In reality, there are no free things: someone has to create the product and pay the cost of production. The trick is that sometimes the cost of things is passed on to someone else or paid for by some alternative method that is not obvious. How can you pay for free stuff? With time, stress, and restrictions unlike what you normally would.
Wasting time
Are you wasting your time jumping through hoops to collect the free stuff? The saying “time is money” applies to anyone, not just entrepreneurs, because time is something that cannot be recovered once it is lost or “used up.” The way to know how much your time costs is to compare it to money. If I spend an hour a month working to get “free stuff” and I could be doing something that pays me $ 20 an hour, then I’m paying $ 20 a month. There are cases where you can save time, but you don’t necessarily get paid for it. What else would you rather be doing instead of chasing after free stuff? Maybe you’re learning something new, researching a deal that could save you money elsewhere, doing tasks that you may be paying someone else for, or changing a habit that can save you money. This concept is very individual and you would have to see where your time goes to understand where the tradeoffs are. I often ask people, “Where is your money going?” There is a corresponding question that is in many ways more important: Where is your time going? Given all the complaints about not having enough time, this question should be examined more closely.
personal information
Many sources of free material will be featured only if you provide personal information. What’s wrong with this? You could argue that you don’t care, since all my information is available anyway and I have nothing to hide. Whether this is true or not, it still leaves you vulnerable to filling out endless forms or checking phone calls and emails that you are probably not interested in participating in. Your information may be “shared” or sold to other providers that you did not deal with directly, adding to the hassle and wasted time. In the age of hackers and identity theft, the more places personal information is available, the more likely this is to happen to you. Aside from the stress and time spent canceling credit cards, updating antivirus software, and searching for money taken from your accounts, there is also an increased possibility of fraud and theft, which is a major disruption to your life. The effects of that can persist for years after the occurrence. The best security measure you can take is not to put information on a technology platform in the first place.
Purchase restrictions
The old adage of saving money when buying products is to “shop around” to find the best deal. If you’ve ever done this, you know that there are sometimes big divergences in product prices, whether it’s from different places or different times of the year. One of my most valuable ways to save money is to shop when or where other people don’t. If you are accumulating points, will you still be comparing to get the best deal even though the points are not accumulating? From the people I’ve seen, I think the answer is no. A store or website is not likely to always have the best deals. Even the cheapest known stores can have expensive products.
Be organized
Is it natural for you to organize and perform administrative tasks? If so, tracking points and optimizing their use would come naturally to you. I find that many people are the opposite: filling out forms, doing paperwork, calculating discounts or accounting for taxes on purchases is not their strong suit. If you want proof, go to dinner with a group of people and see how the tip is calculated. If people bother to do it, you will use the computer or an application to do it for them. An application or computer cannot make decisions for you when it comes to purchasing products with intangibles like time, hassle, and stress built into the equation.
The pretzel
Are you forced to buy things or use services that you don’t really want or at times that are not convenient for you? Do these options cost you in many other ways? A classic example is flying for points. Yes, the flight is free, but it is at 3am on Monday. You may have been able to take the transit to the airport, but at such a strange time, you will need a limousine or a taxi. The flight could have been direct, but the free flight may have 1 or 2 stopovers where you lose hours at the airport (s). Since time is wasted at the airport, you will buy more expensive meals and use more roaming charges unless you plan ahead. If you have to stay overnight for a layover, there is an additional fee for transportation and accommodation that is part of your trip expenses, but not necessarily part of your vacation. You may need additional vacation days due to this free flight that will cost you another vacation you want to take. If it starts to feel like a pretzel, this is the point. Are you going to do a comparison to see if the pretzel flight is worth it compared to paying for a direct flight at the time you want and for the destination you want? If you give up the pretzel flight, you may not be able to redeem these points in the future. Maybe then you will have to buy something to “spend the points.” Once you commit to these programs, you are under the rules of the issuer and they will change at any time to suit the issuer and make a profit. If someone is making a profit, the customer is paying for those profits. The trick for you is figuring out if it’s worth it despite what may happen.
When are free things worth it?
Free stuff can be a good deal if it’s treated as a discount you didn’t expect. If you take the opposite point of view of all the points made in this article, free things will be a good deal. If you had bought the product anyway on its own merits and the points are a bonus, you are not subject to additional hassles or organizational hoops, you have options to use the loyalty program and still get the best deal without the pretzel effect, then free stuff is probably a good idea. The key to this concept is to look at your spending habits and style and find a program that is a good fit for you rather than having to contort with what the program demands. You may sometimes have to quit programs if they just aren’t worth it. If you find this impossible due to the idea that “I have to use my points” at all costs, this can seem like an addiction and decisions are likely to be distorted rather than being an advantage.
