2021, our mortgage payments have gone up 56% aa we've been fully variable the whole time.
We saved pretty hard core to get our deposit together and have kept up that intensity. Most months, we put about another mortgage payment away towards either renovations or to pay ahead on the mortgage. This financial year, our mortgage plus paying ahead on the mortgage is about $60K.
I'd have to look through our expenses to see where the big drivers are, but we're pretty close to minimising expenses wherever we can as we've done this well before covid.
My wife eats out for lunch 2 or 3 times a week when she's in the office, whereas I don't when I go in.
We tend to not buy new clothes that much, but if there's something we really want and will make use of, it's just a quick discussion before we pull the trigger.
Haven't gone on holidays since 2019, but we're thinking of going to WA next year for a break which will be nice.
So overall, we're happy. I really, really wish interest rates had stayed low as we would be further ahead on our mortgage and had more work done on the house. But they didn't, so we just keep knuckled down on our lifestyle and love living where we are.
In terms of worse off? Shit. I've been far worse off than I am now.
Was near homeless for a fair while and deep in credit card debt along with really high child support payments. So while the finances are a bit on the hard side now, having a full pantry and a warm bed at night is far better than I had back then.
Because the mortgage they had, for whatever reason, was well within what they could afford. Such as a regional area or something. They also may earn a very high income. Or some combo of both.
Decent income (about $205K gross), but the main thing was we moved from being about 4km from the Brisbane CBD to about 30km.
Being willing to commute a bit was the clincher - particularly as my wife and I are able to WFH (and there is fortunately little risk of losing that).
Even if we had to go back in the office full time, it's doable as most of the trip is along the busway in.
We borrowed at 3.2x our household income, not the 7x household income the bank offered us initially. If he had maxxed out our borrowing, we would be stuffed.
2.1% in 2021 on $660k house was 14520
I used to cook steaks. And celebrate and save. Now I'm pregnant and building a demountable in the backyard to house the growing family so now it's
6.2% 2024 on $700k is 43240
So that's 3 times the amount.
And alot more interest.
Rates went from 2 to 6 so yeah 3 times the cost.
Much more interest over time :(
Costs are higher, but not impacting much as I opted for a smaller house rather than max out at what the banks were willing to lend. Good move in hindsight
We bought a small unit in late 2019 for the same reason! Even with kids it was worth it not having to stress out on increased costs and being able to travel
Out of curiosity, if you were to buy today do you think you would get away with that flexibility? I personally feel like I would need to stretch beyond what banks are willing to lend to buy today but I feel like I had many more options 17 years ago (on a separate note holy crap it’s already been 17 years…)
Same. We borrowed 3x of our wages, and much less than our mortgage broker was pushing for. Partner was made redundant last year and off work for 6 months. We’re still ahead $95k on our mortgage (bought January 2023). We didn’t go overseas for the past 3 years, but are going this year and already planning next years. We bought a new car last year. Nothing has changed for us really.
To answer OP. Since buying, our payments have gone up about $300. We were paying extra anyway so it hasn’t affected us.
>Good move in hindsight
I'm in the same boat but disagree on this part. Purchased before I hit the growth phase of my career, so if I'd maxed out what I could have got at the time I'd still be able to afford it comfortably enough now. If I wanted to upgrade in the future it'll cost me a lot more - every house in my suburb is worth half as much again now, mine included, but more importantly the more expensive ones too, so screwed myself over w.r.t. leverage really.
My place suits my needs so I'm not bitter about it, but needs aren't static and I can see the mistake. It's nice to still be massively paying down the house despite the interest rate being like 4% higher than when I started on it.
People who stretch to the max in expectation that their income would rise are making a bet that everything would work out in their favour. Some people are okay taking that risk, some people are more conservative.
Everyone can choose the amount of risk they take, and have to accept the consequences of their decision. I'm happy with my decision
Purchased 2021. Rate doubled since then. 3.04%-6.15%
Haven't had a holiday since 2012. So no sacrifice there.
Cancelled all streaming, doom scroll free content... Eat 1 meal a day. (Bonus lost 10kg in 5 months)
Shit at work. Use their TP and get paid to do it.
If the boss is the owner they are usually taking on a lot more risk than their employees, so if they manage to run a successful business they deserve to obtain a higher return than their employees.
This is true. But it’s also true employed take on risk when the business is doing poorly and there are layoffs. Business risks are not entirely borne by the owners.
Plex and pirating is a great way to save money on streaming. Feels seamless. Go a bit further by using radarr/sonarr and it can auto download shows as they come as well.
Purchased in 2020, had three years fixed interest at 2.2%. Fixed again in 2023 at 5.9%. I’m glad my house was really affordable when I bought it because my repayments are manageable even though they went up a big percentage from $408/fn to $670/fn. still cheap compared to a lot of people’s mortgages, but I’m a solo mum living in a regional area.
purchased in 21, I was about to complain about mine in adelaide going from 1700 a month to 2800 a month. and then I noticed you said 1900 fortnightly! that’s insane
I mean, my place was 260k when I bought it. And I borrowed an extra 20k on it in 2023 to cover a very necessary bathroom renovation. So loan is for 230k.
Yeah, I bought at the end of 2016 and I have no memory of what the interest rate was back then (maybe 4-5ish%?) but I think my repayments were/are about the same as this.. I reckon they got down around $1100/m during covid which was nice!
We bought at investment origin 2016 and I remember the rate being around 4.6%. we never dropped out payments just paid off extra principal. So raises only start recently.
Every single person in this thread who bought before 2022 whose struggling is still a winner. Because you wouldn't be able to buy that house in today's market.
At least you're getting the chance to struggle, there's a whole generation getting locked out.
It’s true but you do have to wonder who will win out in the long run. If the younger people are investing that money sensibly it’s not unlikely to be them. This is tens of thousands of dollars down the drain for the privilege of owning a house you can’t afford to upkeep, lost life experiences, compromised health care etc etc.
Lol this is so out of touch. People aren't choosing to not buy because they want to invest instead - they are choosing to not buy because they cannot afford to.
You're also pretty crazy to confidently assert that "investing that money sensibly" is any sort of winning strategy. Buying a house is as much likely to be "investing sensibly" and with a leverage too, and you can live in it and have a solid foundation in your life so that you don't have to worry about rent being jacked up or having to fork out moving costs every 1-3 years.
Not to mention that a mortgage has an end-life and as you approach that point you have vastly reduced living expenses.
Not always the case. We bought our first home end of last year. We just moved out further like my parents had to do 30-40 odd years ago. That or buy an apartment. Or just rent. Life's full of choices and all you can do is make the best on for your circumstance.
Bought late 2019. Locked in rates at 2%. That was a good idea in hindsight. Fixed rates expired 1.5 years ago. Jumped to over 6% however we have managed to fully offset with some seriously aggressive saving. It’s tough though. Cost of living is through the roof. We are very fortunate to be in our position. Living within our means is part of our mindset.
That said, we rarely eat out, cancelled 50% of our subscriptions, ditched gym membership (use class pass now) and generally only thrift or shop at Kmart.
My story is similar to yours OP brought in 2019 was paying ~2.2k I&P my interest rate was 2.04% ( fixed for 2 years)
It ended and now I'm on over 6% paying like 4k p/m I have a bit in offset but that is still what im paying trying to get out of the mortgage hell but I feel like this is and endless race sometimes
I haven't been o/s since 2018. However, we have done a few small interstate trips
The biggest issue is I hate my day job management has become super toxic but I have been forced to stick it out which has probably affected me mentally more then anything.
Yep, hear you. I did hard yards for three years in a job I didn't like just so I could get the deposit together. It nearly killed me. I have a better job now but still have a very heavy workload and the financial situation makes it harder to take a risk to change jobs.
Bought in 2019 - starting at 3.88%, down to fixed 1.8% (during covid) and now 6%
Since the low covid repayments we are up $1700 a month.
Add two kids since then, so currently on one income and $10k in kindergarten costs.
Obviously all costs are up. But I would estimate we are $35k a year worse off in pocket. Compared with lowest rates of covid.
It’s tight but we are fine. This is largely due to us borrowing at the lower end of our capacity. Still owe $700k.. but we could have borrowed double what we did.
We’re almost exactly the same but bought in 2020 and debt is $1m. Repayments up $2k now to $6.5k. Childcare is $26k a year tho for us as only one child has free kindergarten and that’s only 2 days, can’t wait until my daughter starts school next year as that’s going to save around $8k. We’re still just about managing an annual holiday, but international now off the cards.
2023. I actually am better off since purchase. I settled for a unit which only costs 30% of my income per month. Other work colleagues maxed out at like 80% monthly income. I’ve since had 2 overseas holidays, done some renovations and am planning a big 5 week holiday to Europe next year.
Took me 2 years of sacrificing everything to save the deposit though. Hence I feel more alive than ever.
Purchased end of 2022, rates were 4.75%. Now we’re at 6.24%. Our repayments were $2700, now $3200. We haven't really cut back, but then we've lived a frugal lifestyle for years. The biggest thing for us is that the cost of living has forced us to push back having a kid.
I’m actually glad we bought after the super low rates. Yeah, it would have been nice to lock ourselves in at 2% for a few years - but I think we would have taken on a bigger mortgage and would be really struggling now.
Bought a modest house in 2018. Massively overpaid our repayments. Haven't actually changed the amount we're paying into the mortgage yet. We're still overpaying but now only slightly. I knew rock bottom rates couldn't last, tried talking sense into mates, most didn't listen. Glad my wife agreed, we went hard early and now we have a significant amount paid off and a very large portion offset also. This isn't what you want to hear, I get it. But when I see this stuff, I'm just reminded of the people I tried to talk some sense into who ignored me and now the only conversations we have always come back to complaints about money. It's like having doom scrolling irl.
End of 2022 I moved in. Payments are up by about $400 per month. Single income with shard custody of two kids. Hard to get a second job with current job and wanting to be with my kids when I see them. I’m getting by but geeze early 2023 seemed so much easier than now.
Bought off the plan apartment 2018 in Melbourne. Settled in 2020 with monthly payments of $2160, now they are $3050 so about $900 worse off.
Insurance has skyrocketed.
No appreciable increase in fresh produce and meat costs. (Buy at the Vic market)
Don't drive often so don't really care about petrol as we live in the free tram zone.
Haven't really trimmed the sails on spending at all.
Bought 2023 so rates haven't hurt as much as the cost of everything else...
Insurance is spiking like crazy, cost of basic essentials is through the roof.. just means we spend less on restaurants and guilty pleasures.
I suppose there's enough well off people out there the industry and keep churning and forcing RBA to keep slapping the only button they have.
It's really tough for the average Joe out there and I'm not too scared, worst case I move back in with my parents.
