Dealing with a mortgage and the costs of taking care of one’s family at the same time can be a real challenge, a challenge that many people nowadays have to face whether they like it or not. A vast number of borrowers are absolutely thrilled when their applications go through, but almost immediately after they’ve signed the papers they realise that those mortgages are far from being the only things that their finances will have to go into. Sending their kids to school or college and paying for their monthly outlays, food and gasoline are some of the other burdens that fall on their heads. Luckily, there are a couple of things such people can do in order to minimise the impact of a mortgage on their financial lives.
What to Do:
1. Take A Side Job
This is no easy task, obviously, but if you have a marketable talent, you can moonlight as a freelancer. Freelancing is not a steady source of income, but it’s not too shabby, either.
You can muster some really nice sums of money on a monthly basis, money that you can use to make larger repayments or wire into your savings account.
Evidently, psychological as well as physical burnout is a genuine issue that those who work on two jobs should be concerned with, but there are times when there are no other options but to fire on all cylinders.
2. Refinancing
Refinancing implies changing the lenders for better interest rates and terms. If you feel like your current mortgage is disadvantageous for you, start shopping around for better offers.
Refinancing is, at the moment, the go-to solution for those who cannot cope with their mortgages anymore. Don’t forget that there are plenty of pitfalls to refinancing – it’s not a foolproof method. Professional financial help is therefore warranted.
3. Become More Frugal
This can be a daunting task, especially if you’re accustomed to never having issues with money and being able to buy everything you want without sweating the prospect of running penniless halfway through the month.
Frugality is all about buying what you need, and not what you want. You can do that once you’ve fulfilled your obligations as a buyer. Instead of surfing the Internet aimlessly for a couple of hours, turn it off and read a book, for example. Such practices will show on your electricity bill.
4. Get A Better Job
Changing jobs while having a mortgage isn’t recommended unless you’re moving toward a better-paid position; any promotion, no matter how trivial it looks at a first glance, can give a helping hand in your situation.
Do not change your job or worse – quit it – if you don’t have any leads for something better.
The Bottom Line
Mortgages are remorseless, as are all other loans. When you have children, it becomes even more difficult to cope with it in a healthy way. For this exact reason, the vast majority of people either miss on monthly payments or default on their mortgages altogether.
We hope that these brief tips we’ve offered you here will keep you on the safe side.
