Home Owning and Struggling to move Forward

[Robin Mikolyski]

Hi, I'm a listener of the Bigger Pockets Money show and will begin listening to the main podcast you have!

My husband and I bought a small home (685 sq ft) in Hawaii in Sep 2017, on a big property (8200 sq ft) with hopes to build a new house in the backyard. But our mortgage payment is so big that we don't know how we can afford to build anytime soon. We have 4 kids and no family on the island. Our strategy from the get-go was to pay down our balance as much as possible in order to qualify for a HELOC. We are putting as much as we can into this mortgage, but are still $30k away from a HELOC. Will we be living in a 2 bed/1 bath till our kids grow up? Should we ditch our dream and move somewhere cheaper? I know no one can really answer this, but maybe there are some money ideas we haven't thought of. I'm working with a bank to see if refi is a possibility to help bring down the monthly payment and increase our cash flow. My husband has a great job, and I'm able to be home with our little ones, just earning a little side money here and there. But I'm interested in other money-making projects I can do from home.

Thanks!