Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guest, we have Kevin Gutman. Kevin is a senior mortgage broker, reverse mortgage specialist, and four-time Amazon best-selling author, including the book A Reverse Mortgage Changed My Life. 

He brings a wealth of knowledge, integrity, and a people-first approach to senior home financing. With a deep commitment to helping senior homeowners understand their options. Kevin focuses on simplifying the home loan process while prioritizing transparency and convenience. 

With over 21 years of experience in mortgages, reverse mortgages, and real estate investments, Kevin offers actionable insights and relatable stories that resonate well with seniors and their families. 

As one of only 218 certified reverse mortgage professionals in the country, Kevin has over 1,005 five-star reviews and an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. He’s a proud member of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. 

His background includes growing up in a real estate family, earning three master’s degrees, and a strong track record of client referrals and repeat business, which comprise 85% of his work. He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad to have him on the show. Kevin, are you there?

Kevin

Hi, Cosmos. Thanks for having me today.

Cosmos

Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show.

Kevin, can you tell the audience more about yourself, your story, your background, and how you got started in this industry?

Kevin 

Yeah, that’s a great question. So I grew up in Southern California, right near Disneyland. My dad was a realtor and investor and trained new real estate agents. So I grew up running real estate my whole life, and my dad taught me a lot about real estate and people. He retired at age 48 from his investments. He had cash flow from 20 rental properties. He didn’t need to work anymore. 

And I just thought, wow, real estate’s a powerful wealth builder. When I started my career, I worked in the nonprofit sector. I used to travel around the country and the world and raise money for people in the developing world to have clean water, medical clinics, schools, small business loans, etc. Just trying to make their lives better. And it was very rewarding work. 

And I did it for 12 years. But my wife and I have five children, and I traveled too much. I was gone about half the time. I needed to be home more to be with the family, so I left that. My wife also has a real estate background. So we started flipping houses and entered the mortgage industry 21 years ago. So there you go.

Cosmos

 Most people with a home have to pay mortgages in the mortgage industry. So this is a very interesting topic, Kevin, but I wanted to ask you, from your perspective, what is the most common theme or issue you find among people paying mortgages? They can avoid a common mistake, which will help them save money on home mortgages.

Kevin 

When people, especially when they get their first mortgage, it’s very intimidating and very daunting because they don’t know what the criteria are for qualifying. They’re unsure who to talk to or what programs are out there. And so I prefer the mortgage broker side. I’ve been a mortgage banker and a mortgage broker for the last several years. Here’s why. Because mortgage brokers can shop. In our case, our company has over 100 lenders that we can shop for people. 

We have every program imaginable. The banks that I worked at tend to have vanilla programs. You know, they’re kind of cookie-cutter programs. And also what I found out when I came to the broker side is that when you work with a broker, it saves you over $10,000 over the life of the loan because we tend to have better rates and better fees than traditional retail lenders or banks. 

I would encourage somebody to hunt out a reverse if they want a mortgage. Not a, we’ll talk about reverse mortgages in a minute. But to hunt out and find a mortgage broker to help them, I think they’ll be better served in the long run.

Cosmos

Just to elaborate so that the audience can understand this more, most people tend to go to banks to get a mortgage. Right. So, from your perspective, what makes your solution better, and how so, from a financial standpoint?

Kevin 

A bank has its product, right? They only have limited products. A broker has every product out there. 

We have lenders competing for business. So, that bank only has its products, fees, or offerings. A broker has hundreds of options for people to shop to help them get the best interest rate, pay the lowest fees, and get the best mortgage payment. 

Mortgage brokers are all over the country and are easy to find. As mortgage brokers, we currently have about 27% of the market. And the research, an independent study that was just done, Cosmos, proved that working with a broker saves people over $10,000 over the life of the loan.

Cosmos

Wow. Many people just want to know how to save money on mortgages because they have to do it for 25- or 30-year terms. And it just can; it can get taxed. It’s almost they’re now, they’re, they’re now stuck for the foreseeable future with that, you know.

Kevin

Here are some tips that your listeners might benefit from if they want to pay it off faster. There are two things anybody can do that are very easy. One is to pay the mortgage every two weeks. 

