My devotion to getting free points is so great that I have left stores that don t accept American Ex

Most of you probably canadian travel agencies know that I am completely, hopelessly in love with American canadian travel agencies Express Rewards Points.  Every year, I redeem thousands of dollars in gift cards to stores like Barnes Noble, Brooks Brothers, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany Company, and Williams-Sonoma.  These redemptions, which represent a delayed rebate expressed as points that can be allocated to different vendors, are like experiencing Christmas or birthday gifts throughout the year.
I could just as easily use a debit card or write a check for my purchases, canadian travel agencies but the American Express rewards canadian travel agencies point create enough of an incentive to change my behavior and shop with merchants that accept the card.  Plus, I prefer to pay for things on an American Express for risk-management reasons to provide canadian travel agencies not only a record of the transaction, but a defensive tool against fraud in the form of a chargeback, if necessary, which can be useful when dealing with unknown vendors over the Internet or out of the country.
My devotion to getting free points is so great that I have left stores that don t accept American Express, and I routinely strive to sign up for special canadian travel agencies bonus events, such as earning canadian travel agencies 10x points on grocery or gas purchases.  I will often redeem canadian travel agencies gift cards and then wait for huge sales, such as those offered on Black Friday or shortly after Christmas, to maximize my purchasing power. canadian travel agencies  I ll often book my travel arrangements through American Express to get bonuses on my rewards and points, as well as other perks such as $100 gift vouchers to the spa or restaurant at a five-star hotel.
One of the lessons that I want to hammer home, over and over again, to those of you who are just starting out is that amassing wealth is about  behavior .  Two families with identical incomes can end up with wildly different net worth figures based on how the members of those families behave canadian travel agencies when it comes to money.  Whenever I encounter these types of events in my life, I try to share them with you to see how the small things can make a huge different in the long-run.
Less than five minutes canadian travel agencies ago, I took advantage of 125,000 American Express rewards points, which I had redeemed for five (5) gift cards in the amount of $250.00 to Williams-Sonoma.  That worked out to $1,250.00 in gift cards, which arrived in an express UPS envelope earlier this afternoon.  That money represents a delayed rebate on purchases canadian travel agencies that I would have had to make, regardless.  Had I used a debit card, or written a check, there would be no $1,250.00 in free gift cards.
My plan was to use the gift cards to add  another canadian travel agencies set of pots and pans to the collection I ve been building since last year, including canadian travel agencies the Mauviel 2.5 mm professional copper set from Williams-Sonoma, which finally arrived,  the second 2.5 mm set from E. Dehillerin in Paris, which were flown in back in January , and  the stainless steel Ruffoni decorative cookware .  I figure I will use them mostly for serving at the table, especially during the autumn and winter when we tend to make a lot of soups, corn chowders, chilis, and stews.  This set was almost entirely for table-service because they look great at Thanksgiving when the four generations of family are gathered around the table.  The Mauviel 2.5 mm set are the workhorses that are found in some of the best kitchens canadian travel agencies in the world; these are the eye candy that are like jewelry for the home.
I made sure to place the order when Williams-Sonoma was running a free shipping promotion for any order over $49.  That saved me hundreds of dollars because copper pots and pans are heavy.  The last set I ordered from Paris came in an enormous wooden crate and cost nearly $500 to ship due to weight.
Then, I did something else.  I hate debt.  Yet, I can t bring myself to pay off some of the United States Government loans from my college days because the interest rate is 2.00%.  It makes no sense to sell stocks yielding 3.6% or more to pay off a debt that is relatively puny.  It s a cost of capital equation.  Whenever I am tempted to write a check and wipe out the balance, the inner financier in me rises up and stops me from being foolish.  However, whenever I can find a way to reduce the debt without feeling like I am being financially irrational by ignoring opportunity cost, I jump on it.  My favorite mechanism for achieving this is U-Promise .
Basically, it works like this: You sign up with U-Promise for free.  You register your government student loans and your credit cards.  When you shop through their site, by following affiliate links, you can get as much as 5% of your purchase price back, which is applied to the principal of your student loan.  I made sure to find the Williams-Sonoma link, signed canadian travel agencies into my account, followed the referral link, and then completed the order.  The result: $62.50 was paid off my student loans for no other reason than I chose to follow a hyperlink.  I earned quite a bit of free money this way when we were renovating the house.