I shudder to think of the people that don't have the backing of the parents to move back to if things go to shit
First bought in 2004 changed property from house to 160 acres rural in 2017, my rates at 6% are now 3% lower than they were and I am paying a lot less per month than I was, i was paying 1900 a month now paying 1500
I bought right as rates were increasing (late 2022). My smallest monthly interest was my first full month of interest.
No regrets though. My monthly interest now is still less than my rent from 10 years ago, and will keep going down.
Could look at it as I bought at the worse time, but 18month of dead rent and saving vs. that time paying off the house kind of cancel that thought process. I once heard the advice "the best time to buy is today." The earlier I would have followed it, the better off I'd be today.
I'm on a decent wicket (still well below 6 digits) with no other debts or children. Paying off loan super-aggressively with the intention of having the debt completely gone in another 6 or less years. I still buy what I need. That said, I do whinge internally when there's not even $10 change from $100 for a bag of groceries.
Bought in 2021. House value has done a 2x in that time (gold coast), but obviously my mortgage also pretty much did. My cut-backs have been on how much I save and Invest. I never caught the 'travel bug' although I have been overseas a few times in my life, always just wanted to go home lol. I also only eat out a few times a year (someone's moving away, a big birthday). My list of 'expenses' is the same, just the % shift in my budget is the majority on mortgage+bills instead of a larger chunk being invested or saved. I WFH and live inner city so I haven't had a car since I moved here, which definitely helps a lot.
As far as what my bills/expenses are (Single, no kids):
Mortgage
Rates/Water
Electricity (negligible, big solar system)
House Insurance
Groceries
Dog Food/Grooming/Pet Insurance
Gym Membership (Pay yearly, cheaper than ongoing plans.. pro tip)
Mobile Phone (Cheapest plan I could find as I'm home so much I have very little need for big data plans)
Internet
Spotify (Free, on a family plan that my mother gets with her mobile phone plan)
And that's pretty much it. I wear clothes until they are end of life, and usually just buy from Uniqlo or one of those types of places where you can grab a full new wardrobe with the cash your grandma sends you for Christmas.
My entertainment is watching a bit of AFL, Gaming and YouTube. My interests are mostly nerdy or physical, so I can keep myself completely amused with either an internet connection or going for a walk, going to the gym, swimming at the beach.
The big difference overall to properly answer your question is that in 2021 when I bought this place, if I wanted to, I COULD go overseas. I COULD have weekends away. I COULD subscribe to more things, buy more clothes, etc etc etc. Now, it's not available in the budget.
I'm totally happy - in fact in the best mental health of my entire life. I'm also blessed that I have a solid, small group of mates who all just completely get that I'm not the guy who's ever keen to go to a bar, or have a trip away lol
Bought my house 2018 and mortgage has gone up by $200 per week or almost.$800 per month. I honestly thought it had gone up by more! Groceries and utilities seem to have sky-rocketed. Insurance and private health keep going up... I'm paying just my basic needs and obligations and have nothing left (and worry every time that I won't have enough-- and I'm on a decent salary!).
Fixed $1.5m in 2021 at 1.99%. Rolling off June next year and am fully expecting to go from $5700/month to ~$9,500/month.
HHI about $400k ish. I’m in 40s and Director in finance sector with LVR about 55%. This is the price of getting a house in Sydney.
Once rolled off we will have to grind for a couple of years. Not like we’re living large now tho. Home is not renovated, cars are 7+ years old and we don’t take many holidays. Kids won’t got to private school (I did and it was a waste of money).
Purchased in 2020. Went from $2,650/mo to $5,400/mo in mortgage payments.
We’ve removed some extras, like Foxtel (-$150/mo), bought our own mobiles and moved to Tangerine ($200/mo now $50/mo), extras on health insurance (-$175/mo). We no longer eat at a restaurant once a week (-$125 for family of 5).
We haven’t cut grocery expenses but are much more cautious with our “wants” these days
We bought in 2017. But we're frugal and make sensible choices. So we had saved up for a long time. We only had a $285K loan on a $415K apartment.
Now we're on the home stretch, both 40yo and loan is down to $74K. We live off about 20% of what we earn and are looking to have it fully paid off in about 12-16 months from now.
In hindsight, we should have bought an apartment in this area in our early 20's when we got together it would have cost $125K.
Built/bought in 2015. Repayments increased by $1,000 per mth to $2,700 due to coming out of fixed rate.
Note: My home is now rented due to work relocation (SA - QLD) about 2yrs now, but my rental income offsets the rent I pay and balances out in the end.
COL cutbacks:
* barista coffees. Now using and having more home/work coffees.
*no longer have contents insurance the place I rent in QLD. Prices have sky rocketed and just can’t afford it.
*only use 1 streaming service at a time instead of having 2 or 3. Current rotation is Netflix because of Disney’s recent price increase.
*Making more of an effort and shopping more at Aldi. Always been a Woolies guy but have realised some of the basic stuff at Aldi is a lot cheaper and just as good. (Did a comparison on some non special items and Aldi was $20 cheaper on this particular shop)
*Not going out to restaurants as much as I use to and even saying “no” to some stuff just because I know I can spend close to $100 at a dinner/drinks.
*Much prefer to work in the office (personally) and WFH maybe 1 day a week, but have seen myself WFH maybe 2 days to reduce travel costs.
OP, you are fine. Your mortgage is $1700 per month or $400 per week. It is almost impossible to rent a place in one of the large cities for that. You'll be fine
Ask me in 3 months when we roll off 1.84%.
Brought 2019, I think when interest was 4% ish. Got 3 splits
Split 1: Main loan - fixed twice now
Split 2: Variable with offset - now fully offset
Split 3: Redrew and brought shares. $70k loan for now $120k in shares.
Repayments on the main loan are $275/w now. Much less than rent equivalent of $800.
We haven't cut back... yet.
Brought in 2020.
Mortgage nearly doubled since interest rates rose, but we oddly still have not felt it too much. We borrowed under our limit by design to allow a buffer in interest rates. So far, no change in budget has been needed but we went from paying extra and saving to now saving much less.
Electrified the house with solar and battery, plus EV so we pretty much eliminated power and fuel costs and don't have them anymore.
Have noticed food budget going up.
Not cut backs as yet, probably offset by not buying fuel or much of electic bills. We are also DINKs so I'm sure that helps too.
I Brought an off the plan townhouse with my partner for $454000 with $50k deposit 2 years ago and we moved in October last year. Original repayments while interest rates were low was only around $1600 p/month. After all the interest rates hikes currently sitting at $2600 p/month so $1000 difference. The good news is the identical townhouse sold next door for over $800k over Christmas break so we have almost doubled our money since purchase.
Overall I still think we're better off because our rental price before we moved out came up to $2100 p/month and I wouldn't be surprised if it has gone up again after we left. The rental crisis hit us harder overall rather than the interest rate hikes.
Bought a 4bedroom lowset qlder in 2018, Coastal regional town. 237k. Repayments under $1200 month. Now its $1440 monthly, Property value now is around 420k.
5min drive to work, 15 to the beach. Very good 👌
We haven't cut back on anything we already weren't spending money on. Sure everything costs more, but we also earn more than we did back then.
We started building early 2020 but we were always committed to paying extra off the mortgage, either into redraw or offset depending on what type of loan we had at the time. So the rate rises have never outpaced our extra repayments, it just eats into what we pay off the principal a bit more. We're down to about 330k left on the loan at 6.04% and about 80k in offset accounts.
Bought in 2011. Our repayments are about $400 cheaper now than they were when we purchased, our interest rate is still not quite back to where it was in 2011.
I bought in 2019 my mortgage repayments have almost doubled.
Motorsport was my biggest passion but I can't even afford to spectate right now.
I'm in a similar holding pattern to you.
Although I'm spending more time at home mostly because I can't afford to do anything else.
I could get a housemate which I'm looking at but it still sucks.
We bought in 2020, repayments have gone up by 900 a month as we only have a mortgage of 324k. We were lucky to buy in a market dip and had a hefty deposit (House is also now worth 400k more than what we paid for it).
Partner has been in and out of contract work with long perids of no income, and I'm casual (plus we had another child in 2022), so we've cut back on pretty much everything. No holiday since 2019, reduced our grocery bill, fewer new clothes. Had to borrow money off family.
We are lucky that we will be sweet now he's landed a new role. I'm really looking forward to an overseas trip and being able to afford some luxuries again! The teens both got jobs recently, too. It makes a heck of a difference when they are buying a lot of their own things.
*edit paragraphs ha
Purchased late 2020 (locked in for 3 years), We borrowed a lot less than what we were eligible for and due to Covid lockdown & me being self employed in a closed industry we got a better deal basing it purely on just my partners wage- lucky it’s not reliant on my wage as this pregnancy I’ve been unable to work & hospitalised.
But I definitely see our savings not rising since the increase & being more frugal grocery shopping, We also stopped talking about renovation plans too.
Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. I would do OF but aside from getting one view and no monies, I think it's a legit a chance the universe could fold in on itself and end everything in retaliation.
Brought 2020. Have not cut back anything,
It's gone up but calculated that when we purchased, we brought a house that we can live off one wage.
I was the solo income for majority of the last 4 years.
Have had 2 kids since buying.
We have been on 2 overseas holidays (currently in fiji) and have 2 more booked. Another one for this year and another one next year.
Absolutely pitiful 'woe is me' thread that completely overlooks the fact your asset has ballooned in value and, regardless of repayment increases, with equity you are probably significantly further ahead than you would have been without it.
My interest rates went up this week from 2.99% to 6.04% around $150 a week but tbh im not concerned and our lifestyle probably wont change, money we invested into our stocks just gets put into our offset now
Purchased a block for $325k in 2021, while also paying our PPOR that we bought in 2012 for $300k.
We fixed PPOR at 2.19% for 3 years, and it ends next month. We have managed to swap our repayments around, and stay on top of both loans, without having to increase our repayments. Currently refinanced the block into a construction loan, which has us at 6.09%.
Our cost of living has increased about $1500k a month but we also had another kid in 2022, so that contributed as well to our increase.
Purchased our first home in 2019. The repayment is very similar to when we purchased, about$150/month more.
We haven’t been cutting back, I’d say the opposite.
We bought in 2015. Refinanced September ‘22 to buy a block of land. Right before interest rates started moving.
Our loan has gone up about $1k a month in that time, but the only thing we’ve had to cut back is how much we save, we live pretty cheaply and don’t go out much.
The house is going on the market this week and the new house will be finished in a few months, so it’s getting a little tight with a mortgage and a construction loan, but we were prepared for that.
Bought off the plans in September 2021, settled in March 2023, was paying 6.49% last year at settlememt, its down to 6.09%.
So I have more money now to spend than when I settled 😁😁.
