<prompt> Human: Hi PF,My Parents are looking into a reverse mortgage so they no longer have to make payments on it and instead, put that money towards other debts that I dont fully know about, currently. What are the benefits of a RM and what are the drawbacks? I dont understand how they work. My first inclination is that its a scam because my Father has fallen for plenty in the past and he feels this will help them in the long run. Am I right to be skeptical or could this be something that really helps my Parents? Thanks for your thoughts and time!  <response>: There are two general ways to extract money from a house that you own a large part of:- home equity loanline of credit: get a lump sum, pay it back, secured by the house- reverse mortgage: get a sum or a series of small sums, perhaps dont pay it back, accrues interest while it is owed, secured by the house, will be have to be paid back when the house is sold.Lets say theres a 90-year-old living in a million-dollar house. She needs 1000month for insulin. She signs up for a reverse mortgage and they send her 1000month. She lives for 32 months and then dies. Theres now a mortgage of 32,000 interest on this million dollar house. The kids will have to pay it off before they inherit the rest. She could have lived for another decade or two, would have been totally fine. Effectively she was selling off small parts of the house each month to meet real needs.Theres nothing inherently scammy about a reverse mortgage, but as with any financial dealing, it could be scammy, depending on the terms. Its not a solution to debt problems, if thats what your parents have. 