At the start of 2014, I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of all the side money I made in the year. Whether it was from checking bonuses, credit card bonuses or a host of small deals I added it all up on the page “How I’ve Made Money In 2014“.
I thought it would be a good idea to look back on where I made the most money and what I can do better in the future. You can see how I’ve made money in 2015 by going here, I plan to keep this updated daily this year (touch wood).
The Breakdowns
- Total in Cash: $4,328.4
- Total in Giftcards:
- $120 in various
- $50 hotel credit
- $500 amazon credit
- Total in miles/points:
- 1,000 Delta SkyMiles
- 5,250 United miles
- 3,500 Airberlin TopBonus Miles
- 8,550 AAdvantage Miles
- 1,000 business extra miles
- 12,000 Melia Rewards (redeemed for $100 hotel)
- 1,500 IHG points
- 600 La Quinta Points
- 1,200 Lufthansa Miles
- 500 Southwest miles
- 1,000Â Virgin Elevate miles
- 8,000 spirit miles
- 1,000 Aeroplan miles
- 50,000 US Airways Miles
- 500 SPG points
- 1,000 FlexPoints
- Total time spent:Â 20 hours and 44Â minutes 30 seconds
How I Made Most Of The Money
The majority of what I earned came from two sources:
- Bank bonuses: $1,465. Bank bonuses were made easier this year. I compiled lists of what banks count as a direct deposit, which banks you can fund with a credit card and whether it’s a soft or hard pull to open the account. This took a lot of time on my behalf, but I think the results were worth it for everybody.
- $400, Chase checking bonus, I should have waited and I could have gotten a $500 bonus but I am not complaining too much. These bonuses are churnable (once per calendar year) so I’ll definitely be doing another one early this year. You can always view the most up to date bonuses here.
- $250 First Niagara checking bonus. First big deal I broke and a fantastic bonus, paid out quickly. They’ve since nerfed this bonus because so many people signed up.
- $240, $20 per month with Santander Extra $20 bundle. It took awhile to set this up in the first month, but it was well worth it.
- $200, BMO Harris bonus. It’s amazing how quickly these bonuses stack up.
- $150 US Bank checking bonus. I didn’t win the Tesla, but such is life.
- $125, Popular Community Bank. Not everybody lived in the target area for this one, but there are so many state specific bonuses that if you didn’t then chances are you lived in the area for something else.
- $100 Wells Fargo checking bonus. Another one where I would have been better off waiting to get a $200 bonus. I’m not complaining, although Wells Fargo were a bit of a nausiance to deal with for some people.
- Credit card bonuses: $1,586 + 140,000 points + 50,000 mile
I also did OK out of test driving cars and reselling gift cards. I just wish I had Chuck’s awesome guide to reselling gift cards when I first started.
How I Could Do Better
I didn’t keep track of all my credit card applications, for most of 2014 I had affiliate links and I didn’t want it to seem like I was pushing my affiliate links down peoples throat. I’ve removed all credit card affiliate links from the site, so now I feel more comfortable sharing this information.
I also plan to be smarter with my applications, where possible I’ll apply for multiple cards from the same issuer when they combine hard pulls and I’ll be spreading my inquiries over multiple credit bureaus. I’m also armed with the knowledge of which credit cards I can and can’t churn (e.g get the sign up bonus more than once). I’ll be sharing my credit card application strategy and also letting you know when I apply for a card, why and if I was approved or denied this year.
I slowed down dramatically on bank bonuses towards the end of 2014 and that was mostly because I was too busy with work (and working overseas) to get on these. I’m planning on doing at least 12 of these bonuses in 2015, maybe more depending on what becomes available.
I could have also inflated my stats by including multiples of the same deal, for example all of the American Express sync deals I could have done multiple times because I have lots of American Express cards. Do you think I should include these once or should I include multiples for every card I’m able to do it with? I’d like to hear your opinions.
Final Thoughts
2014 was a pretty good year, I think in 2015 I’ll pass the $10,000 barrier (if you value points at 1¢). Last year I earned a hourly rate of above $200 and that’s before even given points any value, that number jumps closer to $300 when those and gift cards are taken into consideration.
It’ll be interesting to see if I can dramatically increase how much I make in side money, whilst keeping the hourly rate high. Â Where else do you think I could improve on in 2015? Where was I lacking in 2014? As always, if you know of any deals you think should be covered, let me know in the comments below or contact me directly (via e-mail or on twitter)
Definitely count the amex bonuses with a footnote or asterisk mentioning what the multiple is. If there’s anything I learned about this hobby almost exclusively from your blog this past year, it’s how certain amex sync offers can be huge when multiplied and pursued efficiently. So I definitely wouldn’t reduce them in your final tally. Great work in 2014. Your blog is the one I check every day regardless because it spells deals out and links to past guides, articles etc to give context.
Thanks for the feedback and kind words, I like the idea of adding a multiplier next to it. I might keep them semi separated in the final tallys as well.
How do you deal with the IRS when having to report those bank bonuses?
I pay taxes on them. I just give my tax guy all the necessary information and he does the rest. I can’t imagine it would be too difficult if you were filing yourself, but my taxes are a lot more complex for other reasons so I don’t bother.
I think you should count any AmEx cards you are able to use. That seems fair.
I’m curious how you track all of that information, including the time spent on it. For instance, should I include the time I spend reading your blog and learning about the hobby or only the time applying for cards or trying to book a trip?
I don’t know if it’s taboo to ask this or not, but no one really talks about how much they earn from affiliate offers either. And I was curious how much of a bloggers trip expenses are paid from points/offers vs full-time employment compensation vs affiliate income.
Thanks for your time and I continue to enjoy your commentary.
Mine is mostly a guesstimate, obviously I didn’t include the all the time I spend on this blog otherwise the tally would have been much higher but most people don’t need to do all the extra research that I do.
It’s really up to you to decide how you want to count how much time you spend on this hobby. I enjoy it personally so I don’t need a massive ROI on my time to make it “worth it”, other people hate it so need that massive ROI. Up to you really.
In regards to the affiliate link stuff, I don’t use credit card affiliate links anymore. I made about $900 before I stopped using them (you can see my reasons as to why here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/were-removing-all-credit-card-affiliate-links-heres-why/). I still make a little bit from other affiliate links for websites like Credit Karma, but from memory they pay me about $2 for every person that signs up and I’ve made about $200 total.
In terms of trips and stuff, I don’t actually blog about my trips so they are all either: paid by my real job, paid by myself or I use loyalty points. I am not sure what other bloggers do, I assume it’s mostly points (a lot of them have flight booking services, so they would rack up a lot of miles booking those) but I daresay a few paid trips and sneaky upgrades are involved.
P.S sorry for the wall of text and late reply.
For the bank bonuses, do those banks send you a 1099 or whatever? I had looked into that with a Citizens bank, and they made it seem like I’d get a 1099 in the mail. If they don’t, it would be more work and more to remember to file that income.
Yes they send out 1099’s.
Impressive, I go back and forth as to whether or not it is worth the time for the bank bonuses which are taxable and consume more time than the credit card bonuses. Maybe I will go for it in 2015 so keep up the good work of posting the bank bonus info.
Give it a try with a few of some of the bigger bonuses, I daresay you’ll get hooked.