Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a non-personal finance book of interest to Simple Dollar readers. One of the biggest underlying themes of The Simple Dollar is that personal finance is merely a tool to improve the quality of your life. Of course, it’s an unwieldy and dangerous…

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago…

Randy Johnson, president of Independence Mortgage Co. in Newport Beach, author of “How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage” and a mortgage broker since 1983, answers questions… Karl in Lake Forest asks: Q My wife and I have good credit scores, average about 720. I have…

In our kitchen, we have a shelf devoted solely to cookbooks. Upon this shelf sits a hefty number of volumes, from Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything to volumes like Molto Italiano and Fast Easy Fresh . I use these cookbooks all the time, not necessarily for…

Charlene writes in: I’m getting married in March. My future husband and I are talking about when and how to merge our finances and we’ve had some difficulty coming up with a plan. What did you and your wife do? What would you suggest for other couples on the…

In an effort to talk about the power of goal-setting along with some methods of setting and achieving goals, I’m going to discuss my four resolutions for 2010 this week. I’m overweight. One of the biggest reasons for this is hypothyroidism, something I’ve had literally since I was born…

New FHA guidelines have been announced to prevent short-seller sellers from buying replacement properties with an FHA mortgage. These new FHA loan requirements apply in cases where “a previously owned property was sold for less than what was owed (short sale)” or “there is principal write down of indebtedness…

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags .…

As everyone knows there has been a massive government effort to support house prices. Some of this has been aimed at limiting supply (modification programs, various foreclosure moratoria), and some has been aimed at increasing demand (tax credit, lower mortgage rates, loose lending standards). Here is a quote from Secretary…

FHA’s Energy Efficient Mortgage program (EEM) helps San Jose, CA  homebuyers or homeowners save money on utility bills. This is done by enabling them to finance the cost of adding energy efficiency features to their house as part of their FHA insured loan. EEMs recognize that reduced utility expenses…