Consider planting tax rebate and watch savings grow

Starting this month, many of you will receive tax rebate checks ranging from $300 to $600, or $1,200 for married couples. Here’s an idea: Use your rebate to jump-start a retirement savings plan.

Consider: If you invest $1,200 in an individual retirement account and continue to save $1,200 a year while earning an average annual return of 8 percent, you’ll have more than $21,000 in 10 years. If you use that money to buy a flat-screen TV, then 10 years from now you’ll have an old flat-screen TV.

Once you’ve checked that item off your to-do list, it’s time to take a serious look at an individual retirement account. Call me to start a retirement savings plan.

Gehad Alawan is a financial professional with AXA Equitable, and can be reached at (313) 506-0456.

Factors for on-the-fence home buyers & sellers

There are a few factors to consider before buying a home, including what’s called “months supply inventory,” which is a good indication of supply and demand. That basically means if no other properties were coming on the market, how long would it take for the current inventory to be absorbed in the market? Here in Detroit, we’re sitting at approximately 18 months supply of homes for sale. Owners want to look for a trend when the “months supply inventory” is going down, and when “days on market” are also going down — to sell. As for on-the-fence shoppers, don’t wait: Now is the time to buy. These rock bottom prices only come around once every 25 years.

Mike Ayoub is a Realtor with Remax/Team 2000 in Dearborn. You can reach him at (313) 675-6755.

At Home With Reverse Mortgages

How about instead of paying the mortgage company to live in your house, they pay you? It’s called a reverse mortgage. And, as they say, it’s not for everyone, but some are very much at home with the idea.

Rather than building equity, some choose to take it out. They keep the home’s title, and the bank gets repaid with interest when they move or die. Available to only those 62 and older, more and more retirees use their home to enhance their lifestyle, or make ends meet.

Unlike a typical mortgage, a reverse mortgage isn’t based on your income or credit. Instead, lenders look at your age and your home’s value, and make an unusual requirement before you can get the most popular of these loans. You must go through counseling to get the federally insured reverse mortgage.

Many people think they want a reverse mortgage, but in the process of the free counseling discovery there’s a local program or service that meets their needs. Especially for those who plan to move in three years. By the time these people pay all the costs involved — origination fees, mortgage insurance premium — it’s an expensive loan to get for a short time.

But if you are staying put in your home, it strikes the perfect chord of financially harmony.

For more information about reverse mortgages, call me at (313) 289-4444.

Andy Elder is a mortgage lender and credit repair specialist with Elder Finance Group.