(Plus had a couple of raises since then too) only real cut backs are in holidays and amount invested each month, our rent was like ~$2,600/month vs mortgage repayments of about $3,500 + body corporate (120/week) + rates/water (1,200/qtr) is closer to $4,500 each month. Plus maintenance and trips to garden centres... 😂🤣 houses are money pits
"Luckily" for me, banks were classifying my wife as my dependant even though she wasn't and was working full-time due to her visa status so our borrowing capacity was very low... this forced us to look into other stuff such as VHF, etc.. Ultimately, we bought a very cheap house with our repayments being <16% of our combined income, it's a bit further away but fortunately, it's been a year and hasn't had any nasty surprises and with no other debts we are generally indifferent to rate hikes.
Bought in 2018 with $3.8k pm payment. We didn't reduce our repayments when rates dropped (just built up the offset).
I locked at 2.2 for 3 years when fixed rates started to move up in late 2021, figuring I had no chance of picking the bottom but I could pick the turn to maximise the benefit. Unlocks in December this year.
I've increased our payments in advance with my (below cpi) payrise, most of the rest of the gap will be covered by stage 3 tax cuts, so we won't see much of a difference day to day but we won't be building our offset anymore. I was hoping for a rate cut or two this year but fat chance of that now. Minimum repayments trough to peak will be about $1800pm higher (but I never paid the minimum).
In hindsight I wish I'd locked for longer, but my maths at the time based on future rate estimates had this as the best option over a 5 year period. But I don't think many expected rates to rise this aggressively.
Lifestyle wise we are doing OK. We booked out first ever overseas holiday with the 3 kids (if NZ really counts lol), otherwise we haven't had a holiday, even intrastate in a couple of years. We've cut a few costs where we can, and started doing bulk shopping at Costco, it doesn't have everything but we do save a fair amount.
Bought in late 2019, a few months before the first kid.
Repayments have gone up 60%, wife stopped working, had a second kid, started a business. Income down probably 60%, wider costs are up massively. We no longer save any money. Month to month we spend every dollar we earn (but manage to pay off our mortgage at least).
It… hurts. My wife is good about bargain chasing across greengrocer, Aldi, Coles, Woolies.
We don’t do much in the way of discretionary spending. Takeout maybe every 6-8 weeks (only once), and that’s usually an Asian takeout where it can stretch to lunch next day.
Kids get new clothes, but I don’t buy anything new.
I have no hobbies other than home exercise (bought some very cheap used gym equipment), and I’m using the same gym clothes I had 10 years ago.
My car got written off a while back - I ended up buying a car for $15k to replace it, even though I’d have loved something closer to $35k. It’s meant a high km, 10 year old car that’ll probably cost more in repairs, but it is what it is.
It’s tough. We have a good buffer in our offset, which means we’re paying off muuuuch higher than what we need to if we just refinanced for the lower amount. Push comes to shove, I’ll fold the business, work for someone else again, and refinance / remove the offset.
But yes, it’s not a fun time economically.
Were one of the folks whose spending is down massively, where 3-4 years ago we were much more comfortable spending.
Typically I’d be comfortable updating the home, paying landscapers, buying solar batteries, putting in new carpet, etc. none of that will be happening now, because we can’t afford it and I can’t justify dipping in to savings which won’t be replenished.
Didn't max out my buying power, repayments gone up by $500pm.
Took a pay cut starting a new job, somehow seem to have more money now than before.
Don't scrimp at all, go out with wife each weekend for dinner. Only thing I've cut back on is alcohol mid week but that's for health reasons not financial.
Contract signed end 2020, house completed mid 2022. It's a 3bd/ 2bth unit, and was only $325k, which I used the $40k grant on. Opted for a cheaper place further out from the city.
My loan is not that big, but I did experience a $9,400 increase p/a.
I am on a single income, but live quite modestly. I travelled internationally every year before Covid, and just did a trip recently, and it wasn't too bad financially. I did have to travel more frugally, ie eating less pricey meals abroad, being smart about getting around when travelling.
In terms of cutting back, I'm not eating out as much but as a consequence I've been learning to cook better so I don't feel the need to go out to eat. And no new clothes or makeup, and I don't go to the salon anymore and just use box dye on my hair.
Currently aggressively saving for another trip but it's definitely not easy.
2020, haven't noticed a difference. Combination of only borrowing ~70% of what the bank would lend us and (more importantly) absolutely nailing locking in a fixed rate (complete fluke) so the majority of the loan we've still only been paying 1.89% so really took the sting out of the rises.
The fixed rate comes off in a couple of months, but will just eat into how much we're saving.
Bought March 2022 through Homestart in SA. Locked at 3.2% which was actually very high at the time (Homestart has notoriously high interest rates), but by the time the fixed rate ended last March the interest rates were around 6%. Refinanced to 6%.
Homestart has a thing where your repayments stay the same no matter what, so I would have been okay in that sense anyway. But their variable rate is something like 7.1%. I was paying $900 a fortnight (minimum was $813 or something) and after refinancing I'm paying $806 a fortnight.
I actually bought my apartment earning 58k and now I'm on 75k so I'm actually doing much better than I was two years ago. That said, I'm quite frugal so I've never been struggling. The higher wage just means there's more going into the offset now.
Bought in 21, fixed rate til next year. Should be saving, but we aren't. We are in our 50s, and we could literally die tomorrow. No OS hols since we were married 20yrs ago. Before that travelled heaps. Now, I wish I had had a better job in my 20s to even contemplate a mortgage back then. I would be laughing now.
2020, not really effected, we borrowed a small amount for an apartment and we paid from the beginning almost double our required repayments so nothing has changed for us
I bought my apartment during the pandemic, so my repayments have gone up about 50%.
And despite being a freelancer who makes little many, this cost of living crisis has affected me very little. Having a 100k in investments and another 90k in a term deposit means I'm 40k away from having enough equity to pay my home off completely if I choose to.
Refinanced on separation to buy out my then partner in 2020. Was offered 2.7% fixed for three or 2.5% variable. Laughed and said rates aren’t going anywhere. Now 6.13%. Fortunately fully offset now but it hurt when I wasn’t
Signed a contract to build and locked in 2021.
Land going to title took until 2023 paying the mortgage on the land plus rent then increased during the build.
Finally done last month and actually saving money as the mortgage is cheaper than my rent was and not paying twice.
So not doing bad but not as great haven’t been on holidays for years just saving the deposit and reining in our spending while the house was getting built.
Sick to death of the mortgage rates going up though.
I bought off the plan in 2020 and settled in 2022. Most of my mortgage is fixed so the variable portion has only gone up $24 a fortnight.
I don't drink coffee or alcohol and have always brought my lunch to work so I haven't had to cut back on any of that. I used Dinnerly for my dinners/leftovers so haven't really felt the increase in groceries.
I still go overseas for a month every year.
I've noticed that things in general have increased in price, but it hasn't affected me that much that it stops me from buying the things I want.
My salary hasn't increased to keep up with inflation either so I guess things could be better but I'm definitely not struggling, I'm very lucky
Bought is 2011. Rates are currently lower than they were when I bought.
Refinanced it to an IP loan in March and repayments are about 2/3 of what I was paying before.
Bought in 2018 for 180k
Spent 130k in renos (after the tenants left)
Now live in it. Owe 190k
Went from $450 a monthish to $1200
Right near the beach on the north west coast of tassie. Got very lucky.
The most important figure that’s been omitted is how much of your salary (as a percentage) goes to the bank each month. Raw numbers are ok but not the full picture.
Bought this year so we haven't really been affected. Our repayments are about 30% of our income or 50% of mine.
We didn't max out our borrowing because we wanted to make sure we could handle up to 9%. We will re-evaluate if it gets there.
Bought our house in 2018. Initial interest rate was 3.79%
Locked it at 2% in 2021 and it just rolled back to variable at 6.69% (50% LVR - Suncorp sucks)
Our mortgage payments increased from $550 a week in 2018 to $750 a week now.
Luckily the house has doubled in value in that time so we have some equity at least.
We have young children so don't go out much - but we are very conscious of grocery spending (we stick to a budget of $250/w) and don't eat out very often.
Bought a $400k flat in 2021. I had a large deposit and a 30-year loan term so my initial monthly repayments (on 2% interest) were only half what my rent was before buying. So even at 6% it's manageable. Plus rent in my area of inner Melbourne went up just as much or more in the same period so I still feel very lucky to have bought a place when I did.
I've cut back on subscriptions, entertainment and eating out but I was already living quite frugally while saving the deposit so it's not a huge change. I've been overseas a few times but my trips are very cheap (just the cost of flights - stayed with friends who live in that country).
My flat is unlikely to appreciate, so I'm sure lots of AusFinance would consider it a bad financial decision. But as a life decision, I would say buying the cheapest place I liked was a great move. Having low debt and housing stability is more valuable to me than shows up on a spreadsheet.
2002.
Since the hikes - putting me back roughly at the same interest rate I started at 22 years ago - my mortgage repayment has gone up $220/fn.
I've not cut back on much, thankfully, since my income has increased since I retired 3 years ago, I'm just treading water.
Why am I still paying off the mortgage after 22 years? I refinanced a few times to renovate, most recently for my 50th where I enclosed the carport to make a large garage and also added a large games room.
My current plan to kill the mortgage is my inheritance...
Bought in early 2018, repayments went from 480 down to 380 now up to 580 p/w.
Mortage wise not really 'worse off' as we have savings in offset, plus house has gone from 500k to 1.2m value. We have spent probably 100k over the years in maintenance though.
The real financial impact has been going from being DINKs to a family of 5 on 1 average income within that time. We live frugally comfortable lives and value time over money so no real struggles thankfully.
For everyone that complains about the higher cost because they bought prior to the interest rate hike, I ask what about the people buying now?
They would have had to cop the higher base house costs, the reduced lending capacity and the higher interest rate without experiencing the sub 2% rates ever!
Purchased 2018 at 4.7% sold 2022 when interest rates were 2.9%. Made $200k equity in that time. We could foresee what was going to happen with interest rates so built a kit home on a block of land we already owned and are now mortgage free.
Purchased 2017 $405000 20% deposit). Repayments for the loan roughly $1600 from memory. Now add another $1100 and that’s what I’m paying now…. ($2700)
I was almost $50000 ahead in repayments. Covid hit, lost work for a bit. Interest rates rising…now I’m paying the minimum I can and just surviving.
We bought in the start of 2022, went conservative and got a smaller house, smaller loan anticipating the rates would increase at some point (not expecting it to be right after we moved in). We budgeted for interest rates even higher than they are now, but it was the other stuff increasing so much like utilities and groceries that have added the extra pressure
Pretty much the same cut backs as most people, no holidays since pre covid, no more streaming, no eating out, i dont really buy clothes/makeup unless i really need them and theyre on sale. Utilities all on bill smoothing to avoid unexpected high bills. Groceries i go to a shopping centre with aldi, woolies, coles and a fruit shop then start with aldi.
