$1,100 for 45 Minutes of Your Time

I have always worked really hard: 7 jobs in college ranging from MCAT tutor, college chemistry TA, nanny, to care-taker for the disabled.

Then, I worked 2 jobs in medical school while full time mommying + full time studying.

Radiology resident: which pays 60k (starting this 7/1/2016) for 80 hour week

• Medical Student for 4 years: 50k tuition and fees per year to study/work 100hrs/week
  • –> NEGATIVE $9.6/hr, not counting the horrendous 7% student loan interest that starts day 1 of med school.

Today, I have 4 jobs:

• Radiology resident: which pays 60k (starting this 7/1/2016) for 80 hour week
  • –> $15.6/hr
• Blogger: which pays me nothing so far (after expenses)
  • –> $0/hr
• USMLE tutor: which pays me generously per hour as I’m own boss & have extensive track record of success, but I intentionally have very few clients throughout the entire year.
  • –> $130-$388/hr
• Mommy: MWM is my #1 sources of expenses after mortgage, but like I had told her. She’s worth more than all the treasures in the world combined.
  • –> negative $0-200/hr depending on the nature of the activity Mini is doing

So it is truly nice to make some $ that takes little of my time:

After all, time is the only irreplaceable resource in my life. Time can earn money, but money can’t buy back time.

This post will detail step-by-step how I made money by churning cash flow in the circle of money.

Steps:

1. Go to https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=AOProductSelection&JFP_TOKEN=9ZIHOTGY and open the cheapest/free Citibank online account
2. Choose to fund the bank account with a CREDIT CARD
3. Print out the authorization form. Complete form and fax it.
4. Online account opened 10/2. Form faxed 10/5. Citibank gets deposit on 10/7. BOA is charged on 10/8. Funds available to pay bills 10/16 in $10,000 maximum increment. All funds paid back to credit card 10/21.
5. The entire cycle takes 14 business days, well within grace period of credit card cycle.
6. Each additional $10,000 you are moving will add additional 1 day to the cycle.

Caveats:

1. Call the credit card you plan to use and lower your CASH ADVANCE limit to the minimum. This is protective mechanism. This prohibits your credit card company from charging the transaction (your funding a new Citibank checking account with the credit card) as a cash advance. Cash advance usually has INSTANT interest in the magnitude of 20-30%. You will lose way more than you make if your credit card company charges this transaction as cash advance.
2. By lowering your cash advance limit and requesting an amount higher than your cash advance limit, you make sure that your credit card company can only process your transaction as a PURCHASE (and give you cash back/point rewards) OR block the transaction. This prevents you from paying more interest to the credit card company than the rewards you get from them.

The above BOA credit card activity demonstrates how money is used to pay off the very credit card it was drawn from. So at the end of this, all that was charged on the BOA credit card when funding the new Citibank account was paid off by the money deposited into the Citibank.

Circle of money:

Charge BOA credit card –> Fund Citibank new checking account –> Pay off BOA credit card

Each cycle: 1.1% of the money moved was made as purchase associated, tax free cash rewards

Each cycle: takes me <30 minutes of work to complete; generates $550

That’s how I made $1,100/hr of my time spent

The credit card authorization form you need to fill out in order to fund your new Citibank account with your credit card:

You can also watch this YouTube video @ Dr WiseMoney for an explanation on how to do this.

I hope you make some tax-free money too. Banks are getting smarter & closing this highly lucrative (for common people like you & me) opportunity by lowering the limit of how much you can fund  a new checking account with a credit card or simply prohibiting credit card funding all together. But Citi-BOA combo worked for me (I can no longer do it anymore, my name is probably banned from the fact that Citibank effectively paid me $2,500 last year without gaining anything from me).

Hope it works for you! Give yourself a little pat on the back for all the hard earned dollars you with your day job.

Update: as of 7/14/16, Citibank prohibited funding new bank accounts with credit cards. But if you like to try still, it does not hurt. I just know that personally I am not able to do the same, I’d imagine because Citibank noticed that I had multiple open and closed accounts with them.

However, there are other banks out there that allow you to fund a new banking account with credit cards with various limits. Here’s a list. 

But make sure you read all the fine prints and avoid landmines such as the transaction being processed by your credit card company as “cash advance” rather than purchases. Do your research before you jump. If you are cautious and avoid the landmines, you get rewarded pretty heavily. Not to mention, if you are in a pinch and need cash, this is great way to borrow 0% to negative interest cash for a little while (12-21 months depending on the 0% APR promotional period of a card.)

Share your brilliant money making tips below 😉

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