Let’s say it’s a $2,000 a month mortgage. Every two weeks, you pay $1,000, which ends up happening. You pay an extra payment in a year because it’s 26 bi-weekly instead of one monthly payment. So you end up paying 13 payments ultimately instead of 12. So that saves seven years on a 30-year mortgage just doing that. The other thing they can do is add money to the principal. So, let’s say, in our example, somebody adds $100 or $50 per payment to their mortgage payment for principal, which will shave another few years off. So now they’ve taken a 30-year note and cut it down to 20, and people say, Yeah, but I’m not going to live there 30 years. 

But even when you sell, you have more equity because you’ve paid your mortgage faster. So the idea is to get rid of debt as quickly as possible and use leverage to get into the house, but then pay it off as quickly as possible. And those are two strategies that may help your listeners.

Cosmos

Well, Kevin, it’s amazing that you mentioned that. Still, I wanted to elaborate on the part about paying on the principal because when the banks collect money for the mortgage, they take it and put it on the interest. Correct me if I’m wrong. Right. 

How would you ensure the principal is paid off versus the money you’re putting in being paid off for the interest?

Kevin 

So what I encourage people to do, if they still write checks, which not many people do, is write two checks, one for the payment and one for the principal. If you do it online, you’d make two transactions. One for the payment, one for the principal. Then, you just write and submit to the principal in the memo part. And that way the. The mortgage company is instructed to apply only to the principal, not interest.

Cosmos

Karen, I appreciate your mentioning this detail because many people do not know they can do that. And they end up paying. They just make the payment, and it usually goes to interest. So I’m glad that you’re mentioning that.

Kevin 

Absolutely.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, can you tell the audience more about a reverse mortgage?

Kevin 

Reverse mortgages have been around since 1961. There was a widow, back east, and she lost her husband. She could no longer afford to make her mortgage payment. She had a lot of equity, and she knew the local banker because her husband was a football coach. The banker played football for her husband. And so, the banker went to his bank and said, Listen, now this family, this woman, can’t stay in her house unless we suspend her mortgage payments and allow her to remain in her home, but not have a mortgage payment. We take payments from her equity each month. 

That’s what they did. And so the very first reverse mortgage was born in 1961. And Cosmos. For 27 years, the industry was not regulated. It was kind of the Wild West. There were a lot of versions of a reverse mortgage. And honestly, some people got taken advantage of, lost their homes, and were foreclosed on. In 1988, President Reagan, with Congress, passed the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage bill, HECM. They made it the trial bill for 10 years just to see if it would help a senior remain in their home, retain title of ownership, maintain their independence, entertain the lifestyle they’ve dreamed of, and gain access to their equity. 

And after 10 years, they made the bill permanent. And by the way, over a million people, 1.2 million people, have taken advantage of a reverse mortgage since 1989, when the first one was taken out. AARP surveyed. With a reverse mortgage, 94% were satisfied or very satisfied with the program’s design. And over the years, they’ve improved it and made it safer. It’s probably the safest loan somebody can get out there. And I can talk about safeguards if you’d like.

But anyway, when the government’s involved, it’s a good news, bad news scenario. The good news is they’re going to protect people, especially seniors. The bad news is there’s a little more paperwork and red tape involved, but ultimately it’s a tremendous product for the right person.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, what do you think Dave Ramsey gets right or wrong regarding reverse mortgages? Because I know a lot of people talk about this stuff, but what is the real deal about this?

Kevin 

Yeah, you know, Dave Ramsey’s helped many people understand finance, budgeting, and the debt snowball. Helping people pay off their debt faster helped many people with that. But he’s misinformed and misguided when it comes to reverse mortgages. There’s a YouTube clip with him going on a rant about a 92-year-old man in Chicago who will lose his house because he has a reverse mortgage. The truth is, Cosmos, the man didn’t pay his property taxes. And you know, whether you have a mortgage, no mortgage, or a reverse mortgage, they will foreclose on your house if you don’t pay the property taxes. And that’s just some misinformation that he is misinforming people about how they work. 