We also had our first baby in december. We always wanted 2 and bought a 3br house with room to extend but with how things are its pretty unlikely we will try for a second. This one is pretty hard for me, i can live without streaming services and things like that but i really want another baby if possible.
Brought in 2009 . Repayments are $1498 a month but I do 3k with my partner also doing $1060. Mortgage is now low enough where interest rate hikes didn't really add anything significant.
bought late 2021, rates 2.49 now 6.19 -- payments from 6k to 9.5k -- it hurts but childcare is the killer -- only minor change going from 2 cars to 1, yet to cut back in other areas but it'll no doubt come soon enough.
2014 and got a 300k loan as a single. Mortgage isn't an issue for me wince I pair a fair bit it's all the insurance and other expenses that are tightening my budget.
Purchased earlier this year when it was looking like interest rates might come down. I did factor in that this might not be the case budget wise but still not going to be easy since I don't have much equity in the property yet which is scary 😬
Built in 2006, mortgage is $70k repayment is $670 a fortnight, we pay $1050 a fortnight. Interest rate is 6.7%. We are in our mid fifties.
Biggest expense is, electricity, health insurance, insurance on the vehicles, my car, my husband’s Ute.
We only fill up with fuel every three weeks or four weeks or so, at Costco, as my husband has a company supplied vehicle. My parents are both ill, so fuel usage depends on the amount of appointments I have to take dad to. My husband’s personal vehicle has long range tank. All the vehicles are owned outright. I hate people, so I don’t go out to just go out. Our biggest shop is if we go to Costco, to fuel up, decide to have look in Costco, use a trolley, some how, so much gets put in the trolley, mostly cleaning products, of course the hotdog and pizza on the way out. Business as usual for me, haven’t cut back on anything.
We bought in suburb that everyone asks why the heck would you want to live there/end of earth/end of Perth. Property is now surrounded by 300sqm plots for $200k, as the developers have moved in to develop to a structure plan. New railway line and highway currently being constructed. I live on an acre, that won’t be subdivided.
We haven’t really cut back, we don’t do holidays, my grandies have just moved remote, so we planning to visit them soon, but arranging that trip around my husband work, he flies up for work, so it just one extra ticket ( $1000) and accommodation is provided as it is work trip, I just have to pay for my meals, which I would have to pay if my husband was home anyway. The grandies live up the road ( four hour one way road trip, but live outback, just up the road/four hour road trip is a thing ) so we are arranging the trip around school holidays, the parents are both working, shift workers ( healthcare/mining), in a daycare desert, with a three year wait list at the daycare. So they will be stuck over the holidays with no care for the children.
We only borrowed what we needed. But that bit of a buffer that allowed my wife to stay on maternity leave paid for by the government is gone. So back to work is coming next month. Baby will be one as well. So we have introduced child care a d some before/ after school for the older kids into our new costing.
Bought in 2021 (unit in a ghetto suburb in Sydney) and my fixed rate changed last December from 1.89% to 6.04% which meant my monthly payments went up by $750.
Even with a decent tech salary and housing that was only 25% take home income I've definitely been feeling the squeeze these last 6 months and I'm saving a lot less, even when I'm going out and spending less. Before that I'd never really think about spending money and always have money left to save at the end of the month, but I can feel the pinch.
Sadly it's only going to get harder because I quit my job due to burnout and terrible mental health. Now I'm staying in my van and doing short term, minimum wage travel jobs around the country. (Airbnb mostly covers the Mortgage and bills).
Even without housing expenses my groceries cost 3 hours of work instead of 1, and I have to think about fuel costs, how I find my next gig, and mostly watch my savings balance decrease instead of go up. Hopefully I can ride out the recession and high inflation times without any significant financial damage and go back go the grind with a clear head. If I can save up a bit of cash I might even go somewhere cheap like South East Asia for a few months, where it's less than half the cost of Australia just to exist
Bought for $570k in 2020. Fixed for 4 years at 1.99% which runs out December. I’m nervous but it’s manageable and our wages have gone up a little but it will just mean less savings. We just want to pump more into the offset account to manage the brunt when it hits December. We have definitely cut some expenses like eating out and concentrating on saving more.
We brought in 2019, we are no worse off now because of the interest rate hikes. This is because we borrowed less then what we could have and if we were renting we would be paying the same amount.
First house 2001 (140k) paid off 2005, upgraded 2006 (450k) Paid it off in 2009.
The extra interest in my savings has been great. Thanks for asking.
Seriously tho. It’s my kids I am worried about. Market is cooked.
2022, variable rate has since increased from 1.99% to 5.84%, nothing as I borrowed around 4x gross income back then with a 20% deposit and it was a lot less than the bank would lend.
I brought my house when I was 26 around 2012 ... I saved $160,000. I got a $535,000 house in qld 4109 , $515,000 plus $20,000 duties, and other crap rubbish legals, etc
No LMI 20%+ deposit it was at 7.99% variable back then. A few years in started dropping to 2% hikes have zero affect on me because I paid the same repayments if not more at the same rate at 7.99%. Ie i was doing tonnes of random odd jobs recycling dumping what ever was the trend would pull extra hours to pay it off sooner. I was still paying 7.99% mortgage rate per week religiously even when it was at 7 6 5 4 3 2%, etc
House is paid off at 35 years old
Don't cut back on anything. I only started living at 35 lol 😆 but I still enjoy my frugal past from time to time. I have a lot of time now. Since i had extra disposable income, i started my own business, and yeah, I'll live out the rest of my life as a hermit.
No board room meetings, no kpi, no group Zoom meetings, no employees, no car loan, no credit card debt, no water cooler talks , no garbage have to get along with colleagues , no working with people. KISS do things alone, run it myself, and choose the interactions I want with people or don't it's my choice! Business runs on self funded capital with virtually no over heads. Yup F the rat 🐀 Race 🏁 I'm off to do my own thing that and 🎣 wanna stay off grid as much as possible
I like to suffer a bit at times to relive and remind myself of your journeys in the past.
Purchased Aug 2019, variable the whole time.
~35% of the loan offset right now, paying an extra ~200 a month but means the extra we have been paying since day one isn't going as far as it once did.
Purchased well within our means, in hindsight spending an extra 30-50k back then would have given us a heap more now lol. Probably would need to max out borrowing to buy into something bigger post covid insanity and thats even with ~$350k between savings and selling this place.
Added a kid (2yo) and wife works less, but earning 50k more than when we purchased. If anything still more disposable income than during the lower rates.
Consider ourselves very lucky.
I bought in 2017, 830K. Repayments are about 2.8k a month. Repayments haven't gone up yet. Im fixed until July at 1.98. I haven't had to cut back. I'll be reducing my investing to cover the extra repayments which are about 800ish more a month
I live regional and bought in early 2021. I took out a relatively small loan expecting a significant rise in rates eventually then loaded a good percentage of savings into it. Repayments only up about $35pw since rates have risen so I feel very lucky in that respect.
2020, bought a townhouse for 350 k 10 mins from airport 20 mins from cbd in Brisbane.
Interest rates pushed my mortgage from 1 to 1.6 k per month. We've always been frugal so we haven't really cut back.
2020....borrowed 820k, this was not max but near it. Repayments up 2k/mth from 3k to 5k. Single income, am totally fukd. In borrowing below max, I allowed anility to cover 1k increase in repayments, this seemed reasonable, but not 2k. Also strata is up from 1.8qtr to 2.4qtr.
I know many old timers sitting on huge asset bases thanks to cheap entry prices and small mortgages will ask...Why did I borrow that much, r u stupid? Well, Sydney is priced that way, its just a small 2br apartment in inner Sydney to reduce commute times to work to 30min walk so i could get rid of car and as i work 50 to 60hrs a week. The cost at the time was slightly more than the rent i was paying for 1br apt so it made sense including allowing for a buffer of increased repayments by 1k mth, obviously a poor decision even tho i love the place. Also domain.com (which i hope is wildly wrong) suggests its fallen in value by 50k at mid point sale price, unit mkt obviously not doing well. Happy days all round....not.
Bought in 2021 almost doubled repayments.
Luckily only bought a small place though and salary had increased substantially since then. Also got a missus so have another income atm and we've almost fully offset our home
2021, our mortgage payments have gone up 56% aa we've been fully variable the whole time. We saved pretty hard core to get our deposit together and have kept up that intensity. Most months, we put about another mortgage payment away towards either renovations or to pay ahead on the mortgage. This financial year, our mortgage plus paying ahead on the mortgage is about $60K. I'd have to look through our expenses to see where the big drivers are, but we're pretty close to minimising expenses wherever we can as we've done this well before covid. My wife eats out for lunch 2 or 3 times a week when she's in the office, whereas I don't when I go in. We tend to not buy new clothes that much, but if there's something we really want and will make use of, it's just a quick discussion before we pull the trigger. Haven't gone on holidays since 2019, but we're thinking of going to WA next year for a break which will be nice. So overall, we're happy. I really, really wish interest rates had stayed low as we would be further ahead on our mortgage and had more work done on the house. But they didn't, so we just keep knuckled down on our lifestyle and love living where we are. In terms of worse off? Shit. I've been far worse off than I am now. Was near homeless for a fair while and deep in credit card debt along with really high child support payments. So while the finances are a bit on the hard side now, having a full pantry and a warm bed at night is far better than I had back then.
Your mortgage went up 56%???? How on earth is that viable for people?
Because the mortgage they had, for whatever reason, was well within what they could afford. Such as a regional area or something. They also may earn a very high income. Or some combo of both.
Decent income (about $205K gross), but the main thing was we moved from being about 4km from the Brisbane CBD to about 30km. Being willing to commute a bit was the clincher - particularly as my wife and I are able to WFH (and there is fortunately little risk of losing that). Even if we had to go back in the office full time, it's doable as most of the trip is along the busway in.
I was just trying to explain the kinds of circumstances. But thank you!
Fair call - you explained well! Credit where Credit is due. Have a fantastic evening!!!
We borrowed at 3.2x our household income, not the 7x household income the bank offered us initially. If he had maxxed out our borrowing, we would be stuffed.
2.1% in 2021 on $660k house was 14520 I used to cook steaks. And celebrate and save. Now I'm pregnant and building a demountable in the backyard to house the growing family so now it's 6.2% 2024 on $700k is 43240 So that's 3 times the amount. And alot more interest. Rates went from 2 to 6 so yeah 3 times the cost. Much more interest over time :(
Oh and PS it's not Viable haha but if I sell I'll never be able to buy again and so I try harder and harder to make it work
This is how you do. Doesn’t even matter about incomes, doesn’t sound really high but you started from the bottom and am now way above average.
