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The Senate Special Committee on Aging Examines American Retirement Preparedness
With the obvious retirement crisis looming over both retirees and the U.S. government the Special Senate Committee on Aging received input from acamdics, researchers and retirement experts covering topics ranging from retirement savings accounts to reverse mortgages. The hearing was entitled “Bridging the Gap: How Prepared are Americans for Retirement?”.
The goal was to uncover potential solutions in the face of an increasing baby boomer segment reaching retirement while officials struggle to strengthen Social Security and other programs. In written testimony to the Senate members Alicia Munnell who heads the Boston College Center for Retirement Research wrote, “Many households have a little-recognized asset that they could turn to for income in retirement, the equity in their home. Generally, retirees think of their home equity more as an emergency reserve than a potential source of retirement income. However, given the challenge of ensuring retirement security, this view may be a luxury that many can no longer afford”.
Perhaps the government should reexamine the luxury of allowing American retirees to keep their home equity while receiving…
Download a transcript of this episode here.
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5 Comments
You are right again Shannon. It take more time to see the obvious. I hope you have the tenacity to finish what you started.
In America we have a great sport handed down to us from the so called “Greatest Generation.” That game is called: “Gaming the System.” It is better than Game of Thrones since its players gain monetary wealth.
What are the rules of Gaming? You make sure that by the time the government can get past your income to your assets, your assets are out of its reach. What is great about this game is that anyone can play.
It is silly to believe that all of these schemes to avoid government largesse will be effective. It did not work effectively with the Greatest Generation and who expects it will be better now?
While it is great that Alicia is so pro HECMs, the problem with written testimony alone is that few members of Congress read much of it. We might hear about it in the future in remarks to or by Alicia if and when she gives spoken testimony on this or a related subject; otherwise, it is unlikely it will ever be openly addressed in Congress.
I really don’t see that happening anytime soon. It would rally raise a hue and cry from many sides.
One thing that the committee has been looking at it allowing co-op owners to do a reverse mortgage. Anyone know where that is headed?
Who cares what the Committee does about co-ops? Remember it is not the owners who are not qualified but rather the property type since it is not real property but personal property.
HUD should go back to Congress and have it eliminate co-ops as a HECM eligible collateral type.