Jim Paterson

If you’ve known me for several years, you know that I written about Reverse Mortgages for the last several years.  Many seniors have used reverse mortgages to get rid of mortgage payments or get some cash for projects and/or paid off other debts.  In one case, a very elderly man needed $6,000 for his monthly care and only had $2100/month in income so the reverse mortgage gave him the cash he needed to bridge the gap every month.

Recently, I worked with two different clients.  In both cases, they had seen a decline in their investments over the last 2 years.  Those investments produced an income and they were viewed as seeing them thru to the rest of their lives.  Medical costs for both sets of clients had risen and with the decline in their investments, they decided to get a Reverse Mortgage so they could eliminate their mortgage payments and have some cash for the future.

If you’re in your 40’s or 50’s, you want not give much thought to a reverse mortgage for yourself, but your parents may be considering that option.  They may feel some guilt about taking out a loan on their home and that it will affect the inheritance for you or siblings.  That’s understandable.

However, as all of us look down the road and try and evaluate the realities of income and expenses,  a reverse mortgage is one of the ways to be able for seniors to stay in their home, meet their expenses, and not have to rely upon outside (financial) assistance from their children.