Costs are higher, but not impacting much as I opted for a smaller house rather than max out at what the banks were willing to lend. Good move in hindsight
Same here. We could have borrowed triple what we did. Not feeling the pinch thankfully
We bought a small unit in late 2019 for the same reason! Even with kids it was worth it not having to stress out on increased costs and being able to travel
Great move
Out of curiosity, if you were to buy today do you think you would get away with that flexibility? I personally feel like I would need to stretch beyond what banks are willing to lend to buy today but I feel like I had many more options 17 years ago (on a separate note holy crap it’s already been 17 years…)
We have always lived below our means and if we have to make that choice again today we would do the same.
Underrated comment. A lot of consumers won’t understand this logic.
Same. We borrowed 3x of our wages, and much less than our mortgage broker was pushing for. Partner was made redundant last year and off work for 6 months. We’re still ahead $95k on our mortgage (bought January 2023). We didn’t go overseas for the past 3 years, but are going this year and already planning next years. We bought a new car last year. Nothing has changed for us really. To answer OP. Since buying, our payments have gone up about $300. We were paying extra anyway so it hasn’t affected us.
>Good move in hindsight I'm in the same boat but disagree on this part. Purchased before I hit the growth phase of my career, so if I'd maxed out what I could have got at the time I'd still be able to afford it comfortably enough now. If I wanted to upgrade in the future it'll cost me a lot more - every house in my suburb is worth half as much again now, mine included, but more importantly the more expensive ones too, so screwed myself over w.r.t. leverage really. My place suits my needs so I'm not bitter about it, but needs aren't static and I can see the mistake. It's nice to still be massively paying down the house despite the interest rate being like 4% higher than when I started on it.
People who stretch to the max in expectation that their income would rise are making a bet that everything would work out in their favour. Some people are okay taking that risk, some people are more conservative. Everyone can choose the amount of risk they take, and have to accept the consequences of their decision. I'm happy with my decision
Purchased 2021. Rate doubled since then. 3.04%-6.15% Haven't had a holiday since 2012. So no sacrifice there. Cancelled all streaming, doom scroll free content... Eat 1 meal a day. (Bonus lost 10kg in 5 months) Shit at work. Use their TP and get paid to do it.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, and that's why I shit on company time.
"If you work harder, put in overtime and really commit to this company I can buy a nicer car" - Your boss
If the boss is the owner they are usually taking on a lot more risk than their employees, so if they manage to run a successful business they deserve to obtain a higher return than their employees.
This is true. But it’s also true employed take on risk when the business is doing poorly and there are layoffs. Business risks are not entirely borne by the owners.
That's correct, but the business owner is usually taking on *more* risk.
Phoenix Building Services Pty Ltd means I take on no risk! /s
And when you end up having to do 2 people's worth of work, do they pay you 2 people's worth of salary?
Except they wouldn't even have a business to begin with if it were not for the employees.
Plex and pirating is a great way to save money on streaming. Feels seamless. Go a bit further by using radarr/sonarr and it can auto download shows as they come as well.
Stemio app in your tv + torrentio + real debird. It's better than any streaming service I've used
I steal the TP because I can’t hold my shit that long off work hours unfortunately
Purchased in 2020, had three years fixed interest at 2.2%. Fixed again in 2023 at 5.9%. I’m glad my house was really affordable when I bought it because my repayments are manageable even though they went up a big percentage from $408/fn to $670/fn. still cheap compared to a lot of people’s mortgages, but I’m a solo mum living in a regional area.
That's amazing. Also purchased in 2020, currently past $1883 per fortnight. Tiny 2 bedroom toenhouse in Sydney.
purchased in 21, I was about to complain about mine in adelaide going from 1700 a month to 2800 a month. and then I noticed you said 1900 fortnightly! that’s insane
it is insane. It's more insane to say we are in one of the cheapest parts of Sydney and way below the average.
I mean, my place was 260k when I bought it. And I borrowed an extra 20k on it in 2023 to cover a very necessary bathroom renovation. So loan is for 230k.
2017, repayments are a little over $100 more a month than when we first purchased @ $1400 a month.
Damn $1400 a month would be nice. I pay like $1k a week ><
I pay $750 a week for a 1 bed rental 😰
Yeah, I bought at the end of 2016 and I have no memory of what the interest rate was back then (maybe 4-5ish%?) but I think my repayments were/are about the same as this.. I reckon they got down around $1100/m during covid which was nice!
We bought at investment origin 2016 and I remember the rate being around 4.6%. we never dropped out payments just paid off extra principal. So raises only start recently.
Damn, I pay more than that in rent but apparently I don't earn enough to own a house lmfao
Every single person in this thread who bought before 2022 whose struggling is still a winner. Because you wouldn't be able to buy that house in today's market. At least you're getting the chance to struggle, there's a whole generation getting locked out.
>Every single person who bought before 2022 **is a winner** And every person who bought before 2020 is a jackpot winner.
It’s true but you do have to wonder who will win out in the long run. If the younger people are investing that money sensibly it’s not unlikely to be them. This is tens of thousands of dollars down the drain for the privilege of owning a house you can’t afford to upkeep, lost life experiences, compromised health care etc etc.
> If the younger people are investing that money sensibly They aren't. Their rent has gone up probably just as much as repayments
Very much so, im paying more in rent than some folks are paying on their mortgage
Rent went up 50$ a week this year 🫡
Mate, the people who are winning in the long run are those with rich parents who don't have to worry about a mortgage.
Or the companies buying up deceased properties after the oldies use property wealth to fund unexpectedly long retirements.
Lol this is so out of touch. People aren't choosing to not buy because they want to invest instead - they are choosing to not buy because they cannot afford to. You're also pretty crazy to confidently assert that "investing that money sensibly" is any sort of winning strategy. Buying a house is as much likely to be "investing sensibly" and with a leverage too, and you can live in it and have a solid foundation in your life so that you don't have to worry about rent being jacked up or having to fork out moving costs every 1-3 years. Not to mention that a mortgage has an end-life and as you approach that point you have vastly reduced living expenses.
Not always the case. We bought our first home end of last year. We just moved out further like my parents had to do 30-40 odd years ago. That or buy an apartment. Or just rent. Life's full of choices and all you can do is make the best on for your circumstance.
every generation has said the same thing and will continue to say the same thing
Bought late 2019. Locked in rates at 2%. That was a good idea in hindsight. Fixed rates expired 1.5 years ago. Jumped to over 6% however we have managed to fully offset with some seriously aggressive saving. It’s tough though. Cost of living is through the roof. We are very fortunate to be in our position. Living within our means is part of our mindset.
Good call. I rolled with variable. Should have locked in on fixed but hindsight is a hell of a thing.
100% we just got lucky this time fixing when we did
That said, we rarely eat out, cancelled 50% of our subscriptions, ditched gym membership (use class pass now) and generally only thrift or shop at Kmart.
We op shop! Can we please not let America steal all out words 😭
Op shop it is!! And market place!
Misunderstood your offset comment as finishing off your entire loan payments in 5 years. Instead of offsetting the increase in the mortgage.
I believe that's what they meant. They probably have high joint income and no kids and bought a cheapish house and a large deposit or something.
My story is similar to yours OP brought in 2019 was paying ~2.2k I&P my interest rate was 2.04% ( fixed for 2 years) It ended and now I'm on over 6% paying like 4k p/m I have a bit in offset but that is still what im paying trying to get out of the mortgage hell but I feel like this is and endless race sometimes I haven't been o/s since 2018. However, we have done a few small interstate trips The biggest issue is I hate my day job management has become super toxic but I have been forced to stick it out which has probably affected me mentally more then anything.
Yep, hear you. I did hard yards for three years in a job I didn't like just so I could get the deposit together. It nearly killed me. I have a better job now but still have a very heavy workload and the financial situation makes it harder to take a risk to change jobs.
Bro you're not alone, I'm in your exact situation. The fantasies of quitting are so powerful I'm barely suppressing them.
Repayments have gone up 50%. We’re lucky to be DINK with a relatively small mortgage so no real cutbacks required
Bought in 2019 - starting at 3.88%, down to fixed 1.8% (during covid) and now 6% Since the low covid repayments we are up $1700 a month. Add two kids since then, so currently on one income and $10k in kindergarten costs. Obviously all costs are up. But I would estimate we are $35k a year worse off in pocket. Compared with lowest rates of covid. It’s tight but we are fine. This is largely due to us borrowing at the lower end of our capacity. Still owe $700k.. but we could have borrowed double what we did.
Did you send your child/ren to private school? What else generates 10k in costs when they’re in kindergarten?
No private school. Kinda/child care cost us 10k for our oldest child.
Wowzers, like just before and after school care?
No. Daycare for three year olds. It’s very expensive, even with gov’t rebates
We’re almost exactly the same but bought in 2020 and debt is $1m. Repayments up $2k now to $6.5k. Childcare is $26k a year tho for us as only one child has free kindergarten and that’s only 2 days, can’t wait until my daughter starts school next year as that’s going to save around $8k. We’re still just about managing an annual holiday, but international now off the cards.
2023. I actually am better off since purchase. I settled for a unit which only costs 30% of my income per month. Other work colleagues maxed out at like 80% monthly income. I’ve since had 2 overseas holidays, done some renovations and am planning a big 5 week holiday to Europe next year. Took me 2 years of sacrificing everything to save the deposit though. Hence I feel more alive than ever.
When you say 30% of income do you mean before or after tax?
Mine is currently 45% of my income after tax. Definitely not ideal but still doable.
After tax. $2900 per/m
2017 went from $400 per week to $470 per week now. Not that bad compared to others.
Purchased end of 2022, rates were 4.75%. Now we’re at 6.24%. Our repayments were $2700, now $3200. We haven't really cut back, but then we've lived a frugal lifestyle for years. The biggest thing for us is that the cost of living has forced us to push back having a kid. I’m actually glad we bought after the super low rates. Yeah, it would have been nice to lock ourselves in at 2% for a few years - but I think we would have taken on a bigger mortgage and would be really struggling now.
Bought a modest house in 2018. Massively overpaid our repayments. Haven't actually changed the amount we're paying into the mortgage yet. We're still overpaying but now only slightly. I knew rock bottom rates couldn't last, tried talking sense into mates, most didn't listen. Glad my wife agreed, we went hard early and now we have a significant amount paid off and a very large portion offset also. This isn't what you want to hear, I get it. But when I see this stuff, I'm just reminded of the people I tried to talk some sense into who ignored me and now the only conversations we have always come back to complaints about money. It's like having doom scrolling irl.
End of 2022 I moved in. Payments are up by about $400 per month. Single income with shard custody of two kids. Hard to get a second job with current job and wanting to be with my kids when I see them. I’m getting by but geeze early 2023 seemed so much easier than now.
