NerdWallet: “How to Use a HELOC Strategically in Retirement”
Oct. 5, 2022, NerdWallet — Marguerita Cheng, CFP® Pro, is featured in today’s article by Barbara Marquand about how a home equity line of credit (HELOC) can be a useful tool to manage cash and ride out bumpy investment markets in retirement.
Barbara writes: “If you’ve worked hard to pay off your house, taking on mortgage debt in retirement may sound as appealing as getting chained to a 9-to-5 desk job. But used wisely, a home equity line of credit, which lets you borrow money against your home, can be a powerful tool to preserve the longevity of your financial portfolio.”
Marguerita explains how a HELOC can let you invest some of that cash while preserving your cover during a down market. “Having a home equity line of credit in place for a market downturn, so you don’t have to sell assets at an inopportune time, can be very strategic,” says Marguerita, a certified financial planner and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “If you’re going to do this, make sure that you do so as part of a coordinated financial plan,” Cheng says.