Today while at the supermarket I got another one of those great buy $50 worth of stuff and get $10 back in points as it is essentially 20% off anything. I just happened to have $50 worth of credits and so I decided to use up the points. Upon paying for the products the ashier was stunned at first that I had $50 in credit which made the total bill a little over $5 with tax. He was even more stunned after and said how I even earned an additional $10 worth of credit for this transaction. His reaction was priceless and it made me think how this is one of those things I do with money which may not be practical but it helps to encourage the habit.
Essentially I don’t like leaving accounts like these empty usually. I always find this way if I really want to spend money I have to find ways to maintain a positive balance and it encourages me to save. This directly makes me want to save and earn more. This is true for a bank account too as I find it’s a great way to psychologically encourage you to want to grow your savings more. I can imagine if I had a habit of just draining my account I would tend to have an “it’s empty anyways” attitude where I wouldn’t be as motivated to save.
It can be good for these kinds of reward points too as people often spend it just because they have it on things they don’t need. This also at times encourages me to not impulse buy with the free money that was given to me. So if I am ever taking money out, like in this case there better be something going in too in order to maintain he cash flow of sorts. Again, it might not be entirely practical where if you are 100% financially disciplined then realistically you should just use it up right away when you can. But I find we often need little stuff like this to encourage the god habits.