There’s an important distinction that I want to make clear for people when it comes to the interest rates that are quoted, be it on loans (interest you pay) or on an investment (interest paid to you). When you’re looking into a financial product, realize that what you’re being quoted is best suited to the providers purposes.

If you’re looking for a loan or comparing interest rates on credit cards, you’ll typically see the Annual Percentage Rate (APR). Even though it says it’s annual, it doesn’t take into consideration any effects of compounding. Therefore, you should realize that the actual effective interest rate could be higher than what you’ll see advertised.

When you’re comparing savings accounts, money market accounts, or any other interest bearing account you’ll typically be quoted the Annual Percentage Yield (APY). This figure does take into account the effects of compounding so it could be an inflated figure.

You can see how these two different figures suit the purposes of either the lenders or the account providers. It’s not necessarily going to make a huge difference, but it’s an important distinction to understand regardless.

The financial news are constantly talking about the the sub-prime mortgage industry, but there is much more to the mortgage industry than just the sub-prime sector. Traditional mortgages are still being taken out every day. When looking for a mortgage, however, it’s critical that you get multiple quotes, or good faith estimates, from various lenders.

Personal Home Loan Mortgages is a website that provides information for different lenders and title companies in specific areas. You can search for information at the state level such as New Jersey Mortgages, or you can narrow it down to the city level like Boston mortgages.

If you’re looking for a mortgage, or know someone who is, this site would be a great place to begin your search.

This is a sponsored post.

If you haven’t heard, last week was one of the worst weeks for the market in years. The Dow dropped almost 600 points and the rest of the market generally followed suit. Many investors are still a little nervous as to the markets outlook, and it only rebounded a little today.

Instead of being nervous, sophisticated investors will see this downturn as a unique opportunity to pick up some stocks at what might be called, bargain prices. This doesn’t mean that you should just go out and buy anything that has dropped significantly in price. You should still look to buy quality investments.

For example, I saw this downturn as an opportunity to pick up shares of Citigroup Inc. (C). It’s a solid company with a history of solid earnings. They pay a nice dividend which at the current price yields around 4.6%. The best part is that after last week’s sell off, the stock is trading around its 52 week low. Obviously there’s no sure thing in the market, but it looked like a bargain to me.

I’m sure there are plenty of other opportunities out there after last week, it’ll just take a little effort on your part to find them.

There’s one other important thing to note. Most people see a market sell off, like the one last week, as a reason to panic, and they fear they’re going to lose money. We should consciously remind ourselves, however, to look at them as opportunities instead. It is a tough mindset to develop, but the earlier the better.

I ran across a great story today detailing one man’s daily commute. He works at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and was tired of the highway congestion on the way to and from work.

One day he noticed the Anacostia River that runs parallel to the highway and wondered if he could get to work on the water. He now rides a bike to a boathouse, rows 6 1/2 miles, and then rides another bike from the river to the Library of Congress.

I was fascinated by this story because it highlights someone’s imagination and creativity used to change an otherwise tedious and irritating part of the day. I can imagine that he’s more productive and generally happier at work than he was previously.

Is there something in your daily routine that you could change to make things better for yourself? Get creative; you’ll never know until you give it a shot.

You can read the whole story here, Man Rows to Work, Leaving Car Behind.

Learning has been, and will always be, a very important part of my life. Over the years I’ve had times when it was fun and other times when it was more of a chore. The people at SCORE! Educational Centers provide reading tutors, math tutors, writing tutors and other educational skills.

It is a Kaplan Company; the same company that provides test preparation and other educational resources. If you’re looking for a way to help your child develop a love of learning that will stay with them, check out SCORE!

It’s also important to note that a large part of success has to do with lifetime learning. Those who continually seek out learning, even after high school and college, will generally feel more fulfilled and go further in life.

The fourth day of our trip consisted of sleeping in, driving to Pittsburgh, and watching the game. Once we arrived and parked, we were walking towards the stadium and I decided to ask someone if we were allowed to take our own drinks into the stadium since the prices inside are astronomical. He didn’t really know, but he followed us all the way to the stadium and kept telling us the same couple of things over and over again. He told that we had to do ourselves a favor and go to the upper deck and look out of the stadium. So here it is…

It is a pretty cool view since the stadium opens up to the whole city. We didn’t, however, see any of the boats, geese, or ducks that the guy kept raving about. A buddy of mine did get a ball that one of the players threw into the crowd though.

We also decided to try out a dish that is supposedly pretty unique to Pittsburgh. It’s a dumpling type of thing that’s stuffed with mashed potatoes and fried in butter and onions. It’s pretty average, but it was something to experience. The game wasn’t very memorable, but I’m glad that I got to see the ballpark.

One of my favorite sites to check out is Inc.com because it’s all about starting businesses and the like. Today I ran across an article titled 30 Under 30. It profiles 30 different young entrepreneurs and what ventures they’re succeeding at.

There’s a clothing store, an innovative way around the traditional oxygen tanks, and a website that provides information about parking garages in the northeast.

One of my favorites was a guy who started baking cookies in his apartment at college and now runs a cookie delivery service. It goes to show you that you don’t need a wildly spectacular new product or a flashy never-before-thought-of service in order to start a successful business.

I’d go check out the article and maybe it’ll give you an idea for yourself or prompt you to start something.