Reverse Mortgages a guide

Some of the rules of getting a Reverse Mortgage,

 From the (National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association) (NRMLA).

How do you begin to learn about a reverse mortgage? 

You contact a reverse mortgage professional at a lender who specializes in these loans. 

We recommend you contact one who is a member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA).

All NRMLA members must adhere to a Code of Ethics & Professional Responsibility and the Pledge to Reverse Mortgage Borrowers in which they promise to serve you with integrity and professionalism. Your best interests are our members' only consideration. 

A NRMLA member will:

Present you with a full range of reverse mortgage products that are available from his/her company;

Explain the terms, benefits and costs of each product;

Clearly explain his/her responsibilities to you;

Clearly explain your responsibilities under the terms of a reverse mortgage, including paying property taxes on time, maintaining insurance and maintaining your home in good condition;

Carefully review your income, assets and expenses to help you assess whether you can meet these obligations and determine whether the reverse mortgage is the best financial product for your situation;

Meet with you as frequently as you need and, at your request, also meet with other members of your family or your financial advisors;

Explain that, according to Federal statute, you must complete a reverse mortgage counseling session and provide you with a list of HUD-approved counselors you may contact. (As a means of maintaining a hands-off relationship so that you get unbiased third-party advice, a lender is not permitted to recommend any specific counselor);

Prepare you for making your counseling session the most effective by providing you with questions you might want to ask and information you should confirm.

What is a Reverse Mortgage?

It is a Loan on the equity that has built up over time in your home. This type of loan is sometimes called a non-recourse loan ( no debt is left to the heirs)

If the balance of the loan is less than the market value of the home , there is no debt to the heirs, If there is equity left in the home it is retained by the owner or the heirs.

A reverse mortgage is like any other loan you apply for,  there are a whole bunch of things that are in place to  protect the lender and the homeowner, so there are very specific steps to go through to qualify for a reverse mortgage

You will have a better chance to qualify for this type of loan if your home is mortgage free, you will be able to access a larger amount of money this way.

Have you ever thought about a Reverse mortgage and wondered how they work? 
Are they any good, will they do what you intended it to do, and do you get good value for your home?

Each Country has different regulations and rules to govern the use of reverse mortgages.

over the next few weeks we will discuss the use and value of Reverse Mortgages 

The Canadian reverse mortgage was originally developed to help cash strapped seniors, but was used primarily by well-off seniors. These well-off seniors viewed the reverse mortgage as a way to gradually sell off their home without having to move.
No doubt you have seen the Adds on TV with all kinds of celebrities telling you haw good they are, there will be more discussion on this subject later. 
 The most common use of the reverse mortgage is to pay for their children to purchase their first home or help grandchildren's educations. 

Hobbies after rertirment

Hobbies are a important part of retirement.

after 8 years into retirement I can see some of the mistakes in priorities I chose and some of the good things that helped in the transition from the workforce to retirement.

Some of the hobbies I  chose did not really fill the time,which became available when I retired.

One thing I took up to fill some time was golf, I had played a bit in the years before I retired.

This hobby, gave my good wife of many years, some relief from having me around all of the time.

Health Tip Of The Week

Too busy to exercise? Get up earlier

Finding time to exercise can be a challenge.

If your days and evenings are to busy, try a morning dose of exercise.

Get up 30 minutes earlier twice a week, and hop on the treadmill or stationary bike while you listen to the radio or watch the morning news.

Or if the weather is nice,( not to many people want to walk in the rain or snow), step outside for a brisk walk.

Once you've adjusted to early morning workouts, add another day or two to the routine.

Nine Years Younger

Regular exercise can turn back the clock by up to nine years, a study finds.

Can regular exercise provide the key to youth? Quite possibly, according to scientists at King's College London.

People who engage in at least three hours a week of moderate to vigorous exercise are up to nine years younger biologically than those who do not, the study found.

By using DNA blood samples from study participants, researchers measured structures called telomeres which protect the chromosomes in cells from damage. With age, telomeres have been found to shorten, meaning more cellular damage occurs as a person grows older.

The British study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that people who exercised for 3 hours each week had longer telomeres and were therefore, biologically 9 years younger than those who exercised for under 15 minutes.

The anti-aging effects were found among people who engaged in moderate to vigorous exercise such as aerobics, running or tennis. "It is not just walking around the block. It is really working up a sweat," study leader Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist, told Reuters.

In this study of over 2,401 identical and non-identical twins, the research team also adjusted for body weight, smoking, economic status and physical activity at work. The average age for study participants was 50.

IS this the time to get back into the market

Dan Sullivan, editor of The Chartist, says most of the damage of the bear market has been done, but he thinks we’ll see another leg down before it officially ends.

One indication that this bear market is winding down is the preponderance of doom-and-gloom books on the market: The Two-Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, The New Economic Disorder, The Return of Depression Economics, The Coming Economic Collapse, Financial Shock, Plunder and Blunder, The Origins of Financial Crisis, Empire of Debt, Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It. It is just the opposite of the get-rich-quick books that were on the shelves at the end of the dot.com era.

We are working under the premise that the bulk of the damage in this bear market has already occurred; however, we strongly advise against buying into this rally. We say this because we expect the market to trace out a “W” formation prior to our models flashing a buy signal, which will mark the conclusion of the bear market.

This is what occurred at the bottom of the previous bear market, which ended back on October 9, 2002. The bottoming process entailed two very explosive failing rallies. The first rally began on July 23, 2002 and ended on August 22nd. Over the period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 moved from 797.70 to 962.70, gaining 20.7%; however, by October 9th, all of the ground gained on the rally and then some was given back with the S&P hitting its lows of the bear market at 776.76.

Officially the bear market ended on October 9, 2002, but there was another failing rally in the interim which saw the S&P 500 tack on a gain of 15.6%, moving up to 938.87 by October 27th. From that point, the S&P proceeded to test its October lows, dropping back down to 800.73 by March 11, 2003.

The next rally was for real, which in our opinion was the start of the kick-off stage of the bull market. By May 30th, the S&P was 9.5% higher and in the process had broken through the peak of the “W” formation.

Several bear markets have ended with “W” formations, which entail a sharp rally followed by a pull back with a test of the lows: 1973-74 ended with a “W” formation as well as 1962.

The obvious question is: What if the market just proceeds to go straight up (a “V” formation) along the lines of 1970 and 1982? Our answer is that there will be ample time to take worthwhile positions in the emerging high-relative-strength stocks. Even if the beginning of the next bull market turns out to be a “V” formation, we would expect our models to flash a timely buy signal. Trust us, we have no intention of missing the next bull market, which, if history is any guide, is going to be a good one.