benchmark

Doing some rough calculation, if i use the extra savings with 3% rate to pay down mortgage, at the end of the 7 year, the difference in principle is about 100k, which is quite large, which makes it very attractive. On the other hand, what if the rate jumps to 10% in 7 years....

With super Jumbo loan, unless you can fork out the cash to cover loan after 7 years , it's better to not take a chance. If you are planning to hold the house for only 4-5 years then it might work out well with ARM loan otherwise it's better to stick with cheap fixed rate. We can discuss about 3.75% or 4.25% but remember historically rates are in lowest range. If and when rate goes up, 3.75% or 4.25%, both will look pretty cheap. I completely agree, if the difference in rate is only 0.5? but in this case, it's 1.25%, that's what makes this tempting....

If that is 30 year fixed, stick with that. 15 year makes that a trickier decision. To clearify, my loan has a fixed 30yr at 4.25% and a HELOC at 4.25% which is float. The reason that I'm tempted to for 7/1 is that not only the rate is lower, I can combine the two loans into one and reduce the risk of the HELOC starting floating up in 2 years. Another option is to combine the loans for a 30-yr fixed at 4.375%. My loan is in the super-jumbo category, so the rate all seems to be higher.

How do you stay on top of the rate? I've never heard 30 yr fixed with that low rate (I'm in CA, so loan is bigger than 417K). I'm inclined to not do 7/1 if I didn't have the HELOC portion of the loan.

If that is 30 year fixed, stick with that. 15 year makes that a trickier decision. To clearify, my loan has a fixed 30yr at 4.25% and a HELOC at 4.25% which is float. The reason that I'm tempted to for 7/1 is that not only the rate is lower, I can combine the two loans into one and reduce the risk of the HELOC starting floating up in 2 years.

I have a 4.25% fixed rate mortgage, and now they are offering me a 7/1 ARM with 3.0%. On one hand, it's never a good idea to chase lower rate; but on the other hand, the rate is too good. So now I'm tempted to re-finance into a 7/1 ARM, knowing that i might have to pay a balloon payment in 7 years if the rate goes up dramatically. Am I too short-sighted?

Palo alto, ca. +1 on local meet up

Is it still 50 cent dollar? It would take a long time for bac to get back to 20+

Eric, Can you give an example on how do you 'move up'? or is there any pointers on the net that gives examples on how to change/swap options? I'm a newbie on options. thanks.

More interesting is the TRUPS are $20+ when back on that date they were $5-$8. Where do you find more information about these preferred?

It's a tech company at heart, that just happens to do retail. Just like Google is a tech company that happens to do advertising. Amazon is absolutely a tech company, some of the best I would say, especially with Jeff's vision. Think about all the amazon web services that it offers -- they are ahead of everyone else.

That might be true, but IBM isn't growing, revenue has been mostly flat, a large part of growth in earning per share has come from share buy back. I'm disappointed that he bought that much, maybe he run out of ideas! He finally bought after more than 80 years of observation (BG and WEB combined). I guess IBM's long term competitive advantage has now been satisfactorily established after a century of successful operation, as the other long term holdings mostly have a 100 year track record with excellent returns. Interestingly, my brother in law used to work for IBM. He says that IBM's new CEO is the very best manager he has ever seen.

It's a good price, i bought my first batch at 1 -- so far it's bleeding for me :(

Bac's Jan 2013 10 call has continued its downward trend. At 58c, it seems to be a good option play -- of course, you could get wiped out if things didn't improve at all for the next 14 month, though I think it's very unlikely.

So got some answers to my own question: a) Apparently, the different quote from lifequotes/GEICO is for different class (i.e., insurability), based on the agent that i talked to. b) The policies covers AD, he said that they actually double the amount in mos cases; c) Terminal illness is covered. What typical length of a term do people generally do?

Thanks guys, appreciate the input. One additional question: what is the right length for a term? my kids will be out of college in about 13 years. Thus I'm thinking about either doing a 15 year, though i have a new 30-yr mortgage @4.25%, should I have a longer term life, since I'm not in a hurry to pay down the mortgage? thanks

Thanks Kiltacular and Parsad, very informative. A couple of additional questions: a) does term insurance general insure terminal illness? b) what about accidental death and injuries? Kiltacular, I'm using Geico to get quote. It's confusing (to me) that the premium on a policies varies quite a bit, even for the same company for 2million insurance! For example, SAVINGS BANK LIFE INS. CO. OF MASSACHUSETTS A+ $175.74 SAVINGS BANK LIFE INS. CO. OF MASSACHUSETTS A+ $212.28 SAVINGS BANK LIFE INS. CO. OF MASSACHUSETTS A+ $283.62 I assume that devil is in the details, but what are the details?

Thanks for the replies. A few follow up questions: a) I've used some online quote (lifequotes.com). The amount that each insurance companies charges differs quite a bit. And they also listed the ratings for insurance companies (S&P Rating, Fitch rating). Do these rating matter? i.e., A+ rating vs B rating. Should one always go for higher rated companies? b) Is it better to have the life insurance to cover both me and my wife? or one for each? c) any recommended companies (online or offline) that you have a good experience with? thanks.

I'm in the process of getting a term life insurance -- have 9 yrs to go before the youngest graduate from high school (13yr if you count college). I'm looking for a 15 year term. What are the gotcha's that I need to aware of? and any good insurance companies that I should look for? I'm in the US and in early 40s.

I bought some Jan 13 20 call last week, so far it's down :(

it's not as beaten up as Bac's, but looks attractive, and you can leverage up much more

Here is an interesting link showing that iCloud actually uses MSFT's cloud service :) http://www.redmondpie.com/guess-what-icloud-uses-windows-azure-services-for-hosting-data/

Yes, we are looking at a few options: 1) 30yr fixed of 1M mortgage @5.125% 2) 30Yr fixed of 729k @4.5% and remaining LOC at variable rate (current at prime rate + 1% = 4.25%) 3) 5 yr fixed of 729k @3.25% and remaining LOC variable at 4.25% 4) 5 yr fixed of 1M @ 3.875% we also have 7 or 10 yr variation of 3) and 4). I'm leaning towards 2), though 3) looks very appealing, thus my question to the board. thanks

I'm also trying to get a handle on options. Are you saying that buy in the money option in this case is better that Jan 2013 25 option for $2.37, which has the largest number of open positions

For me, I think it's more of a question of the money we save before the ARM reset vs the amount that we have to pay down to get a reasonable rate. We can handle the reset, but don't want to have to put too much money in real estate/housing, as I think the price is going to be flat to down. Let's say we save $600 a month for 5 years, that's 36k. Now if we have to pay down 300k to get a decent rate in 5 years (we can handle it), then it might worth it. As I can grow 300k faster that the mortgage rate (5.125%). However, if the rate won't change much for a year, then I can still still refinance to a 30-yr fixed rate in a year and save some money, but it's a bit risky