Retirement is a whole different process than it used to be. Previous generations were able to rely on the pension paid to them by their former employers. But over the last two decades, retirement changed a great deal for most Americans, leaving them responsible for their retirement success or failure.

Some Americans still have a generous pension, some have individual investment accounts, and some are forced to live off of a miserly Social Security check. Regardless of your sources of retirement, chances are finding that your income does not stretch as far as you had planned.

Fortunately, there is a great asset available to make your retirement far more comfortable, and you may not have even considered it. Your home, which you have worked so hard to attain, can finally begin to work for you through a reverse mortgage.

A reverse mortgage is basically a loan against your home. But with most loans you begin paying the loan immediately. With a reverse mortgage, you do not repay the loan as long as you live in the home.

A reverse mortgage allows you to continue to live in your home for as long as you would like while essentially receiving the income from the sale of the house in the form of a loan. These mortgage options allow you to supplement your income without selling your home.

Basically, it works like this. You are using the value of your home as a source of cash. You can receive the cash from the reverse mortgage in one lump sum payment, as a regular monthly cash payment, as a line of credit that you can withdraw upon whenever you need, or a combination of the three.

You are not required to pay back the loan until you sell your home, move out of it permanently, or die. You are eligible for a reverse mortgage if you are 62 years or older and you own your own home. You can take a reverse mortgage regardless of your income level.

A reverse mortgage allows you to take the equity from your home before the sale of your home. When the home is sold, the loan is paid off first. Of course, there is interest applied to the loan, but it is usually comparable to standard mortgage rates.

If you home increases in equity between the time you take out the reverse mortgage and the time of sale, you only pay back the amount you withdrew plus the interest on the loan. The rest of the equity is yours (or your heirs) to keep.

Investing in real estate was one of the smartest investments you could make, and now is the time to capitalize on that investment. You can use the equity from your home to make your life more comfortable, or even to make investments, all without paying a huge monthly payment.