A Roth individual retirement account is a special type of IRA that offers after-tax savings, rather than pretax savings like a traditional IRA. Because you forgo the tax break for contributions that you would receive from a contribution to a traditional IRA, Roth IRAs are especially attractive to people who are paying a lower income tax rate today than they anticipate paying when they take the money out at retirement, according to CNN Money.

A short refinance is when your mortgage lender agrees to accept less money than you currently owe on your mortgage. This type of refinance can be done through your current lender or a completely different lender; the refinance pays off your current lender.

A short sale of a home is when a home sells for less than the amount needed to pay off the mortgage. In a short sale, the lender agrees to accept the lower sales price as payment in full for the remaining mortgage balance. For example, if someone owes $150,000 on mortgage and is falling behind on payments, the bank might agree to take $135,000 as payment for the mortgage.

In common usage, a surcharge refers to an additional payment or tax heaped upon an existing charge. Surcharges can arise due to a variety of reasons, such as a locality’s need to collect money for extra services. Surcharges can be assessed by governments, corporations and organizations.

Alimony is the court’s way of making sure one spouse doesn’t get to live high on the hog while the other claws to make ends meet after a divorce. A spouse who earns significantly more than the other is ordered to pay a percentage of his income to the one who earns less. Unlike in years past, the paying spouse isn’t always the man.

An emergency fund is an amount of money you set aside to prepare for an unexpected event such as a medical emergency, major home repair, or job loss.

An employee stock purchase plan is a program that permits employees to use some of their paycheck to buy stock in the company for which they work at a discount. Such plans often are presented as an extra benefit and are used for employee recruitment and retention purposes.

An employee stock ownership plan is one of several ways for employees to receive stock shares from their employers. Other methods include stock options, bonuses, direct purchase and profit-sharing plans. As of 2014, about 7,000 U.S. companies sponsored ESOPs, covering 13.5 million employees, making it the nation’s most common type of employee ownership. ESOP’s have a number of benefits worth noting.

An interest rate is the percentage of a loan that the lender charges per year for giving the borrower the privilege of using the money. For example, to take out a car loan, a dealer might charge you 8 percent of the amount you own on the loan as interest. Alternatively, when you put money in a savings account at a bank, the bank might pay you 2.5 percent per year because you’re letting the bank use your money.

Learn about the two main types of IRAs and get the details on eligibility requirements, tax benefits, contribution limits, and how to avoid penalty fees.