Consumer debt
$0
down from $236,549
With the family back home in Ottawa and one income coming in, the numbers stopped adding up. This is where we stand, and the way back.
Our net worth is healthy, but almost all of it is locked inside the house. The cash side of our life runs on borrowing.
On a $144,200 salary, take-home is $8,049 a month. Real life for a family of five in Ottawa costs $12,889. The difference does not disappear. It gets borrowed.
Thirteen balances across six banks. Two credit cards are already over their limit. The interest alone keeps the pile growing faster than we pay it down.
Break-even means income finally covers the bills. Here is the size of the jump for each route.
A bigger salary or a second income would help, but neither stops the bleeding while $236K sits on credit cards near 20%. The house is the one lever that fixes the whole picture at once.
List at about $1,310,000. After roughly $75,000 in selling costs, that leaves $1,235,000 in hand.
Clear the $688,078 mortgage and all $236,549 of cards and lines of credit. Total wiped: $924,627. The $3,505 in monthly minimums goes with it.
About $310,000 is left over. That becomes the down payment, with $25–30K held back as the emergency fund we have never had.
With no other debt, one income comfortably carries a home up to about $620,000. Buy at or below that and the monthly gap closes.
Once the base is stable, a partner's $82K salary stops being survival money. It funds savings, the kids' RESP, and retirement instead.
The numbers behind the story. Today is the reunited family in the current house on one income. The reset plans all sell, clear every debt, and buy fresh. The cash flow below is itemized line by line across all four.
Net worth dips about $75K, the one-time selling cost of the reset. Plan B ($823K home) lands at the same net worth; only the mortgage and home value scale up, because the down payment is the same.
Plan A $620K, your income. Plan B $823K, you + partner ($82K gross). Plan C $823K, your income at $189K gross. Plan D $823K, your income today (the caution case). Today's housing has no maintenance line because the old budget never tracked it, so the real gap is wider than shown. Reset columns include 1%-a-year maintenance.
Every path starts from the same reset: house sold, all $924,627 of debt cleared, about $310,000 down. Salaries below are gross; the monthly figure is what is left to save after tax, essentials, the mortgage, property tax, insurance, and 1%-a-year maintenance.
No sale, no downsizing. The $1.31M home, the $688K mortgage, and all $236,549 of other debt stay. To break even, household income has to climb to this. Salaries are gross.
Keeping the house empty while we live abroad also triggers Ottawa's Vacant Unit Tax, climbing to $36,250 a year. See what it would cost →
Start with the index. Each link opens the live sheet, so changing a number recomputes the totals.
Open the index ▸