In general it seems like a pretty bad idea to me to take home equity and use it for something other than the building up of the asset itself. But I wonder if a 70-year old who wants to retire and is not worried about leaving anything to anyone would be better off using those funds to live on rather than working until 80 only to leave a large asset behind when he dies. why not live off of what you've built up if your alternative is to work in your 70s?

Seems to me the big risk is that you live until 90 and run out of equity. But I wonder if my cultural bias (pay off your mortgage and avoid debt) is getting in the way of my judgement on reverse mortgages.