Terrified of retirement

dktreesea

OP, how about drawing down some of the equity in your house, with the kind of mortgage where you take a lump sum now and the mortgage isn't paid back until after death and from your estate? Even if this amount, if spread out over the next 20 years or so, only worked out at around £100 a week, it would probably make a huge differnece to your peace of mind.

I have this struggle with an older person in our family. They are reluctant to take a reverse mortgage out on their house, even though it doesn't affect their right to live there in any way whatsoever and would just be paid back from their estate, and consequently, at 70 years young, have a much poorer quality of life than they deserve. Things like only heating one room instead of the whole house, giving up the lawn mowing man even though they are really not of an age when they should be pushing a mower around on uneven ground, and not eating fresh fish because they can't afford it.

Why is it that older people, particularly parents, insist on preserving their inheritance for their children instead of releasing some of the equity from their homes to give themselves a better quality of life?

zygurat789

dktreesea wrote: »

OP, how about drawing down some of the equity in your house, with the kind of mortgage where you take a lump sum now and the mortgage isn't paid back until after death and from your estate? Even if this amount, if spread out over the next 20 years or so, only worked out at around £100 a week, it would probably make a huge differnece to your peace of mind.

I have this struggle with an older person in our family. They are reluctant to take a reverse mortgage out on their house, even though it doesn't affect their right to live there in any way whatsoever and would just be paid back from their estate, and consequently, at 70 years young, have a much poorer quality of life than they deserve. Things like only heating one room instead of the whole house, giving up the lawn mowing man even though they are really not of an age when they should be pushing a mower around on uneven ground, and not eating fresh fish because they can't afford it.

Why is it that older people, particularly parents, insist on preserving their inheritance for their children instead of releasing some of the equity from their homes to give themselves a better quality of life?

You have to be careful here.
If you take out a mortgage there is interest on it. If you don't have to make payments then the interest rolls up. It is possible for the interest to exceed the value of the house in which case the hose maybe sold.
Be very careful, take advice, get promises in writing and be careful.

Goldiegirl

Regarding paying for funerals - if the bill is sent to the deceased's bank, with a request from the executor/administrator of the estate, the bank will, in many cases, pay for the funeral with funds from the deceased's bank account.

janiebquick

OP, you could always do what a lot of people do and earn money from survey sites and - for example - mystery shopping. Here's the MSE link:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money-online

There may even be a section on these forums to discuss this.

Mojisola

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Regarding paying for funerals - if the bill is sent to the deceased's bank, with a request from the executor/administrator of the estate, the bank will, in many cases, pay for the funeral with funds from the deceased's bank account.

Which is fine if there are several thousands of pounds in the account.

Bradfield

I have some difficulty understanding the problem here. I live alone and after paying rent I have about the same disposable income that the op expects to have.

I have all the usual domestic bills plus unlimited broadband and anytime calls; I also run a car.

I am not in debt and my spending stays always within the limits of my regular income.

The op indicates that she has deferred her state pension for the past 7 years but does not say whether she will opt for an increased weekly pension or a lump sum payment.

What she chooses is an entirely personal matter and she will know what is best for her; but in my own case I opted for a lump sum payment and it is the best thing I could have done. You get enormous peace of mind from having some savings in the bank. You do not for example, even have to think about life insurance or leaving debts behind because you know there will be ample left to pay for it all.

I am talking here as someone who has fairly modest savings and a fairly modest income by most people's standards.

I wonder if the op is simply a worrier and expecting the worst when it almost certainly wont happen. Believe me you dont need to be rich to have a fairly decent retirement.

bugslet

Re the funerals, I had to organise the funeral for my OH a couple of months ago. As part of the tidying up process, I rang the pensions people so they knew to stop paying his pension and having done that, the next thing the advisor asked, was if I had sufficient money to pay for the funeral. I did, so I didn't pursue that line of enquiry, but obviously there is financial assistance available.

As regards the funeral directors, they asked for a 10% deposit, around £300.00 and didn't ask when I was going to pay the rest, which frankly seemed a bit trusting!

Re earning some extra money, some great ideas there for dog walking and sitting, I wish I knew of someone reliable near me that could do that sometimes. The mutts come to work, but sometimes it would be nice to go out for the day with friends without having to put them in kennels.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mojisola wrote: »

Even if I'm going to receive an inheritance in a year or so, how does that help me find the money to pay for a funeral now?

I wondered about that a while back, re my parents' funerals come the time and got told by everyone that they would be paid for out of the estate and that undertakers wait for the "estate" to be translated into money terms to pay their bill.

I wouldn't have thought my parents are the sort to leave someone with a problem as to how to deal with a situation like that, so imagine that IS the case (ie as they declined to set some money to one side specifically for that when I asked them if they had).

Mojisola

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I wondered about that a while back, re my parents' funerals come the time and got told by everyone that they would be paid for out of the estate and that undertakers wait for the "estate" to be translated into money terms to pay their bill.

I wouldn't have thought my parents are the sort to leave someone with a problem as to how to deal with a situation like that, so imagine that IS the case (ie as they declined to set some money to one side specifically for that when I asked them if they had).

Ask some local undertakers and see what their normal practice is. It probably varies around the country.

However, funeral directors are running a business. Would you be happy to work this week and not get paid for six months or a year?

SevenOfNine

bugslet wrote: »

Re the funerals, I had to organise the funeral for my OH a couple of months ago. As part of the tidying up process, I rang the pensions people so they knew to stop paying his pension and having done that, the next thing the advisor asked, was if I had sufficient money to pay for the funeral. I did, so I didn't pursue that line of enquiry, but obviously there is financial assistance available.

As regards the funeral directors, they asked for a 10% deposit, around £300.00 and didn't ask when I was going to pay the rest, which frankly seemed a bit trusting!

Re earning some extra money, some great ideas there for dog walking and sitting, I wish I knew of someone reliable near me that could do that sometimes. The mutts come to work, but sometimes it would be nice to go out for the day with friends without having to put them in kennels.

Of course Bugslet. I completely forgot about your remarks in para 1. There is a form you can complete if you have no dosh. As for our funeral director - same as yours, deposit but no questions asked about balance.

Mojisola - I've got a little challenge for you. Come up with something POSITIVE for the OP, all your negativity so far is going to drive OP into an earlier grave than they've planned.