Can Your Retirement Account Pay for Travel? Meet Silo Markets (Ep. 146)

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What if your investment portfolio could earn travel rewards without requiring you to spend another dollar on a credit card? In this episode of the BoldlyGo Podcast, DeAndre Coke sits down with Harry, co-founder of Silo Markets, a platform that rewards users with credit card style points simply for holding investments or cash. Silo currently offers 0.5 points per dollar of portfolio value annually, meaning a $100,000 portfolio could generate 50,000 points per year while the underlying investments remain invested.

DeAndre approaches the conversation from two perspectives, as a points and miles enthusiast and as a financial advisor. Together, they dig into how Silo actually works, its membership tiers, supported investment and retirement accounts, how existing investments can be transferred without liquidating positions, and how Silo plans to fund its rewards program. Harry also explains the relationship with Interactive Brokers, where customer assets are actually held, and what would happen to those assets if Silo itself were to shut down.

The conversation gets especially interesting when they explore retirement accounts. Traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, and Roth IRAs can potentially earn Silo points, creating a way for long-term retirement savings to generate rewards that can be used today without withdrawing the underlying retirement assets. They also discuss Silo's current 1 cent per point cash redemption, travel portal, upcoming transfer partners, break-even points for each membership tier, and why most existing users are currently holding their points in anticipation of airline and hotel transfer partners.

DeAndre and Harry also address some of the biggest questions surrounding a newer financial platform, including account protection, fees, investment control, and how Silo differs from platforms like Symphony. Harry ultimately describes Silo's ambition as building a modern version of Vanguard, but with loyalty rewards layered on top of long-term investing. It is a fascinating look at what could happen when two traditionally separate worlds, investing and points and miles, begin to overlap.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Can Your Retirement Account Earn Travel Points?

(02:58) Meet Harry, Co-Founder of Silo Markets

(04:27)