Yes, Mrs Credit Card and myself have just celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary last week. Looking back, I just want to share some financial lessons I have learnt during the last 10 years.

1. Save the bulk of your year end bonus

We have always saved the bulk of our year end bonuses we get from our jobs. This has allowed us to set aside a sizable chuck of savings. This has come in very handy many times during the last 10 years (when we needed to dip into some savings).

2. Buy things that last (not just cheap stuff)

When we just got married, we often had to watch what we spent. Afterall, we had just started our carriers. But there were several times that we probably spent more on goods that we should have, but those lasted a long time. For example, I spent a few hundred dollars on some nice shoes that lasted about 8 years. I bought a couple of designer suits that I still wear today! (and they still look very good). Mrs Credit Card still has business dresses that she bought 10 years ago. I believe they are still in this condition because they are of good quality and they do last (though they cost more).

3. Second Hand Cars really saves you a lot of money

We have had a few cars. All were second hand except one. And we wished we had not bought that new car (because of depreciation). All the second hand cars we bought never gave us any serious problems. We still own a second hand car today.

4. Never assume your kids would like what you bought

Mrs Credit Card toyed about buying a nice big doll house for our daughter. She assumed that she would fall in love with it and spend a lot of time with it. When we finally got it last Christmas, our daughter hardly looked at it! She spends more time drawing with her brothers, playing legos or Thomas the Tank Engine! Just goes to show you should never assume your kids would like what you bought for them.

5. Never assume your kid will like what you want them to do

Mrs Credit Card got my first son to learn to play the voilin when he was four. He was actually pretty good at it and we were all happy about it. Then, due to us moving, relocating, we stopped his voilin lessons and he has since refused to continue learning voilin. My son now likes soccer, baseball and playing chess. He says he does not like football or basketball. Come to think of it, we spent quite a bit of money on his voilin lessons (including buying the voilin and replacing the strings a couple of times). Not to mention the stress of asking him to practice daily! Don’t force something on your kids. They may not only be unhappy, but you end up wasting both time and money!

6. Teach your kids about Money

One thing I have learnt is that you have to teach your kids the value of money. Most people do not learn money management skills from their parents and hence, most are poor at that. I talked to many enterpreneurs and they all teach their kids about business and money and I have started that with our kids. I think we still have a great deal of room to improve, but at least we think about it.

7. Hire a financial advisor early

When you are young and educated, you think you know it all. I started investing myself in both stocks and mutual funds very early on. I really thought I knew it all. Most of you do (especially pf bloggers). But do you know your risk tolerance. Well, I thought I did until the daily volatility of my yahoo, amazon.com and ebay stocks was more than my annual salary!. I’ve made out ok over the years but when I looked back, I could have made much more by truly having a diversified portfolio.

But even here, most people do not understand what a truly diversified portfolio means. Do you know what percentage of the US equity markets consists of large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks? Do you know what percentage of US equities make up the World Equity Indices? What percentage of total Global Capital Markets is fixed income and what percentage is equities? How do you mix in index funds with with superior fund managers? Do you understand what Alpha and Sharpe Ratio is?

Truth is most people (including dare I say pf bloggers, investing bloggers, magazine writers, finance web site writers) do not know that answers to these question. And if you do not know the answers, how can you have a truly diversified portfolio and understand why it is constructed that way.

8. Take your time to buy your first home

Although most financial advisors and the mainstream press would have you believe that you should buy your first home as soon as you can afford a downpayment, I think you should think about this issue very carefully. Firstly, you should have a stable job. If you work in a very unstable industry, you probably have to save more to have a “cushion”. Buy only what you can afford. This sounds common sensical but with the real estate shooting through the roof in the last few years, you can get caught up easily and buy something that you really cannot afford (or one that leaves you no margin for error).

By the way, we bought our first house at a foreclosure auction. This probably saved us close to $50,000. (not bad at all).

9. Time is Money

Sometimes, in a bid to be more frugal, we tend to save money but waste a lot of time. When we were first married, Mrs Credit Card wanted to do the laundry herself (and save the money we would have spent at the laundromat). But this was taking up too much time on Saturdays! And she always accused me of not helping (well, I hate doing laundry). I finally convinced her to send the clothes to the laundry so we do not waste our precious Saturdays arguing over it. She finally agreed and was happy with the decision.

Remember, while you may want to save money, consider how much your time is worth as well.

10. Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification is one of the most important trait to have for success. We all have our dreams, our dream car, dream house, dream BBQ grill etc. But financially successful people always put off spending on discretionary items until they can easily afford it. Both of us put off buying our house for years until we have really saved enough. We listened to music on my old Dell Laptop for years before buying a Hi-Fi system. We had a 19 inch TV for ages before buying a Home Theater. It is easy to fall into the 0% financing that is so common and is advertized to us everyday. But most people I know got into trouble because they buy stuff before they can afford it.

We are trying to teach our kids about this too. So far, we think we are on the right track. When we go to Toys R Us, our kids know that we will not be buying anything for them (unless it is their birthday or Christmas). They know that they are only there to ‘look at stuff’. We allow them to use their savings and pocket money to buy things. But when they realize that they will be using their own money, they stop thinking about buying stuff!

11. Use Reward or Cash Back Credit Cards to Earn Freebies

Both Mrs Credit Card and myself pay our credit bills in full (most of the time anyway). We use our cards to pay for everything, pay in full, and earn either reward points or cash rebates. Our two main cards are the American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card (although I have now upgraded to the Platinum Card) and the Blue Cash® from American Express . We have got lots of free airline tickets and cash rebates over the years.

12. Develop Money Trust Between One Another

Since we first dated, we have never had an argument over money. We never blew our money on stuff we cannot afford, nor have we really questioned each other’s expenses. If Mrs Credit Card saw a nice handbag and wants to buy it, I never question that decision. She has never abused that trust by being a shopperholic and buying a handbag every month! The same goes for me. This makes it so much easier. We had our fights in many other areas, but thankfully, money was never one of them. It’s tough enough to argue about relationships, kids, work etc. The last thing you really need is to argue about money with your partner.

So that’s it - my lessons from 10 years of marriage.

Last Saturday when we were in New York City, we had lunch at Funky Diner at 466 Columbus Ave (around 81st street I believe). The idea was to have lunch there before heading off to the American Museum of Natural History.

Funky Diner had some very interesting dishes. My kids ordered a kid’s cheeseburger meal, a bacon omelette, and a bowl of warm oats with walnuts. I had a salad which came in a nice looking bowl.

(Top Left) - Salad with a dash of Advocado, (Top Right) - Bacon Omelette, (Bottom Left) - Oates with Walnuts, (Bottom Right) - Cutely decorated mini kids cheeseburger



Mrs Credit Card and myself shared the salad. As she was three quarter way through, she chewed on something that was not chewable. Turns out that there was some plastic stuff in the salad!

We immediately called the waitress and told her about the incident. She was polite and immediately apologized. When we got the check, there was no charge for the salad. The total bill came up to $22.22.

Given that we have eaten about three quarters of the salad, we felt we should give extra tips. I thought we should round up the bill to $30.00 (we could not remember how much the salad cost - and we could not be bothered to get the menu to check again). Mrs Credit Card thought that $28.00 was enough and at the end, we rounded the bill to $28.00 (Consider $3.00 the normal tip amount and $3.00 as extra). I personally thought we should have rounded up the bill slightly more.

What would you have done if you were in our shoes? Would you have even gave any extra tip at all? If so, how much would you have tipped?

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The Mr Credit Card family was in New York over the weekend. The kids had a great time in the Museum of Natural History, visiting the Statue of Liberty, Toys R Us and the M&M Outlet at 48th at Broadway.

On Sunday (April Fools Day) after visiting the Statue of Liberty, we made our way to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ended up walking along Mott street and having lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

Unlike many Chinese Restaurants, this one looked like a franchise. Its’ interior was yellow and orange and the waitresses were also dressed in orange uniforms.

I can’t really remember the name, but this was what we ordered. My three kids shared a Wonton Noodle Soup and another bowl of Wonton Soup. Mrs Credit Card and myself has a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup, Chicken and Mushroom Rice in a Claypot, and a Pork Liver with Ginger Porridge. We also got some Rice Roll with BBQ Pork. The Wonton Soup was quite good and so was the Pork Liver Porridge. The Hot and Sour soup was only OK and th Rice Roll with BBQ Pork was not too great (though the kids enjoyed it!).

(Topleft) - Wonton Noodle Soup, (Top Right) - Chicken Mushroom Claypot Rice, (Bottom Left) - Hot and Sour Soup, (Bottom Right) - Ork Liver Porridge

When it was all over, I asked for the bill and then found out that they did not accept any credit cards! Well, I thought that there was a chance of this happening in Chinatown but certainly not in nice restaurant like this one. I am not the type of person who carries a lot of cash. But fortunately for me, Mrs Credit Card came to the rescue. The bill turned out to be only $19.50, which was very cheap and reasonable in my opinion.

