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Aven Advisor is a new app that promises to help to track your financial situation. Kind of like the old Mint app, you have to give them your personal info and link up bank accounts/credit cards, and then they offer a unique mix of things:

• Free weekly credit score (VantageScore 4.0 for me, even though some screenshots show FICO).
• Find your hidden subscriptions by mining your transactions.
• Track your home value, neighborhood home prices, and show you nearby house listings.
• Get a free lien report on your property.
• Track your bank balances, brokerage balances, and credit card debt.
• Track the value of your car.
• Shows you nearby Facebook Marketplace listing for cars and other random things.

So why give them your data? Well, if you are a homeowner with a good credit (700+), they will give you $5 in Starbucks credit once every week. You have to manually open the app and tap the link on every Monday (so they know you’re actively using it), but I’ve successfully gotten my credit. Loads right onto my Starbucks app, see screenshot below.

Join at Aven.com/advisor (remember, only homeowners get the Starbucks offer). You can also get an additional one-time $5 cash bonus with my referral code JP25DJVG7K. Thanks if you use it. You’ll have to link a bank account via Plaid to transfer the $5 into your account.

The Aven Credit Card is a new-ish credit card with 2% cash back that uses your home equity (HELOC) to get lower interest rates. Right now they have a new Costco offer, but you have to read the fine print. The offer includes a free 1-Year Executive Membership, which is issued as a one-time $135 credit on your Aven card within the first statement cycle. It’s not clear if you have to actually charge the membership to your card, as they are not closely affiliated with Costco.

However, they also advertise “4% cash back at Costco”, but that’s really just their standard 2% cash back plus Costco’s annual 2% membership reward certificate for Executive Members. They don’t actually pay 4% cash back on Costco purchases. That really reduces the potential draw of this card, as all we have left is the $135 one-time credit. I might have forgiven them if they actually covered my Costco membership every single year. Not worth a hard credit check.

Here’s their language on how the credit card works:

Aven combines the convenience of a credit card with the savings of a home equity line of credit (HELOC). It works like any other credit card where you can make everyday purchases and earn unlimited 2% cash back.1

You can either get a fixed Cash Out (ex. $10,000 cash transferred into your bank account) and get a fixed monthly payment for 5 or 10 years (2.5% transfer fee), or you can just use it like a credit card and build up a balance. In that case, the monthly payments are calculated as 1% of the principal balance, plus monthly interest, plus any fees.

No annual, sign-up, or pre-payment fees. There is a 2.5% fee on Cash Outs and Balance Transfers and a $29 late fee if you don’t make the minimum payment.

Updated February 2025. As the brokerage 1099 forms for the 2024 Tax Year are coming out, here is a quick reminder for those subject to state and/or local income taxes. If you earned interest from a money market fund, a significant portion of this interest may have come from US Treasury bills and bonds, which are generally exempt from state and local income taxes. However, in order to claim this exemption, you’ll likely have to manually enter it on your tax return after digging up a few extra details.

(Note: California, Connecticut, and New York exempt dividend income only when the mutual fund has met certain minimum investments in U.S. government securities. They require that 50% of a mutual fund’s assets at each quarter-end within the tax year consist of U.S. government obligations.)

Let’s take the default cash sweep option for Vanguard brokerage accounts, the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), which has an SEC yield of 4.29% as of 1/31/25. Vanguard has recently released the U.S. government obligations income information for Tax Year 2024 [pdf] for all their funds, which states:

This tax update provides information to help clients properly report state and local tax liability on ordinary income distributions received from mutual fund investments in 2024.

On the next page, you’ll find a list of Vanguard funds that earned a portion of their ordinary dividends from obligations of the U.S. government. Direct U.S. government obligations and certain U.S. government agency obligations are generally exempt from taxation in most states.1

To find the portion of Vanguard dividends that may be exempt from your state income tax, multiply the amount of “ordinary dividends” reported in Box 1a of your Form 1099-DIV by the percentage listed in the PDF. Note that on the IRS Form 1099-INT, there is a special Line 3 that includes “Interest on US Savings Bonds & Treasury obligations”. However, for the Vanguard funds, they report on 1099-DIV and not 1099-INT. My Vanguard 1099-INT was all zeros.

For the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), this percentage was 59.87% in 2024. (For reference, it was 49.37% in 2023.) Therefore, if you earned $1,000 in total interest from VMFXX in 2024, then $598.70 could possibly be exempt from state and local income taxes. If your marginal state income tax rate was 10% that would be a ~$60 tax savings for every $1,000 in total interest earned. For 2024, this fund met the threshold requirements for California, Connecticut, and New York, which require that 50% of the fund’s assets at each quarter-end within the tax year consist of U.S. government obligations.

