What Do I Do About My Mortgage ? (loan, heloc, credit)

[GailIrene]

My husband is receiving 65k (gross) a year pension w/ full medical. (He is 56 just retired). We only have 100k saved and not in stocks as I'm afraid of stocks. I'm presently working and earning about 75k a year and I want to retire - I'm 56 as well. (Will receive no pension) We presently live in Bucks County and have a home worth 425k and owe 215k on it yet. We have no bills (not even auto payments) except our mortgage. My husband wants to move to NC in a few years. Do we have enough if I want to stop working and we'd like to take 2 trips a year?

I don't trust financial planners as one says pay off your home and the other says never pay off your home and take out 100k of the 200k equity and invest the 100k instead of letting the bank make $ on you.

WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO ????????????????????????

[Karla with a K]

Originally Posted by GailIrene

and the other says never pay off your home and take out 100k of the 200k equity and invest the 100k instead of letting the bank make $ on you.

WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO ????????????????????????

GailIrene
My background is in credit not investing. Though the one thing that jumped out at me is if you take $100k of the equity to invest at lest say a HELOC rate of 8% you would need to find an investment that guaranteed a return higher in order to make money. Lets also say that in your area (if your in Bucks County Pa i am there every year and love it) houses are appreciating 3% a year, that would mean you would have to find the above mentioned investment that paid at least 11% to break even with the situation your in right now.
Where do you have the $100k now. CDs,money market?

[ChipL]

Let's look at it another way. You sell your home, move to NC and you have $210k profit in your pocket. Here in NC, you can get a nice place for that $210k. You'd have no mortgage and no other bills bringing in 65k a year. Not bad at all.

On top of it, and if you needed to as a backup, when you reach 62 you can look into reverse mortgages which allows you a loan against the home that only needs to be paid back when either the last surviving borrower dies or you sell the place.

Off hand, it appears you guys are in a pretty good spot.

[GailIrene]

Diversified - 20k in ira's/40 in cd's/20 in moneymarkets/20 in mutual funds

[strawberryfield]

You said your money is in stocks b/c you don't trust them--what it is in?? It needs to be in something other than a CD or some other vehicle which earns less than inflation rate.

I'd really suggest getting a good financial planner. Do you know anyone who uses one who could recommend him/her to you? Like anything else, there are good and bad, but as you don't have a solid understanding of your financial situation and how to move forward, a good planner would be of benefit to you (I am not one, so I am in no way trying to sell services here!). A good planner would never tell you what to do--you say one said pay off the mortgage and another said don't. Did you really meet w/two planners? If so, and they said that, you weren't meeting with good ones. Good planners will help you look at the entire picture, will tell you the pros and cons of each thing (like paying off a mortgage early) but YOU ultimately decide what you're comfortable with.

At your age, you should also really be considering long-term care insurance if you don't have it already. That would wipe everything out if one of you needed ft or even pt care.

Ultimately, only you can answer whether you think you have enough. For some what you have is enough, for others it isn't. Depends how you want to live.

BTW, I love Buck's County. NC is fine, but I would never leave Buck's County to live here (unless you have family here or something)

[billscamaros]

Originally Posted by GailIrene

WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO ????????????????????????

ahhhh ..... certainly not people on an internet site !!!!

you really need to find a financial planner that you can trust for some advice. you and your husband's physical health isn't quite clear, but at age 56, you could be easily looking at supporting yourself for another 30+ years.

based on what you indicate, you seem to be in pretty good financial shape for your age. you didn't mention children or college tuitions??

get qualified help, determine the lifestyle that you want to afford and make conservative decisions based on those inputs.

good luck.

[sean98125]

Are you still going to receive your husband's pension if he dies before you? If he dies before you reach Medicare age, will his insurance cover you? If not, you need to keep working and sock away every penny you're earning toward that possibility. You're both going to have to live on $65K a year when you're retired, so you might as well start figuring out how to do that now. And you need to fully understand how much money you will have coming in if your husband is dead.

[ProLogic]

Invest in CD's and reap the lulz.

[GailIrene]

no children living home and no college tuitions - pd. off

[GailIrene]

Originally Posted by sean98125

Are you still going to receive your husband's pension if he dies before you? If he dies before you reach Medicare age, will his insurance cover you? If not, you need to keep working and sock away every penny you're earning toward that possibility. You're both going to have to live on $65K a year when you're retired, so you might as well start figuring out how to do that now. And you need to fully understand how much money you will have coming in if your husband is dead.

receive 1/2 his pension and full medical