Part 2

The hotel that we stayed at was the Hampton Inn Chelsea at 24th street between 6th and 7th Ave.

The Hotel recommended us to a 24 hour car park on 25th street and said we would get a discount as we were staying at the hampton Inn. It turned out that we would be charged $36 a day. On the day that we were leaving, I went to collect the car, and was told I needed the hotel to “stamp” on the ticket to prove that I had stayed at the Hampton Inn. So I went to get my stamp from the hotel. I went back to the parking lot and as I was about to pay, I asked if they accepted credit cards? “No” was the answer. So as usual, there wasn’t any cash in my pockets. The parking attendant told me that there was a Chase bank just across the street.

Carpark that only accepts cash!

Off I went again back to the hotel. Once again, Mrs Credit Card came to the rescue with two fifty dollar bills! I finally got my car out, stuffed our bags in and left New York City. It was a great trip and weekend away, but it was interesting to find places that still only accept cash! What a great business.

We were at New York over the weekend with the kids and obviously, we ended up at Toys R Us.

Mrs Credit Card had a few things to shop. Our kids have been invited to a couple of birthday parties. Our own kids birthday was in June. We could end up spending a lot, but fortunately we managed to get a 20% discount coupon from the most unexpected place.

We got a 20% discount from the City Guide New York! And we got the City Guide New York from our hotel at The Hampton Inn Chelsea at 24th st between 6th and 7th Ave. In fact, when Mrs Credit Card presented the coupon to the cashier, they did not accept it straight away and decided to check it. They even asked where she got it from and was surprised when we told them where we got it. In fact, the cashiers even said they will be looking to get this discount coupon for themselves.

What was more interesting was that there were other coupons from other merchants as well. So when you are travelling (especially to New York), you might want to check out the City Guides (in whatever city you are going) at the Hotel Lobby that you are staying. You may just save yourself a few dollars in change. We certainly did.

By the way, this discount is valid until the end of May. But I won’t be surprised if there is another promotion after that!

About a month ago, I went to a Thailand restaurant (picture below) at Matsonford Road. It was lunch time and I happily ordered the set menu, which cost about $7 or so. The lunch was ok, a nice spicy soup, noodles and a small desert.

Well, when it was time to pay, I produced my credit card (my Blue Cash to be precise). Lo and behold, the waitress said they did not accept any credit card for orders below $15.00 ! This was how the conversation went.

Waitress : Sorry Sir, but we do not accept credit cards for orders below $15.00.

Mr Credit Card : Where did that come from?

Waitress : We have stated that clearly at the door!

Mr Credit Card : Well, I did not see it and I do not carry cash. So you have to accept my credit card.

Waitress : Let me speak to my manager.

Manager : Sir, I’m very sorry but we do not accept credit cards for orders under $15.00.

Mr Credit Card : Well, I’, very sorry as well because I have no cash in my wallet and I do not carry my bank card around.

Manager : Well, there is an ATM machine across the road. You can use your credit card to withdraw cash.

Mr Credit Card : Well, I do not know my pin number and I don’t withdraw cash from a credit card (fees are too high).

Manager : In that case sir, we will have to charge you $15.00 for your meal.

Mr Credit Card : In that case, I will be walking out of here and paying nothing. It’s not that I do not want to pay, but I only have my credit card!

(I literally got up and was about to leave when they changed their minds).

Manager : OK Sir, we will make an exception this time. Please remember the next time you come here.

Mr Credit Card : Well, there won’t be a next time even though your food is quite good!

Moments later, when she gave me the bill for me to sign.

Manager : Sir, I hope you were not angry!!!

What idiots these jokers were! If they cannot cover the cost of a credit card charge, then raise the prices of the set lunch. I wonder how many customers have they pissed off because of this stupid credit card issue.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, I was at the same area and this time I took my digital camera and took a few shots of the restaurant from outside. I did not find any sign saying credit cards are not accepted for orders below $15. But even if there was a sign that specifically said that, that was no way to treat a customer. They could have made the exception right from the start and explained to me nicely that in future, they would rather get paid in cash for orders below a certain amount.

