Jamie Hopkins on the role of emotions in reverse mortgage decisions

Today’s HousingWire Daily features a crossover episode with the RMD Podcast, a monthly podcast covering hot topics in the reverse mortgage industry hosted by Chris Clow, editor at HW Media’s latest acquisition, Reverse Mortgage Daily.

The episode features an interview with Jamie Hopkins, managing director of Carson Coaching and director of retirement research at Carson Group, as well as a member of the Academy for Home Equity in Financial Planning. 

In this episode, Hopkins explains why it’s hard for consumers to remove emotions when making financial decisions, plus how the reverse mortgage industry approaches long-term care as the COVID-19 pandemic shapes the business’ future.

Here’s a short preview of the interview you can find in the episode, lightly edited for concision and clarity:

Chris Clow: I’m curious about approaching things from an academic perspective and also understanding the emotions and perceptions associated with the reverse mortgage product. Are you surprised about the emotions that come into the fold when people are dealing with their money?

Jamie Hopkins:  We make better decisions when we include emotional data as part of the decision-making. That being said, we don’t want our emotions to completely override our analytical thinking and long-term goals. What we don’t want to happen is to get really excited or fearful and make a decision about something that has a really negative 5,10, 20, 30-year compounding impact on ourselves, right? For example, you might be at a store and get really excited when you see something you want, but that doesn’t mean you can just take it as there are effects. It’s a similar thing in financial decisions. We definitely want to put frameworks in place so we can make quality decisions. Sometimes these frameworks are education, access, or just having a broader view of the timeline or horizon of the world, so we can make more informed and healthier decisions.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Elissa Branch.