Posted on October 17, 2006 by Jason
Mortgage101.com, October 16th, 2006
DEAR BOB: I am considering getting a
senior-citizen reverse mortgage on my home. But what happens after I
die? Who makes the decisions concerning the sale of my home such as
selecting the real estate agent, asking price, repairs to be made, and
whether to “stage” the house for sale? Who makes the decision to accept
an offer or make a counteroffer? What if my son does not accept an
offer and the house sits empty? What action can the reverse-mortgage
holder take? –Frank M.
DEAR FRANK: Presuming your son is your sole heir, if he doesn’t
cooperate with the lender to pay off the reverse-mortgage balance after
your death, the reverse-mortgage lender can hold a foreclosure sale.
Then the lender gets paid the mortgage balance, and any foreclosure-sale excess cash goes to your heir.
However, if your heir wishes to keep the house, he can obtain a new
mortgage to pay off the reverse-mortgage balance and then own the house
subject to the new mortgage.
Read more of this article. Learn more about Reverse Mortgages.
Posted on October 16, 2006 by Jason
For most boomers, real estate is their biggest asset. But making the best use of
it requires planning.
MSNBC, October 23rd, 2006
Your home is more than your castle, it’s your ace in the hole. If you haven’t
saved enough for retirement, you figure that you can live on the equity you’ve
built up. But in real estate, the easy money has been made. Home prices are
falling in some cities and flattening in others. For planning purposes, you
should assume a return to a more traditional market, with gains in home values
roughly tracing the inflation rate. That means your home won’t provide you with
much more purchasing power than you have today. What the experts say to do:
Pay Off Your
House
Good advice, but fewer people are taking it. Adjusted for
inflation, mortgage debt among people 65 and up nearly tripled from 1989 to
2004, says Zhu Xiao Di of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard
University. Financial planners deplore the trend. “Having to make mortgage
payments out of retirement savings, pension or Social Security is a huge hit,
financially,” says Morgan Stone of Austin, Texas.
If you’ll feel squeezed, downsize
to a smaller place. But be realistic, says Kevin Brosious of Wealth Management
in Allentown, Pa. After the cost of selling, moving and fixing up your new home,
you’ll have less extra cash than you thought.
Some pre-retirees wonder if it’s
worth paying off the mortgage faster if home values are flattening out. Answer:
Yes, yes and yes. Your return on investment equals your mortgage rate—maybe 6.5
percent—regardless of where home prices go.
Read more of this Article.
Posted on October 11, 2006 by Jason
San Jose Mercury-News, October 10th, 2006
Thirty years after they volunteered for the Peace Corps, Vermont
residents Kenneth and June Nicholson signed up again in 2001 and spent
the first years of their retirement teaching in Bulgaria.
Long retired at 77, Woodbury, Minn., resident Charles Harkness
joined the Peace Corps partly on a challenge from his daughter. He went
to Kyrgyzstan to teach.
For Ronald Tschetter, who took over as the Peace Corps’ director two
weeks ago after a long career in the financial industry, recruiting
retirees such as the Nicholsons and Harkness is a priority.
“It’s a resource that if tapped could just bring tremendous value to these countries,” he said.
As Tschetter takes the reins of an organization that has a $318.8
million budget, he’s looking at expanding the Peace Corps to more
countries and keeping volunteers’ safety a top priority. Currently the
Peace Corps serves in 75 countries, and in fiscal year 2005 it had
7,810 volunteers. More than 182,000 people have flowed through the
organization since it got its start in 1961.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 11, 2006 by Jason
Phoenix News, October 10th, 2006
“I would never do it again,” said Joan Farrington.
Farrington is talking about a reverse mortgage.
She first got the idea when she saw this ad on T.V, “My home would be
free for me to live in for the rest of my life, if I so choose, and the
loan would be payable if I sold it or I died.”
It sounded appealing. After all, Farrington had paid off her house
years ago and all the equity in that house would come back to her in
the form of a $158 monthly check.
At the time, she had some medical bills. So the extra money sounded great.
“One-hundred-fifty-eight dollars doesn’t go very far,” she said “It helps pay some of the stuff.”
But after getting that $158 check for the past seven years, she
recently took a look at her mortgage statement and got quite a shock.
“They now have $40,000 against my home that I owe if I want to take my home back,” she said.
Read more of this article. Learn more about Reverse Mortgages.
Posted on October 11, 2006 by Jason
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, October 11th, 2006
A Sept. 12 Speaking Out essay explained how Rochester has convened an Aging in
Place Steering Committee to identify services that can help people stay at home
as they age.
However, because of the high financial hurdles, the community’s aspiration
for seniors to be able to age in place comfortably and with dignity cannot be
achieved without public-private collaboration. One example of this collaboration
is the federally sponsored reverse mortgage program.
Aging homeowners typically require increased support and home modifications.
Fixed incomes and liquid assets often are not enough to cover these costs. The
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development created the Home Equity
Conversion Mortgage (“reverse mortgage”) to address this problem.
