When Timon Howes took out a mortgage on his home in May 2021, former Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe's assurance three months earlier that interest rates would not rise until 2024 was still ringing in his ears.
Almost four years later the impact of that decision is still affecting him.
With the cash rate at a record 0.1 per cent low, but not expected to rise any time soon, the management consultant and his wife took out a two-year fixed mortgage at 1.99 per cent for their Canberra home.
"It's something that I look back on now and wish that I followed more closely, and I would have appreciated what it actually meant to have the cash rate at such a low point," he told AAP.
As inflation sky-rocketed post-pandemic and the central bank jacked up rates in response, Mr Howes' repayments doubled as his interest rate jumped to 6.2 per cent.
If he and his wife hadn't moved to better paid jobs just before the higher repayments kicked in, Mr Howes says they would have struggled.
Still, the couple had to make sacrifices, including cutting the budget for their wedding.
"It was a period of real frugality for us," he said.
The story is similar for households across Australia, who have had to cut spending to keep their heads above water.
Chris McKenzie works for a large national retailer and told AAP spending has flattened.
"We see much less foot traffic in the stores … retail staff aren't being rostered on as frequently as they would ordinarily," he said.
"I haven't got the extra hours that I've had historically ... less casuals are coming through, and the casuals that do come through aren't being held on to."
The Reserve Bank on Tuesday offered Australians slight respite by slashed interest rates by 25 basis points, the first cut since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
While it will mean Mr Howes will have a bit more money in his pockets, he doesn't expect his financial situation to improve greatly unless more cuts come down the pike.
"I don't expect that that we'll really feel that initially," he said.
"It'll be more as that continues to drop over the next couple of months, or even into the back end of 2025, that hopefully it'll ease up a bit."
"It's one of those things that I'll certainly be waiting to see what what the trend is."
Governor Michele Bullock has pushed back on expectations of three rate cuts this year, saying it was to early to declare victory against inflation.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the RBA's decision on Tuesday will have a huge impact on workers and their families, accusing the central bank of holding the nation back.
"The RBA does have a track record of being out of touch … of getting caught up in groupthink and not realising the impact their decisions and their inaction has on the economy," she said.
