HighTechLending, Inc. NMLS # 7147

Create family experiences and a legacy with help from a Reverse Mortgage

You have spent a lifetime building your family and creating a safe home for your kids and grand-kids to enjoy together.  As your family has grown and gone out into the world they may have separated from you in distance or in closeness but there are things you can do to help bring your family together.  Parents may be so concerned about leaving an inheritance for their children that they miss out on truly creating a lasting legacy of memories and traditions for their family.  If parents are not careful, they may just leave a pile of cash, with few cherished memories after they die.  Today is the day to create memories with your kids and grand-kids, to create a legacy for the future, and help them accomplish their goals through your help and tutelage. You can’t choose which family tree you come from, but you can help guide the direction your branches grow.

Often we can be so busy trying to pay for life that we miss out on what is truly important.  Spending time with family and creating memories that can never be stolen or taken away.  Growing up many times when we wanted to do something together or buy something my parents would often explain, we are passing up on it to save it for your inheritance, or their retirement.  Unfortunately my mother passed away long before she could enjoy the retirement she spent her entire life preparing for.  This has deeply influenced the way we spend time with our kids as we never know how much time we have to be with them and impact their lives.  I would gladly exchange a large inheritance for more beloved experiences with my mother and family growing up.  This is one of the reasons I truly enjoy the job that I have; I get to unlock the equity trapped in a home to help seniors have a more comfortable retirement and hopefully, live better, longer and create memories with their kids and grand-kids.  So, here is a list of things that may be able to be paid for with a Reverse Mortgage (borrower is required to continue to make tax and home insurance payments and keep the home in proper repair as with any mortgage)

  • Child’s or grandchild’s education. Perhaps lack of finances is stopping them from bettering themselves and helping them to care for their futures.  Sometimes giving them part of their inheritance now can do so much more than waiting until they are retired to receive some help.
  • Create a charitable fund that you and your family can run together. Talk to your kids and find out shared values or interests and come up with a game plan of how your charitable foundation can impact those things you care about.  Create a family mission statement and be open to your children’s ideas so that your philanthropy can be joined and continue on after you are no longer here.  Look for ways to support your different children’s motivations and look for ways to enhance the way they would like to give back.
  • Create a family tradition of service. Perhaps an annual service project can be done and financed through a reverse mortgage.  Rotate one of your children’s families to come up with a service project that to be done together.  Even if you are far away in distance you can join in the same service.  For example you can make blankets for children in hospitals nearby, or backpacks with items needed by foster children.  Justserve.org is a wonderful resource to find service projects you can do in your area.
  • Take your entire family on a once in a lifetime vacation.  A family cruise with all your kids and grand-kids is a great, stress-free way to enjoy time together.  Goofy matching t-shirts, 24 hour pizza and ice cream, plenty of kids activities and adult activities to do with NO PLANNING on your part are all a great part of a cruise.  I truly believe it is the perfect family vacation because even parents get a break; absolutely no cooking or cleaning is done by you.  All-inclusive resorts or large Air-BNB rentals are also a great way to get everyone together for guaranteed memories the family will treasure long after you are gone.
  • Annual traditions are a great way to ensure family time and memories. Trips to spring training or opening day for baseball are great events the family can look forward to every year.  Polar express train experiences in Utah or Arizona are great fun with grand-kids.  Our family loves to go to Riley’s farm Christmas Carol Vignette in Yucaipa Ca every year; hay rides, hot chocolate, Christmas Carols, old – time group dances, traditional English dinner and watching the play are all great parts of the night and our kids look forward to spending this special time with just them and grandpa and grandma every year; sometimes they can get lost in the shuffle when all the family and cousins are together.
  • Make a trip with your kids to the place you grew up or a place of significance in your life. Take them with you to connect with the places they have heard stories about and perhaps hear new ones that you remember on your visit.
  • If your family lives all over the country or the world, pay to have them all come together for Christmas or Thanksgiving or significant time in your life. Years pass with not getting together and unfortunately this effort may only be made after someone passes away, take the time now to celebrate life together.
  • I once had a client get a reverse mortgage solely to give his kids their inheritance early. He said he wanted to see the joy in their eyes himself when he gave them the money and watch them appreciate it while he was still around.  I think there is wisdom in this if you are already financially set and can afford to pass this off now, why not?
  • Fund a large family reunion with kids, grand-kids, great-aunts and uncles. Pay a family history professional to record family stories and histories that might be lost to future generations.  Grandpa and grandma can talk about what life was like as a child, their first date, raising their kids, serving in war, personal successes, how you learned from failure, stories you remember about your parents/grandparents.  Perhaps you may have a financial advisor come in and teach principles of financial success to kids and grand-kids and help them prepare for their futures.  Have everyone contribute their favorite family recipes and create a cookbook for each person to take home.  Grandma and grand-kids may even want to cook some of these recipes together.  Funding a family reunion may be my favorite idea because of the impact it can have for years to come.
  • Learn about your family history. Ancestry.com has great resources to help you input what you know and research all the history you don’t know.  This site is user friendly and there are people to help if you get stuck.   They also can have you submit your DNA by mail to them and they will link it to your ancestry profile.  I often get emails of relatives I never knew about that have been found through my DNA.  You can have diaries transcribed and added to your profile.  Costco even has services that will digitize all of your family photos, videos, and histories.  If you take the time to link these pictures and videos to your ancestry profile, these family heirlooms will never be lost or stuck with just one of your children.  As you connect your children and grandchildren’s profiles to yours, they will always have access to all of their family pictures and photos.

Now that you are retired you have the time, but may not think you have the money to create wonderful memories and traditions with your family.  Most people leave their largest asset largely untapped in retirement.  You have money trapped in your home that you may be able to access with a HECM reverse mortgage.  This is a great way to pass on your history and family legacy and to pay for new experiences that your family will relish after you are gone.   Again I would ask, would you rather pass on a large pile of cash or a large stockpile of memories and have a greater influence on the many branches of your family tree in the future?   Surprisingly, with a reverse mortgage, you may be able to not only create the memories and experiences with your posterity but also be able to leave a sum of cash to your heirs.  Why not have the best of both worlds?  The least you can do is call to see what a HECM reverse mortgage could do for you and your family.  If you are interested in seeing how a reverse mortgage may be able to provide funding to assist you in creating cherished family memories and traditions, contact Robert Snow Krepps NMLS #255191 at HighTechLending Inc.  (877) 567 – 7476 or rkrepps@hightechlending.com  .

HighTechLending Inc, NMLS # 7147, is an Equal Housing Lender.  Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act.

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