A reverse mortgage gives you the opportunity to tap into your home equity to generate retirement income. Joe Anderson, CFP and Big Al Clopine, CPA discuss whether a reverse mortgage is the right move for you in YMYW podcast episode 71. Original publish date October 8, 2016 (hour 1). Note that content may be outdated as rules and regulations have changed.

00:00 - Intro

01:02 - “I’ve got a lot [to explain] about retirement that you need to be aware of, some new tax plan strategies, pros and cons of retiring in your seventies…”

04:44 - “Part of the reason why college is so expensive is because you can borrow money so now colleges are charging more and administrators are paid more.”

13:57 - “Have you ever considered how you will use your home equity in retirement? If you’re going to stay in your home, will you tap into that?”

18:42 - “Home equity has not always been part of the retirement income discussion.”

22:10 - “What happens is either you borrow a lump sum or a payment stream or just a line of credit that you can draw when you need it; so then what happens is you don’t actually make payments – the interest that you would have normally paid just keeps accruing and adding to your loan so when your house is sold, whatever your loan is gets paid off by the equity.”

24:55 - “How do you use a reverse mortgage properly?”

25:28 - “Here’s a way to get cash flow: if you don’t have any in your savings, you can get a home equity line on a reverse mortgage and pay for your bills that way…”

28:54 - “If all your money is sitting in traditional retirement accounts, it’s 100% taxable. For a lot of you, that’s where the majority of your savings are. If there were a way to get control over your taxes, the home equity loan can be a tool if you utilize it with other strategies so you pay less taxes for the rest of your life…there are a lot of ways to reduce taxes in retirement.”

32:55 - “With an IRA or individual retirement account, you can buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs. With a MyRA (my retirement account) you’re buying U.S. treasuries.”

Episode 32: Guest Rob Vischer