Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Glen Craig

The Best Credit Card Offers

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When used in the right way, a credit card can be a powerful tool.

The best credit cards provide you with free stuff, and even cash back.

While we often we think of credit cards as debt traps, the truth is that, used responsibly, credit cards actually provide a number of benefits.  Savvy credit card use can lead to the earning of valuable rewards, as well as cash back.  You can actually make money simply by making purchases that you would normally.

The goal, of course, is to get the best credit card possible.

This includes a credit card with generous rewards, as well as easy redemption.  Many of the best credit cards also come with a signing bonus.  When you sign up, and then spend a certain amount of money within a set period of time, you receive bonuses worth $100, or even $200.
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The Pros and Cons to Refinancing Your Mortgage

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Interest rates on mortgages are at all time lows; does that mean you should refinance as soon as possible?

Maybe–and maybe not.

Interest rates may be lower than they’ve ever been, but never has the issue of refinancing been more complicated.  For one thing, it’s harder than ever to qualify for a loan at the best rates, and for another, today we have to consider falling property values which is something that hasn’t existed since the Great Depression.

What are the pros and cons to refinancing your mortgage?

The reasons you SHOULD refinance – Pro

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What is LIBOR and the Scandal that Rocked It?

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If you’re a faithful news follower, you’ve likely heard about the recent LIBOR scandal but like many, you might not know anything about LIBOR or the why the scandal is big enough to make international news.

What is LIBOR?

LIBOR is an acronym for the London InterBank Offered Rate.

Here’s how it works: Banks, just like other businesses, sometimes need extra money.  Let’s say that Bank A wants to make a large commercial loan but to lend the money would put them below certain capital requirements but only until other payments and deposits come in.

Bank B happens to have an excess of cash on their books and as any good banker knows, cash sitting around doesn’t make any money so they’re eager to lend some of their cash.  Bank A and Bank B come together and work out the terms of a short term loan, but how do they agree on an interest rate?
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ShareBuilder $50 New Account Bonus Code

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You know I love ING Direct products.

I have both the Orange savings account for online savings and their Electric Orange checking account.  What I also have is a brokerage account with ShareBuilder (owned by ING Direct).  This is where I buy stocks outside of my IRA accounts.

ShareBuilder is offering a promotion where new customers get a $50 bonus code for opening a new ShareBuilder account. 

The offer is in effect until 9/30/12.  In order to receive the bonus you need to fund your account with $2,000.  And most important – make sure to enter the code 50LSQ3 when you sign up to make sure your account gets credited with the $50 bonus!

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The Myth of Get Rich Quick

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There are some myths that never die no matter how many times they’re disproved and no matter how many people get burned chasing them down.

Get rich quick is one of those myths.

In our minds, we know get rich quick isn’t legitimate, and we’ve been told as much again and again by parents, teachers, friends and coworkers.

Then why does it seem that there’s some part of us that might believe that get rich quick is possible?

Because sometimes rich looks like get rich quick—to us

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