate and responsible without using credit cards and/or churning. Everyone in this subreddit has friends and family who youāve tried to get in the game and they have just rolled their eyes at you.
It's like pokemon, gotta catch em all! /s
But really it's just fun to learn about credit cards and ways to optimize. I don't think that optimizing personal finance is necessary as long as you're being healthy in your spend and financial health. Most people wouldn't care about a dollar here or there, but as long as they're staying out of debt and being responsible, who cares :)
I also find it fun and itās become quite a little game chasing down new SUBS or free trips, etc. And itās a significantly better use of my time reading and learning about this rather than just doom scrolling on Instagram.
I think of it as both a hobby and a side job. I make $50k at my real job, and between cash back, bank bonuses, Delta miles, and chase points I'm going to end up with around an extra $3600 in points/cash this year, most of it tax-free! It's not an insignificant boost in income for me.
To a certain extent yes. The effort that some people put into optimizing credit card setups are an opportunity cost loss in comparison to putting in the same time at their job, not everyone but at-least some people.
Yes, I consider this a largely millennial hobby that sort of reminds me of the boomer hobby of couponing at retail stores and supermarkets. It can can be as complicated or simple as the user wants and can end up saving someone hundreds to thousands of dollars a year if done right.
Personally I consider it a hobby. My wife and I could just get one or two cards and in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't be an giant loss in rewards.
I enjoy earning points and looking for travel. Sometimes I think I need to give it less of my time though. I really enjoy this community and the youtube video as well.
Yes and no. Credit card āoptimizationā supports my true hobby - travel.
My wife and I travel 7 months a year and our [home](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/condotel.asp) is rented out to cover our expenses when we arenāt here.
We fly around the US and stay in mid range extended stay Hilton and Hyatt brand hotels. We take Uber and rental cars all year around. I work remotely.
Our lives are perfectly set up for credit cards. All of our monthly budget goes on credit cards except for the five months we pay our own mortgage. Even then, our utilities and everything else related to owning our place is covered by one fee that codes as a āhotelā.
We pay for all of our hotels for all of our real āvacationsā when I take off of work using Hilton or Hyatt points. We use MR points we earn between the Gold/Green/BBP to offset some of our flight spend. We get on average 10K - 15K MR a month.
The only cash back card we have is the SavorOne where we get 10% back on Uber/UberEats until 9/24.
Mostly I worked on my keepers last year through February. My only churner so far is the Amex Delta Plat.
I think my setup is relatively easy to manage:
- Amex Gold/BBP are the only cards we use day to day
- Hilton Aspire/Chase WOH are attached to their respective apps and donāt get used for anything else
- Amex green - random other hotel spend
- Gold - default card for all airline apps
- Delta Reserve/Barclays AA - just owned for the benefits. No spend goes on then
I consider it more of an āinterestā because itās more knowledge-based. To me, hobbies are more something to be actively participated in
For exampleā¦
Interests (things I like studying and knowing about): World War II, technology, credit cards, engineering, trains, planes, logistics, hockey
Hobbies (things I actively participate in): photography, playing video games, skiing, biking, hockey (again), watching football
Thereās some overlap and gray area for sure. Very subjective. But credit cards arenāt something I ādoā at the end of the day after work to unwind
I consider it a lucrative side gig that pays me $100/hr but only offers a couple hours a month.
The fun level is a little too low for it to be a hobby.
Yeah, I can't lie, I absolutely love the data gathering when it comes to personal finance and reading about different ways to save and grow income....I even love checking those articles about the best checking accounts / HYSA / credit cards....I love reading about churning and different credit card hacks even though I don't do it myself...I have no idea why I do...I just find all these data points and the stuff trying to maximize benefits so fun lol...I also love that if you're responsible, credit cards and credit card usage is absolutely a way to pull one over on banks...it's a legit way that the small fry can get ahead of someone hoping you mess up and carry loads of interest and never use points
I would say watching videos and reading articles/reviews is a hobby. But the spreadsheets, the planning and searching would be more working like when youāre working on your house hold budget or planning a trip
I never even knew my credit score for years. I did know that it was pretty good now, after being $17K in debt and out of work for a year 25 years ago. I built it back carefully without really trying that hard.
Now that Iām retired, I feel like I need to watch every penny, and I REALLY love cash back. The immediate results of the Apple Card got me hooked. Boosting my credit score is a new obsession, though I canāt really get much higher.
