Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/09/20/tom-selleck-explains-reverse-mortgages-for-real.html
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Reading the headline, I thought for a moment “good on Tom Selleck, using his cred with older conservatives to expose this sleazy racket for what it is”. But nope, he’s just another greying celebrity selling out to this predatory industry.
SNL really needs to do a reboot of their Old Glory Insurance commerical with a famous older actor hawking “reverse mortgages” (which, as we all know, ensure that robots won’t take away your house).
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I’m feeling reassured that Tom has taken out reverse mortgages on all his properties.
Trust the stache’
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I mean, he’s a lead on that awful Bluebloods show. He’s 100% on the side of the racist fascist death cultists.
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He was also one of a small group of Hollywood conservatives years before he took the role. I just held out a sliver of hope that loyalty to his fellow olds might temporarily supersede his devotion to the predatory “free” market, but that was quickly dashed.
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Reverse Mortgages are yet another thing on the list of US things that I can’t believe are legal. When something is so obviously a scam, so obviously predatory and so obviously targeted at vulnerable people, yet it goes on for decades? I don’t understand it. Why are these things, and MLMs, and payday loans*, etc, allowed to exist?
*I know this one is complicated in that many poor people depend on them as the only form of credit they can get. That’s more down to the lack of any other social safety nets in the US, but still, this industry is incredibly under-regulated and engineered to trap people, so it deserves being on the list.
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A good rule of thumb is that the more a financial product is pitched on TV, the more reason to avoid it.
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NPR had a segment on this the other day. They make sense for very specific circumstances - like folks who have lived in areas where property values have been skyrocketing, and they are sitting on over a million dollars in real estate, but are cash poor. Essentially, letting them tap into the home value they acquired via inflation to fund their living.
But of course, we all know that reverse mortgages are mostly used for older folks who may not have living heirs, and who also may not be totally cognitively there.
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Plus he was always costumed as a Boogaloo Boy in Magnum PI.
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I really never understood celebrities, with what looks like enough money, do this kind of ad? Reverse mortgage, bottled water etc. is a weird hill for you reputation to die on.
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Michael Douglas and Elliot Gould do a good satirization of this in The Kominsky Method
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Earlier in the spring I trimmed off my bushy beard and took pics each step of the way, labeling each look.
I sent the last one to my GF stating I need $1000 to move past the “Selleck” look. I can even do that thing he does when he has a look of concern on his face.
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I sent the last one to my GF stating I need $1000 to move past the “Selleck” look. I can even do that thing he does when he has a look of concern on his face.
With a skill like that, I’ll bet she paid you double. Just to make you not do it. Ever again.
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On that show he does “reverse acting”.
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This needs to be spliced with Jonathan Frakes from “Fact or Fiction” in a kind of Q&A session in a 'stache deathmatch.
Selleck: this is a good way to get extra funds for your retirement.
Frakes: no, absolutely not.
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Wasn’t on TV, but you just reminded me that, in 2 days, I’ve had both Venmo & PayPal offer me $25 if I buy >$25 of crypto. Since it’s completely unregulated (which they’re up front about) I figure that means they can do whatever they want. Passed.
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but but, I’ve heard that there’s an investment that Warren Buffett is heavily invested in that has a guaranteed 15% return regardless of what the market does!
(but still can’t figure out if that were true why they’d need to advertise heavily for such a sweet deal…)
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All I need to know about reverse mortgages is that my employer was flogging me to mention them as an option to resolve debt back during my stint as a debt collector. If a predatory industry like debt collection is recommending them, they can’t be good.
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Sure, and opioids make sense in certain circumstances too. But we restrict the use of them as much as we can because in general the harm vastly outweighs the benefit otherwise. It’s a very American attitude to say, “this obscure financial instrument has some edge case use, so even though it’s badly harming thousands* of people, we keep it legal”.
*citation needed
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I think you answered your own question there. They need the money. Plenty (possibly even most) celebrities mismanage their money and end up deep in debt once they no longer have dump trucks full of income rolling in. Some simply miss the spotlight or the work itself (actors do actually like acting) and take whatever jobs they can get.
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