And then another one out there, I don’t know if you know Susie Orman, but she’s also not for them. Susie also recommends that people take out a home equity line of credit, or a HELOC. And the thing about a HELOC is that it’s only a 10-year draw. A reverse mortgage has a 150-year life, ah, period. There are mandatory monthly payments with the HELOCs. There’s no payment with the reverse mortgage. The borrower has to repay the loan with the reverse mortgage. It’s a nonrecourse loan. That means the only recourse the lender has is against the sale or refinance of the house. They can’t go to the borrower, their estate, or their heirs to get any of the money back. Finally, a HELOC can be frozen, reduced, or demanded in full payment. None of that can happen with a reverse mortgage line of credit. 

So you hope these media moguls or magnets would be more informed when commenting on things. But specifically with the reverse mortgage, they’re both off base.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, many people on the Internet and in the media talk about finance, mortgages, and real estate. And as you just mentioned, there’s a lot of misinformation. 

So, from your perspective, for the sake of the audience and listeners looking at this, where should they get accurate and correct information about the subject?

Kevin 

Yeah, that’s a great question. In 2021, there were 422,000 mortgage originators in the country. 422. This year, there are 155,000. So we’ve lost about 60%. The challenge with that is that less than 1% do reverse mortgages. 

So you would think a mortgage is a mortgage, but reverse mortgages are very different. And last year alone, several people called me and said I started with another loan officer, another company. They didn’t know what they were doing. I found you online, and I’m switching to you because you want to work with somebody trained in reverse mortgages. I always say you don’t want somebody practicing on you. Right. Because they’re complex, they can take extra time if somebody doesn’t know what they’re doing. There’s different documentation. We collect fewer documents. 

Credit score doesn’t matter. Credit history does. There are just different things that are different with a reverse mortgage. I’ll mention this now: there’s a list. Listeners may want to grab. My website is reversemortgage-revolution.com, and I’ve written a reverse mortgage consumer guide. They can download it and read it. It compares traditional mortgages with reverse mortgages. It compares HELOCs with reverse mortgage lines of credit. It compares jumbo mortgages to traditional reverse mortgages, 1 million and up. It talks about the myths FAQ. It’s a robust document that answers many questions and may benefit your listeners.

Cosmos

 I recommend that my listeners look at your website and this guide because many want to know how to pay their mortgages quicker and save money. 

So this is valuable information. I appreciate having you come on the show to explain all of this.

Kevin 

My pleasure.

Cosmos

Kevin, besides a reverse mortgage, I wanted to ask you about a retirement mortgage. And how does that work exactly? Because, you know, a lot of seniors are having. They’re retiring, and they have to. They have to manage their budget and all that, you know.

Kevin

 Yeah. So you know, Cosmos, there’s only one loan in the country that doesn’t require repayment, and there’s no payment due each month. And that’s a reverse mortgage, or sometimes a retirement mortgage. And how much somebody can borrow. This may be some information your listeners might want to know, and they might have parents who could benefit from it, too. How much somebody can borrow depends on age, home value, and interest rates. And interest rates mirror conventional 30-year interest rates. 

Right now, they’re in the mid-to-high sixes in 2024. March of 2020, 2025. Sorry. And one other thing you asked. Now I want to be sure to come back to this. Suppose somebody wants to work with an expert. About 220 of us have the Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional (CRMP) designation regarding reverse mortgages. And that means the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association issues it. What it means is to sit for the test. We’ve been doing reverse mortgages long enough. We’ve passed a rigorous exam that only 25% of people pass. We commit to a code of ethics from Nirmala, and we commit to continuing education. So we’re current with the industry, and  I said, it’s finding a needle in a haystack because less than 1% of mortgage originators do these. 

And then you’ve got a subset of only 220 that know the program inside and out. But it’s worth looking into and finding somebody who knows what they’re doing because it’ll save you time and money.

Cosmos

No, yeah, Kevin, I mean it’s relevant.

And one of the things I wanted to ask for the sake of, in addition to this, was how do you—what kind of strategies do you recommend to boost your buying power to buy a home? I know many people who want to buy a home but don’t know how.

