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June 2000
REAL
ESTATE MATTERS
June 2000
Boomers Children Not
Talking About Future
A recent AARP survey found 67 percent
of older-generation parents haven’t talked with their boomer-aged
children about the parents’ ability to live independently. The
group offers boomers the following tips to begin the discussion:
 | Talk to your parents about
planning for the future before a problem or crisis arises and
continue talking about independent living issues over time. |
| Use such natural conversation
starters as your parents expressing their concerns, the
experience of your or your parents’ older friends, events in
your parents lives or newspaper reports, magazine articles and
the like. |
| Focus on such major issues as
housing, activities of daily living, health care,
transportation, money and insurance. Let the discussion be
guided by your parents’ concerns and needs, not your own
opinions. |
| Anticipate normal resistance to
these conversations. If a parent is reluctant to talk, try again
later. If a parent’s health or safety is in immediate
jeopardy, take stronger measures. |
| Accept your parents’ right to
make their own life choices even if you don’t agree with those
choices. |
Source: AARP
Life Stages of Tomorrow's Seniors
Now approaching their late 40s and
early 50s, today's baby boomers will encounter a number of
lifestyles as they age, including the following situations:
| Back-to-work. Boomers will
have the option of making later-in-life career changes and
working part-time or at home. |
| Care-giving. Adult boomers
will be assisting their elderly parents with long-term care
decisions and, in many instances, providing care to the older
generation. |
| Empty nesters. Baby boomer
seniors are expected to have ample free time and financial
resources for recreational activities, luxury shopping and
extended travel. |
| Single Living. Divorced or
widowed seniors can adopt an independent social lifestyle later
in life. Most of the boomer-generation senior singles will be
women. |
| Retirement. More than 40
million people in the United States will be retired for two
decades or longer. |
Source: Guide to Retirement Living,
Summer/Fall 1999
Fight Back: Home Repair Scams
Elderly low-income seniors long have
been a favored target among home repair scam artists, who sell
unnecessary and overpriced "home improvements" and even go
so far as to attach liens to the homes of seniors who refuse to pay
for shoddy or incomplete work, according to the National Consumer
Law Center. Seniors can protect themselves from unscrupulous
contractors by following these tips:
| Never purchase home improvement
services from a door-to-door contractor or on the basis of a
television commercial. |
| Always get a second estimate for
the same job from another contractor before you sign a contract
for work to be performed. |
| Always get a written contract or
estimate that describes the job, the price, the hourly rate for
any additional work and the contractor's clean-up
responsibilities. |
| Get references and call them. |
| Visit other job sites to review
work previously preformed by the contractor. |
| Watch out for bait-and-switch
tactics and shady financing schemes. |
Source: National Consumer Law Center
Early Payments Benefit Lender, Not
Borrower
Sending your monthly mortgage
payments to your lender a couple of weeks early each month might
sound like a smart-money way to pay less interest over the life of
your home loan. In fact, early monthly payments simply give the
lender free use of your money until the date when your payment is
due. Loan payment tracking systems typically record your payments on
the first day of the month, regardless of when you send your check
or have the payment withdrawn from your account. That means making
monthly payments early doesn't reduce the total interest you'll pay
over the life of your loan.
By the same logic, borrowers who pay
late, but within the grace period (usually 15 days) get free use of
the lender's money. This system is counterintuitive because it
penalizes early payers and rewards late payers, but that's the way
it works.
Source: "When Should Seniors
Prepay Their Mortgages?" Jack M. Guttentag, June 1, 1999.
Of course your
comments are welcomed.
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As a SRES®
Realtor I am here to assist you as a valuable resource for answers to specific
planning questions and solutions to problems you may face.
My exclusive Senior Advantage
Real Estate Discount Program can assist you in reviewing the options available
to you when you decide to sell a piece of property and in saving you literally
thousands of your hard-earned dollars at sale.
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