Anders Kvass (52) calculates that he has to spend three thousand more a month to pay his mortgage than he did a year ago.
The primary school teacher in Vikersund was checking how much more he owed on the loan now than last year when VG called.
– I will have three thousand in one month. That’s a lot of money when you get paid more than NOK 30,000 for teaching work, says Kase, who fortunately has a few other positions to throw away a few NOK.
It has been more than a year since Norges Bank started raising the key interest rate, which hit zero during the pandemic. Yesterday it was raised by a “quarter” to 2.5 percent. As banks have a six-week notice obligation, credit customers will only notice the latest increase in six weeks.
Price sense
– Anders Quas says that when you live on a teacher’s salary, live alone, and have home and car loans, you shouldn’t be in the city much.
He has worked as a primary school teacher for 30 years and earned a good income of 600,000. Still, with a semi-detached house, high electricity and fuel costs and a teenager at home, money is running out.
– I am very conscious of what I spend money on. I buy the first price, not what I want, I only fill up with the cheapest petrol, Kvaase tells VG.
Read on
Interest Rate Hike:- Few will feel the effects in December
The policy rate has moved from zero to 2.50 per cent in the short term and will rise further before the New Year.
He has also become good at reducing the prices of goods and services such as mobile subscriptions and bank loans.
– I have reduced the interest rate drastically. At best, I had an effective interest rate of 1.7 percent. The 52-year-old says he told me he would switch banks if he didn’t get it.
– Others keep it tight
Kvaase notes a decline in real wages and has had less to cope with in the past year.
– I am very concerned about the economy, But I’m not complaining. It’s the unemployed, those on disability benefits, the minimum pensioner and many others who are having a hard time. But after five years of college and 30 years in the workforce, that’s what the economy is like, Kwase says, disappointingly.
– Teachers are very important when we are not at work. But paying attention to the fact that we are so important, that is the worst, he adds that the autumn strike is fresh in his mind.
– Can you afford higher interest rate hikes?
– Tolerable? Then I have to cut something else. But it’s not like electricity bills can’t be paid. I am also very careful. In October, I used only 500 kilowatt hours, says Gwas, who lives in a 110 square meter semi-detached house.
Cold heating cables
Heating cables are not running in the bathroom and hallway. A 700 watt panel stove is lit in the living room alone.
Finance has become a hot topic among friends and colleagues in the faculty room, says Kvaase.
– We have had a very good time; Incredibly low interest rates and spot prices of 20 øre for years, says Kvaase.
Now he prioritizes harder. But while he saves some, he can buy others. Like taking your daughter to Spain for a week this summer and Albania for fall vacation.
– Then I stopped smoking. Having less money has a positive health effect. But I would have done it anyway, Quase laughed.
“Music geek. Coffee lover. Devoted food scholar. Web buff. Passionate internet guru.”
