One of the coolest things about starting a blog and networking with other bloggers is that it gives me the opportunity to read a LOT of articles about personal finance. I have been surprised by not only how much I’ve learned abut blogging and website creation (which is a TON! I knew nothing when I started) but how much more I have learned about personal finance as well. Here are some of the top financial tips that I’ve learned from other bloggers.
1) That it is totally possible to be such a wizard with credit card reward points that you can literally take entire trips on points alone. Before I started blogging, I thought that the word “churning” referred to the making of butter from cream! Well, I think it still does, but now I am also aware of the fact that there is a much cooler alternative definition of that word. Becoming a blogger has afforded me the opportunity to read many posts about how people are being smart with their credit card rewards and has made me realize that Mr. CMF and I need to get better at this. I’m actively researching credit cards with travel rewards at this time, so please feel free to let me know in the comment section which cards you like.
2) Swagbucks. I had heard of this site before becoming a blogger, but since reading lot of posts about it and trying it out I have become a frequent Swagbucks-er. Or Swagsbucks-ista. Whatevah. I literally do internet searches every day, so I may as well earn some points for gift cards and things while I’m searching!
3) That I need to start doing some comparison shopping to compare Amazon Prime (which we have) and Hulu (which we don’t have) with standard basic cable. We’ve had regular cable forever, but fellow bloggers have helped me realize that these days there may be better deals out there.
4) That maybe there is something to the idea of rebalancing, and we should probably be a lot better about analyzing the composition of our investment classes to make sure that we are not too heavily or lightly weighted in certain areas. I think this may have to become a 2014 resolution…
5) That we really need to think about creating an account with Mint.com in order to make keeping track of our finances easier.
So for you readers who are bloggers, thank you!! You are helping us become better at personal finance and therefore helping us achieve our dreams that much sooner. Every step is one step closer.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite travel rewards credit card that you’d recommend?
Photo credit: Tax Credits @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/
The Barclaycard is probably the best travel rewards card out there right now and easiest to get. Here is my post about it:
http://clubthrifty.com/earn-800-for-doing-nothing/
My sister and her husband just signed up for it so they’ll have $880 to spend on flights!
Thank you!! I knew someone had done a post on it recently but I could not remember who! Yep, I think this is the one we’re going to go with.
We didn’t start churning travel rewards cards until last year…wish we had started sooner. Now with a baby and looking to take on a mortgage, we can’t churn cards or travel for the time being. The Chase Sapphire was a pretty good rewards/bonus card…and many bloggers have been promoting the Barclays MasterCard.
Yeah we’ve been looking at the Barclaycard Arrival World MC- thinking a lot about that one
That’s the best thing about blogging! You teach what you know and are good at and you learn…lots!
The best part is when a reader (not a blogger) writes to you saying how much a post helped him or her … that makes my day!
I know, blogging is fun AND you get to learn a lot. Double bonus!
I’ve learned SO much since I started blogging. It’s like a personalized magazine of tips and tricks just for my interests.
That’s a great way to put it!
Hey Dee and nice post!!
The blog-o-sphere is truly a wonderful place to learn and share your own expereinces for others to learn as well.
I to have learned a lot within the past year or so and look forward to learning more!
I do not have any credit cards so I can’t help you there, but if you ever need help on simplifying your life, feel free to ask away 🙂
Take care and all the best.
Lyle
Thanks Lyle!
If you like swagbucks, you should check out Bing rewards. You earn points for performing searches, but since nobody likes to use Bing vs. Google, there’s a Chrome app called Bingo that automatically does the searches on bing too so that you can collect the rewards without doing any work. It might not be a whole lot, but it’s completely passive and completely free.
Does this count as tip #6 you learned from bloggers??
Cool, I’ll have to check that out! And yes that TOTALLY counts as #6!!
I’m definitely learning a lot from others too. Sometimes it’s overwhelming! Maybe I should give Swagbucks another shot. I keep forgetting to use it.
I also plan on looking into the Barclaycard after reading about it on several blogs. We’ve used the Chase Freedom rewards card for a long time and it’s worked out well. We just get gift cards for it, but I usually get cards for places like CVS or Walmart. I can buy groceries at Walmart and other personal necessities at CVS.
Now that I’ve gotten myself more in the habit of using Swagbucks I’m starting to rack up some points, it’s pretty fun!!
I need to up my Swagbucks game. I’ve written about it before, but haven’t gotten into like I should to amass those points. I also am not much of a master at using credit card points. So much to learn from others!
I’m probably not using Swagbucks to its max potential at this point either, but I’m getting better at making that my default search site
I’m with you on ALL of these! The one thing I really want to try is churning credit cards, for vacations in particular.
I use the IHG credit card from Chase. It gets me hotel rewards points for IHG hotels (Holiday Inn brands). I signed up for the hotel rewards program years ago and use it when traveling for business. I got the card a year ago and really ramped up my hotel points.
I’ve heard that’s a good one! Glad to hear you’ve liked it.