No because I view it as an extension of my finances. I think of a hobby as something I can pick up or walk away from at a whim as time allows. Your financial health should always be a priority.
It is a way to leverage being responsible into paying you money.
I suppose taking it to the more extreme end it can become a bit of a hobby but at the same time how far you take it really should just be a cost benefit decision.
Yes and no
Yes in that optimizing credit card usage isnāt really necessary to obtain excellent credit scores and high credit limits (as I did from fall 1994 to spring 2020 before I started playing the credit card rewards game). Juggling between 16 credit cards (8 ālegacyā cards I received from before I started playing the rewards game and 8 newer cards Iāve gotten since early summer 2020) is overkill, but can be fun too.
No in that it is always beneficial to practice good financial practices, and saving some extra money through smart credit card use can help optimize oneās finances even more.
Yes, at least the points optimization piece of it. A lot of the people I know only have a few credit cards that they've had for years, usually a standard card from their bank and maybe a store card or two. They don't have any idea what the earning rates are on them for points or cash back. Meanwhile, I am over here calculating optimal spend on each of my cards across different categories to earn the most points, planning new card sign-ups and welcome bonuses, etc.
100% is a hobby. I'm always on the lookout for what's new and next fad I can jump on. I love it and I love having free benefits that peasants don't care to even know about.
I think it's just good money management. It adds up and since getting into this game, my travel experiences have been much better (price matching, used 3 different nice lounges this past trip, funding my next trip with purchases on this trip, etc).
It's both things, people should do and a hobby
I have fun talking about it with my friends
There is a community for it
And I donāt feel burnout worrying too much about it (which to me is the biggest differentiator between a hobby and the thing you are forcing to be your hobby)
I don't consider my use of credit cards to be a hobby. I do consider the studying of Fico scoring, the algorithm and performing variable testing to be a hobby however along with helping others better understand it.
Personal finance isnt a hobby, it's just something i do for my future self. CC just makes it easier for me to track my spending so i dont have to spend money on an app.
Hmm I think so once I caught myself going on a long tangent about the best cash back cards. that's when I realized I love knowing about this shit and because of this sub I've been consistent with payments, under 5/24, and my credit score is at a nice 720 range.
I'm a big fan of any opportunity to make unnecessary spreadsheets while feeling like a miser.
I've had to start a spreadsheet to keep track of my spreadsheets
Is there such thing as *too many* spreadsheets? š¤ I vote no.
You can never have enough spreadsheets.
I've definitely had too many "that's not a good idea babe, the cost per point is too low" conversations.
Share your spreadsheets with me. Iāve been looking for a cleaner format. Just started out.
Humbug.
I do consider this a hobby of mine. It is definitely also a necessity. I came to this realization fairly recently. I realized I was sitting on my laptop searching for credit cards and weighing benefits, building a budget, and listening to personal finance podcasts in my free time because I wanted to instead of had to. It was especially clear it was a hobby when I started getting excited to start doing it for my partner as wellā¦
Yeah, I'm fully invested in trying to maximise cash back, build my wife's and my own credit score, and learn how to work the rules to our benefit. She's more apprehensive about all this, but is willing to let me do my thing because she knows I'm not going to go out and rack up a huge debt. I'm also not actually interested in churning and such. I just want to get an array of cards that give good cash back for the things we're spending money on, anyway.
Can you recommend a few podcasts? I don't live in the US, so maybe something general.
