The Worst Reverse Mortgage Advice

Imagine you're sitting in the office of a financial advisor you just hired to help you plan for your retirement. Instead of creating a plan to build a nest egg you can live on when you retire, he tells you to wait as long as possible to start saving for retirement.

Say what? Naturally, you're stunned to hear to this. Everybody knows that's bad advice, right?

Not willing to waste another moment with this obvious crazy person, you get up and leave.

When you get home, you receive a call from the tree trimmer guy you hired to inspect a large tree tipping dangerously toward your house.

Surprisingly, the tree guy tells you not to worry about it. Just call him once the tree falls on your house and he'll be happy to cut it up and remove it for you.

OK, two crazy people in one day is already too much, but then your son tells you he just got back from the mechanic.

The mechanic said not to worry about the low oil pressure light flashing on the dashboard. Just call him when the engine blows up and he'll be glad to fix it.

Now you're wondering if the world has gone completely crazy. Everybody knows it's a bad idea to ignore little problems and let them become big problems.

Folks, this applies to reverse mortgages as well. The conventional wisdom among many financial professionals and pundits is to wait as long as possible before getting a reverse mortgage.

In my opinion, this is bad advice based on a flawed understanding of how reverse mortgages work and how to get the most benefit from them.