Don’t just spend money.
Do spend money and get rewards.
There’s a common desire among geeks to see large numbers next to our names. I remember the hours spent shoving quarters into Roadblasters trying to get my initials onto the top score page. A few years later my brother and I worked hard to one-up each other on our NES to record a higher score on Excite Bike. Now a higher level character on a popular MMO is worth more to some people than the actual time invested trying to achieve that level.
I have tried to put this desire to a worth while goal in my life. By signing up for an Alaska Airlines Credit Card and debit card from Bank of America I earn airline miles for every dollar I spend (either by credit or debit). The result is a big fat number next to my name on alaskair.com. The payoff comes in the form of free air fare that I normally would never have saved for.
I’m flying from Seattle to London tomorrow, a week later I’ll fly from London to Munich. The flight cost me around $140 in taxes. I cashed in 65,000 miles that I earned by paying rent, buying gas, food, gadgets, clothes, and yes, even paying for my Anarchy Online account.
Aaron Bronow 