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

Updated August 1, 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):

• Wells Fargo Active Cash Visa – You get 2% “flat” cash back, meaning you get the same 2% cash back on every purchase with the card. Plus, you can earn a bonus as a new cardholder, something most other 2% cards do not offer. (Right now that bonus is $200 if you spend $1000 or more with the card in the first three months after account opening.
• 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 is a quick chart of capital gains tax rates for tax year 2021. You will find further explanations below the charts.

Short-Term Capital Gains Tax Rate

Short-term capital gains (on assets bought and sold in less than one year) are treated the same as any other regular income you make. So you simply add those short-term gains to the other income you make during the year and you’ll get taxed on all of that short-term income using the Federal Tax Brackets found here.

So, for example, if you made $60,000 at your job and had $13,000 in short-term capital gains, the IRS tells you to simply add those amounts together, and you’d get the same tax treatment on all $73,000 of “regular income.”

Long-Term Capital Gains Tax Rate (Assets Sold Beyond One Year):

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

Chase has added a new sentence to the Terms & Conditions of its credit card applications that gives Chase the right to check any of your bank accounts or other financial accounts it may have access to when making a decision on your credit card application — even information from other banks:

“We may obtain and use information about your accounts with us and others such as Checking, Deposit, Investment, and Utility accounts from credit bureaus and other entities.”

Back in May of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that an agency of the U.S. government had encouraged the largest banks to work harder at approving new-to-credit consumers for their first credit cards. Chase as well as a number of other banks (including Wells Fargo and US Bank) had agreed to participate in a pilot program that would see these banks share information with each other about their customers’ bank accounts, with the idea that this would provide a starting place to assess the credit risk of applicants who had little to no information on file with the major credit bureaus.

Chase took the lead in this process earlier this week by introducing the Chase Slate Edge Visa, a no-annual-fee credit card with modest features but presumably an easier path to approval for those with no credit history (and maybe those with lower credit scores than Chase would normally accept). Within the Terms & Conditions of this new card’s application was the sentence referenced above that allows Chase to check bank, investment, and utility accounts as part of the approval process.

However, this new sentence giving Chase greater latitude to check a wider array of financial accounts is not exclusive to the Chase Slate Edge card. It has been added to the Terms & Conditions of all online Chase credit card applications, with no ability to “opt out.” If you want Chase to consider your application, you must agree that they may look at financial sources beyond your credit reports.

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

There is no set definition of bad credit, but if your credit score is lower than 600, most credit card issuers will consider that bad credit (though they’ll call it by the nicer name of “subprime”). If you’re trying to rebuild your credit score with a new credit card or cards, here are our suggestions on the path you should consider:

Step 1: Will Capital One or Discover approve you?

Capital One and Discover are the two major credit card issuers that are most open to accepting people with bad credit scores. You might not qualify for their best cards, and you might get a very low credit limit if you are approved, but your chances are best with these two banks, so our advice is to try them first.

Do a Pre-Approval

If you’re unsure about being approved, do a pre-approval or pre-qualification with Capital One or Discover. You fill out a form and they do a “soft inquiry” on your credit report to see what cards you’re likely to qualify for. While a pre-approval is not a guarantee that you’ll be approved, it should give you a solid idea of your chances. Use the links below to get started:

• Capital One Credit Card Pre-Approval Page
• Discover Card Pre-Approval Page

Cards You Might Get Approved For:

• Capital One Quicksilver or Capital One QuicksilverOne – If your credit isn’t too bad, Capital One might approve you for one of these cards that offers 1.5% cash back on all of your purchases. However, if you are approved for the QuicksilverOne version of the card, note that it will have a $39 annual fee.
• Capital One Platinum – This is Capital One’s most basic unsecured card for those with lower credit scores. No rewards and a fairly high interest rate, but no annual fee. It may be the place to start if you can’t get unsecured credit anywhere else.
• Discover it – If your credit isn’t too bad, you might qualify for this no-annual-fee rewards card that gives 5% cash back in certain rotating categories and 1% cash back everywhere else.
• Discover it Chrome – If your credit score is low, Discover still might accept for this no-annual-fee credit card that gives 2% cash back on dining and gas purchases, and 1% back everywhere else.
• Discover Secured Card or Capital One Secured Card – If you get offered one of these cards, it means your credit score was too bad to offer you an unsecured credit card. Choosing to get a secured credit card is often a very smart choice for people with bad credit, but unlike “regular” credit cards, a secured credit card requires you to put down a refundable security deposit to get the card. We will come back to the idea of getting a secured card further down in this article, but if a secured card is the only thing that Capital One or Discover is offering you, there are still other options to consider before going the secured card route.

(This is a regularly updated post; last update 7/14/21.) 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.

Updated July 9, 2021 – Comenity Bank and its sister company Comenity Capital Bank are the issuers behind many retail store credit cards and other credit cards as well. If you have a credit card from one of the companies listed below, it’s not issued by the store whose name is on the front, but instead by Comenity:

• Academy Sports Credit Card
• AKC (American Kennel Club) (Card no longer offered)
• Ann Taylor
• Arhaus
• Ashley Stewart
• Avenue
• Bealls Florida Credit Card
• Bealls Outlet / Burkes Outlet
• Bed Bath & Beyond
• Big Lots
• BJ’s Wholesale Club
• Blair
• Blue Nile
• Boot Barn Credit Card

In our book, the very best rewards credit cards available in any particular month are going to take into consideration the following: everyday rewards, bonus opportunities for new cardholders, extra perks and credits, and the card’s annual fee (if any). Here are our rewards credit card picks for this month:

• Wells Fargo Active Cash – A simple rewards formula: 2% cash back on everything you buy with the card. No annual fee. While there are other 2% “flat” cash-back credit cards on the market, this one currently wins because it also has a potential new cardholder bonus of $200.
• Citi Custom Cash Card – This rewards credit card automatically gives you 5% cash back in the spending category where you spend the most each month, and 1% cash back in all other categories. Potential 5% spending categories include: restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment. Note that the 5% cash back is capped at a maximum of $500 in purchases in that category, so if you make a huge purchase in one of those categories, only the initial $500 is going to get that 5% rebate. No annual fee. Also includes a $200 bonus opportunity for new cardholders.

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:

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.)