Reverse Mortgages

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I know a married couple, in their Seventies and Eighties.

The husband had his own business. But he mismanaged the funds and panicked.

He wanted to get a reverse mortgage to keep the business going. The terms of the mortgage were explained to him, but he didn't fully understand. But his wife did. And she cried and pleaded with her husband not to force her to sign the papers as she didn't want to be homeless when he died.

But he made her sign the papers.

The husband thought that if he could garner enough assets, he could buy his way out of the reverse mortgage. But instead, he found that the interest and the rise in property value made that impossible. He was stuck.

Now he's over 90, in bad health, and his wife has to work in order to pay the taxes, utilities, etc. She doesn't have the money to continue to keep their marital home. The assets of her husband are gone. IOW, when her husband dies, she has a certain amount of time to assume the mortgage or move out, maybe 90 days. She will be homeless.

While the wife can think, "I told you so," it won't matter.