MortgageInterestDeduction

Eenie, meenie, miney, moe -- where should my cash savings go? That's the riddle many Americans are trying to figure out these days. After the necessities are taken care of, it's time to choose: mattress, stock market or mortgage? Do the math and the answer is clear.

DailyFinance has asked you, our readers, for your personal finance questions, and many of you have responded. One popular topic of those queries has been mortgages. Today, we reply to Ed, a 57-year-old with a small home equity loan. Should he pay it off faster, or invest his extra money elsewhere?

In the complicated, confusing, and confounding world of taxes, we citizens have a little-known ally within the IRS: the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson. Olson welcomes your thoughts via a suggestion box on tax reform. So far, she's received roughly 1,500 submissions, and she's still asking for more.

In just a few weeks, your opportunity to take advantage of the most recent variation on the homebuyer's credit will expire. By most accounts, this version of the credit, which cost taxpayers a whopping $1 billion per month, was a bust, doing little to actually spur the housing market. While a...