Kate Perry writes on www.news.com.au:

“I’m cutting out the fun stuff, both in my life and my diet,” said one respondent.

But it’s not just fun stuff going by the wayside, other readers reported they had cut back on groceries, extra-curricular activities for their children as well as financial basics such as insurance and emergency savings.

The experience of one homeowner, whose mortgage repayments have risen by $400 a month in the past two years, seemed to sum up the experience of many other cash-strapped respondents.

“I can no longer provide luxuries to my family and shopping is tightly budgeted. My children can’t pursue outside school interests due to us not having the money to pay for it. And worst of all some basic necessicities such as home, motor and health insurance have all been cancelled to ensure the mortgage is paid month in and out.”

For some cutting back on social outings is necessary – if a little embarrassing sometimes.

“I’m not going out as much socially, and I’m making excuses ie not feeling well rather than telling friends it’s out of my budget,” another respondent said.

For others, the situation is already desperate. “There are days I don’t eat so my kids can. My husband is taking on extra work to make payments.”

Read the whole article here:

http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,25479,23771467-5016110,00.html

To Sell or Not to Sell your family home? More and more Australians are joining the “mortgage stressed out” queue. You aren’t the only one!

www.news.com.au reports

AUSTRALIA’S mortgage crisis is deepening and for the first time threatening to produce “affluent stress” - financial grief among higher income families - as new figures show that more than 700,000 households will come under some mortgage pressure by June.

About 300,000 are expected to fall into the worst “severe stress” category, possibly leading to forced sales and foreclosures, as consumers struggle under the weight of higher interest rates and rising living costs.

So what do you do about it? As soon as you start thinking about it, you should take the next step and ask an expert to assess your financial position. Contact a local Finance Broker to have a look over your current mortgage repayments and other debts that may be weighing you down to see if there is a chance that debt consolidation may be able to reduce your monthly outgoings. Finance Brokers like Finance Know How can also arrange the services of debt mediators who have the ability to reduce the amounts of money you owe to paticular credit providers -ie You may owe $7,000 to a paticular financial institution for a credit card you have - through debt mediation you may be able to reduce this amount quite significantly.

So don’t wait in the ”mortgage stress” line! Talk to Team Know How who can provide you with a free non-obligatory Finance Assessment! What have you got to lose??? Jump the queue and get ahead of the rest!!  

You want a straight answer about your finances - But finding it hard to get one? Why don’t you chat to Team Know How live, and get that answer straight up?

Finance Know How will provide you with solutions for all your finance needs - from debt consolidation, to refinancing, to providing you with the answers for your development funding, to financing your cars or equipment - both private and business. Team Know How specialises also Small Business Finance - giving back that cash flow you need to run day to day!

Check to see if Howie is online? If he is - he is a good bloke - just ask him!

Mortgage Insurance? What is it? Commonly it is thought that Mortgage Insurance protects the borrower. In most instances it does not! This insurance premium that you pay when you apply for the loan is to ensure the lender is protected from losses that may be incurred if you were to default on your loan agreement. Generally you will pay this premium if you are borrowing more than 80% of what your property is worth.
If you are looking at ways to protect yourself if you cannot for one reason or the other make your mortgage repayments, you should consider options such as Income Protection Insurance. Have a chat to the Team at Finance Know How today to discuss these options!

With interest rates on the move - which seems like a monthly event, are your bills drowning you, and are you continually getting those calls from the banks you owe money to - because they are just ringing to let you know that you are late again? But deep down you know that you can’t help youself? And that from here it will just keep on getting worse?

There is help! But most importantly, there is a way out! Best thing to deal with these issues ASAP, and consult the advice the Finance Professionals like Howard. Howard has access to debt mediators, refinance solutions that will repair your money problems, but better yet, Howard can set you on the path back to “breathing easy” - but even better yet! You can save your house! Fill out our Contact Form and one of our Know How Team Specialists will be in touch!

www.financeknowhow.com.au