Hello all,
So I am a single mom of 2 kids. I managed 5 years ago to secure a mortgage for a home for us, as in my city mortgages are cheaper than rent and it was the best way to give my kids a proper home. Apparently I bought at a very low point in the market and now that mortgage renewal time has arrived I've learned my house is worth about $30 grand more than I paid.
So I have a few options. The first conservative choice is that since I now make enough to refinance to a 10 yr amortization, I just do that and own my home outright by the time I'm 50, freeing up income for when my CCTB ends.
I have no retirement savings. In all honestly, I've never been in a place to consider them till now. In Canada at age 65 I can get about $1500 per month from the gov't and if I have no mortgage, credit card or car payments I can live off that. Until now, that has been my plan as it was my only option.
OR I take out this new found equity and get 30 grand cash to play with. Putting it straight towards retirement seems like a drop in the bucket. However If I instead use it to pay off my credit cards/orthdontic bill that frees up $500 per month to go towards RRSP's instead. Admittedly it would also be nice to build a big ass fence to block out my nosy neighbour and even re-tile the laminate (yuck) floor in my kitchen and the sunflower tiles in my shower lol.
But that isn't perfectly clear cut either. Right now I'm playing the balance transfer game with my credit card debt and only pay 1% (plus the 1% fee each transfer every 10 months) . The mortgage will be for just under 3%.
My expenses per break down like this:
$400 Utilities per month (gas, power, phone, internet)
$200 Insurance for car and home
$200 Property tax
$400 Credit cards (at 1% balance transfer rate)
$100 Orthodontics for my oldest
$200 RESP contributions (have 14 grand so far for kiddos education)
$500 Food/Gas/Misc costs
So $2000 total approximately. I make $3000 per month between work and CCTB (which will be cut in half in 5 years when my oldest turns 18).
Either mortgage option will make my monthly mortgage about $650 and that is as tight as I'm willing to budget since we need that small cushion to be able to go out, takes small trips, to live and enjoy life.
There is also this dream in the back of my mind of opening a business. An evening and weekend one that I could run while still working until it becomes profitable. It would take more than 30 grand though, so I would need to find another 10 to 20. It's a massage business, so my only real overhead is a lease and floating wages till the insurance money comes in. The only real risk is getting good therapists (willing to work nights and weekends) and a steady flow of clients, which I think I can garner with a good initial advertising campaign.
And I could actually do this now with a unused line of credit I have. This last option both scares me and draws me. If it worked I could double my income and maybe just make it into the middle class lol. If it fails I can still squeek by as is, but now with a maxed mortgage payment, an extra Line of Credit payment and no diners out, no trips, just work and bills for about 10 years.
Any advice on which way to go? Nothing too risky, as this is all I have for me and my kids and I need to keep what I've attained if I can't make it grow. Not much I know, but it's all we have.
Submitted May 29, 2017 at 09:55AM by Queanie http://ift.tt/2r4loZT
