What the experts say

The right time to refinance

If you’re thinking of refinancing to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates, you might want to wait a little longer, said Jessica Silver-Greenberg in The Wall Street Journal. Since refinancing involves costs that average 2 percent of a mortgage’s value, you need to think hard about whether to leap at today’s low rates—even those hovering around 4 percent—or whether to hold out for a further decline. Economists at the University of Chicago have created an online calculator (zwicke.nber.org/refinance) that factors in closing costs, marginal tax rates, and the number of years left on the mortgage to produce personalized optimal refinancing rates. If you’re worried that rates won’t drop to your ideal level, “your best bet is to negotiate hard on fees.”

Stay away from layaway

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Retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears, and Toys R Us are bringing back layaway programs for the holidays, but consumers would be wise to shun them, said Louis Hyman in The New York Times. The financing involved is “decidedly worse than most credit cards,” and many shoppers end up paying rates we would “consider predatory.” Take a mother who buys $100 worth of toys on layaway. She pays a $10 down payment and a $5 service fee, and then pays off the rest between now and the holidays. Ultimately, she’s paying “$5 in interest for a $90 loan for two months: the equivalent of a credit card with a 44 percent annual percentage rate.” Retailers like to say layaway programs give budget-conscious shoppers more choice, but in reality they take advantage of strapped consumers’ desperation.

A bountiful harvest in farm stocks

Agribusiness companies look “ripe for the picking,” said Jay Palmer in Barron’s. The need to feed billions of additional mouths in the coming decades makes a “bullish case for agriculture investments,” like seed companies, crop producers, and farm-equipment manufacturers. After a bruising third quarter across the market, giant commodities processors like Bunge and Archer Daniels Midland look relatively cheap, and their fortunes are poised to improve on rising global food demand. Similarly, farm-equipment companies such as Agco and Deere, which are “benefiting from overseas growth and rising farm income in the U.S.,” could drive away with big gains. “We are having our best year in the history of the company,” Deere CEO Sam Allen says.