Ruth Johaningsmeir

Mortgage Loan Officer, NEXA Mortgage | Host, Retirement Solutions for All Ages

Ruth Johaningsmeir was born into real estate. She got her start as a top-producing real estate agent in North Carolina in the 1990s while her husband’s pilot career took him away from their home in Chicago. After returning to Chicago, they rehabbed fixer-uppers. Starting with a $2,000-down Brookfield, Illinois home they kept moving on up to eventually a $1.5 million dollar home on a tropical island in Florida. That first “condemn-able” home taught her the lesson that now defines her career: a home isn’t just a place to live, it’s a financial instrument, and most people are leaving money on the table by ignoring that fact.

Today, Ruth is a Mortgage Loan Officer with NEXA Mortgage and a Certified Senior Real Estate Planner, helping clients across Florida and North Carolina use their home equity strategically — whether that means a first mortgage, a reverse mortgage, a HELOC, or an innovative tool like the EquityXcelerator, which she’s used personally. She doesn’t just originate loans; she works alongside her clients’ financial planners, estate attorneys, and tax advisors to make sure every mortgage decision fits into a bigger plan for building and passing on wealth.

After years in Chicago, Ruth and her husband became “halfback” snowbirds. The halfback is moving from the North to Florida then halfway back to Asheville, North Carolina. The snowbird is spending winters at their vacation home in Naples, Florida. Her joke about the move has become something of a personal legend: she left Marco Island, Florida to get away from hurricanes, and then Hurricane Helene found her in Asheville anyway. She’s learned, the hard way and more than once, that you plan your finances for the storm you can’t predict — not just the one you can.

She brings that same blend of humor and hard-earned wisdom to everything she creates. Ruth hosts the podcast Retirement Solutions for All Ages, where she breaks down financial concepts — compounding interest, the truth about 30-year mortgages, the real difference between recourse and non-recourse loans — using stories instead of jargon. She’s also a novelist. She wrote Grandma’s on the Roof, a tale following three Florida retirees through the pandemic, family upheaval, and Hurricane Ian, woven through with the same financial truths she shares on her podcast.

Before mortgages, Ruth spent years as the founder of Princess and Pirate Parties, Inc., a Chicago-based business that brought magic to more than 10,000 children’s parties across the country and around the world — which may explain why she still introduces herself, half-joking, as a financial Fairy Godmother. Whether she’s talking to an 18-year-old buying a first home or a 90-year-old deciding how to pass on a legacy, her approach is the same: ask good questions, tell the truth, and make the numbers make sense.

Ruth can be reached at 4FLLoans.com, by phone in North Carolina at 828-888-LOAN, or in Florida at 239-444-RUTH.

NMLS #2176345 | Company NMLS #1660690