This is Optimal Finance Daily, episode 1477.

The Autopilot Guide to Credit Cards by Stephen Keys of Trip of a Lifestyle.com.

And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

This is the show where I serenade you with the sweet sounds of personal finance knowledge

from some of the best blogs on the planet, with the author's permission, of course.

For now, let's get to today's post as we optimize your life.

The Autopilot Guide to Credit Cards by Stephen Keys of Trip of a Lifestyle.com.

No matter where you're at on your financial journey, you've probably heard some stuff about

credit cards. Unfortunately, a lot of popular advice about them is complete nonsense.

Credit cards aren't evil, scary, or complex, but using them correctly does require you to know

a few facts that most people are never told. In this guide, I'll make one critical assumption.

You want your experience with credit cards to be easy and uncomplicated.

This is the Autopilot Guide, not a crazy credit card hacker is manifesto.

But even on easy mode, you'll be able to, one, make a consistent profit from those

credit card rewards programs you hear so much about, without getting suckered into paying for them.

And two, build your credit history and boost your credit score over the long run.

The only way to use a credit card. A credit card represents an open line of credit from a bank,

basically just another loan you can take. But you'll notice that borrowing money isn't among

the goals we laid out above. The first and most important thing to understand is that credit cards

are not for spending money you don't have, even though that's what banks want you to do.

When you make charges on your credit card, they're added to your current balance.

Each month, you'll be issued a statement with a statement balance on it. If you make the minimum

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