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Funding a post-retirement life can be quite easy and a retiree can spend time in the comfort of his/her own home

What you save and invest through your earning life has to also fund your post-retirement years, which stretch nearly as long as the former these days.

You need a bouquet of investments to see you through and one way is to unlock investments you have already made.

First things first, you could be drawing a pension from your employer, have provident fund proceeds, National Pension Scheme or annuity policies. Of course, you could be having a post-retirement job or consulting income and your investments will be fetching you returns.

You would most certainly own your own home and that presents you with one more way to add to your income at this stage.

A reverse mortgage is simply a loan against your home under specific circumstances. The basic requirement for this is you should be over 60, you should own and live in the home you are going to mortgage. The bank will create a mortgage on the property and give you a loan against it. You can take it in a lumpsum or at monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual instalments.

You get to stay in the same home and don’t have to vacate. You don’t have to pay interest or even pay back the principal amount. When you pass away, your nominee/ legal heirs will get what is left of the value of the home after the bank collects its principal and interest.

Reverse mortgage as a product has been available for over a decade-and-a-half but has not caught up much. There are a few touted reasons. Indians love to will their homes to their progeny so this option did not sit well culturally – well that is changing in significant pockets.