{"id":8554,"date":"2023-11-10T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=8554"},"modified":"2023-11-10T09:03:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:03:23","slug":"weekend-wisdom-the-time-value-of-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/10\/weekend-wisdom-the-time-value-of-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Wisdom: The Time Value of Points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Financial goons will be quick to tell you about the <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/ask\/answers\/032715\/why-does-time-value-money-tvm-assume-dollar-today-worth-more-dollar-tomorrow.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,also%20arises%20due%20to%20inflation.\">time value of money<\/a>, which is a basic concept in economic theory that says money is worth more now than it is in the future, in part because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You can earn interest immediately on money you have now<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thanks to modern monetary policy, inflation will always eat away at money&#8217;s value<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Opportunity cost (which is sometimes added directly into either or both of the above)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The same concept applies to points and miles, but the factors aren&#8217;t quite the same. In the case of points and miles, they&#8217;re worth more now than the future because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/18\/on-devaluations\/\" class=\"ek-link\">Devaluations happen<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The redemption value of points is often tied to the cost of tickets (inflation bites here too)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Currencies get <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/travel\/hotels\/2019\/01\/16\/marriott-bonvoy-new-loyalty-program\/2580301002\/#:~:text=Marriott%20Bonvoy%20will%20replace%20three,program%20will%20launch%20on%20Feb.\">washed<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.choicehotels.com\/choice-privileges\/merge-rewards-accounts\">away<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Miles and points don&#8217;t earn interest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s the takeaway? Burn those points as soon as practicable. Can you come up with a formula to describe this, asked no one? Yes we can, but no, I&#8217;m not going to do that today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have a nice weekend friends!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"636\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8555\" style=\"width:420px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4.png 636w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4-300x154.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:14px\">Yes, it&#8217;s time for the quarterly MEAB math nerd joke. Sorry, not sorry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Financial goons will be quick to tell you about the time value of money, which is a basic concept in economic theory that says money<\/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":[64,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-points","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554","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=8554"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8565,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554\/revisions\/8565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}