I just bought a new dw, I forgot brand but I had a Boush I hated it, dishes were never clean, hardly used ,then I got a recall notice they could catch fire .Either they fix it or they pay so much for a new one .But it had to be another boush.No ,so we bought another brand ,I love it .By the way I overheard 2 women talking in store one day A friend turned on her dw went to work.The dw burnt their home to the ground.Never leave home with an appliance running you never know what might happen.

Hi Landmarker, You described exactly what I said. It is a hedge, with fees going to the insurance co. taken off the upside. No, that is not what I said. You leave "the upside" as an ambiguous statement, while I am explaining the factual detail. The costs to manage the funds are *NOT* taken from the CLIENT'S gains, which are based on a fixed calculation tied to the performance of the index. Rather, the costs are paid from the company's own internal performance. The client is *NOT* exposed to the risks of direct investment in the securities (in this particular type of product.) There are 2 key points... 1. It costs money to peform this hedge It does NOT directly cost the client's money*, it is paid by the company's money. (*Given that the client keeps their time commitment to allow the company sufficient time to work the funds to earn enough internal returns, on average. The time commitment is *NOT* relative to performance, but a pre-specified concrete amount of time (typically from 3-10 years, contracted in advance.) 2. This hedge cannot come with a guarantee > the cost of borrowing. Currently individuals can take out 30 FRM loans at 4.5% or lower, and put that money to work at a guaranteed 7.2% growth rate for a 10 year term, and if done inside a ROTH IRA it grows tax free, and can be accessed to spend tax free. You *ARE* correct that no specific provider guarantees that the market will provide this opportunity... *HOWEVER*, the market is doing so right now on a very safe basis, at much lower costs than direct securities investments (of *ANY* level of sophistication.) There will be many days the hedge out peforms the S&P and there will be many days the S&P outpeforms the hedge. That depends on the time frame you look at. Your statement is correct in a blind one-annual basis. Taken at a string of consecutive years, the S&P has historically *NEVER EVER* outperformed the hedge on a 3-consecutive-year basis or longer. For those willint to take the short-term risks for the possibility of the short-term home runs... there is the lottery... or there is direct market investing. Either is attractive to some people. Neither is the long-term best choice. There will be no days the fees for investing in the S&P exceeeds the fees for investing in the hedge. That would be *every* day, if you are referring to the fixed-index annuities. So the question an investor needs to ask is do they get a benefit from the annuity (worth the cost?)... For many the answer is yes. For many more the answer will be no. That's why S&P 500 index is a more popular investtment than annuties. No, that's not why at all. It *IS* true that direct index investment is more popular, but the overwhelming reason is that the industry that promotes it makes *MUCH* more money by doing so, *AND* leaves the burden of downside risk on the shoulders of the clients. This creates a MASSIVE incentive for allegiance and promotion of the concept, and a MASSIVE incentive to keep client's money *AWAY* from the safer annuities with the same (and better) performance. Allowing funds into the annuities kills the golden goose of management fees for securities. It really is tantamount to the promotions of the lottery, and the securities world knows it quite well. Humans (a very unfortunately large number, anyway,) LOVE the thrill of the gamble, and the meme of "you gotta be in the game in order to win the home runs" keeps people in... to be fleeced over and over and over again. Its tragic that people only stop & think about it (if/when they think about it deeply at all) when the markets drop and they discover that THEY are the ones holding the bag all the way down, despite having paid 1-3% of their total funds in securities fees to the stock brokerage companies and their salesmen for years and years. One size definitely does not fit all... but unprotected and ungauranteed securities investment is playing with a very volatile fire... it burns even the sophisticated traders, and decimates the unsophisticated public. Cheers Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

While Dave's answer is basically correct, there's really more to this. 1. What would you like? Do you want to keep the HELOC in place? 2. If so, your lender will ask you about that and determine if your CLTV, or combined loan to value (1st and second mortgages added together), fit within their guidelines for the product you are applying for. Most products have specific LTV and CLTV requirements. 3. If your scenario is within the guidelines based upon your most recent appraised value, then you will be required to have your current HELOC Lender re-subordinate that loan. 4. If you do not want to keep it open, or that loan does not fit within the Lenders guidelines, you will either have to close the HELOC or renegotiate a smaller line to fit the guidelines. Only your lender can tell you what the guidelines are for their particular loan program.

1. Pay off the improvements that we have had to make on the new house despite having a mortgage and heloc on the old house (furnace, exterior doors, insulation) 2. Make that savings account we are all supposed to have with 6 months of expenses (thanks terriks). 3. Get new windows to replace the leaky aluminum framed ones. 4. Hardwoods or cork floors in halls and kitchen/dining and den, tile with an electric heat pad in foyer, tile in half bath and laundry room. 5. New cabinets and an island in the kitchen with 38 inch counter height and a single bowl sink with a decent garbage disposal and nice laminate counter tops. The cabs may be locally made custom, but I can save $$$ by getting laminate counter tops. 6. Hardwood on bedroom floor or tear out the 1978 main bath and redo with new tile and tub and decently high cabs with drawers for storage. 7. Whatever we did not do in #6. 8. OMG! We still have that hideous wall-o-brown-brick 1978 fireplace in the den! DO SOMETHING - cover with wood, tear 3/4 of it down and make the smaller fireplace nice by covering with stone, do something to lessen the dark cave effect. Put in an efficient gas insert or a pellet insert if gas prices have skyrocketed. 8. By now it is time to re-roof!