Underpants Gnomes Not Required

Step 1: Have good credit and $yyy money to spend.

Step 2: Get credit card offer from Company A offering free miles for signing up after spending a certain amount less than $yyy.

Step 3: Apply for and be granted free miles card.

Step 4: Buy Stuff(tm) work $yyy you were planning on buying anyway via the card.

Step 5: Pay off card prior to billing cycle.

Step 6: Collect miles.

Step 7: Let card sit on shelf for 12 months, then cancel card.

Step 8: Get new credit card offer from Company B offering free miles...


... You know, even as I'm taking advantage of the system, I know it's skewed horribly: those who have continue to receive with little effort, and those who have not struggle to get a chance. This is a pretty simple example; some might argue that something like "airline miles" is a trivial form of privilege. But my execution of this plan over the next few weeks is going to net me about 50k miles - that's enough for a round-trip flight pretty much anywhere in the US essentially for free. That means that I won't have to spend money to fly, which I can use towards other things (including more of this kind of activity).

(For the record, I'm modifying Step 7 a little: I'm actually going to use the card instead of my debit that gets me miles on the same program, since for 18 months I'll get double miles via the card and I can have it auto-pay from my checking account, thus avoiding any balance fees. Which just means even more miles.)

My parents have been doing this kind of thing for years; it's always felt a little weird to me, so this is the first time I'm doing it. However, the convergence of a few things - the offer at the same time that I'm about to spend exactly the amount they want - makes it too convenient to pass up. Plus, I trust myself a lot more with credit now that I did even two years ago.

Now I just feel weird because I'm exploiting privilege.

Not all who wander are lost

... just a quick thing.

Walked 6 miles yesterday. The funny part is that two of it wasn't intended. There's a park about 1.5 miles from my apartment, and I wanted to walk down to it, through it a bit, and back, which would have been 4ish miles. However, one of the neighborhoods was pretty cool, and then I walked across the Colorado bridge (which is gorgeous) - and it was only when I was half-way across the bridge that I realized I couldn't easily get to the park I wanted to walk through, which was almost exactly 250 feet below me. So, that led to walking down some side streets to get back around and finally to the park, and then back home.

With a brief stop at IHOP to show down on a cheeseburger and drink three or four glasses of water. Did I mention it was 80-85 degrees and sunny?

This morning, I put on a pair of pants I haven't worn in a month or so, and they're noticeably more loose than they used to be. The scale still hasn't shown much change, and I don't see any change around my waist, but I guess something's working as I'm headed in the right direction.

Anyway, back to work...