Day: December 15, 2009

Tonight’s ride home

lpaulriddle

Only 3 degrees difference between this morning’s ride temperature and this evening’s (49 vs 46) but that’s where the similarities end.  Cold front came through during the day, flipped the wind around to the northwest, and dropped the humidity a bit.  The result was a more comfortable ride home.  I wore the same clothes as the morning.

Road conditions are finally starting to improve a bit.  Things were considerably drier than this morning, with the exception of a few pesky washed-out areas in the park.

My rear derailleur started doing “surprise” shifts this morning and it was a lot worse at the beginning of this ride, until I fiddled with the cable tension doodad.  I guess these new cables are still breaking in after a couple of months.  In any case, I’m switching to the fixed-gear for the rest of the week.  The fixie is really starting to grow on me, with its smooth-riding, low maintenance steel frame and no tempermental derailleurs to worry about.

Maxing Out on Credit Card Reward Cash

lpaulriddle

I’ve always been a big fan of credit cards that pay cash rewards.  Pay the balance off in full each month, collect the free money – what’s not to like?  I started out in the early 90s with a Discover card, which was one of the first to offer cash back rewards.  Then in 2004, I switched to the American Express Blue Cash card.  Up to now, the Amex has been my main credit card except for places that don’t accept it.

Both Amex and Discover have “tiered” cash back programs.  The cash reward is a percentage of overall spending, and for both these cards, it’s a very small percentage until you meet a preset spending tier.  Then it increases.  Amex also pays a greater percentage back for certain purchase categories that Amex deems “every day purchases,” like grocery and drug stores.  Specifically, Amex pays 1% back for “every day purchases” and 0.5% for everything else until I reach $6500 in purchases.  Then it jumps to 5% for “every day” and 1.25% for everything else.  But what really matters is the bottom line: how much cash back do I earn in a given year vs. what I spend on the card?  With Amex, it typically works out to around 1.5%.  This will be different for different people; in particular, the more you spend in a year, the higher the percentage will go, particularly if a lot of the purchases fall into the “every day” category that earns 5%.  But in my case, the bottom line has hovered around 1.5% every year.

I’m always looking for a better deal, which means that if I can find a card that nets better than 1.5%, I’m going to check it out.  A few months back I read about the Schwab “Invest First” Signature Visa, which pays unlimited 2% cash back, so I signed up for the Invest First card and will now be using that instead of the Amex.

But there’s still more.  It turns out that my old Discover card, which I haven’t used in 5 years, has a 5% cash back program where certain purchase categories earn 5% back on up to $400 in purchases.  The categories change every 3 months, but as long as I stay on top of things, I can earn even more cash back by strategically using my Discover card.  With the combination of that and the Schwab card, my annual cash rewards should exceed 2% of purchases.

The bottom line:

  • Look for cards that pay cash rewards with no annual fee
  • Pay card balances off in full every month to avoid finance charges
  • After each year, figure out the “bottom line” percentage of cash back earned vs. total spent, and choose the card(s) that maximize that percentage for your own individual spending habits

I’m sure I’m not the most popular guy with the credit card companies, but as long as they keep offering the rewards, there’s no reason not to take advantage of them.

This morning’s ride

lpaulriddle

I was all set to get an early start on today’s ride when the equipment gremlins struck.  First, the cheap plastic clip broke off the back of one of my rear blinkers.  Two blinkers are a must during the dark days of December, so I fashioned a new clip out of metal pipe strapping.  It’ll probably last longer than the old one.  Not sure what I’d do without pipe strapping, zip ties and duct tape in the toolbox.  But unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my troubles.  For some reason, my rear fender, after over a year of trouble-free operation, decided to start acting up today.  I noticed it occasionally hitting the tire during yesterday’s ride, so I figured, no problem, I probably just need to tweak one of the struts.  No such luck.  I ended up having to fiddle with it for 15 minutes to get it to stop rubbing.  I had to bend both of the struts at about a 10 degree angle just to get it aligned with the tire.  The wheel is straight and true, so I’m not sure what’s up with the fender.  When I get the chance, I’ll pull it off, straighten the struts, and carefully remount it.  Today I just wanted to get it to stop rubbing so I could leave on my ride.

Today’s conditions were almost identical to last night’s, except for it being light out.  The roads are still icky and wet with lots of standing water and gunk that sticks to the tires.  Definitely not ideal biking conditions.  I’d almost rather it be raining..  at least the rain would rinse the crap off the bike.  Weather was overcast and a very clammy 46 that felt more like 40.  Wore toe covers, hiking socks, leg warmers, cycling shorts, short sleeve athletic tee, light long sleeve cycling jersey, hi-vis windbreaker, light gloves, and head band.  The ride was about as comfortable as one would expect given the dampness.  Cold front is supposed to come through today, which will hopefully start to dry things out.