So 6 years ago my husband became ill and had to give up work. He's worked from the day he left school and had been doing his dream.job for a couple of years. He misses it. He hates taking medication, hates using crutches, hates being disabled and not able to do the things he used to.He was brilliant at fixing things, DIY etc. Hates not having things to do so gets bored and absolutely HATES being on benefits.
6 years before he got ill, he got made redundant from a job he'd been in for years. Thought he'd get another one quickly but he didn't so we ended up having to change our mortgage from a repayment to an interest only one. That was 12 years ago, we're still on interest only and owe 125k on it. I'm self employed, have been for 23 years. Work is up and down.
My long term plan was to reduce my hours from full time-55+ per week- to part time by the time I got to 55 ( I'm 54) but because of his conditions, and the huge drop in his income, I can't do that. In fact I've taken on more work to keep the money up because of the price increases in everything. I like my job, I just don't love it like I used to and I feel like I'm literally just working to keep the roof over our head
We also have a secured loan thats got another couple of years on it, plus debts from 6 years ago when he had to stop work and I hate it - and I fantasise about working part time in aldi! He feels shit about it all, but not as shit as I do. I sort all the finances out, so he just carries on from day to day. I'm off work at the moment but already dreading Monday when I start back.
We can't sell the house because there's not enough equity after paying off the mortgage to buy anywhere else so bang goes our idea of living somewhere a bit rural. I don't blame him, but I do look at others who are mortgage free and feel really pissed off with my life