Manufactured Spending
As you may have guessed from my posts this week, I was inspired by speaking to so many other “hobbyists” last weekend at the conference I presented at. While I constantly hear from people about how manufactured spend is dying, last weekend I heard nothing but the opposite.
I also had the opportunity to fill in on the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast where the topic was manufactured spend. The other two fill-ins were Kenny from Miles4More & Nick from the Personal Finance Digest, so it is safe to say I was in some amazing company. Between the three of us and the host Joe from As The Joe Flies, I think we covered some interesting topics without giving away any huge secrets. It is definitely worth a listen.
Where Do You Manufacture Spend?
When talking about manufactured spend, so many people think the end is coming because of the death of so called “low hanging fruit” like Amazon Payments and the most recent news about most Serve credit card loads ending. The most common thing I hear from people is that they can’t find enough avenues to manufacture spend. My friend Kenny says that manufactured spend is local. He is so right. It takes people actually going out and discovering how things work in their neck of the woods. (But that is hard.)
With that said, there are a limited number of types of places that we can manufacture spend. In an effort to find out more about what people are doing and hopefully show others that MS is not dead, I thought this might be a good time for a poll. Today’s question simply deals with generalities and I will never ask for more than that, but hopefully it will draw picture of the diverse opportunities that still exist.
Please vote in the poll and feel free to share your ideas in the comments! Thanks and have a great weekend!
[poll id=”2″]
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[…] week I talked a little about the concept of manufactured spending being local. As I mentioned, people are always telling me how it is dying off and how there simply aren’t many avenues […]
[…] had the opportunity to meet & record a podcast with Kenny just a couple of weeks ago and he is a very nice and knowledgeable person. Thankfully […]
I had a hard time answering the quiz. I said “grocery stores”, but my MS is all a two step process with the most common involving grocery store + other big box store(s)
awesome podcast, I enjoyed listening to this
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
It’s still spending, whether manufactured or Not, credit card companies are making more money..
People have been churning credit cards for years and years, me included. Nothing new. Before there was such as thing as manufactured spending we all found a way to meet the minimum spends. Often I would charge my ATT bill or Comcast bill up for a year in advance….or something else…..we just did it. Now it has become easier to do it en mass, if you can figure out the methods……but all methods come and go. So get over it.
I just listened to two-thirds of the podcast while running errands. Will listen to the rest later. Nice job.
I understand the desire (need?) to not spoon-feed MS to the masses, but I don’t understand people who whine and moan about any discussion of the topic at all. The internet is a big place. People are going to talk about deals. I simply choose to traffic in blogs where the authors are clearly trying to find a good balance, and don’t reek of pushing things clearly for their own benefit over the good of their readers.
Of course MS is dying. Dozens of programs have vanished, mostly due to incessant exposure by pimps, er, bloggers, who are flogging credit cards to unsuspecting noobs.
To suggest otherwise is simply farcical nonsense. But if your business, er, hobby, is to flog CCs to unsuspecting noobs, you’ll never admit that your actions are killing the very “hobby” you earn your living from…
Love the mentality. If it’s not dead let’s talk about it until it is. Because all avenues are not made easy enough. Let us spoon feed until someone gets in trouble or it gets shut down.
Ecclesiastes 12:5. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
If anything I am doing the opposite. I am encouraging people to go out and find their own methods without giving them any specific information. That only helps the community in my view. Thanks James.