Re: Translation: Tommy's bored, so he's trolling again

On 12/23/2024 7:13 PM, -hh wrote:

On 12/23/24 9:20 AM, Tom Elam wrote:

On 12/20/2024 9:58 PM, -hh wrote:

On 12/20/24 7:05 PM, Tom Elam wrote:

On 12/20/2024 4:26 PM, -hh wrote:

On 12/19/24 1:57 PM, -hh wrote:

On 12/19/24 12:30 PM, Alan wrote:

On 2024-12-19 07:33, Tom Elam wrote:

On 12/18/2024 1:11 PM, Alan wrote:

On 2024-12-18 09:17, -hh wrote:

On 12/18/24 10:29 AM, Tom Elam wrote:

In case you missed it there was an earlier post ...

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Yes, we all saw that troll attempt too.
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In the meantime, I've started to book our first trip for 2025. Its a bit earlier than what we normally do to do this, but airfares were favorable. Plus I discovered that a FFM account that we'd not been paying attention to had built up a healthy balance, so with just ~20% of its balance, got two RT tickets for just $50.66 (total for two).

So where are you going? Or would you rather keep us in suspense?
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:-)

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Alan once again deflects attention away from the issue.

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Alan chose to ignore your bullshit.

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Well, it did make me briefly wonder just how many tickets to Hawaii I could buy from my main FFM account, if I were so inclined...
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...although since his claim was retrospective, retconning here needs to include FFMs already spent on destinations far further afield, such as 120K dropped for a BusinessFirst upgrade on EWR- HKG:  that amount was probably worth 3 FFM coach tickets to HNL just on its own.

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Well, while waiting for my Windows VM to update to version 24H2, I found this:
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<https://awardwallet.com/blog/new-unpublished-united-partner-award- chart/>
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Seems that routes to Hawaii used to be as cheap as just 10K/pp, so 9 coach RT's for two could have cost as little as just 360K FFM's.
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Overall, the devaluation of FFMs since that era illustrates that all other factors being equal, it makes more sense to use them up fairly proactively instead of hoarding them.
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-hh

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I think I paid 15-20k pp.

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I figured 20K/pp for round trip, so 15K would've needed even less.
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Not to mention about 10 trips to Europe on points too, more than 1 first class. Plus quite a few family ski trips.

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Probably ~50K for business to EU.  Domestic used to be very cheap, like 5K cheap, but no longer: I ran into a quite unreasonably high fare on a domestic itinerary last year, such that I chose to use FFMs instead of paying north of $1K cash and it was 69,600: an illustration of limited competition in some markets as well as the systematic FFM devaluation.
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This is why I take cash rebates instead of points.

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Cashback is certainly more fungible and it doesn't depreciate as fast, but once again, the benefit is from using accumulated balances.  I'm modestly humored that I'd rediscovered up this forgotten FFM account; it will probably net somewhere around five free(ish) flights on its own.

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I'm not a fan of leaving money in an account that does not earn anything. There is the phenomenon called price inflation. That is a tax of sorts on cash balances.

 There's invariably a price to be paid to maintain some ready liquidity for an emergency fund, or even just for fiscal management convenience.
 

So, my rebates go reduce current card balances a bit, freeing up cash flow elsewhere. At 0.65% of total income not a major factor, but in
retirement every little bit helps.

 I've never even thought about bothering to track cashback balances as a percentage of total Net Worth.  And since 0.65% of a ~$2M Net Worth is $13K - - a pretty high balance for retained cashbacks - - this suggests some other interpretation of what you're saying.
 

The only cash balances we own other than currency in our pockets earns something.  The main savings account is 4.5% APR.

 Sure, but HYSA rates have been declining over the past few months in particular; one that we have which was close to 5.5% earlier this year is already down to 4.4% and I expect it to drop further.  If one really wants inflation protection without Market risks, you're looking more at TIPS and/or I-Bonds, both of which have their own pros/cons.
  -hh
 

You go off the rails again. Way off. Rebates are just another positive cash flow. I never mentioned any net worth contribution. Have you not learned that for retirement you need to build diversified positive cash flow streams that give you financial options? That means among other options reducing fixed expenses like interest obligations buying assets like EOS (look it up) that pay cash dividends, and maybe some part-time gig income.