Has anyone seen the commercial telling retirees that their path to a carefree life is taking out an interest only mortgage on their home? It makes me cringe everytime I see it. To be honest, I haven’t really considered any reasons that it might make sense to do this (only if you’re paying credit card interest at a higher rate, or can invest the $ at a higher rate of return than the interest rate, right?), but it seems pretty shady to me. Even if the house was paid off long ago, and the mortgage that they take out is a fraction of the home’s current “value”, there is still the real possibility of an unhappy ending. Not to mention the fact that this is a demographic that’s constantly taken advantage of.