Category: Wisdom

EDITOR’S NOTE:Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author mforch for reflections on the hobby. Have a nice weekend!

We are in a golden age of opportunity. We can gamble on the outcomes of a game, presidential election or digital money. New platforms pop up almost weekly, but the strategies that worked last year, last month, last week- don’t always work today. That’s the nature of the game designed to keep you chasing, not winning. But sometimes it isn’t about beating the game—it’s in learning to adapt, redefine, and turn what looks risky into the next big play.

Gambling to me isn’t about the game; it is The Game. Gambling has always been a tool. At the start, the game was simple: win. Win big, win often, and stay ahead of the curve and then hello millions (well, maybe more like thousands). But if you’ve been in the game long enough, you know that the rules change. Arbitrage opportunities disappear. Phone armies get found, fake mustaches no longer work and casinos no longer will taek us. The tricks that worked so well yesterday dry up overnight. But maybe, it’s not only about winning—it’s about not losing. It’s about figuring out a way to just be in the game where you have an edge. If you’re following me this far then high5! And while low margin plays may not sound sexy, that’s what built Vegas.

Here’s the dirty secret: casinos, loyalty programs, rewards schemes are all designed to encourage you to make sub optimal decisions. Maybe it’s redeeming points for gift cards or Amazon purchases, their game is praying on human nature to take the easy way out. But if you learn to harness some basic strategy—like leveraging venture capital to offset losses, using a credit card signup bonus to scale your points game, or simply figuring out how to play long enough without getting burned—you can flip the script.

This is where gambling and travel hacking converge. They’re both about understanding the system and finding leverage points. Sometimes, that means knowing how to lose strategically to set up a win. Sometimes, it’s as simple as knowing when the odds have flipped. Other times, it’s just 4x Entertainment. The tools may change, but the principles stay the same.

Knowing that their game is to take advantage of human nature, playing the long game is a superpower. Small edges can become large rewards over time with consistency. The people chasing flashy wins are the ones funding your business-class seats or your five-star hotel suite. And the people designing these systems know that 99.9% of people will never stop to think about how the game works. That’s what keeps the game going. But if you’re in the 0.1% of people who can adapt, scale, and stay ahead—you’re playing a different game entirely.

Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to win (well it kinda is). It’s to stay in the game long enough to see opportunities others miss. Long enough to realize that sometimes losing isn’t losing- fake money can be real money. As long as you’re still playing, you haven’t lost. What’s old is new again. Because here’s the thing: losing isn’t the opposite of winning.

– @mforch

More lessons on opposites.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to Cashback Cowgirl for authoring this post and for her alternative viewpoints on churning. I’ll see you on January 1!

* Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice whatsoever. These are just my own opinions and personal preferences I am sharing. Tax implications vary by individual.

Most of us agree how important it is to have an emergency fund — it’s often one of the first recommendations from financial planners along with tracking all of your spending each month. A three to six month emergency fund recommendation is common. Some of us, including myself prefer a one to two year emergency fund, or more. It depends on a lot of factors: risk level, type of employment, number of dependents, personal preference, etc.

In the recent past, many of us who prefer a larger emergency fund have been concerned because that money was not getting much interest — just sitting there eroding. Just a couple years ago it was hardly getting anything as interest rates were near zero. So many of us opted to just put all we had into the S&P 500.

Today, at this time of writing 4%+ APY is fairly common — around 5% just a few months back. So things have changed quite a bit.

Well even better, is that if you are in the bonus hunting game, that emergency fund can also serve as a bankroll for the bonus hunting. It then becomes dual purpose: both a bonus hunting bankroll as well as an emergency fund. I call this the BHEF — the Bonus Hunting / Emergency Fund.

Bonus Hunting. For the purposes of this article, let’s define bonus hunting as any income activity related to:

• Deposit account sign up bonuses
• Brokerage account sign up bonuses
• Credit card sign up bonuses
• Cashback rewards — both credit and debit cards
• MS related activities

Beating the Market. Personally, I am finding that I am beating the average market returns with the money in my BHEF — by quite a bit actually — often at 10-28% APY for large bank sign up bonuses and solidly 16-33% with MS related activities (IYKYK).

Size of BHEF. I have enough of a BHEF right now that in addition to it functioning as a bonus hunting bankroll it also functions as a 31 month emergency fund. My goal BHEF will perhaps end up functioning as 75 month emergency fund.

I am currently making my 31 month BHEF work for me getting 10-33% APY with it.

My BHEF is not too large, but large enough to simultaneously take advantage of the larger juicy bank account sign up deals — e.g. invest $20,000 for 60-90 days and get $1,000 (BofA Business Advantage Checking) & invest $30,000 for 60-90 days for $1000 (BMO) — along with plenty of MS.

So for me there is no penalty having this large of an emergency fund, since I am beating the average market returns handedly, tax implications included*. It’s very satisfying that no matter how the market performs or if I lose my income, I am good for several years.

BHEF Formula. I don’t count credit card float as part of my BHEF — whether that be introductory 0% APR float or the monthly 30-50 day float. However, even though I don’t count float as part of my EF, I still use it as a tool when I can as part of my bankroll gaining 10-33% APY on it.

For me my BHEF is the following simple formula:

Current Assets – Credit Card Debt = BHEF

Current Assets for the most part are very liquid and spans dozens of accounts. My Current Assets include Accounts Receivable, Certificates of Deposit, Checking accounts, Gift & Store Card Balances, Investments (Brokerage Accounts etc.), Money Market accounts, Online Payment Systems balances, Rebate App balances, Rewards Points, Savings accounts and Wallet Cash.