In comparison, the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund (VUSXX) had a GOI percentage of 100% in 2024. (For reference, it was 80.06% in 2023.) If your marginal state income tax rate was 10% that would be a $100 tax savings for every $1,000 in total interest earned. With a very similar SEC yield of 4.27% as of 1/31/25, this is why many people chose to manually buy VUSXX instead of the default settlement fund as it can earn you a higher after-tax interest rate.

The following Vanguard funds and ETF equivalents have 100% of their interest from US government obligations:

• Short-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGSH, VSBSX)
• Intermediate-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGIT, VSIGX)
• Long-Term Treasury Index Fund (VGLT, VLGSX)
• Extended Duration Treasury Index Fund (EDV)
• Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities
  Index Fund (VTIP, VTAPX)
• Inflation-Protected Securities Fund (VIPSX, VAIPX)

Note that several other Vanguard funds have a lower but nonzero percentage of dividends from US government obligations, including the popular Vanguard Target Retirement Income funds. It may be worth a closer look for residents of certain states, especially those with larger balances and closer to retirement (holds more bonds).

To obtain these tax savings, you’ll have to manually adjust your state/local income tax return. I don’t believe that TurboTax, H&R Block, and other tax software will do this automatically for you, as they won’t have the required information on their own. (I’m also not sure if they ask about it in their interview process.) If you use an accountant, you should also double-check to make sure they use this information. Here is some information on how to enter this into TurboTax:

• When you are entering the 1099-DIV Box 1a, 1b, and 2a – click the “My form has info in other boxes (this is uncommon)” checkbox.
• Next, click on the option “A portion of these dividends is U.S. Government interest.”
• On the next screen enter the Government interest amount. This will be subtracted from your state return.

Here are some links to find the percentage of ordinary dividends that come from obligations of the U.S. government. You should be able to find this data for any mutual fund or ETF by searching for something like “[fund company] us government obligations 2024”]. If you do not see the fund listed within the fund company, it may be assumed to be 0%. The data is sometimes not released until mid-February.

• Vanguard
• Fidelity (not released yet?)
• Schwab
• Blackrock (not released yet?)
• iShares (not released yet?)
• American Century

Standard disclosure: Check with your state or local tax office or with your tax advisor to determine whether your state allows you to exclude some or all of the income you earn from mutual funds that invest in U.S. government obligations.

[Image credit – Tax Foundation]

Firstrade is a discount brokerage firm that is smaller but has been around for decades. They have a new IRA match promotion with a 3% match on contributions and a 2% match on IRA transfers and 401k-to-IRA rollovers (up to a $20,000 match amount). They have no minimum balance requirements, no annual fees on the IRA, and they don’t require any premium subscription (like Robinhood Gold). There is a minimum 5-year hold period. You can also get up to $250 in transfer fee rebates for eligible transfers over $2,500. Must open IRA by 2/21/25.

More details:

1. Open a Firstrade IRA. Open a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA during the promotion period.

2. Make Contributions or Transfers. Contributions: We’ll match 3% of new contributions made within 30 days of account opening. Transfers: We’ll match 2% of the total amount transferred from another IRA or 401(k) made within 30 days of account opening, up to a maximum of $20,000 match bonus.

3. Earn Rewards. Bonuses are paid 30 days after your new account is approved.

Get a 3% match on contributions and a 2% account transfer boost when you open a Firstrade No-Fee IRA. No minimums, annual, setup or maintenance fees—plus, enjoy commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options, and mutual funds.

Promotion Period: Open to U.S. residents who open a new retirement account (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA) between January 21, 2025, and February 21, 2025, and fund the account within 30 days of approval.

This is very similar to the current Robinhood IRA promo, but without the Robinhood Gold requirement that costs $5/month. You may prefer Firstrade as they have a published phone customer service number and a physical branch in Flushing, NY. Customer support is also available in traditional and simplified Chinese, with representatives who speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. Or you may just appreciate that they aren’t Robinhood.

This would be a great offer if Robinhood didn’t already do it first and locked many of us into their 5-year hold period, but then again, if Robinhood didn’t do it first, then Firstrade probably wouldn’t have made this offer.

Updated. US Bank has a up to $450 new checking promotion when you open a Bank Smartly Checking account with $25 minimum and complete the following within 90 days:

• Enroll in the U.S. Bank Mobile App or online banking.
• Complete two or more direct deposits.

Your bonus is determined by the total amount of your direct deposits in those 90 days:

• Earn $250 when your direct deposits total $2,000 to $4,999.99.
• Earn $350 when your direct deposits total $5,000 to $7,999.99.
• Earn $450 when your direct deposits total $8,000 or more.

