Mobaraka Mohammadi says she works 12 hours a day just to make ends meet and pay off her mortgage.
Ms Mohammadi, 23, from northern Adelaide, told the ABC she might have to stop university to pick up more hours if her mortgage repayments and living costs increased further.
"I was actually trying to cut a few of my hours so I can concentrate on my study but … if I cut any hours, I'm not going to be able to pay my mortgage," she said.
Her home cost her $390,000 and mortgage repayments were originally $750 a month.
But amid the latest interest rate increases, Ms Mohammadi's repayments jumped to $940.
"If the interest is going to go higher than this, [it] means I'll have to quit my study and I have been thinking about it because I can't juggle full-time study and full-time work."
Rising grocery costs and other expenses have compounded her situation and forced her to budget for the first time.
"I've never had that issue … but now I do budget. Every week [when] I get my pay slip I'm like OK, this much is going to the home loan, and then that much is going to go to bills, and $50 is going to go to my petrol."
She has cut back on socialising and online shopping to help find some savings.
Australians having to make 'hard calls'
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased the cash rate by 25 basis points again last month to bring it to 3.1 per cent.
Mortgage broker Gracious Chidhakwa told the ABC some households had already started missing their repayments, and she warned the full effect of the rate rises would not be felt for some time yet.
"We are now seeing some missing their repayments, some are coming back to us saying, 'look, can we refinance as soon as possible', or some are having to sell because they may not be able to afford that property anymore," Ms Chidhakwa said.
She said low rental vacancies combined with higher interest rates were forcing rental prices up because landlords were passing on interest rate rises to their renters.
"Those who are wanting mortgages, some are having to sell, some are having to downsize, some are having to make those hard calls," Ms Chidhakwa said.
"Some are having to make some significant cuts, [whether] that's stopping their children from going to private schooling, put their children back into public schools just to make ends meet."
Ali Kawser, mortgage broker and owner of AK Home Loans based in the west of Melbourne, told the ABC that some aspiring home owners who secured house and land packages last year did not want to proceed.
"Most of them are first home buyers, they are not investors yet so they didn't have mortgage stress but the current rate stress … because of that, they are not getting in the market at the moment, or very few of them are getting in," Mr Kawser said.
"They don't know about the future … whatever plans they had … it's all cancelled," he said.
"Twelve months ago we told them everything is fine, yes you can borrow that much and everything will be fine, we're happy, but 12 months later we are apologising to them."
Bracing for the end of a fixed rate
David Lin is anxiously watching Australia's mortgage rate rises and considering whether he will have to take up another job soon.
Mr Lin, a Melburnian in his 30s, had his mortgage rate fixed before the pandemic but that will expire next year, meaning if rates stay where they are, he could be forced to pay an extra $300 to $400 every month.
"It's bearable. [But] an increased mortgage is more stressful for a single person," Mr Lin, who works in e-commerce, said.
"A lot of [non-essential] spending will have to be retrenched."
As mortgage rates increase, Mr Lin is also feeling the pressure of other rising living costs.
"It's pretty obvious. It used to be $20 for a takeaway, now it's like $30," he said.
"I had to cook more for myself, but when I went to the market, I found foods are much more expensive than before.
"Money is gone quickly."
While Mr Lim is expecting a rise in his salary, he worries it will not be enough and might consider picking up another job.
"Now I am thinking about taking extra casual jobs during the weekend," he said.
"I didn't think carefully about expenditure before. Now I have to plan it."
What you can do to manage mortgage stress
Founder and chief executive of Financially Empowered, Grace Mugabe, said the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates were hitting most people hard, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians and migrants.
Ms Mugabe, who helps migrants and multicultural Australians manage their money, told the ABC that some families had the added pressure of sending money to relatives in their country of origin.
"So when things are rising here, that means they need to be spending more money, for survival, but unfortunately they also need to be able to support their families overseas," she said.
She said some prospective home buyers relied on assurances that interest rates would not rise until 2024, and were now struggling.
"A lot more people from the CALD community are seeking financial counselling," she said.
Experts say up to 80 per cent of households in some of Melbourne's most multicultural postcodes were struggling financially in the middle of last year — well before the cash rate reached its current mark.
Ms Mugabe said she had recently seen an increase in the number of people attending her budget management workshops.
For people in financial distress, Ms Mugabe said aside from contacting your bank, Financial Counselling Australia and MoneySmart.gov.au offered important tips for people wanting to better manage their budgets.
"But there is a lot more that needs to be done in terms of translating this information from English into various languages," she said.
For people suffering rent stress, Ms Mugabe suggested getting someone else in to share the dwelling with and split the costs.
Ms Chidhakwa said households struggling to meet their mortgage repayments should speak to their mortgage broker now, so they could revisit the loan and look to smaller lenders with better deals available.
She said mortgage holders needed to try and make sure they did not miss repayments because that could affect their ability to borrow money in the future.
