Wednesday, May 6, 2015

How I Made My Credit Card Company Fund My Roth IRA

Saving is hard.  It feels like we are depriving ourselves from the fun things we work hard for.  For this reason, any tip or trick we can use to help us save or just make saving less painful becomes very useful.  Here is one of my tricks:

First, I have the Citi® Double Cash* credit card that pays me 1% cash back on all purchases and another 1% cash back as I pay off those purchases.  This essentially equates to 2% cash back.  Let’s say in an average month I charge $3,000 worth of bills and purchases then immediately pay off the credit card at the end of the month to avoid any interest charges.  This should provide me with $60/month in cash back rewards for a total of $720/year.

Second, I have a higher interest checking account and Roth IRA at Charles Schwab & Co®*.  Every month I receive my cash back reward I transfer it to my high interest checking account.  From there, I immediately transfer the money to my Roth IRA.  Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars, grow tax-free and any future withdrawals are tax-free as long as you follow the rules (which are easy to follow if you only use this money for retirement as intended).

The result of this strategy over 30 years if the investments earn 7% annually will be $68,012!  Not bad considering all the funding for this account came from cash back rewards paid by the credit card company. 

I would advise against this strategy if you are not disciplined enough to pay off your credit card each month.  At 12% or higher annual interest rate, it doesn’t take much for an ongoing credit card balance to charge more interest than you are receiving in cash back rewards.

*This is not an endorsement of the Citi® Double Cash credit card.  Search around for the best credit card based on your needs, or simply don’t use a credit card and stick to a budget to avoid potential interest charges. This also is not an endorsement of Charles Schwab & Co.®


Steven Elwell, CFP®, May 6, 2015
www.sbvfinancial.com
selwell@sbvfinancial.com

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