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.

ReadyForZero | Review – Pay Off and Manage Your Debt

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Some people just have a single loan or two that they want to get rid of.  Others have so much debt that what they really need most is an hour or two with a bankruptcy attorney.

But for everyone in the vast space in between the two extremes is an online debt management tool called ReadyForZero.

It isn’t a traditional debt management service that will actively manage your debts for you, but a debt management tool that will give you what you need to do the job yourself.

How ReadyForZero Works

When you sign up for ReadyForZero it links to your loan accounts and assembles your information – account balances, interest rates and minimum payments.  This will include not only credit cards, but also student loans, car loans, mortgages and any other loans you have.

It will display the information on all of your accounts on a single page and update it daily.  This will provide you with that all-important big picture view of your debt situation in one convenient place.
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The Debt Movement – Pay Down Your Debt, An Interview With Jeff Rose

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Are you in debt?

I don’t mean to get all personal on you.  It’s OK to admit though, many of us are in debt in some way, shape, or form (we are).

If you want to get rid of your debt help is here – The Debt Movement.  

This will be a HUGE 3-month push to pay down debt.  You will have the opportunity to join together with personal finance bloggers as well as people like yourself who are working their way out of debt.

I had the fortune of shooting a few questions to Jeff Rose, The Debt Movement’s founder and chief evangelist , also known for his excellent site Good Financial Cents.

Me: Jeff, what is The Debt Movement all about?

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How to Consolidate Your Debt and Pros and Cons

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Getting into debt is really easy if someone is willing to give you a credit line. It’s the getting out of debt that is the hard part.

Many financial gurus advise against debt consolidation.  There’s the old adage of “You can’t go into debt to get out of debt.”

While consolidating does have its risks, it can be beneficial in helping you turn your finances around.

Pros and Cons of Consolidating Debt

First let’s look at the positives and negatives of using debt consolidation to helping you get out of debt once and for all.

Pros of Debt Consolidation

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Payoff Mortgage Faster – How Do I Do It? – Four Ways

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Who wouldn’t want to pay off their mortgage faster?

The big question is “how do I do it?”

Whether to pay off your mortgage faster, is an important personal financial decision.

But before one can answer “how do I do it,” you must first ask the questions of “can I do it” and “why should I do it.”

The can-I part reveals if one has the financial ability to put more money aside for bigger and quicker payments.  The why-should-I part involves whether to use the additional money available, alternatively, for investing or consumption purposes since funds borrowed under mortgage probably have a lower interest rate than say credit card debt.

Paying off a mortgage faster also has tax implications on mortgage interest deduction.

If one has the financial means; is willing to forgo any investment opportunity; is prepared to postpone any would-be nice consumption; and has weighed on any tax savings, there are ways that one can consider to pay off a mortgage faster.
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7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Refinance Your Mortgage

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Since mortgage rates are at all-time lows, refinancing should be a no-brainer for just about everyone—or so you would think.

But not everyone has refinanced or even will.

Are there times or situations where refinancing isn’t worth doing, even to get lower rates?   There are at least a few, and here are some of them.

7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Refinance Your Mortgage

1. When you have credit problems

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