Dad died, retail shop is gone; my 62 year old Ma is left with $10,000+ a month bills, and $80,000. Any advice?

She is an entrepreneur and needs to have a permanent and temporary fix. I have a BSBA and I don't know what she should do. I suggested eliminating her bills, but thats her mortgage and she refuses to sell her house. -Financial Specialist, just wanted to push his crappy mutual funds. -She won't move to a diff. country. -Ultimately she needs advice on a new means of steady income.-
Please help!
thanks in advance

Her house is located in Highlands, nc. Which basically means, she pays a mortgage on $600,000; for a 7-bedroom house appraised at 745,000 (though 8 years on/off the market with no avail- too big); lastly, the areas property taxes are crazy, she pays on $950,000. This is why her house is costing her 10,000+ a month.

You know the hardest thing I had to deal with was my mother when she got older not listening to me either. Finally she did but by that time she had lost 10K off her house had she listened to me. They all still think of you as their kid remember.

You might want to take a look at a reverse mortgage for her. Make sure you look at it very closely to make sure the terms are something you can live with.

Mutual funds won't get her anywhere. You need something safe. You also need to evaluate the 10K in bills because that is going to kill you looking for an out at her age.

Good luck.

What kind of bills does she have that is $10,000+ a month?

Something is wrong with this picture.

A single individual should not be living in a house that has a $10k+ monthly mortgage payment. Actually no one should but that's beside the point...

At 62 she can apply for social security if she is eligible, but that won't go far toward $10K+ per month bills. But surely her mortgage payment isn't anywhere near that much!

What happened to the retail shop? Any chance of resurrecting that, especially if she was part of the business when your dad was alive?

Sounds like she's going to have to find a way to get that $10K per month down considerably, to something more manageable. And of course finding a good job at 62 isn't real easy.

Good luck, to her and to you.

$10,000 a month is a huge amount for monthly bills. She can't keep going like this, unless her monthly income is enough to cover her expenses.

Sooner or later she will have to cut back, and possibly lose the house, whether she wants to or not.

Cut expenses or increase revenue are the only two choices.

Wow, I got stressed out reading that.

And here's your answer;

You're mom should have long ago figured out how to tweak the existing house into rental income in the form of bedrooms, floors, or apartments.

In other words, I'm baffled with living in a 7 BR house, you don't do the cheapest possible reno to get 2 additional apartments out of the house.

As far as whats legal and what isn't, most apartments are illegal, so zoning restrictions shouldn't be her excuse. Where theres a will, theres a way.

As far as tax assessments, I'm also curious why you haven't had her battling the city for a re-assessment based on the appraised value of the house. Around here, I'm fighting them every 6 months on different properties and winning.

Other than that, mom should face reality, move out, and move on.

How can she have a $10,000 monthly expense? that is just a little high.

so in essence your mom will be driven out of that house in about 7 to 11 months from now if she fails to pay the house.

one gave a good suggestion of having to rent out rooms, help out your mom to repaint it. one room at a time.

my suggestion , is have it refinanced, longer term lower amortization. or sell the whole thing .

If she can avail of her pension, better live on that, no stress, she gets to live longer.