By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Updated June 17, 2021 – Below we list the very best credit cards on the market, including cash back and travel rewards cards. See the cards’ applications pages for further details as well as information on introductory bonus offers and any exclusions on rewards & perks.

Best Cash Back Credit Cards

“Flat” Cash Back (Same Rebate Percentage on All Purchases):

• Citi Double Cash – 2% “flat” cash back, meaning you get the same 2% cash back on every purchase with the card. No annual fee.
• Sofi Credit Card – Earn 2% cash back on all purchases, but only if you deposit your earnings into a SoFi account. No annual fee & no foreign transaction fees.
• Other 2% “flat” cash back credit cards: Fidelity Visa, PayPal Cashback Mastercard

Cash Back Cards with Enhanced Purchasing Categories:

• Citi Custom Cash – Get 5% cash back in the category where you spend the most each billing cycle (on up to $500 in purchases in that category); 1% cash back elsewhere. No annual fee.
• Capital One SavorOne Card – 3% cash back on dining, groceries, entertainment purchases, and most streaming services, 1% elsewhere. No annual fee.
• Blue Cash Preferred from American Express – 6% cash back on groceries & streaming services, 3% on gas & transit, 1% elsewhere. No annual fee first year, $95 per year after that.
• Blue Cash Everyday from American Express – 3% cash back on groceries, 2% on gas and at certain department stores, 1% elsewhere. No annual fee.
• US Bank Altitude Go – 4% cash back on dining purchases, 2% on groceries, gas, and streaming services, and then 1% anywhere else. No annual fee.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited – 3% cash back on dining purchases, 3% at drugstores, 5% at Chase’s own travel booking site, and 1.5% on all other purchases. No annual fee.
• Chase Freedom Flex – Get 5% cash back on purchases in certain categories that change every calendar quarter. Also get 3% on dining, 3% at drugstores, 5% at Chase’s own travel booking site, and 1% elsewhere. No annual fee.
• Navy Federal Credit Union More Rewards American Express Card – 3% cash back at grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, 1% elsewhere. No annual fee. Must qualify as member of the credit union.
• Navy Federal Flagship Rewards – Earn 3% cash back on travel, 2% everywhere else. There is a $49 annual fee. Must qualify as member of the credit union.
• US Bank Cash+ – Get 5% cash back in your choice of two purchasing categories from a list that US Bank provides, then 2% cash back on your choice of gas, groceries or dining. 1% back everywhere else. No annual fee.
• Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards – Get 3% cash back in a purchasing category of your choice, 2% at grocery/wholesale stores, 1% elsewhere. No annual fee.
• Discover it – Get 5% cash back on purchases in certain categories that change every calendar quarter. All other purchases earn 1%. No annual fee.
• Also worth mentioning: Verizon Visa, Apple Card, Venmo Credit Card

Below we offer two tables of Federal income tax brackets for the current year, 2021. (These are the brackets that will be used for the tax return that you file in 2022.) The tables also show what you may expect to pay based on your Taxable Income, which is found on Line 15 of your Form 1040 tax return. Look below the tables for a further explanation of how your taxes are calculated, because the U.S. uses a marginal tax rate system that means it’s not as simple as multiplying your income by your tax bracket to estimate your taxes!

If you will file as a Single Taxpaper:

(This is a regularly updated post; last update 6/11/21.) If you’ve ever been pitched on opening a new credit card at a retail store while making a purchase, you know that some stores are more than happy to give you instant credit — you apply on the spot, get approved, and you can use the card immediately. Below we offer a list of such cards, including regular bank credit cards as well as retail credit cards. Apply online and get shopping today. (Note that instant approval is not guaranteed.)

