Something a little different today.
music selection: “No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature” — The Guess Who
I use a credit card for all my spending needs. For years, I used Discover to get 1% cash back. When you pay the balance in full each month, you pay no interest and end up with a discount on everything you buy. You also get a detailed spending report that helps keep spendy-pants behavior from going unnoticed.
For the last 18 months or so I have used Capital One and received 1.5% cash back. This has been a good card and I currently have all my utilities auto billing to this card. The full balance auto drafts from my checking account each month to ensure I miss no payments, pay no fees, and pay no interest. This plan has worked out well.
Going forward, I will be using Citi Double Cash rewards. This card pays one percent on purchase and another 1% on payment. I feel like I just got a half a percent COLA raise. Every little bit helps.
I also maintain no emergency funds in FIRE. How can I do this? Having cash back credit is the key. When something unexpected comes up such as when the air conditioning failed last year, I put it on a cash back card. I think take a margin loan from my broker to immediately pay the balance off. My margin rate at Interactive Brokers is about 1.65% so going forward, I will come out ahead on net interest by paying back my short term loans to myself within a year. My capital stays productive and life is good.
Devour your prey raptors!