Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Debt

Debt. It can be used wisely to help free up money to build wealth, but most of us struggle with debt. Take a look at articles that help you deal with debt and eliminate your bad debt.

Pay Off Highest Interest Or Highest Balance Credit Card – Analysis Paralysis

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The question comes up all the time when a person wants to start getting their credit cards under control – Pay off the cards with the highest interest or the cards with the highest balance?

On the one and you have high interest credit cards – A high interest rate costs you every month and compounds the amount you owe every month you aren’t paying off the entire balance.  High interest costs you for what you borrowed.  For some people the interest rate can close in on 30%.  That’s basically agreeing to pay one third more for everything you bought on the card (or more depending on how long you owe)!

On the other hand you have high balance cards – You’ve used the card so much that the balance may be in the thousands and no matter what you are paying the balance doesn’t seem to ever go down.  Even if you have a low interest rate you may be paying a lot of interest because of your high balance.
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Ways To Help Deal With Medical Expenses

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Medical expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy proceedings in the US.  In 2007, 57 million people were in families who had problems paying their medical bills according to this article by Peter J. Cunningham.  However, there are ways to cope with the rising costs of medical care.  I was born with Spina bifida in 1979, and I’ve had a lot of experience in the medical care “system”.  I have a few tips to share with you, and by following them some of your burden will be lifted.
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A Goal Based Approach To Debt Management

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Good debt management advice is hard to come by.

Traditional financial wisdom states that certain debts, such as mortgage and student loans are good debts, while most other debts such as credit card debt, car loans, etc… are bad debts.

On the other hand, many Personal Finance bloggers express the opinion that ALL debt is essentially bad, to be paid down as quickly as possible, sometimes even at the cost of establishing a sustainable savings plan for the household.

So what is the truth?

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Subscriber Swap Saturday – Interview With No Debt Plan

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No Debt Plan is about getting and staying out of debt with a plan. Kevin, the author, is passionate about budgeting, saving for the future, and using goals to reach financial freedom. You can subscribe to his blog by RSS or email.

This interview is part of a new feature he’s developed called Subscriber Swap Saturday. The basic idea is to get the subscribers of one blog to subscribe to the other blog for at least a week, just to try it out. After a week if you don’t find that blogger’s content enticing, drop it. The hope is that over time you will find several writers that you weren’t familiar with who provide meaningful content to you. You can read more about Subscriber Swap Saturday at his get out of debt blog, as well as his interview with me

What’s No Debt Plan all about?

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