The Spouse Keeps the House: Fixing Reverse Mortgages
The reverse mortgage is a new source of cash for aging homeowners. Instead of paying the bank each month, you get a payment, depending on the amount of equity in your home. A big drawback has been the potential for financial suffering and loss by the spouse who isn’t listed on the mortgage. When the…
READ MORE » »Reverse Mortgages: The Good and the Bad
You want to stay in your house as you grow older, but you need a ready source of cash to pay your bills, now and in the future. With a regular mortgage, you make payments to the lender, whether it is a bank or a credit union or some other kind of financial institution. With…
READ MORE » »Help for Caregivers: Here are the Best Links
If you are reading this, the odds are good that you are a soldier in the caregivers army, more than 60 million strong, the volunteering group of Americans who care for others, for parents, for spouses, for children, for other relatives, for friends. You do it for love, for friendship, for devotion, not for money….
READ MORE » »New App delivers health care wishes in a crisis
Mom, 93 with congestive heart failure and crippling arthritis, living a thousand miles away, falls down, breaks a hip and is rushed to the ER. The doctors get her stabilized, and see she has your name in the wallet as the emergency contact. An ER nurse calls you to discuss her treatment. On your phone…
READ MORE » »How to Fight a Nursing Home Eviction
When you or someone you love enters a nursing home, you don’t surrender rights at the door. You can be evicted only under very specific circumstances. It’s not enough for a social worker, or a nurse, or a doctor, or the manager to say, “Your Dad is a difficult patient and he would be better…
READ MORE » »Help Your Grandkids Pay for College
Helping with college costs is a generous things for grandparents to do. Make sure you do it in the most cost-effective way You can write a check directly to the college, and this does not count toward the tax-free gifts you can give each year. The limit is $14,000 to any individual, and another $14,000…
READ MORE » »Tax Breaks for Caregivers: Siblings Can Share Deductions
You are helping Mom or Dad, paying the bills for their living expenses. As a caregiver, you may be able to claim a tax deduction. A person is a dependent for tax purposes if you provide more than half of the individual’s the living expenses for the year. Money determines this, not where the person…
READ MORE » »3 Kinds of Help You Might Need- moving, flying,legal- and Where to Get It
You are downsizing, moving from a big home to a small condo. Years of memories, furniture, photo albums, and more stuff than you remember must be sorted, distributed among the family, given to friends and neighbor or just tossed out. It’s challenging, and fear-making. Time to call a specialist. People who know how to help…
READ MORE » »Social Security Paying Benefits in Same-Sex Marriages in 13 states
Social Security has begun paying spousal benefits in 13 states and the District of Columbia, all jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is legal. Social Security issued what it calls a list of “marriage states. This includes California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. Social Security’s…
READ MORE » »Your Job is Safe When You Take Time Off for Caregiving
Caregiving is a huge personal and family activity in the United States, with more than 65 million Americans providing care sometime during the year. When a call comes at 2 am that Mom has broken a hip and is in the hospital, a daughter (and it is most often a daughter) will drop everything and…
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