Showing posts with label Mind Your Own Mortgage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mind Your Own Mortgage. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

"Mind Your Own Mortgage" by Robert J. Bernabe

I have always been fascinated by all things finance.  Well, ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  But when we're talking personal finance, I'm in!  I saw that this book was up for review and I jumped at it.  I absolutely soaked in the first few chapters.  It describes how mortgages work, what sorts of things to watch out for when purchasing a mortgage, and what you should be focusing on when shopping for a mortgage.  When my husband and I purchased our mortgage a few years ago, we really didn't know what we were looking for beyond cash to buy a house.  This book explains the ins and outs of mortgages and helps both the beginner and someone who has had a mortgage for years understand what is happening in the industry.

After the first few chapters, the book shifted into more specific advice about shopping for a mortgage and about managing your mortgage.  I found this section a bit repetitive and felt that I'd already grasped the principles being applied here when they were outlined in the first section.  Overall, it is a fairly straight forward book and I will certainly use parts of this book for reference the next time my husband and I are shopping for a mortgage.

Being from Canada, there were times when I wasn't sure how relevant the book was for me.  I wasn't familiar with many of the "antics" surrounding mortgages and wasn't sure if Canadians have the same options as Americans do.  If I was looking at purchasing a book to guide me through my next mortgage, I would probably steer more toward a book written specifically for Canadians.  But that said, this book does have a lot of general information that would be helpful to anyone, no matter where they live.

At times, I felt that the author leaned a bit too far toward the conservative side.  There were a few comments in the book about using discretionary income to pay down your mortgage instead of buying a new tv (or whatever else).  While this is a good thought, it is unrealistic to think that every home owner will completely pay off their mortgage before buying things like new furniture or a big screen tv.  If taken with a grain of salt, the underlying principles are good ones, and would be valuable if applied in any credit situation, not just with mortgage debt.

Overall, I would recommend this book especially to Americans who are thinking about buying a house or who already own a home but feel that they would like to be mortgage free sooner.  It is well-written and the author is obviously knowledgeable about this topic.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze blogger book review program and was under no obligation to provide a positive review.