Retirement options advice

muttley6

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could perhaps help with advice on my current retirement situation.
I'm 65 and currently semi-retired but in the process of going fully retired because after so many years working, I'd like to now relax and enjoy life.

Now in order to retire the only way to get some capital to pay off the rest of the interest only morgage is by selling our house which we are in the process of doing. To give a rough idea of the figures, we've sold for £135K with about 70K left to pay off the morgage leaving the rest to live on plus myself and my wife will get around £1k a month through our state pensions.

With this capital we'll obviously need somewhere to live so we're looking at renting for the future.
This might all seem drastic, but it's really the only way we see forward as a retirement option for us, one where we don't have to worry about money for several years.

Is there any other government schemes that could potentially help now or in the future, as to me it all seems a minefield out there plus any other advice or help would be appreciated.

regards

Richard

dunstonh

have you considered equity release?

muttley6

thanks we have considered that but heard horror stories of people having to pay back more than they received.

dunstonh

muttley6 wrote: »

thanks we have considered that but heard horror stories of people having to pay back more than they received.

Thats no basis to eliminate though. Especially as there are very few horror stories and most relate to the 1980s versions.

EdInvestor

You should look into equity release again, there are now safeguards.Of course when you die/go into care and the house is sold, the amount that has to be paid back will be more than you received.But this is because you have not been paying any interest on the loan - it is rolled up for your lifetime.There is a guarantee that your heirs never have to pay back more than the house is worth, ie no negative equity.

Your plan of action will leave you in the worst of both worlds - with too much money to claim housing benefit but no security of tenure.

muttley6

Many thanks for your help. We have a 70k interest only mortgage and we do not think an equity release company would consider giving us a loan on the basis of this. Kind regards Richard.