• American Express Cards – Most American Express credit cards and charge cards now offer the possibility of an “Instant Card Number” upon approval. Your “eligibility is based on our ability to instantly validate your identity.” If you are eligible, you’ll get an Instant Card Number that you can use even before you have the physical card in hand. Note, however, that you may not be able to access your card’s complete credit line instantly.
• PayPal Cashback Mastercard – One of our very favorite credit cards on the market also lets you use your card today if you are approved instantly. Here’s the language they use to describe the process: “If you’re approved, in most cases, a temporary credit line will instantly be added to your PayPal account and you can start using it on PayPal right away – – even before you receive your card.” Beyond the instant approval, this card gives you a 2% rebate on everything you buy with it — which is the top of the market for cash-back cards with a flat rate on all purchases.

As of June 9, 2021, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 2.99%. The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate is 2.24%. Other key current rates are listed in the table below:

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

People become millionaires in many ways, but millionaires also have much in common. If you want to know how to become a millionaire, it’s easy enough to give you the formula (or formulas), but if you’re not willing to put in the work, it’s not going to happen.

In general, there are 3 ways to become a millionaire (though there are a few fluke millionaires out there that didn’t follow these paths, such as lottery winners and inherited fortunes):

1. Own a profitable business. (Even better is selling your profitable business.)
2. Work in a high-paying profession, such as doctor, banker, corporate attorney, computer engineer, and others.
3. Work a decent-paying profession making, say, $50,000 per year, and save a huge amount of everything you make while never marrying, never having children, rarely vacationing, and having almost no luxuries.

If being a millionaire, or at least being well off, is important to you, we would suggest one of the first two paths. The last path is no fun, regardless of how much money you amass. Few of us really want to be the schoolteacher who saves 90% of her earnings and puts them in safe stocks for 50 years and leaves $2 million behind at the expense of having really lived a full life. (A caveat here: in households where both parents work, each can have modest incomes and together achieve millionaire status as a household much easier than a single person with a modest income.)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

One of the concerns people sometimes have with credit cards is that their account might be closed for good behavior — namely, paying off the full balance on their credit card each month. After all, if you’re always paying off your balance in full, the credit card company isn’t making any interest money off of you, right?

Well, the bank that issues your credit card might prefer if you carried a balance every so often, but in truth you are still a valuable customer to them even if you don’t — and you still make them money. (And as long as you make them money, they won’t close your credit card account!)

Credit Card Companies Do Make Money from Full-Balance Payers

As long as you are using your credit card each month, you are making money for the credit card company, even if you always pay off your balances. Why? Because the bank that issues your credit card doesn’t only make money from interest that is charged to you. They also make money from the merchants that accept your credit card.

Every time you pay with a credit card, the bank gets a little bit of money from what is called an interchange fee. The grocery store or gas station or online retailer or even medical doctor that accepts your credit card agrees to have a small percentage of that payment sent to the bank as a way to compensate the bank for processing the transaction.

For example, if you bought $120 of groceries from your local supermarket, the interchange fee on that purchase might be 1.5%, or $1.80. In that case, the supermarket gets to keep $118.20 of the $120 they charged you, and the other $1.80 is the interchange fee that gets split between the card processor (Mastercard, Visa, etc.) and the bank that issues your credit card (Chase, Bank of America, etc.).

So, even if you pay off your full balance each month, you can see that the credit card companies are still making money — it’s just not coming out of your pocket! (Although you could easily argue that those interchange fees cause merchants to slightly increase prices, creating a sort of “invisible” charge to the customer.)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

NOTE: Originally published in 2018; don’t miss the video! – Are Terro Liquid Ant Baits the very best ant killer on the market? I don’t know. What I do know is that when the run-of-the-mill cheapo ant traps didn’t work, these Terro ant baits did the job in no time. (BTW, this is NOT a paid post, just talking about a product I actually used that was worth the money.)

Here’s my story…

The Ants Invaded

As the weather warmed up in the spring, the ants came, more so than any other year I could remember. Our neighbors said it was bad for them, too.

