by: Steve Gillman
"Credit card wealth secrets," the ad read. I assumed it was yet another over-hyped unworkable scheme. It probably was, but it made me remember the times in my life when I have used credit cards to make money.
As Robert Kyosaki says, there's "good debt" and "bad debt. Borrowing for consumer items is bad-debt. You limit your future options, and you get less in life. It seems like more, because you get it now, but with interest, and the tendency to pay more when buying on credit, you'll never be able to buy as much as those who pay cash.
Credit card wealth secrets have to revolve around the idea of "good debt." This is any borrowing that increases your income, or produces capital gains. So how do you get your credit cards to start doing that for you?
Credit Card Wealth Creation
A good friend once borrowed $6,000 from me at 9% interest. I didn't have the money at the time, but I had a credit card offer for a cash advance for 8 months at 5% interest. I loaned him the money for six months. Okay, a 4% spread meant only a $120 profit in the end, but it was easy.
A better example is when we bought a little house in Montana. A cash offer would get us a great deal, so with our savings and a $2,000 worth of repairs on a credit card, we made it work. We paid less than $100 in interest before selling the house a few months later for a $6,500 profit.
My money was tied up when my brother found a truck we could make some money on. I put it on a card, and paid maybe $35 in fees and interest. The car was sold ten days later, and we split the $950 profit.
A friend of mine once borrowed $300 at more than 100% annual interest ($50 for two months). Why? To buy the tools he needed to re-start his dry-walling business. He probably made enough the first week to repay the loan.
The point is that any debt - whether from credit cards or other sources - can be good debt if it creates more than it costs. I have known people that have started successful businesses or "flipped" houses for big gains with the help of credit cards. Get rich quick? Doubtful, but then my skepticism almost made me forget my own "credit card wealth secrets."