A reverse mortgage is a loan that enables homeowners 62 or older to borrow
against the equity in their homes, without having to sell the home, give up
title or take on new monthly mortgage payments. Loan proceeds can be used for
any purpose and can be paid out in a lump sum, fixed monthly income supplement,
line of credit or a combination thereof. This tool has no set maturity date and
becomes due only when all homeowners move from the home.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 10, 2006 by Jason
Yahoo News, October 9th, 2006
Every eight seconds, another baby boomer turns 60. And as the trendsetters of
the generation head for retirement, they’re yearning for their dream homes.
But their idea of housing utopia doesn’t necessarily hinge on spending
quality time with the grandkids, according to a study commissioned by publisher
Hanley Wood and released this week at the company’s American Housing Conference
in Chicago.
More than a third said their adult children and their own parents are not a
consideration in creating their dream homes. Sixty-three percent said enjoying
their home after age 60 is a priority above or equal to spending time with the
grandchildren, and just 35% said they’d relocate to be closer to family and
loved ones.
“The generation has always been considered selfish,” said Frank Anton, chief
executive officer of Hanley Wood, a media and information company for the
housing and construction industry. “This survey would indicate maybe they’re
more selfish than anyone knows.”
The longing for “me” time is a theme that often appears in their real estate
preferences, as identified by the Hanley Wood study. Many have a list of dream
amenities: Homes that are cozy and comfortable, yet airy and spacious; homes
without stairs, but with room for a Stairmaster; living spaces that are energy
efficient, but deluxe. They don’t want single-age communities, instead looking
for opportunities to stay active.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 9, 2006 by Jason
The Seattle Times, October 8th, 2006
Q: I’m in my 50s with considerable savings. I’m
also pretty good at my sales job. I am like many, however, in that I
know how to save but have no idea how to pragmatically prepare for
retirement income.
Is a $1 million investment portfolio going to send me dividends that
will pay the bills? Can I generally anticipate a return of 6 percent a
year? Is there a “How to Cash Out for Dummies” manual?
A: Pick up copies of the October issues of
Kiplinger’s, Money and Smart Money magazines. The editors at all three
magazines made your question their cover story.
The articles cover the basics on your concern, which is called
“longevity risk” in polite circles. For the rest of us, it’s just a
big-time version of the old “end of the money before the end of the
month” problem.
One way to think about this is to ask yourself what investment return you’ll need to have the same purchasing power forever.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 6, 2006 by Jason
Elder Law Answers, October 6th, 2006
As you approach retirement, you must
decide when to begin taking your Social Security benefits. You have
three options: You may begin taking benefits between age 62 and your
full retirement age, you can wait until your full retirement age, or
you can delay benefits and take them anytime up until you reach age 70.
More than
two-thirds of people take their benefits early. Some of them don’t have
a choice — they need the money right away. But for others, it might
make more sense to delay benefits, even past their full retirement age.
Ultimately it is a personal decision that depends on whether you plan
to keep working, your health and life expectancy, your spouse’s needs,
and the availability of other retirement plans.
If
you were born before 1937, your full retirement age was 65. For those
born after 1937, the retirement age gradually increases until it
reaches age 67 for people born in 1960 or later. If you take Social
Security between age 62 and your full retirement age, your benefits
will be reduced to account for the longer period you will be paid. If
you delay taking retirement, depending on when you were born, your
benefit will increase by 6 to 8 percent for every year that you delay,
in addition to any cost of living increases.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 6, 2006 by Jason
The Boston Globe, October 5th, 2006
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that the burden
from retiring baby boomers will strain the nation’s budget and economy,
unless Social Security and Medicare are revamped.
“Reform of our unsustainable entitlement programs” is a priority,
Bernanke told the Economics Club. “The imperative to undertake reform
earlier rather than later is great.” Retirement looms for 78 million
boomers.
Bernanke did not recommend any specific changes.
President
Bush once made his efforts to overhaul Social Security a centerpiece of
his second-term agenda. But those efforts sputtered last year due to
resistance from Republicans and Democrats.
Bernanke said the
United States will have to choose among higher taxes, fewer dollars for
other programs, lower spending on entitlement programs, and a sharply
higher budget deficit — or some combination of all those.
Read more of this article.
Posted on October 6, 2006 by Jason
PBS, October 5th, 2006
REMAKING AMERICAN MEDICINE is a four-part television series for PBS that
follows pioneering individuals struggling to fix our broken health care
system.
PROGRAM 1 – SILENT KILLER profiles individuals who are
committed to fixing a health care system that is estimated to kill up to 98,000
people a year.
PROGRAM 2 – FIRST DO NO HARM focuses on efforts to
eliminate hospital-acquired infections and medication errors.
PROGRAM
3 – THE STEALTH EPIDEMIC looks at groundbreaking efforts to create effective
chronic disease management programs.
PROGRAM 4 – HAND IN HAND
shows how a unique partnership between patients, families and providers is
transforming a teaching hospital.
Read more of this article. Learn more about Healthcare.
