The Inheritance Myth: Bricks vs. Bucks

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I hear it all the time: "I can't look at a reverse mortgage. I want to leave the house to my kids. I

want to secure their future."

It’s an honorable thought. But if we look at the math, we might find that the "safe" path of

struggling to make mortgage payments is actually doing more harm than good.

When you use a reverse mortgage to eliminate a monthly payment, you aren't "spending the

kids' money." You are changing the zip code of their inheritance.

Think about these two scenarios:

1. The "Traditional" Way: You spend $3,000 a month on a mortgage for 15 years. That’s

$540k pulled out of your savings or 401(k). By the time the kids inherit the house, your

cash accounts have been depleted. They get a house (which they’ll likely sell) but no

liquid cash.

2. The "Either/And" Way: You stop the $3,000 monthly payment. That $540k stays in your

investments, growing. When the kids inherit, they get the remaining home equity AND a

massive liquid investment account.

The truth about what kids want: I’ve interviewed dozens of adult children. Not one has said, "I

hope Mom and Dad lived a stressed, lean life just so I could have a slightly larger check from a

house sale in 20 years."

They want you to have a great life now. And ironically, by using the home to protect your other

assets, you often end up leaving them a larger total legacy because you didn't have to liquidate

your best-performing investments to pay a bank.

A reverse mortgage isn't about giving up the house. It’s about making sure your kids inherit a

family legacy, not just a pile of bricks and a bunch of empty bank accounts.