tossing and turning

This week is money week. I've started watching all EIGHT seasons of this reality program called "Til Debt do Us Part" which is basically about a hard-nosed (and curiously accented) host slapping consumer-driven Canadian couples from their debt-riddled lives. Since this is the first time in my life I have had a predictable incomes AND predictable expenses, I've taken the advice to heart. I've made budgets several times over, and actually stayed AWAKE a few nights ago, fretting about our financial future. Which is utterly unnecessary, since unlike the couples featured in the show who are routinely one full year of dual income-worth in debt, we have relatively little. The real eye-opener is that my scratchings on paper have told me we could pay off our mortgage ENTIRELY by the time our five-year term expires, by contributing $2000.00 a month to our mortgage. Ask someone in Toronto whether 2000.00/month for two people is impossible. It certainly is NOT impossible. It is certainly appealing to this young gal, who once had her heart set on mortgage-free living.

As I see it, interest rates can really only go one way from this point on. What if in five years our reasonable, locked-in rate of 5% jumps into the double digits? It has happened before, it will happen again. My mom was telling me about one of the mortgages she had before divorcing my dad and filing for bankruptcy. Fret fret fret.

Again, we I thought we lived frugally. But I think we could be doing better. The complication is that last week, before the budget bingeing started, I called the mortgage lady to ask for money for home renovation. The demolition is chugging along, and hopefully before the snow melts entirely we will be ready to have electricians and plumbers help with our best laid plans. Since we have excellent credit and moderately good incomes, I think we will be approved. The question of course is whether we should go for it if we are. Last week I was sincerely and completely in the "no shit, abslutely" camp. The downstairs is a wreck, gutted without a proper kitchen and NO INSULATION means we are paying out the nose for heating this winter. I don't want to spend the next 24 months fixing it. I want to spend six months fixing in it and then 18 months paying for it. But at the expense of paying years more on the mortgage? We are teetering on "maybe not such a good idea, don't-spend-it-until-you've-got-it"now. Or at least I am. Hubby probably thinks I'm two parts crazy & one part hormonal.



Ask me next week, I'll likely expound on the virtues of different flooring options. I am a tad spastic with my obsessions. *breathe*