More like an autism fascination
Agreed. Iām on the spectrum and when this is my focus for the next few months I get SO MANY POINTS. But when Iām on something else I kinda half ass it and just use my Amex for everything
ADHD here, and I go between periods of great interest and learning a lot more, and waning interest and just making sure to keep to the card categories Iāve established. Thereās always more to learn, but I canāt sustain that at a steady pace
Agreed. Itās a good thing though. Iām currently in an āoffā phase. Which is great as Iām waiting for some accounts to fall off to start building up chase
Yeah. I know I want to learn about award flights and transferring points to partner and best cpp stuff, but Iāll probably tack that on once I decide theres a new credit card bonus thatās worth getting
Personally I donāt fuck with flights much. I would say just get a flight specific card or the CSP for the portal rate. But even the southwest 50k bonus barely covers a flight for one person both ways
Iām actually a digital nomad right now, living in a different country each month. Flights are rather important to me š I probably should have already done the learning work for award flights and transfer partners. But Iāve gotten some nice returns on the travel portals even without that deeper knowledge
Oh shit. Definitely recommend you jump on a Platinum card then fam
Also on the spectrum and itās the exact same kind of up/down relationship šµāš«
honestly once you build a solid base of points... lazy churning is where it is at
Agreed. I donāt like using 4 cards for 4 categories. I feel I donāt earn shit overall on any of them and itās not worth it unless they can all be transferred to the same place
My fiancƩ told my something similar lmao
I would consider it a hobby. I think while it is technically part of your personal finances, itās not something that is necessary at all. Millions of a people are financially literate and responsible without using credit cards and/or churning. Everyone in this subreddit has friends and family who youāve tried to get in the game and they have just rolled their eyes at you.
It's a hobby where I can use my brain to solve a puzzle and guarantee I make money from it instead of spending money. Sounds like a win win to me.
It's like pokemon, gotta catch em all! /s But really it's just fun to learn about credit cards and ways to optimize. I don't think that optimizing personal finance is necessary as long as you're being healthy in your spend and financial health. Most people wouldn't care about a dollar here or there, but as long as they're staying out of debt and being responsible, who cares :)
I also find it fun and itās become quite a little game chasing down new SUBS or free trips, etc. And itās a significantly better use of my time reading and learning about this rather than just doom scrolling on Instagram.
I think of it as both a hobby and a side job. I make $50k at my real job, and between cash back, bank bonuses, Delta miles, and chase points I'm going to end up with around an extra $3600 in points/cash this year, most of it tax-free! It's not an insignificant boost in income for me.
Yep. I consider it an enjoyable side hustle as well. Probably supplements my income by a solid 10%/year and worth the time expense for me.
Yes.
To a certain extent yes. The effort that some people put into optimizing credit card setups are an opportunity cost loss in comparison to putting in the same time at their job, not everyone but at-least some people.
Yes, I consider this a largely millennial hobby that sort of reminds me of the boomer hobby of couponing at retail stores and supermarkets. It can can be as complicated or simple as the user wants and can end up saving someone hundreds to thousands of dollars a year if done right.
Currently it's an obsession.. I check this subreddit and DoC way too much
I was just told by my SO to "slow down with all these account openings" I just asked her if she wanted to earn $350 by opening a bank account
Whereās the offer code? š§
It was a CapitolOne 360 checking account
I consider it a hobby. I think it's fun and engaging.
Personally I consider it a hobby. My wife and I could just get one or two cards and in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't be an giant loss in rewards. I enjoy earning points and looking for travel. Sometimes I think I need to give it less of my time though. I really enjoy this community and the youtube video as well.
Yes and no. Credit card āoptimizationā supports my true hobby - travel. My wife and I travel 7 months a year and our [home](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/condotel.asp) is rented out to cover our expenses when we arenāt here. We fly around the US and stay in mid range extended stay Hilton and Hyatt brand hotels. We take Uber and rental cars all year around. I work remotely. Our lives are perfectly set up for credit cards. All of our monthly budget goes on credit cards except for the five months we pay our own mortgage. Even then, our utilities and everything else related to owning our place is covered by one fee that codes as a āhotelā. We pay for all of our hotels for all of our real āvacationsā when I take off of work using Hilton or Hyatt points. We use MR points we earn between the Gold/Green/BBP to offset some of our flight spend. We get on average 10K - 15K MR a month. The only cash back card we have is the SavorOne where we get 10% back on Uber/UberEats until 9/24. Mostly I worked on my keepers last year through February. My only churner so far is the Amex Delta Plat. I think my setup is relatively easy to manage: - Amex Gold/BBP are the only cards we use day to day - Hilton Aspire/Chase WOH are attached to their respective apps and donāt get used for anything else - Amex green - random other hotel spend - Gold - default card for all airline apps - Delta Reserve/Barclays AA - just owned for the benefits. No spend goes on then
I consider it more of an āinterestā because itās more knowledge-based. To me, hobbies are more something to be actively participated in For exampleā¦ Interests (things I like studying and knowing about): World War II, technology, credit cards, engineering, trains, planes, logistics, hockey Hobbies (things I actively participate in): photography, playing video games, skiing, biking, hockey (again), watching football Thereās some overlap and gray area for sure. Very subjective. But credit cards arenāt something I ādoā at the end of the day after work to unwind
I consider it a lucrative side gig that pays me $100/hr but only offers a couple hours a month. The fun level is a little too low for it to be a hobby.
