ARMED YOURSELF YET?

With mortgage rates at theirlowest levels in years, you may thinka 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is thebest way to finance your new home.Before you sign any agreement,however, check out hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs).Unlike ordinary ARMs, hybridARMs offer a fixed rate for a certainperiod before the rate is adjusted.During that period, a hybrid cansave you some serious money over aconventional mortgage. If you payan interest rate of 4.55% on a 5-year, hybrid $300,000-mortgage,for example, as opposed to 5.58%on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage,you'll save close to $12,000 inmortgage payments over the 5-yearterm of the ARM. If you move orrefinance before the rate is adjusted,that's money in your pocket.