Well, I’ll finally reveal the name of the restaurant - ChiangMai by Matsonford Road off Highway 476 (Exit 16) in PA. You can even see the number at the sign! They clearly stated that they accepted Visa, Mastercard or Discover (no Amex). But they sure handled me the wrong way. And I really guess you do not want to p*ss off Mr Credit Card when it comes to credit card payments!

We all know how coupon cutting saves you lots of money at supermarkets. Mrs Credit Card cuts up coupons every weekend from the papers and strategically makes our household purchases whenever she could take advantage of the coupons she has amassed.

But when I use coupons for an auto repair shop, the story is a bit different. Just a two minute drive from my place is Monroe’s. Monroe’s is a chain of auto repair shops. Each shop is managed by someone who is actually just an employee. There are always Monroe coupons every week in the papers.

The first time I went to Monroe’s, Mrs Credit Card gave me the coupons. But I forgot to use them and when we told the manager, he said he could not change the system and told us he would give us a discount the next time (which he did).

On the third occasion, I gave him the coupon just before he input the details in the cashier’s machine. “Oh” he said, and he went on keying in the details. The bill came up to an amount that was similar with no discount. “I have to include certain labor cost!” he said.

On the fourth occasion, I had a similar service performed. This time I gave him the coupon right from the start. When I came to pick up the car, I was told I needed to change something (can’t remember cos I’m not a car guy). It was very minor. But there goes my discount!

I have been to this place a few more times because it is close to my place. But I can’t help but think that all these coupons for auto repair shops are worthless. They will always find something wrong with your car or include some other “service cost” if you tell them you are using the coupons! The manager also said that he does not advertise the coupons, but instead it is done by the “corporate marketing department”. Go figure.

I have decided to get the latest Apple iPod (the one with the 80GB). I am would like to use my reward points. So I decided to check out all the major credit card reward programs to see which one has the latest Apple on their reward catalog. I even created a video - which I have pasted below.

But here is my summary of my findings.

Citi ThankYou Redemptions Network - The ThankYou Network has the most number of Apple iPod models on their reward program catalog. Here is a summary of the models available and the number of points required to redeem for one.

1. Apple@1GB iPod Shuffle - 9900 points
2. Apple@2GB iPod Nano - 17,700 points
3. Apple@4GB iPod Nano - 23,200 points (in Silver, Pink, Blue and Green)
4. Apple@8GB iPod Nano - 28,700 points
5. Apple@30GB iPod - 37,800 points
6. Apple@80GB iPod - 39,700 points (both white and black)

WorldPoints from Bank of America

1. Apple@8GB iPod Nano - 39,200 points

Chase Flexible Rewards - choosemyrewards program

1. Apple@1GB iPod Shuffle - 11,500 points

American Express Membership Rewards

Despite the fact that the Membership Rewards program has the most number of merchandise on their reward catalog compared to other programs, they have no apple ipod on their catalog.

Diners Club Rewards

Diners Club Rewards also has no Apple iPod in their reward catalog.

ThankYou Redemption Networks wins this round

As far as the Apple iPod goes, the Citi ThankYou Redemptions Network has the most models available and the number of points you need to redeem for them is very reasonable based on their retail prices.

As we approach the end of 2006, I want to share some financial mistakes I have made. Three years ago, I sat down and thought long and hard about the financial decisions I have made and thought about what I should be doing going forward. I am glad I did that 3 years ago because I am now better off because of some decisions I made. Here is what I have learnt about the do’s and don’ts of your finance.

Mistake 1 : Procrastinating on taking care of the basics

1. Paying our bills - let’s face it, paying your bills suck. Having said that, you still have to pay them. Many of us have faced a situation where we misplaced a mail, and missed a payment. Paying your bills is a necessary but low value task that we all dread and tend to procastinate. The solution to this is to automate your payments with autopay functions. For example, you can use your credit card to automatically pay for your wireless, utilities and cable bills. If you have a reward credit card, you will earn points from paying these bills with your credit card. To ensure that you pay your credit card bills on time, enroll in automatic payment where payments will be made automatically to your bank. You can set it to pay the minimum balance or the full amount.

2. Regular investing - Yes, I was guilty of this. But paying yourself first is one of the keys to financial success. But how many of us have enrolled in automatic investment plans? If you have not, start right now.

3. Taking care of your insurance needs - another one of those things which we tend to put off. I took care of this one a long time ago and have a peace of mind since then. But many friends of mine have not!

