House is paid off; Want money to travel
 

No kids to leave house to and husband and I would like to travel...what is best way and cheapest to borrow against house? thank you!

Some people will recommend a reverse mortgage, but I wouldn't. If you qualify, I would get a 30 year, fixed rate mortgage and deposit the money into a money market mutual fund, or a low risk, short term bond fund. Then, I would use the money in the fund to make the monthly payments and to travel. When you run out of money, you can either refinance or sell the house. Do the math. Note that, if you get a mortgage, the interest payments may not be tax deductible because it is not considered an acquisition loan. Good luck.

Or consider a home equity line of credit - it basically is a checking account against the equity in your home. You write a check for vacation from the LOC, pay it back; rinse repeat.

Before you try one of these good

suggestions , why not research places you would like to go and how much you would need to go there .FYI there’s one thing I would never have is a paid up house, it would mean my money isn’t doing better somewhere else

Sell house and squander all money on travel. When get done enter nursing home when too old to travel.

You could adopt me. :MOJE_whot:

Equity Line, use it when you want to travel. Other options, take a round the world cruise, rent your house. While you are gone

Great idea do it in the winter and the renters will probably pay for one of you to cruise.

interesting, I think a lot of people are in the same thought at this point in life. Myself, its my back up $, for emergency as I age and problems arise. We also, don't know the medical, care, we are going to need in the very short future.

MReverse mortgage

Lock in a cheap mortgage. Don’t need 100% value. Rates only going up

Home Equity might be a good path...vs. a conventional mortgage...but check the rates for each with a number of banks

Everything I think about money is false. You save so you can pay your bills. If you have no savings the government will pay your bills. A mortgage? The average age in the villages is around 70. If, you can make the monthly payments they cannot deny you a 30 year mortgage due to age. You will be 100 when you pay it off-HUH.

Our previous home, was paid off and sold for more than enough to pay cash for our villages home. I took a mortgage, we did not have enough income to show we could pay the mortgage. The reason was they would not count some of our income. Reason, logic-beats me. We were told to get a letter from our brokerage that they would send us a check from savings every month. The brokerage told us they regularly get this request. They have a form letter for this. As soon as you qualify for the mortgage a phone call to the brokerage stops this forced withdrawal. Clearly things no longer make sense-it they ever did.

When getting a 30 year mortgage, the bank doesn't care how old you are, as long as you can make the payments. The average 30 year mortgage only lasts about 7 years at any age. And often, the bank sells the mortgage anyway.

This is the biggest #1 reason most retiree's never tap their retirement funds fully.
That "what if" keeps us up nights.

The last time we met with out financial adviser he said we should spend-down
some of our invest money, travel, buy a new car..................:shrug: