Vile race hate taunts at TV guru Martin

MONEY guru Martin Lewis has told how thugs abused him for being Jewish and made hissing sounds to mimic Nazi gas chambers.

Martin, 45 – founder of MoneySavingExpert.com and a Sunday Mirror columnist – also faced antisemitic abuse online and yobs spat at his family.

The dad of one – who is suing Facebook over scam ads which used his image – said: “I get, ‘Oh you are Jewish, that’s why you are a money-saving expert, that’s why you are so tight’.

“I was once on a train from a football match and skinheads started singing songs about gas chambers and making hissing noises.

“In the end I shouted ‘stop, that’s offensive’. They said ‘what you going to do about it, Jewboy’?”

Over 55, struggling for cash, but own your own house? The easy solution, according to the adverts at least, is to do an equity release, but it’s not as straight forward as it seems.

Equity release is a way of spending your home’s value while still living there. It’s done via a loan usually repaid from your home’s value once you die.

Yet before even considering it, first evaluate downsizing. If you can sell up and move into a smaller home, living off the excess, great. You may also find a property more suitable as you age – fewer stairs perhaps.

If it is right for you don’t put it off. People in their 60s often say to me, “I’ll do it in a few years”, a few years later it’s “not yet” and after that it’s “we’re too old to leave”. So if downsizing is right for you, do it sooner.

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How does equity release work? The most common form is a mortgage that isn’t paid off until you die. So if you’ve no one to leave your assets to - it’s a decent, though expensive, route to raise cash. If you do have people to pass assets to, equity release generally means there will be less to leave. Then again, it is your money, so prioritise your own standard of living first. They fall into two main camps… Lifetime mortgage:

This is the most popular. You need to be aged 55+. Here you borrow some of your home’s value at a fixed or capped interest rate. The older MONEY BOX Unlock some of your wealth you are the more you can borrow. Old style lifetime mortgage meant you didn’t make repayments, so the interest compounds rapidly; now some newer “drawdown” versions do allow it, so you can reduce that.

2 Home reversion plan: You need to be aged 60+. Here they pay you a tax-free lump sum for a portion of your house at below market value. You can then live in the house (rent free) until you die. When the house is sold and the proceeds are split based on the percentage you own and the lender owns. So if your house value rises significantly so does the amount they get. Therefore with lifetime mortgages you know the exact rate, while as a generalisation home reversion plans are better if house prices stay flatter, worse if they rise substantially.

How much does equity release cost?

For the lifetime mortgage equity release, the typical rate is 5.14%, substantially higher than most mortgages. However the huge price-tag comes if you’re not making monthly repayments to reduce the debt, so the interest compounds. For example borrow £20,000 aged 60 at 5.14% on a £120,000 home and the amount you owe doubles every 15 years. So live until 75 and you owe £40,000, live until

90 and you owe £80,000.

Is equity release right for you?

1 Don’t borrow the full amount you need in one go. The sooner you borrow the more expensive it is, as the interest has longer to compound. Borrow as little as you need now, and wait as long as you can to do it. So, if you think you may need £40,000 from your house to cover 20 years, only take what you need now and wait to take more until needed. Drawdown lifetime mortgages are set up to make this easier.

2 Ensure you get it from a company that’s a member of the Equity Release Council. This trade body’s members must promise a “no negative equity” guarantee, so your estate will never owe more than your home is worth.

3 Speak to an independent mortgage broker or financial adviser with an equity release qualification. See unbiased.co.uk, vouchedfor.co.uk, or the equityreleasecouncil.com.

4 Having cash rather than property can affect the benefits you’re entitled to, like pension credit, and universal credit. So if you’re likely entitled to those, check out the impact first.

ABUSE Columnist Lewis