Sara Rathner

If the whole thing makes you exhausted and you just want to go back to bed and put your head under a blanket, then that's a sign that you shouldn't get a card like that because you're not going to be happy with it.

And I will tell you that it's okay to admit that you're lazy or you're not interested in it.

I know that in the credit card world, if you look on Reddit, everybody's like optimizing and maximizing and keeping spreadsheets and like having this whole like contest with each other.

I write about credit cards for a living and this stuff exhausts me.

So it's okay as a lay person to admit to yourself and to your family that

I don't want to keep track of like the administrative complication of this particular card.

I don't care.

I want something easy and rewarding.

And you know what?

Those cards exist too.

And it's totally fine to pick them instead.

on something you probably weren't going to buy anyway is not saving money.

It's not.

Think about how you want to use any of the rewards you would earn.

And also think about where most of your money is going because the ideal card rewards you the most where you spend the most money.

So if you want travel rewards and you spend a lot on groceries and dining out as a family of four, then you want to find the card in the middle of the Venn diagram that earns a lot on dining purchases and also earns travel rewards.

So right off the bat, you're narrowing down that list.

You're not looking at hundreds of credit cards anymore.

Now you're looking at a much shorter list of credit cards.

And from there, you can start asking yourself other questions.