DEAR BRUCE: We are house-rich but cash-poor. I am 76 and my husband is 74. We are both in good health. We moved from Michigan to Florida because our expenses were higher than we expected and have very little money now. Would we be good candidates for a reverse mortgage? We have in excess of $200,000 in our home. -- G.R., Florida

DEAR G.R.: A reverse mortgage for many people is a very viable way to extract cash from their home and still live in it. The mortgage company will send you an agreed-upon sum every month until that agreed-upon number is reached. Once you have exhausted that number, you will no longer receive a check. However you may live there for the balance of your life and your husband's. At the time that both you have passed on, the home will be sold and the mortgage company will recover its advances plus interest. The older you are the more viable a reverse mortgage becomes.

DEAR BRUCE: I'm a 58-year-old single woman. I only have $15,000 in savings. I wanted to get a Roth IRA for this year but I didn't understand it and I have missed out. Can I get one for 2010? -- Reader in Pennsylvania

DEAR READER: You most certainly can. Whether it is wise for you to put your money into a Roth IRA is another question, since you will have to wait for six years to get at the principal. Having said that, a Roth IRA is still a deal since whatever it earns is totally tax-free. If you are in a very low income-tax bracket, where you are paying no taxes anyway, the tax-free feature becomes academic.

DEAR BRUCE: Is it possible to figure out how much money I would have in 20 years if my wife and I put $5,000 a year into a Roth IRA every year? -- Reader in Connecticut

DEAR READER: Because we don't know the rate of return on your investment it is difficult to forecast how quickly your money will grow. What you can do for each year is to divide whatever rate of return you think you're going to receive (6 percent, 8 percent, 12 percent and so on) into 72. This will tell you how many years it will take for those dollars to double. You can do this each year for not only the former deposits but the current deposits. At the end of your calculation you will have some idea what you will have. If performance does not meet your expectations then the number will drop dramatically. This is only a guesstimate and should be treated as such.