{"id":13606,"date":"2026-04-25T05:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=13606"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:25:11","slug":"saturday-guest-special-the-power-of-problem-solving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/saturday-guest-special-the-power-of-problem-solving\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Guest Special: The Power of Problem Solving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to John from BABC<\/a> for putting together this guest post during the holiday season last year, and special jeers to Matt from MEAB that it’s April now. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a High School math teacher who not only participates in churning credit cards, bank accounts, gift cards, brokerage accounts, college tuition grants (I received a free master\u2019s degree in education along with a free car back in 2019 from that endeavor), and pretty much anything else. I am also a tour guide of the many Churning Adventures in this fun and profitable game via my YouTube Channel. Every year, I spend an entire year making a single YouTube video where I attempt to document every single bonus I collect from January to December of that year. Usually, there are so many that I forget to document every single one. My annual goal from when I started in this fun and profitable goal back in 2017 is $10,000 from opening up new accounts. This past year, 2024, was my best yet as I made well over 3x that<\/a> and after thinking about a few bonuses I didn\u2019t include\u2026 it was actually, almost 4x that goal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is not to brag. I document the profitable plays with videos 3x a week, so you can also participate if you choose to do so. I don\u2019t pay out the bonuses, and I don\u2019t make up the rules to get the bonuses\u2026 as I said, I\u2019m just a tour guide for these Churning Adventures. Some of the manufactured spenders reading this would simply laugh at \u201crookie numbers,\u201d while others would be impressed\u2026 others would travel to the Marriott in Lubbock, TX, just to step on a rake in the lobby and call it just another day, as business as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to discuss in this post why this is a profitable game? Why are there so many opportunities to more often than not just sit at home on your couch or at a desktop, press a few buttons, and make more money appear in your bank account than actually getting dressed up, fighting traffic, and teaching a full day at a public high school? This process took me about 6 minutes today, from a single bonus to make more in churning than I would in a 10-hour day of being a high school math teacher. (I drive about an hour each way and spend my contract hours of 7 A.M. – 3 P.M. at that place with those people) That\u2019s where the 10-hour figure came from, but I usually stay later as I refuse to take my teaching work home. I am also a member of the FIRE community and do plan on reaching my early retirement in 2-4 years, and just churn full-time and collect weekly dividends from high-yield ETFs\u2026 God Willing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer to profitability and why people get paid is a simple one that is sadly not taught in our public schools. I know because at the beginning of each semester in the 13 years that I have been a teacher, I ask my students the simple question, \u201cWhy do people get paid?\u201d. Of the thousands of students who have sat in my classroom in 13 years and counting, nobody has managed to answer the correct answer to that question when I first asked it. I shame our public education system by saying to my students, \u201cWow, from kindergarten to 12th grade\u2026 nobody can correctly answer this simple yet profound question that will impact you for the rest of your life, why do people get paid?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would get the standard response, \u201cPeople get paid for working\u2026 DUH!\u201d and I would follow up with, \u201cWell, what does work produce? EVERYONE gets paid for the EXACT same reason\u2026 they don\u2019t get paid the same amount but for the EXACT same reason,\u201d and then, I get greeted by confusion and silence. I would also hear, \u201cPeople get paid because they have bills.\u201d Then I would follow up and say, \u201cIf I\u2019m looking to hire an accountant for my business, would I ask the applicants, ‘Who has the most bills?\u201d as that would produce the most qualified person\u2026 right? If you get paid to pay bills, then the person who has the most debt and bills would be the most qualified. Then my students would say that makes no sense. Then the consensus would be \u201cI don\u2019t know why people get paid\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would ask my students which profession makes a lot of money? One student would typically say that doctors make a lot of money. I would ask my class, \u201cWho would just go up to a random doctor and hand them $1,000? Doctors are supposed to make a lot of money, right?\u201d Everyone would just look at me, confused. I would follow this up with, well, what if you had a broken arm? You would gladly hand a doctor $1,000, right? The students would say, \u201cOf course\u201d. I would say, \u201cWhat is the difference?\u201d Well, the broken arm\u2026 What is the broken arm?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Broken arm is a problem. It\u2019s a big problem. If your car breaks down, who do you call? Someone to fix that problem\u2026 If your air conditioner stops blowing cold air, who do you call? Someone to fix that problem. (Interesting fact, Houston, not Lubbock, is the most air-conditioned city in the world) People get paid to solve problems. If you solve little problems, then you will get paid a little money. If you solve bigger problems, then you will make bigger money. That is why people get paid. That is why everyone gets paid\u2026 to solve problems. No matter if you are a teacher, a doctor, or a churner. It just so happens that EVERY single problem is a math problem, and that math class is the most important class you can take in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how we need to look at life and churning. What problems do the banks have? They need new customers and are willing to pay very nicely to get them\u2026 funny enough, it doesn\u2019t matter if you are a new customer or a repeat new customer, you will get paid out the same. Banks also need money to lend out so they can make interest from customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average person who buys a $300,000 home and stays there for 30 years and doesn\u2019t pay anything extra on their mortgage will end up paying about $700,000 for that house\u2026 that\u2019s why banks pay pretty much nothing as far as interest goes on checking accounts and demand you keep a certain amount in your account that pays no interest or you get a fee, and banks get their product for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I made over $31,000 by opening up new accounts and solving the problem of needing new customers for banks and credit unions, and brokerages that need new customers and are willing to pay us for it… Join me in solving the fun and profitable problems that only churners and MSers can solve to make this the most profitable 2026!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– John from BABC<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have no idea what problem this duck solves<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to John from BABC for putting together this guest post during the holiday season last year, and special jeers to Matt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest","category-status"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13609,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13606\/revisions\/13609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}