Phil Stevenson's Blog

I reached 200,000 a few days back…and I didn't even notice! Points haven't been the main draw of Active Rain since I joined (back in 2007) but it's still be a rewarding journey nonetheless.  I've seen many bloggers surpass a million (and some even 2 million) but 200,000 has been half a decade in ...

"The Iceberg of Retirement": Dealing with Hidden Retirement Concerns Retirement concerns for many seniors can stem from one main concern: finances. How will I afford this? Will this be enough to pay for it? How much do I need to save? And the list goes on. However, there are other concerns future...

"When You Teach a Homeowner to Fish…" We are bombarded with a lot of messages daily, courtesy of advertising, but I sometimes wonder if advertisers ever consider educating consumers first before throwing their "message" out there.  Turns out there is a discrepancy between financial advertising an...

Do Married Couples See Eye-to-Eye on Retirement Plans? Retirement can be a stressful time for many people. Most of the time, it means leaving your current job, slowing down and reevaluating your priorities as new challenges and opportunities arise. For a married couple it may be even more stressf...

HUD Appeals Non-Borrowing Spouse Ruling The Department of Housing and Urban development is not giving up without a fight and has appealed the October court decision that found them liable for foreclosing on the homes of non-borrowing spouses whose spouse had a obtained a reverse mortgage. Accordi...

"Right-sizing" with a Reverse Purchase The new, consolidated reverse mortgage program still has a ways to go before it can become what the FHA hoped it would when the changes were implemented. However, this doesn’t mean that the effort to educate the reverse mortgage industry, and the public, wil...

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back for Reverse Mortgages? The changes to the reverse mortgage program, which were implemented on September 30, have been polarizing to say the least. On the one side, it's could be the best thing FHA has done in order to make the program safer for future consumer whi...

"Please, Input Your Email Here to Get Valuable Information About..." I hate it when websites do this...it's an insult to the consumer and, probably, makes them want to leave and never visit your site again.  It's probably one of the worst marketing techniques ever invented: hold the information h...

"Reverse Mortgages May Grow in Popularity…" The reputation of the reverse mortgage as "a loan of last resort" has made many future borrowers wary of even considering it unless they are in a dire situation.  This is the biggest hurdle for the reverse mortgage program moving forward, possibly the m...

Texans Get 12 Days... The Lone Star state become the last state to allow its senior citizens the ability to purchase a home using a reverse mortgage when Proposition 5 was voted into a law in early November. The reverse purchase is expected to be available for senior homeowners during the first q...