Reverse Mortgage Retirement Info

Brock’s alternatives include moving to a smaller house in the same city or moving to the outskirts where housing is less expensive. Downsizing frees up some of the value of the existing house to provide retirement income.

A reverse mortgage also can generate retirement income for a homeowner who wants to stay put. With one of these, the bank pays a monthly check as long as you live. The total payout becomes debt that ultimately is repaid from the sale of the house after the borrower has passed away. Unfortunately, reverse mortgages are expensive to take out and generally leave no property for heirs.

Longer and healthier lives make it possible for many workers to stay on the job longer, postponing retirement to boost the nest egg and delay cracking it open.

The reality of downsizing and outsourcing, however, may mean less income from those later working years. Part-time work can fill some of that gap.

But the loss of traditional pension dollars will cut into workers’ retirement plans and force more of the burden on younger workers who won’t ever see such benefits.

Some employers who have frozen traditional pensions are pumping extra money into 401(k) plans. But those benefits don’t kick in unless the employee contributes himself, and about one in four workers covered by such plans doesn’t put money in them.

Fully 47 percent don’t have any retirement benefits on the job.

Leslie Smith finally got a pension and 401(k) when she joined Sprint seven years ago. But the pension benefit hadn’t grown large enough to affect her golden years significantly, and it has stopped growing now that Sprint has frozen the plan.

Sprint has increased its matching contribution to Smith’s 401(k), which she figures will make up for the lost pension years. The shift also was a wake-up call.

Smith and her husband have worked out aggressive savings plans with Weaver, their adviser, to reach their retirement goal.

“I would really like to retire, and now all of a sudden there’s not that much time if I want to retire at 66,” Smith said. “I kind of did start to panic.”

Call 1-888-973-8377 to speak with a Reverse Mortgage Specialist