My mom's small union back in the day wound down their Defined Benefits Pension into a Defined Contribution one. When they told the members that their invested funds were being returned, BUT had to be transferred into a RSP, about a good number of people lost their shit.

"I have $X amount? I'm going to buy an RV!" "I'm gonna buy a boat to go fishing, and an ATV!" etc. "What do you mean I have to reinvest it?" "FUCK YOU! It's MY Money! You thieves can't tell me what to do with MY MONEY!!!"

They had seen their individual statements and were ready to go shopping.

Bear in mind though, most of these were ethnic women, working since they were old enough/upon immigration to Canada with little to no education for factory/warehouse jobs. The fact that my mom could read and write got her one of the "better" jobs at the plant. It was an industrial linens plant, so she dealt with the customized clothing with personalized name labels.

What do ppl blow most of their money on aside from vehicles and overpaying vacations?

Expensive clothes fancy restaurants.

booze / alcohol / recreational drugs, BJs, and probably worst of all -- gambling

I'd rather not go into the details of it, but according to my mom, one of my uncles more or less went down that exact path. He got off to a good start on an investment using borrowed money, and when he found himself flush with a small fortune -- which probably wasn't even all that much -- he blew it all on alcohol, recreational drugs (based on my mom's suspicion), women / prostitutes, lending money to "friends", and worst of all, gambling. Before he knew it, the money was no more, and he went straight back into being someone in the lower working class.

Don't forget to take out all your rsp before 65 or you get less gis:fulloffuck:

In my experience, the guys who are the best dressed, fresh cut, who drive a leased car, and buy a lot of small things are the ones with the lowest net worth. I would say these guys don't even go on vacation that much, it's more about appearance for them.

I went out with some hockey guys the other night and a lot of them gamble. Parlays, picks, BCLC online casino. One of the guys told me he dropped $1k on craps online because BCLC apparently just started doing that online (he lost it all). BCLC made $1.5B in profit last year, just think about that for a moment, that's a lot of mortgages lost.

You can only buy so much expensive clothes?

7 x Jackets @ $1,500 = $10K
10 x pants @ $400 = $4k
20 Tops @ $300 = $6k
Tom Ford suit = $10K
10 Shoes @ $500 = $5k

Jewelry - $10K

lets say $45K, some people lease $2K/month payments for a 18 months :badpokerface: but at least the higher quality clothes above lasts you years

I agree gambling is a huge vice that I see people who make over $200-300K+ spend easily $20-50K on a year.

Unless you are like over extending yourself and getting a penthouse suite in Vegas, travel is one of the best things you can spend money on imho,

If you can comfortably afford (or use points) for decent hotels and resorts it's well worth it. But even if not, backpacking and hostels is also well worth the experience.

You can't take money or goods with you when you die, but you can a lifetime of travel experiences and memories.

With prices these days it’s not really “blowing” money

I could easily spend 1500-3000 in a month on beers and regular restaurants. A main and a couple beers you’re looking at 65-100 after tip for 1 person.

I agree, the last 2 years, I've been fortunate enough to do 2-3 domestic and 2-3 international trips, all free via churning!

Gonna do ski trip in Japan, Miami, China, and Amsterdam this year, all thanks to points!

Dude, cheap drink dates are $100 - 150 per 2 nowdays, it's fucked. Almost the price of a tuggie!

"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer"

explain please.

also how much are you putting on a card to get this many points? and what card?

I’m curious as well as Churning isn’t really a thing in Canada like it is in the states because it destroys your credit.

Some of the YouTubers I watch have a stack of credit cards 3 inches thick to swap points etc. if you did that in Canada you wouldn’t be able to finance a happy meal

He might've gotten a US ITIN and used US cards to churn, there's a fair few doing that in points circles.

I just got an email from Aeroplan, they are clawing back my Aeroplan bonus for my most recent CIBC Aeroplan card.

I think I churned it too quickly this time around. I only waited about six months from cancelling my TD aeroplan when applying for the CIBC aeroplan.

I've churned aeroplan probably five or six times in the last five years, but for whatever reason, I probably churned it too quickly this time around.

What do you mean by churn though, you can usually just swap your card to another card. It's not a close and reopen. Your credit limit stays the same.

The Aeroplan points claw back probably wasn't because of something you did. It was a plan wide policy change, and Aeroplan, TD, and CIBC are getting sued for it with a classaction lawsuit.

Aside from the usual things posted above, I would say home renovations and personal wellness/self-care.

I agree, churning isn't that good in Canada, and it's mostly dead with the recent aeroplan T&C update.

Goal is to try to get into US Cards / ITIN asap. Friends in US can add you an auth user to improve your US credit quicker

My goal is to churn enough to buy a 911, I'm at E46 M3 atm :awwyeah:

For most ppl it's better to get a $10-20K raise at work than do it at my level haha, it's fun for me.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...343c35c3_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b3e06e21_b.jpg

I wish I took it more seriously sooner, everyone I travel with nowadays have 500-1,000M points tacked since 2018. I have enough to fly to Japan 2x a year for the next 8 years.

But with the recent nerfs and clawbacks, I'd say churning is pretty much DEAD in Canada

In order to get the welcome bonuses you have to have a new card - so you would indeed close and reopen a card (usually 6-12 months gap in between) to claim the welcome bonuses.

This is a hard credit check as mentioned above, plus now with the "one per lifetime" and clawbacks happening, churning in Canada is mostly dead.

The more you share, the more you ruin the fun for everyone else.

It's emo how Amex is dead, RBC isn't paying me out anymore, TD/BMO won't accept me

churning used to be an underground hobby but now too many fuckers whored it out on IG/tiktok ("look how I flew business class for only $40") that all the credit card companies clamped down on it.

Hobbies (e.g. track days LOL, LEGO)
Luxury goods (handbags/shoes for girls, watches for guys)

Gacha games?

Women want to have a word with you