The Pitfalls of Conservatively Managing Your Credit Card Portfolio
I read recently that most families lack the necessary ready cash to pay even a modest, unexpected monthly expense. It’s been a while. Been there, done that. When we were much younger, financing our lives through a portfolio of credit cards was the order of the day. Which card to use? How much credit remained on what card? It wasn’t the best program of personal finance, but it offered the least friction. What balances we owed was a matter of strict confidence between our credit card issuers and my wife and I, and of course, the postal worker who served as our two-way conduit of monthly statements and monthly payments. At some point, our use of credit cards switched from financing the day-to-day realties of life to maximizing points in loyalty programs. Keeping a large portfolio of credit cards at the ready wasn’t a necessity any longer. Take my jetBlue MasterCard as an example. Toward the end of my career, I frequently flew between Las Vegas and NYC-JFK. Almost ever