Taiki Yorifuji: Tips from a Money Pro on How to Earn Points Wisely

Points are the "third currency." Since points can be used when shopping, utilizing them is essential for reducing expenses.

You can receive point rewards by presenting a point card when shopping. Furthermore, you can also receive point rewards by making payments through cashless methods such as credit cards, debit cards, electronic money, or smartphone payments instead of cash.

The activity of efficiently accumulating points is called "Poi-katsu" (point-earning activities), and there are two important elements to it. One is consolidating your "economic ecosystem." The other is "double-dipping and triple-dipping."

A system that allows you to receive more rewards by concentrating economic activities such as consumption and investment into the services of a specific company is called an "economic ecosystem."

Major economic ecosystems include Rakuten, PayPay, Docomo, au, AEON, and V-Point.

In addition to cashless payments for shopping, there are cases where you can receive point rewards for paying fixed costs such as mobile phones, communication fees, and electricity bills, as well as for travel.

There are two key points for choosing an economic ecosystem.

Check if the ecosystem is compatible with your daily shopping, credit cards, electronic money, smartphone payments, online shopping, mobile services, utility bills, banking, and securities. The more you consolidate into one economic ecosystem, the higher the reward rate becomes, and since you accumulate the same type of points, they become easier to use.

The basic reward rate is 0.5% to 1%. However, reward rates often increase or discounts are applied during campaign periods. Use an economic ecosystem that offers a variety of campaigns.

To increase your point reward rate, "double-dipping" and "triple-dipping" are indispensable.

For example, if you set a credit card as the payment method for electronic money or smartphone payments, you can "double-dip" on points from both.

Furthermore, by also presenting a point card, "triple-dipping" becomes possible. If a store has its own unique point card, you can even achieve "quadruple-dipping."

Within some economic ecosystems, you can double-dip or triple-dip just by meeting simple conditions. Even if it is only 0.5% or 1%, "every little bit helps," so be sure to do it.

Services that allow you to invest using points as capital include "point management" and "point investment."

Point management is a service where you perform simulated management using points. The advantage is that it does not require opening a securities account.

Point investment is a service where points are immediately converted to cash, and that money can be used to buy actual products such as stocks or investment trusts. It is the same as actual investing, except you use points instead of cash. Opening a securities account is required.

From the perspective of increasing money, "point investment" is better. Profits can be received in cash, and even if a loss occurs, your own money does not decrease because the capital was points.

While point-earning is an important life hack, there are two pitfalls.

In many cases, points have an expiration date. Many services set this at one year from the date of last use (earning, using, or exchanging). Check the expiration date once every six months and use them before they expire.

It is counterproductive if you spend money wastefully just to earn points. Create a system where you can earn points naturally, such as by "using your economic ecosystem and cashless payments for your usual shopping and payments" or "consolidating utility bills and monthly expenses into the same economic ecosystem and cashless payments."