LA Times
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Reverse mortgage may be best option for elderly homeowner
A reverse mortgage would enable an 82-year-old woman who needs cash to tap the substantial equity in her home.
Dear Liz: My healthy and active 82-year-old mother is faced with having to sell her home this year because she's running out of money. She has lived a very minimal lifestyle for many years as her savings dwindled, and her income is now basically Social Security. She owes $25,000 on a home worth more than $700,000 in a top school district. We don't know if we are jumping the gun with this sale. I could move in with her and pay rent for a year or two, although that would mean a longer commute for me and would just put off the day she has to sell. There are things that must be done to the house for upkeep, and her being cash-poor puts her in a crunch. My brother will help pay for minor sprucing up depending on what the real estate agent says we need to do to make the house presentable, but if Mom remains in the home there are other things to be done. We are assuming that we should sell it and find an apartment for her to rent until she needs more assisted living at a later age. Are we right to take action now?
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Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie sell Malibu house to Ellen De Generes
The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.
In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.
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Beer brewers revise playbooks to win back lost customers
Beer sales have been hurt by changing tastes and the growing appeal of wine and liquor in recent years, with U.S. shipments down 1.4% last year.
Super Bowl Sunday promises to be another epic day in the annals of gluttony, with Americans consuming 1.3 billion chicken wings, 2,000 tons of popcorn and enough avocados to cover the floor of the Indianapolis stadium 28 feet deep.
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Tech entrepreneur Gil Elbaz made it big in L.A.
After leaving Silicon Valley, Gil Elbaz co-founded a company that Google bought and used to create AdSense. His current venture, online-data aggregator and organizer Factual, is based in Century City.
The gig: Gil Elbaz is founder and chief executive of Factual Inc., a Century City company that aggregates and organizes huge amounts of online data. Factual, started in 2007, has attracted $25 million in venture funding.
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Five ways to tame out-of-control meetings
We've all been there — staff meetings that seem longer than "Gone With the Wind."
