My friend is leaving his job of the past five years to work on his own start-up. When he got an e-mail solicitation from his mortgage officer about whether she could come by his office with a set of boxed lunches for him and his colleagues, he told her “no thank you” because he was leaving. He purposefully kept his plans vague and hoped she’d just leave him alone as he attends to his new life.
Instead, she came back with the following response,
“I am sorry to hear that? When you land at another organization, please let me know. Also, let me know if I can help through the transition. Since you are still on payroll, I always suggest putting a Line of Credit in place. And if you need a brokerage account to rollover your 401K, we can certainly assist.”
Pretty thoughtful right? Or is it? My friend responded,
“Thanks. It’s actually voluntary. Doing my own thing. I’ve got enough saved up for the next 8 years, so I don’t think I need a HELOC, unless the rates are super low. Even then, I don’t need it because I have the cash.”
Seems like a nice way of saying he’s fine and does not need the banker’s help. Instead, the banker comes back and says,
“I always suggest putting a line in place even if you have cash on hand. Especially since you are still on payroll as it makes the process much easier. I recommend investing your liquid savings in higher yields within your comfort zone and instead put a home equity line in place for say $100,000 to act as your emergency line. If you need it it is there for you, if you don’t great it does not cost you anything.”
At this point, my friend is starting to get annoyed. He’s been polite about saying “no thank you” twice now, and yet the banker keeps on pushing. She recommends my friend use his 8 years of excess liquidity to invest in riskier assets, so he can borrow money from the bank via his home to keep liquid!?! This seems to make no sense.
“Sure, give me a risk free 4% yielding security and I’ll take out as big a Line of Credit as you want!”
No response from the banker yet, and it’s been a week………
Readers, do you think it’s wise for someone to take out a home equity line of credit when he is leaving his steady paying job, and already has 8 years worth of living expenses saved up? Is the banker being thoughtful or just trying to make a commission off of my friend?
Regards,
Sam
Photo: Turkish Delight & Backlava in Istanbul. Someone ate more than half. SD.