Shifting Into Reverse Blog
#181: Using a reverse mortgage to fund world travel
HOUSING WEALTH AS A BUCKET LIST BRACE Because each of you has survived a near-death experience (a bout with cancer in her case, a serious injury in yours), you are determined, within the limits of prudence, to check certain items off your world travel bucket list in the early years of retirement, rather than waiting […]
#180 Using a reverse mortgage as a buffer against a stock market downturn
HOPING TO CONTINUE CLIMBING, PREPARED IF THINGS GO THE OTHER WAY With the bulk of your invested assets in tax-deferred accounts, you’re pleased with this year’s portfolio results. You’re also pleased not to have been forced to tap those accounts, managing living; expenses with a combination of income from part time work/consulting assignments, rents from […]
#179 Using a reverse mortgage to rebalance investment “diet”
USE AN OWNED ASSET TO DIVERSIFY INTO “LOANER” TERRITORY As recent retirees who only recently attended an intense three-day investment seminar on portfolio allocation, you two are feeling yourselves in somewhat of a quandary. Not only does your combined portfolio consist of almost 85% equity (a category the speaker dubbed “owner investments”), but the greater […]
#178: Using a reverse mortgage to pay niece’s education costs
BEING A GOOD UNCLE WITHOUT “CRYING UNCLE” ON INCOME PLAN While many of your friends have been helping fund their grandkids’ education, you have no children of your own. Over the years, though, you’ve provided funding for your niece and nephew’s college costs, since your younger brother, a self-employed widower, has not been in a […]
#177: Reverse mortgage as a coordinating link between in an estate plan
A THREE-FOR-ONE APPROACH TO ESTATE, RETIREMENT AND INVESTMENT PLANNING A recent health scare (fortunately, you have been pronounced fully recovered) has focused your attention on an intensive estate planning review. While you can hardly be described as “super-wealthy”, your three highest value assets are your IRA Rollover account and to pieces of real property — […]
#176: Using a reverse mortgage to defer taking early social security benefits
HOUSING WEALTH ALLOWS WAITING TO COLLECT SOCIAL SECURITY With your relationship ending, you find yourself faced with some daunting financial realities. While you maintained sole ownership of your home (originally purchased together with your now-deceased first wife), it was helpful to have two incomes supporting the ongoing upkeep and maintenance costs. Your soon-to-be ex “roommate” […]
#175: Using a reverse mortgage to defer tapping HSA
REVERSE MORTAGES TO PRESERVE THE POWER IN A POWERHOUSE At age 66, you plan on working two more years; your wife has plans to retire in a little over a year from today. With your children fairly well established in careers of their own, the two of you have been quite diligent about making maximum […]
#174: Advising financial planning clients on a reverse mortgage
REVERSE MORTAGES AS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO COMPLEMENTS Over the past few months, perhaps due to the plethora of TV ads for reverse mortgages, you’ve been receiving a number of inquiries from your financial planning clients about reverse mortgages. With a quarter to one third of your client base now in their sixties and seventies, their home […]
173: Using a reverse mortgage to offset portfolio equity with debt
REBALANCE ASSET MIX WITH REVERSE MORTGAGE BALANCE A longtime believer in asset allocation in investing, you have been “in charge” of guiding the choices in your wife’s 401K (she is still working), as well as in your own SEP-IRA account (you continue to generate modest income as a self-employed metallurgics consultant), as well as in […]