The Smartly Checking account has a $6.95 monthly fee which that is waived with any one of the following:

• Your combined monthly direct deposits total $1,000 or more.
• You keep a minimum average account balance of $1,500 or more.
• You are age 24 and under.
• You are age 65 and over.
• You are a member of the military.
• You hold an eligible US Bank credit card
• Qualify for one of the four Smart Rewards® tiers (Primary, Plus, Premium or Pinnacle).
• Are a member of another of their “special customer groups”.

You may still be considered a “new” account even if you had a US Bank account years ago:

U.S. Bank Smartly® Checking bonus: To be eligible, you or any owner(s) on your new Bank Smartly Checking account cannot have an existing U.S. Bank consumer checking account, had a U.S. Bank consumer checking account in the last 12 months or received other U.S. Bank consumer checking bonus offers within the past 12 months.

Note: US Bank often restricts their financial products to those states where US Bank has a physical branch presence. They will filter you out by zip code.

Tip: However, people outside this footprint may be allowed to open an account if they have other US Bank products. I was more recently able to get this bonus even though I was outside their physical branch footprint by opening a Smartly Savings account first. I think they may have opened just the Smartly Savings nationwide recently (or was it just me?). If that isn’t working for you, you may also try to open a small certificate of deposit (CD) or even a brokerage account or go directly for a credit card. It’s strange, but once they let you open one account, they’ll let you open the rest quite easily.

This offer comes around regularly, but is still a pretty solid bonus if you haven’t done it before. You may also find it worth the effort now due to the new US Bank Smartly credit card that can earn up to 4% cash back with enough assets at US Bank.

Update 1/28: Pepper again has some solid extended sales from now until February 2nd. Be sure you see the 5X/8X offer on your screen before tapping “Buy gift card”. For example, if you buy a $50 Amazon gift card during an 8X offer you’ll get a total of 8,000 points – 4,000 instantly and 4,000 extra later (8,000 points = $4, screenshot below). I check the Pepper app first thing every morning to see the limited-time Flash Sales and to redeem all my available points that arrived from past purchases. Also, check your AmEx Offers to see if you have a targeted $30 off $75 at Pepper.

• Amazon/Amazon Fresh 8X/8% back. Amazon and Amazon Fresh codes are interchangeable. I load them immediately into my account after purchase.
• Sam’s Club 5X/5% back. Sam’s Club and Walmart codes are interchangeable.
• Lowe’s 8X/8%.
• Nike 8X/8%.
• Sephora 8X/8%.
• Old Navy 20X/20% back. This one ends 1/29/25 at 11:59pm ET. Stacks well when Old Navy has their own big sales.

– Pepper points will now expire if 60 days pass without a purchase. If you made a purchase prior to 11/15/24, you’ll enjoy a grace period; this policy change will not take effect until February 1, 2025. Keep in mind you can buy a $1 Amazon gift card.

– Pepper has changed their referral offer to a fixed $20 bonus after spending $200 in your first 15 days. Stack with AmEx offers and a flash sale, if possible.)

Look to stack it with this $30 off $75 AmEx Offer. Search for “Pepper” in your AmEx app. You are less likely to find it again if you used it already.

See new offers daily in-app with the Inbox 📩 envelope icon. Confirm the Boosts on screen before you click “Buy gift card”, as quantities may be limited. 2,000 points = $1.

Original post, updated:

Pepper continues to offer up “flash sales” that offer big discounts on gift cards from Amazon, REI, Sam’s Club, and so on. Plus you still get whatever credit card rewards from the Pepper purchase. Examples are Amazon at 12X/12% back (Amazon Fresh = Amazon), Sam’s Club (= Walmart) at 10% back, IKEA 18% back, Airbnb 14% back in the form of points. Stock up quickly when you see the sale in the app. Redeem instantly into your respective store accounts, if you wish. (Tip: The math will work out. Every 2,000 points is worth $1 in future gift cards. 10,000 points = $5, and so on. Must redeem in increments of $5.)

Here’s the current offer for new Pepper users:

• Download the Pepper Rewards app and be sure to enter a referral code 588494 on the first screen when joining. Thanks if you use it!
• Get $20 after spending $200 in your first 15 days. This bonus has changed from the previous offer, but still not bad astheir old double offer only applied on their standard 4X rates, while their daily flash rates are 12X to 14X.
• You’ll also earn rewards from using your credit card for purchase. Use a 2% or better cash back rewards card, or use it to satisfy a credit card bonus spending requirement that is even better than 2%.

Pepper is an iOS and Android app that sells discounted, new gift cards in exact amounts that are delivered instantly on your phone. This lets you to wait until the moment before purchase when you already have the final purchase price (in-person or online), and then go buy a discounted gift card via the app down to the penny. The main problem with gift cards is when you don’t use up the entire balance. This helps to avoid the waste. I load my Amazon/Amazon Fresh cards into my app the moment after purchase.