Kevin 

On the traditional mortgage side, grants are available. One of our lenders offers up to 15,000 in grant money if you qualify. On the reverse side, somebody can use a reverse mortgage in three ways. Eliminate their monthly mortgage payment, access their equity if they own the house outright or have a lot of equity, or three, increase their purchasing power when buying another home. 

So specifically, let me speak to that because that was your question. Say somebody’s lived in their home for several years and raised their family there, but now it doesn’t; it doesn’t suit them anymore. It’s too big to clean or maintain. They have stairs that are hard to go up and down. Maybe it’s too much maintenance or deferred maintenance so they can sell their home, take that equity, make one large down payment, get a newer home in the part of town they want to live in with updated amenities and no deferred maintenance, and increase their buying power by about 35 to 45% by using a reverse mortgage. It’s called a HECM for purchase. 

And that’s a strategy I help many clients do because we often hear, I can’t afford to move. But it’s a game changer when they realize they can increase their purchasing power, make one large down payment, and not have a monthly payment.

Cosmos

Wow. That is a very interesting strategy because I don’t think people have considered it that way. So, I have a question. 

Is it that more people are not using these strategies out of curiosity because this is very pragmatic and practical stuff that people should be doing?

Kevin 

Usually, my response is that this sounds too good to be true. And when I say it’s not too good to be true but too good to be free, what does that mean? This is the most expensive loan somebody can ever get. Because of Cosmos, these are FHA mortgages. Every FHA loan has mortgage insurance. In this case, the mortgage insurance protects the lender. They’re insured that they will get all their money, but it also protects the borrower because they don’t have to pay the money back. It’s a nonrecourse loan. The only recourse the lender has is against the sale or refinance of the house. But you pay for that. It’s 2% up front of the value of the home. 

So if somebody has a $400,000 home, they’re paying 2% of that, which is $8,000 tacked onto the normal closing costs. So people say, Well, it’s expensive. And I say it is expensive, but it does what no other mortgage can do. No mortgage payment, don’t have to pay it back, can access your equity, etc. 

So that’s one of the downsides. People need to know it’s costly. Most of the costs can be rolled into the loan. There are only a few things somebody has to pay for out of pocket, and they’re small, but for the most part, they roll in the fees and don’t have to pay that out of pocket. But that is something we hear. It sounds too good to be true. Why aren’t more people doing it? We referenced earlier some of the gurus out there who turn people away when they can benefit from them. 

So I always tell people to look and do their research. Look into it yourself. Find out if it’s a good fit for you. Here’s. Here’s who it’s designed for. Somebody who doesn’t want to move wants to age in place—somebody who doesn’t want a mortgage payment or wants to access their equity. Somebody who wants to do stuff doesn’t want to tap into their assets and investments. They want to help their kids or their grandkids, or they want to buy another home or another business, or they want to travel, or they want to give to charity. It’s unlimited what people can do, which is why I wrote my book, because it’s stories about how people have used it.

Cosmos

The part about “too good to be true might apply. But if you go through it and do the research as you’re mentioning, then, for the sake of saving money and getting out of mortgages faster, this is pretty relevant, you know?

Kevin 

Absolutely.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, how would you do it? I know, I know, there. Many people want to gain greater certainty and control over their financial future. But they don’t plan, or they don’t know how to go about doing that. 

So, from your perspective, how do we plan for the future and have a sense of financial stability over the long term?

Kevin 

I love that question. It relates to what we mentioned a little bit ago when you discussed paying it off faster. And I encourage people to have their house paid off by age 62. 62 is the earliest somebody can get a reverse mortgage unless it’s a jumbo million-plus. Then they can get it at 55. But we’ll just say most people, it’s 62. 

So what happens at 62? Now they own their house outright. It’s the house they want to live in; they don’t want to move out of it. Now they get a reverse mortgage. They don’t need it per se, but they want it. Most people have a 401(k) or an IRA over time, right? Why? Because they want to grow their wealth over time, they get to the point where they don’t want to work anymore, or they want to work less. Now they can live off their investments. How a reverse mortgage can play into that is if somebody owns their house outright at 62, they take out a reverse mortgage, but they continue working. 

