Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Kevin Mulligan

What Insurance Policies Does Your Family Need?

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Picking the appropriate level of insurance coverage for your family can be a confusing and overwhelming task.

Not only are there multiple insurance companies to choose from for the various insurance needs you have, but there are so many different types of insurance that it can be difficult to know where to start.

Critical Insurance Policies to Have For Your Family

There are five critical insurance policies every family should have.

Life Insurance

The most critical insurance policy for a family is life insurance coverage on both spouses or parents regardless if they are working or not.
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Ally Bank Online Savings Account Review

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It used to be revolutionary to hold your money with a bank that didn’t have any brick and mortar locations for you to visit.

Now high yield online savings accounts are more common and the decision comes down to which online bank you should open an account with.

There are many key factors in that decision — high interest rate, customer service, and account fees — that Ally Bank’s online savings comes out on top if you compare to other accounts.

What is Ally Bank?

Ally Bank Online Savings AccountAlly Bank’s story sounds eerily familiar to the mythical firebird phoenix that is rebirthed out of its own ashes.

That might sound strange for a bank, but Ally Bank is the new edition of GMAC or General Motors Acceptance Corporation.

GMAC was originally founded in 1919 and grew over the course of time, but like many banks a few years ago, got caught up in the financial crisis due to loose mortgage lending standards.  The bank had to take on TARP funding from the government and was rebranded to shed some of the bad image associated with the financial crisis.  A significant portion of the company is still owned by the US government, although the company is actively repaying on the funds it received.  (And a majority of the problems are on the mortgage side of the business, not on the personal banking side that Ally is on.) [Read more…] about Ally Bank Online Savings Account Review

What is a Spousal IRA and How Does It Work?

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The rules surrounding your ability to contribute to an IRA generally require you to have earned income in order to contribute at all.

This prevents people trying to exploit loopholes such as parents opening and funding an IRA for a child well before the child earns any income.

However, there is one exception available for married couples that can allow for both individuals to contribute to an IRA even when both do not earn an income.

This exception allows stay at home parents and other non-working spouses the ability to still contribute to an IRA despite not earning an income.

Spousal IRA Contributions

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What is FOREX Trading and is it Right for My Portfolio?

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Sometimes sticking to stocks and bonds just isn’t enough for the investor that wants to make his portfolio a little more exotic.

For the aspiring speculator, a wide range of options are available: trading options, trading on margin, owning precious metals, and FOREX trading.

Be forewarned: you should never dedicate more than 5-10% of your nest egg to any kind of speculative trade opportunity whether it be picking individual stocks on your own or doing currency trading.  You can survive losing that small chunk of your portfolio, but not a significant portion of your assets.

What is FOREX Trading?

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