No one wants their dream of being a home owner to turn into a nightmare. However, with the mortgage payment is the biggest payment in the budget, it can happen to anyone if they are not smart with their finances. So how do you pay your mortgage month after month and still have money left over to live? Well if you follow these tips, you should be able to cover your mortgage and be able to cover all the other expenses that life brings.
Keep Payments Low
If you are in the market for a home and you haven’t bought yet, you have the biggest potential to keep your home mortgage affordable. Use a simple mortgage calculator and find out how much house you can afford at the interest rate you expect to get. Then, look for a home in a slightly lower bracket than what you think you can afford. This will give you some wiggle room in your budget every month when unexpected expenses come up.
You can also lower your monthly payments by shopping around for the best interest rate available for your home loan and having more money for a down payment. The less interest you have to pay and the less your mortgage starts out as, the lower your monthly payments will inevitably be. So take the time to shop around and save up some money before you start the hunt for a home.
Refinance
Even if you have already bought your home and cannot reduce your mortgage though the means listed above, you can still refinance. Work on improving your credit by catching up on past due bills and paying down your debt. With an improved credit score, you will likely be able to refinance your current mortgage to a lower interest rate that will lower your monthly payments and free up money every month for your other expenses.
Increase Your Income
Even if you are already working full-time, there are still things you can do to increase your monthly income so you have money to live on after you pay your mortgage. Start babysitting or pet sitting on the weekends. Deliver pizzas a couple of nights a week or start donating plasma for an extra couple hundred a month. If leaving home to make money isn’t your style, consider starting a home business. Write articles, start a blog or sell your digital photography online. Whatever it is, find something that fits your lifestyle so you can start bringing your income up.
Reduce your Other Expenses
No matter how little you are living on, you can always live on less. Start cutting back on small luxury items and work your way into the bigger things. The best way to do this is to write down every item you spend money on and research how to save money on that particular item. Learn how to clip coupons, cut your car insurance rate, save on your electric bill or enjoy free entertainment. There are so many ways to save money on the things in your budget that there are no excuses why you cannot free up money to live while paying a mortgage.
So just because the mortgage is the largest expense in your budget does not mean it has to destroy it. You can take proactive measures to keep your mortgage low and save money in other areas of your budget. So take steps to improve your financial situation and you may just find that a mortgage does not have to be difficult to handle.