4. Doing your wills and estate planning - Like insurance, this can be considered defence strategy in the big scheme of personal finances. It has to be done. It is easy to put off doing this. Many leave it till it is too late. I did mine 5 years ago, but have yet to have a “review”. This will be the next task.

Mistake 2 : Wasting time on Personal Finance Matters

Personal finance matters are very important, but wasting too much time on time is another mistake that I made. As I look back at myself, I realize that I fall under the “need to do everything yourself” or “who needs to pay fees to financial planners” category. To give you a perspective, I used to work for major Wall Street firms in trading and I thought I knew a lot (not everything but more than most folks) about the markets. Truth is that working on Wall Street or a hedge fund does not equate to being a good money manager especially when it comes to your own money. I was involved very early in the dot com companies, made a lot of money with AOL, Ebay and Yahoo. I gave some gains back and was still ahead.

But when I looked at my actual returns over the last 10 years, I realize that I would have been better off putting my money with a few good managers (not index funds though). I still cannot believe the amount of time I spent on researching companies and doing my own thing only to realize that I could have spent that time more productively.

Are you spending too much time reading about finance matters? or even dare I say spending too much time debating the index funds versus managed funds? Or doing your own stock investments? (yes - I will get flak for this). But the reality is this : If you are truly great at picking stocks or in investments, you should go to an investment bank, speak to someone who can raise funds for you, show your verified track record and raise money to start a hedge fund. You charge 2% management fee and 20% of the upside. Relocate to connecticut and soon your dream red ferrari is yours. Truth is that for 99.999% of the population, it is best that someone elses manages your money. Unless, you can achieve mid teens return with an acceptable diversification and low volalitility, you are better off spending your time on more important matters. Remember, anyone can “for a brief period” outperform massively by taking concentrated bets. But truely great investors make above market returns with a diversified portfolio without too much concentration risk. It is the ability to consistently come up with great investments that is the undoing of many manager and worse still for the individual without a technology and research infrastructure.

Mistake 3: Not spending enough time on self development and money generation activities

I am not talking about investing your own money here. I am refering to investing your time in your career or business. Most of the time, mistake number 2 leads to mistake number 3. As a do-it-yourselfer, I thought I can do it all. I read a lot, thought I knew a lot and spend too much time on my finances. But on hindsight, I could have spent more time on improving myelf in certain areas. If you are a salesperson, it is better to invest your time in improving your sales skills. If you are a manager, wouldn’t it be better to spend your time learning to be a better manager? or networking. Increases in bonuses or salary will more often than not outpace any 15% returns you get on your portfolio! If not, then you are set to retire.

Achieving your financial goals require both offence and defence. Defence includes things like making your you have adequate insurance, have done your wills and estate, having a system in place to pay your credit card bills and other stuff on time.

Offence includes optimal portfolio allocation and investments. And it also includes career advancement, or for some building a successful business. You can have all the optimal portfolio allocation, but what good is it if you do not get a raise often? Someone who works on wall street can have no financial planning, but would still be better off because she or he makes so much more money. This is often the missing link in achieving your financial goals. Your financial goals are tied to your career or business goals.

Cures for the 3 ills

After recognizing these mistakes I have made, I made a few changes that have helped me so much.

1. Automate Manual task

I have now automated as much of my financial stuff as I can. I do not waste time with things that do not make you money any more. I have set up automatic bill payments for my credit cards and other accounts. (you will never be late on your payments if you do this). I have set up automatic reinvestment for your mutual funds (pay yourself first). Get Mircrosoft Money or Quicken to automate your budget and spreadsheet. Hire a bookkeeper if you can afford one. I did these things 3 years ago and it has worked wonders.

2. Outsource your financial management

This is going to cause some controversy. But for most people, hiring a reliable and competent financial advisor is best thing to do. Choose someone you are comfortable with, having regular meetings with your advisor (once a month - if not at least once a quarter). Yes, you have to pay them fees, but a good financial advisor will be worth it. A good advisor will be able to take care of your insurance, investments and other financial issues. I really think you should spend time making money, not managing money. Let other’s manage it for you.

3. Spend more time on “money producing activity”.

For most people, it means not managing your own money. If your networth is $500,000, a 10% return means you will make $50,000. If you have have a networth of $500,000, chances are that you will be making a decent salary and have a good career. Enhancing your career or growing your own business is more productive than spending all your time “managing your own money”. Even if you had to pay a 1% fee to your financial planner ($5,000), spending your time that you would have spent on your “financial matters” will more often than not yield more than $5,000. Surely a promotion or stock option grant is easily worth more than $5,000? Surely a great business idea is worth more than this? Instead of researching the next big idea, I now spend my time on creating and growing my business and career. For me, that meant improving my sales skills, learning direct marketing techniques, learning about building websites/blogs like this one! For you, that may mean learning to manage better, improving your presentation and sales skills, taking time to network, taking time with a mentor. If you are a business owner, that means thinking strategically about your business, hiring people to do task you should not be doing.

