I understand the stock market may be down a little. What? Did you say 40%? Well I know it is somewhere around that figure.

My money is in real estate. Doesn't that make me smart? That's sarcasm, case you are wondering.

I'm in the reverse mortgage business and my phones are ringing with seniors on the other end panicking about losing their nest egg.

I am by no means a financial genius, but I have to wonder what the reverse mortgage can do to help these folks?

Well, the first thing I need to do is step back and understand the stress they are under.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I mean they already own the equity to the home. It's there's. What they perceive a reverse mortgage will do for them is convoluded.

The majority of my recent phone calls want a reverse mortgage to act as an additional layer of security for them. After a 40% reduction in their saving one can relate, but one also has to ask if this is prudent.

I don't think so. Some are telling me they want to invest the line of credit back in the market. They are citing the Warren Buffet line, "When people get greedy I get scared. When people get scared, I get greedy."

I don't really agree with this person either. They, more than likely will be charged 6% on the money the take out (plus closing costs). And the average can't be higher than 10%.

The math doesn't work out very well, even if they get 10%. Less than a 4% return.

Look, the reverse mortgage is not the best investment strategy. Now, if you have a sure fire winner, I'd say go ahead and do it. But who has that. Last person I knew who had a sure fire winner went to jail for insider trading.

Do yourselves a favor.. Go to the kitchen, eat a sandwich and have gigantic beer. This will relax you a bit, and you may soon decide on a better route.