Listen Money Matters - Free Your Inner Financial Badass. All The Stuff You Should Know About Personal Finance.

We answer your questions about saving for a home, credit cards, multiple checking accounts, teacher’s pay, and college expenses. 1.  Should I use a Roth IRA account to save for a home down payment?  No, a Roth IRA is a long term investment geared toward retirement.  You can withdraw the principle without penalty but cannot access any gains until you reach fifty nine and a half.  Just opening a standard Betterment account will be more useful to earn money towards a down palyment. 2.  Is it bad to open a credit card, get the promotion on offer, pay if off and then close it right away?  It’s not bad to open the account and can be beneficial.  The more available credit you have, the higher your score.  The more creditors you have, the higher the score.  More people have judged you a good risk.  Opening a new account does lower the average age of accounts which is one of the components of a credit score.  Closing the account is a bad thing though.  It lowers your available credit.  All of this advice with the ca