Mercedes Barba

Former senior editor, investing
Ribbon Icon EXPERTISE
  • Investing
  • Stock analysis
  • Retirement
Education Icon EDUCATION
  • Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, California State University, Los Angeles
  • Master's degree in News and Documentary, New York University

 

About the author

Mercedes Barba was a senior editor at Bankrate. Prior to this, she served as a senior editor at NextAdvisor and led the video team at Money.com, where she executive produced a short documentary that received an Emmy nomination. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her son Luke and two pet dogs.

The key to successful investing is to take action and not let fear or over-analyzing prevent you from taking advantage of the benefits of compound interest over time.

— Mercedes Barba

Mercedes's latest articles

  • Titan Invest

    Titan is a registered investment advisor that runs separately managed accounts, actively investing your money in a sophisticated portfolio that it designs itself – not the usual run of ETFs used by other robo-advisors.

    7 min read Feb 03, 2022

  • tastytrade

    tastytrade is a newer brokerage that caters to traders, especially options traders looking for attractive commissions. Amazingly, they even offer a low-capped commission on your options trades.

    6 min read Jun 01, 2021

  • M1 Finance

    M1 Finance straddles the line between broker and robo-advisor, between letting you run wild and giving you basic tools and portfolios that can guide you. It’s in a strange limbo, but those who fit the mix of features offered at M1 Finance may find it especially useful and won’t be able to imagine going elsewhere.

    7 min read May 13, 2021

  • Acorns

    Acorns offers a useful app for managing many aspects of your financial life, from basic spending to saving with its “round-up” feature to investing in a diversified portfolio of securities.

    6 min read Apr 05, 2021

  • Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

    You might initially think of broker Charles Schwab only as an option for “do-it-yourself” investors, but the dean of discount offers up a highly competent robo-advisor, too: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.

    8 min read Mar 22, 2021

  • Betterment

    Betterment is one of the largest independent robo-advisors, and its wealth of features shows why. It offers two service plans, one with all the core functions (investing and cash management, rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting) and one that takes it up a level with unlimited access to human advisors.

    10 min read Mar 22, 2021

  • TradeStation

    If you're not worried about funds and simply want an affordable and flexible platform for stocks and options, TradeStation has you covered with a low-cost structure and great tools.

    6 min read Apr 02, 2019

  • E*Trade

    E-Trade has a wide variety of valuable tools and easy-to-understand resources that offer a lot of value for beginners.

    5 min read Mar 29, 2019