Interest rate hold met with relief | ABC NEWS

[00:00:00]Um, relief. It means I [music] won't have to cut back on something else. I do try and save every single penny. I'm >> [music] >> working to pay bills and taxes. And uh there's not much joy in it, but I'm not alone.

[00:00:17]>> I guess it's good that they kept the same, yeah?

[00:00:19]>> At the moment, it seem like uh manageable. If it going up again, definitely struggling.

[00:00:25]>> Well, I wish it would go back to what it was during COVID, but um anything around in the threes would be doable. Sixes and sevens are way, way more difficult.

[00:00:32]>> My first focus is my mortgage.

[00:00:34]>> [music] >> Bills first, anything else last. And that includes food. I've really cut back on food. I grow my own food. I shop around for utility [music] bills. I don't go out. I find free things to do. I work full-time. [music] I'm looking for um a second job. Um, I lost my second job last year. I was expecting at [music] my age to look forward to retirement, and instead I'm having to start all over again. And I I got my mortgage at 55, which means I don't finish my mortgage till I'm 85.

[00:01:06]>> [music] >> And that's the same for a lot of people.

[00:01:08]I'll work until I can't, [music] and then I'll have to sell my house with the mortgage unpaid. My belt is so tight, I'm emasculated, and I speak for the vast majority of Australians [music] who are not high-income earners, that we have nothing else to give.