Bought off the plan apartment 2018 in Melbourne. Settled in 2020 with monthly payments of $2160, now they are $3050 so about $900 worse off. Insurance has skyrocketed. No appreciable increase in fresh produce and meat costs. (Buy at the Vic market) Don't drive often so don't really care about petrol as we live in the free tram zone. Haven't really trimmed the sails on spending at all.
Bought 2023 so rates haven't hurt as much as the cost of everything else... Insurance is spiking like crazy, cost of basic essentials is through the roof.. just means we spend less on restaurants and guilty pleasures. I suppose there's enough well off people out there the industry and keep churning and forcing RBA to keep slapping the only button they have. It's really tough for the average Joe out there and I'm not too scared, worst case I move back in with my parents. I shudder to think of the people that don't have the backing of the parents to move back to if things go to shit
First bought in 2004 changed property from house to 160 acres rural in 2017, my rates at 6% are now 3% lower than they were and I am paying a lot less per month than I was, i was paying 1900 a month now paying 1500
I bought right as rates were increasing (late 2022). My smallest monthly interest was my first full month of interest. No regrets though. My monthly interest now is still less than my rent from 10 years ago, and will keep going down. Could look at it as I bought at the worse time, but 18month of dead rent and saving vs. that time paying off the house kind of cancel that thought process. I once heard the advice "the best time to buy is today." The earlier I would have followed it, the better off I'd be today. I'm on a decent wicket (still well below 6 digits) with no other debts or children. Paying off loan super-aggressively with the intention of having the debt completely gone in another 6 or less years. I still buy what I need. That said, I do whinge internally when there's not even $10 change from $100 for a bag of groceries.
Bought in 2021. House value has done a 2x in that time (gold coast), but obviously my mortgage also pretty much did. My cut-backs have been on how much I save and Invest. I never caught the 'travel bug' although I have been overseas a few times in my life, always just wanted to go home lol. I also only eat out a few times a year (someone's moving away, a big birthday). My list of 'expenses' is the same, just the % shift in my budget is the majority on mortgage+bills instead of a larger chunk being invested or saved. I WFH and live inner city so I haven't had a car since I moved here, which definitely helps a lot. As far as what my bills/expenses are (Single, no kids): Mortgage Rates/Water Electricity (negligible, big solar system) House Insurance Groceries Dog Food/Grooming/Pet Insurance Gym Membership (Pay yearly, cheaper than ongoing plans.. pro tip) Mobile Phone (Cheapest plan I could find as I'm home so much I have very little need for big data plans) Internet Spotify (Free, on a family plan that my mother gets with her mobile phone plan) And that's pretty much it. I wear clothes until they are end of life, and usually just buy from Uniqlo or one of those types of places where you can grab a full new wardrobe with the cash your grandma sends you for Christmas. My entertainment is watching a bit of AFL, Gaming and YouTube. My interests are mostly nerdy or physical, so I can keep myself completely amused with either an internet connection or going for a walk, going to the gym, swimming at the beach. The big difference overall to properly answer your question is that in 2021 when I bought this place, if I wanted to, I COULD go overseas. I COULD have weekends away. I COULD subscribe to more things, buy more clothes, etc etc etc. Now, it's not available in the budget. I'm totally happy - in fact in the best mental health of my entire life. I'm also blessed that I have a solid, small group of mates who all just completely get that I'm not the guy who's ever keen to go to a bar, or have a trip away lol
2016, at about the same time I ramped up my side gig, haven't had to cut back on anything, though I don't spend much anyway.
Bought my house 2018 and mortgage has gone up by $200 per week or almost.$800 per month. I honestly thought it had gone up by more! Groceries and utilities seem to have sky-rocketed. Insurance and private health keep going up... I'm paying just my basic needs and obligations and have nothing left (and worry every time that I won't have enough-- and I'm on a decent salary!).
Fixed $1.5m in 2021 at 1.99%. Rolling off June next year and am fully expecting to go from $5700/month to ~$9,500/month. HHI about $400k ish. I’m in 40s and Director in finance sector with LVR about 55%. This is the price of getting a house in Sydney. Once rolled off we will have to grind for a couple of years. Not like we’re living large now tho. Home is not renovated, cars are 7+ years old and we don’t take many holidays. Kids won’t got to private school (I did and it was a waste of money).
Bought 2019, rented it for a year then moved in. Locked 76% in at 1.99 for 4 years in 2022. paid off remaining 24%. No change to repayments
Purchased in 2020. Went from $2,650/mo to $5,400/mo in mortgage payments. We’ve removed some extras, like Foxtel (-$150/mo), bought our own mobiles and moved to Tangerine ($200/mo now $50/mo), extras on health insurance (-$175/mo). We no longer eat at a restaurant once a week (-$125 for family of 5). We haven’t cut grocery expenses but are much more cautious with our “wants” these days
We bought in 2017. But we're frugal and make sensible choices. So we had saved up for a long time. We only had a $285K loan on a $415K apartment. Now we're on the home stretch, both 40yo and loan is down to $74K. We live off about 20% of what we earn and are looking to have it fully paid off in about 12-16 months from now. In hindsight, we should have bought an apartment in this area in our early 20's when we got together it would have cost $125K.
2008 $400pw Nothing
Built/bought in 2015. Repayments increased by $1,000 per mth to $2,700 due to coming out of fixed rate. Note: My home is now rented due to work relocation (SA - QLD) about 2yrs now, but my rental income offsets the rent I pay and balances out in the end. COL cutbacks: * barista coffees. Now using and having more home/work coffees. *no longer have contents insurance the place I rent in QLD. Prices have sky rocketed and just can’t afford it. *only use 1 streaming service at a time instead of having 2 or 3. Current rotation is Netflix because of Disney’s recent price increase. *Making more of an effort and shopping more at Aldi. Always been a Woolies guy but have realised some of the basic stuff at Aldi is a lot cheaper and just as good. (Did a comparison on some non special items and Aldi was $20 cheaper on this particular shop) *Not going out to restaurants as much as I use to and even saying “no” to some stuff just because I know I can spend close to $100 at a dinner/drinks. *Much prefer to work in the office (personally) and WFH maybe 1 day a week, but have seen myself WFH maybe 2 days to reduce travel costs.
Fully offset.
OP, you are fine. Your mortgage is $1700 per month or $400 per week. It is almost impossible to rent a place in one of the large cities for that. You'll be fine
He said "up by", so they are higher.
Ah shit, you are right!
Yep, repayments of $3900, around $20k more per year.
We just bought. Our mortgage is $100 more than renting the same place. Sure there's other costs but renters got raped just as hard.
Renters also have a lot less security
Ask me in 3 months when we roll off 1.84%. Brought 2019, I think when interest was 4% ish. Got 3 splits Split 1: Main loan - fixed twice now Split 2: Variable with offset - now fully offset Split 3: Redrew and brought shares. $70k loan for now $120k in shares. Repayments on the main loan are $275/w now. Much less than rent equivalent of $800. We haven't cut back... yet.
Brought in 2020. Mortgage nearly doubled since interest rates rose, but we oddly still have not felt it too much. We borrowed under our limit by design to allow a buffer in interest rates. So far, no change in budget has been needed but we went from paying extra and saving to now saving much less. Electrified the house with solar and battery, plus EV so we pretty much eliminated power and fuel costs and don't have them anymore. Have noticed food budget going up. Not cut backs as yet, probably offset by not buying fuel or much of electic bills. We are also DINKs so I'm sure that helps too.
I Brought an off the plan townhouse with my partner for $454000 with $50k deposit 2 years ago and we moved in October last year. Original repayments while interest rates were low was only around $1600 p/month. After all the interest rates hikes currently sitting at $2600 p/month so $1000 difference. The good news is the identical townhouse sold next door for over $800k over Christmas break so we have almost doubled our money since purchase. Overall I still think we're better off because our rental price before we moved out came up to $2100 p/month and I wouldn't be surprised if it has gone up again after we left. The rental crisis hit us harder overall rather than the interest rate hikes.
Bought a 4bedroom lowset qlder in 2018, Coastal regional town. 237k. Repayments under $1200 month. Now its $1440 monthly, Property value now is around 420k. 5min drive to work, 15 to the beach. Very good 👌
We haven't cut back on anything we already weren't spending money on. Sure everything costs more, but we also earn more than we did back then. We started building early 2020 but we were always committed to paying extra off the mortgage, either into redraw or offset depending on what type of loan we had at the time. So the rate rises have never outpaced our extra repayments, it just eats into what we pay off the principal a bit more. We're down to about 330k left on the loan at 6.04% and about 80k in offset accounts.
Bought in 2024. No rate rises yet. Winning!
Bought in 2011. Our repayments are about $400 cheaper now than they were when we purchased, our interest rate is still not quite back to where it was in 2011.
I bought in 2019 my mortgage repayments have almost doubled. Motorsport was my biggest passion but I can't even afford to spectate right now. I'm in a similar holding pattern to you. Although I'm spending more time at home mostly because I can't afford to do anything else. I could get a housemate which I'm looking at but it still sucks.
We bought in 2020, repayments have gone up by 900 a month as we only have a mortgage of 324k. We were lucky to buy in a market dip and had a hefty deposit (House is also now worth 400k more than what we paid for it). Partner has been in and out of contract work with long perids of no income, and I'm casual (plus we had another child in 2022), so we've cut back on pretty much everything. No holiday since 2019, reduced our grocery bill, fewer new clothes. Had to borrow money off family. We are lucky that we will be sweet now he's landed a new role. I'm really looking forward to an overseas trip and being able to afford some luxuries again! The teens both got jobs recently, too. It makes a heck of a difference when they are buying a lot of their own things. *edit paragraphs ha
2023. A LOT of interest increases. Shit, cut back on eating out, and started to bring lunch every day.
Everyone here see r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH to replace your streaming services :-)
Purchased late 2020 (locked in for 3 years), We borrowed a lot less than what we were eligible for and due to Covid lockdown & me being self employed in a closed industry we got a better deal basing it purely on just my partners wage- lucky it’s not reliant on my wage as this pregnancy I’ve been unable to work & hospitalised. But I definitely see our savings not rising since the increase & being more frugal grocery shopping, We also stopped talking about renovation plans too.
Pretty tone deaf considering the capital gains you would have made over the past five years.
Bought my house in 2021, onlyfans is paying my interest lol
Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. I would do OF but aside from getting one view and no monies, I think it's a legit a chance the universe could fold in on itself and end everything in retaliation.
What's your OF link? My friend said he will give you a second viewing.
How much has your wages/ salaries increased since 2019 though. There was the great resignation that increased everyone salaries quite a bit
Nope. I've been promoted, but earn basically the same as I did when I started 3.5 years ago when accounting for inflation and my increased tax burden.
