Tarzan Feeds Six People

Hi Scott,

My 58-year-old husband is the sole breadwinner, and we have six adults at home. We have a beautiful new house built on the site of our old home and a mortgage of about $350,000, which is currently interest only and consequently never seems to reduce. Given that everyone has started running around like headless chooks yelling “inflation!”, and my hubby’s super has plummeted again, should he stop putting the extra $750 a month into super and instead put an extra $500–$600 onto the mortgage? Obviously – God willing and no World War Three – the funds will pick up again, but we would really like to own our home fully while he’s still able to work. It seems like a reasonable strategy to us, but we’d really appreciate your advice.

Jane

Hi Jane,

There’s a lot to unpack here.

First, if you’ve elected to pay interest only on your home loan, you’re not actually paying off the principal, only the interest. If you want to pay down the debt, you’ll need to reconfigure your loan.

Now let’s talk about the monkey in the jungle:

Jane, you said there are six adults living in your house, and just one Tarzan providing for them all?

Talk about swinging from the branches! I’d suggest you hold a meeting around the campfire and get everyone to start pitching in to help pay down that debt.

Scott.