Author Topic: Return on investment / hacking  (Read 2783 times)

Monkeytennis

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Return on investment / hacking
« on: July 31, 2017, 11:30:17 AM »
So what simple ideas does anyone have to either make, save or invest with a high return on peoples time or money in the UK.

An example might be buying an investment product with a large amount of cash back thats made 20% ROI / APR, or setting up a small business to become more VAT efficient in buying things.... or flipping credit cards to leverage lending (I'm making these up)... or matched betting, but making them UK specific.

Basically i'm after financial and lifestyle "next level" life hacks, not just buying toilet roll in bulk from costco twice a year (unless that is you've got a mega optimised way of doing this that we're unlikely to know about).

If you give an example also try to provide details so it can be repeatable (by me... or anyone else in the UK), explain any risks involved and what your return has been.

I'm interested because i've always though i've used credit cards intelligently but recently friends have told me about how they've paid for entire holidays using points from their regular spending each year.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2017, 11:45:10 AM by Monkeytennis »

MostlyBearded

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Re: Return on investment / hacking
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2017, 02:14:36 PM »
Hi Monkeytennis,

I have built up almost 100k avios  and American Express points from churning credit cards and have also got a free stay at the Millenium Hilton NYC coming up next month. I havent yet decided how to redeem the avios (we paid for the flights money) but we got some free airport lounge passes that we will probably use on this trip.

Check out headforpoints.com which gets updated with all of the credit card deals as they happen and also teaches you everything you need to know about getting good value when redeeming your rewards.

I have the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and the British Airways American Express. If you would like a referall link for either let me know. You will get a few extra bonus points and I will get a bonus for referring you.

If you have a partner, you can do what we do and refer each other to get some extra bonuses.

I am by no means an expert but if you have any questions give me a shout!

Also, this hobby may make you a little jealous of USA system as their credit card offers are considerably better than ours, but its still worth it.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: Return on investment / hacking
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2017, 12:16:11 AM »
it sounds like you are looking for more entrepreneurial, and thus risky ventures - a higher return equals more risk.

Monkeytennis

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Re: Return on investment / hacking
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2017, 03:17:14 PM »
it sounds like you are looking for more entrepreneurial, and thus risky ventures - a higher return equals more risk.

No they don't need to carry high risk and don't need to be investments :)

skip207

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Re: Return on investment / hacking
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2017, 01:40:27 AM »
The classic car market went bonkers about 2-3 years ago.  Cars which were £10k went up to £20-30k over 18 months.  Cars that were £30-£40k over £100k and so on.
I was lucky in that I bought something around that time.  Its gone up about 30% after insurance, servicing, parts etc.
Prices are not going up quite as fast now but still a slow steady rise. 

The only risk is if the market goes pop it could lose all that gain just as quick.  Also when things go up so quickly in value it attracts the attention of the govt and classic cars are currently CGT exempt but no doubt they will look at it closely.

The other risk is if the car throws a rod or the gearbox decides to eat itself I will have an enormous repair bill!!



snabzter82

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Re: Return on investment / hacking
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2017, 01:35:40 PM »
Similar to MostlyBearded I have built up, and spent, a fair amount Avios using American Express cards. I thoroughly recommended headforpoints.com to find out ways of building up your Avios balance or getting hotel points for free stays.

I have used my Avios and 2 for 1 vouchers with my BA American Express card to fly in First Class with BA to New York, Vancouver and Washington.

I also use Topcashback.com a lot to get money back when buying car or house insurance, changing energy suppliers or booking hotel stays with Hotels.com. I've had £1,800 back over the last 3 years for things I needed to buy anyway. Not sure the return I've had off the top of my head but it is enhanced by getting an additional 10% when taking the cashback as Debehams vouchers, or 3.5% for Amazon vouchers. The risk with Topcashback.com is that your purchase doesn't track or you don't get the cashback paid for some other reason. I have only had a couple of small payouts not pay so not too mtotooo bother about.

I use Hotels.com for booking holidays as I am getting 10% (ignoring taxes on hotel stays) back on hotel bookings as for every 10 nights you book and stay via Hotels.com you get the average price paid for those 10 nights to use towards another booking. Although not a risk if you have any status with hotel reward schemes then you won't get any benefits when booking via Hotels.com and you can't collect reward points.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!