I’m self-employed and therefore rely on IRAs and the like for planning my retirement. But I have stacks of friends and relatives with 401(k) plans — to the point that 401(k)s are a big discussion topic over Thanksgiving dinner. I know plenty of those friends and relatives have played fast and loose with their plans, [...]

There is a lot of talk about whether or not you should pay off your mortgage or invest. This topic has been beaten to death throughout the blogosphere and the answer remains the same, it depends. The basic idea is that if you invest rather than pay down your mortgage, you can earn a higher [...]

When I was a kid, I used to think the bank is simply a place where you keep your money if you didn’t want to keep it at home. I had no idea how the banks got there and what’s paying for all the employees and their suits. Needless to say, now I know that [...]

Its not that hard to calculate cash flow and returns of an investment property, yet many people get it wrong. My dad, along with many old school people who stumbled into the world of real estate investing, only understands the buy price and the sell price. He thinks that if he bought a house for [...]

Real estate is a tremendous tool for wealth building and preservation. The main benefit of real estate ownership is the potential for cash flow, or passive income. Many people have also made a killing in the market just by flipping properties over the past 10 years. However, those days are long gone. So where to [...]