And let’s say 12 years later, for example. Ten years later, we’ll say they’re 72 and have a line of credit that they haven’t used with a reverse mortgage that has now doubled. So we’ll go back to our example. A $400,000 house—we’ll say they can borrow 35% of that, which is about 167. Right. Let me do the math real quick. Four hundred thousand times 0.65 times 0.35 is 140. 

Okay, so now they’ve got 140,000 in this line of credit. It’s growing by compound interest year over year over year. And in 10 years, that money could double if they don’t touch it. Now they have 280, and they let it ride another 12 years. Now they’re 84 and have $560,000 that they can draw on tax-free, that they can use however they want. What I ask people sometimes is, Do you have long-term care insurance? Most people don’t. I think 12% of the population does. I said, Well, there’s a way to self-fund your long-term care insurance policy. Get a reverse mortgage early, get a line of credit, let it grow, and then you can bring in help to help you bathe and cook and clean and run errands or whatever you need to do as you get older and you slow down a little bit and you need more help. But you can also use it. You don’t have to wait till 84. You can use it anytime for any reason. 

But the point is, you want, you don’t want that money sitting there. I did a seminar once at a senior expo, and the topic was reverse mortgages. And this lady comes up to me, saying, I’m not coming to your seminar because I own my house free and clear. I said, That’s awesome. You know, only about 35% of people have done that. Good for you. I say, let me ask you something. When you were working, did you have a 401(k)? Yeah. I said, Why? My company matched it, and I wanted to grow my assets and investments. I said, Okay. And how much is your home worth now? 400,000. Okay, great. 

So you’re okay not earning any return on that equity because that return on that equity is zero. I’m not talking about the appreciation. We only realize that when we sell or refinance. I’m talking about that equity that is sitting there doing nothing. I said, What if we could put 35% of that to work for you? 140,000. That can grow by compound interest, 7% a year, insured, guaranteed, and tax-free. She goes, Okay, I’m coming to your seminar. 

So that’s the power of. This is one example of how people can use it.

Cosmos

 Karen, can you elaborate a little more about compound interest regarding mortgages? So that our listeners and audience can know how powerful this is? Because many people do not appreciate the power of compounding, you know.

Kevin 

Yeah, it was Albert Einstein who said that it’s the eighth wonder of the world, and you either pay it or earn it. And you want to be on the earnings side because, you know, this is how lenders get wealthy. They charge us compound interest. 

But yeah, you want to. If, in my example, somebody can own their house by 62 and get a reverse mortgage, they get about 35% today that they can borrow, and they just let that sit there and grow. It’s an investment account you never have to look at or worry about. It just increases a little bit every month. A little bit. A little bit. 

So, in our example, 140,000 after the first year would be almost 150. Well, they didn’t do anything. They just unlocked some of their equity so they can put a reverse mortgage to work for them. It’s 160, then the next year, 171,500, 183.5. So you see how it just compounds. It just grows over time.

Cosmos

Yeah.

Kevin 

So it’s beautiful if you understand it and take advantage of it.

Cosmos

I mean, it is. It’s pretty amazing. And I would recommend my listeners do more research on the subject because this can help them financially a lot, you know. But, Kevin, many people are afraid of the next economic crisis. 

The 2007 economic crisis occurred regarding mortgages. They’re afraid that shortly, there will be another economic crisis where the real estate and stock market bubbles will burst. So, from your perspective, how should people look into real estate in the coming five years?

Kevin 

Yeah, so you know we have a generation buying homes now. They’re the largest generation, 80 million Gen Z. We don’t have enough houses. There’s not enough housing. The builders can’t keep up. So it’s a simple supply and demand situation. There’s not enough supply, and there’s more demand. The other thing is that interest rates are decreasing, which helps affordability. We’ve got grant programs to help first-time home buyers. 

So I’d encourage people to buy a house as soon as possible, even if it’s not their dream home. Just get in and start building wealth. National Association: Their research found that a homeowner had a 40x higher net worth than a renter. 40 times higher than a renter. So the sooner somebody can buy and earn equity or appreciation, the better. I don’t see a correction happening. We’ve had one, probably two and a half years, where the market’s been flat, and I think as interest rates come down, prices will go up again. 

