Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Personal Finance

Financial Freedom Starts with a Low House Payment

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Is achieving financial freedom an important goal in your life?

If it is, don’t follow the conventional wisdom of buying the most expensive house you can afford.

Sure, by buying the biggest house you can afford you can grow into it, live in it longer and maybe even avoid a costly trade up in a few years.  Fair enough.

But when it comes to achieving financial freedom, buying the most expensive house you can afford is the exact opposite of what you want to do.

In fact it can be said that the more expensive your home is the less chance you have of ever attaining financial freedom.

Expensive homes and financial freedom are what you might call “mutually exclusive”—having one reduces your chance of getting the other.

How could that be?

A house determines general consumption patterns

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10 Things Similar About Personal Finance And Running The NYC Marathon

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It was a little over two years ago that I completed all 26.2 miles of the ING NYC Marathon.  This past weekend over 40,000 people ran the race.  Let me tell you running a marathon is an awesome experience!  There’s a lot of work and pain but it’s all worth it once it’s over.

Know what else is a lot of work and pain but well worth it?

Taking care of your personal finances! 

In fact there are a lot of similarities between running a marathon and personal finance.

Here are ten thoughts on personal finance and marathons:

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Fighting Fair: How to Disagree About Money in Marriage

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Marriage can be hard enough some days. Throw money into the mix, and things can get downright ugly.  However, just as disagreements in other aspects of your married life don’t have to result in permanent rifts, disagreements over money don’t have to ruin your relationship.  As with all things in marriage, money issues need to be worked through. Here are some ideas for overcoming disagreements about money in marriage:

Know Thyself

One of the best things you can do is understand your relationship with money.  In order to articulate your position on money to your partner, you need to be able understand.  Think about why you spend (or save) money the way you do.  You should also come to grips with why you don’t like the way your spouse handles money, and determine whether or not your own preferences and money prejudices are coloring the situations.
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Financial Krav Maga: Personal Finance Self Defense for the Modern Era

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In East Asia, you probably know about the ninja and samurai. In Israel, there are soldiers trained in Krav Maga.  For those of you who don’t know, Krav Maga is a martial art developed in Israel.  It does not have the long tradition of respect, personal growth, and honor that come to mind when you think of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Jiu Jitsu.  It was developed for one purpose, to survive.
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Unbroke – What You Need To Know About Money: Recap

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Did you get to catch ABC’s special Unbroke: What You Need To Know About Money? I heard about this via Twitter from MainStreet.com.  The special advertised it would talk about what people needed to know about their personal finances and it was interspersed with vignettes describing different aspects of money from the celebrity likes of Samuel L. Jackson, the Jonas Brothers (that got my daughter watching), Oscar the Grouch, and the E-Trade babies.

Hey, how to not be broke?  Sounds right up the alley for Free From Broke!  I was game.

[See what I picked up from Unbroke]