WIDOW/WIDOWER’S

I am also a widow, so totally empathize when we lose our partner all the many emotions that must be dealt with.  All the stages of grief, all the decisions that must be made.  Then trying to make the right decision of what to do for you and your family.  Things like you should sell your home.  On top of this, your spouse took care of all the finances and you have no idea what your payments are, how much money you have or owe, how to do the banking.  To say that the situation is overwhelming is an understatement.

What you need is some help and a plan.  Make a to-do list of everything you need (assets/liabilities/insurance).  The first thing to do is get all your financial information gathered in one place.  Now you will know what you own, owe, your income situation (you will also be receiving a widow/er pension).  Now you will need a budget to outline all your monthly expenses.

Depending on how much life insurance and other survivor benefits you may be entitled to, how much money you are earning or how much you can earn if you go back to work, the amount of your fixed monthly expenses, you may have to make some difficult lifestyle adjustments. This might include downsizing your home in order to reduce your expenses.

You may need to do a debt consolidation mortgage to make your payments more affordable or possibly rewrite your mortgage to get a better interest rate.  I can honestly say that in all the widowed people I have worked with, they have all remained in their homes, at least for the short term until they made the decision to sell and move as opposed to the necessity of having to move.  They had been through enough trauma without the thought of having to get their home ready to sell and finding a new place to live.  I certainly know that was the last thing I wanted to do was to look for a new place to live and take my children out of their school and away from their friends and support system.

With the combination of my banking background, personal experience and my expertise in financing, I can help you through this process and supply the options and alternatives available to you by leveraging the equity in your home.