For really the first time since Talented Hubby and I have been married, I’m starting to get a little worried.
A ‘complimentary and friendly’ email reminder landed in Hubs’ inbox this morning informing us of our current official interest rate. Of course we aren’t blind, and the rise in rates has been ‘gradual’ (a subjective term!) so we knew already that we were paying this, but the realisation of what was actually occurring was mind-boggling.
We’re now paying a full TWO PERCENT (plus a smidgeon extra) in interest over the level we were at when we first purchased this house almost three years ago. We’re on a variable rate. We expect more damage soon. The last several months have been the worst - every month a new rate rise. I know to some degree our economy is dictated by the economies elsewhere but come on!
We were so smug when we bought this house. Talented Hubby has a wonderful, stable job with much room for advancement. We saved like our lives depended on it for an intensive period of 14 months and even surprised ourselves at how much we were able to pull together in such a short period of time. Of course, we had a clear goal in mind and we were absolutely single-focussed. We’re not the sort to hold very expensive pastimes or hobbies anyhow, but we were very concious of every dollar that filtered through our hands and - dare I say it - very proud of ourselves for realising something which had been a dream since the kids had started arriving many years before.
Our quest for a home was in part fuelled by my own childhood experience of moving every couple of years as Dad followed work. My parents once owned a small farm (more of a hobby enterprise than anything else, very small) and lost it due to the global crash in the late eighties which saw them paying SEVENTEEN PERCENT at the height of their loan. It took them a decade and a half to recover and they never owned another house until well after I’d left home. I never really felt settled. The move away from the farm years earlier had occurred in less than two days, from announcement to driving away in our precariously-loaded car. I guess it always felt as though we could up and move on at any moment.
I never wanted that for our kids. I wanted them to go to the same school from first day to last, to get grounded in a neighbourhood. To put down roots. Thus the urge to get into a Real House and out of the rent cycle.
I married a good egg though. Talented Hubby definitely has his head on straight, LOL. Me? I’ve always been a little more ‘free’ with my spending habits, a product, I think, from never having quite enough growing up. Now I don’t really feel secure unless I have a little more than enough, a little leftover. Though I’m nowhere near a spendthrift, Hubs has (on more than one occasion) been the voice of reason in our finances. The stability and future advancement of his job gives us confidence.
The rising interest rates do not.
When we first took out the loan, we nominated a weekly payment that was above the minimum payment, giving ourselves a healthy buffer. In addtion, we were manually transfering an additional, regular sum every fortnight. We gained speed in those early days. Gradually though, each new interest rate has chipped away at our buffer. With each new chunk gone, the time it takes for us to pay off the house increases. We had originally hoped to be signed and sealed by the time Boofah went to university, about 12 years in total (and just 9 years from now!) I find it very hard to imagine this happening now, although I do admit to holding onto the last shred of the dream of not having to pay university tuition AND a home loan at the same time.
In our marriage to date, I have not had to work. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for this. We live adequately on Talented Hubby’s income. Our bills are always paid, our needs always met. We spend money on leisure and fun stuff. I don’t have to itemise every grocery purchase (I probably should, mind you, but I don’t have to). Yes, Hubs would dearly love to throw down a cool couple of thousand with wild abandon on his dream SLR camera, but he would never do it. Just like I wouldn’t buy the new MacBook Air just because it can (apparently) slide into a standard yellow file envelope which is very, very cool (sigh - LOL).
But it’s not just the interest rates - absolutely everything else around me is rising in price too. Meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, the list goes on and on. Planning a menu - and sticking to it - are fast becomming my main concerns. I used to manage very nicely on $150 per week for groceries (don’t freak out - this is for a family of five, in Aussie prices, and it’s probably considered low, LOL) Even though we were never wild spenders, we now have to sit down and really consider the worth of an item. Even though we didn’t have extravagant tastes for things like Date Nights before, we now have to consider whether it is more worthwhile to get a meal at McDonald’s for $15 over a $40 restaurant meal. And we don’t go out that often, so a ‘real’ sit down meal is a big treat for us. It’s kind of ho-hum to be having a romantic dinner at the same place you took your kids the week before, you know?
Things are just so much more expensive these days. We cannot imagine how a newly married couple can afford to break into the housing market for the first time. One income families are becoming rarer as wives who would otherwise stay home are forced back to work. The rental market where I am has skyrocketed. There are more people than there are houses, rents are astronomical compared to what they were when we were renting and landlords are getting upwards of two dozen interested parties for each new rental that happens to come up. People are actually electing to pay MORE than the listed rental price just to secure a place. It’s ludicrous! There’s just no way we would have been able to save for our house deposit paying the rents some of our friends are paying now. No way on earth.
Overseas folk - how are rates looking in your countries? Aussies - how are you managing with the swift increase in rates and general increased prices on things like groceries?