But I think there are just too many factors. The millennium, the Gen Z buyers, and interest rates are slowly decreasing. Supply and demand are all factors that will keep the market strong. Then, the other thing is that when somebody takes out a reverse mortgage, the percentage they’re borrowing is protected. Let’s say it’s 35%. From previous examples, 35% can’t be cut or frozen, so there’s no payment. 

So even if the market declines, that money is locked in; it can’t be changed. So if somebody’s concerned about that, if nothing else, they should get a reverse just for that. To protect that equity.

Cosmos

Many people have different ideas about the future, the economy, and everything else. But what you’re saying is relevant, and, Kevin, just to elaborate on that, what were your thoughts on the 2007 crisis regarding real estate? Do you think it could have been avoided if people understood mortgages better?

Kevin

Yeah, you know, I got in the business in 2004, and interest rates were what they are today, mid-sixes. What ended up happening was that lending guidelines got too loose back then. We could offer loans; people could state their income and assets. Sometimes they didn’t even need to tell what job they had. 

And so you had people buying homes they couldn’t afford. And so you know, you can do that for a time, but eventually it catches up with you, right? Eventually, you can’t afford to pay; you have to foreclose. 

So I blame. People often want to blame the mortgage industry, but we don’t create the products; we just offer the products to the public. You know, we’re not the ones designing these programs. 

And so you have Streettreet that is at fault because they were taking these loans and selling Cing C bond paper as if it were bond paper. That has nothing to do with you. You have lenders who were designing these programs. There were programs out there. People could borrow more than their house was worth, 25% more than the home’s value. That’s not a good idea. We didn’t create that. I never offered that to people because I didn’t think it was good. 

But I don’t think we’re going to go there anymore. I don’t think there are too many regulations or too much oversight; there are too many. We saw the ramifications of those decisions, by the way. The government is also at fault because of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). It came out in the 70s, and the government’s been pushing for years to increase homeownership. And it’s a64 or 64, 65%. But it was high in 2007, 2008,07, 82009.nd 9. Because they have loosened the guidelines, more people could qualify. But historically it’s about 65/355, 35, maybe even 63/37, owner/owner renter. And not everybody should buy a house. It’s a responsibility. You know, there are expenses to maintain it, keep it up, and things. 

And some people are content, rent, and that’s fine. Ody, if somebody wants to buy a house and can qualify, they should do something sooner rather than later. And I don’t think we’ll get back to 2007 or 200807, 8 because too many regulations, too many guidelines, too many protections, that chappenappen.

Cosmos

Yeah, I mean, there’s. There’s. There are even a few movies about that period. You know, kind of the Big Show short, because the thing is, a lot of people still don’t understand what exactly happened. 

They used complex lingo, and the terminology for mortgages, subprime AAA, and everything else was just. It went over a lot of people’s heads.

Kevin

But that is a great movie. If. If somebody wants to understand that period. Those guys saw it and they predicted it, and nobody would listen. And they were.

Cosmos

 It was one of those really interesting movies where this guy will make about half a billion or some large amount of money, but he is wondering about the country’s moral principles. While that’s happening, it was. It was a very fascinating take on that period.

Kevin

Absolutely. Yeah.

Cosmos

Yeah.

Kevin

Ptsd Watching it. Because I lived it.

Cosmos

Yeah. I mean, it was a very interesting moment. And, I mean, it’s almost it’s. It’s historical in a way, you know, because it’s almost. It was not as bad as the 1929 depression, but it was almost. It almost got there. Had there been no bailouts, it would not have been good.

Kevin 

Yeah.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, can you tell the audience more about your book? A Reverse Mortgage Changed My Life. And what premise got you to write this?

Kevin 

Yeah. So, reverse mortgages had a bad reputation from 1961 to 1988. But some people still believe that if you lose your house, you give up the title to your house. And so I just thought, I’ll interview my clients and share their stories. I don’t know if you can see that. There it is, right there. Reverse mortgage changed my life. 

