It’s almost the end of the year and as usual this means I will be getting some cashback rewards for all the credit card usage for the year. I always pay my balances fully each month which means this is free cash for just buying stuff I normally would. While that should be purely a celebration of sort, I actually try and reflect on whether or not I spent too much because if you are getting a lot back that means you went on a spending spree.
This year I definitely spent a lot more than usual. Normally I would only get a few hundred dollars back but it was more this year. What happened? Fortunately, it was primarily due to buying some new equipment which was accounted for financially and this was just the right year to buy it. So, spending say an extra say $5000 in this case was a nice way to get a lot of cashback. If I didn’t make these types of purchases I would seriously reflect on how much junk I bought potentially to assess if my spending habits were terrible for the year.
It’s important to always reflect in these cases as it’s like those who brag about getting so many store reward points when they actually overspent buying non sale priced goods. Or worst, items they didn’t need. That kind of defeats the purpose of trying to actually profit from these reward programs. Either way, another year of free money with responsible spending.