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Up until about 10 years ago, there was one type of IRA, the traditional IRA which was deducted from your taxable income, grows tax deferred, and upon withdrawal, is taxed at whatever rate you find yourself. Its cousin, the Roth IRA is the mirror image, the money you put in is after tax money, but [...]

It has been a while since I get a 0% APR balance transfer credit card offers in the mail — actually, any kind of credit card offers period. Perhaps this is a sign that the financial sector is recovering, or at least, the credit market is freeing up a bit. Of course, this is too [...]

Inverse ETFs are a class of ETFs that rises in value when their underlying asset falls. For example, the ProShares Short QQQ ETF (whose underlying asset is the NASDAQ) will rise, if the NASDAQ falls. So, if you expect companies in the NASDAQ to perform poorly, you could buy the ProShares Short QQQ. Recently, Inverse [...]

It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging about personal finance for one full year. Overall, I have to say that it’s a success in many ways. Specifically, I was able to meet the three goals I had set for myself at the beginning:

To learn more about financial concepts and improve my finances
To supplement [...]

With the recent turn of events, I have been giving a lot of thought about what to do in event of economic slowdown — i.e., recession, stagflation, depression, financial doom, or whatever you want to call it. As I put this list of 5 strategies together, I realize that they are nothing more than responsible [...]

For someone who doesn’t carry a lot of debt, I didn’t give Debt-to-Income Ratio a serious thought until I start lending money on peer-to-peer lending networks — i.e., Prosper and Lending Club. The truth is, DTI is important; especially in the business of borrowing and lending money.
Definition of Debt-To-Income Ratios (DTI)
Debt-to-income ratio, or DTI ratio, [...]