Here's a personal update from me just before I begin exam preparations. a) Financial markets I think my financial situation is much better than a couple of months ago. Markets have recovered a bit, but may dip downwards over the short term. The end of March would see a round of dividends coming in which would be applied to my next three months of living expenses, with all the medical emergencies behind me, I should be able to park some money back into the markets. But the better news for folks with home mortgages is that SIBOR is flat. My belief is that the Fed would not raise interest rates as much as what the pundits would like. China remains the biggest risk for investors. Of interesting note is that the financial media is starting to talk about this thing called Smart Beta ETFs which have yet to appear on ......