“Knives are like credit cards; don’t leave home without ’em and always carry several.” — Richard MarcinkoPhoto courtesy of Avery Evans (@averye457) on UnsplashAny individual who knows me personally can attest that I am a huge advocate of using credit cards as a primary form of payment. As long as you are able to utilize them for spending you would have done otherwise, they offer more security than cash, checks, and/or debit cards. However, the reason I like to recommend them as a personal finance tool is for their rewards/benefits. I already hold the $550 annual fee American Express Platinum Card (which I spoke about in a previous story), but a few months ago, I added the $250 annual fee American Express Gold Card to my wallet too.First off, I used a friend’s referral link to sign up. If you have the option to do this method and their link offers the highest public S.U.B. (sign-up bonus), I would highly recommend it because it gives your pal some free points. The offer I was able to snag was 60,000 M.R. (Membership Rewards) Points for $4,000 in spend during a three-month period. I timed my signing up for the Amex Gold with my semi-annual car insurance payment, so I did not have to do any unnecessary spending to hit this amount. For those who do not know how M.R. points exchange, the Points Guy (an excellent go-to source for all things credit card rewards) values them at about 2 cents per point when redeemed for travel, which values the S.U.B. at $1,200. This amount nearly pays for 5 years of the annual fee right off the bat.I also had the privilege of being promoted from a Sales Consultant to Field Sales Manager in the months leading up to grabbing the Amex…