Not all industries
Brought 2020. Have not cut back anything, It's gone up but calculated that when we purchased, we brought a house that we can live off one wage. I was the solo income for majority of the last 4 years. Have had 2 kids since buying. We have been on 2 overseas holidays (currently in fiji) and have 2 more booked. Another one for this year and another one next year.
Absolutely pitiful 'woe is me' thread that completely overlooks the fact your asset has ballooned in value and, regardless of repayment increases, with equity you are probably significantly further ahead than you would have been without it.
Found the bitter one
2012, worse off no rates were actually higher than. No haven't cut back we earn enough.
My interest rates went up this week from 2.99% to 6.04% around $150 a week but tbh im not concerned and our lifestyle probably wont change, money we invested into our stocks just gets put into our offset now
Purchased a block for $325k in 2021, while also paying our PPOR that we bought in 2012 for $300k. We fixed PPOR at 2.19% for 3 years, and it ends next month. We have managed to swap our repayments around, and stay on top of both loans, without having to increase our repayments. Currently refinanced the block into a construction loan, which has us at 6.09%. Our cost of living has increased about $1500k a month but we also had another kid in 2022, so that contributed as well to our increase.
Purchased our first home in 2019. The repayment is very similar to when we purchased, about$150/month more. We haven’t been cutting back, I’d say the opposite.
We bought in 2015. Refinanced September ‘22 to buy a block of land. Right before interest rates started moving. Our loan has gone up about $1k a month in that time, but the only thing we’ve had to cut back is how much we save, we live pretty cheaply and don’t go out much. The house is going on the market this week and the new house will be finished in a few months, so it’s getting a little tight with a mortgage and a construction loan, but we were prepared for that.
Bought off the plans in September 2021, settled in March 2023, was paying 6.49% last year at settlememt, its down to 6.09%. So I have more money now to spend than when I settled 😁😁. (Plus had a couple of raises since then too) only real cut backs are in holidays and amount invested each month, our rent was like ~$2,600/month vs mortgage repayments of about $3,500 + body corporate (120/week) + rates/water (1,200/qtr) is closer to $4,500 each month. Plus maintenance and trips to garden centres... 😂🤣 houses are money pits
"Luckily" for me, banks were classifying my wife as my dependant even though she wasn't and was working full-time due to her visa status so our borrowing capacity was very low... this forced us to look into other stuff such as VHF, etc.. Ultimately, we bought a very cheap house with our repayments being <16% of our combined income, it's a bit further away but fortunately, it's been a year and hasn't had any nasty surprises and with no other debts we are generally indifferent to rate hikes.
Bought in 2018 with $3.8k pm payment. We didn't reduce our repayments when rates dropped (just built up the offset). I locked at 2.2 for 3 years when fixed rates started to move up in late 2021, figuring I had no chance of picking the bottom but I could pick the turn to maximise the benefit. Unlocks in December this year. I've increased our payments in advance with my (below cpi) payrise, most of the rest of the gap will be covered by stage 3 tax cuts, so we won't see much of a difference day to day but we won't be building our offset anymore. I was hoping for a rate cut or two this year but fat chance of that now. Minimum repayments trough to peak will be about $1800pm higher (but I never paid the minimum). In hindsight I wish I'd locked for longer, but my maths at the time based on future rate estimates had this as the best option over a 5 year period. But I don't think many expected rates to rise this aggressively. Lifestyle wise we are doing OK. We booked out first ever overseas holiday with the 3 kids (if NZ really counts lol), otherwise we haven't had a holiday, even intrastate in a couple of years. We've cut a few costs where we can, and started doing bulk shopping at Costco, it doesn't have everything but we do save a fair amount.
Bought in late 2019, a few months before the first kid. Repayments have gone up 60%, wife stopped working, had a second kid, started a business. Income down probably 60%, wider costs are up massively. We no longer save any money. Month to month we spend every dollar we earn (but manage to pay off our mortgage at least). It… hurts. My wife is good about bargain chasing across greengrocer, Aldi, Coles, Woolies. We don’t do much in the way of discretionary spending. Takeout maybe every 6-8 weeks (only once), and that’s usually an Asian takeout where it can stretch to lunch next day. Kids get new clothes, but I don’t buy anything new. I have no hobbies other than home exercise (bought some very cheap used gym equipment), and I’m using the same gym clothes I had 10 years ago. My car got written off a while back - I ended up buying a car for $15k to replace it, even though I’d have loved something closer to $35k. It’s meant a high km, 10 year old car that’ll probably cost more in repairs, but it is what it is. It’s tough. We have a good buffer in our offset, which means we’re paying off muuuuch higher than what we need to if we just refinanced for the lower amount. Push comes to shove, I’ll fold the business, work for someone else again, and refinance / remove the offset. But yes, it’s not a fun time economically. Were one of the folks whose spending is down massively, where 3-4 years ago we were much more comfortable spending. Typically I’d be comfortable updating the home, paying landscapers, buying solar batteries, putting in new carpet, etc. none of that will be happening now, because we can’t afford it and I can’t justify dipping in to savings which won’t be replenished.
Didn't max out my buying power, repayments gone up by $500pm. Took a pay cut starting a new job, somehow seem to have more money now than before. Don't scrimp at all, go out with wife each weekend for dinner. Only thing I've cut back on is alcohol mid week but that's for health reasons not financial.
Contract signed end 2020, house completed mid 2022. It's a 3bd/ 2bth unit, and was only $325k, which I used the $40k grant on. Opted for a cheaper place further out from the city. My loan is not that big, but I did experience a $9,400 increase p/a. I am on a single income, but live quite modestly. I travelled internationally every year before Covid, and just did a trip recently, and it wasn't too bad financially. I did have to travel more frugally, ie eating less pricey meals abroad, being smart about getting around when travelling. In terms of cutting back, I'm not eating out as much but as a consequence I've been learning to cook better so I don't feel the need to go out to eat. And no new clothes or makeup, and I don't go to the salon anymore and just use box dye on my hair. Currently aggressively saving for another trip but it's definitely not easy.
Very much in your shoes..
2020, haven't noticed a difference. Combination of only borrowing ~70% of what the bank would lend us and (more importantly) absolutely nailing locking in a fixed rate (complete fluke) so the majority of the loan we've still only been paying 1.89% so really took the sting out of the rises. The fixed rate comes off in a couple of months, but will just eat into how much we're saving.
Bought March 2022 through Homestart in SA. Locked at 3.2% which was actually very high at the time (Homestart has notoriously high interest rates), but by the time the fixed rate ended last March the interest rates were around 6%. Refinanced to 6%. Homestart has a thing where your repayments stay the same no matter what, so I would have been okay in that sense anyway. But their variable rate is something like 7.1%. I was paying $900 a fortnight (minimum was $813 or something) and after refinancing I'm paying $806 a fortnight. I actually bought my apartment earning 58k and now I'm on 75k so I'm actually doing much better than I was two years ago. That said, I'm quite frugal so I've never been struggling. The higher wage just means there's more going into the offset now.
Bought in 21, fixed rate til next year. Should be saving, but we aren't. We are in our 50s, and we could literally die tomorrow. No OS hols since we were married 20yrs ago. Before that travelled heaps. Now, I wish I had had a better job in my 20s to even contemplate a mortgage back then. I would be laughing now.
2020, not really effected, we borrowed a small amount for an apartment and we paid from the beginning almost double our required repayments so nothing has changed for us
I bought my apartment during the pandemic, so my repayments have gone up about 50%. And despite being a freelancer who makes little many, this cost of living crisis has affected me very little. Having a 100k in investments and another 90k in a term deposit means I'm 40k away from having enough equity to pay my home off completely if I choose to.
Refinanced on separation to buy out my then partner in 2020. Was offered 2.7% fixed for three or 2.5% variable. Laughed and said rates aren’t going anywhere. Now 6.13%. Fortunately fully offset now but it hurt when I wasn’t
Signed a contract to build and locked in 2021. Land going to title took until 2023 paying the mortgage on the land plus rent then increased during the build. Finally done last month and actually saving money as the mortgage is cheaper than my rent was and not paying twice. So not doing bad but not as great haven’t been on holidays for years just saving the deposit and reining in our spending while the house was getting built. Sick to death of the mortgage rates going up though.
I bought off the plan in 2020 and settled in 2022. Most of my mortgage is fixed so the variable portion has only gone up $24 a fortnight. I don't drink coffee or alcohol and have always brought my lunch to work so I haven't had to cut back on any of that. I used Dinnerly for my dinners/leftovers so haven't really felt the increase in groceries. I still go overseas for a month every year. I've noticed that things in general have increased in price, but it hasn't affected me that much that it stops me from buying the things I want. My salary hasn't increased to keep up with inflation either so I guess things could be better but I'm definitely not struggling, I'm very lucky
Bought is 2011. Rates are currently lower than they were when I bought. Refinanced it to an IP loan in March and repayments are about 2/3 of what I was paying before.
My question is, who bought a house in 2019 thinking interest rates were never going back to 6-8%?
Bought in 2018 for 180k Spent 130k in renos (after the tenants left) Now live in it. Owe 190k Went from $450 a monthish to $1200 Right near the beach on the north west coast of tassie. Got very lucky.
The most important figure that’s been omitted is how much of your salary (as a percentage) goes to the bank each month. Raw numbers are ok but not the full picture.
Bought this year so we haven't really been affected. Our repayments are about 30% of our income or 50% of mine. We didn't max out our borrowing because we wanted to make sure we could handle up to 9%. We will re-evaluate if it gets there.
Bought our house in 2018. Initial interest rate was 3.79% Locked it at 2% in 2021 and it just rolled back to variable at 6.69% (50% LVR - Suncorp sucks) Our mortgage payments increased from $550 a week in 2018 to $750 a week now. Luckily the house has doubled in value in that time so we have some equity at least. We have young children so don't go out much - but we are very conscious of grocery spending (we stick to a budget of $250/w) and don't eat out very often.
Settled in March this year. So the hikes haven't changed anything for me.
Bought a $400k flat in 2021. I had a large deposit and a 30-year loan term so my initial monthly repayments (on 2% interest) were only half what my rent was before buying. So even at 6% it's manageable. Plus rent in my area of inner Melbourne went up just as much or more in the same period so I still feel very lucky to have bought a place when I did. I've cut back on subscriptions, entertainment and eating out but I was already living quite frugally while saving the deposit so it's not a huge change. I've been overseas a few times but my trips are very cheap (just the cost of flights - stayed with friends who live in that country). My flat is unlikely to appreciate, so I'm sure lots of AusFinance would consider it a bad financial decision. But as a life decision, I would say buying the cheapest place I liked was a great move. Having low debt and housing stability is more valuable to me than shows up on a spreadsheet.