Ending Notes

To sum up, I made 3 crucial mistakes in my opinion. I did not automate routine task, spent too much time managing my own money and not enough time in my self development and career development. Make no mistake, you have to spend time on your finances. But once you have a financial plan, you should put it on auto-pilot (and hire a pilot - aka financial planner). To improve your personal finances, get your basics right, have a financial plan and spend your precious time on things that make you money and improve yourself.

I found that as I spend less time on my personal finances have actually improved (because I focused more on my business). Automate as many aspects of your financial life as possible, hire a good advisor and spend time improving your core competency.

P.S. - If you are not good enough to be a hedge fund manager, then forget about managing your own money. Outsource it. If you are good enough, chances are that you will not be reading this blog! You will be working in New York or Connecticut and driving a Red Ferrari!

I just arrived yesterday at Atlanta for a weekend conference. What is interesting is how I got my airline ticket from my reward points.

The situation was that I am in Philadelphia, and was trying to book this trip 2 weeks ago (kind of last minute). I had a lot of Membership Reward points which I had gotten from using my American Express Gold Card.

Through several internet searches and phone calls, I found that Delta Airlines had the best direct flight. So I thought I could use just transfer 25,000 Membership Reward points to Delta Skymiles and get a free ticket. Turns out that seats allocated to frequent flyer miles have been taken up and I would need about 50,000 miles to get that free ticket!

So I checked with American Express to see what they could do. Turns out that they could get a Delta ticket for $430 (or thereabouts - which turned out to be cheaper than what the Delta rep was quoting me). Because my Gold Card was a “Gold Plus Card”, I could use my Membership Reward points for any airline without transferring points into air miles. In this case, I needed 43,000 points (1% reward ratio).

But I was still looking to use only 25,000 points! So a phone call was made to Continental Airlines. After some investigating, the rep told me that it was better to go to Newark and fly direct to Atlanta than to leave from Philadelphia International Airport and take a roundabout trip. Turns out that all I need was 25,000 miles and even the AMTRACK train ride to Neward was included in the package!

So I duly opened a new Continental Airlines OnePass account, transferred 25,000 points into the account and I was set.

At that moment, I did not have enough points in my Chase Flexible Rewards card and program and hence I could check to see if having that 25,000 points in Chase would help out at all. Furthermore, you need to book 21 days in advance!

But it just goes to show that depending on the situation, it may be better to use air miles, while in other cases, it may be better to use points from a regular credit card reward program. One of the key factors is how far in advance do you book your tickets. If you are always booking last minute flights, you may have to use more points than what is stated in the reward program. But I appreciated the flexibility of my American Express Preferred Gold Card as I could either transferred Membership Reward points to a frequent flyer account (if it made sense), or use it to books flights on any airlines. In this case, transferring points to Continental Onepass miles made the most sense for me.

I just received my Blue Cash Statement from American Express and my “calender year” for the card has just ended. I earned a total of $637.38 in cash rebates after spending $31,395.24 on the card this year. This works out to a rebate of 2.03% for my total spending on the Blue Cash for the year.

One of the first things I did after I got my statement was to go to the website and see precisely how much I spent on groceries and how much rebates I earned for specific categories which the Blue Cash paid 5% rebates. However, American Express does not offer such a breakdown. There is no way to find out precisely what rebates you earn when you make a particularly purchase at a specific store. You can go online to the American Express site and see the rebates you have earned every month and your annual rebates you have earned. But I think being able to show you how much you earned when you use your card at a particular store is important because I want to make sure I get my 5% rebates when I go to an ACME or Ginardi’s or to the gas station. I called customer service who then refered me to the online support department. But it appears that they do not have this feature yet.

Given that the rebate for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card has been reduced to 2% for “everyday purchase items” and the new Chase Freedom Card only awards 3% rebates for “everyday purchases”, I’ll be sticking to the Blue Cash for a while as my main cash rebate card. I do, however, have to find a way to quickly charge $6,500 so I can start earning 5% cash rebates on “everyday purchases”.