My 76-year-old mom has $25,000 in a money market account, and to be honest, that worries me. You sound surprised that she’d still be in the stock market at her age, but in my mind, that’s not a bad thing at all.
It might not be what the typical financial planner would tell you to do because, for the most part, they’ll try to get you super-conservative with your money as you age. But from the way you’ve described things, it sounds like she’s not planning on using this money but using the income from the money. She won’t whittle it all down to nothing if that’s the case.
So, if she invests in good mutual funds—not single stocks—I think she’ll be just fine.
Mortgage advice for older adults
Now, let’s talk about the mortgage.
I would absolutely recommend she go ahead and pay it off. If she can do that at age 76 and still have $540,000 left, that’s the way to go. Let’s pay off the house, and then she can start taking her income off a percentage of the remainder.
With the house payment out of the way, she won’t need much because she won’t be sending money to the bank anymore.
Dave Ramsey is CEO of Ramsey Solutions and has authored several best-selling books, including “The Total Money Makeover.” More than 16 million weekly listeners hear the Ramsey Show on 600 radio stations and multiple digital platforms.