Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Personal Finance

Personal Finance is a catch-all for anything that falls under the umbrella of taking care of your money. A lot of people think of their personal finances as some "other" thing they don't always have to pay attention to. I think it's integral to your life and health.

Take a look at the articles below and get your personal finances in shape.

Financial Blogger Conference 2011 – Meeting the PF Blogger World and More

Published or updated by 53 Comments

I woke up at the crack of dawn, if you can call stumbling out of bed, cursing the alarm waking up.  Strike that, it was about an hour before dawn.  At best I had four hours of sleep.  I had an hour to get up, shower, and finish putting my stuff together before I hopped a cab to catch my flight to the inaugural Financial Blogger Conference.  Sleep be damned, I was excited!

With complete coincidence, this article is publishing on what is my fourth anniversary, blogging with Free From Broke.  Four years is like, I don’t know what that’s like in blog years!  There was no iPhone or iPad when I started, that’s one thing.
[Read more…] about Financial Blogger Conference 2011 – Meeting the PF Blogger World and More

What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and How Will it Help You?

Published or updated by

In an attempt to correct the deficiencies that led to the financial crisis, the United States government has added a new agency to the mix. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created this year as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and takes affect July 21st.

The broad purpose behind the creation of the CFPB is “to address failures of consumer protection by establishing a new financial agency to focus directly on consumers, rather than on bank safety and soundness or on monetary policy.”

The bureau will operate under the Federal Reserve and its purpose, according to the agency’s website, is to: [Read more…] about What is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and How Will it Help You?

Where to Change Your Name After Marriage

Published or updated by

The most common reason people change their names outside of being in Witness Protection is a bride after her wedding. Taking on your husband’s last name is traditional of a bride, and what many girls have been dreaming of possibly since their first date with the man of their dreams.  Changing your last name is much more than scribbling it on your notebook; there’s actually a lot of work that goes into it.  You have to make sure to change your name after marriage on important accounts and documents.
[Read more…] about Where to Change Your Name After Marriage

8 Reasons Why You Should Sell Your Home Before Buying a New One

Published or updated by

When it comes to buying a home, buyers try to engineer the ultimate balancing act of buying the new one first, THEN putting the current one up on the market before the ink is even dry on the purchase contract.

The object—and expectation—is to find that perfect home, then to put the old one on the market in the hope of selling it in the treasured but increasingly mythical simultaneous closing.

Just playing it out in your mind is exhausting, but making it actually happen is a truly massive undertaking.  What would make anyone think that such an effort is worth trying?

Fear! Fear that you might not be able to find the right home after selling your current home.  Fear of being homeless.  Fear of temporary housing.  Fear of the dreaded “double move” (moving from the old home to temporary housing, then again to the new home).

Those fears may be legitimate at some level, but there are even greater causes for concern if you plan to buy before selling.  Here are eight of them… [Read more…] about 8 Reasons Why You Should Sell Your Home Before Buying a New One

How Being Trusting In a Marriage Can Hurt You in a Divorce

Published or updated by 8 Comments

Divorce: it’s a subject nobody feels comfortable talking about. Divorce is the true “D” word in the English language.  And yet divorce is something that may affect 50% or more of every American that enters into marriage.  Nobody wants to believe they might end up on the wrong side of that equation, but what if you did?  This post is not to give legal or financial planning advice, but rather to start a dialogue about how many of the practices of a healthy marriage might actually be detrimental were the marriage to end in a divorce.  This post certainly isn’t meant to give love advice either, nor financial advice.  Again, this post just wishes to raise some issues, even if the subject is taboo.  After all, divorces are one of the biggest causes of bankruptcy filings in the United States.

Here are some potential ways being trusting in a marriage could hurt you in divorce:

[Read more…] about How Being Trusting In a Marriage Can Hurt You in a Divorce