A ‘complimentary and friendly’ email reminder landed in Hubs’ inbox this morning informing us of our current official interest rate. Of course we aren’t blind, and the rise in rates has been ‘gradual’ (a subjective term!) so we knew already that we were paying this, but the realisation of what was actually occurring was mind-boggling.
We’re now paying a full TWO PERCENT (plus a smidgeon extra) in interest over the level we were at when we first purchased this house almost three years ago. We’re on a variable rate. We expect more damage soon. The last several months have been the worst - every month a new rate rise. I know to some degree our economy is dictated by the economies elsewhere but come on!
We were so smug when we bought this house. Talented Hubby has a wonderful, stable job with much room for advancement. We saved like our lives depended on it for an intensive period of 14 months and even surprised ourselves at how much we were able to pull together in such a short period of time. Of course, we had a clear goal in mind and we were absolutely single-focussed. We’re not the sort to hold very expensive pastimes or hobbies anyhow, but we were very concious of every dollar that filtered through our hands and - dare I say it - very proud of ourselves for realising something which had been a dream since the kids had started arriving many years before.
Our quest for a home was in part fuelled by my own childhood experience of moving every couple of years as Dad followed work. My parents once owned a small farm (more of a hobby enterprise than anything else, very small) and lost it due to the global crash in the late eighties which saw them paying SEVENTEEN PERCENT at the height of their loan. It took them a decade and a half to recover and they never owned another house until well after I’d left home. I never really felt settled. The move away from the farm years earlier had occurred in less than two days, from announcement to driving away in our precariously-loaded car. I guess it always felt as though we could up and move on at any moment.
I never wanted that for our kids. I wanted them to go to the same school from first day to last, to get grounded in a neighbourhood. To put down roots. Thus the urge to get into a Real House and out of the rent cycle.
I married a good egg though. Talented Hubby definitely has his head on straight, LOL. Me? I’ve always been a little more ‘free’ with my spending habits, a product, I think, from never having quite enough growing up. Now I don’t really feel secure unless I have a little more than enough, a little leftover. Though I’m nowhere near a spendthrift, Hubs has (on more than one occasion) been the voice of reason in our finances. The stability and future advancement of his job gives us confidence.
The rising interest rates do not.
When we first took out the loan, we nominated a weekly payment that was above the minimum payment, giving ourselves a healthy buffer. In addtion, we were manually transfering an additional, regular sum every fortnight. We gained speed in those early days. Gradually though, each new interest rate has chipped away at our buffer. With each new chunk gone, the time it takes for us to pay off the house increases. We had originally hoped to be signed and sealed by the time Boofah went to university, about 12 years in total (and just 9 years from now!) I find it very hard to imagine this happening now, although I do admit to holding onto the last shred of the dream of not having to pay university tuition AND a home loan at the same time.
In our marriage to date, I have not had to work. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for this. We live adequately on Talented Hubby’s income. Our bills are always paid, our needs always met. We spend money on leisure and fun stuff. I don’t have to itemise every grocery purchase (I probably should, mind you, but I don’t have to). Yes, Hubs would dearly love to throw down a cool couple of thousand with wild abandon on his dream SLR camera, but he would never do it. Just like I wouldn’t buy the new MacBook Air just because it can (apparently) slide into a standard yellow file envelope which is very, very cool (sigh - LOL).
But it’s not just the interest rates - absolutely everything else around me is rising in price too. Meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, the list goes on and on. Planning a menu - and sticking to it - are fast becomming my main concerns. I used to manage very nicely on $150 per week for groceries (don’t freak out - this is for a family of five, in Aussie prices, and it’s probably considered low, LOL) Even though we were never wild spenders, we now have to sit down and really consider the worth of an item. Even though we didn’t have extravagant tastes for things like Date Nights before, we now have to consider whether it is more worthwhile to get a meal at McDonald’s for $15 over a $40 restaurant meal. And we don’t go out that often, so a ‘real’ sit down meal is a big treat for us. It’s kind of ho-hum to be having a romantic dinner at the same place you took your kids the week before, you know?
Things are just so much more expensive these days. We cannot imagine how a newly married couple can afford to break into the housing market for the first time. One income families are becoming rarer as wives who would otherwise stay home are forced back to work. The rental market where I am has skyrocketed. There are more people than there are houses, rents are astronomical compared to what they were when we were renting and landlords are getting upwards of two dozen interested parties for each new rental that happens to come up. People are actually electing to pay MORE than the listed rental price just to secure a place. It’s ludicrous! There’s just no way we would have been able to save for our house deposit paying the rents some of our friends are paying now. No way on earth.
Overseas folk - how are rates looking in your countries? Aussies - how are you managing with the swift increase in rates and general increased prices on things like groceries?
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