[stephenbez]

Another option is to do margin borrowing on some investment assets that you have. Because it is a secured loan the interest rates are much cheaper than credit cards. Schwab has a good set up, it can be configured to automatically do a loan if you withdraw more funds from your checking account than you have. They currently charge about 12% but there are other options around 6%.

My friend used this set up for his emergency fund since he felt like it would be better to earn an investment return and take a loan in an emergency instead of sitting around having your money earn minimal amounts in a checking account.

[tristor]

Yes, borrowing on margin is a really good strategy, although it depends on your broker how that functions. I've had a good experience using this for smaller amounts, but given market volatility I'm concerned about borrowing this large of a sum on margin, as I don't know what clown stuff is going to happen in the next 6 months, a credit card feels lower risk to me, although the interest rate is higher. I actually considered this, using a credit card will cost me $530 in additional interest over taking margin, but has lower risks in my estimation. That $530 is not enough for me to feel it's worth it to do it via a margin loan.

That said, margin is really useful as a tool because it lets you unlock the value of your investments without tax penalties in lower volatility markets.