Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Archives for March 2010

Health Care Reform Details Graphic

By 3 Comments

No matter what your point of view on the health care reform bill, there’s a pretty good chance that it will be law for at least a little while.  So, it makes sense to try and digest all the stuff that is in it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to read a 2000 page document.  Especially since I have little to no chance of understanding about 90% of the legal language involved.  So, it was nice to find this Health Care Reform graphic.  It’s got a nice timeline of the important dates and the important changes that happen on each date.

Will Health Insurance Rates Rise Now?

By 10 Comments

I’m not an expert on health care, health insurance, and certainly not on the way that government works.  But, I like to think that I have some modicum of common sense.  So, it’s with great trepidation that I see this health care bill.

My biggest concern is the cost of health insurance.  My company covers a significant portion of our health insurance, but if rates rise, they very well could pass that expense on to us.  If that happened, I don’t know if we could afford it.

Many people are lauding this bill and saying how great it is that people can’t be denied because of pre-existing conditions and that there is no more cap on payouts.  Yes and no.  Yes, I think there should be something available to even those with pre-existing conditions.  But there already was!  Now, the insurance agencies are going to be forced to cover them just the same as their low risk customers.  I don’t have any solid numbers, but my math says that will make my rates go up.

Does anyone else understand any of that differently?

Beating Broke Guide to Your Credit Score

By 5 Comments

Almost a year ago, I released the Beating Broke Guide to your Credit Score.  Since then, a lot has happened and it seems to me that your credit score could become more important than ever as we recover from this economic disaster.  Previously, I had it set up such that you had to sign up for the newsletter to receive a copy.  I’m changing that now.  The graphic in the right sidebar now links directly to the guide in it’s pdf form.

It’s one hundred percent FREE, so please grab a copy and take a look.  I think you might learn something.

You can download it at http://beatingbroke.com/BBGCS/BBGCS.pdf

The guide is now available for the Kindle as well!  Please note that the kindle version is not free as the pdf version is.  The pdf version will remain free for downloading.