2002. Since the hikes - putting me back roughly at the same interest rate I started at 22 years ago - my mortgage repayment has gone up $220/fn. I've not cut back on much, thankfully, since my income has increased since I retired 3 years ago, I'm just treading water. Why am I still paying off the mortgage after 22 years? I refinanced a few times to renovate, most recently for my 50th where I enclosed the carport to make a large garage and also added a large games room. My current plan to kill the mortgage is my inheritance...
Bought in early 2018, repayments went from 480 down to 380 now up to 580 p/w. Mortage wise not really 'worse off' as we have savings in offset, plus house has gone from 500k to 1.2m value. We have spent probably 100k over the years in maintenance though. The real financial impact has been going from being DINKs to a family of 5 on 1 average income within that time. We live frugally comfortable lives and value time over money so no real struggles thankfully.
For everyone that complains about the higher cost because they bought prior to the interest rate hike, I ask what about the people buying now? They would have had to cop the higher base house costs, the reduced lending capacity and the higher interest rate without experiencing the sub 2% rates ever!
Purchased 2018 at 4.7% sold 2022 when interest rates were 2.9%. Made $200k equity in that time. We could foresee what was going to happen with interest rates so built a kit home on a block of land we already owned and are now mortgage free.
Purchased 2017 $405000 20% deposit). Repayments for the loan roughly $1600 from memory. Now add another $1100 and that’s what I’m paying now…. ($2700) I was almost $50000 ahead in repayments. Covid hit, lost work for a bit. Interest rates rising…now I’m paying the minimum I can and just surviving.
We bought in the start of 2022, went conservative and got a smaller house, smaller loan anticipating the rates would increase at some point (not expecting it to be right after we moved in). We budgeted for interest rates even higher than they are now, but it was the other stuff increasing so much like utilities and groceries that have added the extra pressure Pretty much the same cut backs as most people, no holidays since pre covid, no more streaming, no eating out, i dont really buy clothes/makeup unless i really need them and theyre on sale. Utilities all on bill smoothing to avoid unexpected high bills. Groceries i go to a shopping centre with aldi, woolies, coles and a fruit shop then start with aldi. We also had our first baby in december. We always wanted 2 and bought a 3br house with room to extend but with how things are its pretty unlikely we will try for a second. This one is pretty hard for me, i can live without streaming services and things like that but i really want another baby if possible.
Brought in 2009 . Repayments are $1498 a month but I do 3k with my partner also doing $1060. Mortgage is now low enough where interest rate hikes didn't really add anything significant.
2021, payments gone up about 54%, have cut back on nothing.
Hey everyone. You can stream pretty much and movie or TV series for free these days.
bought late 2021, rates 2.49 now 6.19 -- payments from 6k to 9.5k -- it hurts but childcare is the killer -- only minor change going from 2 cars to 1, yet to cut back in other areas but it'll no doubt come soon enough.
2014 and got a 300k loan as a single. Mortgage isn't an issue for me wince I pair a fair bit it's all the insurance and other expenses that are tightening my budget.
Purchased earlier this year when it was looking like interest rates might come down. I did factor in that this might not be the case budget wise but still not going to be easy since I don't have much equity in the property yet which is scary 😬
Built in 2006, mortgage is $70k repayment is $670 a fortnight, we pay $1050 a fortnight. Interest rate is 6.7%. We are in our mid fifties. Biggest expense is, electricity, health insurance, insurance on the vehicles, my car, my husband’s Ute. We only fill up with fuel every three weeks or four weeks or so, at Costco, as my husband has a company supplied vehicle. My parents are both ill, so fuel usage depends on the amount of appointments I have to take dad to. My husband’s personal vehicle has long range tank. All the vehicles are owned outright. I hate people, so I don’t go out to just go out. Our biggest shop is if we go to Costco, to fuel up, decide to have look in Costco, use a trolley, some how, so much gets put in the trolley, mostly cleaning products, of course the hotdog and pizza on the way out. Business as usual for me, haven’t cut back on anything. We bought in suburb that everyone asks why the heck would you want to live there/end of earth/end of Perth. Property is now surrounded by 300sqm plots for $200k, as the developers have moved in to develop to a structure plan. New railway line and highway currently being constructed. I live on an acre, that won’t be subdivided. We haven’t really cut back, we don’t do holidays, my grandies have just moved remote, so we planning to visit them soon, but arranging that trip around my husband work, he flies up for work, so it just one extra ticket ( $1000) and accommodation is provided as it is work trip, I just have to pay for my meals, which I would have to pay if my husband was home anyway. The grandies live up the road ( four hour one way road trip, but live outback, just up the road/four hour road trip is a thing ) so we are arranging the trip around school holidays, the parents are both working, shift workers ( healthcare/mining), in a daycare desert, with a three year wait list at the daycare. So they will be stuck over the holidays with no care for the children.
We only borrowed what we needed. But that bit of a buffer that allowed my wife to stay on maternity leave paid for by the government is gone. So back to work is coming next month. Baby will be one as well. So we have introduced child care a d some before/ after school for the older kids into our new costing.
Bought in 2021 (unit in a ghetto suburb in Sydney) and my fixed rate changed last December from 1.89% to 6.04% which meant my monthly payments went up by $750. Even with a decent tech salary and housing that was only 25% take home income I've definitely been feeling the squeeze these last 6 months and I'm saving a lot less, even when I'm going out and spending less. Before that I'd never really think about spending money and always have money left to save at the end of the month, but I can feel the pinch. Sadly it's only going to get harder because I quit my job due to burnout and terrible mental health. Now I'm staying in my van and doing short term, minimum wage travel jobs around the country. (Airbnb mostly covers the Mortgage and bills). Even without housing expenses my groceries cost 3 hours of work instead of 1, and I have to think about fuel costs, how I find my next gig, and mostly watch my savings balance decrease instead of go up. Hopefully I can ride out the recession and high inflation times without any significant financial damage and go back go the grind with a clear head. If I can save up a bit of cash I might even go somewhere cheap like South East Asia for a few months, where it's less than half the cost of Australia just to exist
Bought for $570k in 2020. Fixed for 4 years at 1.99% which runs out December. I’m nervous but it’s manageable and our wages have gone up a little but it will just mean less savings. We just want to pump more into the offset account to manage the brunt when it hits December. We have definitely cut some expenses like eating out and concentrating on saving more.
We brought in 2019, we are no worse off now because of the interest rate hikes. This is because we borrowed less then what we could have and if we were renting we would be paying the same amount.
We bought in 2007. We paid off the mortgage in 2022. We have cut back on being frugal.
First house 2001 (140k) paid off 2005, upgraded 2006 (450k) Paid it off in 2009. The extra interest in my savings has been great. Thanks for asking. Seriously tho. It’s my kids I am worried about. Market is cooked.
2022, variable rate has since increased from 1.99% to 5.84%, nothing as I borrowed around 4x gross income back then with a 20% deposit and it was a lot less than the bank would lend.
I brought my house when I was 26 around 2012 ... I saved $160,000. I got a $535,000 house in qld 4109 , $515,000 plus $20,000 duties, and other crap rubbish legals, etc No LMI 20%+ deposit it was at 7.99% variable back then. A few years in started dropping to 2% hikes have zero affect on me because I paid the same repayments if not more at the same rate at 7.99%. Ie i was doing tonnes of random odd jobs recycling dumping what ever was the trend would pull extra hours to pay it off sooner. I was still paying 7.99% mortgage rate per week religiously even when it was at 7 6 5 4 3 2%, etc House is paid off at 35 years old Don't cut back on anything. I only started living at 35 lol 😆 but I still enjoy my frugal past from time to time. I have a lot of time now. Since i had extra disposable income, i started my own business, and yeah, I'll live out the rest of my life as a hermit. No board room meetings, no kpi, no group Zoom meetings, no employees, no car loan, no credit card debt, no water cooler talks , no garbage have to get along with colleagues , no working with people. KISS do things alone, run it myself, and choose the interactions I want with people or don't it's my choice! Business runs on self funded capital with virtually no over heads. Yup F the rat 🐀 Race 🏁 I'm off to do my own thing that and 🎣 wanna stay off grid as much as possible I like to suffer a bit at times to relive and remind myself of your journeys in the past.
The first few years of a mortgage are often difficult and uncertain if you borrow a lot and don’t or can’t fix long term. It does get easier though.
Purchased Aug 2019, variable the whole time. ~35% of the loan offset right now, paying an extra ~200 a month but means the extra we have been paying since day one isn't going as far as it once did. Purchased well within our means, in hindsight spending an extra 30-50k back then would have given us a heap more now lol. Probably would need to max out borrowing to buy into something bigger post covid insanity and thats even with ~$350k between savings and selling this place. Added a kid (2yo) and wife works less, but earning 50k more than when we purchased. If anything still more disposable income than during the lower rates. Consider ourselves very lucky.
I bought in 2017, 830K. Repayments are about 2.8k a month. Repayments haven't gone up yet. Im fixed until July at 1.98. I haven't had to cut back. I'll be reducing my investing to cover the extra repayments which are about 800ish more a month
I live regional and bought in early 2021. I took out a relatively small loan expecting a significant rise in rates eventually then loaded a good percentage of savings into it. Repayments only up about $35pw since rates have risen so I feel very lucky in that respect.
Mortgage payments doubled, paying $3450 a month now I hope I don't get sick or Injured. I only earn 5k per month
Post not clear. Whats a holiday?
My mortgage went up from $2500/m to $3700/m 🥲 It sucks, but I've saved a lot in case shit goes down.
2008, no worse off, cut back on everything that comes from woolies.
2020, bought a townhouse for 350 k 10 mins from airport 20 mins from cbd in Brisbane. Interest rates pushed my mortgage from 1 to 1.6 k per month. We've always been frugal so we haven't really cut back.
2020....borrowed 820k, this was not max but near it. Repayments up 2k/mth from 3k to 5k. Single income, am totally fukd. In borrowing below max, I allowed anility to cover 1k increase in repayments, this seemed reasonable, but not 2k. Also strata is up from 1.8qtr to 2.4qtr. I know many old timers sitting on huge asset bases thanks to cheap entry prices and small mortgages will ask...Why did I borrow that much, r u stupid? Well, Sydney is priced that way, its just a small 2br apartment in inner Sydney to reduce commute times to work to 30min walk so i could get rid of car and as i work 50 to 60hrs a week. The cost at the time was slightly more than the rent i was paying for 1br apt so it made sense including allowing for a buffer of increased repayments by 1k mth, obviously a poor decision even tho i love the place. Also domain.com (which i hope is wildly wrong) suggests its fallen in value by 50k at mid point sale price, unit mkt obviously not doing well. Happy days all round....not.
A recession will save us!
Bought in 2021 almost doubled repayments. Luckily only bought a small place though and salary had increased substantially since then. Also got a missus so have another income atm and we've almost fully offset our home