Those are more than reasonable rates, they are awesome for 30 year mortgages.
Some suggestions:
1. Silver has a kind of peak oil issue. It is used more and more in electronics, especially batteries and solar panels, but mining costs keep going up and the good mines with low production costs are gone or getting low. The recent fall below $16/oz I think makes a good entry point. It hit 50 a few years ago, and adjusted for inflation, it was 150 in 1981. If you have a long time horizon, buy now, hold for the next spike. Might be a 20 year wait, but I think about 10 years is more likely, and also reflects the time between the two prior price spikes. But it is hard to see it getting much lower simply because few mines can produce it at current prices.
2. There is a special kind of muni bond that are not tax free, most of them are called “build america bonds.” I think they represent a great balance of strong returns and low risk, and they pay out cash monthly. The one I have owned for many years has the ticker BBN and pays 6.5% per year.
Even when the market crashed about a decade ago, it only went down to 17.3.
3. I think US stocks are in general fairly valued. If I had to buy more and was being conservative, I’d get VZ and T. The market is getting less competitive, and nobody is going to go without their cell phone.
4. San Diego real estate is hardly a steal now, but as long as the rent covers the taxes, mortgage interest, HOA, and insurance, you’ll do fine. Rents should keep going up, incomes should keep going up, China is getting richer but their rich still prefer safe, unpolluted and free California, but your costs will only go down as the mortgage balance goes down and each payment goes more toward principle.
I love that my investment properties’ rents more than covered the entire mortgage/escrow payment on day 1. However, it is still a profitable investment if your mortgage balance falls by 500 a month but you need to throw in 100 of your own money on top of rent to pay it. Wait a year or two and it goes cash neutral, then another couple years and it cash flows, and then just keeps getting better until paid off and the much higher rent is almost all profit.
