Shares for the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, opened at $92.70 a share on the New York Exchange last Friday. This made Alibaba the biggest initial public offering in U.S. History and Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba, the richest man in China. (NPR)

“Am I rich?” Odds are good that you answered “no” to that question, regardless of how much money you have. According to a report by investment bank UBS, only 28% of people with $1 million to $5 million in assets considered themselves wealthy. Even when you ask people with more than $5 million in assets, only 3 in 5 consider themselves wealthy.

If you’re struggling to keep up with high-interest credit card debt, you’re not alone. Many people are looking for better ways to manage their finances, and personal loans could be the solution. By consolidating your debt, you can save money, reduce financial stress, and even improve your credit score. Let’s break down how it works.

Regardless of what you might have heard, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is not always a bad idea. All things being equal, if Peter charges a lower interest rate, you’d be a fool not to. Personal loans can be an excellent way to pay off your credit card debt, lower your interest payments, and even repair your credit score. But you have to do it right or a personal loan could cost you instead of saving you money.

Why do people have babies? Is it love, a biological imperative, because they’re cute, insurance for old age or to fulfill social expectations? Is there a relationship between your tax bracket and the likelihood you will choose to have babies? These are interesting questions since fertility rates are dropping in developed countries at an alarmingly high rate. In 2016, the United States birth rate was 62.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, a decline of 1% from the rate in 2015 (62.5) and a record low, according to CDC report.

Are you struggling to save for a rainy day? You are in good company. According to a 2015 survey by GoBankingRates, 49% of Americans had no savings, and only 29% had a $1,000 or more in their savings account, so if you’re one of the few who have managed to save $1,000 or more, congratulations. But now what? Squirreling away those dollars was hard enough. Finding a comfortable, stress-free way to invest those savings is another challenge altogether.

The key question to ask when comparing loans is, “how much will this cost me?” Learning how to calculate the APR of a loan will allow you to compare apples to apples when searching for the best deal available. The problem is millions of borrowers don’t even know what an APR is.

Small business owners are expected to fail. An accepted rule of thumb is that 8 out of 10 startups fail within the first 18 months, which may explain why small business loans are so hard to find, and why 38 percent of all startups rely on loans from family and friends. It is a catch 22 situation. A lack of access to loans with reasonable rates does not exactly help small businesses’ success rate either. CAN Capital is a leader in alternative small business finance that is, along with other small business lenders, trying to change that.

Presidential candidates make bold and outrageous claims and promises. The more shocking the soundbite, the better. Bush promised to cut taxes. He even asked us to read his lips, and then he raised taxes. Clinton promised a Universal Healthcare System called Promise, and, hmm, didn’t deliver. That is just how the system works – or doesn’t – depending on how you look at it.

The future of new businesses is disrupting old businesses. Jason Hogg and Nick Gould, founders of Lending.com, feel the business of lending is ripe for the picking and that they are the people to disrupt it. Hogg and Gould see personal and business lending as fragmented, complacent, inefficient and ready to be challenged. They have plans to improve things.