Earning Rates
You’ve probably heard the story before. If Bill Gates dropped a $100 bill on the ground while walking it wouldn’t be worth his time to pick it up. Depending on the year and value of his portfolio and other assets, calculations peg Mr. Gates as earning between $100 to $400 per second. Yes per second that is correct. How much Bill Gates earns per second isn’t important, the bottom line is that he earns at very high rate.
Comparatively, my work earnings are pretty average, and definitely not as impressive or on the same scale. Once you get all the way down to the earnings per second, you would be splitting pennies into hair-thin fibers! However, one thing I do earn more of is award points, more specifically frequent flyer miles, hotel points, and other travel related points. Lately I’ve wondered about what my points earning rates are.
I started earning points and miles several years ago in the fall so my calendar year is a little different than the normal calendar year cycle.
2,332,753 million frequent flyer miles and other award points last year (2015-2016)
194,396 points per month (PPM)
3,728 points per week (PPW)
533 points per day (PPD)
.37 points per minute (PPM)
The Tally
Earning over 2 million mile and points probably sounds huge for some, but for others it’s just ok. I’m happy with that total considering all that I have going (3 jobs and a serious hobby). Last year, I was approved for all but one rewards credit card, so the sign up bonuses were really helpful getting to that total. The other points came deals, special promotions, and manufactured spend. I’m nearly all the way through the current year and it’s is on pace to be even better, hopefully over 3 million.
I keep my own spreadsheet that tracks my monthly totals for all major award programs, so it’s easy to keep track of my award points. I’ve excluded local supermarket and gas points as they are just an added bonus for me now without real incentive to maximize them.
A Good Problem to Have
The difficulty that I’m running into is that I have almost all of the rewards cards that I’ve wanted, and have have begun to get cards multiple times (churn). I have a lot of rewards cards, and with that, it’s getting harder and harder to get approved for new cards. I’m considering holding off on new card applications for a couple of years and just using the cards that I have, but that decision hasn’t been made yet. There are just too many rewards out there so it’s hard to stop!