First, it was just a few ants in the kitchen. But they were the big carpenter ants, those ones where you can easily see every section of their crunchy little bodies. We put out some of those little ant traps on the floor, those whitish ones with the dome-like structure. Those work on the itsy-bitsy ants, but the carpenters seemed to laugh them off. We left the traps out to see if they’d eventually work — the ants that go to those traps are supposed to bring the poison back to the nest and kill off the rest — but the numbers increased, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they made it to the pantry.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

When I was in my 20s, working my first “real” job, I thought I was rich (though I earned relatively little). I hadn’t moved out on my own yet and could buy more stuff than I’d ever been able to afford. Plus, I could still go out at night and party until all hours — I had the bounce-back capability of the young and my “real” job was pretty low in terms of responsibility.

I wish I had worked harder. And more.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed my 20s and have great, fun memories. And I know no one on their deathbed says they wish they had spent more time at the office.

Still, I feel like I squandered an opportunity.

In your 20s, you’ve got a number of things that disappear or fade as you get older:

• Time
• Energy
• Lack of responsibility

You have the opportunity to do things that the man/woman who is married with three kids can’t or won’t do, whether that is a risky entrepreneurial venture or working 60 hours a week to get ahead in your career. When you are in your 20s, you don’t have the résumé of your older colleagues (or competitors), but you’ve got the time and energy they don’t. That is your competitive advantage, an advantage I didn’t see when I was in my 20s. I was metaphorically fat and lazy when I should have been hungry, when I should have been channeling my energies instead of being happy to be making more than 10 bucks an hour.

(This is a regularly updated post; last update 1/14/21.) Credit cards from retail stores often give customers instant approval. In fact, they often will approve you instantly, and even incentivize you to use that card the same day by giving you an immediate discount on your first purchase. Below is a list of store credit cards that may approve you instantly, along with information on any extras they might give you as a new cardholder:

• Amazon Rewards Visa / Amazon Prime Rewards Visa – According to the Amazon credit card’s terms, “If you respond via the Internet, the majority of applications are responded to in less than 15 seconds.” Assuming you are approved instantly, you’ll get a $50 Amazon gift card (with the regular Visa) or a $70 Amazon gift card (with the Prime Visa) loaded into your account immediately, and then you’ll also earn rewards on all your purchases: 3% at Amazon and at Whole Foods (5% if you are an Amazon Prime cardholder), 2% at restaurants, gas stations and drug stores, 1% everywhere else.
• Amazon Store Card – This Amazon credit card can only be used at Amazon, and is geared toward financing for large purchases. The website says you can get an “instant credit decision in as little as 15 seconds.” If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ll get a 5% rebate on Amazon.com purchases made with the card.
• Apple Card – Apple (and card issuer Goldman Sachs) may approve you and let you use the card instantly, although at first you’ll only be able to use it from your iPhone or other Apple device. (You can also get a physical card but you’ll have to wait for that in the mail.) This cash-back MasterCard gives you a 3% rebate on your Apple purchases, 2% on most purchases when you use the card with Apple Pay (some Apple Pay purchases give 3%), and 1% on everything else.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

American Express reports your payments and balances to the major credit reporting bureaus once per month, on the last day of your card’s billing cycle. To know exactly the day of the month your card’s information was reported, you’d have to know when the last day of the billing cycle is for your card.

You can find the last day of your billing cycle listed either on your paper statement or online when you log in to your American Express account. For example, in the picture below, you can see that this card had billing periods that ended on either the 9th or 10th of each month in the recent past. Information about the account would have been reported on July 10, August 10, September 9, October 9, November 9, and December 10.

Reporting Date is Different for Each Card

Note that American Express is going to report to the major credit reporting bureaus — Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax — on the last day of the billing period for that specific card. If you have a second American Express card, it could have a different billing period that ends on a different date, so the reporting date on the second card would also be different.

This makes sense, because if American Express reported every single credit card on the exact same date each month, it would be a massive job to get millions of accounts reported all at once. And, even if they could, the credit bureaus would probably not be able to actually record all of this information at the same time. (Not to mention all of the information coming into the credit reporting agencies from other credit card issuers!)