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How to Boost Your Buying Power: Securities Based Lending
TL;DR: You can borrow money using your stock as collateral. This is another way to finance a purchase or a backup source of emergency funding. Rates usually float daily, and you usually need at least ~$100k in assets to get this going. Professionals in finance often use a ton of leverage their deals, their strategies, and ultimately their profits. For example, a long/short hedge fund can have aggregate portfolio sizes that are orders of magnitude bigger than the actual margin they need to post (i.e. how much money they put in, their initial cash investment). However, this is not limited to only big companies and the ultra, ultra wealthy! Much…
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I’m not saying it’s free money but…
It is somewhat surprising that this kind of opportunity can still be found leading up so close to inauguration. At the time of writing, people are still pricing in and trading on a 2% probability that Trump will be inaugurated on Jan 20, 2021. At the very least, there is a potential arbitrage where most exchanges have already declared Biden the winner or are trading this kind of contract for Trump at near 0%. Very interesting! TheJKW h/t to reader RD for the find! P.S. This is in no way an endorsement for the site or betting online, nor is TheJKW offering investment advice. If you decide to act/invest, please…
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Yotta is Just Not What it Used to Be :(
TL;DR: Previously we talked about Yotta Savings Account as a fun and high-yield alternative to traditional savings accounts. However, yields are coming back down. When the Y-Combinator backed Yotta came out with a new, sexy bank account, it was fun and high-yield. However, we knew the fun wouldn’t last once they succeeded in attracting users in. Since the beginning, they have made several changes to the prizes to lower their worth and probability of winning. Yields are closer to 1.5% APY now. In addition, after $25k your funds get 1 ticket per $100 deposited (instead of $25) and you cannot deposit over $100k. So after 25k, your expected APY is…
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The Tax Advantage to Being Married
TL;DR: Most people, most of the time, will save on taxes when they get married. You can save over 7% of combined income in federal taxes by getting married. In general, you save more if there’s more income disparity within the couple. You save less (or potentially lose) if you’re very high income and the income is more evenly split between the partners. If you ever look at the general federal tax brackets, you’ll notice that for most brackets, the “married” bracket is just twice as high as a “single” bracket, i.e. a single person making $15000 is in the same tax bracket as a couple making $30000. This means…
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Wait, it’s actually 5.25% back!
TL;DR: Previously we discussed the new Bank of America credit card that gave 3% back on certain categories. However, with Preferred Rewards you could boost that to 5.25% back! With Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards, you can get between a 25%-75% boost on credit card rewards (and some other benefits). This is calculated based on how much you’re holding in varying Bank of America accounts, with the top tier requiring $100k. The savings/checkings accounts for the most part are boring (which is why I hadn’t mentioned this benefit before), but you can use the Merrill edge investing accounts to keep that capital working! Happy BAC’ing, TheJKW
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Boost Your Cashback by 4% with Slide
TL;DR: Slide gives 4% back at specific brands on top of credit card rewards! It looks like the mechanism is mostly buying gift cards through them to use at different brands. Brands I see that I’d use often are Uber, UberEats, Doordash, Chipotle. There are hundreds of different brands to browse. It’s certainly a nice boost on top of credit card cashback. Happy Slide’ing, TheJKW
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Free Thanksgiving Dinner?!
Check it out That’s it 🙂 TheJKW
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What Biden Means to You(r Wallet)
TL;DR: Biden’s proposed tax plan includes higher taxes for top earners/investors. Higher corporate taxes may be indirectly passed on to the labor force. A Republican senate means passing all this will be hard for Biden. With Biden declared as the president-elect in this recent election, let’s look at what his plans are tax-wise. Income Tax: The top tax bracket would be raised from 37% to 39.6%. A payroll tax of 12.4% would be applied to all income over $400k. 99% of Americans would not be affected by these tax changes directly. It is noteworthy Biden doesn’t mention any wealth tax that other Democrats have called for. Capital Gains: Long-term capital…
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Go Vote!
This week we’re going to take a break and recognize the importance of election night this upcoming Tuesday. No matter your stance, please go have your voice be heard. Every vote matters! TheJKW
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Where Should You Park Your Emergency Cash Now?
TL;DR: With savings account yields falling, the best banks are now offering around 1%. Chime is one of them. I do think it’s always a good idea to have a small amount of cash (just in case!). But it’s always a pain to figure out where to store that cash, especially with most bank accounts offering such pitiful rates. Previously, I’ve given options for a 3.5% APY account (with requirements to fulfill) and an interesting “lottery” style option that, for now, I think are relatively amazing options. However, if you’d like just a plain and simple account that still gives some juice, try out Chime! Right now, it’s really hard…