Ask HTM - Budgeting for Credit Card Rewards, HELOC for Home Improvements, & Coast FI with Bonds #1138

How to Money

iHeartPodcasts

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re kicking off the week by answering your listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!

1 - Coast FI: How intentionally should I shift my retirement portfolio to bonds if I’m nearing financial independence?

2 - Credit card bonuses: Does it make much sense for me to budget and track the thousands I receive in rewards?

3 - Trusts: Should we prioritize setting up a trust now that we have a young child?

4 - Rx sunglasses: Where can I get affordable Rx sunglasses that I won’t be afraid to lose?

5 - HELOC: What makes one HELOC better than another?

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.

MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

During this episode we enjoyed a Dream Operator by Piedmont Brewery! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:34.9	Guaranteed Human. Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel. I'm Matt. Today, we're answering your good Monday when you and I get to sit down and enjoy a craft beer while answering personal finance questions.
0:36.8	A case of the Mondays is a good thing for us.
0:38.4	It is. Makes me think of one of our favorite local breweries who used to have, it's Monday night brewery, and they used to
0:42.2	literally have a case of the Mondays, a case of their beers. 24 beers. Variety pack. Yeah.
0:46.5	But no, we are getting into nitty-gritty budget questions. That's one from a listener.
0:51.0	She's trying to specifically determine how to account for her credit card rewards. Another listener is thinking about tapping his helock. And Joel, you would say, yeah, go for it. Treat yourself. Take all of it right now. No, but I mean, there are certainly some circumstances where it makes sense. And there are others where you got to be careful. You've got to be careful. Proceed going to say. Yeah. It's like we're... We've mind-melded over the years, Joel. And we'll get to a Coast 5 or Fire question, which, by the way, is the best approach towards retirement. Actually, it depends if he's thinking more Coast FI or Coast Fire.
1:27.9	So we'll actually, yeah, maybe we'll parse the differences, the details.
1:31.5	When we get to that question, real quick, though, I wanted to share how, Joel, on a long, like, this is, I don't know how many years ago we talked about, I guess it was maybe an overall credit boosting sort of episode, or maybe it was actually even like,
1:46.7	how do I get my kids a head start? I don't know. I can't remember the context, but I do remember
1:50.6	talking about adding your kids as authorized users on your credit card. It's something we've discussed.
1:54.9	And specifically, I remember doing a little bit of research and digging around and seeing that
2:00.3	Capital One in particular
2:01.6	lets you add kids of any age. There's no age limit. So at the time, I think I added like,
2:07.5	I'm like a three-year-old, a five-year-old, a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old probably.
2:12.1	He has authorized users. It was also hilarious the day that I remember those two envelopes
2:16.3	showed up with two cards in it each.
2:18.3	And it's got like, you know, my three-year-old name on it.
2:23.2	But, you know, I took those, clipped them together, stuck them up in my desk drawer.
2:28.8	And didn't really think we'd do much with it.
2:30.9	Until recently.
2:32.0	Do you want to tell people why?
	...

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