Comment by nwiswell

When I was really into it, between $5-10k a year depending on effort, which was largely not taxable. I figured I was making around $30 an hour post-tax, which was less than my day job paid, even after accounting for tax.

These days I understand it is probably harder to hit those numbers. When I was doing it in earnest (2014-2016, roughly), it was already regarded as "late" in the sense that issuers had started to take notice and crack down. I'd read people reminisce about the "golden days" (pre-GFC, I guess) when you could get a card with something like a 5%-for-6-months signup perk and just absolutely go to town, we're talking literal millions in manufactured spend.