Making adjustments.

[mommy4ever]

I'm working on creating the new budget.

Our mortgage payment is going up (our choice). We have refinanced, are waiting for the disbursement so we can pay things off and close accounts! I know many people here don't believe in refinancing, I'm not debating the point, for us, with potential job loss, it made more sense to refinance, and be able to make the house payment and not ruin our credit by not having the money, should that happen we wouldn't be able to renew our mortgage at next term, and we'd lose the house. Canada's rules are different here. Our available credit will soon be very very low YAY! This was the best course of action for us, we were due to renew the mortgage, so there were no penalties in doing so. Great rate, for a 5 year term, and should the economy pick up, we can potentially pay it all off in that time.

So, right now, we're set up to make a higher than minimum mortgage payment we're making 170%, I can still increase it by another $60 to be at the max. And I'll wait to see what the month holds, but I am planning on that.

We are planning our FFEF. We are planning on a minimum $$ amount planned. But it should be higher most months.

Once that is funded, we will be making extra principal payments to the mortgage to get rid of that.

It has been tricking getting all of this! I may have an extra $600 to add to the FFEF this month, depending on if I have mortgage payment tomorrow, this is currently dependent on whether the papers are processed. I can't access the mortgage on line so I think it is all being done now.

I hated to refinance, but it puts us in a WAY better position, and if dh IS laid off, we can minimize our mortgage payment to the base amount and we'll survive easily on my income. We are actually banking about 90% of my income as soon as this is all settled!

[Cricketlegs]

At the end of the day you have to make decisions about what you feel is best for YOUR family.

I am wishing you the very best.

[jmd5294]

Do what's best for you. Sounds like you have a plan, and it sounds like it will work for your family!

[mommy4ever]

Thank you!

We are really looking forward to seeing the mortgage balance go down. If we can increase the payments AND do the prepayments, it should go down quite nicely and fast. It's nice to see that go down, and since I can see it online..lol. I like to track it. Now that we have a fixed rate, although higher(4.05) than the current variable(2.25) which expires in a couple months, we'll be able to see a consistent decrease in the balance.

The biggest thing about doing the refinancing, is that dh and I finally came together and truly talked finances. For me that is the most terrifying of discussions. That is one thing my parents fought over, separated over, and still fight over. Thankfully, though, dh is of the attitude that it's only money, and we'll make more. So it's not a major hot topic. As long as the mortgage, utilities and food on the table, he could care less about everything else, it's being paid off. And now we have some savings goals, we've never had that before.

Our goals:
FFEF
House EF(furnace etc)
Car fund
FA(sinking fund)


These are all being worked on now.

We are also pricing out how much we need to replace windows in the house. And saving for that. When we have enough, then we'll do it.

We want to do the main bathroom, that will be saved for by fall.

We want to do flooring on the main floor, but I want to wait on that as I want to redo my kitchen cabinets, they are coming apart, so we're looking at a fairly large reno, knocking down walls too, so that is at a later date and we need to save 10-15K! But note... SAVING FOR IT~

There are other things, but we are planning and saving.

Oh yeah, and dh promised me a honeymoon! It'll be another couple years..lol. And 15 years late.... but it's in the plan!