The following is a screenshot of my Gnucash bookkeeping tree. It shows the breakdown of Current Assets and Credit Cards. The credit card debt is divided into two sub-trees: business and personal. [It’s handy to separate the credit cards into these two sub-categories since only the personal credit cards show up on the personal credit report allowing me to quickly observe my total personal credit utilization (PCU).]

Accounts Receivable is never more than say $1500 (in short term loans only) and Accounts Payable is never really more than say $100 which I pay off each month — e.g. reimbursing boyfriend for buying something for me with his cash like at a grocer which only takes cash (Winco).

I can quickly see what my current BHEF is by looking at the two circled numbers below in my Gnucash software — a simple subtraction.

Security. This bonus hunting game for me has been a blessing. Not only do I beat the market, I have multiple years of security. I am good if I need to replace the roof or do some other major home repair. I am good if I have to replace a vehicle, etc. — paying for them in full, no financing.

Low Risk. In my opinion, there is virtually no chance for me to lose money with the BHEF unlike with investing in the stock market, which could have gigantic losses / corrections at any moment. 10-33% year over year annual returns with very little chance for loss on an EF is quite appealing! *

Too large of BHEF. At some point though the BHEF gets large enough to where it makes sense to perhaps use the excess to say fast pay a mortgage or perhaps invest in something like an S&P 500 ETF. It all depends on one’s financial goals. After I have reached my BHEF goal, I’ll be investing the excess into S&P 500 ETF. We’ll see after I reach my 75 month BHEF goal how well I can make it work for me — if it beats the market handedly who knows I may increase the size of my target BHEF.

Plans. I plan on never having to touch the money I put in the S&P 500, having my BHEF to fall back on. My personal plan is to keep my BHEF topped off, continue bonus hunting for the rest of my life, and put all the monthly excess blindly into the S&P 500 completely ignoring the market news and never selling it unless I need to harvest capital gains (or losses) to reduce tax liability.

I might consider buying dips in the market, if I am feeling cute and my BHEF is maxed out, but I’d have to weigh the risk of reducing my emergency fund during a recession in that moment. I personally will not risk more than say one third of my maxed out emergency fund when buying a large dip.

Summary. A large emergency fund perhaps isn’t a bad idea at all if you can make it work for you, for example with the bonus hunting game. (I also plan to max out my 401k/IRA as well each year.) A BHEF also perhaps makes MS a bit easier having a bit more flexibility when managing float.

Afterthoughts. A portion of a very large maxed out emergency fund could also be useful sometime in the future as part of a down payment on a home — if the occasion arises and there is real need for it.

Clarifications. When I say I am getting 10-33% on my BHEF with bonus hunting, I am referring to the large chunk of assets that would of otherwise gone into say the S&P 500.  I am not including the gains from say very active MS loops which alone (with just float) can result in obscene amounts of % annual return.

– Cashback Cowgirl

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to shredder05 for a compelling origin story. I’ll see you on January 1!  If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please reach out!

I stumbled into the world of credit card churning almost a decade ago while still in grad school. My partner and I were strapped for cash, but I wanted to travel. With minimal expenses, I had to quickly learn how to manufacture spend.

My first big play was getting two SPG cards at the same time, each with a $7,500 spend requirement. Back then, Visa gift cards easily loaded to Venmo, and my genius plan was to run all $15,000 through them in $500 increments. I was quickly banned. I wasted those points as a grad school graduation present to myself at Atlantis in the Bahamas. But those SPG points and a shutdown from Venmo marked the start of realizing the potential of credit card churning.

I finished the SPG spend requirements by grinding out one $500 money order at a time, when I probably should have been studying. I realized it was a viable way to generate cash. After graduating, I decided to focus on churning full-time. Over the years, I’ve managed to turn it into a respectable income. Throughout those 10 years, I have lost many “plays,” but I have continued to find new ones.

I moved on from money orders and figured out ways to mostly manufacture spend (MS) from home, even with shutdowns from multiple banks. RIP Chase, Barclays, SoFi, PNC, and Capital One. And I’ve survived the death of many plays, including buying money orders with credit cards, honeymoon funds, Plastiq, PPK, credit card debit codings, and countless others. Every time a play dies or I get shutdown, I think it’s the end. But after those few days of grief, I think I love the pressure and search of finding a new play the most. Those are the best days in this hobby. There is always something else.

Sometimes I get insecure about doing this full-time. It’s easy for people to question and judge, and it’s not a job my parents can brag to their friends about. I’m grateful for my partner who provides my health insurance and has always been my biggest supporter of doing this. And I’m grateful for the friends who have helped me along the way; there have been many. Through hitting milestone statuses and plays dying, I’ve learned that the key to success in credit card churning is resilience, creativity, and fostering relationships. There’s always a new opportunity around the corner, and the thrill of finding the next great play keeps me motivated. Most importantly, there is always someone who is willing to help you. I don’t recommend sharing plays with large groups of people, but message that person you occasionally talk to and brainstorm together. This might not be a conventional career path, but it’s one that brings me joy and has led me to have meaningful, lasting relationships. And ultimately, that’s what matters most.

– Shredder05

Screenshot of Shredder05’s phone, circa 2017.