bytor9

This comment is the perfect balance of sarcasm and valid analogy

If it's just a card you like anyway and it's easy then great, but to spend time figuring out 2% vs 1% and meeting all the requirements, that's a damn small amount compared to increasing your income potential, learning skills, or getting various other life choices right.

I just think overall, personal finance folks spend too much time on these gimmicks vs maximizing their income or avoiding costs. Probably because it seems easy and you can do it from your couch.

Also, I shouldn't have said income. It's more like 1 or 2% of your credit card spend, which is hopefully a much smaller number (say $800 on a $100k income with $40k CC spend)

This is the way. And don't touch that savings account.

I feel the need to counter this comment and point out that while churning is a cool thing, it shouldn't be on anyone's list of ways to save or make money.

For all the planning, opening and managing new accounts, fulfilling requirements, and then jumping through hoops to take advantage of those rewards, you really have to be committed and give up some sanity and freedom for a pretty marginal gain at the end of the day.

I've done it before too but it really is sort of ridiculous to jump through hoops just to stretch your spending power by 1 or 2%, isn't it?

He shares all values except liking bitcoin itself. Which may be fair, after all shiny old gold still has longer track record. Older more conservarive crowd won't embrace before a few decades of history.

Controversial take - no budget. Split income into 3 or more buckets - savings, critical bills (rent, utilities, debt, etc), and discretionary. I manage as separate accounts.

Spend discretionary freely and enjoy the peace or mind that your financial future is secured by the first 2 buckets. If you run low, rice and beans til next paycheck.

No need to track coffee expenditures, you'll realize during rice and beans week that you can make it at home.

Your mileage may vary.

The high yield savings account is such a good option due to FDIC coverage + total liquidity AND SIMPLICITY since you need the money soon.

I personally wouldn't (and don't) complicate it trying to squeeze an extra $100 per year in interest. Your time and peace of mind are worth more than that.

I think a community like this should have two goals:

1. Be on the fairly cutting edge of personal finance topics like saavy tips for current credit cards, tax codes, retirement plans, and retail promotions that help people maximize their money and plan for futures.

2. Maintain resources for basic financial literacy. IMO these are best done as sidebar items since they don't change much day to day, but they are critical for bringing in new members and frankly helping people since most schools don't do it.

I do think part of #2 is letting people ask dumb questions (What do I do now?), but only if their situation is not obviously covered in the sidebar. As sidebar grows, these should become less frequent.

I'm glad to find this comment here. I was about to unsubscribe because I'm here for personal finance; not tax policy debate or politics.

Now if a policy like that did come out and the article helped to navigate or take advantage of it as an individual, then I would be interested.

There seems to be some confusion about the level of jobs involved here. This isn't about standing on an assembly line for as long as you can hold your bladder. Low-level tasks like that are highly automated in these factories. But these also aren't smoothly running processes where tasks are all routine and well-defined.

These are equipment technicians who find out one day from another team that a robot arm off by one tenth of a mm results in ruined product, and the current calibration only has mm resolution. A delay in addressing this could cost millions. Folks will need to stay late. Orders will need to be followed. Just an example.

Starting up a fab is like building an airplane mid flight. It's not as simple as hiring more workers because the new problems aren't predictable, and knowledge can't be conveyed to new folks fast enough. Workers learn on the fly.

This is what Asian cultures have been kicking our ass in as far as semiconductor fabs. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on work culture and hours, but I don't think we (Americans) can expect to compete with Asian peers in this space without compromise.

Also, these are great careers for people who don't mind working and enjoy challenges.