And it’s just stories of how it has helped them. What did they do with the money, and how did it change their life? I got the idea for Cosmos by going into the radio studio and having a handful of clients come in and record a Radio spot. The theme was a reverse mortgage that changed my life. 

And I left in tears. I thought, man, this is. This is more powerful than I even knew when I helped them, because this is months later, and they’re coming back and saying, This is how it’s changed my life. And so I had that idea in my head, and I thought, maybe one day I’ll write a book. 

And so I started last May and just started interviewing people in the last couple of years whom I helped. And their stories are very moving and very impactful. And so the idea was to share the book with potential clients, just to say, hey, this is how people, senior homeowners, have used it, and maybe it could help you.

Cosmos

So, Kevin, what were the common themes you noticed in all these stories? All these people that you interviewed.

Kevin 

Yeah, it’s interesting because they come from all walks of life, from all over the country. They’re married, they’re single, they’re divorced, they’re widowed, they’re every ethnicity, right? White, black, brown, that stuff doesn’t matter. But the common theme is they’re afraid of losing their money. That’s their number one fear. 

And when somebody can either eliminate their biggest expense, their monthly mortgage payment, or they have access to equity to use however they want, it just gives them peace of mind. I can’t tell you how many people have told me. I sleep much better at night and don’t worry about money. And, you know, it affects your health. It’s not good for your health when you are constantly worried, anxious, concerned, and stressed. 

So I had a guy, we, ah, were out to dinner one night, and he stopped by our table and said, I just want you to know you helped us go on a cruise last year. We’re going to another one this year. 

So it’s all these things we work for and dream of during our working lives, and say, one day, when I don’t have to work anymore, I’m going to do. That’s what allows them to do. We all have three buckets of money: wages. Of course, that stops when you stop working on investments and equity. The other two will last longer when people unlock some of the equity.

Cosmos

Wow. Yeah, it is so relevant when you talk about financial stress. It’s one of the reasons I do Extraordinary America, because when you have a certain level of financial stability and freedom, it affects every other part of your life. Money does play a big role, whether we want to accept it or not. 

But after a certain point, other things matter. But it plays a big role when you’re in the grind and living paycheck to paycheck.

Kevin 

When I meet people, I ask them, ” Okay, what are your options? You can stay here and do nothing. You could sell your home and move in with your kids. They always groan when I say that because they don’t want to do that. 

And their kids don’t want them to do that either, by the way. And they love their kids. They just want to live with their kids. Then, the fourth one is that you can do a reverse mortgage. Stay in your home and have enough money to do what you want. And, you know, people make all those choices, and whatever they choose is fine with me. Another one would be they can sell and go live in an assisted living home, which I don’t know what it is in Florida, but in Colorado, it’s 8 to $10,000 a month. It’s not cheap.

Cosmos

No. I mean, yeah. Having extra money or saving money from these strategies is a big deal.

This brings me to the next question: Kevin. So, how does my audience connect with you and learn about you, your work, and everything you do, and if they want to contact you for more information or help regarding their mortgage? How do they go about doing that?

Kevin 

I’ve got a couple of websites they can visit if they want a traditional loan. HeroMortgage, Loan.com. I help a lot of firefighters, police officers, veterans, teachers, nurses, etc. Ministers. 

And there are some incentives I give those people because they’re giving back to the community. And if they want to get a reverse mortgage, my website is reversemortgagerevolution.com, and that’s where they can get access to the consumer guide as well.

Cosmos

Karen, I’m so thankful you took the time to educate me on this podcast. The audience is about reverse mortgages and how they can save money because these are common-sense strategies that, ironically,  many of us were not applying to our homes. 

And, we should start doing so. So I appreciate that you took the time to do this, and I would want you to come back on the show later.

Kevin 

My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Cosmos.

Cosmos

Yeah, thank you, Kevin. I do appreciate it, and I want to tell my extraordinary Americans that, hey, look, there’s an extraordinary America. There’s an extraordinary American within every one of us. And we must awaken it and unleash it. Until next time. Bye for now.