Financial ingenuity
Recently went back to reading The Oil Drum again after a long hiatus. The quality of comments seems to have improved - fewer wild-eyed "doomers" and more extremely knowledgeable people actually doing things instead of pondering numbers. Anyway, there was this gem in a recent thread, when they got a little off-topic and began comparing ways in which clever people could profit from credit-card promotional deals:
"One used to be able to buy US series I bonds 30k per person per year; we'd get 'em on mileage credit cards and each get enough for a RT ticket as a bonus.
More recently (last year), the government was selling $1000 boxes of dollar coins from the mint, free shipping, and taking credit cards. I used one with 5% back. Yes, I was buying cash at a discount, gotta love this country. Plus, a wooden chest full of the new dollar coins looks a bit like gold dubloons; you can put on a pirate hat and run your fingers through it saying "Arrrrr, what a fine treasure this be...".
Dopamine is where you find it, I reckon."
"One used to be able to buy US series I bonds 30k per person per year; we'd get 'em on mileage credit cards and each get enough for a RT ticket as a bonus.
More recently (last year), the government was selling $1000 boxes of dollar coins from the mint, free shipping, and taking credit cards. I used one with 5% back. Yes, I was buying cash at a discount, gotta love this country. Plus, a wooden chest full of the new dollar coins looks a bit like gold dubloons; you can put on a pirate hat and run your fingers through it saying "Arrrrr, what a fine treasure this be...".
Dopamine is where you find it, I reckon."