We often spend a great deal of time monitoring 2x, 5x or 10x credit card rewards and limited offers, to the point that we lose sight of the bigger picture. While credit cards can deliver excellent returns on everyday spending, the effort required to chase and optimize those rewards can outweigh the benefit for most people—unless your annual spend runs into the high seven figures.
Value of Time
It’s important to consider how you invest your time. Instead of obsessively tracking rewards, consider whether that same time could be better spent on activities that produce a higher return on your time—whether financial or personal.
Here’s a simple example that illustrates the point.
I recently estimated the total rewards I earned or saved through credit card activity over the last ten years and compared that to the net returns from my investments in stocks over roughly two years. The result surprised me: the stock returns over two years equaled the total value I’d extracted from rewards across a decade.
In practical terms, I invested about five times more time chasing rewards to reach the same monetary benefit I achieved in two years of investing. Add the additional hours spent mastering reward redemption rules to squeeze a little more value, and the comparison becomes roughly 10:1—ten times the time devoted to rewards compared with time spent on investing.
Time spent on rewards versus stocks: roughly 10:1
Put another way, one year of focused investing could replace nine years of regular effort spent optimizing credit card rewards. That’s a large difference in how you might choose to spend your time.
This is partly a matter of personal preference. I enjoy exploring rewards, while others prefer watching market charts or working on different pursuits. Still, money is a practical metric for many of us, and rewards are effectively a form of monetary value.
I’m not claiming to be a stock market expert. My early years investing delivered little or no returns, and many casual investors saw gains over the past two years. The broader lesson is that markets sometimes present significant opportunities—approximately once every decade—that can change outcomes dramatically.
A memorable conversation with an elderly, experienced investor I met on a flight left a lasting impression. He expected a market correction, likely because he had substantial investments and a long-term view. Speaking with him taught me useful perspectives on travel and investing.
This example isn’t a prescription that everyone should invest in stocks. Without the right knowledge or guidance, that can be a poor decision. The point is to consider alternatives: spend the time you would dedicate to micro-optimizing rewards on upgrading skills, advancing your career, or growing a business—activities that can improve long-term income and quality of life.
The overarching idea is to use your time intentionally and seek the greatest returns for the effort you put in.
Final thoughts
This is not an argument to ignore credit card benefits entirely. Rewards can be valuable and worth pursuing to a reasonable extent. The key is balance: don’t let optimizing rewards dominate your life.
It’s perfectly fine to capture 80–90% of the value offered by credit cards without striving for every last benefit. That small reduction in effort can free up time to pursue higher-impact activities—professional development, entrepreneurship, family, or health—that may yield greater long-term rewards.
For most people with annual spends under ₹10 lakh, maintaining an effective rewards strategy takes minimal time—just a few minutes every few months to review and adjust. If you want more frequent updates because your spending is higher, consider subscribing to curated alerts or newsletters that deliver only the important changes to your inbox.
As Lucy famously said,
Time is the only true unit of measure.
Many ultra-premium cardholders demonstrate this by valuing time over online presence. From my observations, a large share of truly eligible premium cardholders are not active on social media—they are focused on living their lives.
They’re busy living.
If you recognize the value of time early and redirect it toward productive pursuits, you may find unexpected opportunities ahead—perhaps even invitations to exclusive programs you can graciously decline. The bottom line: be mindful of how you spend your time and aim to use it effectively.
Make the best use of your time.