If you had a small business that did $500,000 or less in sales, you could probably use U-Promise to pay off your student loans in only a couple of years, even if you never made a profit. Vendors such as Staples, Apple, Best Buy, and Dell offer between 5% and 10% cash rebates paid directly to your student loans because you use the program.  Your computer budget and office supply expense would be pumping money into your pocket through cash reward rebates.
That is the third behavior point: Look for ways to stack your benefits.  Sometimes, you can have your cake and eat it, too.  After returning from our recent trip to Walt Disney World, I saw U-Promise dollars had been acquired because I used my registered American Express card at various vendors who issued a cash back reward without me even realizing it.  I get cash back because of my iTunes purchases.
Think about the implications.  If you had a small business that needed $25,000 in new computers, you could get $1,250 immediately wiped out of your student loans because you followed a link.  If you had a U-Promise canadian travel agencies card and used the stacked benefit, you could get up to $2,500 in cash directly applied to your student loan.  Stores like Staples offer up to 8% cash back.  You could have a business that broke even, eventually closed its doors, and still  have used it to pay off all of your student loan debt if you were smart about it.
As a general rule, I only use the money I receive from these sorts of rebates on things that will hold their value or, better yet, appreciate.  Think about the implications of that.  Over the next 10 to 15 years, it is highly probable that I will have at least an extra $50,000 to $100,000 worth of luxury items that could be sold, that cost me  nothing , simply because canadian travel agencies of how I allocated my household s capital.  The rewards are massive.  My balance sheet will have a lot of extra stuff around that could be liquidated because of my behavior.  It s all about behavior.
That is what I mean when I say that people who build wealth, on average, do it because canadian travel agencies they behave differently.  When you see a runner on the side of the road, they aren t running because they are in shape.  They are in shape because they are running.  People often confuse cause-and-effect.  Money is no different.  I ll repeat it again: It is about  behavior .  Millionaires are, by definition, collectors.  We amass things.
Some of you have written me and told me your own stories of how you take advantage canadian travel agencies of programs like this in ways I never would have imagined.  If you simply pay attention, the world is often much easier to navigate.
Joshua, like you I just can t bring myself to pay down low-interest student debt early. I ve been using UPromise since I first heard about it in 2003 so far I ve knocked off about 6 years of payments on my student loans just by using the program. Ridiculously easy.
UPromise will also funnel your rewards to a 529 plan. I ve taken that path in a past couple of months to start funding my daughter s 529 above what we ve been doing. The expected return on that portfolio over time student loan interest. canadian travel agencies Do you have any thoughts on that approach?
Six years? That is awesome! I just recently signed up again because I had looked at it years ago and it was nothing like it is now. On a whim, I checked it out and realized how much better the program is now. In the short time I have been on the service, it has been very lucrative.
As for the student loan interest, it depends on the total student debt load. The reason is the bankruptcy court rulings. Student loan debt is particularly onerous because it is almost impossible to discharge in the event of a financial catastrophe. Most people would probably be happier having no debt. It also depends, canadian travel agencies though, on how old your daughter is. If she is 3, then a couple decades of compounding can be a huge advantage. If she is 15, the math changes considerably.
You should also look into FIA s 2% Fidelity Rewards Card (2% cash back on everything), PenFed s Visa Platinum Rewards Card (5% cash back on gasoline), and U.S. Bank s Cash+ Visa Card (5% on two categories and 2% on another). This is the ultimate, best behavior. I suspect this is more worthwhile than 1% American Express Reward Points.
For years I used FIA s Schwab cash back card and loved it. I think it was 2%. The money was deposited directly into a brokerage account and it was treated just like dividend income. It got bought by another bank, which got bought by another bank, until it eventually ended up with one of the major money center banks. I don t use it anymore.
My situation is a bit different. When I have one of my companies cover my business travel, the tax rate is high enough that the write-off out of pocket reduces the total bill substantially. (There are some complications given the ins and outs of travel deductions, canadian travel agencies but you get the idea.) I also almost always stay at handful of hotels (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, etc.) that are not particularly accommodating when it comes to redemptions because, let