A friend of mine has an LL Bean credit card. She lives in Arizona but has family in Maine. She visits the flagship store when she visits family, but uses the credit card all the time – responsibly, of course. She is a frugal person, so don’t get the idea that she’s shopping all the time for the latest ombre, hi-low dress. She and her husband live on one salary, are planning to retire early and have two rental properties in the college town where they live.
She is a great financial role model, except I could never follow all of her examples. The LL Bean card is one of those examples. She accumulated enough points to buy a couch from LL Bean. She and her husband are always angling for the most credit card points and navigating all the rewards systems.
Initially I felt bad that I wasn’t making all the smart financial moves that she was. I tried for about 6 months to buy plane tickets that would let me accrue points. I explored all the “deals” that my bank kept sending me. I checked out the Rewards Mall that one credit card offered. I quickly learned several valuable lessons about myself.
I do not have the patience for points. I don’t want any of the rewards that my bank is offering me. Triangulating all the vectors necessary to “earn” airline miles is not worth my time. I have so little free time to spend that it just makes me mad if I waste it trying to make sense of points and rewards.
I still felt bad for awhile – “I’m not doing enough!” – and then I made a conscious decision to stop feeling that way. My friend Cynthia has her way of managing money and making financial decisions and I have mine. They don’t have to match and it’s not a competition.
If you have enough confidence in your own financial plans, it’s easier to stop the comparison game and go with what works for you. Working through the SUM 180 interview and going on to make tweaks and adjustments afterward has given me that confidence.
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