SOLANO REAL ESTATE SCENE Plan now for senior living

Irecently got hooked on the new Perry Mason show on HBO. I watched Season 1 from 2020 and Season 2, which came out in 2022 and I assume skipped a year due to the pandemic.

It’s set in 1932 when Mason and his awesome sidekick Della Street first became partners in Los Angeles. The commentary on race, political power of the haves versus the have-nots, and government corruption, is part of the show and interesting but what they really nailed is the tobacco industry’s brilliant business strategy of getting everyone hooked. Everyone smokes on the show – on planes, trains and automobiles and even in the court of law.

Thankfully, my dad never smoked, and my mom quit 40 years ago. I quit in 1998 till I started again in 2008, thanks to Great Recession depression, and then quit again in 2012 and have been hooked on gum ever since. Millions and millions of people quit smoking since 1980 and not only is it no longer cool, but everyone also now admits it will kill you dead.

Thanks to this and advances in medicine, men and women are living longer, which is great, but 52% of all Americans over 55 have no IRA or pension plan. Sixty percent of these folks own a home and many will not have to worry about a huge mortgage payment when they retire at 65 or 70 but, yikes, will Social Security provide enough income to pay the property taxes, insurance and home upkeep and still be able to buy food, keep the lights on and have basic cable TV? What I have learned over the past 40 years is that people never plan to fail, they fail to plan. My suggestion and what I have learned from experience, other financial professionals, estate lawyers, and people a lot smarter than me, is that seniors should not wait till they must move down to a more affordable home with less maintenance, or wait to do a living trust, or wait to do a HECM reverse mortgage line of credit, or wait till next year to talk about their finances and things like death and health with their adult kids.

For those people who are 55 with no IRAS and plan to work till they are 65 to 75, start an IRA right now and maximize your contribution with a local certified financial planner. For you folks that plan to move to Sun City in Lincoln, Trilogy in Rio Vista or back home to Texas, start the investigation now, even if you aren’t going for a year or two, with a local mortgage pro, a financial advisor, and a local real estate broker. It’s free. Do it now before it is too late.

Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager and senior loan adviser of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.

Biden administration announces new fund to help low-income housing get climate upgrades

THE WASHINGTON POST

The Biden administration on Thursday will take a major step toward ensuring low-income Americans reap the benefits of Democrats’ landmark climate law, as the White House seeks to invest in poor and minority communities that have historically borne the brunt of pollution.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will announce the availability of nearly $1 billion for lowincome multifamily housing to become more energy-efficient, water-efficient and resilient to climate disasters. The funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping climate law that President Biden signed last summer.

The climate law offers households thousands of dollars to switch from

See Biden, Page 4