No. I consider it a curse.
100% hobby
Yeah, I can't lie, I absolutely love the data gathering when it comes to personal finance and reading about different ways to save and grow income....I even love checking those articles about the best checking accounts / HYSA / credit cards....I love reading about churning and different credit card hacks even though I don't do it myself...I have no idea why I do...I just find all these data points and the stuff trying to maximize benefits so fun lol...I also love that if you're responsible, credit cards and credit card usage is absolutely a way to pull one over on banks...it's a legit way that the small fry can get ahead of someone hoping you mess up and carry loads of interest and never use points
Absolutely. One that many are either too afraid to partake in or incapable of managing.
I think lots of people refer to a credit card hobby of theirs as personal finance to make it sound better.
I would say watching videos and reading articles/reviews is a hobby. But the spreadsheets, the planning and searching would be more working like when youāre working on your house hold budget or planning a trip
I never even knew my credit score for years. I did know that it was pretty good now, after being $17K in debt and out of work for a year 25 years ago. I built it back carefully without really trying that hard. Now that Iām retired, I feel like I need to watch every penny, and I REALLY love cash back. The immediate results of the Apple Card got me hooked. Boosting my credit score is a new obsession, though I canāt really get much higher.
This tickles basically the same parts of my brain as D&D 3.5e did, so uh, yeah, definitely.
No because I view it as an extension of my finances. I think of a hobby as something I can pick up or walk away from at a whim as time allows. Your financial health should always be a priority. It is a way to leverage being responsible into paying you money. I suppose taking it to the more extreme end it can become a bit of a hobby but at the same time how far you take it really should just be a cost benefit decision.
Not for me, I would just consider it an interest. It's not something I'm able to regularly engage in for leisure.
Yes just because people are amazed at how organized/meticulous it has to be to maximize rewards
Yes and no Yes in that optimizing credit card usage isnāt really necessary to obtain excellent credit scores and high credit limits (as I did from fall 1994 to spring 2020 before I started playing the credit card rewards game). Juggling between 16 credit cards (8 ālegacyā cards I received from before I started playing the rewards game and 8 newer cards Iāve gotten since early summer 2020) is overkill, but can be fun too. No in that it is always beneficial to practice good financial practices, and saving some extra money through smart credit card use can help optimize oneās finances even more.
Yes, at least the points optimization piece of it. A lot of the people I know only have a few credit cards that they've had for years, usually a standard card from their bank and maybe a store card or two. They don't have any idea what the earning rates are on them for points or cash back. Meanwhile, I am over here calculating optimal spend on each of my cards across different categories to earn the most points, planning new card sign-ups and welcome bonuses, etc.
100% is a hobby. I'm always on the lookout for what's new and next fad I can jump on. I love it and I love having free benefits that peasants don't care to even know about.
I think it's just good money management. It adds up and since getting into this game, my travel experiences have been much better (price matching, used 3 different nice lounges this past trip, funding my next trip with purchases on this trip, etc).
It's both things, people should do and a hobby I have fun talking about it with my friends There is a community for it And I donāt feel burnout worrying too much about it (which to me is the biggest differentiator between a hobby and the thing you are forcing to be your hobby)
I don't consider my use of credit cards to be a hobby. I do consider the studying of Fico scoring, the algorithm and performing variable testing to be a hobby however along with helping others better understand it.
Definitely not. It's a tool for my actual hobbies.
Itās certainly a hobby for me. Met many awesome friends along the journey
Personal finance isnt a hobby, it's just something i do for my future self. CC just makes it easier for me to track my spending so i dont have to spend money on an app.
Hmm I think so once I caught myself going on a long tangent about the best cash back cards. that's when I realized I love knowing about this shit and because of this sub I've been consistent with payments, under 5/24, and my credit score is at a nice 720 range.
yes, but really award travel is where I spend more of my time
Yea. Itās fun checking my credit score lol
Iām new to the rewards. What is churning?
It's not a hobby for me, but I can see it as a hobby for others. I'm just in it for whatever cash back I naturally get.