[Edward]

Thinking of the die with zero goal. Any thoughts on what to do with a paid off residence? Definitely doesn’t make sense to have locked up home equity, e.g. a $400k “asset” that you can’t spend.

Sell and rent with the proceeds? Get a heloc and keep it open til death?

[Tony]

I’m all for not paying down a low interest mortgage early. But, if you made those minimum payments and the house is now paid off? That’s ok too.

I mean, it would be foolish to take out a mortgage or HELOC at today’s rates, if your house is already paid off.

[Jamie]

I plan to downsize significantly so that equity is much smaller but I’ve also considered a reverse mortage since I don’t have kids and the bank getting my house would probably easier for the estate anyway.

[David]

Sell and rent a luxury apartment/condo. No maintenance and all the other perks.

The more I have thought about my priorities since retiring in 2023 being freedom/time/quality of life the less homeownership seems to meet that.

The more renting a luxury apartment/condo seems to fit these priorities. But maybe I’m missing something.

[Jeff]

Die with zero is more about living now. In the moment. Experiences over stuff.

Experience life now while one is still fit enough to live it because time is limited.

Its less about having zero dollars at death.

Can you live these experiences while keeping your home?

[Lori]

We sold our paid off home and moved to a smaller rental in an amazing location and I’ve never been happier.

If we loved our home and neighborhood we wouldn’t have left, but it was a couple miles from the lake and the house was bigger and more responsibility than we wanted.

So, the details made the difference. Now we’re on the lake and we have no house responsibilities, win win lol.

Our kids are in private school so this also makes moving easier for us since we don’t have to worry about school districts.

[Holly]

Our old house was paid off and the house we upgraded to in 2020 will be paid off in about 4.5 years.

I live with the die with zero mentality and having a lot of home equity doesn’t bother me at all.

I have no desire to be a renter and deal with all that comes with it.

[Serena]

Yep, both of those options are good. Just depends on if you want to be mobile or not. We are selling our primary to travel the world for 10 years and using the equity to live off the investment gains.

Then we will either use that money to buy or build a future small house, continue to rent, or move into one of our rentals.

I am in the current mindset of not locking up all that equity. And at some point you could look into reverse mortgage.

Although I don’t know anything about it myself.

[Sara]

I don’t hate having equity locked in my home because my home brings me joy and peace.

For me, that’s the best ROI.

[Kris]

I just want to add: I think if I wanted to access my equity I’d just do a HELOC or look into a reverse mortgage.

I don’t think I ever want to be a renter again.

[Ernest]

Problem is – nobody knows exactly when the time will come. Even folks that are told they have 6 months to live – may go on to live another 6 years.

[Mackenzie]

My plan after reading Die with zero is not to leave my kids cash but to leave our house as we want to live in it and allow the kids to keep it for their families.

[Peter]

You could just continue to live there and enjoy inexpensive housing costs. I have a super low mortgage rate, but still would love to pay my house off early.

Goal would be to have zero debt.

Would also require less money to FI if I could take out my biggest monthly expense.

[Kristin]

Reverse mortgages can have favorable terms especially if the goal is to die with zero. They can be backed by FHA and have ability for heirs to purchase the house back after death if you did pass it to someone.

They always sound like a bad idea but I’ve heard of some recently that can be a win win especially if you aren’t preserving the equity for others.

Go get it, let the house pay those bills while you are dead.

[Heidi]

If you have a donor advised fund you can have that be the beneficiary of your home and they would be able to distribute the assets in alignment with your wishes for community impact

[Mark]

Keep paid off home for aging in place. Tap equity for personal high quality in-home LTC.

Or sell house and use proceeds for a high quality continuous residential LTC until you pass away.

[Adam]

A HELOC only has a set draw period so you can’t rely on that being there forever.

You’d need a HECM line of credit (reverse mortgage) if that’s really your goal.

To try to mitigate the risk of a long term care event, some people will use part of the HECM to pay for a long term care insurance policy and use the rest for living expenses.

[Paul]

This kind of mentality doesn’t make sense to me. Don’t take on more debt.

All this means is that you no longer have to pay a mortgage/rent, and frees up more money in your budget for other things.

[Marc]

What will you do if you need expensive end of life care? Can be hundreds of thousands per year

[Author]

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