Blog

There’s a strange tension in how we experience time. A Tuesday afternoon can feel endless. A long winter week can crawl. But zoom out, and entire years vanish. You blink - and a decade is gone. This is front-and-center for me right now. My oldest daughter will be graduating high school in a few weeks before heading off to college. Wasn’t she just my two-year-old buddy… yesterday? The days felt long. The years didn’t. The Time Paradox Most People Don’t Plan For In retirement p

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters. The majority come from financial advisors, wealth managers, and estate planning attorneys. Not only do I enjoy reading what others write, I also enjoy finding patterns. Over the past few weeks, the message from financial advisors and wealth managers has been remarkably consistent: Stay disciplined with the plan. Stay diversified. Stay focused on what you can control. That’s sound advice. It always is. But here’s the part that often goes un

Turn on the news in March of 2026 and it’s hard to miss the themes. War in the Middle East. Oil prices jumping above $100 per barrel. Interest rates remain elevated. Daily swings in the stock market. Global energy markets are reacting to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, a route responsible for roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, sending prices sharply higher and increasing financial market volatility. For investors, it’s unsettling. For retirees, it can be somethin

For years, the common advice was simple: “Don’t touch the house. Save it for last.” That sounds conservative. Responsible. Safe. But when Retirement Researcher Wade Pfau ran the numbers in his 2016 research in the Journal of Financial Planning   Incorporating Home Equity into a Retirement Income Strategy , the results told a different story. And not in a dramatic, sales-y way, but in a math way. Who is Wade Pfau? Wade Pfau is a professor of retirement income. In his book, ‘Th

What to say when someone is hinting at a solution they might not realize exists. Most retirees will never say:  “I should explore a reverse mortgage loan.” They will, however, talk about pressure. Pressure around income, rising costs, and long-term care. Pressure about staying in their home or about having wealth tied up in the house but not accessible. If you choose to listen for and recognize these five concerns, you’ll know when a simple introduction could make a meaningfu

I was in Texas last week with my daughter for a soccer tournament. This was my first trip to the Lone Star State, and I wasn’t leaving without experiencing a Texas rodeo. A bull rider bursts out of the chute. Less than three seconds later, he’s airborne. Not nudged off, not gently dislodged. Launched. Fifteen feet up, legs above his head, with the bull already turning back toward him before he lands on the dirt. Eight seconds is the goal in bull riding. He didn’t get half of

When I sit down with a homeowner that is considering a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM - the FHA-sponsored version of the reverse mortgage loan), there are two questions I ask early. I don’t ask these questions as a formality or to simply 'check a box;' if anything, it's a reality check on important planning: 1. Do you have a Trust or Estate Plan? 2. What’s your plan for Long Term Care? If either answer is “I think so,” “not yet,” or “we’ll figure it out when we need to

Most conversations about reverse mortgage loans start with opinions.  They should start with facts. Below is a numbers-first breakdown of a HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) , the FHA-insured reverse mortgage loan, so homeowners, families, and advisors can evaluate it with clarity instead of assumptions. $0: Payments required for the life of the loan No principal or interest payments are required while the borrower lives in the home and meets loan responsibilities. The b

If you asked most homeowners to describe a reverse mortgage loan, you’d probably hear something like this: “It’s a last resort.” “It’s for people who ran out of money.” “It’s something you do when there are no other choices left.” That reputation didn’t come from nowhere. Early versions of the product were clunky, poorly explained, and often introduced far too late in the conversation. But that reputation has quietly stuck long after the product itself evolved. And today, tha

I get asked a fair question more often than you might think: “Why do you go so deep on this stuff?” Reverse mortgages are not simple products. They sit at the intersection of housing, taxes, healthcare, family dynamics, estate planning, and human emotion. If I’m going to help someone make a decision that could affect the rest of their life, their spouse, or their kids, “good enough” preparation doesn’t cut it. So here’s what my preparation actually looks like. I research how

I spend a lot of time teaching. I host workshops for homeowners age 62+, present continuing education sessions for financial advisors, and partner with professionals who serve the senior community. One of the best parts of that work is hearing the questions people ask when they slow down enough to ask poignant questions. At a CE session last week, an advisor posed what I think is a genuinely great question: “If a client owns a $1,000,000 home free and clear, has ample assets

When long-term care shows up, families either already have a plan in place or are forced to make one under pressure. Most families don’t avoid planning for long-term care because they don’t care. They avoid it because everything feels fine right now. The house is paid off, retirement income is working, and life has found a nice rhythm. This plan, this muted strategy, quietly defaults to one option: we’ll deal with it later ... if we have to. But long-term care rarely arrives

A better starting point for couples approaching or living in retirement. Most retirement conversations start in the same place. Returns. Rates. Projections. Charts that look great on paper. That makes sense; You have to start somewhere when you’re planning decades in advance. But as retirement gets closer, or officially begins, reality shows up - usually without an appointment or a heads up. We don’t live on spreadsheets. We live in real life. And real life has a way of expos

For decades, many homeowners were taught one financial rule on repeat: Pay off the house. Never touch the equity. Save it for later. Then retirement shows up…and “later”... is now. Reverse mortgage loans didn’t start as a sophisticated planning tool; they were designed to act as a backstop. But over time, they’ve quietly become a way to add flexibility, create options, and reduce pressure when retirement doesn’t unfold exactly as planned - or when your plans change in retirem

I had coffee with a mentor, Mike, last week. During our conversation, Mike said something that immediately caught my attention: “How do you say yes to something new when you’ve spent the last 60 or 70 years practicing no?” He said this as he and I were reminiscing about a cool, red Mercedes convertible he used to own. We chuckled at the memory of his 6’5” frame barely ducking behind the windshield, and eventually, to how much he missed the experience of driving that car. His

Metallica has a way of telling the truth without sugar-coating it. In the song ‘No Leaf Clover’, lead singer James Hetfield hollers: “Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel Was just a freight train comin’ your way.” Most of us have lived that line. You think you’re finally catching a break, a calm week, a solved problem, a season of life that feels lighter, and then life hits you with something loud, unexpected, and fully committed to running yo

Most people think they need more time. More time to get organized. More time before they start taking their health seriously. More time before they make a decision they already know is sitting in front of them. Seneca, a philosopher and statesman in Ancient Rome, didn’t buy it. He wrote, “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day… The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day

I journal almost every morning; it’s my cadence to the row of life. At the end of each journaling session, I ask myself a simple question: ‘Can I live in the Green R today?’ What is the Green R? The Green R is to Respond, with equanimity, to anything and everything that will come my way. The Green R is the opposite of the Red R, for the Red R is to React, often with judgement and scarcity.   Most conversations about reverse mortgage loans don’t start with numbers.They start w

For many homeowners, the question isn’t whether to tap into home equity - it’s how to do it wisely. Two common options are a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), also known as the FHA-insured reverse mortgage loan, and a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). While they may sound similar, the way they function - and the role they play in retirement planning - is very different. 1. Repayment Obligations Reverse Mortgage Loan (HECM): With a reverse mortgage loan, no monthly pri

Retirement — or the years leading up to it — can feel like a tug-of-war between what you can control and what you can’t. Markets fluctuate. Health changes. Family needs evolve. But peace doesn’t come from controlling everything; it comes from knowing where your control truly lives — and living there intentionally. Here are ten things no algorithm, economy, or news cycle can take from you. Your Sense of Awe Pause when something beautiful interrupts you — morning light through